Nobody Knows My Heart Like You

The Black Lotus

'You gotta hate it.

You gotta hate it

You swore you would hate it.'

'But-' Danielle thought to herself. 'It's just so cute!'

She was staring at the pottery again. Sure, there was a murder investigation going on, but these teapots were cute. Just look how shiny they were! Well how shiny two of them were, but that was nice!

Behind her, Sherlock and John were speaking with Andy again. Well speaking was always a generous term for whatever Sherlock did.

"Two men who travelled back from China were murdered, and their killer left them messages in the Hangzhou numerals." Sherlock scolded Andy.

Scolded. That was a better term than 'spoke with'. Yeah.

Danielle was still looking at a pot. If she couldn't muster the effort to hate the museum on principle, then she'd hate the conversation.

"Soo Lin Yao's in danger." John explained to Andy in a more considering tone than Sherlock had used. "Now, that cipher– it was just the same pattern as the others. He means to kill her as well."

"Look, I've tried everywhere." Andy explained in an exhausted plea. "Um, friends, colleagues. I-I don't know where she's gone. I mean, she could be a thousand miles away."

Sherlock was about to open his mouth to speak. He spotted Danielle though, standing by the teapots. He walked up to her side.

"What are you looking at?" John asked them both.

"The teapots." Danielle answered. She beamed at John in delight. "They're so cute! I swear, even cuter than yesterday!" She wrote that off from her own exhaustion from the night before making her delirious, where everything was 100% better or 100% worse. That made sense.

"Th-the pots were her obsession." Andy admitted. He walked closer towards them. Sherlock was still had laser focus on the teapots. "Um, they need urgent work. If-if they dry out, then the clay can start to crumble. Apparently you have to just keep making tea in them."

"Yesterday, only one of those pots was shining." Sherlock pointed to the second teapot. Danielle gawked in understanding. "Now there are two."

==NKMHLY==

That night, they laid in wait for Soo Lin to return. Sherlock had waited by the teapots in the archives, John and Danielle waited by the lights. At Sherlock's cue, they flipped the lights back on.

The four of them were sitting around a table. Soo Lin was looking down at her teapot.

"You saw the cipher. Then you know he is coming for me." Soo Lin reminded the group.

"You've been clever to avoid him so far." Sherlock noted.

"I had to finish- to finish this work." Soo Lin looked back down to the teapot, staring at it as if her entire life was staked on its continued existence. "It's only a matter of time. I know he will find me."

"Who is he?" Sherlock pressed. "Have you met him before?"

"When I was a girl, living back in China. I recognize his...'signature.'" Soo Lin answered.

"The cipher." Sherlock reasoned.

"Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu." Soo Lin revealed.

"Zhi Zhu?" John repeated.

"I don't get it." Danielle admitted, confused.

"The Spider." Sherlock translated, to the relief of his friends. It didn't mean Danielle suddenly understood everything- what did a spider have to do with anything?