BOOK 8. Zhao Yunlan is a detective in a newly formed department dealing with strange crimes, but there are only three detectives and they don't have an office. Chu and Daqing work for Yunlan but their loyalty is to Black Robe who agreed to live...
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Yunlan was restless, his sleep was full of dreams of unbelievable events which couldn't possibly happen in the real world, but these were just dreams. He carried a cat in most of them and followed a man in black who could appear and disappear at will, reminding him of Shen Wei but he wasn't the same. He watched other people produce fire from their hands and not burn, while different ones controlled water and saw it dance with the colours continually changing. Then the more violent images flooded his mind, fighting, injuries, blood and death all around him on a battle field before he felt a sharp blow and the images stopped.
Yunlan woke up hot and thirsty, and he went downstairs for a cold drink. The house was quiet, Wei must still be asleep he thought, it was only two thirty in the morning, he still had plenty of time before he had to rise for work and he returned to bed, carrying a glass of water which he placed on his small table. As soon as Yunlan closed his eyes, the dreams hit him again but this time he was working in a laboratory beside chu and Daqing, except it wasn't him, it was Wei's Yunlan , and he could see everything. Starting from the injuries Shen Wei received in a bomb blast to Chu stopping him from committing suicide, and Yunlan cried in his sleep. This is what Wei was living with every day, but why is he seeing this now, when he couldn't before?
He was wide awake and sat up, drinking his water as he thought, was it really him in the book? Common sense said no, but his other senses said maybe. In one of the photos, he had seen the whip around the other Yunlan's wrist, and he tried to remember where he'd left it but he didn't need to. The whip came without being called because it was always linked to Yunlan's emotions and it slithered towards him, climbing onto the bed until it was eye level with him as it rested on his lap. Yunlan stared at the emerald eyes which never blinked as they stared back, and he spoke to it.
"You're not really a snake are you, but you're not a whip either?"
"No Yunlan, I was a snake deity a very long time ago, and I'd tell you my name but only the spirit inside Shen Wei knows, but that's not what you want to know, ask and I'll tell you, I'm maybe the only one who will."
The snake never moved, he stared and waited, willing to answer any question, the only problem was the Yunlan didn't know where to start, so he asked the big question first.
" Am I the same person that Wei lost at the end of the War, the one who committed suicide?"
Apep looked deep into his eyes and decided that it was time to allow him access to all his memories and he leaned over to give him a small nip with his fangs, gentle enough to open a few doors to help him understand.
"Yes, you are. I have given you a little help to open your mind. The sleep you'll have now won't be as harsh as the previous dreams you've had but it will tell you everything you need to know."
Yunlan felt his eyes become very heavy and was forced to close them even before the snake had time to wrap itself around his wrist, where it would remain from now on.
