BOOK 4. Shen Wei is a doctor working in accident and emergency but also Black Robe. Zhao is a detective chasing bank robbers when he first meets Black Robe thinking that he is one of them and shoots him. The story is about their relationship and t...
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Yunlan couldn't settle after Shen Wei's visit, he had witnessed raw painful emotion and couldn't forget the feeling of holding to comfort him and the kiss, of how correct it had felt, as if he was the right person for Shen Wei to turn to for support and he badly wanted to know why. He gave up trying to sleep and headed down to the office in the middle of the night, surprising the nightshift who hadn't seen him for years but knew him, so he wasn't stopped from entering, let them try, he thought.
Coffee was the first stop and then a history search.
"Cong Bo, where are the oldest records kept for this department? I would like to see them."
"Sir, they were all handwritten until one of the younger detectives at that time, copied them into files on the computer, just ask in the search box, it should tell you."
"Thank you Cong Bo, you've been here a long time, did you ever see a consultant work here?"
"No I didn't but there was talk of one when I was a young lad, he was special, a gentleman, professor at a university and he loved the boss, broke his heart when the boss was killed, he vanished and they never saw him again."
It was still dark outside when Yunlan started his search on the computer with his endless supply of coffee which was topped up every time someone saw his cup empty. He found the records involving Chief Kunlun and several before him but some of it didn't make sense, so he just accepted it as is, and didn't question the authenticity. Then he found photographs, some old and yellowed but the faces were easily seen and clear. If he hadn't had the conversation with Shen Wei, he would have thought that they were a prank and had been Photoshopped, but deep in his mind, he knew they were real.
Shen Wei was in the background in several, almost hidden, with his own face in the front line up. The written records seemed to follow the death lines not the life lines of the members of this department, and his name appeared regularly. Death by fire, death by suicide, death by shooting incident, death caused by illness, these were all the chief's endings through time. Shen Wei was never mentioned as an obituary, he just disappeared every now and again to reappear in a new career, university lecturer twice in different subjects, technological inventor, and now a doctor, always well educated and always the same appearance.
"Cong Bo, where were the written books kept before they were entered into the system, do youknow?"
"Yes Sir, we used to have a vault downstairs but I don't know if it's all closed off now or not, no one goes there any more. If there is a key, it probably would be in the lost drawer, every lost item is tossed in there."
"Thank you Cong Bo."
Yunlan went into the paper storage room to look in the lost drawer, bottom drawer in the oldest filing cabinet, holding keys, buttons, rings, pens, reels of thread and the oldest largest key he had ever seen which he assumed was the one he was looking for. The door at the end of the corridor was locked but this key opened it leading to a flight of stairs with electric lighting, thankfully. The door at the bottom was even older but not locked and housed all the handwritten books that he had found in the computer. All in numerical order, covered with dust and hadn't been touched for decades.
