Ink Lines

Chapter 34 June: Murder

The call came in the early hours of the morning, pulling Lan Zhan from sleep.

From years on call and fear rooted in the back of his mind born from the ashes of Gusu, Lan Zhan snapped into awareness. One hand reached for the handgun under his pillow only to find its absence, his head lifting from the pillow in worry to find the unfamiliar walls of the room that he was sharing with Wei Ying.

Lotus Pier.

They were sleeping in the spare guest suite of the main house until Jiang Cheng returned, Lan Zhan remembered. The phone went silent on the beside table where it was charging.

Wei Ying missed it entirely. The love of his life was deeply asleep, curled into his chest, his head over Lan Zhan's heart, chest rising and falling rhythmically, a hand flung over his hip. No part of Lan Zhan wanted to be parted from him for a second, but that ringtone meant trouble.

It was easy technically to gently tug Wei Ying over, sliding the pillow underneath him and making sure to pull the cover up and it wasn't easy at all leaving him sleep warm and so beautiful. It was summer in Yunmeng so the air was humid, but the air conditioning unit was keeping the temperature fairly even and Wei Ying he learned, easily got cold when he slept. So Lan Zhan tucked him up and he burrowed down within seconds, one foot leaving the covers in a sensual arch.

This better be a breakthrough or someone better be dead.

Picking up his phone, Lan Zhan padded to the bathroom as a precaution. If Wei Ying did wake, this was of course a perfectly acceptable excuse.

Throwing a silencing charm on the door, Lan Zhan dialed the number back. He sat on the edge of the bath and listened as the world once again changed beneath his feet.

As it turned out, Lan Zhan didn't return to the bed. The rest of the night and early morning was devoted to crisis management and confirming what he had been told using as many sources as he could lay hands on, panic churning in his heart.

His network had just discovered that Jin Guangshan had ordered and paid-for a hit on Jiang Cheng.

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Lan Qiren had a fondness for ancient poetry and a life-time of admiration for what he called wise proverbs. One of his favorite sayings was The player is lost; the watcher is lucid. It meant of course that the individual involved in a matter cannot have a comprehensive overview of it, when they are a part of the details, while an onlookers can maintain an objective attitude and perhaps understand more.

It was a relevant quote for any sporting event and every cultivator investigative case, but at this point in time, Lan Zhan cannot say that he is a player or a watcher, as the very real danger to the Jiang family unravels even further.

Erroneously, he had thought that he had all of the threads in his hands and they as a united group had planned for every scenario. The arrest of Wen Xu loomed closer, evidence piling up and in the right hands, something he had ensured, there would finally be justice.

But they had a choice. The Wen who seemed to be the bigger, more dangerous problem with such an unstable, impulsive leader prone to violent rages...or they could go after the Jin. They didn't have the resources to do both.

The Wen wanted the heads of the Yunmeng Jiang brothers. The Wen were corporate rivals of the Jiang. The Wen had attacked Lotus Pier once before and murdered Wei Ying's family, except for his siblings. The Wen had tried to assassinate Jiang Cheng once before.

So far the Jin had infiltrated Lotus Pier and had tried to plant evidence. His own son and successor was married to Jiang Yanli.

Lan Zhan wanted justice for it, but in comparison to the threat of the Wen, they seemed less of a threat. Jin Guangshan could not destabilize the Jiang without damaging himself. Without risking his son.