Light Against Shadows

Chapter 24

The alarm clock woke him up. Shen Wei yawned feeling good and sated. Eyes still closed, he questioned the unusual feeling until awareness hit him. He smiled and stretched lazily. When he finally opened his eyes, he noticed that he was alone.

He blinked and stared at the other side of the bed, completely Yunlan-free.

He wrapped his own arms around himself, remembering the night they had together. He didn't regret his decision. Whatever happened, wherever Yunlan will let this relationship go, he would never regret it.

He stayed in bed a while longer, enjoying the memories. He closed his eyes again and recalled the sensation of being one with Yunlan. It had been so good, who could ever regret that, if anything he hoped he could have it again.

He stretched his arms over his head and got up, put on some clothes and went to make himself some breakfast. Only Andrew was in the kitchen and nothing had been touched. Yunlan had left without drinking or eating anything.

Wei thought about it for a moment, only vaguely acknowledging Andrew's plea. Yunlan must have woken up early and decided that he wanted to avoid any morning-after awkwardness.

Wei sighed in disappointment. To be honest, he would have welcomed a rerun to start the day in the best way he could imagine.

There was no use dwelling on that now though. He had to get ready for work. He shot a glance at the kitchen and the enthusiastic ghost within it and told himself Why not?

"Tea and pancakes. Thank you, Andrew."

He sat down while the ghost cook was busy making his breakfast. He checked his phone and saw that there were no messages. He didn't expect any and simply registered the fact while pondering if it would be out of place for him to send one.

He shrugged his shoulders and decided to go with what he wanted to do. Maybe Yunlan wouldn't reply, but he would certainly read it.

"I can take care of this myself, thank you." LiLing was floating all over him, but for this particular task he needed no ghost assistance.

He wrote:
"Good morning. Let me know if there's any news."

A simple text, but it would do.

He checked that Andrew didn't set the kitchen on fire then leisurely ate his first meal of the day.

He took a quick shower then glanced over his very few clean clothes. He had neglected many things lately, maybe tonight he could let DongMei take care of the laundry.

He made his choice, picking a white shirt and a dark blue suit, and yawned again while DongMei helped him get dressed. Not that he needed help, but he still remembered the dejected look on her ghostly face when he had refused her help the first few times. Since then, they had reached a compromise: she could help him get dressed, but only after he had dried his body and put on his underwear.

When he was ready to go out he bid everyone goodbye and walked to work with Gelan at his side.

For the first time since he had started his accountant job, he found he had no will to do anything. Jay was restlessly telling him to do this and that but Wei's fingers moved incredibly slowly on the computer keyboard.

Just this once, he thought, gladly exchanging part of his energy for the chance to keep daydreaming instead of doing actual work.

He sat at his desk as usual, with his hands close to the computer so that at a superficial glance it would look like he was working, while what he was actually doing was letting Jay enjoy what he loved so much.