Wei shivered uncomfortably, remembering what happened the last time they were together. He had feared this moment would come. He had acted terribly towards him and now Yunlan probably hated him.
"I know," he said, fighting to keep his voice steady. "Why did you help me? Aren't you... upset with me?"
Yunlan studied him silently, not making it easier.
"Angry? Weirded out?" Wei suggested.
More silence, then Yunlan finally spoke.
"I'm not. And I'm not scared of you one bit." His voice was firm, and he sounded sincere. Wei was stunned, it wasn't what he had expected.
"I don't hate you, I've had worse encounters and have been in much worse situations than being stuck onto a comfy couch," Yunlan said next.
"Plus, I've met my share of weird people in my life."
Wei raised an eyebrow and Yunlan laughed. "Ok, maybe not the same kind of weird as you are."
Wei smiled despite himself. "How many kind of weird there are then?"
Yunlan replied seriously as if he hadn't noticed Wei's attempt at being playful.
"I'm a cop," he said with a shrug. "I've met some people who were crazy-weird and some who were a very dangerous kind of weird." Yunlan cracked a smile. "I've even met a few who were cute weird, but you... you are different."
Wei's heart bumped in disappointment at not being included in the cute category, but he quickly ignored it.
"What kind am I then?"
"You are a mysterious kind of weird that I've never met before."
Wei hesitated, unsure of how he was supposed to take that statement.
"It's a compliment, by the way. I'm attracted to mysteries. You may have noticed that."
Wei's heart skipped a beat. Could he take that as meaning that Yunlan was attracted to him, or was he letting his imagination go onto the wrong path, a fantasy-trip that would never take him anywhere?
But also, why did he care? Wasn't he trying to distance himself? He had been so sure that the best thing for him was to stay away and resume his life as anonymously as possible, and yet here he was, talking amiably with Yunlan. He knew how these things always went for him, he should just walk away and forget about the whole thing, but he couldn't.
A part of him was worried about the condition of that man in the hospital, about what had happened to him and what it could mean, while another part of him, the one he tried to keep under control, was stupidly relieved that Yunlan didn't hate him.
Even knowing that it would never bring him anything good, he liked talking to him. Maybe it was only because he rarely spoke to other human beings, but deep inside he suspected there was another, more frightning reason.
At that moment a waiter arrived and put two cups of hot green tea in front of them. They sipped it in silence, enjoying the hot liquid warming them up from the inside.
Wei spoke first. His voice had a melancholic note that perfectly accompanied his mirthless smile.
"I'm not a mystery anymore. You know everything about me now."
Yunlan kept his eyes on him, studying his face.
"I only know what one journalist once wrote about you. That's hardly everything."
Wei couldn't describe what he was feeling. He thought he'd never see Yunlan again after what happened at his house, and the old anger had vanished after his outburst.
He had expected Yunlan to resent him for what he did, but the man in front of him showed nothing of the sort. On the contrary, Yunlan's gaze was as curious as it had always been, but also quiet and welcoming. Wei thought he owed it to him to satisfy his curiosity. It was only fair.
"What would you like to know?" Wei asked, setting aside the empty cup.
He was feeling rather hungry now, but didn't want to spoil the moment saying something about it. They were having a serious talk and Wei wanted to know what Yunlan thought of him.
Yunlan was about to answer when the same waiter came back with a big tray. He filled the table with vegetable soup, noodles with meat and two rice dishes, one with beef and one with prawn.
No desserts, Wei noticed.
The waiter took away the two empty cups and left. Wei looked at all that food in amazement, while his stomach urged him to stop wasting time and fill it.
"You ordered a lot," he said. He wasn't complaining, simply stating a fact.
"I think you missed lunch, didn't you? I figured you'd be hungry. Choose what you want, I'm not picky."
Wei was starving, so he thanked him and attacked the rice-and-beef first.
It was Yunlan's turn to speak after all, so Wei stuffed his mouth with meat and added some rice into it after munching a bit.
Yunlan smiled. "I see that I was right."
Wei nodded and kept eating.
"Which do you want me to take?" Yunlan asked again. It was all the same to him, so he waited for the other to decide. He seemed in no hurry to finish their conversation and leave.
Wei seemed to consider his options carefully, then he brought the noodles closer and Yunlan took it as a sign that he had chosen. He took the soup and decided on what he wanted to say.
Yunlan reached the decision that the first thing to do should be to clear any possible misunderstanding between them.
"First of all, let me tell you that I didn't undress you. I left you fully clothed and seemingly sleeping. I left for five minutes and when I came back you were... quite the sight."
Wei blushed. As soon as his mouth was rice-free he replied.
"I know you didn't. After I woke up I saw DongMei, she said I called her."
Yunlan confirmed it. "You did, I heard you. What does that mean? Who is she?"
Wei looked at him and stuffed his mouth again. The meat was all gone but he had no intention of leaving the rice behind.
Yunlan humphed and added, "I know she's one of your... friends, I remember you mentioned her before. You mean to tell me that she undressed you? Why? Is she a pervert or something?"
Wei almost choked. "No, of course not! She's a servant, that's what she does. She sees it as her duty that I'm comfortable in bed and appropriately dressed during the day."
"You have servants?" Yunlan was astonished and didn't care to hide it.
Wei blushed again. "I don't. That's what she is, what she wants to do, the reason she stayed behind."
Once again Yunlan found himself outside of his comfort zone but didn't let it show. He wanted to understand.
"She became a ghost because she wanted to serve you?" It sounded ludicrous and he knew it, but he reasoned that if one wants to learn one has to ask questions.
Wei had finished his first dish and was now bringing the noodles closer.
"How can I put it... they don't tell me about their lives when they were alive because they don't really see a before-after distinction. It's like they never stopped. In life, each one of them had something they loved over anything else, something more important than anything else, but somehow they didn't have the chance to let that love out."
Yunlan listened intently, and it was more than Wei ever expected, so he continued.
"I can only make an educated guess based on what I know, how they behave. Gelan, for example, always acts like a mother. She's full of motherly love. I think that either she never had children or she died too early and couldn't let out that love on her child."
He tasted the noodles. They were as good as the rice, and he expressed his appreciation.
While Wei devoured his meal, Yunlan ate slowly, all focused on what Wei was telling him.
"Most people don't become ghosts. That only happens when they have a surplus of good emotions that needs a release. Gelan is a mother, Luca and Huan act like protective brothers to me, Takeo is like a soldier, and DongMei... she's a servant."
Yunlan could easily understand the unexpressed motherly love, but why would a girl love being a servant so much to keep doing that after her death escaped his understanding.
Wei guessed his thoughts.
"I think she may have been in love with the man she worked for but never told him. Serving him was her only way of expressing her love, but she died young." He lightly shook his head. "At least, that's what I believe."
Yunlan nodded, he was beginning to see his reasoning. The soup was gone now, so he lazily started on the rice. He wasn't as hungry as Wei though.
"Qing is a doctor. He helped you too, the first time we met," Wei went on.
Yunlan now knew why his stomach ache was completely gone when he woke up and he only had a residual hangover that quickly vanished. Or at least a part of his brain considered that, while the other was, at the moment, left unacknowledged.
"Andrew loves cooking," Wei said with a fond smile. "And then there's LiLing."
He paused a moment thinking of the best way to describe her. "She's like an expert in love-sickness and heartbreak. I think that she was either too shy to ever express her feelings or they were unrequited."
Wei said nothing about the fact that LiLing never left him alone for a second that last week after their fight, when Wei had believed he would never see Yunlan again.
He knew LiLing had read something in his expression and his constant sighing but he wasn't yet ready to acknowledge it.
Not to himself and certainly not in front of Yunlan.