Light Against Shadows

Chapter 38

Wei slowly opened his eyes and he found himself in front of a ghost he hadn't seen in a while.

"Nari?" he called, instantly realising that he was at Yunlan's house. "What happened? When did I get here?"

He heard the doorbell and stood up slowly. That was the noise that had woken him up. He frowned a little, staring in the direction of the noise, but was brought out of his own thoughts by a distressed ghost.

Wei looked back at Nari. She was frantically trying to tidy up the bed. The ghost's immaterial fingers were passing through covers and pillows, to her utter frustration. He considered doing it himself, but a bout of sympathy stopped him.

He wondered for a moment why she cared so much. The only answer he could come up with was that this room and this bed were what kept her behind. It had to be extremely important to her, and he felt moved.

"Here, touch my hands."

Nari did, and was rewarded with mortal energy for the second time in her afterlife. Wei smiled, seeing how delighted she was at realising that she could now make the bed. She certainly didn't like it when someone messed up her room. Wei took a mental note of that fact.

Wei heard the doorbell again, more insistent this time. He moved closer to the door and looked through the peephole. Seeing who it was, he took a step back in surprise. What was officer Hong doing here? Was she looking for Yunlan? At his house? Why didn't she call? Was it alright for him to answer the door? Did Yunlan want her to know that he was in his apartment? Maybe he had better ignore her and pretend he wasn't there...

"Shen Wei! Open the door, Shen Wei. I know you're in there, are you still asleep? It's...damn, it's already 10.45, you can't possibly be still asleep. Shen Wei!"

She kept ringing the doorbell, she was obviously aware, sure even, of his presence in the house, so there was no point in pretending. He opened the door and regarded her with a shy smile, unsure of what to expect.

"Zhao Yunlan wants you with us, are you ready?" she asked with a disdainful look at the crumpled clothes he was wearing.

He stared with his mouth open. "Where? Why are you here? Where is Yunlan?"

She rolled her eyes. "He's working, we need to check out something but he wants you to come along. Apparently you're his lucky charm or something."

That morning, they had received word from another department that they had been using Ling's program to track down the missing persons and they had two hits. Yunlan had decided immediately that he wanted to be present to check personally if they were indeed two of the missing cases and to make sure that there were no troubles.

Because of this, he had asked Chu to go with him, while he sent Hong to pick up Wei.

She would certainly avoid telling Shen Wei of the slight blush that Yunlan had tried to hide when he had to call her back to inform her that she would find him at his house.

"Can you wait for me? I need a shower, and I also need to go home and change." Wei felt very conscious of the fact that he was still wearing the same clothes of the day before.

She eyed him without voicing her opinion; she had precise orders to bring him along as soon as possible. "There is no time. Just change into some of Zhao's clothes, I'm sure he won't mind."

Wei made no comment and she sat in the living room while he went to change feeling very uncomfortable knowing that she was waiting while he rummaged through Yunlan's wardrobe and drawers.

He was able to find a shirt his size. It wasn't exactly his style, with those palm trees scattered all around, but it was the only one that didn't make him look like a child in a man's clothes. Working as an accountant didn't exactly help building muscles.