On The Run

Part 2

Reaching home, it was already dark. After a short shower and light dinner, Yibo took Xiao Zhan files and read it.

So, this Xiao Zhan guy was six years older than him, 183 cm tall, with a mole at the left under his lips, 65 kg, black hair, white pale skin. Physically, he had similar appearance with Yibo.

Xiao Zhan loves animals especially cats. He also loves black coffee, spicy food, Lays potato chips seaweed flavor, reading books, listening to classic music and watching opera.

He was good at singing, cooking, drawing and designing, art and literature.

His favorite painter was Van Gogh. His favorite singer was Stefanie Sun. His favorite brand was Gucci. His favorite color was red. His favorite character was Spongebob Squarepants.

Yibo raised his face and sighed. Somehow, Yibo didn’t understand, why He Jiong had to make this like a big deal while Xiao Zhan himself was already thirty-one years old where he was more than old to get involved in self-protecting. The way He Jiong treated Xiao Zhan was out of his logic. Xiao Zhan himself seemed like a smart guy and making him understand the situation he was facing wouldn’t be that hard. But maybe, Qian Feng was right. A father will always be a father, even his father treated him like a five years old kid sometimes.

Putting the files aside, Yibo got up at checked on the equipment he got from the Equipment Storage and packed it neatly.

Morning came. Qian Feng came to pick him at seven. They traveled south to Shanxi province, about six hours driving. Shanxi means “West of the Mountains”, a reference to the province’s location west of the Taihang Mountains. Shanxi is terrain characterized by a plateau bounded partly by mountain ranges, a series of valleys in the center through which the Fen River runs. With its continental monsoon climate, Shanxi is warm and humid at summer like this. Mountains are lined up one after another with rivers sneaking out of the hills, giving beautiful sparks of silver from the sunlight.

Qian Feng drove through the cities to a secluded area on a hill where the houses located. It was surrounded by a flower field from any kind in any colors making a giant colorful carpet under the bright summer sun. As soon as Qian Feng pulled the car into the garage, Yibo jumped out to have a better look at the scenery. If only he wasn’t on a mission, he would have dragged Qian Feng to take a walk.

“It’s actually safer to leave us with no wires at all,” Yibo said when they were observing the house.

“You think?” Qian Feng asked without taking his eyes from assembling a surveillance camera.

“Wires can be tracked,” Yibo replied.

“Make sense. But Han-ge wants to get all the updates about things

around here. Wires devices are the available ones.”

Yibo’s eyebrows twitched. He had been in some cases with Qian Feng, although he only assisted, and remembered that at the end of the cases, wires devices were totally deleted.

“Actually, Han-ge said that Gao Tianhe would join us,” Qian Feng said again, went on to the next surveillance camera.

Yibo raised his eyebrows. “Tianhe? As in He-ge my senior?”

“Yep. He will be in charge in monitoring the cameras for us.”

“Oh. Why doesn’t he come with us now?”

“He has things to do in Shanghai and will join us tonight.”

Yibo nodded.

“He leaves the installation to us,” Qian Feng added.

Yibo nodded again.

“Done…” Qian Feng said finally. “Let’s install these cute toys.”

Yibo stood up, rolling his eyes to the ‘cute toys’.

The house was a nice two-stair wooden house with all beige-gray Scandinavian interiors. Downstairs, there was the living room connected to
the dining room, a kitchen, the master bedroom for Qian Feng and Tianhe. At
the kitchen, there was a connecting door to the basement where they put all the monitors and hardware.

“What if Xiao Zhan was curious to see inside?” Yibo asked when they were loading the hardware.

“Actually, Han-ge didn’t say that it was forbidden to tell Xiao Zhan who we are, but he also didn’t want us to directly say who we are,” said Qian Feng.

He unloaded the monitors from the boxes and put them in a line, connected them with a single parallel cable.

“Why does this sound complicated?” Yibo brushed his hair back and stared at Qian Feng.

“Well, actually, this is my first case guarding someone. Usually I spy on someone and so it was definitely forbidden to let others know our identity. But in this case, Xiao Zhan himself is aware of his situation that needs bodyguards, so… yeah… fine, I guess,” Qian Feng said again, making Yibo curve his lips in confusion.

“Whatever, Feng-ge. Stop explaining.”

Qian Feng chuckled, patted Yibo’s back. “Relax. Just enjoy the mission.”

“Mmn.”

The second floor had two rooms for him and Xiao Zhan and a book corner connected to balcony. The rooms were across each other – only one with balcony. At first, he was intended to give Xiao Zhan the room with balcony but then it would be a problem if someone barged in through it so he exchanged their rooms.

The room where Xiao Zhan would be staying was wider and cozy, with a queen size bed in the middle, a couch and a table at its corner by the window, TV and a bathroom, even a fireplace for winter. With the crème and light brown Scandinavian design, it made the room really soothing and warm.

Yibo’s room was actually smaller but looked spacious, because of its balcony and grey beige and white interior. But it didn’t matter actually because he wouldn’t spend much time in this room. He might just wander around, checking this and that, and might fall asleep technically everywhere.

Yibo started to work, put some surveillance cameras in Xiao Zhan’s room that connected to his cellphone. He was in debate with Qian Feng whether it was necessary to install a camera in the bathroom.

“Xiao Zhan is a civilian,” Yibo snorted, “not a criminal. We don’t need to keep an eye on him doing his private routine though.”

“Xiao Zhan is indeed a civilian. But do you have any idea that it would be the perfect place for the killer to hide if they knew there’s no camera in there?” Qian Feng gave his argument. “Or maybe, they drag Xiao Zhan to the bathroom and kill him there without you knowing.”

Yibo knitted his eyebrows. “You have fabulous imagination.”

“Unless you are some kind of pervert.”

Yibo was taken aback. “What pervert?”

Qian Feng grinned goofily. “That you get hard by seeing Xiao Zhan naked.”

Yibo shot an annoyance look, gained a laugh from Qian Feng.

“Then install it. Won’t do any harm, right?”

“Intruding privacy…” Yibo murmured as he installed the camera.

“It’s our job, Yibo. Our job.”

“Mmn.”

Installation took almost half-day long and they were lounging at the living room when Tianhe arrived, who was welcomed excitedly for bringing three glasses of Starbuck black coffee. Too lazy to move, they decided to just lounge there and scattered on the couch, fallen asleep.