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...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
The team had settled after Daqing was brought back safely even if his secret was revealed, he had been at risk and it was the only way to get him out fast. Yunlan came back to his office and sat beside Wei on the sofa waiting to hear what Chu had found out.
"Are you going to tell me or is it something you want to handle on your own, because you know I'll find out anyway?" Yunlan said as he Watched Wei's face for any emotion.
"Chu couldn't find anything that would cause this, so he thinks that it could be a reaction to the two poisons and it will take time to go away."
Yunlan waited because he knew that Wei wasn't telling him everything.
"Xiao Wei, some of us who work in a police department know when we are not being told everything, so I'm not moving until you tell me, what else?"
"I have a healing power, but it is not working, it's having no effect." Wei admitted as he looked straight ahead towards the windows.
Yunlan was quiet for a short time while he thought it through and held Wei's hand as he smiled. He leaned over and kissed him lightly on his cheek which had the effect he wanted. Wei turned and looked into Yunlan's eyes, searching for the reason behind the kiss, but he only saw him smiling as he explained what he was thinking.
"Both poisons were strong, just one would have been enough to kill you. The spirit started taking away your power gradually after the rooftop incident, could he have taken this one as well to force you to rest? If you could walk today, One Day after battling for your life, what would you be doing right now?"
Wei realised that he had a point but he couldn't ask the spirit if it was him, however Chu hadn't found any other reason and he agreed to slow down for a week to see if his mobility improved.
"I don't mind helping in the office for a few days, there are a couple of free desks, just put me next to the windows and I can see outside."
Yunlan helped him to rise and shouted on Chu to help him take Wei to one of the desks at the windows while the rest of the shocked staff watched, they hadn't realised that he couldn't walk without help. If he was going to be working from here, there was no way for him to hide this from them, and Daqing brought the whiteboard closer for Wei to study, before he brought him a cup of tea.
"Daqing, what did you find out when you followed the telepath?"
"It was an old warehouse, they were growing plants under grow lights at one side and there was equipment like a laboratory. At the rear were glass tanks full of scorpions, My Lord."
"Have you had a chance to tell Yunlan or Chu?" Wei asked because he had a scorpion in his dream and it was too much of a coincidence.
"My fevered nightmare had a scorpion in it and it's possible that's what my brain was trying to tell me at the time. Write it on the board. The floral gas is only a sedative but it you combine it with scorpion venom and increase the strength, its lethal. That's what killed the burglars, and if it hadn't been for the snake, it would have killed me as well. We need an antidote for this, if Chu takes some of my blood and the silver band from the messenger, and gives them to a guard, he can work faster than a hospital."
Wei signalled to Chu and explained everything while Yunlan listened in and agreed. When the guard arrived, he was given Wei's blood sample and the band which still contained some poison and took them away to start work.
Shen Wei glanced out the window, the view from these offices was very pleasant, he could watch normal people walking their dogs or pushing prams, and there were the students, some of whom, he recognised but they weren't in any of his classes.
He lifted his tea and was enjoying the taste when he saw a smartly dressed man approach the building. He looked normal but he caught Wei's attention and he couldn't look away. He didn't know him and he'd never seen him before, but for some reason, he couldn't look away. The windows in the office had been designed to stop anyone from seeing in but Wei felt as if he was staring at him, and he couldn't look away.
Yunlan was writing out a daily report in his office when he felt the whip move, which was a bit unusual, it never moved when it was here, there was never a need, but it slipped out of his sleeve and slithered across the floor towards Wei. Yunlan followed it and watched as it coiled around the legs of the desk and slid along the top until it reached the correct position to raise itself, and stare into Wei's eyes as he sat, already transfixed to something else. Chu followed it over in case it was going to bite again, but when he looked at Wei, he showed no sign of even seeing the snake, which was close enough to touch him with its forked tongue. The other two team members watched from a distance.
Yunlan and chu followed Wei's line of sight but they saw nothing outside, and Yunlan immediately triggered the silent alarm and locked the front glass doors, because if Wei could see something that they couldn't, then it was a threat. Guo Ying appeared and knelt quickly beside Wei , staring in the same direction and suggested that everyone move away from the windows to a safer area, while the rest of the guards appeared in full robes, facing out of the windows. Two were sent downstairs and stood directly in front of the locked doors like sentinels, stopping anything from passing them, and sent Gelan upstairs to safety.
It was very quiet, no one spoke while the guards continued watching, but the temperature became colder as the clouds gathered around their feet and rose as the glass darkened, hiding Wei's transformation. The Black Robe coalesced from his ankles, travelling slowly around his legs past his knees, hips and rotated up to his waist as his leather belt appeared and continued until his hood was in place, partially hiding the beautiful ebony half mask, while he stood up holding a guandao.
He raised the weapon once and when it hit the floor, thunder echoed in the area outside as the vibration shook the building in a show of power to whoever was watching, warning them to stay away or pay the price of their forced entry.
The man in the suit walked away slowly, knowing that this was one place he would not be allowed to destroy, it was protected by the strongest force in this world, and he had no intentions of becoming Black Robe's enemy. The guards never moved until Wei half turned and nodded to them. They began to disappear one by one until Guo Ying was the only one left and he helped Black Robe to sit down before his robe vanished, revealing Shen Wei resting at the desk but pale from using the amount of energy necessary to warn off the visitor.
Ying approached Yunlan and suggested that it would be better if Shen Wei could go home to rest, the danger had passed and the visitor would not return. Yunlan had a thousand questions to ask Wei but when he looked across at him, he knew that Ying was right and he agreed, but went over to talk to him first.
"I'll come and see you later on Xiao Wei, just now you need rest," and he helped lift Wei to his feet and held him tightly before Ying took over and teleported him home. Yunlan had no answers for anyone but he knew someone who might be able to explain what had just happened, and he looked for the snake who didn't feel like answering any questions, and stayed hidden.
Yunlan approached Chu and Daqing, "Any ideas?" He asked and Chu answered.
"It was definitely a power play and we won, but who or what, I've no idea. Obviously it was from our world because it gave in to Black Robe, he is still seen as someone not to be crossed, and now that a line has been drawn, it won't come back. Possibly this is something else, not The Writer, because he has no idea that Black Robe is involved and is here."
Yunlan sighed, he hadn't realised that they would be dealing with an invisible godfather on top of everything else, and he signalled to Daqing to find out if Gelan was alright, and then return to reception and unlock the doors. Yunlan fetched himself a coffee before going back to his desk and thinking about Shen Wei's condition. He hadn't been fighting two poisons, it was three. The floral mixed with the scorpion and the snake's. If the spirit was sentient, did he know in advance about the visitor who would be paying them a visit today, and is that why Wei can't walk very well? There was no way for Yunlan to talk to this being but he was sure of one thing, this spirit cared for Wei's safety and health.
