Wild Creatures

Chapter 25

Wei Ying’s smile dropped off his face.

"What do you mean, "there were complications"?" He tried not to sound accusatory, but he hated needles, and complications meant that QingJie was here for blood…literally.

"Exactly how it sounds. A-Ning dropped the samples so they're no good. He was startled…" She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose. "So…it's really late, but if we can get on with this?"

Wei Ying was shepherded onto the couch and Lan Zhan held his hand, gazing into panic filled silver eyes. He tried to pass on some calmness, some type of assurance that everything was going to be okay.

"Now, you." Wen Qing said, efficiently packing away the tiny bottles of dark red blood in a sealed, labelled clear plastic bag.

"Mine?" Lan Zhan made the mistake of speaking.

Wen Qing rolled her eyes and pushed Wei Ying out of the way.

Since she wasn't going to say anything else, Lan Zhan rolled up his sleeve. Unlike Wei Ying, he didn't mind needles. He found them annoying but they didn't actually bother him.

This time, the little vials were filled….with a clear liquid.

If Wen Qing was surprised, she never showed it, but it was Wei Ying who gasped.

"Wow! Lan Zhan! That's really cool." He marvelled, smiling brightly.

As for Lan Zhan, he was surprised.

He expected his blood to be the same as the last time; at least some kind of red shade, and while he could feel the venom coursing through his body, he wasn't prepared for the colour change.

In the end, the liquid was a pale yellowish colour, for the most part clear, and only a little bit cloudy.

"It looks like apple juice." Wei Ying giggled, having forgotten the trauma of his own experience.

Wen Qing rolled her eyes and packed everything away, standing up to leave.

"We should know by Friday. A-Ning said the lab is really busy these days, and even with his overtime, he still has to leave work unfinished." She said, walking towards the door.

"Any particular reason?" Wei Ying asked, moving with her.

Something flashed in her dark eyes before she shook her head.

"Nothing for you to worry about." She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease away the tension of a long day. "It's mostly inner politics between the higher ups. They've always got a problem." She shrugged.

They hugged once before she left.

Lan Zhan made Wei Ying drink some warm milk, and he pushed a plate of cookies in his direction when Wei Ying said he didn't feel hungry.

Luckily, there had been no more dizzy spells in the past few days, and Lan Zhan desperately hoped that they had been food/diet related; now that Wei Ying was eating properly, he wished the ill health was gone for good.

Wei Ying fell asleep in his arms like normal, and Lan Zhan was content to hold him through the night.

***********

Thursday morning, Lan Zhan made a decision.

Today marked a whole week since the attack, and now he felt as if he had spent enough time not working. That was the trouble with actual work: it never actually went away.

There were projects which had deadlines, and although XiChen hadn't said anything yet, Lan Zhan knew how difficult it was to shoulder the weight of their business alone.