Fateful Consequences: A Guardian Story

Shen Wei's final class of the day finished at exactly five.  Doing a rough calculation in his mind, he decided that the two SCD officers would most likely not finish up for another hour, so instead of going back to his office he made his way to the university library.

Wei liked the library.  It was a large open plan building spread across two vast floors, and it was decorated in a fascinating mixture of old and new.  Modern strip lighting co-existed with ornate plasterwork, and old, faded hardback books sat side by side with the brightly coloured spines of more current texts.

The library was not terribly crowded early evening on a Friday, and he made his way to the section that was reserved for professors.  He had found that it was rarely occupied, even at the busiest of times, most of the teaching staff preferring to do their research online from the comfort of their own offices.  This meant that, more often than not, he was left to his own devices, browsing the shelves at his leisure and inhaling the scent of the musty old tomes.

This visit was no exception, and Shen Wei very quickly lost track of time as he buried himself in a particularly interesting text about the Jin-Song Wars.  Several chapters later, the professor was finally pulled back to the present by the sound of a familiar voice behind him.

"Professor Shen, what a pleasant surprise.  I thought you had plans after your classes today, but if they have been cancelled then it looks like we can have dinner together after all."

If Shen Wei had been the type to swear, he would have done so internally at that moment.  Professor Cheng Bo watched him patiently, waiting for his response, almost as if he was daring him to make up another excuse.

Resigning himself to his fate, he opened his mouth to say yes, but before he could speak the words another voice, pleasant and deep, echoed in the quiet space.

"Professor Shen, are you ready to leave?  I took the liberty of bringing your office keys and your coat, so we can just go straight from here, yes?"

Zhao Yunlan had arrived just in time to hear Cheng Bo's words and see Shen Wei struggling to form a response to an invitation he clearly wanted to refuse.  Consequently, telling himself that he was merely doing a good deed and helping the professor out, he had seized the opportunity to jump in, confident that the younger man would take his cue.

Sure enough, Shen Wei shot a rare, heart-stopping smile towards where he stood, a few feet behind Cheng Bo, nearly dazzling both men.

"Chief Zhao, thank you for coming to find me.  I wasn't sure when you would be finished.  By all means, let's go."  He walked forward towards Zhao Yunlan but stopped briefly alongside his colleague.

"Have a lovely weekend, Professor Cheng.  I will see you next week to plan the graduate retreat as discussed."  He gave the man a quick nod, then carried on moving until he drew level with Yunlan, who slung the woollen coat around the young professor's shoulders and pulled it tight, in a gesture that managed to be both casual and vaguely possessive at the same time.

"You should wear this, Professor Shen.  It's a little chilly outside."

Then, the two of them made their way out of the library without looking back.

"How did you know I would be there?"  Shen Wei asked as they began the ten-minute walk back to the History building.

"I asked a teaching assistant.  She told me that if you weren't teaching classes or in your office, that was where you'd most likely be."

"Hmm."  Shen Wei wasn't sure he liked being that predictable.

When they reached the car park, the professor stopped suddenly.  Turning towards Zhao Yunlan, he bit his bottom lip as he thought about how he would phrase his next sentence.

"Chief Zhao," he began.  "I don't want you to get the wrong idea about Professor Cheng.  It's not that I was trying to avoid him.  I mean, he and I are not on bad terms.  I'm just not very comfortable socialising with colleagues outside of working hours."

Zhao Yunlan raised an eyebrow.

"You socialise with me," he pointed out.

Before he even had time to think about what he was saying, Shen Wei had blurted out a response.

"You're different!"  Seeing the police chief's face break into a smile, the professor desperately tried to back-pedal.

"I mean, it's different.  We don't work together.  Not really."

If anything, Zhao Yunlan's smile grew even wider.

"Well, if I'm, sorry I mean it's different," he countered, "you won't mind having dinner with me tonight."

Without waiting for an answer, he took hold of the professor's arm and started pulling him gently towards his car, not noticing a sturdy figure in a blue outfit watching them closely.

The truth was, Yunlan's motivations for stealing Shen Wei away were two-fold.  First was that he simply wanted to spend time with the man.  Now that he had the measure of his personality, he found him easy to be around, and he never demanded anything from the police chief.  In fact, it was the opposite.  He took much less than Yunlan was willing to give.  Second, was Professor Cheng Bo.

Zhao Yunlan and Chu Shuzhi had interviewed Professor Cheng earlier that afternoon, and he had seemed distracted and on edge.  After having to ask the same question three times, Yunlan had finally snapped and directly asked the man what was bothering him, and to say the answer had surprised him was an understatement.

"I was just wondering why you were using Professor Shen's office to question people."

Cheng Bo was being interviewed as a potential suspect in a brutal murder, his responses to their questions thus far had revealed that he had no alibi, and he could be said to have had more than a passing acquaintance with the victim, having acted as a consultant for the museum for a number of years.  And yet, despite all of this, his overriding concern was the room he was currently sitting in, and the person to whom it belonged.

Yunlan suppressed a small shudder as he recalled the exchange that followed.

"Why, Professor Cheng?  Does it bother you?"

"Not at all.  I was just curious.  You see, Professor Shen and I are close colleagues.  More like friends really."

"Is that so?"

"Yes.  Of course, Professor Shen is very popular in the department, but our relationship is different.  We teach the same subjects, see each other every day, and we have similar interests.  It's only natural that we would have more of a bond.  And I know he appreciates the way I look out for him."

At this point Zhao Yunlan's eyebrows had almost reached his hairline and, sensing his boss's temper escalating, Chu Shuzhi had stepped in to continue the interview.

Yunlan had moved on autopilot while his mind wandered back to that conversation, and, as he snapped back to the present, he had already pulled out of the university gates and turned left.  Shen Wei turned to face him.

"Where are we going?"

"Chez Zhao, of course," Yunlan replied, showing off his extremely limited French.  "It's not far from here, and I hear the chef is excellent."  He shot a disarming grin at the man sitting across from him, whose eyes had widened in surprise.

Back at the university, Bai Feng watched the red 4x4 closely until it disappeared from view.  He had not seen the car on campus before, but then he usually worked evenings during the week, other than Thursdays, his day off.  He frowned.  Maybe he should ask his colleagues on the day shift if they had seen it parked outside the History building.