Illusion - SCI Mystery 谜案集 Fanfiction

Chapter 32

"Thanks, leader", Zhan Yao smiled victoriously and quickly got into the car, leaving Bai Yutong outside to reconsider his life choices.

The drive progressed in tense silence. Pouting over his defeat, Bai Yutong continued to glare at Zhan Yao who expertedly ignored it and kept a calm face. Ma Han glanced between the two men sitting opposite each other and shook her head at their childish behaviour. Who knew that her overly capable leaders were reduced to two love-struck teenagers once put together. This proved to be very interesting and a mischieveous and evil smile tugged at her lips when she thought about all the ways she could tease them about this. She only realized she failed to keep her snickering from escaping her when she received a confused and deeply disturbed look from Zhao Fu beside her. Feeling caught doing something bad, Ma Han quickly shot him a reassuring smile and forced herself to concentrate on the mission.

After they quickly discussed their infiltration plan - in which Bai Yutong stressed Zhan Yao's safety was ensured - the team was dispatched.

Side by side, Bai Yutong and Zhan Yao walked down the corridor of the ridiculously big mansion towards the study. Bai Yutong's whole body was alert - even more so than usual with the cat by his side - his shoulders were tense and the grip on his gun in his outstretched arms tight. Both of them wore bulletproof vests.

While walking, Bai Yutong continuously checked the rooms they passed and grumbled about the fact that Zhan Yao refused to pick up his gun with the explanation he wouldn't be able to make use of it anyway - especially with Bai Yutong by his side who would have shot the opponent even before Zhan Yao noticed him - and the gun would only distract him from looking from clues. At least Bai Yutong could convince him to wear it at his side in the holster on his belt.

But despite his complaints, Bai Yutong was very comfortable with both of their roles and so was Zhan Yao. It had always been like this - even in their school days - Zhan Yao was the brain with Bai Yutong as the acting force. Nobody could ever deny that they complimented each other perfectly and had excellent teamwork, though just few guessed - much less knew for sure - that they complimented each other outside of work as well.

As they reached the door to the study at the end of the corridor, Bai Yutong glanced at Zhan Yao one last time with a silent warning not to get himself in trouble before he slowly opened the door.

Zhan Yao quickly drawed his gun now as well - the small one he got from Bai Yutong when his hand was injured and Bai Yutong refused to take back once he was well again - and hid behind Bai Yutong. But since he was a curious cat, he could not keep himself from glancing over his mouse's shoulder.

The room was relatively big with massive bookshelves on every wall - filled to the brim with bundled knowledge - and a monstruous desk of dark brown wood in front of the window. A small seating group of dark leather couches in the middle of the room finished off the luxurious interior of the study.

But nothing of that was important at the moment - though Zhan Yao was undeniably eager to flip through the many books in the shelves.

Seated on one of the leather couches with their back towards the door was an unmoving figure of a man.

"Police. Put your hands up where I can see them!", Bai Yutong commanded in a hard voice.

But the figure remained unmoving. Zhan Yao furrowed in confusion and slowly, a bad premonition spread inside of him when the man did not react after a second time Bai Yutong called out to him.

He hastily pushed past Bai Yutong and circled around the seating group. Bai Yutong watched in horror as Zhan Yao approached him and was even more confused to see the dissatisfied expression on Zhan Yao's face once he was in front of the unknown man.

Understanding slowly dawned on him and finally it hit him. Bai Yutong put his gun down and stepped towards Zhan Yao's side to look down at the body in front of them. He routinatedly checked his pulse to be absolutely sure and flipped out his phone.

"We found David in his study. He's dead."

Bai Yutong quickly ended the call and sighed exhaustedly. Frustrated, he pulled his hand through his hair and looked at the dead body once more as if it maybe changed its mind and would wake up to life again. He would have liked that very much. Not that he was particularly sad about the mob boss' death but it certainly gave him more work. Even dead, he still brings trouble, how annoying can a person be?

If he was not already dead to begin with, Bai Yutong would kill him for delaying their vacation even more than he already did. Was it really too much to ask for to have a little bit of rest with his boyfriend? Especially after everything they have been through for the past months?

Meanwhile, Zhan Yao looked around the study with an upset expression. He was as angry about the turn of situations as Bai Yutong.

Finding nothing out of the ordinary which was even more dissatisfying, he turned towards Bai Yutong.

"Nothing special. He either returned to get something important before anyone else could and was surprised by this person or he met up with somebody. But since they could have basically met up anywhere and it's too much of a risk to come here, I'm sure that there was something he hid here which was important. Maybe he met up with that someone here to exchange it in return for his safe escape out of the country or something."

"Either way, it didn't turn out the way he wanted, the other party killed him and escaped with the crucial puzzle piece", Bai Yutong finished Zhan Yao's conclusion and Zhan Yao nodded.

"I wonder what was so important that he risked to return here", Zhan Yao whispered more to himself but Yutong heard him anyway and nodded tiredly.

ΨΨΨ

After wrapping up the crime scene and Zhao Fu and Ma Han dragging back the culprit who stabbed the mob boss - a young man who avenged his younger brother who was killed by David's group - they returned to the police station. Despite wrapping up the case rather quickly, none of them were in the mood to celebrate. Everyone was aware that it was not as simple as that and though everyone knew who probably was behind all of this, nobody dared to talk about it when confronted with the sour faces of Bai Yutong and Zhan Yao.

Zhan Yao was even more frustrated. David had proven to know something about Zhao Jue and even why he seemingly had this strange obsession with Zhan Yao and he really had wanted to find out more about this. But now the only lead he had in all of this was dead and so was his hope to find out more about Zhao Jue anytime soon.

Since they wanted to close the case as soon as possible, all of them deccided to pull an all-nighter to finish. After consuming unhealthy amounts of coffeine throughout the night filled with reports and sorting out evidence, witnesses and documents, the sun slowly climbed its way up the horizon and engulfed the city in a beautiful dawn.

Zhan Yao stood at the window, quietly sipping his lukewarm black tea and watched the sunrise when he felt someone step beside him. He glanced to his left to see Bai Yutong looking at him. They just stared at each other, silently admiring the other in the warm and gentle light of the rising sun but it could not erase the traces of exhaustion the last few days - months - had left on them.

Without saying anything, they turned towards the window and quietly watched the sunrise together.

Although they had finally finished the case after many obstacles, it did not feel like a complete victory. After all the sacrifices they made for it, the end did not bring the wished satisfaction and clarification but instead left them with a bitter aftertaste of defeat.

Silently, the two of them wondered when all of this would take an end.