Light Against Shadows

Chapter 6

Wei was at work, as he had been every single day since the last time he saw Yunlan.

Zhao Yunlan, what was he doing now? Had the girl recovered well?

Wei shook his head, he had a job to do, he shouldn't dwell on matters that didn't concern him.

Luckily numbers were never an obstacle for him, they tended to find their place easily before his eyes.

"I don't make mistakes, what are you talking about?" he mumbled looking at the computer before him.

But his friend was right, he saw the mistake right there in plain view. "Thanks, Jay. I guess I was a little distracted."

Wei was annoyed, that had never happened before, what was he thinking!

A pair of piercing eyes and a smirk appeared in his mind and he scoffed irritably. Why did he keep thinking about him?

He had to admit that his presence had brought excitement to his boring life, but humans also brought troubles.

"No, I don't know what he's doing, why should I know, Yunlan has his job and I have mine... what?... who?"

Wei turned to see a man taking some clients files. "Oh, I forgot Mr Lang had been transferred here, so you were talking about him... of course, you care about the work, I should have known but I thought... no nothing, I wasn't thinking about anything..."

Of course Jay wouldn't ask about Yunlan, he only cared about work.

Wei finished his work hours and prepared to go home. He was still irritated at being busted like that, thinking of Yunlan when he should have concentrated on his job.

Usually Jay's presence at work was annoying, always telling him of how they used to do things in his days, but today he had to thank him, Wei had been too distracted, it could not happen again.
"Goodbye Jay, see you tomorrow."

He walked out; his phone rang and he took it out of his jacket pocket.

An unknown number.

Wei scolded himself because his first thought was 'maybe it's Yunlan' but he reminded himself that it could be anyone, probably the usual call centre or someone that had made a mistake.
It rang again and he answered.

It was Yunlan.

"Wei? It's Yunlan, can you hear me? Wei? Do I have the wrong number?"

"Yes. No. I mean, I can hear you, the number is correct, I put it in myself remember?"

"Yeah, I was beginning to worry that you had given me a fake number," he laughed and Wei frowned.
"Why would I do that?"

Yunlan actually looked at his phone as if he could stare into the other's eyes, then he spoke again. "Sometimes people do that, when they don't want to give their real contact details they give fake ones... but I should have imagined you're not like that, you're a yes or no guy with no lie in between, aren't you?"

Wei didn't know what to say, he wasn't even sure if he was required to answer that or not. What did it even mean?

"Do you need anything?"

"Uh, what?"

"You called me, do you need anything? Has something happened to the girl?"

"The girl? What girl?"

There was an awkward silence for a moment, then Yunlan's voice could be heard again. "You talking about Li Fan, of course. Girl's doing well, fortunately. She was sent home to her family."

"That's great."

"Yeah. Actually I'm calling you for another case, your God-blessed intuition could really help."

Wei sighed, his intuition, of course...

"I told you I have a job already, I'm sure you have other people you can rely on."

"It's a child, Wei. A seven-year-old boy gone missing. Of course there are other cops looking for him, but every help is welcome, especially if it might make the difference between finding him alive or dead, especially if it's you. I don't know how you did it last time, but you saved her life, Wei. She would have died before someone else found her."

"Actually you saved her..."

"You said that already, it was bullshit then as it is now. I could save her only because you brought me there."

Wei thought of the seven-year-old boy. Could he really make a difference? Could he really save the boy?

"What happened?" He asked.

Yunlan opened the file in his hands and read. "Yang, seven years old, was playing in the park when he suddenly disappeared. The video cameras show that the child walked away on his own, and kept walking outside the park where there are no more cameras. He didn't stop to talk to anyone, his mother got distracted talking to another mother and when she noticed he was missing he was nowhere to be seen."

"But you saw what direction he took, a search team certainly could..."

Yunlan interrupted him once again.

"We're trying that already, of course. There are cops looking for him, but he hasn't been found yet. It's been eight hours already since her mother noticed he wasn't where he was supposed to be.
I need your help Wei, I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."

No, he wouldn't have. Yunlan had wanted to call him before, he wanted to learn more about him, but he wouldn't have used a case as an excuse for it.
He would have let a few days pass then call him to get a coffee together or something. He would never use his work that way. He was very serious about his job.

"Ok, I can help you look for him, but don't expect too much, I can't guarantee you that we'll find him."

"I know I know. Where are you now? I'm coming to get you."

"There's no need, I can..."

"I'm coming to get you, I said. Where are you?"

Wei sighed and looked around, he was still close to work, so he gave him the address and waited for him to arrive.

"There's really nothing more you can tell me?" he asked while he waited.

"Nothing really, he looks like a normal child, you know, one of those solitary kids that play with their imaginary friends while their mothers gossip with their real friends."

"Imaginary friend?" Wei had a weird feeling now.

"Yeah, it seemed like he was talking to himself when I watched the video. Actually he made me think of you, do you still talk to your childhood imaginary friends by any chance?"

Yunlan laughed but Wei didn't, that joke hit home more than Yunlan imagined. Gelan and Huan were indeed with him since he was a little kid, maybe four or five years old.

Back then, he thought it was normal, he was so happy to have them play with him every day, he never imagined he could be the only one seeing them.

Now Wei felt chills down his spine thinking of this child talking to himself or maybe to some ghost friend.

Perhaps Wei really was the only one who could help little Yang.