XiChen hurries over to where Wei Ying and Lan Zhan are standing.
There is a suspiciously clean spot in front of them, the ground looking as if it was thoroughly scrubbed and all traces of blood removed, and then purposefully "dirtied" in order to give the impression that nothing had happened.
Wei Ying looked worried, his expression was a mix of confusion and fear. The same was visible in his younger brother's eyes, and XiChen, as the oldest one among them, was at a loss on how to assure them that everything would be alright.
The weight of being an older sibling was dragging his shoulders down. How to make them feel better, when he had no answers himself? He felt like a phoney in not being able to give them an adequate response.
"This is more disturbing than the crime itself." He looked up at Lan Zhan when the words slipped out of his mouth, unfiltered.
Lan Zhan nodded, still reeling from this new discovery.
"Well, this proves two things: your attacker knows exactly what he did, and by returning, maybe he thought you would still be here? And what now, now that you're obviously not still lying there?" Wei Ying taps his nose, thinking hard.
"That means you're in danger, too." XiChen unconsciously moves closer to him.
"If he comes back for me, only one of us will be leaving that meeting." Lan Zhan growls.
He suddenly feels almost…feral. That long overdue anger rears its head inside him, and he's livid. Rage flows all through his body, fiery and absolute. It blows through any rational thought, except those that involve killing this mysterious person.
Their crime is unforgivable.
And if the reasoning behind his bloodlust is to save future victims, that's only secondary to his need for revenge.
Lan Zhan had up till now, been quite complacent as his personality went. He wasn't particularly violent; his chosen exercises involved more of yoga than boxing. He didn't actively participate in confrontations, but if a punch was thrown in his direction, he was confident of disabling his opponent with the minimum of fuss.
That was before the change.
Now?
Lan Zhan wants to spill guilty blood.
A hand on his face, brings him out from his murderous thoughts.
"What if the person who cleaned the crime scene and the one who caused it, aren't the same? What if we're dealing with more than one person?" Wei Ying says. But his beautiful silver eyes are asking Lan Zhan if he's okay. There's more than just worry in those stormy bright orbs…
Lan Zhan takes a deep breath. It's only a muscle memory now and by no means necessary, and it really helps. This practised method brings about his usual calm demeanour and Lan Zhan nods, imperceptibly.
"Interesting." XiChen muses. "That would mean more than one person knows about…you."
"And they're making a real effort to keep things hush hush." Wei Ying adds.
They start looking around.
For Lan Zhan, this place is an assault on his olfactory sense.
He can smell the strong, pungent odour of bleach, and whatever chemicals used in the paint on the fresh graffiti at the mouth of the alley. Someone nearby is using garlic and cumin seeds in hot oil; and in the other direction, someone else is baking bread. And this alley seems to be quite popular with those who liked to smoke weed. That smell was the heaviest, lingering despite the cool breeze.
Lan Zhan’s sharp eyes caught something shining on the ground, wedged between the bottom of the dumpster and its wheel. He crouches down to retrieve it.
"What's that?" Wei Ying bounces over to him, all excited.
"Another button." Lan Zhan remarks.
"If that came off your attacker, then that means you put up quite a fight." Wei Ying reaches up to kiss his cheek. "And as much as I'd love to stay, I gotta go. Work." He explains.
"A-Xian! Wait…my car is right over there. I can drop you." XiChen offers, jogging back to them.
He had gone back to the graffiti, something niggling at his subconscious. He was convinced there was something there…but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, and he didn't want to make any assumptions without proof.
"We can come back later." He adds.
"Later?" Lan Zhan asks, sharper than he intended.
"Later…at night. If you don't mind?" XiChen ignores his tone, and tries to smile. "Not alone. You can come, too." He's trying to make a joke out of it, but his mind is too busy thinking about the implications of what they've learned in this short visit.
"Mn." Lan Zhan quickly agrees, seeing that Wei Ying is in a hurry to leave now.
They walk quickly to the parking lot behind Love Bites, the area completely deserted in the morning.
An empty beer can tumbles across littered space, breaking the ominous silence of this place.
And someone is cooking onions this early in the morning. Lan Zhan makes a face…
Both XiChen and Lan Zhan are surreptitiously looking around for…anything that will help them. They're both spooked by the removal of evidence from the alley, and Lan Zhan knows his brother wants to go back soon.
He remembers them tackling jigsaw puzzles together, both as lonely kids and because they enjoyed the simple activity together, as adults, too. There was a table set up in their apartment with a puzzle always ready to complete.
Time constraints meant that they couldn't spend hours at a time on these, because a five hundred piece puzzle had quickly been replaced by a thousand piece one, and now they didn't look twice at anything below two thousand. They had briefly tinkered with the novelty 3-D puzzles, but their true affection lay with the flat works of beauty and they returned to it faster. So now, whenever either one of the Lan brothers went past the puzzle, they would add more pieces to the picture, helping to complete it.
And since what had happened to Lan Zhan was just as much a puzzle that needed solving, Lan Zhan knew his brother was going to help solve it with the stubbornness of a dog with a bone. His persistent and uncompromising trait was unrivalled when he got his teeth into something that needed to be explained.
In a practised move, the brothers folded their long legs into the white Mercedes sports car, while Wei Ying jumped in the back.
Lan Zhan saw him looking around curiously, as his brother reversed out of there.
The drive to the Coffee Carousel was fast because no traffic hindered them, and in less than ten minutes, Wei Ying was stepping out of the car and waving at them as he ran towards the coffee shop.
Lan Zhan was already missing him.
Suddenly three-thirty seemed too far away.
Wait a minute…he still had his phone!
Lan Zhan fished it out of his pocket and shot off a quick message. His sharp eyes caught Wei Ying running back to the glass door of the coffee shop, and as their car turned around to go, Lan Zhan saw Wei Ying making a heart with both his hands, fingers and thumbs joined together.
He smiled at his phone as it pinged with a message, too.
LZ: Wei Ying promised later.
WY: And what does that mean?👀
LZ: What does Wei Ying think it means?💙❤️🔥
There were some very interesting emojis to explore, though some meanings seemed to be obscure…and yet, Lan Zhan was pretty sure that Wei Ying would know exactly what they meant.
Maybe it was time to experiment…?
The blue ticks didn't appear and so Wei Ying hadn't seen the last message. Perhaps that was for the best, seeing as he should technically be working.
XiChen kept glancing at his baby brother, a small smile constantly on his face. He knew he was probably messaging Wei Ying…and XiChen was both proud and happy about this.
Lan Zhan had always been a quiet and lonely child, and with the passing of years, not much had changed. It was nice to see him looking after himself in this way too, paying attention to his emotional needs too.
And XiChen had a feeling that Wei Ying was going to be good for Lan Zhan, in more ways than one…
He finds a parking spot outside the alley again, and both he and Lan Zhan comb it for more clues. Nothing else turns up except for that same nagging feeling, stronger than before, that he's missing something when he looks at the graffiti once more.
*************
XiChen drops Lan Zhan off at Wei Ying’s apartment, promising him that he'll call as soon as he finds anything of substance, otherwise he's definitely returning in the evening at seven.
Just dark enough so that they could investigate properly, but not too late to be dangerous.
Then he makes his way to his boyfriend's home.
MingJue works from home and gathers him up in a warm embrace, something XiChen didn't know he needed until it happened.
"I found him."
That's all he has to say, and suddenly he's crying on a firm shoulder, hiccuping and it's complete with snot and blubbering.
MingJue is one of those rare people who are strong and intelligent, a combination which should be more common than it was. He picked XiChen up and took him into his spacious living room and sat down on his couch, stroking his hair and trying to calm him down.
Some time later, XiChen was able to tell him everything, from what happened to Lan Zhan to his current situation. MingJue was equally angry, awed, and happy with XiChen, fully supporting him through the roller coaster of emotions he was currently experiencing.
"So now we've got to find out who it was…right?" MingJue says, cautiously.
"And I don't have any idea what to do!" XiChen wails, bursting into tears again. "I'm supposed to be his elder brother and give him answers, but I have none!"
Before MingJue can say anything more, there's a polite cough by the door.
They both look up to see Nie Huaisang leaning against the frame, arms crossed over his chest and a merry twinkle in his brown eyes.
"So…I couldn't help overhearing…everything…."