Every Door a Death

It was a perfectly nice day to be walking in the park. The sun shone, the birds chirped, and there was little evidence of Ye Zun's plans touching the surface, though rumors about the SID were already all over what the humans called the “internet”.

“I was thinking about the serum project,” Li Qian said.

“Oh?” Adrenaline – or some alien equivalent – spiked within Shen Wei, though he let none of it show, just like he did his best to conceal the pain jarring his every step. Li Qian wasn't supposed to speak about the project with him, or anyone else not affiliated with the project, for that matter. Even if she'd somehow discovered his other identity. Especially if she'd somehow discovered his other identity. And even if he had been affiliated with the project, the park was full of potential eavesdroppers.

She glanced around them. All the potential eavesdroppers must be far enough away for her, as she said, “It's Professor Ouyang. He's been growing more and more erratic lately. It's starting to interfere with the research we're doing.”

Shen Wei nodded. “He's always been ... quick-tempered. I imagine the pressure for results and escalating sense of physical threat haven't improved it.”

“What should I do?” Li Qian plaintively asked.

It was the eve of Ye Zun's invasion, Shen Wei had just spent days tied to a pillar in the depths of Dixing, and he had to admit he'd been neglecting his research duties this past month, worn thin as he was. He was in no place to aid Li Qian, and the world was surely a more important concern than a single postgrad.

Nonetheless, Shen Wei had taken on Li Qian as his PhD student, and despite everything, she was his responsibility. “As you aren't in a supervisory position, there is not much you can do to lessen the stress on him. At best you can not add any stress, though the physical realities of research might do that on your behalf despite your best efforts.”

“I know,” Li Qian sighed. “Our budget is huge, but the PCR synthesizer is kind of terrible. I miss the one in your lab.”

Was it ethically questionable to offer a position in one's lab when one knew one was likely to die soon? “I'm afraid the – current situation calls for my presence, but after that's resolved, you're welcome to return to my lab.” If he was still there to supervise it.

Li Qian only smiled. “I understand, your work with the SID takes precedence.” They turned a corner. “Every line of defense is needed against those inhuman monsters. If more of them get up here-” She shuddered.

A familiar pain shot through Shen Wei's soul to accompany the pains of the flesh. “We've had ten thousand years of peace. Let's hope for ten thousand more.”

“Why can't we just seal off the passages and leave them to rot?” Li Qian asked. It was perhaps irony that prompted that remark just as they rounded on the portal to Dixing.

Then the portal shimmered and spat out someone. Shen Wei and Li Qian froze.

The woman rose and started dashing towards them with some sort of gun in her hands. She was some sort of Dixingian, that much Shen Wei was certain of, and thus his responsibility. A scout of Ye Zun's? He wasn't anywhere near fighting shape, but fight he must. Besides, she wasn't Ye Zun, just some disposable minion.

Behind her, the portal worked again. A Palace Guard stepped out; Shen Wei let himself feel relief at the backup. He advanced on the gunwoman.

She lifted her gun and fired it at Shen Wei. By the time he recognized the gun, it was too late.

Zhao Yunlan woke up to a ringing phone. It wasn't anyone on his contacts list. “Hello?” Hopefully it wouldn't be a reporter.

“Professor Shen got shot!” a hysterical female voice said.

Zhao Yunlan shot up to his feet. “Where? What happened?” No. This couldn't be happening. He'd only dragged Shen Wei away from Dixing yesterday. Shen Wei should be recuperating here, right next to Zhao Yunlan on the bed, or visiting the bathroom, or at most fixing up breakfast. He shouldn't be out getting shot in front of his students. It wasn't even a lecture day for him.

“It's the park?” the girl said. “Near the- the portal. There's black smoke leaking out of him?”

“I'll be right there,” Zhao Yunlan said.

He threw some clothes on himself with no care beyond covering himself up enough to not be detained and delayed, then ran to the Jeep as fast as his legs could carry him.

Shen Wei. Shen Wei was supposed to be invincible, immortal, immeasurably powerful, not shot or bleeding or dying on the grass.

Zhao Yunlan forced his eyes open and filled his mind with the view of the garage. Panic wouldn't help. He had to get to Shen Wei, and- No, he had no idea how to help him. Fuck

Focus. Surely there must be – Chu Shuzhi was from Dixing. Zhao Yunlan whipped out his phone and dialed as he gunned out to the streets.

“What is it?”

“Shen Wei got shot, near the portal.” Zhao Yunlan couldn't believe he was saying that, couldn't believe he was lending reality to the words he was saying. “It's serious. Come immediately.”

Chu Shuzhi swallowed audibly. “Of course.”

Zhao Yunlan cut the call. Now he just had to arrive on scene. Was the perp still there? Someone from Dixing?

He reached to pat his gun. It wasn't there.

Bitter, ice-cold culpability washed through him and stripped him bare. Of course. What else could have harmed Shen Wei other than Zhao Yunlan's own fucking gun? Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fucking fuck, he'd screwed up irrevocably and now Shen Wei was going to die because of his mistake, and he might as well just steer his car into the nearest lamppost and whack his head against it if the collision didn't do the trick. Fuck. Just- Fuck.

The Jeep stayed on the roads, though, screaming down the streets as Zhao Yunlan put the pedal to the metal in a desperate race against the arrow of time. He pulled up haphazardly at the same time as Chu Shuzhi.

They ran to the portal. Zhao Yunlan's legs burned as he rounded the final corner.

Li Qian was there, wringing her hands in panic, and there was someone else doing something – a Palace Guard, knelt over Shen Wei's still form. Doing something with her hands.

“Good, you're here,” she said. “Help me carry him to Dixing.”

Zhao Yunlan immediately dove to pick up Shen Wei's shoulders. He was warm, which sent a spike of relief through Zhao Yunlan's heart, despite the fact that his career had given him intimate knowledge of exactly how long corpses took to cool.

The bullet wound was on the midline of the face, a bit above the eyebrows. Dark energy rose out of it in lazy coils.

Then Chu Shuzhi opened the portal, and the five of them started a mad dash through Dixing – Dixing had no hospitals, but Zhao Yunlan had seen Shen Wei use the power of healing. Surely he'd learned it from someone? Surely Dixing had healers?

They stopped at a nondescript door of a nondescript house. The Palace Guard ran in and shouted as Chu Shuzhi and Zhao Yunlan carried Shen Wei in.

Another woman arrived from another room and took charge of the situation. “Place him on the bed.” Zhao Yunlan and Chu Shuzhi placed him down. “Haixingians step back,” she added.

Reluctantly, Zhao Yunlan complied. There was nothing he wanted so much as to hold Shen Wei's hand, feel it still warm, warm, warm like the living, feel the pulse of a beating heart and hallucinate words from a coherent mind onto those lips, but this was a doctor's surgery and he but an interloper. He took several steps back and paced next to the door as the doctor extended out her hand and did something with dark energy.

“We're in Dixing,” Li Qian quietly said.

Zhao Yunlan was jerked out of his thoughts. “Yeah,” he said, glad for the interruption.

“Is Professor Shen Dixingian?”

“Yeah,” Zhao Yunlan sighed. “Don't worry, he's ... pretty important here.”

“Oh.” Li Qian swallowed. “Will he be in trouble?” she asked in a small voice.

“Not for what he is,” Zhao Yunlan said.

Li Qian didn't say anything more. In front of them, Shen Wei's ribcage went slowly up and down. He's still breathing, Zhao Yunlan reminded himself. He's still alive. There was still a chance for everything to turn out all right.

He'd received happiness beyond expectation, but mere months later, it was being destroyed from all directions.

After an indeterminate amount of time, the doctor stood up straight. The Palace Guard and Chu Shuzhi sat down; she gave them – stones of some sort – to hold before turning to face Zhao Yunlan.

“How is he?”

“He will live,” she said. “Perhaps he will even wake up.”

Perhaps hit Zhao Yunlan like a punch to the gut. “When'll we know?” His voice broke.

The doctor shrugged. “There is no time in Dixing.” She swept off into a side room.

Zhao Yunlan was left reeling. Shen Wei was alive. Shen Wei would live, and that should have quashed his concerns, but he discovered that alive was not enough – he wanted alive and well. Conscious, rather than in a coma.

Hadn't there been someone who remained in a coma for over 40 years before recovering? Shen Wei would wake up, the same as always, only to discover that, in the blink of an eye, his lover had turned into a geriatric fart. Fuck.

But Shen Wei wouldn't be the same as always. He'd gotten a bullet to the brain, which meant fucking brain damage. Would he wake up the same Professor Shen for Li Qian and Black-Cloaked Envoy for Dixing? Brain injury meant potential drastic personality changes, right? What if Shen Wei woke up as someone Zhao Yunlan couldn't love? Or woke up, but was unable to communicate with the external world, ever?

It was with a great sinking feeling that Zhao Yunlan realized that, like a zombie, he'd fallen in love with Shen Wei for his brain. He and his lover had been prepared to lose life and limb. What they hadn't prepared for was loss of the mind.

He let out a shuddery exhalation and consciously cast about for a change of thing to fret about. Right. He was a cop; he should act like one.

“What happened?” he asked Li Qian.

Li Qian jumped, likely shaken from similar thoughts of her own. “I- I'd had concerns, so I set up a meeting with Professor Shen in the park, and then a woman just popped into existence and shot him and he fell and this other woman grabbed him and told me to call you,” she said all in one breath.

Zhao Yunlan nodded. The other woman was probably the Palace Guard. He lightly cleared his throat to get her attention. “Were you following the assailant through the portal?”

“Yes,” she said. She put her rock down, rose, and walked closer to Zhao Yunlan. “I'm Yi Lie, part of the Palace Guard. The – assailant – sneaked past my comrades to shoot the Regent. I was too far from him to help, so I pursued the assailant through Dixing to the portal. I came to Haixing just as she'd shot the Envoy. She shot at me three times before the gun clicked on an empty round, at which point she threw the gun at me and ran. I grabbed the gun and tried to shoot at her, but it was empty, so my effort was in vain. I did my best to help the Envoy instead.”

The revolver itself was a dark energy artefact. It had six rounds, and would replenish its ammunition automatically, with a refresh time of about four hours. “And my gun?”

Yi Lie pulled it out from her jacket and handed it over. Zhao Yunlan checked the bullets. All gone.

“How many bullets did she use for the Regent and the Envoy?”

“One each.”

“And you're sure of the number she shot at you?”

“Yes,” Yi Lie said. “It does not reload terribly fast.”

Indeed. So that meant that in the past four hours, one discharge of the gun was unaccounted for. Either the assailant had practiced marksmanship or shot someone else – perhaps a Palace Guard impeding her way – or the assailant had only gotten the gun within four hours. Zhao Yunlan couldn't even make any estimates based on the bullet replenishment times, since those varied slightly and being in Dixing must affect it.

He'd have to trace the chain of gun possession from the other end. When had he last had the gun? When he pointed it at Zhang Shi. Then he'd stormed out and the gun hadn't been on the table when he returned, and he hadn't paid attention because he was too busy worrying over an injured Shen Wei.

Look where that had gotten him, a voice said inside Zhao Yunlan's head. He ruthlessly quashed it.

So, the past contact was with his dad. Director Zhao would no doubt feel entitled to grab the gun without notifying Zhao Yunlan, perhaps as a prelude to a lecture on carefulness and filial conduct and whatnot.

In conclusion, he would have to call his dad to ask how the assailant had gotten it, and why his dad hadn't notified him once he noticed. The lack of notification would suggest either recent acquisition or his dad stashing it in some secure, seldom-checked location.

Dixing had no cell reception, so he'd have to start tugging on the other end. Anti-establishment rebels must be dime a dozen, but was encountering Shen Wei serendipity or planned? “Li Qian, how far ahead did you arrange your meeting with Shen Wei and how?”

“It was ... a week ago? I called during his office hours and suggested meeting in the park.”

So his lovely xiao-Wei would've answered it in semipublic and written it in his day planner, which he left at his desk when he went to teach. It would technically be with Shen Wei or behind locked doors at all times, but a lock-opening Dixing power would mean it was easily accessible. And Zhao Yunlan couldn't just ask Shen Wei about potential anti-Dixing anti-theft measures he took. “Where were you when you called?”

“At the Department of Supervision, in the women's bathroom.”

Okay, that was probably free of surveillance. At least from Dixingians; potential human creeps were not Zhao Yunlan's problem at this point. Unless the assailant had human sympathizers who'd somehow managed to lie their way into the Haixing Department of Supervision, but Zhao Yunlan would start with simpler theories.

It was clear he'd have to go back to Haixing, though. And leave Shen Wei here.

The two women who'd taken them in were decent enough, but he'd be much calmer if Chu Shuzhi stayed as well. Besides, Haixing still had it for Chu Shuzhi now that the information of his crimes was public knowledge.

“The stones increase dark energy replenishment,” Yi Lie said to him as he took the first step towards Chu Shuzhi. “You don't want to go near them.”

I don't care, Zhao Yunlan pettily thought, then took a breath to calm himself and thanked her. Instead, he ordered Chu Shuzhi closer without the stone. Yi Lie went to speak to the doctor.

“What will we do now?” Chu Shuzhi asked.

“Get to the bottom of this,” Zhao Yunlan replied. “This means-”

“What about Ye Zun?”

Oh yeah. There was a fucking apocalypse going on as well. Zhao Yunlan rubbed his face. “We need Shen Wei up and running to deal with that. The Regent's death might've slowed Ye Zun down a bit; he needs to rejig his plans for the lack of spineless mouthpiece. We also need to see if this assailant was an associate of Ye Zun's, an independent operation, or something in between.” He sighed. “I need to go to Haixing, but I need boots on the ground here, to watch Shen Wei and the situation. Would you...?”

“Can Changcheng come?”

“Sure,” Zhao Yunlan said. He probably should've declined, but whatever, maybe Guo Ying could be persuaded to leave the doors open if his nephew was on the other side. “Pop through the portal to call if anything happens. And occasionally even if nothing happens, or if your phone's battery's running out so we can bring a power supply.”

Chu Shuzhi grunted. He leaned over and said in a low voice, “Don't shake Yi Lie's hand.”

“Sure,” Zhao Yunlan replied. She'd touched Shen Wei fine, but maybe her power was only harmful to humans or something.

His gaze skipped to Shen Wei. A pang hit his heart and twisted his innards.

He walked to the side room door and knocked. “Doctor? I want to sit at his bedside for a bit,” he admitted with a breaking voice.

Yi Lie and the doctor both emerged. “It should have had enough time to affect him,” the doctor said, then gathered up the blue-black stone from Shen Wei's abdomen. Zhao Yunlan waited until she'd moved the stone several paces away, then let the gravity of Shen Wei pull him to the black hole at the center of his galaxy.

Shen Wei's chest rose and fell at a normal pace, as if he'd just gone to sleep and would wake up in a few hours, nose scrunched cutely when the light hit his face. It was a nice thought, but Shen Wei didn't sleep like that – he was currently on his back, hands curled at his sternum, his face the picture of stillness, while the Shen Wei who could be enticed to curl up in bed with Zhao Yunlan did indeed curl up around Zhao Yunlan like an overzealous octopus. His face would be either full of calm contentment or grumpy like an upset kitten, depending on how far away Zhao Yunlan was.

There was a small scar where the bullet had hit. Zhao Yunlan ran his fingers over it. Relatively smooth, mostly just discoloration.

He pried one of Shen Wei's hands loose and slipped his own hand into it. He'd intended to say something, speak something, compel Shen Wei to awaken, but words deserted him and his throat acquired a thick lump.

By the time he left Shen Wei's bedside, his revolver had long since regenerated all six bullets. Yi Lie brought him to the portal and through it. He worried for a moment about Li Qian, who'd decided to stay, citing Professor Ouyang's terrifying recent behavior, but shook that off as he called Guo Changcheng. The boy was soon present and traveled to Dixing with Yi Lie.

For a moment, he wondered whether he was making a colossal mistake in giving Chu Shuzhi so much to take care of. But Dixingians, like humans, must grow lonely without company, so Zhao Yunlan had no choice but to send him a companion.

The next item on his agenda was calling his dad. Like a reasonable adult who had a good relationship with his father, he first went to his car to cry against the steering wheel.

After he'd rendered his eyes red and swollen and voice as unprofessional as his father always considered it, he paused to breathe. It would be fine. Shen Wei would live and recover and the whole world would be just fine.

When he trusted himself to talk again, he called his dad. He caught himself hoping that his dad wouldn't answer.

No such luck. “What is it now?” Zhao Xinci asked. “Do you not know-”

“Dad,” Zhao Yunlan interrupted. “When you came to visit my apartment and I left my gun on the table when I walked out, did you take it?”

Silence. “Yes,” Zhao Xinci eventually replied. “How come?”

“What did you do with it next?”

“It's in a locked box,” Zhao Xinci said. “It's still there.”

Before he could launch into a rant on Zhao Yunlan's irresponsible gun ownership like he must be hankering to, Zhao Yunlan asked, “Could you check?”

Zhao Xinci sighed. “If you insist.” The line went mostly quiet – just some sounds of footfalls and clunks probably from opening the lock. Then, silence. “Hm,” Zhao Xinci said.

“Where is the box?”

“At home,” Zhao Xinci said. His tone turned frosty. “How long have you known of this security breach?”

Ever since someone shot Shen Wei with my own fucking gun. Zhao Yunlan bit his tongue and counted to ten. “When did you last check the box?” he said in an excessively controlled voice.

“Not since I locked it.” Zhao Xinci inhaled like in preparation for a scolding and asked, “Yunlan, what is going on?”

“Someone from Dixing stole the gun, then shot the Regent and Shen Wei. The Regent is dead. Shen Wei is momentarily incapacitated,” Zhao Yunlan said, his voice breaking. “With my own fucking gun. So tell me, who's had access to your goddamn lockbox?”

Zhao Yunlan expected his father to chide him for unprofessionalism, but unexpectedly, the old man just said, “I live alone without visitors. No reported break-ins. What sort of Dixing power? Teleportation?”

“No teleportation witnessed in Haixing or Dixing even when teleportation would have been advantageous, but no handle on her actual powers or potential accomplices,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Perp's a woman, last seen in Haixing. Potentially unconnected to Ye Zun.”

Zhao Xinci grunted. “Where's the gun now?”

“On me.”

“I'll put out the alert,” Zhao Xinci said. “Goodbye.”

“Bye,” Zhao Yunlan said, though he suspected his father had already cut the call.

He stuffed the phone back in his pants pocket and sighed. He aggressively concentrated on what he knew: one suspect, with potential accomplices, got her hands on the gun within the past few days. She then shot at least two people and maybe a third within a few hours before dumping the gun.

Potential threads to unravel: The sixth bullet and its target. Motivations of the assailant. Dixing powers of the assailant. Yi Lie's stunning luck in avoiding three bullets.

He needed to get back to Dixing and interview Yi Lie and Li Qian properly. For that, he needed a door-opener. Shen Wei and Chu Shuzhi were unavailable, which meant – Butler Wu was in Dixing already, so ... Ye Huo? Zhang Shi was busy sharing a body with Zhao Xinci and might not be able to open the portal, Zhao Yunlan didn't want to bring Zheng Yi into a potential war zone, and all the other Dixingians he knew were either dead or in Dixing. Maybe he should try to bring some of them back up.

He also needed to get in touch with the rest of his SID team. Shen Wei shot w/ my gun (stolen from dad; recovered). Chu & Guo attending convalescence in Dixing. More to follow. After some deliberation, he decided to send it to Lin Jing as well. Let it look like he'd forgotten to remove him from the group text list.

That still left Wang Zheng and Sang Zan to reach. He called them, in lieu of better options.

The number cannot be reached, a canned woman's voice calmly informed him. Please try again later.

Had the Department of Supervision fuckers disconnected the phone? The number was still on several places' phone books. They needed to be able to get to Wang Zheng, if only to learn whom to turn to now.

His phone buzzed with a text from Da Qing. Good news: they recalled the arrest warrants out for us this morning. Your dad?

The timing would fit. Fuck if I know, he replied, though as his father's apologies went, this was from the better end.

The Jeep rumbled on as he turned the key in the ignition. It was several tons of metal, heavy machinery and potentially lethal to all in its vicinity, and it was all Zhao Yunlan's to control. In a curious way, it made him feel better to steer it through the streets: the Jeep was in the grand scheme of things even more insignificant than Zhao Yunlan himself, but it was something he could control fully, with no outside catastrophe.

He drove the familiar route to the SID. He kept wanting to turn to the passenger seat and talk the situation over with Shen Wei, but his other half was down in Dixing in a coma, and only the ghostly memory of him accompanied Zhao Yunlan.

Melancholy and with a lump in his throat, he haphazardly parked the Jeep at a nearby street. From this block it was only a few paces down the street to where one could see the SID through an alley-

“What the fuck?” Zhao Yunlan croaked.

The SID was enveloped in a yellow-gold glow. Zhao Yunlan reached for his phone and called Da Qing. “What the hell happened to the SID building?”

“Did the Department of Supervision people tear it down?” Da Qing asked.

So the damn cat had no idea. “No, it's – covered in a glow.” Which was the color of the Hallows projections. “Did they do something to the Hallows?”

“We'll come there,” Da Qing said. So he had Zhu Hong with him; good.

Zhao Yunlan stared at the SID building. It really was Hallows-colored.

He walked around while he waited. The glow ended with the SID building, and didn't encroach upon the rest of the block through the connected wall. One could see the general shape of the building, still, though all the details were lost to the glow and he wasn't sure whether the position of windows was being supplied by visible detail or from memory.

The streets were empty – one of the side benefits of the mass panic about the SID – so he backed up onto the road to take a picture of the building, then sent it to his dad. Any Dept of S people inside? Can't reach SID landline. Hallows? He'd receive a call back at a maximally inopportune moment, but this way he wouldn't be locked into further conversation with his dad immediately. Besides, someone else might do something about it first.

Exactly on time, Da Qing and Zhu Hong rounded the corner. “Boss!” Da Qing cried. He stopped in his tracks when he noticed the SID. “Wow.”

“How are Wang Zheng and Sang Zan?” Zhu Hong asked.

“Can't reach them.”

Zhu Hong whipped out her phone to check. Under other circumstances, Zhao Yunlan would be annoyed, but he was frazzled enough he had no problems with someone else double-checking his homework.

“What now?” Zhu Hong asked after hearing the number cannot be reached message for herself.

They didn't have access to the SID, but the case files should still be available via the offsite electronic backups. And- “Request surveillance tapes from the past twelve hours of the SID vicinity and give them to Cong Bo to analyze. Call the Xingdu Bureau and tell them to do the same for dad's place for ... the past four days. Tell them to look for anything unusual, or any unusual behavior, especially if there's a woman involved. I'll come back with a more detailed description.”

“I'll call the Xingdu Bureau,” Da Qing volunteered.

“I'll deal with Cong Bo,” Zhu Hong said.

That left Dixing for him. “Can either of you open the door to Dixing?” he asked, as hope sprung eternal.

“You need a Dixingian for that,” Da Qing said with a loose wave of the hand.

So he'd have to call for help. “Thanks,” he said with a sigh. “I'll call Ye Huo.”

Ye Huo said he'd be at the park in an hour. Zhao Yunlan charged his phone and some power banks, grabbed a bunch of pens and paper, and waited. His father replied to his earlier text in kind, which was unusual for him. Two people from the Department of Supervision were inside, they couldn't be reached, and Zhao Yunlan was to route any following communication through the proper channels to Minister Gao.

“Are you sure it's wise?” Ye Huo asked when he arrived. “I hear it's pretty bad down there.”

Zhao Yunlan considered for a moment, then decided he might as well tell him. “The Envoy got hit and is convalescing there. Lao-Chu's keeping an eye.”

“If you need any specific help, don't hesitate to call,” Ye Huo said.

“Thanks.” Zhao Yunlan should've said more, perhaps something about being glad citizens were stepping up in times of crisis, but it was mid-afternoon and he'd been run ragged for days and despairing since the morning.

They went through the portal into Dixing's eternal night. Zhao Yunlan led them through the streets to the appropriate place.

He knocked. “Yi Lie?”

The person who answered the door was Guo Changcheng. “Chief Zhao! You're back. And Ye Huo!” He deflated. “Professor Shen is still unconscious.”

“I'm here with supplies and for an interview. Where are Li Qian and Yi Lie?”

“Yi Lie and Doctor Xiang are upstairs,” Guo Changcheng said, making noises as he sorted through the contents of the bag Zhao Yunlan had brought with him.

Li Qian, on the other hand, was downstairs in the main room. Zhao Yunlan sat down next to her. “Hey.”

“We moved him into the recovery position,” she said.

“I can see.” He summoned up as much of his reserve as he could to slip into the interrogating witnesses mode. “I've set some things in motion on Haixing, but I need a description of the assailant. How much do you remember?”

“She was ... skinny?” Li Qian said. “A bit shorter than me, maybe? She could run really fast.”

Well, it wasn't like Li Qian had had an opportunity to stare at her face. “Could you draw her?”

“I can try,” Li Qian said. “I'm not very good at drawing.”

“Anything's better than nothing,” Zhao Yunlan reassured her. While she drew, he drifted over to Shen Wei's bedside.

He was on his side, as promised, curled up with his hands at his chin and legs bent in. His mouth was slightly parted and his hair fell across his forehead. All in all, he looked like he were asleep.

“I love you,” Zhao Yunlan murmured in his ear like he'd been tempted to do on so many occasions. He'd always interrupted himself – too soon, no time, he didn't want to sound like a corny sap – confident that tomorrow, he'd still be there to say it and Shen Wei there to hear it. He finally understood his father's complaints about youths thinking themselves immortal.

Shen Wei didn't respond to the words or Zhao Yunlan's voice. He didn't respond to Zhao Yunlan stroking his cheek, either. When Zhao Yunlan held his hand, he didn't grasp back.

“I will find the one who did this to you, and I will kill her,” Zhao Yunlan swore.

With a final sigh, he heaved himself up to where Guo Changcheng, Chu Shuzhi, and Ye Huo were awkwardly not looking at him. “How's Dixing?” he asked.

“Still,” Chu Shuzhi said. “Like a boulder at the edge of a cliff, waiting to fall.”

Well, even if melodrama weren't characteristic of Dixingians, it was characteristic of Chu Shuzhi. Zhao Yunlan jerked his head upwards to enquire about their hosts.

Chu Shuzhi shrugged. Guo Changcheng added, “They're very nice. Worried? Yi Lie is stressed and Xiang Yuanyu worried.”

As if summoned, the two women walked down the spiral staircase at the corner of the room. The doctor – Xiang Yuanyu – went straight to Shen Wei; Zhao Yunlan interrupted Yi Lie by saying, “Yi Lie! Excellent, I wanted to speak to you.”

Yi Lie gazed at him levelly. “Oh?”

“Indeed! For one, we think the perpetrator is still in Haixing, where we might catch her with surveillance.” Behind her, Li Qian was done. “Could you please describe her?”

“Short and scroungy. Cheap clothes. Forgettable, mostly.”

Zhao Yunlan smiled at her winningly. “Could you draw her?”

Yi Lie stared at him, but sighed and assented. She didn't take as long as Li Qian had. Both of them produced a picture of a woman with hair long enough to draw in a ponytail, in some sort of blouse and trousers assembly. Neither of them could draw faces – Li Qian's just had a frowny face smiley, while Yi Lie's was a similar, albeit different, shorthand.

“Thank you,” Zhao Yunlan said nonetheless. “Have there been any further developments in Dixing? More corpses turning up, co-conspirators, the like?”

“None,” Yi Lie said. “We are in the midst of selecting a new Regent. I have taken the liberty of claiming that Ye Zun has gone to wreak havoc on Haixing and the Black-Cloaked Envoy is busy chasing him there, so that no-one insists on bringing him over to consult.”

In ordinary times, Shen Wei would've loved to have a say in the Regent's replacement. As it was- “Thank you. Please let me know if the situation changes.”

Yi Lie nodded. “I will.”

“Great.” What else had he wanted to ask? Oh, yeah. “I take it there hasn't been any news on Ye Zun?”

“None whatsoever,” Yi Lie sighed. “Some ... schemes he has set up have been unraveled. Perhaps he truly is in Haixing. I would worry about the rear door, if I were you.”

Zhao Yunlan nodded. “Thank you.” He turned to Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng, told them to call if anything came up, then left with Ye Huo.

Dixing's gravel crunched beneath their feet. Zhao Yunlan supposed that in a land of rock, gravel would be easily available. The wood-like material of the buildings, on the other hand, he couldn't identify.

He supposed he could ask Ye Huo. But where was the fun of that, compared to asking his dear professor? Shen Wei would tell him what it was, how it related to other things, how it was made, and whether it would have use on the surface. Except he wouldn't, because his adorable professor was curiously disconnected from modern Dixingian life. Oh, and he'd been shot in the head with Zhao Yunlan's own fucking gun.

“The portal is that way,” Ye Huo said.

“We have another stop, first,” Zhao Yunlan replied.

The bar was empty save for the barkeep. “You're back!” he exclaimed once he spotted them. “Where's the Envoy?”

“He's busy, so I'm searching for leads all by myself,” Zhao Yunlan sighed. “This is my door opener, Ye Huo.”

Ye Huo and the barkeep awkwardly greeted each other before the barkeep turned back to Zhao Yunlan. “Leads on what?”

Mindful of the story Yi Lie was spinning, Zhao Yunlan sat on a table with a sigh and said, “Ye Zun. We think he's on Haixing and the Envoy has been pursuing him there, but what if he's slipped to Dixing? Does he have a power that enables him to flit between Dixing and Haixing? So,” Zhao Yunlan said, “have you heard of anything suspicious lately?”

The barkeep, like all gossips given privileged information, practically vibrated. “You know what's really weird? Everything used to be all on edge, but now it's stopped. People are all huddled up at home waiting for the other shoe to drop.” He leaned in closer and whispered, “You know, I heard the Regent finally croaked it? I think everyone's waiting for confirmation. You might not know, but ... he had ways of dealing with anyone who disagreed with him.” The barkeep shook his head. “That put a huge damper on any conversation. Everyone was convinced they were being spied on nonstop.”

“And now?” Zhao Yunlan prodded.

“When they finally believe it, they'll come celebrate!” the barkeep said. “There's still the Ye Zun matter, but people should come to their senses about him soon enough. He's spewed all sorts of bullshit, but he's just a charlatan at heart, and people will see that when the Envoy's dealt with him.”

Zhao Yunlan supposed it was nice the barkeep believed in Shen Wei's talents, even if he didn't know Shen Wei was down for the count. “You're confident he'll face justice.”

“Oh, don't worry – justice is like my customers: it might be late, but it will come.”

At that, Zhao Yunlan could only laugh. “We try, we try.” He sighed and heaved himself up. “But as much fun as chatting with you is, I have other places to be. Good luck with the customers.”

The barkeep waved. “When you defeat Ye Zun, be sure to tell everyone how much time you spent in my bar!”

“Of course,” Zhao Yunlan nonchalantly called over his shoulder.

He and Ye Huo walked in silence back to the portal and stepped through. It was already the end of the afternoon, with the Sun gazing thoughtfully at the horizon. All this had been the work of a single day.

“It's nervewracking, seeing the Envoy down,” Ye Huo said in a low voice. “Like the Universe has capsized.”

“Yeah.” Zhao Yunlan swallowed the sudden lump in his throat and quashed the thoughts of Shen Wei never seeing another sunset. “What do you think?” he asked Ye Huo, all too aware of how thin a grasp on sanity he had and how close he was to giving in to tears.

“Dixing has over nine hundred thousand people,” Ye Huo said, “so I haven't met any of them in person before, but I have heard of Xiang Yuanyu. She's one of the better-regarded doctors, and usually quite expensive.”

So Shen Wei would get excellent treatment, but the medical bills might be a kicker. “Good,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Keep an eye out for any suspicious activity, okay?”

“I will. Don't hesitate to call,” Ye Huo said. He didn't leave, though – he paused for a moment, then clapped Zhao Yunlan on the shoulder. “In the end, nothing is insurmountable.”

He must look like shit if Ye Huo was trying to comfort him. He put his brave face on more securely. “I know. Don't worry, I've got it.”

Ye Huo didn't quite look convinced, but he let go and made his goodbyes. Zhao Yunlan watched him go.

When Ye Huo had disappeared from sight, Zhao Yunlan collapsed on the ground beneath the old locust tree. Fuck. Here he was, in the pleasant late afternoon sunlight, listening to the thrum of faraway music as people returned from work. From the smallest seeds to the tallest redwoods, life endured, even in the face of upcoming invasions. The mass hysteria had quieted. The Sun would soon set on the instability and people return to their work and school and leisure with the dawn.

But would Shen Wei see it? Would he blink open his eyes and let Zhao Yunlan support him to the surface in a reprise of rescuing him from the pillar, or would he stay asleep forever? Would he wake up only to find that while he slept, the immortals had ceased their game of weiqi and his axe shaft had rotted?

Would he wake up at all? Would Zhao Yunlan go to Dixing one day to see Shen Wei's skin grow more and more translucent by the day, papery and frail, only to watch the last breath escape from colorless lips and the spark of life be extinguished, turning someone who had extended out and bent the universe to his will without a second thought into but a lump of decaying matter? The deep ocean of wisdom would be drained and the sly twist of wit never act again. How long would Zhao Yunlan bear to stay at his bedside, holding hands cold with death? Would he still sit there, crying, unable to let go, when all others had long since left and maggots arrived to eat Shen Wei's flesh and drink Zhao Yunlan's tears?

Does Dixing even have maggots? Zhao Yunlan thought, brain suddenly coming to a jarring halt. Here he was, with his best beloved and the world's savior down for the count, and he was wondering whether there were maggots in Dixing, of all things.

His diaphragm spasmed, again, a third time, and he was cackling hysterically. Does Dixing even have maggots, sure, wasn't his brain wonderful? Hi, dad! You were right – I am bugfuck insane! Wait, weren't maggots bugs? Dragon City would be delighted to know that the man in charge of guarding them was crazy enough to fuck Dixing's entirely hypothetical maggots.

The world was blurry, and salty, and his cackling turned to sobs. Shen Wei, he thought, trying to repeat Shen Wei's name like a mantra but never getting it out.

Eventually, his chest stilled and eyes ran out of tears. The few people in the park gave him a wide berth. No wonder – he must look like shit. He wouldn't want to sit next to himself. Hell, in case of zombie apocalypse, even the zombies would just shake their heads and move on in search of better prey.

But it was not the apocalypse, and he had things to do. He got back on his feet and dug out his phone. He'd been up long enough for it to synchronize with the cell towers and get the texts and missed call notifications-

His phone buzzed in his hands. He almost dropped it, scrambling to answer the call.

“Hi?” he said. His voice sounded rough even to his ears.

“...we got the surveillance cam footage,” Zhu Hong said, more hesitant than he'd ever heard her. He must sound really off. “We're at Cong Bo's.”

“I'll be there,” Zhao Yunlan said and closed the call. He blinked, twice, and the world was clear again. He knew where he'd parked his car, he knew the route to Cong Bo's apartment, he could do this. One foot in front of the other until he was sucked into the job again. He'd done his job with his dad being held hostage; he could do his job with Shen Wei stuck in Dixing. Again.

Due to Zhao Yunlan's personal choices, there were no cameras monitoring who came through the SID door that weren't under SID administration. As a result, they had to make do with a few surveillance cameras that looked up and down Bright Street and a few neighboring alleys. One of them caught most of the people walking past the street in front of it, if not all or at the best accuracy. Another few caught glimpses of walls.

“...and then I did a preliminary analysis of all the suspicious incidents and wandering women,” Cong Bo wrapped up his five-minute speech on his own greatness. “I found one case, just from when the SID was turning gold!”

He hit a key and the monitor bloomed with low-resolution footage. At first, it was just a view of an empty alley and wall; then, the SID wall started to glow. A woman sprinted out from the lower corner with something in her hand as the building covered itself in a golden light.

“You call that conclusive?” Zhu Hong scoffed.

“She didn't come from the main street!” Cong Bo rewinded and showed them the same footage slowed down. “See? She can't have come along the alley, she must've come through the wall!”

“Maybe she's just drunk and bounced off the wall,” Da Qing said. “Humans do all sorts of stupid things.”

“Pause it,” Zhao Yunlan ordered.

Cong Bo paused and keyed through frames to find one with a minimum of blur. Zhao Yunlan ran through a checklist in his head – skinny, a bit unkempt, hair in a ponytail, being slightly suspicious in a suspicious place at a suspicious time. “See if you can find a shot of her on the other cameras,” he said, voice surprisingly raw.

“A moment,” Cong Bo said, and then they started watching the other cameras' surveillance footage like attendees of the world's most boring video party.

There weren't any cameras with views of the street she'd run to, and the next cameras over would require too much labor to go over for the SID and their little wannabe journalist to run through, so they concentrated on the cameras pointing to Bright Street. Most of them showed nothing.

One of them, however, had a woman in a similar ponytail briefly walk through a corner of its field of view. She was headed towards the SID's door, and there was ten minutes between this view and her running off. They couldn't see her doubling back, though that wasn't necessarily conclusive.

Ten minutes. She must've done something other than just walk. Zhao Yunlan rewatched the small glimpse of her, and was struck by how the man she brushed past looked just like Shen Wei – but no, Shen Wei wouldn't wear anything that baggy.

He'd heard of people seeing long-dead friends, lovers and relatives in the faces of strangers. Usually, that required time scrubbing the details of the loved one's visage from memory. Zhao Yunlan had started before Shen Wei was even dead.

“What did she do to make the SID all glowing?” Cong Bo asked.

“She shot one thing before going to get the Regent,” Zhao Yunlan said. He checked the time Li Qian had called him against the time of the SID being covered by the Hallows. There'd be time to go from the SID to the Palace and back to the portal, though it'd be tight. He added medium-distance runner to his tally of potential attributes of the assailant.

“Maybe she shot the Hallows?” Da Qing suggested.

It was stupid, but they didn't have any better idea. “Why would she do that?” Zhao Yunlan asked, feeling like his brain was an engine running out of fuel. It was a remarkably apt comparison, he realized, as he remembered he hadn't eaten anything since dinner last night.

“She's from Dixing and doing some sort of Dixingian political assassination plot,” Zhu Hong said. “She might not have intended to shoot the Hallows. Maybe she wanted to take the Hallows with her to Dixing, and shot the glass cover of a Hallow, which caused a reaction of some sort in the Hallows.”

It was plausible – four bullets for the Hallows' glass covers, leaving one each for the Regent and Black-Cloaked Envoy – and the Hallows did work in mysterious ways. “Great,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Cong Bo, e-mail me the best shot of the woman you can find. I'll send it to the Department of Supervision so they can look for her around dad's apartment.”

“What about the park? The trail's gone cold, but we might find an accomplice,” Da Qing said.

Of course. The park had cameras at some points as well, and they even had a time stamp for her presence there. “I'll tell them to look at the park as well,” Zhao Yunlan said. His stomach growled.

“That's it, we're done for the night,” Da Qing declared. “Shoo! We're off to buy dinner.”

“But-”

Da Qing stared down his objection. “Lao-Zhao, haven't you yet realized food is one of the better aspects of life?”

“Damn fatty,” Zhao Yunlan grumbled, but let Da Qing lead him to the car and a variety of street food markets. He bought more than they needed, but Zhao Yunlan supposed that they could eat leftovers in the morning, just like in the old times.

The food was greasy and not nearly as good as Shen Wei's cooking. He choked it down until his belly was full, forwarded the description and picture of the assailant to Minister Gao's office along with the time she'd been at the park, then ate another few dumplings.

It wasn't terribly late, but Zhao Yunlan didn't feel like doing anything. The day had been long enough to last a year, anyway. He desultorily brushed his teeth and curled up under the covers.

Catching sleep proved difficult. Shen Wei's face sneaked up on him, reminding him of what he lacked. He was a pathetic widower, sleeping alone, crying into his pillow. What he wouldn't give to have his lovely cuddle octopus here, alive and well – or just here, alive. Even if he was in a coma. Zhao Yunlan could love him, still, and bury his nose at his neck and feel the smell of comfort. If only he were here.

Zhao Yunlan woke up hugging his pillow and with a feline butt perched on his head. He wouldn't call himself well-rested, but he felt marginally better than last night. He pushed Da Qing off himself and rose to go to the bathroom.

Midway through brushing his teeth, his phone rang. He quickly spat and rinsed his mouth, then ran to where the phone was in its charger.

Chu Shuzhi. It was Chu Shuzhi.

Zhao Yunlan's hands shook as he accepted the call. “What is it?” he said with a voice brimming with hope.

“He's awake,” Chu Shuzhi replied.

Awake. Shen Wei was awake. “How is he?” Zhao Yunlan demanded, trying to keep his soaring heart engaged with reality lest it rise so high the truth would burst it.

”He... has lost his memory,” Chu Shuzhi said. “He didn't recognize any of us.”

”Amnesia,” Zhao Yunlan breathed into the receiver. He'd been shot in the head. Of course there'd be aftereffects. “I'll be right there,” he said. “Uh, do you need anything? Food?”

”Extras would be nice,” Chu Shuzhi said. “See you soon.”

Zhao Yunlan cut the call. “I'm off to Dixing,” he called to Da Qing as he dressed himself in his cleanest tee, appealingly ripped jeans, and dark jacket with contrast stitching he knew Shen Wei appreciated. If he was dressed for a date more than a hospital visit, well, Shen Wei found him hot. If he dressed super hot, maybe Shen Wei would remember him better?

”Fine, I can kitten-sit that Cong Bo,” Da Qing grumpily said, then flicked his tail and curled up for an extra nap. Cats.

The street food markets were quiet at this time of the morning, so Zhao Yunlan had no trouble filling several containers with food and carrying them over in a big plastic bag. Okay, Shen Wei was up and about; what was he forgetting?

Shen Wei had a lecture today, didn't he? Zhao Yunlan should call him in sick.

The faculty secretary's number was easy enough to find online. She answered on the third ring. “Good morning! This is the faculty of natural sciences of Dragon City University.”

”Chief Zhao Yunlan of the Special Investigations Division speaking.” He swallowed. “Ah, your Professor Shen Wei has been aiding us in these trying times. He was injured the day before yesterday defending the peace and is currently recuperating. We'll inform you when we know more.”

”Is it bad?”

”He's conscious, but – yeah.” Zhao Yunlan swallowed again. “He's receiving the best care available. Don't worry.”

”Classes have been cancelled for the next two weeks in light of the, ah, situation,” she said. “Tell him to convalesce in peace. And good luck.”

”Thanks.”

When he ended the call, Chu Shuzhi was already in sight, leaning against the locust tree. Zhao Yunlan rushed over.

”He looks the same, but he moves wrong,” Chu Shuzhi said.

”Dixing powers?”

Chu Shuzhi shrugged. “Still there.”

”So he could heal further?” Maybe this was just temporary. Shen Wei was rebooting, and the body came before all the memories were reconnected, and he'd come fully back online in a few weeks and be a happy clingy octopus in Zhao Yunlan's arms and an awe-inspiring victory machine to defeat Ye Zun.

”Ask Doctor Xiang,” Chu Shuzhi said.

Fair enough. Chu Shuzhi extended his arm, and the portal blossomed open. They stepped through into the darkness.

Zhao Yunlan couldn't help but walk faster through the empty streets. He should be on the lookout for potential hostiles, but the magnetic pull of Shen Wei urged him on. Chu Shuzhi snorted, but didn't complain as he half-jogged in Zhao Yunlan's wake.

The door was unlocked, and Zhao Yunlan spilled into the house-

Shen Wei was sitting on the floor with Li Qian, looking at some piece of paper she was drawing on. He lifted his head and their gazes locked.

Shen Wei's eyebrows knit adorably. “Zhao ... Yunlan?” he hesitantly said.

”Hi,” Zhao Yunlan said, and he was completely aware that his face was split with a stupid grin and his eyes had misted up, but he didn't care. He put down the bag of food and threw himself at Shen Wei.

Shen Wei flinched back like Zhao Yunlan were about to hit him.

Of course. Amnesia. He remembered Zhao Yunlan's name, but not necessarily any of the rest of it. Zhao Yunlan sat down next to a wide-eyed Shen Wei and sighed. “Sorry, I got carried away. How are you?”

”I have a bit of a headache,” Shen Wei said after some deliberation.

”Don't overexert yourself,” Zhao Yunlan chided. “You were hit on the head. Of course your brain needs time to recover from its injury.”

Shen Wei blinked at him. His head was tilted at an odd angle and his use of his facial muscles looked uncertain, like he'd woken up with new tools and no manual on their use.

”How are your Dixing powers?” Zhao Yunlan asked.

Shen Wei opened a palm. Power blossomed on it, blue and purple and crackling dark like the void between the stars.

It stole the breath from Zhao Yunlan's lungs. Shen Wei was fine, he had his Dixing powers, his body would heal itself over time. Shen Wei would be fine, he would recover from this and being tied to the fucking pillar for days on end and whatever malaise had been affecting him before that. Shen Wei was his adorable professor but also an avatar of unlimited power – what had Zhao Yunlan been thinking, considering him fallible? A silly grin erupted on Zhao Yunlan's face. Shen Wei would be fine, Shen Wei would save the day, and Zhao Yunlan would gladly reward him.

Shen Wei closed his hand, snuffing out the dark energy. “You loved – him,” he said.

”I love you,” Zhao Yunlan said. Corrected.

”I'm not the person you fell in love with,” Shen Wei said.

His wonderful professor might not remember things, but if he wished to have a debate about personhood, Zhao Yunlan was glad to oblige. “Is anyone the same from one moment to the next? Certainly we can't stay the same from the moment of our first meeting to the day of our death. This experience might've changed you, but I'm in this for the long haul. You're not getting rid of me that easily.”

”What if I never recover my memories?” Shen Wei countered. “If I never become the person you fell in love with?”

”Then I'll just fall in love with you all over again,” Zhao Yunlan said with a lopsided smile. “And I'll steal your heart, too, as you have mine already.”

Shen Wei smiled. It looked more innocent and hesitant than usual, as if he couldn't believe his luck. Zhao Yunlan wanted to kiss him until he grew to expect this every day-

”W-would you like some food?” Guo Changcheng asked.

Oh yeah, they were in the middle of someone else's living room cum surgery, and there were witnesses. Oops. But what was Zhao Yunlan if not completely shameless? “Of course. Professor Shen hasn't eaten anything all day, of course we need to feed him! Here, hand that over.”

Guo Changcheng was obedient, as usual, and handed the meat on a stick and small container of steamed filled buns. Zhao Yunlan lifted the stick of meat and pointed the food end at Shen Wei. “Here.”

Shen Wei stared at him. “What?”

”Eat it,” Zhao Yunlan said, making no motion to hand it over. “Take a bite of the meat that is pointing your way.”

For a moment, he thought he was pushing too far, but then Shen Wei hesitantly leaned over and took a bite. Fuck. Zhao Yunlan might have overcommitted himself. He swallowed dryly.

Shen Wei didn't maintain eye contact, but stole glances as he chewed and swallowed. When Zhao Yunlan waved the stick his way again, he asked, “Aren't you eating anything?”

”I can have more in Haixing whenever I want,” Zhao Yunlan said. “I want to see you eat this.”

Shen Wei hummed. He methodically made his way through the whole stick, tearing off each piece individually.

When he'd eaten the final piece, Zhao Yunlan started to put the skewer down, only for Shen Wei's hand to shoot out and grab his wrist. Without a single word, Shen Wei lowered his head while maintaining eye contact and licked a single drop of spilled sauce off Zhao Yunlan's index finger.

Fuck. Holy fucking shit. Zhao Yunlan's heartrate was through the roof and blood was making its way to his dick, but they had an audience-

Shen Wei innocently licked his lips. “Do you have more?”

”I have buns with mince filling,” Zhao Yunlan said. Three of them, only. He picked up one and brought it to Shen Wei's lips, consumed by the desire to touch them yet needing a pretext.

Shen Wei took a dainty bite out of the bun. He looked happy and content just from being fed. Zhao Yunlan hadn't seen him this happy in a long time and wanted to keep the expression on his face.

It only took a few bites to demolish the bun. On the last, Shen Wei brought his plush lips to Zhao Yunlan's fingers unselfconsciously and even flicked out his tongue to lick up crumbs. Fuck fuck fuck he'd significantly underestimated mission parameters, better dive in deeper.

”Here,” Zhao Yunlan said in a hoarse voice as he gave Shen Wei the next bun.

Shen Wei bit the lure. Or perhaps it was Zhao Yunlan hanging onto the lure and he'd merely handed Shen Wei the fishing rod; it was hard to tell. Shen Wei'd be his doom, but he'd known that for a long while already.

With this bun, Shen Wei took larger bites. He didn't seem to be purposefully teasing Zhao Yunlan, merely enjoying his food, but handfeeding was erotic nonetheless. They should definitely do this more often. Maybe Zhao Yunlan could cover himself in chocolate or something and Shen Wei could lick him clean while lecturing him on hygiene or healthy eating.

Just as he was considering Shen Wei licking his cock, Shen Wei brought him back to reality by licking his fingers. He'd accuse Shen Wei of intentionally being seductive, except that he looked completely innocent, so either he'd forgotten just how horny Zhao Yunlan was or he was being his trollish self.

Well. Zhao Yunlan would just have to find out.

He scooted a bit to grab the final bun and shamelessly plopped himself down next to Shen Wei, so close that their arms brushed together. “Here,” he said and intentionally held the bun closer to himself than the previous ones.

It seemed he'd managed to tame this skittish beauty: Shen Wei obligingly leaned in to take a bite. Zhao Yunlan snaked an arm around Shen Wei's trim waist but didn't squeeze.

Shen Wei's hair was so close. Zhao Yunlan reminded himself of delayed rewards as he kept still and watched Shen Wei's adorable teeth emerge from behind his plush lips and sink into the soft surface of the bun. Then came the chewing, slow and methodical, as Shen Wei's jaw worked, and he swallowed the food down his lovely throat. Shen Wei was fractally beautiful: on every scale, he was the best thing ever to look at.

When he finished the bun, he again licked Zhao Yunlan's fingers, then paused in contemplation. For a moment he was leaning over for nothing, like a frame frozen in the middle of action – and then he slowly leaned against Zhao Yunlan.

”Hello, beautiful,” Zhao Yunlan said against Shen Wei's hair as he gathered him in his embrace.

”Mm,” Shen Wei replied, relearning how he fit against Zhao Yunlan.

Everything would be all right. Shen Wei could fall for Zhao Yunlan again and regain his memories, and they'd live nauseatingly happily ever after. How could Haixing not be saved if they worked together?

”How have you found life with amnesia?” Zhao Yunlan asked.

Shen Wei shifted in his arms. “You're the first person I've recognized,” he said.

”It must have been hard to awaken in the midst of strangers,” Zhao Yunlan replied, instinctively soothing Shen Wei's potentially raised hackles. “Has Doctor Xiang given you any instructions for your recovery?”

”She said she'd come by later?” Shen Wei said.

Zhao Yunlan kissed his hair. “Let's talk to her then. You should rest, now.”

Shen Wei obediently curled up tighter, which was all the indication anyone could need about how tired he must be. Wasn't sleep when the brain healed itself? Head injuries increased the need for sleep, anyway.

Zhao Yunlan raised his gaze and locked eyes with Li Qian, who looked intensely uncomfortable. He smiled in a manner he hoped was reassuring and didn't make clear that he wanted to bang her teacher. Then he pressed his face back into Shen Wei's hair, because in addition to wanting to bang the hot prof, he wanted to wrap the hot prof in cotton wool and bubble wrap and make sure no-one could hurt him ever.

Xiang Yuanyu returned soon after. She was alone, and carried a large basket full of something. Guo Changcheng jumped up to help her put the contents away. Dixing seemed to feed itself on mushrooms and some dried powder thing Zhao Yunlan couldn't recognize.

”Stand up,” she told Shen Wei after letting Guo Changcheng loose on the pantry.

After he'd crawled out of Zhao Yunlan's embrace and onto his feet, she subjected him to a battery of simple questions. Zhao Yunlan knew what Shen Wei was supposed to be like; it was obvious he was slower on the draw than he should be. His sentence structures and vocabulary were a bit limited, too. How alarming was this? Zhao Yunlan would have to look it up when he was back in Haixing.

”What's the prognosis?” Zhao Yunlan asked as Doctor Xiang poked at Shen Wei's head with tendrils of dark energy.

She shrugged. “His dark energy was depleted, but infusion has fixed that – in fact, he's retained more than one would expect a Dixingian to retain, but perhaps that is because he is the Black-Cloaked Envoy. The self-healing process has been restarted. The time it takes for him to recover and what that recovered state may look like depends on things beyond our control.”

Zhao Yunlan exhaled slowly. Okay. Shen Wei was on the road to recovery. “Does he need to stay here, or can I bring him back to Haixing?”

”He should be kept within Dixing's cocoon of dark energy while he recovers,” Doctor Xiang said.

That was the end of that plan, then. A shame – it would've been nice to keep Shen Wei close, and maybe get a second opinion from Doctor Cheng. Zhao Yunlan reassured himself with the thought that the assailant was still in Haixing and couldn't reach Shen Wei here.

”Don't you have things to do in Haixing?” Shen Wei said. “Don't let me keep you from your duties.”

His Shen Wei was, as always, his adorably responsible self. A smile spread on Zhao Yunlan's face. “Sure.” He rose. On the way past, he squeezed Shen Wei's shoulder and smiled. Words failed him-

-and then the moment was over. “Take care,” he said, and followed a taciturn Chu Shuzhi to the portal.

”Do you think amnesia works the same in humans and Dixingians?” Zhao Yunlan asked when Haixing's Sun glared in his eyes once more.

”It might,” Chu Shuzhi unhelpfully replied, staring at his phone abuzz with the incoming messages of the past day. “Dark energy healing means more things can be recovered from, and things can be recovered from better. I don't know how his amnesia compares to humans', but a human shot in the head would be dead.”

Right. “Thank you,” Zhao Yunlan said.

He stood in place with watering eyes until Chu Shuzhi had disappeared back to Dixing. His phone buzzed with what was probably the SID group chat update from Chu Shuzhi, and perhaps other things. He should go and organize the next wave of the investigation – the assailant still ran free, albeit less harmful without the revolver, and of course there was still the Ye Zun situation, but ... he couldn't bring himself to care just yet.

Instead, he sat down and dug out his phone. He searched the internet for amnesia.

There were several different types, he discovered: retrograde and anterograde, depending on whether memories had simply been lost or whether the system for making more memories had also been lost. He read the article with growing interest. He'd long been aware that the day of trauma often remained a blank gap of memory, but not been aware of the mechanism why.

Shen Wei must be rubbing off on him, he thought as he read about the hippocampus and amygdala and what memories were stored where. The bit on hippocampal consolidation went over his head, but he got the gist: the brain could adapt, even if bits were missing. Retrograde amnesia apparently had a very gradual recovery. Ah well, university was out for a few weeks. Shen Wei could nurse his headache in peace.

Next up were a few case examples. Zhao Yunlan skimmed them for a sense of what to expect. A number of then had amnesia of procedural skills like shaving or driving, which could be overcome; autobiographical memory was much slower to come back, and bits were left missing.

He found an article on post-traumatic amnesia and discovered that it wasn't quite what he'd expected – apparently, it was primarily a state of confusion that came with behavioral disturbances. One expression was “uncharacteristically quiet, friendly, and loving behavior” – Zhao Yunlan could see that, in retrospect, for his amnesiac Shen Wei eating from his hands without properly remembering him. For this, slowness of the recovery foretold permanent loss of capabilities, especially if it lasted over a week. Decreased verbal and nonverbal intelligence, decreased performance on visual tests, and longterm accelerated forgetting. Zhao Yunlan wasn't quite clear on what that last one was, but he supposed that if it meant he'd get a genuine absent-minded professor living with him, he'd happily adapt.

This research had proven that there were a bunch of brain things that were localized to a region of the brain. The injury had been to the midline of the brain, in addition to the dark energy stuff, Shen Wei potentially hitting his head as he fell, and maybe a shockwave from the bullet itself. A regular bullet would've created a shockwave and concussion, but the dark energy bullets were different, and Zhao Yunlan couldn't exactly conduct experiments on the effects.

Foiled by the human brain's empty bit in the middle and the fact that the midbrain was actually at the bottom, Zhao Yunlan ended up reading about the frontal lobe instead. A guy managed to survive an iron bar through the head, of all things, and live for another twelve years, though with significant personality changes.

So he'd have Shen Wei back – in some way. Perhaps slightly slower, no more that troll with a razor edge of intellect. Perhaps slightly different in personality.

But as he'd told Shen Wei, who remained the same from death to birth? Everyone grew; everyone changed. Age happened to everyone.

His phone rang, jolting him from his thoughts. Minister Gao. He took a deep breath before answering. “Chief Zhao Yunlan of the Special Investigation Department speaking.”

”Chief Zhao!” Minister Gao exclaimed, sounding agitated; Zhao Yunlan ran through a list of potential situations. “A serious matter has befallen the Department of Supervision's laboratory. A researcher, Li Qian, has gone missing. In this time of chaos, inhuman criminal elements might have-”

”Li Qian?!” Zhao Yunlan said, brain abuzz. “Did you misplace the paperwork?”

”Misplace the paperwork?” Minister Gao asked after a while.

”She requested SID escort for a research trip to Dixing,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Your systems must be overloaded these days; it's understandable it wouldn't have showed up.”

”Professor Ouyang didn't say anything about a research trip.”

Zhao Yunlan inhaled. “Ah, Professor Ouyang ... has been under quite an amount of stress lately. We should give our elders allowances. Did you know that stress can adversely affect the memory?”

Minister Gao seemed to buy it, for he let out a humph and continued with a much milder objection. “A research trip to Dixing. What's she even doing down there?”

”She explained it to us, but I must admit, I didn't understand a word.” Zhao Yunlan chuckled.

”I see.” Minister Gao sounded relieved. “Well, she's a good girl; Professor Ouyang didn't recruit her for nothing. I'll tell him not to worry. Take good care of her!”

”I have assigned my best operatives to the case!” Zhao Yunlan said to the beep of Minister Gao ending the call.

He'd have to ask Li Qian about the details later. As he'd just read up on stress affecting the memory, and the current situation was more than stressful, he opened up the SID group chat and wrote a brief summation of the conversation he'd just had with Minister Gao. Then-

Then he had to think about what to do next. Where had they been? An assailant on the loose, the SID enveloped in golden glow – so he shouldn't drive there – and an undersized department.

He needed a whiteboard. Did he have a whiteboard at home? Maybe a pen and paper could do. That he had.

The car was still where he'd left it, though to his chagrin he discovered he'd left it unlocked. Dragon City's miscreants must be busy elsewhere. Or have run for the hills.

A growling stomach reminded him that he needed to feed himself, not just Shen Wei, so he picked up takeout on the way. He picked at it on the couch in a tragic relapse to his pre-Shen Wei days as he stared at the blank piece of paper he'd dug out.

He had an image that was probably of the assailant, an idea of where she'd been, and a guess that she was in Haixing still. Unless she had an accomplice with the skills to transport people to and from Dixing, but Zhao Yunlan couldn't track her there so he'd just ignore that for now. And she'd used the portal at least once.

He scribbled the known and potential locations of the assailant on the piece of paper, then opened a maps application on his phone and stared at the route from the SID to the park. There were a few camera-covered throughfares there; he jotted down their names as well.

Any updates? he texted Da Qing. He was stuck and needed leads to untangle himself.

The phone didn't beep. Damn cat must be in feline form, napping in a sunbeam.

Ah well, he'd answer eventually. Zhao Yunlan finished off the last of the food – it had been some sort of shrimp noodle dish, with lots of vegetables because the healthy eating habits Shen Wei had instilled in him remained even in Shen Wei's absence – and kicked up his feet on the table.

Time to ask himself what he was overlooking. If the reasonable leads were yet to come, the time was ripe to consider the unreasonable ones.

Start with the assailant. What did they actually know about her? A loathing for the Regent and Shen Wei, and ability to traverse to Haixing. Nothing on the powers, though something related to medium-distance running or perhaps microteleportation of some sort was probable. If the various cameras she must've passed didn't show her, then either microteleportation or some other transport-related power – or an ability to change the appearance.

That was potentially interesting. Come to think of it, did they know what Ye Zun looked like, beyond his ability to dress like an inferior palette swap copy of the Black-Cloaked Envoy? Maybe Ye Zun was secretly a woman, pretending to be a man to get somewhere in her villainous plans despite the sexism of the general populace.

Has your Alzheimer's been cured yet? Do you know if Ye Zun is actually a dude? he texted Da Qing.

It wouldn't be Ye Zun's usual modus operandi to do things himself when he could delegate things to a stooge, so this was more of a fringe theory. Nonetheless, he should check what Ya Qing was doing, if only for Ye Zun tracking purposes. He texted the request to Zhu Hong.

The moment he hit send, his phone buzzed. Lin Jing, of all people, was calling him.

Something must've gone seriously wrong with Professor Ouyang's lab, he thought as he answered. “Hello?”

“Hi,” Lin Jing's voice came from the other end of the line. “Uh, so, I don't have much time right now, but Professor Ouyang punched a lab tech who was also Minister Gao's nephew or something, so he got on thin ice with Minister Gao and I think he's fired now? He went crazy after he injected himself with the serum and tore up Minister Gao's desk, anyway. So I can rejoin you soon? And Li Qian's missing.”

“We know where Li Qian is,” Zhao Yunlan said. “She's safe.” Comparatively.

“That's ... good,” Lin Jing said. Something crashed at his end. “Looks like they need me to participate in the investigation. See you later?”

Zhao Yunlan stared out the kitchen window and exhaled. Lin Jing would rejoin them soon. Zhu Hong would be ecstatic and the others happy as well. Zhao Yunlan'd have to debrief him about what he'd gleaned during his spying mission at some point, too.

Da Qing texted him back. WTF? Of course Ye Zun's a dude???? Zhao Yunlan replied with a magnifying glass emoji, then opened the group chat to inform them Lin Jing was coming back.

He was faced with a tasklist where every item was “wait for someone else". Zhao Yunlan sighed and got up to put the takeout container in the trash. He contemplated the rest of the apartment.

It wasn't terribly messy, yet, but when he got Shen Wei home, he wanted Shen Wei to be able to go straight to bed and appreciate that Zhao Yunlan had kept the home to his standards in his absence. And it wasn't like Zhao Yunlan had anything better to do. He grabbed the chemicals from the cleaning cupboard and started methodically cleaning every surface.

Just as Zhao Yunlan was considering his dinner options in a sparkling home, Lin Jing called again. “Hi, boss! I'm officially sent to the SID again while Professor Ouyang's lab is dismantled. They, uh, really want to speak to Li Qian, except that they want her to stay away forever as well. I came to the SID but you seem to have upgraded the shield and it's not letting me in.”

“We think the Hallows went haywire while we were away; no-one else can get in, either.”

“Oh.” Lin Jing was silent for a beat. “So, where are the headquarters now?”

“We're temporarily in Cong Bo's apartment,” Zhao Yunlan brazenly said. “When you come over, bring dinner for five.” Then he ended the call and informed the SID team that they'd meet at Cong Bo's. In a stunning display of magnanimity, he even informed Cong Bo.

“Is it that hard to ask me before descending upon me in force?” Cong Bo complained.

Zhao Yunlan ignored him and munched his meat on a stick. “So, Lin Jing, Zhu Hong, what do you have to report?”

They exchanged glances. Lin Jing went first. “Professor Ouyang's serum project has been shut down, and I think Minister Gao is getting rid of it all. The goal was to give humans Dixing powers via an injectable drug. He was a bit too gung ho about results before, uh, anything, repeatability and ethics included, but I'd like to go over the results with Professor Shen. It seems there's an epigenetic-” Zhao Yunlan cleared his throat; Lin Jing hurriedly moved on. “So, uh, I have backup copies of all the research. I hacked into the Department of Supervision's systems, too.”

That set off Zhao Yunlan's happy centers. “Great! How are our requests for surveillance cam footage doing?”

“Our what?” Lin Jing frowned and pulled out a laptop. “No requests were logged,” he said after some clicking about.

“What, did they filter all our requests straight into the junk folder?” Zhao Yunlan snorted. “Who's the goon in charge of the tape watching?”

“I could submit the request ticket on your behalf,” Lin Jing said. “It'll take until morning before anyone looks at them, but they seize footage at night as well.”

“Great, do so,” Zhao Yunlan said, rattling out the desired times and locations from memory.

The delay was unfortunate; some places overwrote their security recordings within 48 or 24 hours. Was it intentional? If so, was it simply antipathy against the SID, or did the assailant have a mole in the Department of Supervision?

Zhao Yunlan picked up his phone. “Let's see if my emails are still being deleted. Lin Jing, what's your Department of Supervision address?”

Lin Jing rattled it out and Zhao Yunlan sent a test email to him. It arrived unhindered. “Ah, they must've reinstituted my email privileges!” Zhao Yunlan said with a levity he did not feel. He'd have to start tracking whether any request of his actually went through. Would he need to sniff out a mole from the Department of Supervision as well?

But first things first. “Right, our request is being processed. Zhu Hong, how's Ya Qing been doing?”

“I asked Fourth Uncle and Ying Chun, and they haven't noticed Ya Qing do anything other than regular tribe leader things,” Zhu Hong said. “She hasn't been this present in her duties since she started working with Zhu Jiu, apparently.”

“So our beloved nemesis has gone on vacation?” Zhao Yunlan laughed. Interesting. What could be behind this windfall?

Ya Qing might've come to her senses, Ye Zun might be concentrating on getting Dixing back under his grasp in the changed situation – who knew, maybe shooting the revolver in Dixing did weird things to Dixing itself – or, more alarmingly, Ye Zun might have abandoned Ya Qing and Dixing as irrelevant, now that he had a pawn in the bureaucratic machine.

He needed to think. More importantly, he needed timestamps, which wouldn't be coming until the morning. He sighed. “Ah, let's wait until tomorrow. Class dismissed! Call me if there's a problem with the Department of Supervision grunts,” he said and got up.

It was dark outside and the streetlamps an eerie orange. “Do you think our request didn't go through, or do you think it was deleted?” Da Qing asked.

Zhao Yunlan sighed. “Indeed. But in both cases, there's something rotten in the Department of Supervision. You called it in – was there anything unusual?”

“Nah, it was one of the usual people who answered. Geng something, maybe.” Da Qing stretched in his seat. “Do you think Lin Jing could figure it out from personnel records or something? He was really big on the use of metadata at one point.”

“Good idea. Tell him to figure out if our original request was ever put in as a support ticket.”

Da Qing rolled his eyes, but pulled out his phone and called Lin Jing. “Hey. Can you figure out if our original request was deleted or never came through?” Da Qing rattled off some specifications on when it'd been sent, then listened for a bit. “Uh-huh. I'll tell him. Bye.”

“What did Lin Jing want you to tell me?” Zhao Yunlan asked.

“Apparently it'll take a few days, since he needs to get into the backup systems.”

The backup systems, which would show whether the request ever made it through for long enough to be backed up, and maybe the metadata would show something more as well. Perhaps not who deleted it, if Lin Jing was looking at the backups, but what did Zhao Yunlan know? Certainly not all Lin Jing did.

“Let's see what comes up,” he said.

The streetlamps went past in a rhythmic blur. The streets were eerily empty. “Do you think Ye Zun subverted someone in the Department of Supervision?” Da Qing asked.

Zhao Yunlan exhaled through his teeth. “He has mind control powers of some sort. It's far from impossible.”

“And we can't take the Envoy and insist he looks through every Department of Supervision employee's mind, because he's still recovering in Dixing.”

“Even if he weren't, they'd never let him, damn cat,” Zhao Yunlan sighed. “They were making a serum to give humans Dixing powers. Does that sound like people who'd be willing to let Dixingian officials poke around their underlings?”

“Maybe it was Minister Gao who deleted it. Doesn't he hate us now?”

“He's busy sucking up to Dad, and Dad supports our existence for now. I doubt he'd dare.”

Da Qing was silent for a moment. “What'll you do next?”

That Zhao Yunlan could answer, if not how Da Qing wanted him to. “We wait. I'll go talk to Shen Wei again tomorrow morning; do you think there's anything the others would want?”

“They definitely need for me to receive fish,” Da Qing said, shameless as always. “What?” he said at Zhao Yunlan's roll of the eyes. “I'm the king of the food chain! Of course everyone wants to see my appetites sated!”

“I think they want you to go on a diet, fatso,” Zhao Yunlan said.

Da Qing started on his usual complaints when encountering that remark. The comfort and familiarity of the argument was exactly what Zhao Yunlan needed. The world might be changing terrifyingly fast outside the windows, but within the car, Da Qing was just like he'd always been: hilarious to poke at.

The next morning, Zhao Yunlan realized he didn't have breakfast at home, so he bought and ate some like a reasonable adult. He was even kind enough to bring Da Qing some dried fish.

He called Ye Huo and asked him to open the portal to Dixing, then went around picking up takeout and street food to bring with him. Ye Huo deserved to be fed, and while nothing would compare to Shen Wei's cooking, so did Shen Wei. And Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng and Li Qian. Zhao Yunlan added another container of dumplings to the bag.

When they met at the portal, Zhao Yunlan was carrying two straining bags and Ye Huo was looking at him curiously. “Is that all food?”

“What else am I supposed to feed Shen Wei with?”

“He woke up?”

Oh, right, Ye Huo didn't know. Zhao Yunlan set the bags down before they ripped. “Yeah, yesterday. He was still a bit disoriented and suffered from amnesia, though. Let's see how he is today.”

“He'll recover,” Ye Huo said, his confidence balm for Zhao Yunlan's soul. “Though I wonder at Ye Zun. Usually one can feel his tendrils of influence trying to make their way in; currently, no-one's talking about the need to reclaim Haixing for Dixingians.”

Zhao Yunlan nodded. Interesting. “We're worried he might've gotten a minion into a bureucratic position,” he confided. “Or subverted someone.”

“I'll ask about whether anyone saying he had a point was anywhere near the government, but I doubt I'd find it out even if it had happened,” Ye Huo said. “Shall we go?”

At Zhao Yunlan's nod, he opened the portal so it swirled blue and purple and dark. Zhao Yunlan picked up the straining plastic bags and made his way to Dixing.

It was, as always, dark in Dixing. The streets had acquired a few pedestrians more since the last visit; either this coincided with a swell of activity in Dixing's natural rhythms, or the citizens of Dixing were experiencing an upswell of gumption following Ye Zun and the Regent's grips dissipating.

Passers-by took one look at Ye Huo's mask and gave them a wide berth. “How are masks regarded in Dixing?” Zhao Yunlan quietly asked.

“Hiding one's mouth is mildly taboo in the city,” Ye Huo explained. “It might be to do with some of the Regent's old pogroms, or some official's Dixing power, but it never made it to the outlying village where I grew up.”

“Huh.” Pogroms? Zhao Yunlan should've discussed the Regent more with Shen Wei.

But not today, with the Regent dead and Shen Wei recovering from head trauma. Ye Huo opened Xiang Yuanyu's door, and Zhao Yunlan piled in with his bags.

“Morning, everyone!” Zhao Yunlan declared. “I brought food.”

Guo Changcheng straightened up from where he'd been leaning on Chu Shuzhi, and Shen Wei and Li Qian looked up from Li Qian's doodles on a paper. “What did you bring?” Chu Shuzhi asked.

“...stuff.” He'd forgotten precisely what he'd ordered. “Food?”

Chu Shuzhi rolled his eyes, but got up anyway to help Zhao Yunlan take containers out of the bags.

Shen Wei drifted over, still not moving like he was supposed to. “Perhaps we could eat elsewhere?” he asked.

“It'd be hard to picnic in-” Shen Wei interrupted him by twirling the beginnings of a portal around one elegant finger. “Sure. Let's have a picnic.” He hurriedly repacked two people's worth of food and chopsticks into one of the bags and let Shen Wei pull him through the tear in space.

They ended up on an empty plain of smooth rock. The pillar Ye Zun had been confined in could just be seen in the distance, giving a point of reference for the location of the city, but the main feature was a meandering river, waters dark in Dixing's gloom. Its drowning depths flowed still and silent, though no doubt it was the water of life that kept Dixing afloat.

“What food did you bring?” Shen Wei asked.

“Let's see,” Zhao Yunlan said. He lifted out the containers. “I think this is a chicken dish – no, wait, it's tomato egg stirfry – and this is pan-fried tofu, and there's wood ear mushroom salad and some mantou. And some meat on a stick.”

Shen Wei smiled in delight. “Let's start,” he enthused, like a little boy at his first banquet, only barely remembering his table manners.

He'd been born ten thousand years ago, had he not? And the oldest memories came back first. So he might remember the food insecurity but not the years of plenty he'd experienced in the present. No wonder his dear professor had gone all in on cooking, Zhao Yunlan thought.

He cracked open a pair of chopsticks, picked up a piece of tofu, dipped it in the black bean sauce, and brought it up to Shen Wei's face. “Here you go, wonderful.”

Shen Wei ate the tofu and made an appreciative noise. “Thank you,” he said after finishing, “delight.”

Zhao Yunlan laughed. “Ah, Shen Wei, you are such a flatterer.”

“Aren't you the one more inclined in that direction?” Shen Wei asked. “Here is an ear to your honeyed lips.” He lifted a wood ear mushroom to Zhao Yunlan's mouth.

Eating it was only polite. “My xiao-Wei pampers me so.”

“My Yunlan deserves it.” Shen Wei tilted his head in thought. “Or perhaps Ah Lan. Or my little Lanlan.”

Upon hearing the words “my little Lanlan” escape Shen Wei's lips, Zhao Yunlan cracked up. “Oh, Shen Wei, Shen Wei.” He picked up a piece of tomato. “Let me feed you.”

“Of course,” Shen Wei smugly said.

In a display of nauseating sappiness, they fed each other. Zhao Yunlan thought he'd brought too much food, but using Dixing powers must require lots of calories, for when he was stuffed, Shen Wei was still happy to inhale the rest.

After there was not so much as a stray black bean left, Zhao Yunlan gathered the trash into the plastic bag and sat back down with a sigh. “I looked up how amnesia works for humans yesterday. It'll take a while, and the old memories will come back before the new ones, but you should recover. I take it you had fun with Li Qian explaining her research to you?”

Shen Wei was silent for a while. “I didn't understand a thing,” he admitted. “What is a mitochondrion?”

“There was one guy who lost skills and had to relearn them, but the relearning went much faster than originally learning them did,” Zhao Yunlan consoled him.

“What if I don't?” Shen Wei asked.

“Hey. You're smart. You'll figure something out. We'll figure something out.” Zhao Yunlan raised his hand, suddenly hesitant, before squeezing Shen Wei's shoulder. “You're not in this alone.”

“And if I never become the person at whose side you originally pledged to stay?”

“I mean, you're decent enough that I'd want to stay at your side anyway?” Zhao Yunlan said. “Pleasant personality, nimble mind, excellent to look at...”

Shen Wei snorted but smiled. “Zhao Yunlan?”

“Mm?”

“You are too good to be true.”

“Was that a challenge to prove the tangible reality of my existence?”

Shen Wei removed Zhao Yunlan's hand from his shoulder and entwined their fingers instead. “Never change.”

“For you? Only if you ask me to.”

A smile blossomed on Shen Wei's face. “Good,” he said. “Good.” He tilted his head again. “How is Haixing?”

Zhao Yunlan sighed. “We're trying to track down the person who shot you. Our original request for surveillance tape monitoring didn't go through, so now we're wondering whether Ye Zun has a minion in the Department of Supervision, being a spanner in the works.”

“He doesn't,” Shen Wei said.

“Oh?”

“If he were able to install one in the Department of Supervision, surely he'd have done so before?”

Zhao Yunlan laughed. “Too true, too true. I can always trust my lovely Shen Wei to talk sense into me!” He sighed. “I've missed you, you know.”

Shen Wei squeezed his hand. “Doctor Xiang should let me out at some point. How's the rest of Haixing?”

“Professor Ouyang's super serum project got shut down and the files destroyed, Lin Jing's back at the SID, Dad's avoiding me, and I think the Haixing Department of Supervision dislikes me still. Other than that, well, the streets are still quiet, though like Dixing's, I think they're recovering. Speaking of which, does Dixing have any activity cycle, or is everyone just randomly up and about?”

“There is a waking cycle of sorts, but I never managed to figure out what it was tied to,” Shen Wei said. “Nor manage to adjust to it. I'm a child of the surface.”

Zhao Yunlan was never one to waste an opportunity. “Oh? What were your parents like?”

“Dead,” Shen Wei deadpanned. “I was orphaned just before the meteor strike. After ... I was alone in the world. Not many have shown me any sort of kindness or caring, yet here I wake up to the concern of many.”

“I don't know how you got here, but in the present, you interacted with people and they decided you were a wonderful person,” Zhao Yunlan said, only switching out “human being” for “person” at the last moment.

“How do you think I lived for ten thousand years?” Shen Wei asked. “I have no memory of the intervening years.”

“Do you remember Da Qing?” Zhao Yunlan asked. At Shen Wei's shake of the head, he said, “Da Qing is Cat Yashou, also from ten thousand years ago. He says he sort of remembers the intervening years, but the damn cat has Alzheimer's, so the reliability of any memory not from his first few decades is pretty much zilch. Anyway, he says he acquired some sort of immortality by being in contact with the Hallows. You're Dixingian and also have dark energy, so maybe you made it this far by touching the Hallows as well?”

Shen Wei was silent in thought for a moment. “That makes sense, I suppose,” he said. “But what about you? How do I make you immortal?”

Zhao Yunlan smiled. “Well, you definitely opposed any and all Hallows-touching I might've done,” he fondly said. “Though maybe you were just jealous that I was touching something that wasn't you?”

“Give me a while to think and I'm sure I can come up with something,” Shen Wei said, giving Zhao Yunlan's hand a squeeze. He brought his free hand to brush against his temple. “I still have a headache, I'm afraid. It's mostly in the background, but if I try to think too hard, it returns with a vengeance.”

“Don't hurt yourself on my behalf,” Zhao Yunlan said. He raised a hand to Shen Wei's hair and gently stroked. “Your poor head's been through a lot, recently,” he murmured as Shen Wei relaxed beneath his hand. “Be kind to it.”

“As my Yunlan wishes,” Shen Wei purred.

They sat like that for a while, Zhao Yunlan stroking Shen Wei's hair while they held hands. The river drifted idly past.

“I think they're worrying about us,” Zhao Yunlan eventually said.

Shen Wei sighed appreciatively. “If you say so.” He rolled onto his feet in an utterly un-Shen Wei-like manner and stretched. A dark purple swirl appeared at the end of his extended index finger. “Well?” he asked, like a dog desiring praise for its party trick.

“Of course!” Zhao Yunlan said. He quickly grabbed the trash bag and Shen Wei, and let himself be tugged back to Xiang Yuanyu's surgery.

“Oh, you're back!” Guo Changcheng said. “We were getting concerned.”

“No need,” Shen Wei said.

Li Qian swallowed. “Chief Zhao? I ... how are they dealing with my absence on the surface?”

“Minister Gao called; I told him you'd requested SID escort on a research trip. Professor Ouyang's since had his lab terminated and got himself jailed for assault, so I don't expect you'll be questioned too closely after your return. Lin Jing suggested you stay down here for a few days more.”

“Oh.” Li Qian thought for a moment. “And the University?”

“When I called Shen Wei in sick, the department secretary said they were closed for the next two weeks.”

Li Qian breathed a sigh of relief. “I ... think I'd like to go back to the University, but...” She cast a sidelong glance at Shen Wei.

Of course. Her boss had lost all his memories and relevant skills. “I can come up with interim employment at the SID for you,” Zhao Yunlan promised. This was Shen Wei's postgrad; how could he not care for her? “Lin Jing came to us already, so we should be able to absorb you as well with a bit of talking.”

“Thank you,” Li Qian said, suddenly in possession of time to think.

Zhao Yunlan winked. “Since you're on the payroll, make sure your current research trip to Dixing is useful! I'm sure you can figure out a way. No hurry on coming back to the surface; our human resources department is unavailable.”

“What did they do to Wang Zheng?!” Guo Changcheng said.

“She's in the SID building, which is covered in an impenetrable golden shell, remember?” Zhao Yunlan said. “No change.” He should start experimenting with that.

“The Hallows?” Shen Wei asked.

“What else?” Zhao Yunlan shrugged. “Any bright ideas on fixing the situation welcome. I'm sure Lin Jing has plenty of dumb ones already. He tried walking through, but it didn't work.”

Shen Wei frowned in thought. “It is an unusual reaction from the Hallows. Do you know what caused it?”

“You remember things about the Hallows?” Li Qian asked, gratefully relieved like to rains after drought. She'd probably been hard-hit with having to teach her supervisor down here in the dark.

Shen Wei adjusted his glasses in a way most unlike him. “Some things have come back a bit? I've long been acquaintaned with the Hallows.” He turned back to Zhao Yunlan and smiled. “Did you know about its cause?”

“Excellent! We don't know what happened in the SID – it's possible that the assailant discharged the dark energy gun, but that's pure speculation.”

“That ... hmm.” Shen Wei thought for a moment, then twitched back out of his thoughts. “We'll help you out and think about it. Do come to tell us if anthing changes.”

Zhao Yunlan smiled. “Yeah.” He'd played hooky long enough; he was needed back upstairs. “See you.”

He gathered Ye Huo and the trash, then walked back to the portal. Leaving Shen Wei here was even harder this time.

“How was the Envoy?” Ye Huo asked.

“He's improved, but it's not like the baseline was that high,” Zhao Yunlan sighed. “The mind's still there, albeit slowed by headaches, but the memories aren't. As a result, he – feels different.” And he was aware of that, too, and afraid Zhao Yunlan would leave him if he emerged from this experience altered at all.

Ye Huo made a noise of acknowledgement. “When do you think he'll get better?”

“I don't know,” Zhao Yunlan admitted. He couldn't quite keep the tremor out of his voice. “In humans, retrograde amnesia generally takes a long while to refocover from, but in Dixingians... No-one's done the research. Months, maybe.”

“He's sharp enough already, isn't he?”

“Yeah. I just hope I can bring him up to Haixing soon.”

They stopped at the portal. “Understandable,” Ye Huo said, and opened it.

They said their goodbyes in the park. Zhao Yunlan stuffed the trash in the nearest public bin he could find, then called Zhu Hong to tell her, as the SID's office manager and only available support staff, to add Li Qian to the roster.

“Why on Earth would you want that?” she complained.

“Look, she can't go back to Professor Ouyang's lab, he's been arrested. The University's closed for the next few weeks. Where else can she go? Besides, we already appropriated Lin Jing, so we can appropriate her as well.”

“You-” Zhu Hong sighed. “Fine! I'll do it, if you write the explanation for the Department of Supervision.”

“Great.” Zhao Yunlan cut the call. What next? They needed access to the SID tapes. For that, they needed access to the SID. He dialed Lin Jing. It went to voicemail. “Kids these days,” Zhao Yunlan grumbled. “Too busy playing video games at night to wake up before noon.”

What else was there for him to do? Wait for the various tapes he'd requisitioned. Figure out what the hell was going on with Ye Zun and maybe Ya Qing.

His phone buzzed. “So you finally got out of bed,” he greeted Lin Jing.

“I was taking a shower!” Lin Jing complained. “Uh, you called?”

“We need access to the SID to unravel this. In your copious spare time, investigate ways to get through the Hallows effect thing.”

“What copious spare time?!” Lin Jing cried out. “Boss, I'm-”

“Quit complaining; you'll get Li Qian to help you soon.” Zhao Yunlan cut the call.

He drove home with the car radio on in a desperate bid to feel less lonely. It seemed that absence did make the heart, if not fonder, then at least more wistful. And lonely.

At home, he collapsed onto his bed and contemplated buying a body pillow. He'd have to ask Doctor Xiang how long she'd keep Shen Wei. Being alone in bed was making him sad all over again.

The apartment felt empty without Shen Wei in it. To gain something and then have that something excised wasn't like pressing an undo button – the body remembered the loss, whether it be a loss of a tumor or a hand. Or a heart.

What was the human condition but the desire to see oneself in reflections off others? And Zhao Yunlan had been deprived of the mirror dearest to his heart. Even a name was useless if there was never anyone to speak it. He knew he was being ridiculous, Shen Wei was still there to speak his name, albeit not reachable by phone call, but he couldn't help it. He was unmoored, adrift at sea, lost without his other half.

His phone rang. “Hi.”

“Chief Zhao,” Zhu Hong said, uncharacteristically formal. “Ya Qing wants to meet you.”

Zhao Yunlan sat up immediately. “Where?”

“Tomorrow morning, at the ... uh, the Southwest Park? There's an edge where you can see a power line. There, two hours after dawn.”

“Understood.” He itched to ask Zhu Hong about what the hell was going on in her end, but she said her goodbyes and closed the line. Probably Ya Qing had flown over to meet her to arrange the rendez-vous. Or her uncle had turned up with a message.

Not that there was anything he could do. If Ya Qing wanted to talk, she wouldn't do anything to Zhu Hong but be a bit scary, and Zhu Hong had her Snake Tribe powers.

What could he do but wait? Nothing. He stared at the ceiling and fantasized about his absent Shen Wei until he fell asleep.

At an unreasonably early time that happened to be two hours after dawn, Zhao Yunlan was at the specified place in the park. It was smallish and a bit run down – the nearby residential areas were now unfashionable and a bit depleted, leading to less municipal interest in maintaining the park. Some caws could be heard in the distance.

A crow flew up to him and transformed into a woman in a puff of dark energy. “Chief Zhao,” Ya Qing greeted him.

“Elder Ya Qing.”

“Congratulations,” Ya Qing said before Zhao Yunlan could utter another word. “Was it hard to defeat Ye Zun?”

“You haven't heard anything from him?”

“Not for five days.” Ya Qing stared at him suspiciously.

Zhao Yunlan counted. Five days – that would be the day before Shen Wei got shot, and the day Zhao Yunlan had rescued him from Dixing. So short a time, yet so event-filled. “Neither have we,” Zhao Yunlan admitted. Perhaps Ye Zun hadn't interfered in the rescue attempt because he'd been preoccupied with whatever it was he was doing. He filed the thought away for later.

“...interesting,” Ya Qing said.

“Since he's gone missing, perhaps you could consider alternative means to achieve your goal?” Zhao Yunlan suggested. “You wanted to revitalize the Yashou, right? Maybe you could come up with more concrete desires and send them to the SID. I expect there'll be an opportunity to adjust some legislature as this crisis recedes.”

Ya Qing considered for a long while. “And when the old snake and bud want to stay in the middle of the forest?”

“I mean, surely there must be room for something that lets those who wish stay in the forest and allows those who don't to come enjoy the city?” Zhao Yunlan smiled expansively. “I'd ask all the Yashou Elders before suggesting anything to my superiors, of course, but I'm sure the esteemed Elder Ya Qing can figure something out!”

Ya Qing snorted. “Very well. Goodbye, Chief Zhao.” She turned back into a crow and flew off, shedding some feathers as she went.

Interesting. Ye Zun had gone to ground enough that even his minions hadn't heard of him. Perhaps Shen Wei had unwittingly reinforced the seal on the pillar when he'd been tied to it?

Zhao Yunlan yawned. He'd eaten a breakfast, but he'd also gotten up much too early. He walked over to the car, intending to return home to doze on the couch for a bit, but ended up falling asleep in the seat instead.

The Sun blasted his eyes as his stomach growled, jolting him awake. Damn. What time was it? It must be the afternoon. He pulled out his phone.

Three missed calls from Da Qing. He sighed and got out of the Jeep to stretch his legs as he called back.

“How long could talking to Ya Qing take?” Da Qing grumpily shot out the moment he answered.

“It was pretty short, but I tore a leaf from your book and took a nap afterwards.” Zhao Yunlan's spine popped as he stretched. “She hasn't been able to reach Ye Zun for days. She came to congratulate us on a job well done.”

“Days? How many?”

“She said five, which means it might be that Ye Zun was out of commission even before Shen Wei got shot. Maybe those dark energy bindings Ye Zun used to tie him up accidentally ended up reinforcing the seal instead?” Zhao Yunlan leaned on the car hood. “It should give us some leeway in dealing with the situation, at least.”

“Huh,” Da Qing eventually said. “Anyway, Lin Jing's got a whole bunch of failures to report, if you're interested.”

He should probably come take a look, and share the news in person. “Sure. You're still at Cong Bo's?”

“I'll order you food,” Da Qing said and cut the call.

The cat was being surprisingly helpful: it was almost two in the afternoon, and Zhao Yunlan had only eaten an early and light breakfast. He was starving.At Cong Bo's, Zhao Yunlan was handed something with noodles, pork, and snow peas; he inhaled half of it before asking everyone what was going on. His stomach gladly accepted the other half of the food as well.

“Well, we're still waiting on most of the footage, but a few of the park cameras caught her running out of the park, slowing to a walk, and then randomly going about towards the West before they lost her. Some of the cameras on the streets were destroyed the previous week, so they didn't get a good look at her face. She also looked to be walking about randomly instead of going somewhere in specific.”

Zhao Yunlan fished out the last pea from the container and ate it. “And your efforts to get back into the SID?”

Lin Jing hemmed and hawed a bit. “Uh... Unsuccessful. I'm pretty sure it's related to the Hallows, but the Hallows respond really inconsistently even under the best of circumstances, I didn't have time to test them with the Merit Brush, and the energy readings are a bit off from what I got from just the Longevity Dial and Mountain-River Awl.”

“The energy readings are off, you say?”

“Yeah. I mean, the Merit Brush changed the nature of dark energy in Haixing, so my detectors don't work, but it affected the Hallows much less. See, the energy of the Hallows is similar to, but different from dark energy – it's about as distant to dark energy and Yashou energy as they are from each other. The casing around the SID is something different. It's like the energy of the Hallows has been contaminated with something?” Lin Jing shrugged. “More tests are needed, but all my equipment is on the other side of the barrier.”

Zhao Yunlan rubbed his eyes. “Can't you appropriate anything form Professor Ouyang's lab?”

“All of that is for measuring something completely different!” Lin Jing objected. “You can't measure distances with a thermometer, it's-”

“Okay, okay.” Zhao Yunlan held up a hand. “Make do with what you have, and put that brain of yours to work. I know Wang Zheng isn't here to tally up tardies, but surely you can scrounge up the motivation from somewhere? Think about finally getting back to your instruments!”

“Sure, boss. It's just that building backups of my instruments will take weeks,” Lin Jing said. “I've asked Da Qing, Cong Bo, and even Zhu Hong to help, but their assistance is limited.”

“Hey, don't look down on me, I got you a soldering iron!” Cong Bo objected.

“So I shouldn't expect miracles. Got it.” The rest of Dragon City would be mostly closed for another week and change; the SID would just be closed with it.

Zhao Yunlan's stomach rumbled. He really wanted to go cry on Shen Wei's shoulder, but he should probably feed himself some more and bring dinner to Dixing. “Let's have a little tea break with snacks,” he declared. “Zhu Hong, you order.” That left the tea. All his options for delegating it were terrible; he sighed in defeat. “I'll make the tea. Where's the teapot?”

Cong Bo did own a teapot, though it was a bit dinky and obviously never used since it was given to him by some no doubt well-meaning relative. He even had tea – nothing like Zhao Yunlan's collection at home or at the SID, but he did discover a small packet of decent-looking Wanghai Yunwu green tea from the cupboard that was expired but unopened.

A further few minutes of fiddling later, he emerged triumphant from the kitchenette with a pot of hot tea. Zhu Hong returned with a few boxes of steamed buns and some dried fish for Da Qing.

“So,” Zhao Yunlan said around a mouthful of steaming hot bun, “how are the rest of the Yashou reacting?”

“They aren't,” Zhu Hong said, also around a mouthful of bun. “Ya Qing seems to be watching and waiting, too. What did you tell her?”

“I told her that there might be a chance to adjust legislature after all this, and that she should come up with some suggestions that'd be acceptable to the other Yashou tribes as well.”

“Cat Tribe doesn't care, as long as it's acknowledged top of the food chain,” Da Qing said.

Zhao Yunlan swatted at him. “Keep eating, and you'll be heavy enough you'll tumble all the way down to the bottom of the chain.”

Da Qing hissed and swatted back. He was in his human form, so it was mostly hilarious rather than cute, but Zhao Yunlan had long since grown used to such things.

“Do we have an estimated time of delivery for the rest of the tapes?” Zhu Hong asked Lin Jing.

“They don't really do estimates,” Lin Jing said. “Could come within the hour, could come after a week. I haven't heard about them being busy, but who knows what's going on, especially if the rumored round of budget cuts actually happened.”

Zhao Yunlan got up. “I'll go visit Shen Wei, if there's nothing further to wait on,” he said.

The others looked at him with a mix of pitied gazes and rolling eyes. “Wait, there are some instruments I want to place in Dixing,” Lin Jing said. He dove over to a side board to dig out some seemingly identical small boxes. He twiddled a bit with each of them, then handed them to Zhao Yunlan. “They'll measure the dark energy levels and some other things. Fully battery powered with automatic data saving. If you bring them back after a few days, I can make some analysis already, but ideally they'd be there until the battery runs out, so maybe a few weeks.”

Zhao Yunlan would not stand for Shen Wei staying in Dixing for weeks more. “Sure. Do they have to be exposed?”

“Nah, they'll work just fine in xiao-Guo's bag.”

“Great.” Zhao Yunlan held them in his arms. A raised eyebrow, and Lin Jing brought him an empty trash bag. Zhao Yunlan dumped them into it and hoisted it on his shoulder as he called Ye Huo.

Dixing was as it always was: dark and with little foot traffic. Not that Zhao Yunlan had ever seen any other sort of traffic. The lack of cars was reasonable, but he'd have expected for bicycles to have made their way down. He'd have to remember that as a potential business opportunity to bribe someone with, he thought as he walked down Dixing's streets alone. He'd told Ye Huo to stay in Haixing, this time.

When he arrived, Zhao Yunlan said, “Lin Jing sent you some sensors. Stuff them into your messenger bag or something, lest you forget them – Lin Jing wants them back.” He dropped the trash bag in Guo Changcheng's lap. “Shen Wei?”

“Yes?”

“I missed you,” Zhao Yunlan said and was about to throw himself at him when he realized he wasn't quite there with this Shen Wei yet, much as he'd like to be.

Shen Wei tilted his head. A swirling blue and purple portal appeared at the tip of his finger as a suggestion.

“Sure,” he said and took hold of Shen Wei's other hand.

They were back at the banks of the river. Zhao Yunlan's mind saw darkness and an exurban milieu and kept trying to fill in a starry sky above. It was moderately disconcerting.

“Did you actually miss me, or ... what I was?” Shen Wei asked.

“You.” Zhao Yunlan turned to him, a small smile on his lips to confront Shen Wei's doubting face. “I fell in love with you, knowing nothing stays constant. I knew you'd someday get all wrinkly and gray-haired, and everyone's views evolve with time. I always knew I was in this for life. You're not getting rid of me that easily.”

Shen Wei stared at him for a while. He smiled briefly. “Good. How is Haixing?”

“Apparently, Ye Zun has disappeared.” Zhao Yunlan sat down with a huff. “Ya Qing hasn't seen him for five days and thought we'd defeated him. I was thinking, you were tied to his pillar, but he wasn't there to protest your escape. Maybe you suppressed him?”

“I ... hm.” Shen Wei sat down next to Zhao Yunlan and frowned. “I have vague recollections of – something, but I'm not sure whether it's the incident you speak of. Could you tell me what you know?”

“You told me to stay put and went to Dixing, then three days later I finally got a message telling me to come and pick up Guo Changcheng from the trouble he'd ended up in here – while you were away, someone called the Nightmare Master made everyone hallucinate, so he ended up down in Dixing – and I found you tied to the pillar with some dark energy chains. An escaped prisoner gave his life to free you. You were quite upset. Injured as well. I brought you home and cuddled you all night.” Everything really had gone to shit for Zhao Yunlan, hadn't it? Wang Xiangyang's dumb plot with the Merit Brush and the twenty-four hour deadline, then Shen Wei getting tied to a pillar, then Shen Wei getting shot in the fucking head. “The universe has conspired to keep me from cuddling you. It's the greatest tragedy of my life.”

Shen Wei laughed. “Come sit closer to me, then.”

“As my dear Shen Wei commands!”

Zhao Yunlan scooted next to Shen Wei. He was rewarded by Shen Wei leaning down so his head rested in Zhao Yunlan's lap. His short hair fanned out adorably as he looked up at Zhao Yunlan.

“The Universe has conspired against me as well, but- Well. Sometimes it disconcerts me how much I like you.”

“Ah, don't worry; obviously it'd be a bit disconcerting. See, emotions are stored in the amygdala, which is a completely different region than what stores memories, so you have feelings for me but no memory of what caused those feelings.”

“Wasn't I supposed to be the scientist of the two of us?” Shen Wei plaintively asked.

Zhao Yunlan adjusted Shen Wei's glasses. Shen Wei let him. “It's okay, I can do research on your behalf while you recover.”

A complicated smile rose to Shen Wei's face. “I can see-” He swallowed. “I can see why I loved you.”

Zhao Yunlan beamed. “I'll continue for as long as you will tolerate me.”

“You're very good at stealing hearts,” Shen Wei sighed. “Though I suppose I am an easy target.”

“Oh?”

“My parents died when I was young, and after that I was scrambling to make do. People didn't care for me as a person, only for what I could do for them.”

Zhao Yunlan pet Shen Wei's hair. “And you're kind and merciful, so you let them take advantage of you.”

Shen Wei blinked innocently. “Me?”

“Don't try to claim otherwise, Brother Black,” Zhao Yunlan said in a mock stern voice. “I know all about your catch-and-release program!”

“Ah.” Shen Wei smiled awkwardly. “Do you know what you're missing?”

“I'm afraid Professor Shen will have to educate me.”

“The Sun behind your head, to make your hair glow.” Shen Wei reached to stroke Zhao Yunlan's cheek; Zhao Yunlan's heart kicked into overdrive. “Dixing is sadly lacking in this aspect as well.”

“Don't be too down on it – it shaped you, didn't it?”

Shen Wei rolled his eyes. “I was born on the surface. They didn't have a Treaty forbidding us from enjoying the sunlight and the fruits of the surface, back then. I feel little connection to this place.”

“Ah, so you wish to be a beautiful flower, happily soaking in the light on a Sun-drenched meadow.” Damn, his Shen Wei was adorable.

“Who wouldn't, after so long in the dark?” Shen Wei sighed.

“Did Doctor Xiang say anything about how long she needs to keep you here?”

“I asked her, and she said a ... it'd correspond to a few days,” Shen Wei said. “Dixing's timekeeping is somewhat inconsistent, and based on a variety of methods that often contradict each other.”

“Well, when she lets you go, I'm taking you somewhere where you can pretend you're a sunflower.”

Shen Wei beamed. “I suspect you're fully imaginary.”

“Oh, I'm very real.” He continued stroking Shen Wei's hair. It was silky smooth in his hands, and felt clean; he must've been allowed to shower. Or use some dark energy cleansing method.

“How long do I get to keep you for?” Shen Wei murmured, melting into Zhao Yunlan's embrace.

“Not too long, I'm afraid – I'm waiting on things from the Haixing Department of Supervision, and if they call today, they'll only wait that long for my reply.”

“Ah.” He looked downcast, then sighed. “I suppose I'll have to say goodbye to you, then.”

“I'll return,” Zhao Yunlan promised.

Shen Wei rose out of Zhao Yunlan's lap, but remained close. He stared, thoughtful, then leaned in. Zhao Yunlan felt warm breath on his face.

Then their lips met, and watered a corner of Zhao Yunlan's heart he hadn't realized was crumbling into dry dust. He gasped like a starving man might at food. Shen Wei was clumsy and uncertain, but this was all Zhao Yunlan could ever want. He moved his lips gently, trying to smooth down the urge to devour, as he cradled Shen Wei's head in his hands and did his best to meld their mouths together.

“You're so good for me,” Zhao Yunlan sighed when Shen Wei pulled back.

“Next time you come visit, could you stay the night?” Shen Wei shyly asked, face too close to make out his expression.

“I will move heavens and earth to make that happen,” Zhao Yunlan promised, stoked at the chance of getting to cuddle Shen Wei all night.

Shen Wei got on his feet and held out his hand. When Zhao Yunlan took it, Shen Wei teleported them back to Doctor Xiang's surgery.

“Take care,” he told Shen Wei, then asked Chu Shuzhi to open the portal from this side. Li Qian handed him a sheet of paper, asking him to deliver it to Lin Jing; Zhao Yunlan couldn't make heads or tails of the content.

“How is the situation in Haixing?” Chu Shuzhi asked as they walked.

Right, he'd only been giving updates to Shen Wei while canoodling. Oops. “Someone deleted or didn't receive our surveillance footage request, but Lin Jing manually reinserted it into the system. Ye Zun's absent – Ya Qing thought we'd defeated him. Hasn't been seen since the day before Shen Wei got shot.”

Chu Shuzhi made a noise of acknowledgement. “We won't have seen the last of him.”

Zhao Yunlan sighed. “I think so, too. But if this truly is a reprieve, I cannot think of a better time to have it.”

“Mm.”

They arrived at the portal. Chu Shuzhi twisted an invisible knob, and a blue-purple tear in the fabric of reality swirled into existence.

“Good luck,” Chu Shuzhi said.

“Take care,” Zhao Yunlan replied, and stepped through the rend out of Dixing's eternal night into the early-evening light that caressed the old locust tree.

He was beginning to associate Haixing with a dire lack of Shen Wei. He sighed and dug out his phone. It buzzed for a while, various messages from the SID group chat that didn't need his attention arriving in his phone in a nonlinear barrage.

A text arrived from his father. Do you have a status update to give?

Trust dad to be snooty. Alas, he was his superior and had cause to know. Ye Zun MIA, weirdness with our requests to DoS (fixed), Shen Wei recovering. He considered censoring it, but he had to admit that he was colossally distracted and his father did have a brain on him. He pressed Send and waited.

Take care, his father – or rather, Zhang Shi – texted back.

Zhao Yunlan sighed. Trust his father to want to send something so unnecessarily abrasive Zhang Shi had to intervene. Except-

He looked through the texting log. They hadn't met in person since the gun incident, which Zhao Yunlan didn't mind, but his father hadn't insisted on meeting him, or even trying to call. Just texted. And when viewed in bulk, the texts were off in tone.

The apartment complex Zhao Xinci lived in was not as posh as one might have imagined, but the security cameras were more prominent than Zhao Yunlan recalled. A grim feeling built in him as he walked to his dad's door and rang the bell.

“Yunlan?” his father said, surprised, as he opened the door. “I didn't know you were coming.”

Zhang Shi, definitely. “There were some details about the case I wished to consult you about. Shall we?” Zhao Yunlan gestured at the indoors.

Hesitation. “Of course.”

The living room was decorated as closely like Zhao Yunlan's childhood home as his father had managed to make it. Reminders of his mother's taste in furniture and decor pressed at him from all directions. His father might have had to move, but he had moved the mausoleum to his wife with him.

“What was it?” Zhang Shi asked as he sat down on the old, uncomfortable couch.

“I want to talk to my father.”

A blink and small shake. “What is it?” he asked.

It was almost a good enough impression, but almost didn't cut it. Zhao Yunlan pulled out the gun and leveled it at Zhang Shi. “I want to talk to my father.”

Zhang Shi sighed. “I am your father.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yunlan, you-” His father's whole body suddenly jerked violently. “He gave it to her!” his father said.

Zhao Yunlan swallowed and stared. “Why?” he asked, trying to digest the implications.

His father's features settled back into a smoothness Zhao Yunlan was growing to associate with Zhang Shi. “I gave her the gun, yes,” he said. “It was because she promised to kill Ye Zun.”

Zhao Yunlan felt like he was having an out-of-body experience. “Did you know whom else she'd target?” he asked on autopilot.

“Ye Zun was a sufficient threat that any collateral damage was more than worth it,” Zhang Shi said. “You weren't there in the war ten thousand years ago. Ma Gui told me stories of what he and his rebels did. They razed towns, kidnapped children, and Ye Zun mind controlled otherwise honorable men into joining his rebellion against all that was right and proper so that he could burn down what was left of the world and declare himself lord of the ashes.”

“And you tell this to me now, instead of months ago? You'd rather give my gun – my gun, which you shouldn't even have been handling, Dixingian that you are – to some random stranger without so much as a post facto report that we're wasting our time tracking down how she got her hands on it?” Zhao Yunlan yelled.

Zhang Shi sat, calm and composed, despite Zhao Yunlan raging at him with a gun in his hands. “One must not grow too fixed on right and wrong.”

“You-” Zhao Yunlan's hand started to rise, but a sick feeling twisted in his gut before he could raise his gun. He yelled without words and stomped out of the apartment into the outdoors, slamming every door he could.

Fuck. Fuck. He'd thought that his years of running the SID successfully, or at least his successful rescue of his father from Wang Xiangyang's hands, would've made his father thing positively enough of him to fucking warn him if he was going to pull shit like this. Or at least express some fucking compassion at his beloved getting shot as a result. Even if he was from Dixing. Couldn't the old man have at least expressed a sentiment that we must all make sacrifices?

Zhao Yunlan kicked a lamppost and regretted it the instant pain shot up his foot. He hopped in place, clutching his toes and hissing.

Violence against inanimate objects wouldn't help and wasn't satisfying. He sighed and limped to his car. He drove home in his own personal cloud of misery, despite the weather not cooperating with his moods.

At home, he collapsed on the bed and stared at the ceiling. It didn't comment.

“Fuck,” he croaked. He turned around to bury his face in the pillow. It didn't smell of Shen Wei anymore.

That smell had been one of the only things getting him through the days Shen Wei had spent tied to the pillar. But now ... it had been nine days since the last proper night they spent together, Shen Wei here, exasperated at Zhao Yunlan for whatever reason and then shedding his glasses to cuddle Zhao Yunlan asleep.

So fast the tides changed. They'd had one night since where Shen Wei slept up here, exhausted from his captivity, battered and bruised, Zhao Yunlan sleeping with half an eye open to keep watch on him. Now, Shen Wei as Zhao Yunlan knew him was – gone. Temporarily, if not permanently.

There were many nice things about this new Shen Wei, he told himself. New Shen Wei was cuddlier and smiled more, making him look much cuter. He was still sharp, and would be even sharper when he'd recovered properly from his concussion. He still had a playful edge to him. He was nice and good and sexy all by himself, and as he recovered, he'd regain more of his memories and become more like the old Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan should count himself lucky.

Lucky that Shen Wei was still alive in some way, instead of decaying into the dirt forever. Lucky that he still had some hope to lose.

The pillow was wet. Zhao Yunlan's breaths were choppy from the lump in his throat and the snot in his nose.

Sometime during the night, a cat plopped its fat mass on Zhao Yunlan's sleeping form and joined him in slumber.

Morning came, and Zhao Yunlan felt like shit. The weight on his upper back was probably Da Qing, but his arms were numb and his back had a kink from the terrible position he'd slept in. And without a Shen Wei to entice him to strip, he'd gone to bed fully clothed. He hadn't been doing this bad in months.

Not since he met Shen Wei.

Zhao Yunlan sighed loudly and rolled out of bed. Da Qing meowed huffily as his beauty sleep was interrupted by his mattress going away.

Something crinkled in his pocket as he stretched. Oh yeah, the note he'd promised to deliver to Lin Jing. Well, he could do that today.

He brushed his teeth, put his clothes away – the leather jacket to hang, the shirt and jeans into their own piles on the floor – and picked at the clean items he had left. He grabbed an unripped pair of jeans he hadn't worn for a few days and rummaged through his pile of shirts to find something clean. Less than two weeks without Shen Wei here to manage his house, and he was already running out of clean clothes and piling up dirty ones on the floor.

He pulled out his phone and tried to turn it on. It remained dark. For a while, he thought he'd broken it, but then he recalled it had been days since he last charged it.

Hunting out the charging cable from beneath the clothes took a few minutes. When his phone was finally eating electricity, Zhao Yunlan sighed and picked up Da Qing to lie down beneath him. “I guess I'll be your heating pad for a while longer, damn cat.”

Da Qing was asleep. Wise of him, Zhao Yunlan supposed. He had a heating pad and a sunbeam: what else could a cat want?

Zhao Yunlan had a cat and a sunbeam: what else could he want? Apart from a charged phone and a Shen Wei by his side. Though had he had Shen Wei there, he'd have been content with his lot even without the phone or cat or sunbeam, and never get out of bed.

He was the boss, and he should probably not be slacking off this much. He squirmed so he could get at his phone without disturbing Da Qing. This time, it had enough juice to start. He stared at the boot animation and wondered where his life had all gone wrong.

Inputting his PIN was the sort of pleasingly mundane task that made his burgeoning existential crisis stop in its tracks. Battery at 7%. It seemed he'd be here a while.

With a bit of twisting, he could bring the phone to his cheek. He called Lin Jing.

“Morning, boss,” Lin Jing soon replied. He sounded like he'd just woken up.

“Li Qian wanted me to give you a note,” Zhao Yunlan said, smugly superior about the fact that he was dressed in new clothes and thus ahead of Lin Jing in morning routines. “Are you still holed up at Cong Bo's?”

“Give me an hour,” Lin Jing croaked.

“I'll see you then!” Zhao Yunlan cheerfully said and cut the call. It'd take him twenty minutes to get from here to Cong Bo's place, so he set an alarm for half an hour's time and settled back on the bed.

Da Qing resettled himself on Zhao Yunlan's chest. “What got you into such a tizzy last night that you forgot to remove your clothes, anyway?”

So the damn cat was awake. Zhao Yunlan lifted his hand to pet him. “I went to talk to dad. Turns out Zhang Shi gave the gun to the assailant so she'd kill Ye Zun.”

“And didn't tell you? Huh.”

A stab of relief ran through Zhao Yunlan's heart at the damn cat agreeing with his concerns. “Yeah.”

Da Qing flicked his tail. “Well, did she kill Ye Zun?”

“There was that missing bullet.” While she could've gone to Dixing, gone to the SID, and then gone back to Dixing, it was a long trip.

But hadn't Ye Zun been missing potentially starting from the previous day? She could've unloaded the full clip into the pillar, waited for the bullets to regenerate, repeated the process, and then waltzed into the SID to do whatever had caused the Hallows to throw a shield around it. “I'll have to ask Shen Wei whether he remembers anyone shooting the pillar while he was tied to it.”

“Maybe that'd explain the bad state he was in when you brought him up,” Da Qing suggested.

That – would make sense. Zhao Yunlan stroked Da Qing's fur in thought. The assailant, assuming she was just a regular Dixingian and not super strong like Shen Wei, would probably try to sneak up on her quarry from behind to avoid witnesses. Ye Zun might be able to see her no matter how she approached, but he also couldn't escape. Her aim would thus be to ensure no others saw her.

Thinking further, she might've also hoped this would kill off Shen Wei, and had to slink off to wait for the bullets to recharge when disappointed. Add some time for reconnaissance – in Shen Wei's office, perhaps hoping to shoot him there – and it all came together.

The Hallows were the biggest question, but perhaps she'd wanted them for what came after shooting a bunch of powerful Dixingians. Ye Zun had wanted to absorb their powers. If the assailant tried to get at them but ended up triggering some sort of defense mechanism instead, she'd panic and run to kill the rest of her targets before the SID caught on to her. And then toss the gun once she was done so as to make herself a lower-value target and go to ground.

“What're you thinking?”

“The assailant panicked when the Hallows did their thing, and ran to complete her mission. She tossed the gun to make herself less of a priority for us.”

“Makes sense.” Da Qing purred as Zhao Yunlan stroked his back just right.

He had a purring cat and a sunbeam, and he needed to figure out what to do next. Shen Wei had invited him to stay the night, so he'd go there when afternoon turned to evening and bring dinner with him. Before that, he'd drop off Li Qian's note with Lin Jing, and ... something.

How the hell was one supposed to respond to a senior government official being, if not the mastermind, then at least the matchstick for this?

Oh yeah, and his dad the senior government official was being mind controlled by an alien. He should probably be a good civil servant and deal with that. Maybe he could call in the afternoon.

The phone alarm beeped, jolting him out of his thoughts and Da Qing out of his lap. He jumped to turn it off and rolled out of bed. “I'm off to bug Lin Jing. Do some actual work,” he told Da Qing as he picked through his jackets. The brown trench coat would go well enough with the rest of his outfit.

“You do some actual work first,” Da Qing huffed. Zhao Yunlan was halfway out the door, so he merely blew a raspberry at the cat.

Cong Bo's apartment complex had a street hawker at the corner. Zhao Yunlan bought candied hawthorns before entering. They were pleasantly sweet, and a comforting enough breakfast.

Even with this detour, he managed to arrive before Lin Jing. He held court in a bleary Cong Bo's computer room and told the owner to put some pants on.

When Lin Jing finally arrived, five minutes late, he looked like someone woken up at 5 am, instead of the actual, much more reasonable hour of eight. “Afternoon,” Zhao Yunlan said, because he was nothing if not an annoyance.

“...morning,” Lin Jing replied. “You had a note?”

“Yeah.” He dug it out of his pocket and handed it over. “Can you make it out?”

Lin Jing stared at it. “Uh. It's theorizing on the Hallows? Huh, that looks interesting.”

“Can you use this to, I don't know, reverse the polarity of the Hallows and let us into the SID building?”

“The Hallows don't work that way,” Lin Jing grumbled. “They don't have a polarity to reverse. Flipping the direction of the dark energy Poynting vector won't turn it off, dark energy circulates around the Hallows-” He continued with his usual protestations, this time including a striking comparison of Dixingians to sentient bar magnets who affected the fieldlines of dark energy.

Zhao Yunlan let him talk. When he finally ran out of steam, Zhao Yunlan asked, “Well, do you have any results?”

“I told you, I'm still building the equipment!”

Zhao Yunlan sighed. “Ah, no matter. Go on. Do your thing here. I'll order lunch and go to Dixing in the evening and stay the night.”

Lin Jing's eyebrows rose. “Of course. It must've been lonely without your usual activities.” He smirked, winked, and moved his index finger back and forth through an O formed with the other hand.

“Cancel Lin Jing's bonus for the month,” Zhao Yunlan called out.

“I'm not your fucking secretary, okay?” Cong Bo replied as he entered. Lin Jing got a laugh at Zhao Yunlan's expense, but he couldn't be too mad. At least Cong Bo was now wearing pants.

After lunch, Zhao Yunlan tried calling his father. He went to voicemail.

This repeated over the whole afternoon, no matter whether Zhao Yunlan called on the hour or an odd time. Even Director Zhao of the Xingdu Bureau wouldn't spend the entire afternoon in meetings without so much as a chance to text an order to call him tomorrow, so Zhang Shi must be avoiding him. Zhao Yunlan left a brief and neutrally worded text requesting details on the assailant's political background. Not that it'd be answered, if Zhang Shi was in control and not speaking to him.

Having given in on that, Zhao Yunlan headed home. Da Qing was kitten-sitting the few members of the SID team on Haixing outside the SID, which probably meant ordering much too much fish on government dime, but would at least keep himself and the others out of trouble.

The apartment was like he'd left it. He stood in front of a mirror and picked through the semi-clean clothes on the floor, trying to find what'd look best.

He snorted. Here he was, off to meet his beloved, dressing up like for a first date. It seemed this was a universal human urge.

After he'd decided that the jeans were fine, but he should replace the brown jacket with a leather trench coat, his eye caught on the nightstand. Spend the night, Shen Wei had asked. Zhao Yunlan hesitated for a moment, then decided he might as well take some lube with him. The bottle was too large and obvious, but he still had some of those single-use sachets from when he and Shen Wei had been brand shopping. Zhao Yunlan hadn't felt much difference, but Shen Wei was a meticulous customer, as always; he took one sachet of a type Shen Wei had liked and slid it into his wallet.

His next stop was Shen Wei's apartment. His dear professor had smelled decent the last few times he'd visited, and the dark green coat, mandarin collar shirt, and black slacks weren't that bad leisure wear – Shen Wei certainly owned more dire items – but he might like a change of clothes.

After a thorough rummage past Shen Wei's ill-fitting pants, delivery firm uniform style shirt, and various other crimes against fashion, Zhao Yunlan found the jeans Shen Wei had worn to the mountains and some sort of t-shirt stash. Some of those were truly dire as well, though as they seemed to be things given at biology conferences, Zhao Yunlan was inclined to cut Shen Wei some slack on this matter, if not the rest of the casualwear. He picked a snazzy black t-shirt with the DNA double helix and what was probably a conference name on it, took the North Face jacket he'd given to Shen Wei and Shen Wei had turned into some sort of shrine, put those atop folded-up jeans, and added clean socks and underwear to the pile.

With the clothes in one bag, garnished with power packs, he went out and bought a whole bunch of takeout. It was almost dinnertime when he met Ye Huo at the entry to Dixing. He gave him a box of dry fried beef for his troubles.

Walking to Xiang Yuanyu's house took long with his burdens. He kicked the door gently when he arrived, hands too full for knocking.

Yi Lie opened it. “Chief Zhao?”

Zhao Yunlan smiled winningly. “I brought food.”

She opened the door and let him in. Everyone else was already in the common room, Xiang Yuanyu doing some dark energy probing of Shen Wei while the other habitual surface dwellers observed.

Xiang Yuanyu withdrew her dark energy. “It seems I won't have to cook.”

“Thank you for hosting this bunch,” Zhao Yunlan replied. “We'll be out of your hair soon enough. How is Shen Wei?”

She stared at him for a while, then turned back to Shen Wei. “There are no ... but I want to see how this develops.” She sent a flicker of dark energy at Shen Wei's forehead, where a small white line still marked the bullet entry wound.

“Oh?”

“His dark energy core was pierced. It has healed almost fully, but it seems to have sustained some prior injury. Its ... fine structure is still rough.”

Zhao Yunlan was struck with a memory of Shen Wei slitting his wrist in the kitchen. “Understood.”

They set out the food and ate. Zhao Yunlan asked Li Qian if she'd figured out a way to get past the Hallows yet and Yi Lie if there was any news in Dixing; neither had anything to report. He didn't update Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng on Zhang Shi giving the gun to the assailant; he wasn't willing to admit that amount of incompetence and duplicity on Haixing's end in front of the Palace Guard.

After dinner, they washed the dishes they'd used, including some of the takeout containers – Xiang Yuanyu expressed a desire to see if they could be used for storing medicine. Their hosts retreated upstairs. Zhao Yunlan distributed the charging packs before they all retreated to their rooms for the night. He spared a moment of pity for Li Qian, all alone in this strange land, but she had been happy enough at dinner.

Shen Wei had a separate bed in a little alcove, blocked off from the rest of the room with a thick curtain. The others' beds were off from different rooms, perhaps – at any rate, Zhao Yunlan heard no murmurs of speech nor breaths but Shen Wei's and his own.

“I was thinking ... what are the bullets from the gun like?” Shen Wei quietly asked, sitting cross-legged on the bed.

Zhao Yunlan took out his gun and removed a bullet. He held it out on his hand.

Shen Wei reached out to touch it, then jerked back with a hiss as if he'd been burned.

“Are you all right?” Zhao Yunlan asked.

“It's unpleasant to touch,” Shen Wei said. He stared at his fingertips. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but his fingers seemed to have no marks. He reached out again, and this time Zhao Yunlan could feel the dark energy probing as a cool pressure against his skin.

“How is it?” Zhao Yunlan asked once the pressure receded.

“I can definitely see how it'd react with the Hallows. I'll have to think about it more. Seeing the SID building would also be helpful.” Shen Wei sighed and scooted closer so he could lean against Zhao Yunlan. “My head hurts.”

Zhao Yunlan put the bullet back in and dropped his jacket with the gun and gun holster on the floor. “It's okay if your head hurts occasionally,” he said as he threw an arm around Shen Wei. “It got banged up badly. Don't feel guilty for resting it.”

“So caring,” Shen Wei murmured. “What's in the bag?”

“Oh, that one? A change of clothes for you. I thought it'd-”

Shen Wei kissed his cheek. Zhao Yunlan's brain shut down for a moment. “Thank you,” Shen Wei said.

“Anything for you,” Zhao Yunlan sighed. A sudden yawn erupted on his face.

“Sleep?” Shen Wei suggested.

They shrugged out of the rest of their clothes and settled under the covers. Zhao Yunlan's heart ached with happiness at spooning his Shen Wei in the nude once more. He curled up against his beloved's back and kissed his neck.

But there were things he should tell. “Hey. I ... found out how the assailant got my gun.” He swallowed. “Zhang Shi gave it to her.”

“Zhang Shi?”

Right, Shen Wei hadn't heard of him. “Turns out that my dad has been sharing a body with Ma Gui's Dixingian pupil for the past two decades.”

“Your father? I don't know whether to laugh or cry.” Shen Wei turned around in Zhao Yunlan's arms, head now neatly tucked under Zhao Yunlan's chin. “Why did he do it?”

“Because he thought she'd kill Ye Zun.”

Shen Wei froze. “He'd do this without asking you, without informing you later on, without-”

“He's even been keeping dad under lock and key.” Zhao Yunlan exhaled and rubbed his thumb against Shen Wei's shoulder blade. “He claimed it was worth it, due to what Ye Zun did in the past.”

“What did he say Ye Zun did?”

“Razed villages, kidnapped children, mind controlled people to fight for him, stood for the utter destruction of the world order so he could rule as the god of the ashes, that sort of thing.”

“That's...” Shen Wei sighed, acerb. “What lies did Ma Gui peddle him? He seems to have confused Ye Zun for the original rebel leader.”

Indeed, Shen Wei had been there ten thousand years ago – unlike Zhang Shi. “Oh? What about Ye Zun, then?”

“He started out as one of the kidnapped children,” Shen Wei said, pain in his voice, then changed the topic. “I don't suppose Lin Jing has had much success in Haixing, even with Li Qian's notes?”

“He's still building his experimental equipment. Apparently his was all left on the other side of the shield.”

“That would hinder him,” Shen Wei fondly said. A long moment later, he adjusted his position in Zhao Yunlan's arms, brushing against Zhao Yunlan's naked dick which was suddenly very, very interested. “I missed this,” he sighed.

“What else did you miss?”

Shen Wei squirmed up so his face was just inches away from Zhao Yunlan's. “Amongst other things, a number of activities conducted in the nude. Would you like to fuck me?”

“Fuck, yes,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Wait, let me-” He squirmed over to fish for his jeans on the floor and patted at them. Keys, phone, wallet – he pulled out the wallet and triumphantly returned to bed with the sachet of lube. “There.”

“How would you like me?” Shen Wei asked, and there was the slightest catch to his voice.

“Just lie on your back and let me take care of you,” Zhao Yunlan murmured.

He knelt between Shen Wei's legs and carefully opened the sachet. He squeezed a small dollop onto his fingertips and brought them to massage at Shen Wei's etrance.

“Huh,” Shen Wei said.

“Relax,” Zhao Yunlan whispered.

He shuffled closer and bent to press kisses to Shen Wei's torso. First one and then the other of Shen Wei's hands rose to stroke his head and shoulders.

Zhao Yunlan added another dollop of lube to his fingers. One of them slid in.

Shen Wei's breath hitched. “You- ohh,” he sighed as Zhao Yunlan pushed the finger further in.

“Enjoy the ride,” Zhao Yunlan murmured and added a second finger.

It was too dark to see a thing, so he went by touch. He already knew where Shen Wei's prostate was from long practice, and how best to stroke it and its surroundings, so he simply listened to Shen Wei's breaths and noises and felt him twitch and clench and relax to determine how to touch him.

“Yunlan,” Shen Wei moaned, hips twitching.

“Do you want my dick?” Zhao Yunlan asked. His heart was hammering in his chest as he wanted, wanted Shen Wei spread out under him-

“Please,” Shen Wei exhaled.

Zhao Yunlan immediately emptied the lube sachet onto his dick and repositioned himself between Shen Wei's legs. He lifted Shen Wei's hips a bit and guided himself in.

Penetration was like coming home after a long absence. Shen Wei's hands rose to clutch Zhao Yunlan's shoulders like his heat surrounded Zhao Yunlan's dick. They were separate, but also one. Zhao Yunlan laughed soundlessly.

He bent down. “How does it feel?” he murmured against Shen Wei's skin.

“I doubt I've ever felt this good,” Shen Wei said. He squirmed, and fuck, that felt-.

“Excellent,” he replied, breath hitching, and buried himself fully into Shen Wei.

Then he continued what he'd started with his fingers: he felt and listened. Felt Shen Wei's hips twitch, his fingers curl into Zhao Yunlan's shoulders, his chest heave. Listened to Shen Wei's breaths catch in his throat, his little moans, his legs scrabble on the sheets.

He let himself bend down and kiss every inch of Shen Wei's skin he could reach, peppering love across Shen Wei's chest as heat coursed through him. He wanted both for this moment to last forever and for it to immediately come to a climax.

A few thrusts more, and he was reaching the point of no return. He reached between them to curl his fingers around Shen Wei's cock and tugged.

It wasn't a convenient angle by any means, but touch was touch, and Zhao Yunlan had Shen Wei coming in his arms as he reached climax. Lack of recent practice meant his timing was a bit off and their orgasms asynchronous, but an orgasm was an orgasm, and this one was with Shen Wei.

He slipped out of Shen Wei and arranged himself on his side. “How did you find our first time together in Dixing?”

A single peal of joyous laughter burst from Shen Wei's lips. He rolled onto his side to face Zhao Yunlan and kissed him. “The best thing that ever happened to me.”

“My xiao-Wei's life has been hard, I understand.” Zhao Yunlan put his arm around Shen Wei and nuzzled his face until he found his lips to kiss.

“The Universe has given me you as compensation,” Shen Wei murmured between kisses.

“I'll compensate for every suffering you've ever experienced,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Come, turn around so I can spoon you properly while we sleep.”

Shen Wei immediately turned around and melted into Zhao Yunlan's chest. “Good night,” he sighed.

“Good night,” Zhao Yunlan replied, and fell asleep happy.

In Dixing, time was an abstract concept. At some point when Zhao Yunlan was starting to wake up, Yi Lie walked down the stairs and made herself some breakfast before leaving the house. Xiang Yuanyu followed her soon after.

Shen Wei stirred. He was adorably sleep-muzzy and soft, though there wasn't enough light to appreciate him.

“Wake up, beautiful,” Zhao Yunlan said, enjoying this chance to watch Shen Wei rise from slumber.

“Mnh.” Shen Wei waved a hand, and the candle on the little side table lit up.

Shen Wei's hair was all mussed up and sticking in every direction, and he looked like he were five minutes away from falling back asleep. Slumber clung to his every feature, from his drooping head to his boneless body.

Zhao Yunlan kissed him and ruffled his hair. “You're so adorable.”

A smile slowly rose to Shen Wei's face. “You, too.”

The sound of Chu Shuzhi's footsteps came from beyond the curtain. Zhao Yunlan crawled over Shen Wei to squat on the floor. “I have to go back to Haixing now. Take care, okay? I'll leave the new clothes here and take the old ones up so you can launder them later.”

“Sure,” Shen Wei said muzzily enough that Zhao Yunlan had to kiss him breathless.

Once dressed, Zhao Yunlan laid out the jeans, t-shirt, jacket, clean socks and underwear for Shen Wei when he was ready to rise and stuffed yesterday's clothes in the bag, along with the empty lube sachet. With a final goodbye, he slipped past the curtain into the main room.

“I'll take you to the portal,” Chu Shuzhi volunteered.

He was awfully quiet on the way there, and kept checking for eavesdroppers. Zhao Yunlan perked his ears.

At the portal, Chu Shuzhi followed Zhao Yunlan through. “So, what is it?” Zhao Yunlan asked as he squinted his eyes in the morning sunlight.

“The Envoy is as recovered as he will be,” Chu Shuzhi said. “Has been for a few days. Doctor Xiang has some other motive to keeping him there.”

Interesting. “I'll come visit today and bring Li Qian up. Don't hesitate to get out if something seems wrong. Shen Wei should still have all his powers, including whatever he uses to portal between Dixing and Haixing, even if it might take him a few moments to recall how to use it.”

Chu Shuzhi nodded briskly. “Understood.”

Zhao Yunlan sighed. “I suppose Doctor Xiang might want the Envoy out of the way so Yi Lie can do her political things in peace. See if you can find out what's going on.”

“Yes.” Chu Shuzhi pulled out his phone and read his unread messages. Zhao Yunlan left him to it.

As he lacked better ideas, he went to the SID building. Lin Jing hadn't managed to bring down the Hallows field thing that still glowed gold around it.

He walked right up to where the door would be. The field was hazy and glowing and textureless, as if it were made of pure light.

His beloved had amnesia, his office was unreachable, his team was scattered, and his father had allowed his beloved to get shot. “Fuck,” he hissed with invective, and hit his fist against the glow.

He fell through it.

Zhao Yunlan fell onto his hands and knees. He'd been outside, now he was...

“Chief Zhao!” Wang Zheng shouted. “You're here?”

“Yeah.” He got on his feet and regretted skipping breakfast. “I didn't know it'd be possible to fall through the shield thing. Lin Jing couldn't do it when he tried. How are things in here?”

Sang Zan arrived as well. He and Wang Zheng traded a glance. “The two men from the Department of Supervision have been eating lao-Li's food,” she said.

“As long as they haven't starved,” Zhao Yunlan sighed. He noticed the two energy beings' guilty bearing. “What?”

“A woman came here as well, and...” Wang Zheng swallowed. “Professor Shen got shot.”

Zhao Yunlan's brain ground to a halt. “But... Shen Wei's been outside the SID since I brought him back from being tied to the pillar?”

Wang Zheng and Sang Zan exchanged another look. “He came here, asked for you, and a nondescript woman came in hot on his heels, shot him in the back of the head with your gun, and bolted through the SID wall as the Hallows rose and covered Professor Shen in a golden glow and blocked off the SID.”

“Let me see him,” Zhao Yunlan ordered.

He was led to the main room. The two Department of Supervision employees were sleeping in lao-Li's crafts nook, their chests rising and falling steadily, but just in front of the main table there was a lump of golden light the approximate size and shape of Shen Wei.

Zhao Yunlan squatted to take a closer look. The golden light didn't appear to move at all, but he wouldn't have been able to make out a breathing motion through the glow, anyway.

He shifted back. That was the head, so that must be the torso and there the legs, so the person must've been standing there, then collapsed down their knees and then their left shoulder. The legs and arms had then spread out a bit to bring their owner into something akin to fetal position but rolled towards the stomach. Zhao Yunlan was looking at the person's back.

He moved to sit on the couch. His head fell back, and above the person-sized, person-shaped blob of light, the Hallows were circling.

“When did the fourth Hallow appear?” he asked.

“They appeared all together at once. I don't know where it came from.”

Zhao Yunlan squinted at it. It was the largest piece, shaped like a lantern, and- “Fucking hell, that's my dad's paperweight!” He laughed. “The old man was helping me out all along.” All this time they'd spent searching for the Hallows, and it turned out that the Guardian Lantern had been here all along. Oh, how they were the punchlines of fate's jokes.

“W-what will you do about Professor Shen?” Sang Zan asked.

Indeed, there was a Shen Wei-shaped lump of light on the floor. Zhao Yunlan lifted his boots to the table. “On the morning this all happened, Professor Shen was taking a walk in the park with Li Qian, and was shot by the assailant when she came back from Dixing after shooting the Regent. He was taken to Dixing to heal, and is now mostly fine save for some amnesia.”

Wang Zheng and Sang Zan exchanged a glance. “But...”

“Think – who would want to come to the SID?” Zhao Yunlan recalled that surveillance footage, with the few frames of someone who looked like Shen Wei. “The assailant's Dixing power seems to be traveling through walls and other boundaries. Who would need her help to get through the shield?”

“Ye Zun,” Sang Zan and Wang Zheng chorused.

“Exactly.” Zhao Yunlan thought it over for a moment before deciding to hell with it. “And before you ask, the reason the assailant had my gun was that it had been taken by my father, and the ancient Dixingian cohabiting in my father's body for the past two decades gave it to her in exchange for a promise to kill Ye Zun.”

“You h-have two fathers?” Sang Zan asked.

Well, that was one way to put it. Zhao Yunlan snorted. “Sure!”

“What should we do about Ye Zun?” Wang Zheng asked. “The Hallows didn't let him die, so what should we do to him now?”

“Indeed, they've turned the SID into a mausoleum where he lies entombed,” Zhao Yunlan said. He swung his legs off the table and himself onto his feet. “Let's see if the same trick works for him as for the door.”

He was outwardly full of bravado and confidence. Inwardly, however, his heart hammered. Shen Wei might have his Dixing powers, but he wasn't here, and he was the only person who could properly stop Ye Zun.

The Hallows still circled above them. Well. Maybe the Hallows would intercede on his behalf.

Zhao Yunlan pulled his gun and aimed it square at where Ye Zun's face would be, on the theory that perhaps the assailant's flub had been aiming for the back of the head. He squatted next to Ye Zun's body – corpse? – and hesitantly reached out to touch the shoulder.

The golden glow buzzed pleasantly against his hand, like a pedal pressed to the metal on a highway entry ramp. It melted away and revealed Ye Zun, dressed like for their confrontation in the park but solid and maskless.

He moved.

“Long time no see,” Zhao Yunlan said.

Ye Zun rolled his eyes. “Really. Put that away before you hurt yourself.” He pushed at the floor. “Where's Li Qian?”

“Why would you be interested in Li Qian?” Zhao Yunlan asked levelly.

Ye Zun sighed and reached for his face as if to adjust his glasses only to be moderately annoyed at their absence. “Just because she quit her PhD programme for personal reasons doesn't mean she isn't my student. I taught her all I could about science and academia, and if she wishes to come ask for my advice, I will of course give it to her.”

The mannerisms, the concern for Li Qian... Zhao Yunlan's gun arm wavered. “Shen ... Wei?” he asked, voice quavering.

“Can't you recognize me without glasses anymore?” Ye Zun – Shen Wei? – groused. He pushed himself all the way to a seated position, then caught sight of a lock of his long, gray hair and stared. “What?” he demanded.

“Yeah,” Zhao Yunlan said. “So. Why don't you prove you're Shen Wei?”

Shen Wei – Ye Zun? – sighed. “You like it when I cut oranges in slices, but not when they're peeled. Our first date was at a noodle shop, back before you'd figured out my true identity. We played footsy under the table and debated the merits of their teas. You love my suits but think my leisurewear dire. Your favorite- “

Zhao Yunlan held up his hand to stop him. “Professor Shen. Please tell me about mitochondria.”

“In cellular biology, the role of the mitochondrion is energy generation. They are called the powerhouses of the cell due to the fact that they generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate, which the cellular organs use as fuel. Intriguingly, the mitochondrion has its own DNA and several features in common with bacteria, suggesting that it was originally a prokaryotic cell that has been absorbed into the eukaryotic cell and thus entered into perhaps the longest-lasting symbiosis in the history of Nature. While we do not yet have an efficient means of altering the mitochondrial genome like we can use CRISPR to alter the autosomal-”

“Thank you,” Zhao Yunlan said. He laughed in relief as he put his gun away. “I really missed you, you know.”

“How long was I gone?” Shen Wei asked.

“Six days since you were shot. – No, don't worry, I called you in sick at the University, and apparently they've cancelled classes for two weeks.”

Shen Wei's ears perked up. “I get a week of unimpeded research?”

“You-” Zhao Yunlan laughed. “Yeah. I suppose so. Come here, let me kiss you.”

“I'd rather not give Ye Zun's first kiss for him.”

Which brought them to the other thing Zhao Yunlan had to tell him. “He didn't have any problem giving it to me in your body.”

Shen Wei frowned. “He ... what?”

“Impersonated you.” Zhao Yunlan swallowed. “I thought it was you. I thought it was just that you'd been hit in the head hard enough for brain damage and personality changes, and – I fucked him. I'm sorry.” He bent his head, afraid of Shen Wei's judgement.

Shen Wei was silent for a moment. Then his hands came to cup Zhao Yunlan's face and lifted his chin, and then they were kissing, Ye Zun's face fitting perfectly against Zhao Yunlan's under Shen Wei's control.

“I forgive you,” Shen Wei said.

A weight fell from Zhao Yunlan's heart. “Okay. Okay, I-” He took a deep breath in and let the tension flow off. Ye Zun was in Dixing, playing house with innocent civilians. “Why does Ye Zun look so much like you?”

Shen Wei's head drooped. “We're brothers,” he quietly said.

So that was why Shen Wei had been recalcitrant about so many things – who would spread their family shame for all to see? Even if Zhao Yunlan would've liked being acknowledged as being close enough to Shen Wei to be told.

He reached out and tugged at a strand of long, gray hair a few times. “I'm sure that we can stop him, okay? We just have to get out of here and go to Dixing.”

Shen Wei exhaled. “Indeed.” He frowned. “Is there some impediment to going out?”

“The SID is covered in the same sort of Hallows field as you were covered in.”

Shen Wei rose and stared at the Hallows. “Hmm.” He reached out to touch one; it zapped him. He looked betrayed.

“Maybe they think you're Ye Zun?” Zhao Yunlan offered.

“Maybe.” Shen Wei had an unhappy expression on his – Ye Zun's – face. It looked adorable.

“Maybe Chief Zhao needs to touch them?” Wang Zheng suggested. “He's the one whose touch removed the shell from around you, after all.”

“He got in, too!” Sang Zan added.

Shen Wei's mien grew distinctly unhappy at the suggestion of Zhao Yunlan touching the Hallows, but he didn't object fast enough. Zhao Yunlan very slowly reached out for the Longevity Dial.

It buzzed at his touch much like the field of light around Shen Wei had, then stopped glowing. Zhao Yunlan placed it on the table.

He repeated the process with the other Hallows in turn. The Mountain-River Awl throbbed, the Merit Brush shivered, and the Guardian Lantern sighed like a dying soul as the light within it was extinguished.

“I can see outside!” Sang Zan said.

Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei turned around. The golden haze had cleared from the windows, now showing the street outside.

“Let's go to Dixing,” Zhao Yunlan said. “My car's parked outside.”

“Wait, I-” Shen Wei swallowed. He looked pained. “Let's stop for food first?”

Of course. Shen Wei hadn't eaten anything for days. “Sure. The street hawkers should be open already.”

Shen Wei nodded briskly, then speedwalked to the lab. Zhao Yunlan was left calling after him until he returned with a purple blanket. He tossed it over his head and shoulders like a cloak. “Let's go.”

Zhao Yunlan led this Shen Wei as Ye Zun incognito out to the car and drove them to a takeout place. Shen Wei stayed in the car as Zhao Yunlan got him two portions of something on rice and himself a few steamed buns for breakfast.

“Here,” Zhao Yunlan said as he handed the takeout cartons to Shen Wei. He ate the buns while Shen Wei inhaled both of the portions.

Shen Wei burped, then went silent. “Did he eat all those people just because he was hungry?” he asked, voice full of quiet anguish.

“You can ask him yourself later,” Zhao Yunlan said. “He's currently staying with a Palace Guard called Yi Lie and a healer called Xiang Yuanyu, as well as Li Qian, lao-Chu, and xiao-Guo. Oh, and the Regent was shot by the same person, too, and seems to be dead.”

“I-” Shen Wei was taken over by a coughing fit. He coughed for long enough that Zhao Yunlan was about to pull over and apply some manner of first aid, but then the coughs quieted down. “Let's go,” he said.

They soon pulled up at the empty park. The portal to Dixing opened at Shen Wei's touch, and Dixing's streets were deserted enough no-one was around to pay heed to the SID Chief walking about with a man hidden beneath a purple fleece blanket.

When they arrived at Xiang Yuanyu and Yi Lie's house, Zhao Yunlan didn't bother knocking. He barged in through the unlocked door, and-

All eyes turned to him. Ye Zun looked up guilelessly. “What's the matter, Yunlan?” He'd been folding paper cranes with Li Qian.

Zhao Yunlan held up his hand behind his back to stop Shen Wei. “Li Qian, come.”

“What's the matter?” She looked concerned, but she obediently stepped further away from Ye Zun.

Zhao Yunlan walked past her and drew his gun. “Game's up, Ye Zun.”

Ye Zun's face twisted, and this was Shen Wei's face he was wearing, so Zhao Yunlan wanted to drop everything and reassure him. “What game?” he asked, trying to sound confident but not quite succeeding.

“Did you honestly think I'd let you take over my life?” Shen Wei said, low and dangerous, and oh how Zhao Yunlan had missed him.

“Your life?” Ye Zun scoffed. He rose to his feet as Shen Wei approached, snarling with anger. “The life that was built on my suffering, and you dare call it yours?”

“Ye Zun-”

“All of these people who care for you, who'd love you no matter what, how did you get them? By running off to the surface! You were perfectly happy to leave me languishing in the dark in my pillar!” Ye Zun yelled.

Yi Lie and Xiang Yuanyu rushed down the stairs. Zhao Yunlan smiled at them apologetically and murmured, “Body swap.”

“Ye Zun-”

“And no-one has ever cared for me!”

Shen Wei sighed. “It is hard to care for people when they're trying to kill you.”

“I had no choice,” Ye Zun hissed.

“Of course you had,” Shen Wei replied, like a disappointed parent who'd argued the topic to death already. “At any point, you could've stopped killing people – stopped eating people – and then I could've helped you.”

“Of all the people in the world, you are the one allowed to criticize me the least!” Ye Zun shouted.

“Why?” Shen Wei shouted. “Why do you hate me so much?”

“How could you think I could stop being hungry? Did you honestly not think that the sex slave ate last?”

“Ye Zun-” Shen Wei swallowed. “Didi. I spent years searching for you.” He swallowed again, voice raw. “I'm sorry I didn't find you earlier.”

Ye Zun scoffed. “So my dear gege had regrets. Tell me, do you truly think that erases the fact that you gave me to him? Do you think your-”

“I didn't,” Shen Wei said, voice hollow. “He pushed me off the cliff, and when I got back up, you weren't there anymore.”

Ye Zun stared at him. “Show me,” he croaked.

She Wei stepped closer. He lifted a hand to his temple and then touched the fingers to Ye Zun's head. “There,” he murmured.

Ye Zun's eyes grew unfocused for a while. He blinked, eyes wet, and his face twisted with tears as he sank down to the floor, wracked by loud sobs.

“Didi,” Shen Wei softly said as he squatted next to Ye Zun and embraced him.

It was an odd sight: twins wearing each other's bodies, finally reconciled after what must be long millennia of enmity. Shen Wei's face was scrunched up and eyes leaking, but the sorrowful heart within belonged to Ye Zun. Ye Zun's clothes were covered by a purple fleece hilariously out of place here in Dixing, but the person wearing it and comforting his twin was Shen Wei.

“You never abandoned me,” Ye Zun sniffled.

“And I never will,” Shen Wei said againt his hair, sounding misty-eyed himself. “Come, let's change bodies and go home.”

“Okay.”

Shen Wei leaned his forehead against Ye Zun's. Dark energy started swirling around them like eddies in a lazy river, growing and growing into a slowly undulating curtain of blue and purple.

Then the curtain dissolved in a sea of sparkles. “Didi,” Shen Wei – now in his own body – said. He pulled Ye Zun closer and stroked his hair.

Yi Lie slowly walked past the other onlookers to Shen Wei's side. “Lord Envoy. What do you plan to do now?”

Shen Wei exhaled as he switched back to the Black-Cloaked Envoy's persona. “I will find some manner of replacement for the Regent and see if I can-”

“Wrong answer.” She grabbed Shen Wei's shoulder; he screamed in agony. She kept holding on but must've stopped the pain, as he panted, bent over double. “You will retire from your duties and be exiled to the surface. It's not like that would be too big a hardship, given that you spend all your time there already, no?”

“What did you do to him?” Ye Zun hissed, dark energy gathering in his palms.

“One wrong move and all of you die,” Xiang Yuanyu said.

Zhao Yunlan felt a weapon of some sort poke against his ribcage. On the other side of the room, he saw the assailant they'd long been interested in melt through the wall and hold a blade against Guo Changcheng's neck. Li Qian and Chu Shuzhi had their own minders as well. A few extra people had appeared to tilt the scales further.

This was not what Zhao Yunlan had expected. He wished he'd have gotten at least Li Qian out of Dixing before this. “I take it you want to talk some more?” he said with a laissez-faire bravado uncoupled from his adrenalin gland.

“With the Chief of the Special Investigations Department, yes – later,” Yi Lie said. “With the rest of you? No.”

“Lord Envoy, Ye Zun, Chu Shuzhi. You will be led to the portal, at which point you will go to Haixing,” Xiang Yuanyu instructed. “If you return, we'll kill the humans.”

“And if we don't?” Ye Zun asked.

“The humans will follow after you, and the portal will then be temporarily closed as we seal it so that you and your brother cannot get through.”

Ye Zun shrugged. “Ge?”

Shen Wei turned to look at Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan jerked his head towards Li Qian. Shen Wei sighed. “I will comply.”

“I'm sure we can iron out the edges and clarify some matters when we meet at the negotiating table later,” Zhao Yunlan said with a false cheer.

“Go,” Xiang Yuanyu ordered.

They left for the empty streets of Dixing in an odd procession, with Shen Wei, Ye Zun, and their minders at the front and Zhao Yunlan and Xiang Yuanyu at the back. Shen Wei and Ye Zun kept stealing glances over their shoulders; Zhao Yunlan smiled as reassuringly as one could when one was holding up one's hands.

At the portal Shen Wei set his jaw. “Send them up immediately after us.”

“It's okay, gege.” Ye Zun took his hand, and something must've been communicated between them, for Shen Wei blinked and grew thoughtful.

Yi Lie cleared her throat. “If you would?”

“Of course.” Ye Zun turned away from the portal. “Yunlan, everything I told you was true, and gege loves you very much.”

“You-” Shen Wei spluttered, mortified, but Ye Zun opened the portal and pushed him through before he managed to say anything more.

Chu Shuzhi stepped up. “I trust that I will see them soon,” he told Yi Lie.

“Rest assured, we don't want them in Dixing, either,” Yi Lie replied.

He stared at her for a moment more, then nodded and reopened the portal. Another moment, and he was gone for Haixing.

Li Qian and Guo Changcheng turned to look at Zhao Yunlan like lost ducklings. “What are you waiting for? Go!” he urged.

“I ... can't get the door open myself,” Li Qian said.

“That will be no problem,” Yi Lie said. She extended her arm and twisted to make the portal blossom into existence. Li Qian hesitantly walked through it.

“S-see you soon,” Guo Changcheng said as he started shuffling towards the portal.

“Ah, tell them I'll ask some questions here, first,” Zhao Yunlan said. “Tell Shen Wei especially that he should obediently wait for his man and not do anything stupid.”

“Sure, Chief,” Guo Changcheng said. He nodded at Yi Lie who was still holding the portal open, then nervously stepped through, clutching his bag.

Yi Lie let the portal close. “Do we have to physically kick you out?” she grumbled.

“Why does your gun suck so much?” the assailant demanded. Late teens – no wonder she was so mouthy. “I shot Ye Zun in the head! How come he's still alive?”

“The Hallows intervened on his behalf,” Zhao Yunlan answered. “You know, Yi Lie, it's not often that people outsmart me. Or is it Xiang Yuanyu in charge of operations?”

“It's me, yes,” Yi Lie said. “Though don't be too harsh on yourself; establishing trust by treating your injured beau was our plan from the moment we chose on a course of action involving your gun.”

“Did you really go to all those lengths just to get Shen Wei incapacitated?”

“We needed him out of the way so we could do a clean sweep. We did not plan to kill him, though perhaps we should have.”

“Damn Envoy condemned us to the darkness and let the Regent oppress us without lifting a finger,” the assailant complained. “Of course we should've killed him!”

Yi Lie tried to cover up her annoyed expression with a smile. “For years, we've conspired to kill the Regent. Ye Zun was added to the hit list due to his destabilizing influence and desire to go conquer Haixing instead of fixing Dixing. With Zhang Shi's contribution, we could finally pull the trigger.”

Zhao Yunlan nodded. “What'll you do with your newfound power? What about An Bai?”

“The Lord will get to retire off his throne. We'll set up a more sustainable system of government and reform Dixing with schools, sickhouses, and hopefully an electric grid. We'll come to you later to renegotiate the Treaty.”

“Sounds reasonable.” Zhao Yunlan saw the antsy expressions and walked towards the portal. “One last question – what is your Dixing power?”

“On one level, simply the manipulation of dark energy, but it also opens some seemingly unrelated doors, such as being able to cause excruciating pain.”

“May I try?” Zhao Yunlan asked with a winning smile. He held out his hand.

Yi Lie raised an eyebrow. “If you wish.” She gently touched his fingers, and then-

Searing agony erupted from his skin. It burned its way up his arm, knives stabbing from within-

“I can see why they fear you,” he said when he'd gotten his breath back. He looked at his hand. It was fine.

“My goal is to make them respect me,” Yi Lie said. She reached out and opened the portal. “Goodbye, Chief Zhao.”

“Goodbye,” he said, and stepped through the portal.

It was noon in Haixing. Everyone was looking at space under the locust tree where the portal had been. Haixing's bright Sun hammered them with its bright glare.

“Chief Zhao!” Li Qian greeted him. Guo Changcheng and Chu Shuzhi asked after what he'd discussed. Ye Zun, still wearing the purple blanket, took a half step towards him before catching himself. And Shen Wei-

Shen Wei collapsed to his knees and cried.

Ye Zun patted his shoulder and looked at Zhao Yunlan beseechingly. Zhao Yunlan squatted by Shen Wei's side, but nothing came out. What could one say to someone who'd built himself around his responsibilities only to be told he had abjectly failed at the one that had most defined his life?

It was warm, and the birds sang above them without care. Zhao Yunlan sighed. “Hey. Let's bring your brother home.”

Shen Wei nodded choppily and wiped the tears from his eyes. He didn't say anything as he rose to his feet. His face, stained by tears and snot, shone in the sunlight.

All six of them departed for their destinations – Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng to debrief Li Qian at the SID, Zhao Yunlan to bring Shen Wei and Ye Zun home. The locust tree fell behind them, the closed door it guarded invisible to the eye and the realm beyond now out of reach.