Yiling walked back to his room smiling to himself. It was a good day. A rarity in his life since it happened. His smile abruptly slid from his face.

That was the worst twenty four hours of his life.

Her expensive perfume had curled around him as she leaned over him. "If you run, I will hurt them. If you kill yourself, I will hurt them. If you contact them in any way, I will hurt them." She had purred the words in sadistic pleasure. "And I will know."

"You can't! Y-you wouldn't you..." His voice trailed away as he accepted she would. She would hurt the two people he loved most and not think twice about it.

"There are so many ways to hurt people without ever touching them, don't you think?" Her voice was like silk strangling him. Her elegant jewelry settled back against her designer suit as she stood. Such an odd thing for him to notice as his world crumbled.

She had snapped her fingers and three men came from the shadows. He had fought but three against one? He didn't have a chance. Tossing and twisting his head wildly in a panic to stay away from the damp cloth they were trying to press to his face. One had finally grabbed the sides of his head and held him still.

He could still see the malicious evil in her eyes and the smug smirk as he was chloroformed. The last thing he heard was her voice. "I sold you for 65,000 yuan*. A very nice profit...." Her voice had disappeared into the blackness.

Yiling shook his head. Dragged himself back to the sunshine. Back to the now. He didn't doubt she would do it. No matter what happened, he couldn't allow that. He couldn't let her hurt them. Whatever befell him, it was better than anything happening to them.

He continued to trudge back to his quiet room.
~~~
Lan Wangji arrived early to the precinct. He sipped a rare coffee. Last night, sleep had been a long time coming.

He had finally sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror in his walk-in closet and practiced slouching. Hunching his shoulders. Looking afraid and scrambling to get out of an unknown assailant's reach. He thought he had improved on the first two. The third still needed more practice. Yu Bin could critique him and give suggestions on how to improve tomorrow.

Somehow, feeling that he had made some progress allowed him to finally sleep.

Now he was filling out the paperwork to have Yu Bin assigned to him for a week. As soon as his inspector arrived, he would request complete discretion and discuss his plan with him. If any of his plan leaked out, his chances of finding Yiling much less Mo Xuanyu's killer would be gone.

Inspector Nie Mingju arrived fifteen minutes late to his office to find Detective Lan Wangji standing by his door with a sheaf of papers in his hand.

"May I have a moment of your time, Inspector?" The detective's voice was cool. Professional.

"Only if I can keep drinking my coffee while you talk.", was the gruff reply.

"Mn." An affirmative grunt.

Inspector Nie gave a half smile. He appreciated the brevity of the young detective. He opened his door, threw his brief case down next to his desk and removed his coat without ever putting down his coffee.

"Have a seat. What do you need?" A slug of coffee and a sigh of satisfaction.

Lan Wangji outlined his idea, the reasons and his request for Yu Bin to join him on the assignment with admirable precision.

"Why you? We can turn this over to Nie Huaisang."

"I can not find him in our database and I have no picture. I know of only two officers who have seen him - myself and Yu Bin."

Nie Mingju pulled at his lower lip as he thought. He looked at the detective. Gaging how serious he was. How capable.

"I'll support this but only if neither you nor Yu Bin work alone. You are a team. Put your request into his department head." He held his hand out and Lan Wangji put the pile of papers in it. A quick scan for the relevant bits and the Inspector signed it.

"We keep this under wraps. You report only to me. I hate to say it but some of our brethren are working for the other side."

"Agreed." A final nod and the detective left the office.

Five minutes later, he was knocking on another office door. 

"Come in!" growled in irritation was the response. He wasn't looking forward to this meeting. As a department head, the man was brilliant and was somehow managing to wrinkle out the corrupt cops under his jurisdiction. As a person,  he was perhaps the angriest man he had ever met. He had never seen the man when he wasn't at least annoyed.

Putting the two of them in one room was like trying to combine fire and ice. It just didn't work but Detective Lan Wangji had a goal and one pissed off inspector wasn't going to stop him.

He braced himself and opened the door.

"Inspector Jiang Cheng. May I have a brief word?"

The inspector glanced up and his jaw tightened. "What do you want?" he asked as he drank his second Coke of the morning and rummaged through his paperwork.

Lan Wangji closed the door. That got a raised eyebrow from the inspector.

"My apologies. My request must be held with utmost discretion or it will fail." Now the detective had his undivided attention.

"What do you want?" His voice was rather suspicious and oddly tired? Sad? It surprised Lan Wangji. Jiang Cheng was a dynamo. He had completely rebuilt his department with a great deal of determination, efficiency and yelling.

Looking at his face now though showed a man worried. Something was sincerely bothering the inspector.

With the same precision he had given his own inspector, Lan Wangji outlined his plan and the reasons for requesting Yu Bin. He included Nie Mingju's request that he be the only one receiving reports.

Predictably, Jiang Cheng bristled. "Come with me" and he was out the door.

In no time they were standing outside Nie Mingju's office. A brisk knock that conveyed a great deal of irritation.

Inside the office, Nie Mingju grinned. That took longer than expected. He schooled his face back into a professional demeanor.

"Enter!"

Jiang Cheng entered with a scowl. A quick gesture to Lan Wangji to join them then he closed the door. His voice was lowered and would be almost impossible to hear through the door but the agitation wasn't reduced. Not one bit.

"If you want one of my men, I'm part of the reports or no deal." He glared down at Nie Mingju.

"Agreed." Nie Mingju wanted to laugh so badly. Whenever someone acquiesced to Jiang Cheng without a fight, he always looked a little lost. Enough tormenting the man for the day. He cleared his throat. "If you will sign the papers, Inspector?"

Jiang Cheng signed the papers with an angry flourish and was about to stomp out of the office when Nie Mingju stopped him.

"If you could wait a moment, Inspector." He turned to his young detective. "I believe you have everything properly signed. I expect daily reports. When do you think you will begin your surveillance?"

"In two days, sir"

A nod. "Fine. Dismissed."

A slight bow to both inspectors and Lan Wangji headed out of the office.

"Jiang Cheng, how is your search for your-"

Lan Wangji quietly closed the door.

~♡~♡~♡~

65,000 yuan = $10, 215 USD.

Three chapters. One day. Happy smile. 😁

Be happy and be safe!
❤🍫🫖❤