Light Against Shadows

Chapter 10

Wei woke up late in the morning, without hearing any alarm clock. That felt odd, but as his eyes adjusted to the light the reality that he wasn't in his home hit him.

Where was he? He rose to his feet, he was still fully dressed like last night; good thing that DongMei wasn't around, she could never stand people sleeping with their clothes on. Wei still blushed anytime he thought back of the night he brought Yunlan home. There had been no reasoning with her until Wei finally gave up and let her take off Yunlan's clothes.

Wei had never been more embarrassed, surely Yunlan thought he did it himself.

His thoughts were cut off when a feeble presence caught his attention.

"Who are you? Can you communicate with me?" He offered his hands forward. "Touch my hands, it'll help... that's good, you like my energy, right? All my friends like it, we can be friends as well... Nari? I'm Wei..."

He heard the sound of a door opening and at the bedroom door appeared Yunlan's figure. He seemed startled to see Wei standing with his arms stretched forward as if he was holding someone else's hands, but he didn't say anything about it.

"I brought breakfast," he said instead. "I bought it at a nice place not far from here, good thing you're up, the coffee is still hot."

Wei followed him into the kitchen and they sat at the small table in there.
He wasn't too fond of coffee but it felt good nonetheless. He ate anything that was offered to him without complaints.

"We are at your house," he said stating the obvious.

"You were too tired, you needed to rest and my place was closer."

Wei nodded. A look at his watch confirmed his suspicions, he was definitely late for work. "Thanks for the hospitality but I should go now, it's late already."

"You're not going anywhere this morning until I'm sure you're okay."

Wei raised his eyes with a frown but Yunlan wasn't even looking at him, he had spoken with a sure tone that admitted no discussion.

Wei complained anyway. "I have to, I should have been at work almost two hours ago."

"Yep, morning's almost gone, what's the logic in showing up now? Besides, you're needed with me, we have a report to file."

"We?"

"Of course, I need your statement on how and where you found the child."

'How... what a report it would be! I saw an invisible entity and asked my invisible friends to use my strength to track down its dark energy, et voilà, the once possessed child was free to join his parents again. Anything else you wanna know?'

Wei groaned while those thoughts rotated in his mind. "Can't you deal with that? I really have nothing to say."

Yunlan put his empty plate aside and crossed his arms. "Standard procedure, I'm sorry but I need you to sign it. It won't be too difficult, I promise."

Wei's shoulders sagged down and he surrendered to his fate, hoping it would be over quickly.

He was allowed to take a shower before wearing the same clothes he wore the day before, not having a change with him.

Yunlan waited for him to be ready before going out together. Wei paused a moment. "Did you ever know someone called Nari?"

"Uh? No, not that I remember."

Yunlan locked the door behind them and they walked to his car. "Wait, the guy who lived here before me, his mother was called Nari, she was Korean I think, but she passed away years ago. Why do you ask?"

"I just think it's a beautiful name, that's all, it means Lily you know."

"Like the flower? Yeah, a pretty name."

Yunlan drove towards the station, only vaguely wondering why would he be thinking of Korean names, he was getting used to not understanding what went on in Wei's mind.

He was still curious, though. When they arrived, he instructed Wei on how to fill the report form with his statement and he left a moment to go talk to Ling.

He kept his voice low, but Wei was too focused on his difficult assignment to notice. Yunlan tapped on Ling's shoulder.

"Do you see the guy at my desk? I only have his birth name and the area where he lives and works as an accountant. I want you to find out all you can about him, can you do that?"

Ling shot a look in Wei's direction.

"Sure thing, but if he's about to sign his statement now you'll have his surname in a moment anyway, the research would be easier knowing his full name,  I can just wait and..."

"No, start now, I have a feeling it won't be that easy."

Ling didn't say another word. After all, he knew he would be able to find him anyway, so he turned to his computer to do his job.

Yunlan went back to watch Wei scribble a signature at the end of the paper. He was done already, so Yunlan took it to get a look.

"Knowing that a child was in danger I volunteered to help the searching party." Yunlan smirked and Wei blushed. "With many other officers, we found an abandoned construction site and decided to inspect it thoroughly. I noticed a movement and found the lost boy. The officers quickly took care of him, luckily little Yang was tired but otherwise in good health."

Yunlan chuckled, could Wei be any more vague?

He then looked at the signature and forced himself not to burst out laughing. He had seen many barely understandable signatures in his life, but he had never seen anyone signing his first name directly above their surname. It was almost impossible to guess what it was.

Yunlan was a police officer on duty, he could just demand for him to give his full name clearly, but he didn't want to. Wei was doing anything he could to keep that private, and he wanted to know why before confronting the subject again.

Yunlan drove Wei home and came back burning with curiosity.

"What did you find?"

"I think I got him, sir. A Shen Wei both working and living in the area you mentioned."

"You sure it's him?"

"There are three Zhang Wei but they are all over forty, there's a Lu Wei but he's a lawyer, I'm pretty sure it's him, yes."

Yunlan took the info Ling got for him, and his eyes quickly checked this Shen Wei's address... yes, it was the right one. He knew Ling would find him, there was no need for him to know that Yunlan had been to his house twice already.

"32 years old?" He muttered to himself. "I'm 33..."

Chu was passing by and saw the images that had just appeared on Ling's computer after he had widened his research.

"Ehi, that kid looks a lot like your friend, Zhao. Does he have a crazy little brother?"

Hong heard him and came to watch.

She stared at the screen than laughed and shared her knowledge with them.
"That's him when he was young! I remember that story! The crazy kid who talked to ghosts!"