Wild Creatures

Chapter 65

It is indeed a circle. There's a line at an angle drawn from the centre and passing out from the diameter of the circle.

"At first, I thought it was a compass, because of where the Glyphs are drawn. Four compass points. But again, it might not be anything like that. We should ask F4keSt0ries about these, or Grandmother. She might know." Wei Ying murmurs this, captivated by the runes at the four junctures on the outer edge of the circle.

"There's nothing else?" Lan Zhan asks him, taking the proffered message.

He turns it around and over, this way and that, but nothing more comes to light.

"We could ask Uncle and Da Tuzi, too. Someone must know where this came from, and what it could mean." Lan Zhan says.

Wei Ying stands up, anxious to get a move on with the day. They have an agenda to get through, and he's all jittery with it.

"We should tell your grandmother that we are going to be a little late today." Lan Zhan mentions it, as he goes into the kitchen to help PoPo with the cleanup.

Wei Ying shoots off a quick text to both Uncle XingChen and his Grandmother, before going through the usual routine with the children, checking if they've got all their homework with them, the lunches that Lan Zhan has packed, including bunny shaped apple slices as a special request.

A-Yuan had told him that the other kids were jelly of his food.

It made something warm glow in his chest, hearing that, because Lan Zhan had contributed to making someone's day better, and it was important to them.

Then after waving bye to PoPo, they were off.

There was too much traffic on the roads with the Friday rush hour, people struggling to get to work quickly, and haggard parents trying to get to school on time.

Wei Ying felt as if someone had wrapped an elastic cord around his body, and every time he moved, it pulled tighter and tighter. When it was time to leave the children in the playground, Wei Ying felt more emotional than normal and held on to both of them longer than necessary, kissing their cheeks and the top of their heads.

A-Yuan gave him wet kisses back, giggling at the faces Wei Ying made at him in return, and JingYi ducked and dived, playfully trying to dodge the onslaught of love.

Wei Ying and Lan Zhan waited until they stood in line with their classmates and walked into the actual school building, before turning around to leave.

They walked back to the car hand in hand, until Lan Zhan growled, an audible, dangerous noise. His nose twitched in agitation, and he looked around anxiously, smelling something not at all usual or normal in the air around their vehicle.

"My love?" Wei Ying was immediately alarmed, also looking around, but nothing seemed out of place.

And then they saw it.

A post-it note, in highlighter yellow, stuck to Lan Zhan's windshield. The bottom of it flapped in a futile resistance to being trapped, the single noise easily picked up by Lan Zhan's super strong hearing, even as he tuned out the other normal sounds of the last remaining parents leaving with them.

Lan Zhan pushed Wei Ying still attached to his hand behind him and tore it off, the rumble in his chest picking up speed and depth. He glanced at it again, beyond angry.

"Nice kids you have!" It read, and a heart shape surrounded the text.

Wei Ying gasped and would have taken the note from him, but Lan Zhan folded it carefully and tucked it away into his pocket.