The day after the party, we woke up around noon. And immediately after waking up, I began to wonder how believable my mother's story was. It may be that she was right and that there really is such a thing as elves, even if I still could not believe it, but how believable was everything else she told?

I read the book her grandparents wrote and found nothing in it about their time in WeißWald or the murder of this King Liam. Instead, they wrote a lot about how colorful and strange life with the humans had seemed to them in the beginning and how quickly they had gotten used to it.

My great-grandparents also wrote about the soldiers who came to them and wanted to take them back to WeißWald. They wrote that they saw no other way out than to kill these soldiers. My grandfather also helped and, together with two other elves, disposed of the bodies of the dead soldiers in a swamp area. Where exactly, however, was not written in the book.

They wrote that soldiers came three more times and they got rid of them the same way each time. They killed them and then disposed of their bodies. Then they moved from the small town where they lived to the big city and never again received visits from soldiers. But they explained, if they did show up again, how to kill the elf soldiers.

Zhan and I talked about the fact that no more soldiers came to see them and agreed that the magical energy in my great-grandparents and my grandfather must have been depleted and therefore they could not be found. We assume before that they could be located because of their magic. We cannot imagine anything else.

Because it is also so that they all lived after their escape from WeißWald, 4 years undisturbed and peacefully, before the first soldiers appeared. How, if not by magic, could the soldiers find them? After all, they could have been anywhere in the world. But they came here to China and found the elves who had escaped. And when they had no more magic, because it had been used up, there was nothing left by which the soldiers from WeißWald could find them. And that's why they didn't show up anymore.

I also believe that Zhan is right and that we don't have to fear any danger from elves. Even though my brother and I have elven blood in us, we are not real elves and do not have any magical elven powers in us. I don't even know what powers elves have at all. Do they even exist anymore? And could my brother and I even get into their realm?

The only thing that might somehow connect me to the elves is my appearance when I am transformed. Even though I don't look exactly the same as the elves. At least I don't have pointed ears. And I can't make myself invisible in shadows either. Moreover, my fangs are visible. Because I am a vampire and that through and through. Even though there might still be a bit of elven blood in me and I look almost exactly like them.

Even though Zhan and I ultimately decided to close the subject, there were of course still plenty of questions. So I decided to ask my mother what else she knew about elves. I called the farmhouse, since her cell phone was off, and there I was told by Grandpa Xiao that she had already let my in-laws take her to the airport early that morning, along with my little brother, and was on her way back to the US.

Wow, she didn't even get to say goodbye. This reinforced my theory that she wasn't keeping quiet to protect my big brother and me, but because we didn't mean as much to her as she wanted us to believe.

Besides, how is she going to protect us from possible danger by not telling us? What if elf soldiers had really shown up here in the past few years and attacked me or my brother? We would have been unprepared and unknowing and would have become victims of, for us, strange beings.

Well, since my mother probably wouldn't be of any help to us anyway, as far as the open questions are concerned, we decided to end the topic for the time being. Maybe in a few years we will look into it again and try to find out more about these magical beings. Because one question is still burning our interest. Could I really have the ability to get pregnant because of the elf blood in me?

After we showered and ate, my father and stepmother came to visit us. They had been here in Beijing for almost a week now and spent a lot of time with my brother and Cheng. They even accompanied them to the filming location for my brother's new series. But this afternoon, the day before they left again, they came to spend time with us.

The first thing we did was show them our office and they were quite amazed. Because they had not imagined it to be as big as it actually is. They thought it was just a small room. So they were surprised when they saw the big room, then the office which belongs to Zhan, the bathroom and my archive where I keep all the files related to my work.

We proudly told them how good we are in business with the private detective agency and that we are now planning to hire even 2-3 more employees. We explained that we have enough income to pay all the employees and still have a plus in the cash register. They were very happy for us.

I also told them that we got a request from the police department, about exclusive cooperation. So, that they can call us in on cases where they are stuck. At the moment, we are still thinking about the offer, because there are a lot of things to consider in the process. For example, Zhan and I don't want to attract too much attention. Maybe we could use our staff for that. We will discuss it with them.

After the tour in the office, we went to the downtown. At a café, we had coffee and each ate a big piece of cake. Then my father came to talk about my mother again. He still couldn't believe what she had said the night before. He said that in all the years he had been married to her, he had never noticed anything. To him, she was a normal woman like any other.

Zhan explained to him that she was probably a normal woman too. Because without magical powers and the ability to transform, she is just a normal woman like any other. The only differences between her and normal women are her blood and her genes. But, we are not quite sure about that either. Without an analysis of her blood and DNA, we know nothing. That's a fact.

I must admit, I would also be interested in her genetic building blocks. Every creature has its own genetic building blocks and I would like to see those of elves.

My stepmother then also asked me if I wanted to continue to have contact with my mother, after she came here especially to talk to us. I told my stepmother that I was not interested in having contact with my mother. Then my stepmother told me that my big brother now has frequent contact with our mother.

I don't know how that came about and why my brother didn't tell me, but he must know for himself. Maybe our mother is really interested in him and means it honestly. With me, however, she has since our visit to her, had been in touch only once and then had appeared yesterday to the celebration. So I can assume that she is not as interested in me as she is in my brother.

Well, in principle it is like then. I was always more attached to my father and my brother to my mother. And now I guess it's the same again. I just hope that our mother will not disappoint him again. Otherwise, she will surely have to deal with a very, very angry Cheng. Because he doesn't take any jokes when it comes to my brother's feelings. Which shows me how much Cheng loves him.

After the cafe, we moved on to a park that my stepmother really wanted to visit. There's nothing special about it for Zhan and me, but there is for my stepmother. She told us that her father proposed to her mother in this park. She even showed us the place where that was and put flowers, in memory of her parents, there.

We went from there to a restaurant, had a nice meal together and then it was time to bring them back to my brother. It wasn't that hard to say goodbye, because we will see them again in a few weeks for Christmas.

Actually Zhan and I wanted to go home right away. But somehow we suddenly got the urge to pass the time a bit more. And for some reason we ended up at the place where we discovered the serial killer's hideout. The door had been secured with a new lock and in front of it were lots of flowers, pictures, cards and there were even a few grave candles burning.

It was strange to be back there and to know what that sick guy down there was doing to those poor women. We wondered how many more women he would have lured there and killed if we hadn't found his hiding place? And I wondered if I would have ever gotten as far as I am now if I hadn't met Zhan?

I gratefully snuggled up to Zhan and said, "You know what? You are like the grand prize in a lottery for me. Without you, I wouldn't be who I am today. I am grateful to you for everything and love you endlessly. I'm so glad you came into my life and never gave up on me."

Zhan put his arms around me. He smiled, kissed me and replied, "Ever since I saw you, all I wanted was you. I would never have given up on you because I love you way too much for that. You are my angel. My beautiful, sweet vampire that I love more than my life. You are my dream man and the best thing that ever happened to me."

I was really touched by this. Only a year ago I was firmly convinced that true love does not exist and is only wishful thinking of people. But now that I have found my true love myself, of course I don't think that anymore. I'm glad that Zhan gave me as much time as I needed and that he didn't just give up at some point.

Of course, we have only been together for a little over a year and there are still many, many years ahead of us. But I firmly believe that our feelings for each other will not change. Not only because of the legends around us. But because we really love each other. We are not a couple because a legend made us, but because we love each other with heart and soul.

We stayed there for half an hour, bowing to the pictures of the murdered women as we said goodbye. Later, when we got home, we lay on the sofa in the living room and cuddled with each other. We were about to undress each other when the doorbell rang. We opened the door together and looked into the face of a strange man.

The man introduced himself to us as my stepfather. So he is my mother's husband and father of my little half-brother. And he was looking for the two of them. We explained to him that she had already let herself be driven to the airport early that morning and he just shook his head. "That woman is going to drive me crazy." He muttered.

We let him into our apartment, where he then told us that he and my mom had actually agreed to spend a week in Beijing. He wanted to finally meet his stepsons. But because he still had to work, he came later. But in the hotel where they booked a double room, he didn't find her and thought she was with us after he didn't find her at my big brother's place either.

He was pretty angry that she left again and didn't even let him know. "Sometimes I really wonder if she even loves me." He said softly.

What were we supposed to say to that? We didn't know him and we have no idea how my mother feels about him. But somehow we also felt sorry for him. He seemed really desperate and just couldn't understand why my mother is often so strange.

We suggested he just call her and he said her cell phone was off. But he still tried again and this time he was lucky. My mom answered her cell phone and explained that she was flying back home because she had already sorted everything out. Um, I don't think so. But well, what were we supposed to say about that?

Of course, my stepfather was anything but thrilled and scolded her. But I don't think she cared at all. She just kept saying, yes, yes, I know, I know.

Afterwards my stepfather apologized for the late disturbance and then took a cab back to the hotel. I don't know what they agreed on. But he said he would like to visit us again tomorrow evening and introduce himself properly. We will see if he comes or not. We did not worry about that.

When he was gone, we went together to shower, have had sex and then we went to bed, after all, we have to get up early again and be fit for work.