So it begins

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"so it begins" is the twelfth chapter of Into the Forest. It is the second chapter to be narrated by Jingjing.

### Summary

The chapter opens up on May 16, 2014 at 08:52:18 in Singapore. Jingjing is still hard at work searching around for Tian Li's cat. When he isn't looking for the cat, he is doing chores at the apartment. He is frustrated because he has barely had any time to relax in the past few days. Tian Li makes Jingjing use some of the lottery money they won to buy more tickets. Afterwards, both of them revisit some nearby locations to continue searching for the cat. Jingjing spots a few stray cats but they have the wrong shaped ears, and Jingjing mentions that Tian Li's cat has been neutered.

At an underpass, Jingjing finds another stray cat. He can also see a snake in the nearby water. He starts petting the cat but then he leaves to buy a can of cat food. When he returns, both the snake and the cat are gone. He returns to the apartment afterwards. As he prepares food for himself and for Tian Li, he begins feeling cravings again. To fight his urge to smoke, he takes a nap in his hammock.

When he wakes up, Jingjing heads down to the void deck. The nap didn't help, as he still wants to smoke. The void deck is mostly empty but there are still a few people around. Jingjing sees Spencer sitting at a table and decides to sit down and converse with him. Spencer tells Jingjing that somebody has left graffiti on the rooftop of a building on a nearby street and a lot of people seem to think that Jingjing did it. Jingjing says that he didn't do it, and Spencer tells him that he would report him to the police if he had the proper proof. Spencer has never threatened Jingjing like that before. Ever since Tian Li's cat went missing, the void deck people have been different.

When Jingjing goes out on the street again, he wants to go to Zhong's palace so he can see his friends again. Zhong is still not around so instead Jingjing heads to the train station. His pockets are filled with money that Tian Li won. He rides a train to another location. When he gets off, he enters a different apartment building. The void deck in that apartment is empty but there are plenty of people on the outside. Jingjing goes up to the second floor and knocks on the door of apartment 02-02. A woman wearing heavy eye shadow opens the door and Jingjing holds a wad of money up to her. She closes the door on him but then opens it back up a few minutes later. She doesn't take his money but does hand him three joss sticks.

Jingjing goes up to the fifth floor of the apartment and meets with someone else. Jingjing hands him the joss sticks and he pays Jingjing money. Afterwards, Jingjing goes to the seventh floor of the apartment. He stops at apartment 07-06 and knocks on the door. It seems someone different from who he was expecting opens the door so he immediately leaves. He goes to apartment 08-08 now. He finds the correct person this time. This person has plenty of tattoos. The person invites Jingjing into his apartment.

Jingjing walks around the apartment. The tattooed man says something that Jingjing doesn't understand. When Jingjing asks what he meant, the tattooed man does not repeat himself. Jingjing takes out some money from his pocket and asks for a balloon. The tattooed man is the dealer Jingjing used to buy drugs from four years ago, whom Jingjing refers to as "23.". 23 hands Jingjing a pink balloon, which is one he has never smoked from before. He has heard of them, though. Jingjing is disappointed when 23 tells him he does not have enough money to afford the pink balloon. Jingjing shows him all of the money he brought and tries asking for a yellow balloon instead. He still can't afford it. Finally, 23 offers him a pale blue balloon. Jingjing thinks of Raeden and says that the pale blue ones are dangerous. 23 tells Jingjing that this balloon is a batch from 2010. The Narcons clarify that there have been two pale blue batches: one from 2010, which was a successful batch. The other was from 2013, which caused many deaths and was the one responsible for putting Raeden into a coma. After thinking it over, Jingjing decides to buy the pale blue balloon.

The chapter ends on May 17, 2014 at 14:14:14.