Wei Ying's grandmother was looking at him expectantly.
"You should know who he is. His son married your adopted sister. They have a little kid now, Jin Rulan, Jin Ling. But I'm not sure why the family distanced themselves from Jin GuanShan and his son, Jin ZiXuan left the family business."
"Oh. She had a son." Wei Ying is happy for his sister, but he's also feeling sad that he hasn't kept in touch with them. "Madam Yu...it was one of the conditions. I don't know what's happening with any of them."
"Whatever that cow wants, it doesn't have to be that way." Baoshan Sanren tells him. "Why does she get any say in your life? Whatever obligation you felt when you left, it doesn't apply any more. She lost that right when she tried to make you choose between a little baby and her. She's a controlling bitch, and you would do well to remember that."
Wei Ying cannot bring himself to agree with her, but a new hope grows inside his chest at the thought of talking to his sister again.
Lan Zhan reaches over to hold his hand.
"We can try," he says.
Wei Ying nods, blinking back tears.
Right now, he has a job to do. As he sorts through the papers, something else occurs to him.
"Grandmother, how much do you know about the Wen operation?"
"What do you want to know?" She asks, a calculating gleam in her eyes.
"Everything." Wei Ying shoots back, this time sounding more confident.
"They are our old enemies, if my theory is right about Wen Mao and your grandfather. At that time, he was the only one strong enough to fight him, and from what I found of his remains, I think he was ambushed, either in the cave or just outside and the fight continued inside it.
"But if you're talking about the current updated version, then it's Wen Rouhan who is the pack leader. Out of his two sons, Wen Chao is the younger one and his elder brother is Wen Xu. Both are Pure Bloods, different mothers. Wen Rouhan got a little bit too excited, shall we say? And ended up killing both of his wives.
"Xue Yang was on the run from China, and we managed to trace him to the U.S., but then his trail went cold. He hasn't been seen since, so no idea where he is now. We can speculate that since Jin GuanShan talked about him, he might be sheltering the psychopath, or it's definitely a Wen operation with them holding the puppet strings. We don't even know if he's alive or dead, if anything changed between the time your parents were tasked to hunt him down, and now.
"Other vampires to watch out for are Wen Chao's bit on the side, Wang Lingjiao and Wen Zhuliu, adopted son of Wen Rouhan. The side piece is weak but vicious and vindictive. Has been known to go on random wild killing sprees for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and since Wen Rouhan runs the press circuit, everything gets swept under the carpet. It's only a matter of time before someone decides she's too much effort to keep, and hopefully, that'll be that.
"Wen Zhuliu is a formidable opponent. Wen Rouhan won't even let him out of his sight these days, and we're not sure why. He's kept in the inner sanctum, and is a source of contention because the sons feel as if their father is favouring the cuckoo son."
"Why would they do that? What's so special about him?" Wei Ying wonders.
Baoshan Sanren shrugs casually, but her eyes are shrewd. "Million dollar question. He must be important to Wen Rouhan in some other way apart from family ties."
"How are the Jins involved?" Wei Ying asks her.
"Money. Dirty money comes in and clean money goes out. Plus the "research"," Baoshan Sanren makes the sign for speech marks with both of her hands, "needs funding. Creating synthetic slash new vampires costs greenbacks, and it doesn't grow on trees." She sighs.
"Lan Zhan, can we ask Grandmother about your gift, the Compelling thing?" Wei Ying asks him. "If anyone knows anything, it would be her."
He knows there's absolutely no point whispering; in a room full of Vampires, nothing is secret.
"That's a skill most anyone can do." Baoshan Sanren pipes up. "It just takes time for new ones to be able to, so either you did it by mistake, or you're exceptionally talented."
"We're going with the second one." Wei Ying says, smiling brightly. And because he can't resist, he leans across to kiss Lan Zhan's cheek.
It's worth it to see the pleased look in those ochre eyes.
"Did you manage to talk to your computer chatting buddy? About the videos?" Baoshan Sanren inquires, jogging Wei Ying out from what was certainly going to turn into a fantasy of wanting to kiss his boyfriend.
"Yes! And they had some more information." Wei Ying corrects himself though. "Observations, actually. In the video, F4keSt0ries said one half of the group fighting were vampires, but they pointed out what the other half were wearing. They must be part of a gang or something, because they all wore leather jackets with blue dragons embroidered on the back."
There's a hiss.
Baoshan Sanren had been looking through the papers in front of her when her head suddenly shot up at that. She glances at Xiao XingChen once, before fixing Wei Ying with an intensity he should be used to by now.
"Show me the footage," she demands immediately.
Lan Zhan pulls it up on his phone and hands it to her. Xiao XingChen has suddenly moved from his seat and is standing next to her, watching it with her.
When they finish watching it, Baoshan Sanren hands the phone back to Lan Zhan. Her hand trembled, but they both pretended not to see it.
"Go and get him."
Only four words and Xiao XingChen is out of there in a split second.
"Grandmother, what-"
"Let's carry on searching." She interrupts Wei Ying, her voice harsh and cold.
Wei Ying knows it's not directed at him; his grandmother is pissed at someone else, but it still stings nevertheless.
He nods meekly, and concentrates on the characters in front of him. Lan Zhan has not-so-subtly shifted closer to him, their thighs touching, and when his hand is free, he even manages to squeeze Wei Ying's knee in solidarity.
Xiao XingChen does not return immediately.
In the meantime, Wei Ying has come across some very interesting notes.
Baoshan Sanren has exactly eight piles in front of her, and some weird mental list regarding each one. But once again, her head snaps up at what she hears Wei Ying read out loud.
"The HeartStone cannot be wielded by itself. I have crafted two keys not of the traditional type. No one will know what they are for, though my beautiful, clever child seems to have worked it out." Wei Ying also looks up at that exact moment.
"My daughter knew!" Baoshan Sanren says at the same time as Wei Ying exclaims, "Mother knew!"
"So you said this is a key, right?" Wei Ying pulls out his locket, twirling it between his fingers.
"I suspected it." Baoshan Sanren purses her lips. "But it might not be THE key he's talking about. And why would he need to make two keys?"
"If one was stolen? Misplaced?" Lan Zhan offers.
"But what if they are both needed to operate the HeartStone? We still don't know what it is! Arrrggghhh!" Wei Ying digs his fingers into his hair, pressing down on his skull. "This is so frustrating?!! I get why Grandfather had to hide his stuff, but it's no good if we can't work out what we've got to do!"
There are murmurs of agreement.
"Or worse, if the enemy figures it out before we do." Baoshan Sanren adds, ominously.
It's like a death knell.
Xiao XingChen chooses that moment to walk in, followed by a young man...with familiar pink tips, shaved undercut, tattoos, piercings and chewing on a toothpick.
It's the 'Mo' from the Coffee Carousel.
Wei Ying shivers involuntarily, surprised to see him here. He stands up, and because he does, Lan Zhan also stands up with him.
Baoshan Sanren stands up elegantly, slowly, visibly calming herself before turning around to face them. Whatever her face is doing right now, her expression is enough to have the young man quaking in his ankle boots.
He's not able to maintain eye contact with her for more than a second at a time.
"This is Warm Sky, A.K.A. Mo XuanYu. A-Yu, this is my grandson and his significant other. And now, you've got some explaining to do."