The shadows of the curtain was playing on the floor and I placed the cracked piece of porcelain near the bed. I could have doze off subsequently and when I opened my eyes again, the skies were dark. I took a look at my watch and it indicated that it was 7pm.

Wookie had yet to return. I tried calling Wookie's mobile phone but my call was diverted to voice mail. Probably Wookie was still doing his sketching.

A small white kitten appeared outside my door when I walked out. I stood down and watched it," Hello kitty, let go and have dinner okay?"

The kitten remain quiet and stared at me with it's large brilliant eyes. Suddenly, the kitten nimbly leaped up to the window and jumped to my bed.

"Hey kitty, what are you doing?" I caught the kitten and cuddled it tightly but it was struggling. It was baring it's teeth and was being aggressive. I tried to calm the kitten down while it kept in hissing at my bed. I pressed my palm on its head and I saw something.

The view was low and I recognized that the kitten had barged into a rather dark but spacious room. There were rows of shelves in the room and on the top shelves was full of different porcelain products.

The kitten climbed up the shelves and it's tiny paw touched one of the items. The familiar icy cold feeling came back to me..... as if they was alive? I saw that every porcelain had the word "Qu ?Fu" on them....

It was unknown when I released myself from the kitten's memories and it was still dark. I heard my own rapid panting sounds.

knock knock knock

This time, there was knocking a on the door which was abrupt. I was startled and while I was thinking who could be knocking on the door and it opened.

"...... Who was..."

The moonlight shone into the room and Wookie appeared inside like a ghost. He went straight to the bed and fell asleep.

I switched on the light and saw Wookie's pale and tired face. I heaved a sign of relief and decided to find some food in the town.

It was just barely 8pm and the whole town was extremely quiet. The few little restaurants were already closed. There was slight mist in the surrounding and I was the only one walking around.

"Guess I have to starve tonight." I was mumbling to myself and was about to return back when I saw a faint orange light from a shop at one part of the alley. I went to take a look and when I was nearing, I heard some music and singing. It was the singing of Chinese opera.

I pushed the door and find an empty table at a corner. The stage was small and rundown but the singing was interesting and nice. An elderly man with white beard at the next table was nodding his head, engrossed in the opera.

Halfway through, I asked the elderly man," What is this opera about?" I spoke in my heavily accented Mandarin.

"Oh young chap you are a foreigner right?" The elderly man took a sip of his tea before he continued," The opera was playing an old tale of this town."

"During the Yuan dynasty, the Mongolian was suppressing us the Chinese or known as the 'Han' race. The Mongolian wanted to rear their horses and forced the Chinese to turn large fertile the fields into useless grassland. Subsequently, the Mongolian became interested in our porcelain and set up a big kiln here, forcing us to slog for them."

"The Emperor demanded us to produce a type of pure white porcelain and it had to be as thin as egg shell. All the potters of this town gathered but after a few months, no one could produce that type of porcelain. The Emperor gave the town only a month to produce it else everyone would be beheaded. Then the young master of the local official came up with a plan. He followed an old method by sacrificing his life in the big kiln. Thereafter, a young potter managed to produce the type of porcelain and the Emperor was delighted. Hence this type of porcelain was officially known as 'Qu Fu'."

"Qu Fu?" I blurted out.

"Yes but this 'Qu Fu' porcelain was very inauspicious.... It was rumored that not long after the 'Qu Fu' porcelain was sent to the Emperor, a war broke out. The Yuan dynasty became weaker and weaker and finally the Chinese took back of our homeland. No one ever produced this type of porcelain anymore."

At this juncture, on the stage; a young actor jumped into the prop : burning kiln. So now I knew the origin of 'Qu Fu' and it was indeed inauspicious.

When I returned, I saw Wookie was chatting away with Junjin at the courtyard. Wookie turned and his eyes sparkled," Hyung, you go back first. I want to chat a bit more with Junjin hyung."

I hmm in acknowledgement and walked towards our room. I saw the little kitten again and I scratched it's chin," I better have a talk with Wookie. Junjin had a lover already."

After an hour or so, Wookie returned. I sat on my bed," What were you two chatting about?"

Wookie smiled," Junjin hyung has fantastic drawing skills and he invited me to see him making the porcelain."

I frowned," You know what if Junjin has a lover?"

Wookie shook his head and stammered," I do not know." and he went to bed.

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For the next few days, I found Wookie to be acting weirdly. He would leave early in the morning and returned late at night. I had hardly spoke to Wookie at all.

This morning, Wookie just came back like a tired soul.

"Wookie, where have you been last night?"

Wookie just smiled to humour me and he fell asleep on his bed. I sighed and my good guess was that Wookie was with Junjin. Wookie seemed to be smittened by Junjin.

I walked out of the room and had a lazy stretch. It was a cool morning. After a yawn, I saw Junjin walking towards my direction. His steps were light and his lips was rosy red. Indeed he was quite handsome.

"Have you eaten? Do you want to join me?"

"Okay." I followed Junjin to the dinning hall which had a dark brown octagon table in it. From the looks of the table, it had been used for many years. Junjin came out with a tray of dishes and 2 bowls of porridge. It was a warm Spring day but the dinning hall had this spine chilling coldness.

I was eating my porridge while Junjin was doing some touching up of the screen. As compared to the first time I saw it, it was more colourful. " You have not completed it yet?"

Junjin did not reply to me but continued doing his thing.

I had finished my food and feeling bored, I went up to take a look. Was it my imagination? Why did I feel that the colour from the paint brush seemed to be absorbed into the shiny, egg shell thin surface. The scenary that was drawn on it seemed to be so full of life as it was a world on it's own. Every aspect of the life and emotion was clearly depicted on it.

My heart turned cold and accidentally the bowl slipped from my hands.

"I am so sorry for breaking the bowl." I quickly bent down to pick up the pieces and I saw 'Qu Fu' on the base of the bowl.

This..... was a duplicate of it or was it the real 'Qu Fu' from the Yuan dynasty? The real and inauspicious 'Qu Fu'?

I felt uneasy and I met Junjin's gaze when I raised my head. Junjin seemed to know what I am thinking about and his gaze was as sharp as a knife, making me breathing unsteadily. I quickly gathered the broken pieces and calmed myself," I will return to my room after I clean this up."

Junjin did not say anything or tried to stop me. I quickly went back to my room and locked the door. " Wookie, wake up." This place was giving me the creep and I was thinking of leaving here. I was surprised that Wookie was not on the bed. Wookie's bag and his sketching stuff were still here. I remembered that Wookie was still sleeping when I left the room and when did he go out?

Dongwan breathe in. Calm down and not to panic. I thought to myself. Quickly, I took out my mobile phone and I called Wookie. However, he did not answer my call.

"Where on earth did Wookie go?"

Suddenly I had a hutch that Wookie went to that room which I saw from the kitten's memories. I bit my lips and decided to try to look for Wookie.

I tried to recall the way to that room. I cut through the courtyard, turned left to a dark walkway. It was narrow and only one person could walk at any one time. I used the light from my mobile phone to show my way. After walking for 15 minutes, I came to the end of the narrow walkway and stood in front of an old fashion wooden door. My heart was racing madly.

"Wookie, are you inside?"

No answer and I pushed the door lightly. The room was covered with dust and cobwebs. I saw the rows of tall shelves.

The moment that I stepped inside the room, I had this strange feelings. There was nothing here but I could feel breathing and heartbeats here. I looked around and saw the red glaring 'Qu Fu' on the porcelain.

I touched a vase. A pitiful scream, plus a burning body came inside my head. All these porcelain were the same as the piece that I had found the other day! What was this? And Wookie? Where was Wookie?

Before I could retract my hand, I felt a cold air brushed past the back of my neck. I was sure that someone was standing behind me. My pores seemed to have contracted while I felt as if my heart was squeezed tightly by someone. It was the first time that I dared not turn my head to look back.

"Kim Dongwan!" Someone called me and the voice was low. I recognized it. " Yah, you sneaked out for a vacation without inviting me!"

Instinctively I turned my head and Minwoo was standing in front of me," Finally I found you."

I almost cried out loud and I hugged Minwoo," How did you find me here?" My voice was hoarse.

Minwoo pressed on his smartphone and slotted it back into his jeans's pocket," You disappeared after making that call to me. I tried calling you but you did not answer my calls. Luckily I installed a GPS tracking device inside your mobile phone."

With Minwoo here, I was relieved. I took a deep breath to calm my emotion before I spoke," My cousin Wookie is missing."

The smiles on Minwoo's face faded and he whispered," There is something weird going on her in this place." Minwoo pulled my hands and walked pass the room till we came to the far end. I saw someone sitting quietly at the corner.

"Wookie." I pouched over and shook Wookie. "Wookie, wake up. It's me Dongwan hyung."

Wokie seemed to be dead as he sat there lifelessly, without moving.

"Minwoo, what happen? Wookie seemed to have lost his soul."

Minwoo was looking at the porcelain and he scowled," Let me try something."

I backed away and hugged Wookie. I saw Minwoo raising his little finger and his ring shone with a faint silver ray. It was not a ray of light but a string and the string seemed to have life on its own. It shot straight to a bottle and wound a few rounds on the bottleneck. The string was trying to pull something out from the bottle. Shortly, a greenish smoke came out from the bottle and I saw that it was forming into a human form, as if a human was forcefully shoved inside the small opening. The human form let put a scary shriek...... Then it was quietness again. The greenish smoke disappeared.

"It is Soul smelting. A skill where a live soul was smelt into the porcelain. It is a long lost ancient skill, cruel but effective." Minwoo spoke," I can't imagine the amount of hatred that could cause the user to torture his prey like this!"