BOOK 2. Zhao Yunlan is a successful detective and has been blind from birth, and is attacked on his way home from a night out but someone steps in and saves him and runs off. Shen Wei is a university lecturer in Architectural Technology and liv...
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Yunlan had never been to the archives, mainly because he had no reason to go there and it would be difficult without help. They were in the lowest level of the building, even lower than the lab, another place he'd never been. What seemed like a heavy wooden door was at the bottom of the rusty stairwell and he held onto the handrail all the way down behind Chu who would break his fall if he slipped. No key and the door seemed locked, Chu had a look around to check that it wasn't hanging in plain sight while Yunlan stretched out to feel the wood and touch the handle which turned easily in his grip.
"Door's open" He shouted to Chu, "What did you do?" he asked,
"Nothing, I just turned the handle and it opened." And they both walked in with Yunlan behind Chu gripping his arm for safety.
The darkness didn't bother Yunlan obviously, but Chu was peering, trying to find a light or a switch before he fell over anything, taking Yunlan with him. At last he found it and was relieved to see that it still worked, electricity brilliant, thousands of books, lots of cobwebs and a few items bagged in protective polythene lying in the corner that drew his attention. One of which was a beautiful half face mask, not black, more ebony, old but in excellent condition, also an old watch and of all things, a whip. So many books, he didn't know where to start, Yunlan suggested checking to see if there were any dates, maybe on the first pages or the spine of the books and Chu started reading small details of everything that he lifted.
Yunlan felt bored and useless, he couldn't help Chu so he wandered around the room, feeling his way along the edges of the book shelves, and trying to learn and remember the layout of the room. He could hear Chu mumbling on, but not making any sense, he was just repeating numbers as years and then he stopped which caused Yunlan to stop his exploration.
"What is it?" he asked Chu, who had become silent and frozen to the spot.
"It's a picture of me taken near the end of the war with Daqing and someone else that I don't recognise. I was born after the war and so was Daqing, how could we both be in this photograph?"
Yunlan really wished that he could see it, never in his whole life had he wanted to see so badly ashe did now. "Tell me what they look like, man or woman, height, hair, style."
"It's a woman, maybe a nurse, just guessing. She has long hair but it's tied up away from her neckline, pretty, thin beautiful hands. She's wearing a name badge, wait there's a magnifying glass over there, I can tell you her name if we're lucky. G E L A M."
Yunlan felt a little dizzy and rested against the nearest ledge he could find, "Look again, harder,is it Gelan?"
"How did you know?" Chu said staring at Yunlan, who was thinking that now would be a good time for some explanations.
Chu dusted off a couple of chairs and led Yunlan to sit down because he really needed that seat and was finding it increasingly hard to stand.
"Shen Wei has nightmares, some are really bad, although I've not heard a really bad one yet but.... his personal assistant records what he talks about in his sleep because she thinks its part of his past life seeping through into his dreams, and this is confidential not to be repeated to anyone, understand."
