The Poisoned Pen: A Guardian Story

Chapter Eight: The Unwelcome Incursion

Shen Wei opened his eyes slowly and looked around.  Outside the window, the sun was low in the sky. He stretched out his arms and legs, then realised belatedly that he was not at his desk.  To his knowledge, he had never gone sleepwalking before, so he had to assume that someone else had carried him there, and he had a pretty good idea of who that was.  He felt his cheeks start to flush, and quickly decided that a stroll in the cool air of the late afternoon was the best thing for him to do.

Rising to his feet, he smoothed out the wrinkles in his cotton shirt, and made his way across to the study door.  He took a quick peek outside before he exited the room.  For some reason, the thought of running into Zhao Yunlan was making him feel even more hot and uncomfortable.

When he was satisfied that the coast was clear, he sprinted across the hallway, through the kitchen, and out into the afternoon sunlight.

***

Zhao Yunlan was sat at his desk in the window of his room when a sudden movement caught his eye.  It was Shen Wei, and he was making his way hurriedly down the path towards the lake.  He smiled to himself, then turned his attention back to the task at hand.

Until today, he had been focussed on the letters themselves, but it had occurred to him earlier that the envelopes they arrived in could also tell a story.  Unfortunately, most of them had long since been thrown away with the recycling, but a few had survived, and were currently laid out on his desk.

The postmarks were from Dragon City, so it looked as though the stalker was a local boy, although that didn't narrow things down much.  The envelopes were a very distinctive colour, though.  Blood red, he would describe it as.  It would not be so strange if they were the style of envelope one usually associated with Valentines or Christmas cards, but they were not.  Their appearance was closer to that of envelopes you would use for business correspondence.

He took several photos with his phone, then uploaded them to his laptop.  He attached them to an email and typed a quick message to Da Qing, asking him to look into office supply stores in downtown Dragon City.  With any luck, only a couple of them would stock that type of stationery.

To his surprise, his cellphone rang less than five minutes later.  It was Da Qing.

"Don't tell me you've tracked down the envelope supplier already!" he said, as he answered the call.

"I wish!" came the reply.  "I wanted to ask you if you'd searched your Shen Wei's pen name online recently?"

"No, I haven't, and he's not my Shen Wei."

"Whatever.  Listen, I think I've got something.  To be honest, I'm amazed you haven't picked up on it yourself yet."

"Just tell me, Fatty!  You can gloat about it later."

"Okay.  As part of my investigations, I have been reading literally everything online about your guy and creating a timeline of the press coverage.  After all, it's the most obvious source of information for this stalker."

"Go on," Zhao Yunlan said, impatiently.

"Anyway, the second I opened up the photos you sent across I noticed something.  The dates on the postmarks.  They correlate roughly with dates that the press reported on major stories involving Shen Wei, or Ye Zun as he's known."

"That makes sense," the other man acknowledged.  "This guy sees something online or in the paper about Wei, it gets him all riled up, and he feels the urge to write another letter.  How does that get us any closer to finding him, though?"

"It doesn't.  But what you need to know is that, yesterday, seven different media outlets reported on the fact that the famous author Ye Zun was donating multiple signed copies of his latest book to various charities to be auctioned off.  So, my friend, you can expect another letter.  Or, if the stalker decides to escalate his behaviour..."