Zhao Yunlan leapt into his car and immediately plugged in his phone. He spared a quick glance at his screen after he started the engine. A missed call from Shen Wei. Damn it. He could not even imagine what the man was going through. He thought about calling him back, but he doubted the 2% battery would last long enough, and waiting for it to reach a viable level of charge would only take time he was not willing to give. He backed up his 4x4 with a screech of tyres and shot out of the car park.
Twenty minutes later, he was hammering on Shen Wei's front door.
"Wei, it's me! Let me in now."
He heard the lock click, but the professor did not appear. He took hold of the handle and pushed. The door opened easily.
Shen Wei was stood in the middle of the lounge, a glass of wine in his hand. It was clearly not his first.
You're drunk," said Zhao Yunlan, cautiously.
"Not quite," the other man replied. "Do you know, I've never had more than two glasses of wine before. I can't decide if I like how it makes me feel or not." He frowned.
The detective smiled as he moved forward and took the glass out of the tipsy professor's hand.
"Why don't you analyse the experience in the morning?" he suggested.
"Ah yes, the morning," Wei sighed. "He will probably call me again in the morning. You need to catch him, Yunlan. Because...because...he's such an ass!"
Despite the seriousness of the situation, the police chief burst out laughing. He couldn't help himself. He had never heard anyone describe a cold-blooded murderer as an 'ass', and he certainly would not have expected it to come from the strait-laced professor. But his laughter died in his throat when he glanced up and saw Wei looking at him intensely, his head tilted to one side, cheeks flushed, and eyes wide open. It was so innocent yet so incredibly captivating at the same time.
Throwing caution to the wind, Yunlan closed the gap between them and pulled the other man in. Looking down, he scrutinised every angle of the face gazing up at him, even though he already knew it as well as his own. He felt Wei's breathing quicken, and as the man's lips parted to speak, he quickly bent down to cover them with his own, pulling back after a brief but intense moment.
"What did I do wrong this time?" Shen Wei asked, breathlessly.
"Absolutely nothing," Yunlan admitted, his voice hoarse. He took the professor's arm and led him across to the wall, pinning him between the cool paintwork and the warmth of his chest. He searched for Wei's lips again, hungry to take whatever the other man would willingly give, and he was rewarded when he felt the person trapped in his arms melt into him.
Shen Wei gasped when he felt Yunlan's tongue run lightly over his bottom lip, and the police chief took the opportunity to fully explore the professor's mouth. Without realising what he was doing, Wei wrapped his arms around Yunlan's neck. At the same time, he felt two hands circle his waist, pulling him even closer if that was possible. Their hearts were now hammering frantically against each other, and the younger man felt a sudden rush of heat sweep through him.
Yunlan had lost all sense of reason. The sheer blissfulness of this moment, of the person in his arms responding to his affection, was like nothing he had ever experienced before. As he moved his lips to Wei's neck, he pulled the man's shirt free of his waistband and slipped his hands under the material, wanting to feel the warmth of skin underneath his fingertips. He felt the professor tremble slightly at his touch. It was enough to send Yunlan crashing over the edge, but some small part of him resisted in that final moment before he succumbed to temptation, knowing that he would be taking advantage of the man when he was not thinking clearly.
"Wei," he whispered. "We can't do this. Not now." Summoning every ounce of willpower he had, he stepped back.
He did not trust himself to look at the other man for fear that he would say to hell with the consequences and do something he might later regret. Instead, he turned on his heel and walked to the door.
"Lock up behind me," he said over his shoulder as he left, so caught up in his own internal struggle that he completely failed to recognise the devastating effect his sudden about turn had wrought on the young professor he was leaving behind him.
Wei leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. The police chief's abrupt departure had emptied his mind of the last vestiges of the fog of alcohol, and he was now fully aware of what had just happened.
Yunlan had rejected him. He had finally opened himself up fully to the man's attentions only to be pushed away.
He walked over to his dining table and sat down, head in his hands. He felt like such a fool.
Outside the apartment, Zhao Yunlan made it only as far as the end of the corridor before he realised that he was about to make a terrible mistake. Spinning around, he raced back to Shen Wei's door and banged on the wood.
"Wei! Let me in." Silence. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He had already returned the spare keys the other day so he couldn't let himself in.
"Wei, please. I'm sorry. Just open the door so we can talk."
Still nothing.
"Wei, if you don't let me in, I'm going to get louder and louder until I disturb all of your neighbours."
Before he could carry out his threat, a thought occurred to him. He reached down and turned the handle. The door opened.
Shen Wei was standing in the middle of the lounge, his eyes now clear and defiant. He had straightened his clothing and made an attempt to smooth down his hair, but his lips were still slightly swollen, and there was a red mark on his neck that the police chief had left there.
"I thought I told you to lock the door," said Yunlan, quietly.
"I was just about to do it," came the response. "Did you forget something?"
"Yes, my sanity," the detective joked, but it fell flat.
"I see. Well, for the sake of your sanity, Chief Zhao, we can just pretend that never happened. I think that is the best thing for both of us, don't you?"
Yunlan crossed the room in less than a second and took the other man's shoulders.
"No, I don't think that at all. That's not why I left. I just..." He released his hold on Wei and rubbed his hand over his face as he tried to organise his thoughts and feelings, but as he did, he saw the younger man take a step back, putting a distance between them that seemed almost insurmountable.
"Please go," said Shen Wei, quietly. "I need time to think, and if our theory is correct, you don't have much time before he kills again."
Yunlan went to take a step closer to him, but the professor raised his hand. It was only a small gesture, but it was made with resolve, and the other man knew that the chance he'd had to correct his stupid mistake was gone. With no clue about what to say next, his only choice was to turn around and make his way slowly back towards the door.
As Yunlan left the apartment and walked down the corridor, he heard the lock click into place. The sound had an aura of finality to it, and he felt as though someone had hammered a nail into his heart. He cursed inwardly. He had gone there to comfort the man, who must have been terrified when he realised what the person stalking him was capable of. But he had been too impulsive, and now all he had done was succeed in driving a wedge between them, leaving Wei alone tonight with his fear. But he was not willing to give up so easily. The man in the apartment was too important to him.
When he got to his car, he reached into the back and retrieved a frayed, woollen blanket and a bottle of water. Wriggling around in his seat, he tried to get comfortable. He was going to be there for a long time.
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialled Da Qing. The man picked up on the second ring.
"Yunlan?"
"Yep. I won't be back at the SCD tonight unless it's urgent. Tell me though, did you find anything at all in your searches that might give us an indication of who the next victim could be?"
Da Qing's voice was resigned.
"Nothing," he said. "It's just not specific enough. And the location trace on the call was a bust. It pinged off a tower in the vicinity of Professor Shen's apartment, but we already knew the killer was watching him."
Yunlan sighed and rubbed his hand over his face.
"Okay. Let me know if anything changes. I'm staking out the professor's apartment in case the guy decides to make good on his threat tonight."
Hanging up, he flicked the radio on and started his vigil.
***
Da Qing put away his phone and looked across at Lin Jing.
"Something's wrong," he said. "I can tell from his voice."
The IT expert waggled an eyebrow.
"Lovers' quarrel?"
The other man gave him a good-natured slap around the ear.
"Not the time for one of your stupid comments, idiot." Then, his expression turned solemn. "Something is bothering me though. Why did the killer fixate on Professor Shen? Why not one of us?"
"Have you seen the guy?" Lin Jing joked. Then, he considered the matter seriously. "Maybe his real target is the chief, and the professor just got in the way?"
Da Qing shook his head.
"I don't think so," he said, slowly. "If that was the case, why play that cat and mouse game with Shen Wei in the library?"
"So, he is after the prof then. What's your point?"
Da Qing rolled his eyes.
"My point, you dimwit, is that if the killer hasn't been following Chief Zhao, how could he have known that the professor was working with us in order to start stalking him? It hasn't been reported in the press, and the guy didn't even come anywhere near the Shanghai PD building until after we found out he had been targeted."
He watched Lin Jing trying to follow his reasoning, and eventually gave up waiting.
"To spell it out, IT genius, although I'm not so sure about the genius part now, the only logical conclusion is that the killer was already watching Shen Wei. Don't you get it? He knew the chief and the professor were working together because he saw Shen Wei get approached by Zhao Yunlan, not Zhao Yunlan approach Shen Wei. See the difference?"
The penny finally dropped for the other man.
"Oh, crap! What do we do?"
"I'll speak to Chu Shuzhi. In the meantime, I suggest you go back to looking through that CCTV footage from outside Professor Shen's apartment building. If I'm right, the murderer will have made a few more guest appearances far earlier than we first thought."