Chapter Fifteen: A Yin's Ledger
The hearing did not produce a result on the spot. The district said further assessment was needed; Slot No. 3 would be temporarily retained, but the workshop had to cooperate with the investigation.
Andy and Lily went to the old site of Factory No. 2.
No trace of the factory could be seen there anymore—only a stretch of flat ground overgrown with weeds. Andy used the brass key to open the back door of the warehouse and found, at the very back, a chromium tank sealed with cement. The tank body was rusted black, yet at the bottom there was still a shallow layer of liquid, glowing with an abnormal blue light.
In the iron cabinet beside the tank was a ledger soaked by water.
The ledger recorded the expenses of Factory No. 2 in its final years: waste chromium liquid disposal fees, worker compensation, tank sealing costs. On the last page were his father's words:
"Old Zhou is gone. The thing in the chromium tank has taken shape. I cannot take it away, and I dare not destroy it. She said her name is A Yin. I left her a key, hoping that one day someone can say sorry to her on my behalf."
Lily flipped to the inner compartment, and a photograph fell out. In the photo, his father and a young man stood beside the chromium tank. The man was holding a silver jewelry box, and on the box there was a circular dent.
That man was Lin Xiu's fiancé.
Andy suddenly understood.
After Lin Xiu disappeared, her fiancé came to Factory No. 2, carrying her jewelry box. He put the box into the chromium tank, wanting to keep a little of her. The chromium tank remembered his hatred, and it also remembered her ring. A Yin is not Lin Xiu, nor is she Lily. She is the guilt that, in that accident, neither of the two men was willing to speak aloud.
"She is not here to take me away," Lily said softly. "She is here to demand a name."
Outside the warehouse, footsteps came. A Yin stood at the door, holding the jewelry box.
"Now you know," she said. "So what do you plan to do?"