Light Against Shadows

Chapter 5

They noticed some commotion and Yunlan went to see what was going on.
Wei couldn't wait to get out, for years he had limited his social interactions to the absolute minimum and now he felt he was getting too close to this man already, he didn't want to get so involved.

His eyes darted to the door, wondering if he could escape... "Why shouldn't I, there's nothing more I can do... he'll think I've gone home, of course... why would he worry about... oh yeah, I was a bit weak... I don't suppose you could tell him huh?" His mirthless laughter conveyed no joy.

He really did want to escape, like one of those scenes you often see in movies when the other person comes back to find the empty chairs, sighs and understands, and cut to the next scene...  those movies always annoyed him, how come nobody ever worried or looked around, they always just knew... but Yunlan was a cop and Wei almost fainted in his arms a minute ago. He wouldn't accept his absence so easily.

Wei sighed and went looking for him, finding him outside the girl's room.
Yunlan noticed some movement and turned his head.

"She woke up," Yunlan said, as marvelled as he could be, then he narrowed his eyes in that characteristic look Wei was beginning to know already. "What did you do?"

Wei stiffened. "I have to go. Just wanted to tell you." He hesitated.

"I'm glad she's awake," he added with a conclusive tone then he turned around and left. Yunlan didn't stop him this time, his eyes following the tall figure until he was out of sight.

Yunlan was really glad about the girl too. Now the hospital would call the cops working her case and they would come to talk to her. There was nothing more for him to do here, so after watching her a few seconds more he went back as well.

He entered the police station and sat at his desk, lost in thoughts. Two hours later he received a courtesy call, it was the officer he had talked to letting him know that she woke up and told them her story.

"What's her name?" Yunlan asked.

"Li Fan, 27 years old. She lives nearby the scene, she got out without a bag to buy herself a newspaper, but two guys tried to assault her and she fought back."

"Tried to?"

"Yeah, she's a big girl, you saw her yourself, but when she punched one of them hard he got angry and stabbed her. That's all we know for now, she was too tired to talk more and the doctors threw us out after that."

Yunlan sighed in relief glad that she didn't have to endure that, he had seen victims of sexual assault before and he knew very well that the scars of the body were easier to heal than those of the soul.

The cop went on, "We immediately arranged for her family to be informed; she's still weak after the operation so she'll have to stay in the hospital a few more days then they'll release her. The doctors seem optimistic that the worse is now over."

They talked about the case a bit more before Yunlan thanked him and closed the call.

He thought of what he had been told, the cop said her name was Fan... so who was Gelan?

~~~~~

Wei went home to rest for a while, he wouldn't be going to work until the afternoon so he took some time for himself, and spent it all having a good sleep.

He woke up in time for lunch. He wasn't really hungry, though. Maybe he could just make an exception to his healthy diet for today and just eat pancakes... Andrew loved to make pancakes and it was an easy thing to do so he could let him do it, with a bit of supervision, of course. Never trust someone who can't die alone with gas stoves.