Wild Creatures

Chapter 7

The door closed ominously with a click.

Wen Qing studied the taller man, both with a personal interest and from a medical point of view, since she had seen him when he had first arrived here.

She was naturally a protective person especially of those that were close to her, not someone who would trust easily, and certainly not someone she did not know. Wei Ying knew this person for less than a couple of days, and she did not understand what reason there could be for him to miss work.

Her partner, MianMian, had informed her that Wei Ying wasn't feeling well, and since it was a harmless white lie, she let it stand, promising to go and see if he was okay.

She had been meaning to come and check on whom she thought of as her patient anyway, because he had been asleep for so long...though right now she was alarmed because she had definitely seen two puncture marks on his neck...which were no longer there.

It seemed impossible to her that someone could heal that quickly.

Not even a scab.

Secondly, her gut was telling her that something wasn't quite right...about this situation, and about him.

So she stared at him warily, not completely sure what to make of him.

Lan Zhan was... internally shitting bricks.

Wen Qing may have been shorter than himself, but he had a feeling that half of her strength lay in the ground. And she was obviously important to Wei Ying...because Wei Ying trusted him enough to leave him with his family.

So basically, he had to be careful.

Everything that had happened between himself and Wei Ying, it felt too private for him to say anything about it...and it felt too new as well. He needed to get used to the idea of having a boyfriend...if that was really what they were to each other, and it was a whole other issue aside from his physical problem.

Right now, he could not look away from her intense stare, and since it had all the vibes of a Mexican stand-off, Lan Zhan didn't even dare to blink.

It was A-Yuan who broke the stalemate.

He ran to Wen Qing and hugged her thigh, looking up at her with that delighted expression on his face.

"JieJie!" He cried out happily, his voice shattering the tense silence.

Lan Zhan watched in disbelief as her face transformed from cold and shrewdly hard to soft and warm as she pinched his pudgy cheeks and patted his head.

"Have you finished eating?" She asked him, keeping an eye on Lan Zhan and simultaneously checking the table where A-Yuan had been sitting at, and noting the empty carton of noodles.

Lan Zhan thought he might have seen a flash of disapproval, but he didn't know her quite well enough to be able to tell, with any amount of certainty.

"And I have homework." The child pouted, after nodding.

"Shall I help you with that?" She asked him, much kindness in her voice.

A-Yuan was way too cute to be refused, and suddenly they were both making their way towards the table to do just that.

Lan Zhan felt terribly awkward and out of place now.

He decided to make himself useful by going to cook something. Wouldn't Wei Ying be happy if there was a hot meal waiting for him when he got back from work? So he went into the kitchen.

There was a pile of dirty dishes in the sink and no dishwasher in sight, so Lan Zhan hunted around for a pair of washing up gloves first, before tackling that mess. However, there didn't seem to be any dishrags or teatowels to actually dry anything. And he frowned when he saw crumbs littering the countertop.