Light Against Shadows

Chapter 13

Yunlan finally came back to himself and joined him at the table. "Why are you angry at me?"

Wei laughed at that but it wasn't a happy laugh.

Yunlan suddenly remembered the main reason he went looking for him. "The article! Right."

Wei's expression was hard. "Yes, the article. Did you have to tell everyone?"

"No, I didn't... it wasn't me, Wei. They didn't hear it from me, it's possible that someone at the station found out and let it slip to the journalists, but it wasn't me."

His tone sounded sincere, but it wasn't enough. Wei spoke again with bitterness in his voice.
"And how did this someone learn about me? I guess you couldn't let it go, you had to find out, you kept asking questions. You researched me, didn't you?"

Yunlan's guilty expression was enough of an answer but he wasn't one to escape when things got tough. "I wanted to know more about you," he admitted.

Wei didn't reply. His anger subsided a little at the admission, which surprised him. He thought he'd be even angrier, but that wasn't the case.

Zhao spoke again. "I told them to pretend they didn't know anything, I never wanted to cause you troubles, I only wanted to know who you are. I know I'm too curious, I can't help it, but rest assured that I'll find out who talked, only three people saw the article and Chu wouldn't volunteer information nor he's the kind of guy who can be forced to speak. It has to be either Ling or Hong. "

Wei shivered but said nothing. He didn't know Ling but he remembered officer Hong all too well.

Wei sighed feeling suddenly tired.
"Why are you here?"

"I didn't want you to think I betrayed you. I care about... what you think of me."

"Why?"

Yunlan didn't answer, he wasn't even sure he had an answer to give. They barely knew each other but Yunlan thought of him as a good person and the fact that he may not be quite right in the head didn't change a thing.

"You think I'm crazy, don't you?"

"..."

"It's okay if you believe I'm crazy, even my parents thought I was a clinical case."

Yunlan caught the pain behind his words, and once again his curiosity had the best of him. "Where are your parents now?"

"They died ten years ago."

"Do you... still see them?" Yunlan felt awkward asking that question, but the guy thought he could see ghosts, he would want to keep talking to his parents, wouldn't he?

"No, I haven't seen them since the day they died."

"Why not?" Yunlan should really learn to keep his curiosity in check sometimes.

"I suppose there was nothing keeping them here and they went on to their next life."

"You think they abandoned you?" Yunlan thought that this damn curiosity will get him in trouble sooner or later.

"Can't you stop asking questions?"

"Sorry. I'm not sure I can, my mouth moves faster than my brain."

Wei chuckled. "We agree on something after all."

Yunlan laughed along and some of the awkwardness dissipated.

"When they died, I thought I'd see them again, but not everyone becomes a friendly ghost. Most souls move on to be reincarnated, only a few stay behind."

"How do you find them? Why do you think you're the only one who can see them?"

Wei's smile was less bitter now, Yunlan's curiosity was amusing after all.

"Usually they find me, there's something about my energy that attracts them. I don't know why but they... they like me."

They looked at each other for a few intense seconds then Yunlan cleared his throat. "Well, if they come and find you, it's a relief they're all friendly."

"My ghosts are, but the Shadows are different."

Yunlan forced himself not to roll his eyes. The first person to catch his interest in such a long time, if ever, and it had to be a nut head. "Shadows?"

"When a person's soul is mostly dark, what's left behind is not nice."

Evil shadows. That was just great. When he had started to make peace with the fact that Wei talked to himself because maybe he felt too lonely, the man had to go and speak of evil shadows.
Could he get crazier than that?

Luckily Yunlan did not ask this out loud.