Wild Creatures

Chapter 59

This time when they reach the National Parks and Rec building, Xiao XingChen greets them after they park Lan Zhan's car.

He bows in greeting, but doesn't say much.

Wei Ying realises that this is another quiet person, not prone to using extraneous words. And from what his grandmother had told him, about his lost partner, Wei Ying felt sorry for him. He couldn't imagine being separated from Lan Zhan at all, nevermind however many years Xiao XingChen had been apart from Song Lan.

Had they even discussed being together? What if they never had that chance? What if they were about to confess, maybe on the cusp of being together, when Song Lan suddenly disappeared, and now Xiao XingChen is simply waiting for him?

What had even happened to Song Lan?

So many people had simply disappeared, leaving people confused and bereft after the fact, and then there was that niggling feeling of the Wens being involved somehow.

Of course, this was just conjecture on Wei Ying's part, but he couldn't help feeling bad for the man clad in white, mourning clothes in Eastern countries, in front of them.

When they passed by their usual floor number, Lan Zhan's grip tightened on his hand, and Wei Ying looked up to see a kind of glaring match between him and Xiao XingChen in the polished surface of the metal elevator door, definite hostility in both their eyes.

Wei Ying tugs on his hand, mostly to get his attention, and to stop Lan Zhan doing that.

He knew Lan Zhan wasn't as accepting of these new people in their life as Wei Ying was, he certainly wasn't going to be okay with the person he saw as kidnapping Wei Ying previously.

No matter that Wei Ying had gone with him willingly, it only made matters worse when Lan Zhan found out what Xiao XingChen had said to get Wei Ying to actually go with him.

But Wei Ying wasn't suddenly going to let go of that trusting part of himself. There was a difference between being ignorant of danger, simply trusting people blindly, and knowing that he could get hurt, have his trust torn to shreds, and still go on thinking the best of the people he just met.

So far, that innocent trusting side of him hadn't led him astray yet, even if the jury was still out on the issue of Wen Qing and Wen Ning.

It was this relationship which bothered him the most up till now. Wei Ying really didn't want to believe that the Wen Siblings were bad, that they had ulterior motives when it came to him. That shit was gonna hurt so bad, if it came out that Wen Qing was using him.

And there was no way that Wen Ning didn't know what his own sister was up to.

Only time could tell what was going on with them and Wen Rouhan.

The smooth, hardly there jolt of machinery sliding to a halt snapped Wei Ying's attention back to the present, and a concerned Lan Zhan gazing back at him.

"Mn?" It was barely a whisper as they followed Xiao XingChen out of the metal box.

But Wei Ying forgot everything when faced with the golden doors right in front of them.

The coat of arms on his locket was here, as well, and Wei Ying's fingers reached to hold onto the warmed metal around his neck, cradled against his skin.

Where had it come from?

What was the connection between it, himself and this extended family?

The doors open from the inside, and his grandmother is standing there, as smart as ever.

Wei Ying has never seen someone look so good in an ordinary dress. It's a deep forest green silk, soft and draping on her petite form, bringing out the silver flecks in her grey eyes. Her hair is held up by a jade pin with a flower dangling from one end on a silver chain. She looks elegant, refined and like a member of the gentry, and not at all like someone who could drink like a sailor.