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Chapter Text

There's a small, muffled shriek from the direction of Wang Zheng's desk. Zhao Yunlan instantly whips his head around to look in that direction. He sort of has to twist his whole body a bit to actually see from where he's lounging on the couch. Wang Zheng is standing a short distance away from the desk with one hand held to her mouth. It looks kind of like she's rather abruptly backed up and out of her chair. The possibly more concerning thing is that Shen Wei is standing next to her, looking very faintly sheepish, or possibly somewhat menacing, depending on how well you know him really. Zhao Yunlan likes to think he knows Shen Wei quite well at this point, and he knows that that's definitely Shen Wei being awkward.

"What did you do to Wang Zheng?" Zhu Hong snaps out from her own desk, far sharper than she'd usually dare be with Shen Wei.

Zhao Yunlan has time to push himself up and move closer before anyone actually answers. Not that Shen Wei even looked at Zhu Hong, his eyes still on Wang Zheng. But if someone does need to diffuse the situation, Zhao Yunlan is the one best equipped to handle it, so he better get up and in there now, before Zhu Hong gets more annoyed. He knows if it comes to it Shen Wei will actually listen to him, whereas it's still somewhat debatable how much he actually cares about anyone else at the SID. He has been making a clear effort lately, but Zhao Yunlan feels a bit like it might still be for his benefit more than Shen Wei's own.

"It's alright. I told him he could," Wang Zheng says thinly, lowering her hand from her mouth. Zhao Yunlan isn't sure if it's loud enough for Zhu Hong to actually hear her.

She's looking at Shen Wei with wide eyes and Shen Wei is looking back at her. Zhao Yunlan stops next to Shen Wei, settling his hand on Shen Wei's arm. It pulls Shen Wei's attention to him, his all black eyes looking at Zhao Yunlan.

"Are you both okay?" Zhao Yunlan asks. They look okay, and whatever had happened it looks like Wang Zheng was likely just startled.

"Yes," Shen Wei says, but the hissing under his voice is a little louder than it usually is in his human form, sounding almost agitated. Zhao Yunlan ignores it for now, turning his gaze towards Wang Zheng and looking at her questioningly.

She nods her head and then directs a very shaky smile at Shen Wei. "Shen-laoshi was only trying to help me," she says softly. She still seems a little shaken by whatever they'd actually done, but Zhao Yunlan will take her word that she's okay.

Wang Zheng is rather fragile in some ways, sunlight would wear her away into nothing, but in other ways, she's just not substantial enough to be hurt the same way a human would be. So there isn't that much Zhao Yunlan can immediately think of that would actually harm her.

The exchange between them has given Zhu Hong enough time to get up and walk to Wang Zheng's side. She wraps a protective arm around her, glaring at Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan bites back a sigh. Normally, Zhu Hong and Shen Wei are cordial enough with each other, but he's aware that Zhu Hong is not particularly fond of Shen Wei and this will not have helped matters.

"It's okay, Hong-jie. I wanted to remember," Wang Zheng says softly.

It doesn't quite seem to help that much, because Zhu Hong looks at Wang Zheng worriedly. "Remember? What did you—" she starts demandingly, before apparently catching herself and just frowning in worry.

Wang Zheng frowns too, and for a moment she seems not to be seeing them at all. Then with a little gasp, she presses her hand to her temple. Zhu Hong grabs her tighter.

"I only saw flashes," Wang Zheng says quietly, looking at Shen Wei. "Did you get anything more substantial, Shen-laoshi?"

"Yes. You've been in contact with the Mountain-River Awl," he says, and suddenly Zhao Yunlan knows why he's sounding so agitated. They've been trying to find a trace of any of the Hallows for weeks, without any luck. The agitated hiss of spiders fades away somewhat, and sounding almost gentle, Shen Wei says, "I saw some other things as well."

"Oh," Wang Zheng says and then gives Zhao Yunlan a pleading look.

Zhao Yunlan hesitates for a second. He knows Shen Wei most likely wants to go after the Awl as soon as possible, but—

"Do you want to talk to Shen-laoshi alone, Wang Zheng?" he asks.

Zhao Yunlan sprawls down on the couch and doesn't look in the direction of the library, where he knows Wang Zheng and Shen Wei are. He can feel the tension in the atmosphere around him, and it wouldn't do to let anyone know that Zhao Yunlan might be a little bit worried too.

He taps the back of his palm surreptitiously, and a small black spider crawls out from under his sleeve, settling on the back of his palm. Zhao Yunlan looks at it quietly. It's far too small to tell if it's looking back at him or not, but he imagines it is.

You'd tell me if something is wrong, wouldn't you? Zhao Yunlan thinks, but doesn't say out loud, not here where the others would hear him.

He still doesn't know exactly what Shen Wei might have done to gain access to some of Wang Zheng's memories. Especially without any of them even noticing that they were up to something. They were right there in the same room!

He can't help the direction his thoughts take however. Zhao Yunlan, along with everyone else in the SID, is uncomfortably aware of how Shen Wei has managed to extract memories from people before. Though clearly, Wang Zheng is still alive and well (for a certain definition of alive anyway, but that's none of Shen Wei's doing), and he's pretty sure she hasn't had her brain eaten by tiny spiders. In fact, Zhao Yunlan isn't entirely sure she has a tangible brain to eat, being entirely made up of… well, some kind of energy.

Zhao Yunlan lets his head fall back against the back of the couch, pushing the thoughts away by force. They're not helping right now.

He startles slightly when Da Qing jumps up on the couch. He tilts his head down to look at the black cat as he very deliberately steps onto Zhao Yunlan's lap. He bites back a groan. He's pretty sure Da Qing makes a point of digging his paws into the most uncomfortable spots he can find. He thinks about pushing the cat away, but instead he waits for Da Qing to settle down before moving his hand to pet him. He stops momentarily, as Da Qing stares at the little spider still hanging out on the back of Zhao Yunlan's hand. There's a certain amount of judgement in Da Qing's gaze, Zhao Yunlan feels like, but he does his best to not get between whatever his cat and boyfriend have worked out between themselves, so after a small moment of hesitation, he just ignores the byplay and goes on to pet Da Qing.

There are a few moments of silence, as Da Qing adjusts his position for the best possible petting and then finally he says, "So, the Awl," like that should suddenly make Zhao Yunlan know things about it that he doesn't.

"I guess so," Zhao Yunlan answers with a one-shouldered shrug.

The cat in his lap turns his head to glare at Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan just looks back. What exactly does Da Qing expect him to say? He doesn't know anything more than anyone else.

"Are we really going after it?" Da Qing asks.

Oh, Zhao Yunlan thinks, that. He'd kind of forgotten that not everyone might be as committed to this as he is. Zhao Yunlan hadn't even considered that they wouldn't go find it, now that they have some clue about where it might be. Well, they will have, as soon as Shen Wei shares with the rest of them.

"We've been looking for the Hallows," Zhao Yunlan points out.

Da Qing makes a noise that's not exactly agreement. Zhao Yunlan can feel some of the others' attention on them and he supposes it's better than everyone staring towards the library and waiting for something to happen. He moves his head a little to look and notices that at least Lao Chu is looking in his direction. He can't see Zhu Hong unless he turns around, so he's not sure about her. And the rest of them… Well, they're probably listening too.

"Shen-laoshi is the one who knows where the Awl is," Zhao Yunlan says. The words leave an expectant sort of air around him like everyone is still waiting for some kind of explanation. Zhao Yunlan sighs and says, "Do you think he won't go find it on his own?" He realises he knows Shen Wei better than anyone else here, but surely they'd know that much about him by now. He huffs. "I, for one, would prefer to go with him," he says, directing his words to the air in front of him. If they're stupid enough not to figure it out from there, then Zhao Yunlan really can't help them.

It's not that Zhao Yunlan distrusts Shen Wei. He wants to go along to help because he worries about Shen Wei, and maybe because he hasn't actually been apart from Shen Wei since they first met. Now that's probably not entirely healthy as far as relationships go, but it's the only successful one Zhao Yunlan has had, so he's not going to mess with what works. But Zhao Yunlan isn't stupid, despite what some people might think. He might personally be willing to hand over all of the Hallows to Shen Wei and believe him when he says he'll make sure the world stays safe, but he can see how that might be a tad bit difficult for others to believe. Shen Wei is not the sort of entity you traditionally entrust with the safety of the world, quite the opposite really. So, making sure that the SID has some say over what happens with the Hallows is only prudent. You know, in case someone asks at some point he can say they had a handle on it all along. He can probably even write it down in a report. Well, some of it.

"Besides, we already have one, we might as well go for the whole set," Zhao Yunlan says. No one actually answers him. Oh well, they probably agree.

Shen Wei eventually returns from his talk with Wang Zheng. Zhao Yunlan is the first to actually realise it because there's suddenly a bunch of tiny spiders crawling out from underneath the shadows of the couch and up along Zhao Yunlan's legs.

Da Qing is the second one to realise, because the spiders make him jump out of Zhao Yunlan's lap. Shen Wei doesn't intentionally drive Da Qing away, or at least Zhao Yunlan thinks he doesn't. Shen Wei might be a little bit protective of Zhao Yunlan and he has opinions of people who come too close to Zhao Yunlan—he's maybe had to stop him from eating people once or twice, but those people had been a clear threat. He's pretty sure Shen Wei is okay with having Da Qing around.

They both manage to live in the same apartment with Zhao Yunlan, so it's not like they aren't used to each other. It's just that Da Qing can still get a bit frazzled when the spiders get a bit too close for comfort. Unless Shen Wei is cooking, in which case Da Qing is happy to get however close he needs to to get to the food. Shen Wei's cooking is pretty excellent though.

Da Qing glares grumpily at the small spiders and then settles down on the couch next to Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan wouldn't swear on it, but for a moment the spiders seem to give off a slightly smug air. Okay, so maybe he was a little bit off on how intentionally Shen Wei might have scared Da Qing off.

He sighs and shakes his head just a little. Then he turns his head enough to catch a glimpse of Zhu Hong, ostensibly doing actual work at her desk. "Hong-jie," he says loud enough to catch her attention. When she looks up at him he adds, "Maybe you'd like to go check on Wang Zheng."

She looks confused for a moment, so he says, "I'm pretty sure they're done."

She seems to take his word for it because she nods. "Alright," she says and gets up from her desk.

Satisfied that that's dealt with for now, Zhao Yunlan looks back at the spiders swarming over him.

"And if you want to tell us what you know about the Awl, that would be great," he says with a raised eyebrow.

He waits for a moment as Shen Wei gathers himself, the spiders skittering off Zhao Yunlan and next to him on the couch, making Da Qing hop off with a little hiss (okay so definitely something going on there). In no time at all, Shen Wei is sitting next to him on the couch.

"If you have a map, I can show you roughly where it was at that time," Shen Wei says.

Da Qing doesn't come home that night, citing reasons of "you're probably going to do something weird," which is fair enough if by weird he means sex. All of the SID is getting up bright and early the next morning and going on a road trip to the mountains. If Zhao Yunlan is going to be spending days together with all of them, probably with little chance of being alone with Shen Wei, he'd like to get laid first. Unless Shen Wei doesn't want to.

He's not entirely sure Shen Wei's thoughts have quite gone in the same direction as his, he thinks as he watches the spiders skittering all over his apartment. There's a soft hissing sound as they move. Well, that would probably have driven Da Qing out anyway, even though the meal Shen Wei had made earlier would probably have been worth it to Da Qing.

"So you cook and clean when you're… nervous?" Zhao Yunlan asks. Nervous is probably not the right word. Agitated might be more accurate. The spiders don't stop what they're doing. His entire floor looks like it's blanketed by spiders. It's a bit dizzying to look at all that movement.

He feels the little spider who's always with him crawl against the back of his hand and looks down at it instead.

"Shen Wei-ah, are you upset you have to wait?" he asks, taking a guess at the cause. Shen Wei is mostly pretty patient, but when it comes to some things maybe not so much. Then again, Zhao Yunlan supposes if he'd been looking for a family member for longer than Zhao Yunlan has actually been alive, he might be a bit impatient now that there's something to be done and instead they're just here, not doing anything about it, even if it is only until tomorrow morning. "I'm sorry about that. We needed some time to arrange things," he says. Like getting a second car suitable for the terrain they'd be going into, and some camping gear in case they needed it and—

He shrugs a little. "Besides, most of us kind of need some sleep and I was hoping to spend some time with you before we have to leave. You know, without anyone else around, " Zhao Yunlan says a little hopefully, and not a little bit suggestively. Whether or not Shen Wei will pick up on the innuendo is… Well, that's never a given. Sometimes he knows exactly what Zhao Yunlan is talking about and at other times it just doesn't seem to occur to him, Zhao Yunlan thinks fondly. Right now, Zhao Yunlan really isn't expecting much. He mostly just wants to distract Shen Wei from whatever is making him so agitated.

He's not looking directly at the spiders, but he still notices them stop, partly because for a moment the hissing goes quiet. Then it surges again, all of the thousands of spiders suddenly moving towards him, which would be alarming if it wasn't Shen Wei. Still, Zhao Yunlan gasps as the spiders swarm over him, pushing him down on his back on the bed.

"And what do you want, Zhao Yunlan?" The words are accompanied by the hissing of thousands of spiders, the words seemingly coming from nowhere and everywhere at once. Zhao Yunlan frowns, even as the spiders are crawling against him. Shen Wei doesn't really sound like he's in the mood for what Zhao Yunlan had been thinking.

"Nothing if you—" Zhao Yunlan starts to say, but spiders press up against his mouth, a few of them slipping inside, and he has no choice but to go quiet.

Slowly, Shen Wei takes form on top of him, the spiders coalescing into a human shape. Lastly, the spider he can feel against his tongue crawls out, and Zhao Yunlan swallows quickly. He can't help the fact that he's kind of turned on, even though that might not be what Shen Wei had in mind.

"Tell me what you want, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei orders, his black eyes staring down at him as his hips press down against Zhao Yunlan in a way that makes it very clear he hadn't missed what Zhao Yunlan was hinting at after all. Or maybe he just picked up on Zhao Yunlan's already hardening cock.

Zhao Yunlan's breath shudders, heat surging through him, his cock suddenly so damn hard.

Zhao Yunlan licks his lips. "You. I just want you, Shen Wei," he says.

Shen Wei makes a pleased sort of noise, that maybe sounds a lot like hissing spiders, and then leans forward to kiss him. Zhao Yunlan winds his arms around Shen Wei's neck, more than happy to reciprocate. It's a slow kiss, making the heat lazily wind through Zhao Yunlan as Shen Wei's tongue maps out the inside of his mouth.

Zhao Yunlan is breathing more than a little hard as Shen Wei finally pulls his mouth away. He stays there, on top of Zhao Yunlan and Zhao Yunlan runs his hands along Shen Wei's back as he takes a moment to catch his breath. He can feel Shen Wei pressed against him, which also means he can feel the lack of a hard on.

"You don't…" he starts to say and then thinks better of it because Shen Wei knows he doesn't need to do anything he doesn't want to and Zhao Yunlan needs to learn to trust that Shen Wei can make up his own mind about what he wants. "No arousal today, huh?" he says instead, trying his best not to sound disappointed.

He's not disappointed. He's here with Shen Wei and turned on as hell and he absolutely has no complaints. But maybe he also happens to love seeing Shen Wei come.

"I can—" Shen Wei starts to say and Zhao Yunlan shakes his head. It's not quite as effective as gagging him with spiders, but Shen Wei stops speaking anyway.

"If you want to make me come without getting distracted I'm all for that," Zhao Yunlan says with a grin and a little waggle of eyebrows.

Shen Wei smiles with a hint of sharp teeth. Zhao Yunlan's breath catches. He pulls himself up a little, capturing Shen Wei's lips with his own. He wants to get his mouth on Shen Wei and since blowjobs are probably out, kissing will just have to do for now. Not that he's complaining. Zhao Yunlan loves kissing Shen Wei. He loves everything about Shen Wei.

He moans against Shen Wei's mouth. And then has to turn his head to the side, his arms wrapped around Shen Wei's neck as he takes a long breath. Unfortunately, he actually needs to breathe.

"I would like to make you orgasm, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says, his voice low and serious. Zhao Yunlan's breath stutters, heat flashing through him.

Yeah, no. Definitely no complaints. Shen Wei can do anything he wants.

"Fuck, yes," Zhao Yunlan agrees with feeling. Shen Wei makes a contented noise in return, his lips brushing against Zhao Yunlan's cheek and then moving to mouth along his jaw, sharp teeth gracing his skin.

Zhao Yunlan shivers, his fingers pressing against Shen Wei's back, wishing the robe was gone so he could get his hands on bare skin. He feels a few spiders crawl along his throat, crawling down under his collar, like maybe Shen Wei can't entirely contain himself.

"Honestly, I was thinking… blowjob… But this is good… This is so good," Zhao Yunlan babbles a bit brokenly as Shen Wei sucks and nips at his throat, fangs pressing against Zhao Yunlan's vulnerable skin just hard enough to sting a little.

The hissing of spiders grows louder for a moment and then subsides again as Shen Wei pulls his mouth away from Zhao Yunlan's skin, lifting his head to look down at him. Spiders skitter along Zhao Yunlan's throat and under his clothes, crawling over his chest. Zhao Yunlan's hands tighten against Shen Wei's back, wanting to pull him back down and tell him not to stop now. But something in Shen Wei's black gaze makes him swallow the words.

"Do you want me to do that to you, Zhao Yunlan?" Shen Wei asks, the hissing growing louder again for a moment.

"Ah…" Zhao Yunlan says, struggling to put any meaning to Shen Wei's words through the haze that has fallen over him. All he wants is to pull Shen Wei closer and kiss him. He shakes his head a little, struggling to push away enough of the lust clouding his thoughts. "A… blowjob?" he ventures after a moment since that's the only thing he can think of. Lust flares through him just at the thought, the heat travelling down to his cock, making it ache even harder. Zhao Yunlan groans low in his throat.

Shen Wei nods, the movement slow and shy and he has no business being so adorable right now because Zhao Yunlan can barely handle it. Shen Wei has never offered that before. So far it's mostly been Shen Wei's hand on his cock, and at some point a lot of spiders. Shen Wei often has a little bit of trouble keeping himself together through the whole thing, even when Shen Wei isn't the one coming.

"If that's what you want," Zhao Yunlan says, trying to sound calm instead of so eager he can barely get the words out, but it probably shines through. Just a little bit.

Shen Wei seems to take a moment to seriously consider it. It's very adorable. Zhao Yunlan maybe wants him to hurry up a little, but instead of saying that he strokes his fingers against Shen Wei's back and tries to breathe calmly and ignore the way his cock is still throbbing.

"Yes," Shen Wei says, at last, his voice a little staticky. It feels like a punch to Zhao Yunlan's gut, his breath going out of him. Before Zhao Yunlan can catch his breath again, Shen Wei is sliding downward along his body, a determined look on his face.

Zhao Yunlan tries to catch him, but really only manages to get his fingers tangled in Shen Wei's long, silky hair. Shen Wei's hands run along his sides and Zhao Yunlan shivers, a small noise slipping out of his mouth. He tugs at Shen Wei's hair a little.

"Xiao Wei," he says quickly, his tongue feeling clumsy. Shen Wei lifts his gaze to look at him, and for a moment Zhao Yunlan gets lost in his entirely black eyes, forgetting that he wanted to say anything at all. Zhao Yunlan blinks and shakes himself a little. Shen Wei's hands are resting against his hipbones and Zhao Yunlan— He was going to say something, he reminds himself. What was he—?

"I'll like anything you do, Xiao Wei," Zhao Yunlan says, his voice feeling thready. It makes Shen Wei smile, and that feels like heat poured straight into Zhao Yunlan's veins. "Xiao Wei…" he gasps, his fingers stroking Shen Wei's hair a bit desperately.

Shen Wei slides a little bit lower and Zhao Yunlan finally remembers himself enough to spread his legs. Shen Wei settles in between them like he belongs there. His hands slide down from Zhao Yunlan's hips, his touch almost tentative. Zhao Yunlan bites his lip, holding his breath as his hands skim closer to Zhao Yunlan's cock. The words begging Shen Wei to touch him are trapped just behind his teeth, wanting to come out.

Shen Wei's fingers brush against the side of his cock, light and barely there. Zhao Yunlan gasps in a breath, his cock jerking. Fuck. He's so, so turned on right now. His cock aches.

"Touch me, Xiao Wei," he can't help but beg, and of course, Shen Wei does. His fingers wrap around Zhao Yunlan's cock, giving it a small pump. His other hand strokes Zhao Yunlan's balls, before cupping them in his palm. Zhao Yunlan moans.

He pulls his hand away from Shen Wei's hair, frantically groping for the pillows. He wants to see what Shen Wei is doing. He falters halfway through getting the pillows behind his back when Shen Wei's hand gives his cock another slow pump, running up and down along his erection. He groans loudly.

"Give me a moment, please," he somehow manages to get out. Shen Wei's hand goes still, holding his cock firmly. Zhao Yunlan very quickly stuffs the pillows behind his back, propping himself up. "Go ahead," he says, nearly stumbling over the words in his haste.

For a moment, he's struck by how ridiculous he's acting, but he's far too turned on to actually care. Shen Wei looks up at him from between his legs, his long lashes shadowing his eyes. He's so fucking gorgeous Zhao Yunlan can hardly breathe. His hand strokes Zhao Yunlan's cock, and Zhao Yunlan's breath stutters a low moan slipping from his lips. He's not going to last long at all if Shen Wei actually puts his mouth on him. Shen Wei's black eyes watch him intently, as he slowly strokes Zhao Yunlan, his other hand gently fondling Zhao Yunlan's balls.

"I like watching you while I touch you, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says seriously, with the hiss of spiders loud in his voice. "I like to see the way you react."

Oh gods, fuck that's— He can't just say thing like that and expect Zhao Yunlan to actually be able to respond somehow.

He tries to scrape together some thoughts. He doesn't want— Shen Wei shouldn't—

"You don't have to… Doing this is good too if you want to keep watching," Zhao Yunlan says, his breath shuddering as he stumbles halfway through the words.

There's a short amused noise from Shen Wei, that's nothing at all like a laugh, and a lot more like spiders. "Yunlan, I'm not human," Shen Wei says gently, like somehow Zhao Yunlan might have forgotten.

More than a few spiders drop down against Zhao Yunlan's thighs, skittering up along him, tickling his skin lightly, and somehow he feels like the room grows just a little bit darker. Heat twists in his belly, leaving him feeling breathless. He doesn't think he can get any harder than he is.

"Fuck, Xiao Wei, I love you so much," Zhao Yunlan says, suddenly needing to tell Shen Wei so badly. Shen Wei looks fucking radiant at those words, and Zhao Yunlan would very much like to kiss him.

"I love you too, Yunlan," Shen Wei says, soft and shy and a little staticky. Then he drops his head and then he's—

Oh, fuck, is all Zhao Yunlan can think as Shen Wei moves his head down, his hand sliding a bit lower along Zhao Yunlan's cock and then he— His lips are touching Zhao Yunlan's cock. The tip of Zhao Yunlan's cock slides into Shen Wei's warm mouth. Zhao Yunlan whines, desperately grasping at the bedsheet with one hand as he tries to keep from thrusting up into Shen Wei's mouth, his other hand still in Shen Wei's hair.

Shen Wei sucks a little at the tip of his cock, his tongue moving around like he's feeling it out. Zhao Yunlan bites his lip, his fingers probably pulling at Shen Wei's hair a bit too hard. Fuck, fuck, fuck, he thinks a moan slipping out of his mouth.

Shen Wei's mouth moves a little further down along his length and Zhao Yunlan thinks he's going to die. He can't look away from the way Shen Wei's pretty lips are wrapped around him as he slowly takes more and more of Zhao Yunlan into his mouth. He keeps sliding his lips down along his length until he's taken in all of Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan whines urgently, feeling very much like he might come right then and there because Shen Wei just swallowed all of him and it feels so good and he—

Shen Wei pulls away a little. Zhao Yunlan can feel his lips and tongue against his flushed cock, the coolness of them making him feel even hotter. Shen Wei sucks a little, his cheeks hollowing every so slightly and fuck it feels amazing. Zhao Yunlan doesn't even know what noises are coming out of him, but whatever they are he's entirely unable to stop them.

Then Shen Wei's mouth slides back down again and it feels like something explodes inside Zhao Yunlan. There's no time to do anything at all to warn Shen Wei. His cock pulses as he comes, deep in Shen Wei's throat. He feels Shen Wei's throat tighten around the head of his cock as he swallows. And then he keeps swallowing.

"That's so hot," Zhao Yunlan mumbles, his lips feeling a little numb. He pets Shen Wei's hair shakily.

Small shivers run through his body as Shen Wei keeps swallowing until he seems satisfied that there's nothing more left. Then he pulls back a little, not quite letting go of Zhao Yunlan's slack cock yet. Zhao Yunlan's fingers tighten in Shen Wei's hair, pulling a little, a tired whine caught in his throat. Shen Wei looks up at him with wide black eyes, looking far too innocent while he's still suckling at Zhao Yunlan's cock. Zhao Yunlan groans again, his cock futilely trying to take an interest, but he's far, far too spent right now.

Shen Wei swallows whatever's left in his mouth, and Zhao Yunlan feels a little like crying at how unfairly hot that is. He tugs at Shen Wei's hair a little, and Shen Wei finally takes the hint letting Zhao Yunlan's now entirely slack cock carefully fall out of his mouth. Zhao Yunlan sighs, in both regret and relief. He strokes Shen Wei's silky hair.

He feels like he should tell Shen Wei he didn't need to do that. But his lips still feel a little numb. And he's not making assumptions about what Shen Wei might or might not like doing, he reminds himself. Besides, his brain is too fuzzy to make sure he doesn't just end up sounding like he's trying to dictate how Shen Wei should act. Shutting up right now is probably for the best.

He licks his lips, pets Shen Wei's hair and then finally gets out, "I didn't expect you to swallow."

To be honest, he kind of expected Shen Wei might fall into spiders before Zhao Yunlan actually orgasmed. It's happened more than once. It's cute, and occasionally, when Zhao Yunlan is just on the brink of coming, a little bit frustrating. But then, it's not like Zhao Yunlan had held out all that long this time. He'd be embarrassed about it if it wasn't all just so fucking hot.

Shen Wei blinks, and then shivers slightly, like he might be coming apart. Zhao Yunlan doesn't mind, but he quickly says, "It's really hot that you did." Just so Shen Wei doesn't misunderstand that Zhao Yunlan was in fact expressing his appreciation.

Shen Wei's shivers stop, but a few stray spiders crawl up along Zhao Yunlan's thighs. The light caress of their legs against his sensitised skin sends shivers through him. Zhao Yunlan takes a shaky breath and keeps petting Shen Wei's hair, regretting just a little that his human constitution needs a bit of time before he can do this again.

Shen Wei is silent for a moment and then rather tentatively says, "That is what you'd like to do to me as well."

For a moment, Zhao Yunlan doesn't get it. He's given Shen Wei blowjobs a few times. He likes having Shen Wei in his mouth. And then it sort of clicks. "Oh, swallow," Zhao Yunlan says out loud and then doesn't quite know what to say. Because yeah, sort of, he supposes. But when Shen Wei comes he kind of bursts into spiders, so there's not exactly anything to swallow.

"I wouldn't mind if you ingested me," Shen Wei says and then ducks his head shyly.

Zhao Yunlan's fingers freeze against his hair, heat flushing through him, gathering down into the pit of his belly. He stares down at Shen Wei wordlessly.

"Uh… Shen Wei…" he starts to say and then realises he has no idea what to say. He's just come way too hard to actually think about this. "You come into spiders," he finally manages to say. And Zhao Yunlan definitely doesn't mind that. It's Shen Wei, and it's hot and— "Wouldn't it be… uncomfortable?"

"I wouldn't harm you, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says, far too earnestly, and that thought hadn't even entered Zhao Yunlan's mind.

"Of course you wouldn't. I meant for you," Zhao Yunlan says, getting some of his brain back online.

"I would like to be inside you, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says and there's no way he should be saying things like that quite so earnestly. Zhao Yunlan takes a shaky breath, and tries to pretend he's not so turned on his fingertips are tingling. He can't even get it up yet anyway.

He tries to think about spiders inside him. And oh fuck, that's not supposed to make him feel more turned on, he tells himself a little desperately.

He tries to think about how the spiders might get out. Then, he thinks about the way the spiders tend to vanish into shadows and realises it probably isn't that much of a problem for Shen Wei.

"Yeah, okay," Zhao Yunlan says, his voice croaking. He thinks he sounds kind of stupid, but he feels like his brain might have melted, so that's fine. Getting words out at all is probably an accomplishment. He moves his hand to tug at Shen Wei's arm. "Come up here," he says and in response Shen Wei comes apart, tiny spiders running along Zhao Yunlan, until it feels like he's covered in spiders.

Not quite what he meant, but that's okay. He can always kiss Shen Wei later.

Chapter Text

They set out the next morning with two cars. Lao Chu volunteers to drive the car he and Shen Wei's are taking, which is fine by Zhao Yunlan since it means he doesn't need to drive all the way there himself. Da Qing gives him a look and then announces he's taking the other car, making Zhao Yunlan wonder briefly if he's annoyed about not being able to spend the night at home. That was entirely Da Qing's own choice, no one told him he had to stay away. Or if he's still grumpy at Shen Wei, which is totally possible. Maybe Zhao Yunlan should ask one of them what's going on, but he keeps feeling like his interference wouldn't be appreciated.

Well, he'll worry about whatever that is once they're back home, if it hasn't sorted itself out by then.

"Well, your car is going to be pretty full," Zhao Yunlan says, looking at Lin Jing and Xiao Guo with raised eyebrows. Zhu Hong and Wang Zheng are still inside, getting Wang Zheng ready for the journey. Zhao Yunlan is not getting involved in that more than he needs to, not after the earlier little mix up with Xiao Guo ordering supplies.

Well, he supposes the blow-up doll is serviceable enough, and it will help protect Wang Zheng from the sun and the overnight delivery had been handy, but yeah. Neither Wang Zheng or Zhu Hong are particularly happy with anyone right now.

"I- I can… ride with you, Chief Zhao. If that's okay?" Xiao Guo manages to get out, switching his gaze from Zhao Yunlan to looking at Lao Chu for support halfway through.

Zhao Yunlan grins and slaps Xiao Guo lightly on the shoulder, it makes him wince a little and then attempt to take a surreptitious step back. Zhao Yunlan pretends not to notice. Ever since Shen Wei showed up everyone has been a bit wary of getting too close to Zhao Yunlan. Xiao Guo is still volunteering to confine himself inside a car with Shen Wei, and that probably takes quite a bit of courage.

"Good choice," Zhao Yunlan says. Zhao Yunlan would definitely take spiders over the ladies' annoyance any day. But, admittedly he might be biased. He'd take spiders over pretty much anything when the spiders are Shen Wei. "We'll take the backseat," Zhao Yunlan says, knowing that Shen Wei wouldn't mind him deciding for both of them. And that way, there'll be room for Shen Wei if he decides he wants to experience the tedium of a long car ride in human form.

Besides, he's pretty sure Xiao Guo would prefer to ride in front with Lao Chu anyway.

That decided, they quickly finish getting everything inside the cars and then they only need to wait for the ladies. Zhao Yunlan leans against the hood of their car, the fingers of one hand trailing against the hood, tiny spiders trail from his fingers, forming small patterns against the lighter grey of the car. It makes Zhao Yunlan grin lightly, as he watches the patterns he's drawing, keeping him from getting too bored as they wait.

He looks up as Wang Zheng and Zhu Hong finally exit the building. Absently he taps the car hood with two of his fingers and doesn't look down as he feels the spiders crawl up along his fingers and inside his sleeve. Wang Zheng is wrapped up so that nothing of her is really visible, with a wide-brimmed sun hat on her head and very large sunglasses covering her eyes.

Honestly, Zhao Yunlan had suggested she could just stay at the SID and not come with them, but after her talk with Shen Wei, she'd been rather insistent that she needed to come along. And that had pretty much decided it for everyone else too and now they're making a whole SID field trip out of it.

Maybe Zhao Yunlan can swing it as some kind of morale and cohesion-building retreat for the budget? That would probably fly better than the truth in any case, because as of now, he's very much avoiding making any mention of the Hallows in any of his reports. If they actually find one— Well, he'll have to think of what to write down then.

He watches Zhu Hong help Wang Zheng into the car and then looks to Lao Chu for a moment. Lao Chu nods solemnly and ushers Xiao Guo into their car. Zhao Yunlan glances down at the hood of the car, just to check that he isn't leaving any spiders behind. Not that Shen Wei particularly needs Zhao Yunlan to worry about him, he can definitely take care of himself, but Zhao Yunlan can't quite help himself. He worries anyway.

Seeing no stray spiders anywhere, he pushes himself away from the car and gets himself inside it.

Almost the moment he settles into the backseat the engine rumbles to life and they're on their way.

It doesn't take long for Zhao Yunlan to notice the nervous glances Xiao Guo keeps making towards the rearview mirror. He probably can't help himself. He's personally witnessed Shen Wei do some, admittedly, rather horrific things, and while he must know by now that Shen Wei won't harm him— Well, Xiao Guo is quite the nervous type.

Zhao Yunlan sighs quietly. He thought maybe they were over the worst of it, considering the way Shen Wei has started actually interacting with the rest of the SID. Granted, that's only really been in his human shape.

He grasps one of his hands with the other, tapping two fingers against the back of his palm, knowing that the vibration will be enough to catch Shen Wei's attention. He probably doesn't even need to do that, Shen Wei has a tendency to keep his attention on Zhao Yunlan anyway.

"I was hoping you'd show up in human form for a bit, Xiao Wei. You should get the full experience of road trips, after all," Zhao Yunlan says softly enough that the two in the front seat might not hear him. But, since aside from the car engine the car is entirely quiet, he's not entirely sure about that. "I'm getting bored," he complains softly, which at least is true enough.

Maybe he should tell Xiao Guo to turn on the radio at least.

It takes a moment, and Zhao Yunlan watches the little spider that has appeared on the back of his hand. At least he knows Shen Wei isn't just ignoring him. Then, slowly, the spiders start crawling out of his clothes. Zhao Yunlan shivers a little at the touch of spider legs against his skin. He bites his lip to keep quiet. He wants to accuse Shen Wei of being an exhibitionist, but he's not entirely sure Shen Wei has any idea of the effect he has on Zhao Yunlan right now.

Zhao Yunlan shifts a little, his trousers suddenly feeling a bit tight and then moves his arm a little to cover his crotch. He thinks there should be a pillow somewhere, maybe he should find that.

Slowly, Shen Wei gathers himself next to Zhao Yunlan. The spiders make this hissing sound as they all move together which Zhao Yunlan imagines is probably unsettling to most people. He looks towards the front seat. Lao Chu's attention is on the road, as it should be, but for a moment he meets Xiao Guo's round eyes in the rearview mirror before Xiao Guo yanks his gaze away.

The moment Shen Wei is all solid and human shaped, Zhao Yunlan leans against him. "Good, now I can take a nap," Zhao Yunlan says.

"You didn't need me here for that," Shen Wei says, a touch exasperated.

Zhao Yunlan hums, and settles himself a bit more comfortably against Shen Wei. Despite his words, Shen Wei obligingly moves his arm to give him more space and then wraps it around him.

"No, but I like it better like this," Zhao Yunlan says. And having a bunch of spiders filling the entire backseat for Zhao Yunlan to cuddle with would probably have been too much for Xiao Guo.

Zhao Yunlan gives the front seat a last glance—Xiao Guo seems a little less twitchy now, he thinks—before closing his eyes. Shen Wei sighs, and then Zhao Yunlan feels his fingers gently petting his arm. He smiles a little and before long the rumble of the car and Shen Wei right there with him actually does lull him into sleep. After all, Zhao Yunlan had had gotten less sleep than he could have last night.

Zhao Yunlan gets woken up when they stop, or more likely by the sound of strange voices outside. He opens his eyes and stares right into a pair of eyes looking in through the backseat window. He stares back for a second before his brain really registers what's going on.

Then, finally something seems to penetrate the sleep fog, and he straightens himself. He pats Shen Wei's leg absently as he takes in the men outside the car and the official uniforms they're wearing. He takes a breath, yawns and then shakes his head a little. He rubs at his eyes, trying to get rid of the lingering sleep.

Lao Chu has rolled down his window and is talking to one of the men, but Zhao Yunlan can very quickly tell that that isn't going anywhere. Lao Chu is not what you'd call particularly diplomatic in most situations, and right now Zhao Yunlan can tell he's starting to sound rather annoyed.

He reaches out to lay a hand on Lao Chu's shoulder, his other hand still on Shen Wei's thigh as he leans forward. Lao Chu stiffens for just a moment. "I'll take care of this," Zhao Yunlan says.

The guy outside tilts his head forward so he can peer in at Zhao Yunlan.

"Go ahead, Boss," Lao Chu mutters, in a way that Zhao Yunlan is going to take as grateful, even though it doesn't much sound like it.

"Let me just get out first," Zhao Yunlan says, loud enough that at least the guy at the open window can hear him, and possibly the other men outside as well. He pulls his hand back and then turns to look at Shen Wei briefly. "You can wait here if you want," he says and doesn't actually say out loud that he kind of needs Shen Wei to keep himself together and not alarm the nice and very normal humans outside who're just doing their jobs.

Shen Wei's black eyes glimmer a bit worryingly, but then he lowers his head in what might be a nod. More than a few spiders crawl up on his fingers, where his hand is touching Shen Wei. Zhao Yunlan looks down at his hand, and the spiders scurry in under his sleeve. Zhao Yunlan pats Shen Wei wordlessly, and gives him a little reassuring smile, before turning to open the car door.

It turns out that apparently there's been some minor earthquake activity in the area they want to go to. Nothing that bad, he's told but they're restricting access for hikers and such like, until they know nothing bigger is following, which is an entirely sensible precaution Zhao Yunlan agrees.

It ends up taking quite a bit of talking and discovering mutual acquaintances before they're allowed to continue, and a promise to stop on their way back to share a decent drink together which Zhao Yunlan doesn't quite have the time for right now.

Then, with a few too many slaps on the back, that he hopes aren't making Shen Wei too restless, Zhao Yunlan finally waves Lin Jing and Da Qing back into their car and gets himself back into the backseat with Shen Wei.

"We can go now," he tells Lao Chu, while Xiao Guo turns to look at him with rather large eyes and something Zhao Yunlan thinks might be awe.

Well, it's nice one of his underlings has some respect for him at least.

"Do you know someone everywhere, Chief Zhao?" Xiao Guo asks.

Zhao Yunlan huffs, closes his eyes and leans against Shen Wei. "It helps, doesn't it?" he asks. He's worked hard enough for all of those contacts. Xiao Guo doesn't say anything to that. Zhao Yunlan opens one eye to look, noticing that Lao Chu has tugged Xiao Guo back.

He closes his eyes again, listening to the engine for a moment.

"Thanks for waiting," he mumbles to Shen Wei. He hasn't really thought about it that much until right now, but after Shen Wei showed up, Zhao Yunlan hasn't really interacted all that much with plain old humans. Not outside of work anyway.

"You're welcome, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei answers him, in a way that makes Zhao Yunlan think that maybe it really had been an effort for Shen Wei to restrain himself.

For a moment, Zhao Yunlan wishes they were alone but then dismisses the thought since there's not much to be done about it right now. Besides, it's just Lao Chu and Xiao Guo anyway.

He doesn't open his eyes, just turns his head until he's resting it against Shen Wei's shoulder.

"You know most regular people aren't actually any danger to me?" Zhao Yunlan asks quietly, sort of hoping his voice won't carry all the way to the front seat. He's pretty sure Shen Wei knows that already, but maybe it's not a bad idea to establish that anyway.

"I know," Shen Wei agrees, maybe a touch reluctantly.

Zhao Yunlan hums softly. "So you don't need to protect me from them," he says. That earns him an agitated little hiss and the feeling of Shen Wei sort of rippling against him. A few spiders crawl up on his face. He can feel their tiny little legs tickling at his skin. One of them brushes against his lips and for a moment Zhao Yunlan remembers the talk they'd had last night. Then he very firmly shoves that thought away, because he doesn't need that distraction right now, and waits for the spider to move over to his cheek. "I love that you want to, Xiao Wei. But there are some things I'm better at handling than you are. So thank you for letting me today," he says.

He gets a soft hum in answer, that has just the tiniest undertone of hissing. If they need to have a more extensive talk about certain boundaries, and about Shen Wei needing to let Zhao Yunlan actually do things without having to worry about Shen Wei deciding to eat everyone he actually talks to… Well, that's a conversation that can wait until they're actually alone.

He opens his eyes and then lifts his head, looking at the side of Shen Wei's face. It's a very nice profile, he thinks and feels a small urge to run his fingers against Shen Wei's jaw. It might not be the shape Shen Wei is most comfortable in, but that doesn't stop it from being a very, very nice shape.

Shen Wei turns his head to meet his gaze, and Zhao Yunlan grins at him. If they were alone, he'd lean in and kiss Shen Wei.

"You don't have to stay like this the whole car ride, you know," Zhao Yunlan says, letting his eyes fall down to the rest of Shen Wei before lifting them up again.

"I don't mind," Shen Wei answers and then gives a small but meaningful look towards the front seat, specifically at Xiao Guo.

Oh, so he has noticed the fact that the spiders make Xiao Guo nervous. Well, he supposes it's not particularly subtle. He just wasn't entirely sure Shen Wei cared enough to pay attention to something like that.

Damn, he really, really wants to kiss Shen Wei. Instead, he contends himself with finding Shen Wei's hand and lacing their fingers together.

"Alright," Zhao Yunlan agrees.

They have to take a pause before long. Mostly just so everyone gets to move their legs a little and maybe use the bushes to take care of some private matters. They've been driving the whole day after all. The trees and the fog that has been slowly rolling in is enough cover so that Wang Zheng can get out as well.

"Well, that's not going to make driving easier," Lin Jing comments as he munches, rather loudly, on something.

Zhao Yunlan watches the fog as he takes another bite of his own food. They haven't bothered with unpacking any equipment to warm up their food, but Shen Wei had made sure to make him things that could be enjoyed cold. Lin Jing is definitely not wrong about the fog.

"Do you know specifically where we're going?" Zhao Yunlan asks, looking at Shen Wei and then briefly turning his gaze to Wang Zheng. Wang Zheng shakes her head slightly, her expression hidden by her wide-brimmed hat and the sunglasses and scarf she's wearing.

It takes a few moments before someone unfolds a map and most of them take a look at it.

"Well, there should be a village around here," Lin Jing says, pointing over Lao Chu's shoulder at a place on the map Lao Chu is holding.

"It's unlikely to be the same village Wang Zheng remembers," Zhu Hong says, sounding a little bit sharper than usual. Zhao Yunlan glances at her and sees the worried look she gives Wang Zheng.

"That's not what I'm saying," Lin Jing protests.

"The locals might know something," Da Qing says, surprisingly reasonably.

Zhao Yunlan takes a step away from them and turns to Shen Wei, who somewhat surprisingly has stayed in his human shape all this time. He hadn't come to look at the map at all. Zhao Yunlan glances down towards his own collar, the little spider is almost impossible to notice from this angle, sitting on top of Zhao Yunlan's jacket. Well, maybe Shen Wei didn't need to come and have a look.

"You haven't said anything," Zhao Yunlan points out softly once he's closer.

Shen Wei looks out into the fog, his expression thoughtful.

"Approaching things in daytime will be better," he says.

Zhao Yunlan nods a little. "Yeah, that's what I figure," he agrees. It's not quite night yet, but it's going to be soon enough. Their best bet is to find a place to sleep for the night and then start looking for the Hallow tomorrow. Most things like that are better approached in the light of day. "The village might be a good idea if we want to find somewhere to sleep. We did pack tents too, if it comes to that," he says, stepping up right next to Shen Wei and settling his hand on his arm. "That's not what you're actually thinking about, is it?" he asks.

Shen Wei turns his face towards Zhao Yunlan and Zhao Yunlan finds his dark eyes harder to read than usual. "I can… go take a look," Shen Wei says hesitantly.

"On your own?" Zhao Yunlan asks, and he can't help the way his words turn sharp.

"Yes," Shen Wei says, his tone calm despite the frown on his face. There's barely any hint of the hiss usually underlying his tone, and Zhao Yunlan knows Shen Wei has to be very deliberately controlling himself.

Zhao Yunlan's fingers tighten around his arm. He forces himself to take a deep breath before saying anything at all. He feels suddenly like there's definitely a wrong way to react to Shen Wei's suggestion. He's just not sure at all what that is. He can easily think of all the reasons he's supposed to tell Shen Wei for why he can't go alone. Mainly, because he's a creature from beyond and Zhao Yunlan shouldn't agree to let him get close to any of the Hallows alone. But that's not why Zhao Yunlan's gut clenches, and he feels like he doesn't want to let go of Shen Wei's arm at all.

"You're worried," he points out. Because he can tell that much, even if Shen Wei is being a bit more inscrutable than usual.

"I don't want to leave you alone here, Yunlan. There's… something here," Shen Wei says, and suddenly the calm of his voice breaks, a distressed hiss sounding in the air.

Zhao Yunlan's thoughts come to a sudden halt. It feels like he has to forcefully lever his brain onto new tracks. Of course. He should have realised Shen Wei would be worried for him. But he'd been too stuck on his own worry for Shen Wei.

"Something?" he asks after a moment. Shen Wei turns his head, looking out into the fog again. It seems to have gotten significantly thicker just while they were standing here. He's really not looking forward to them having to drive in that, not if they actually plan on finding anything. "Dangerous?" he asks.

Shen Wei is silent for a moment and Zhao Yunlan can hear the others still bickering in the background. The fog does feel a little ominous, Zhao Yunlan can't deny that. He thinks they can all feel it, which is why everyone is a bit tense by now. Or maybe they're just all tired from the long car ride and he's letting his imagination get away with him.

It could be both. Zhao Yunlan looks into the fog and sees nothing but the vague shape of trees. He shivers slightly at the damp, chilly air, despite the jacket he's wearing and then looks at Shen Wei in his relatively light-looking robe and has the sudden urge to try to offer his jacket to Shen Wei. It would be useless of course. He doesn't think Shen Wei exactly gets cold. At least not the same way the rest of them do. Though you'd think cold wouldn't be good for tiny spiders.

"I'm not sure," Shen Wei says, and Zhao Yunlan's wandering thoughts focus back on what they're actually talking about. "If I knew what it was, I would tell you, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says, like he needs to reassure Zhao Yunlan of that.

For a moment the words, "I know," are on the tip of his tongue, before he swallows them. He's almost sure Shen Wei will keep secrets from him if he thinks it's safer for Zhao Yunlan like that. Or sometimes just because it hasn't occurred to him to share. The thought should probably upset him more than it does. But Shen Wei isn't human, and Zhao Yunlan knew going into this that there were bound to be some misunderstandings occasionally. It's nothing they can't work through.

"You have no reason to lie to me," Zhao Yunlan agrees, with a small smile. The fog is turning his mood strange, he thinks. It's all starting to feel too unsettling. "Right, Xiao Wei?"

"I haven't lied to you," Shen Wei answers. Zhao Yunlan nods. That's reassuring to know. "The Mountain-River Awl is out there somewhere, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says pointedly. Zhao Yunlan realises the others have gone silent, and are probably listening to their conversation now. There's a soft background hiss, even when Shen Wei isn't speaking. Zhao Yunlan pets his arm. "The possibility of danger is… not insignificant," Shen Wei says after a moment.

Yeah, that's what worries Zhao Yunlan. If someone, or something, has found the Awl and figured out how to use it— Well, that would be bad.

"You're sure it's still here?" he asks.

"I am… not," Shen Wei says, and Zhao Yunlan thinks he's not particularly comfortable with that admission.

Zhao Yunlan nods again. "So you want to go take a look?" he asks. It makes sense. He's sure the rest of them are holding Shen Wei back. But then again— Even Shen Wei might be vulnerable to something like the Awl. "Promise me you'll only look, Xiao Wei. If you find where it is, come back and we'll make a plan for tomorrow. Don't stay out there in the dark," Zhao Yunlan says, which is sort of a ridiculous thing to say to something like Shen Wei. But Shen Wei probably knows what he means.

Shen Wei turns his black eyes to Zhao Yunlan. There's still a furrow between his brows. Zhao Yunlan looks back at him, wanting to point out that he's just as worried for Shen Wei as Shen Wei is for him. Slowly, Shen Wei nods his agreement.

"It would be best if you were indoors once night falls," Shen Wei says, and that too is pretty sensible. Having a proper door to put between them and whatever might be out here is probably better than a tent flap. Houses are easier to ward. A tent is too impermanent.

"We'll find the village," Zhao Yunlan promises.

There's not much to say after that. They just look at each other for a while. Everyone else stays quiet too. Maybe they're just waiting for what's going to happen next.

Shen Wei is still looking at him with worry on his face. The low background hiss of crawling spiders seems to echo in Zhao Yunlan's ears.

"We'll be careful," Zhao Yunlan promises. He wants to lean in and kiss Shen Wei, or at least hug him, but he's aware of everyone looking at them. He's not sure if Shen Wei would care if they saw or not. Well, to hell with it, Zhao Yunlan thinks, stepping closer and wrapping his arms around Shen Wei's waist tightly, his cheek pressing against Shen Wei's cheek. "You'll be able to find us once you're done, right?" he whispers, trying to keep his voice steady.

You will come back to me, Shen Wei, he doesn't quite say out loud.

"You carry a piece of me, Zhao Yunlan. I can always find you," Shen Wei says.

And damn if Zhao Yunlan doesn't feel like he's been punched. He gasps against Shen Wei's cheek, his body sagging a little. He's grateful for the fact that Shen Wei's arms have wrapped around him. He takes in another quick breath, and then quickly steps away, reluctantly letting go of Shen Wei. He grins at Shen Wei, and it feels a little too shaky.

"Okay," he says because he can't think of anything else. "Okay," he repeats.

Shen Wei's black eyes look into his and then Shen Wei comes apart, thousands of spiders heaped upon each other, all of them moving over each other, still in the vague shape of a man. Zhao Yunlan has an almost overwhelming urge to step back closer to Shen Wei, to step into all the spiders and have them wrap around him.

"Be careful, Xiao Wei," he says very quietly, barely any air passing his lips.

The spiders skitter over each other, spilling down to the ground. A small black wave seems to detach from the rest, heading towards Zhao Yunlan's legs as most of the spiders move away, into the fog. The remaining spiders quickly reach Zhao Yunlan's feet, swarming up and over them, wrapping around his ankles for a moment, like a long dark tendril made up entirely of spiders. He can't exactly feel them, seeing as he's wearing boots, but the gesture makes him smile down at the spiders anyway. Then very quickly, those spiders are gone too, vanishing into the fog with the rest of them.

Zhao Yunlan takes a slightly shaky breath, staring out at the fog for a heartbeat, before turning to face everyone else.

"So is everyone all done eating and arguing?" he asks and doesn't wait for an answer before going on. "In that case we should get going, I want us to get to that village before it gets dark."

No one has any arguments. Zhao Yunlan gives Lao Chu a questioning look.

Lao Chu frowns and then after a moment he says, "I can find it." He doesn't offer any explanation, but he had been studying the map rather intently earlier.

Zhao Yunlan nods in acknowledgement. If Lao Chu says he can, then he can. "You'll take the lead then," he tells him.

He looks over at Lin Jing, who's eyeing the fog rather nervously. Yeah, Zhao Yunlan gets it. "I can drive the other car," he says, and by the relieved look suddenly on Lin Jing's face, he knows he made the right decision. He's not looking forward to driving in this either, but he can manage to follow Lao Chu, he's pretty sure.

"Sure, Boss. I could use a break," Lin Jing agrees quickly.

"Show me that map again," Zhao Yunlan tells Lao Chu. He better get a look at it before they get going, just in case.

Chapter Text

Zhao Yunlan slams the breaks, Wang Zheng gives out a little yell and Da Qing hisses loudly. The car comes to a stop just centimetres before hitting the other car. Zhao Yunlan mutters a small curse under his breath.

"What's going on?" Zhu Hong demands from the backseat, sounding a bit rattled.

"I don't know," he answers. It comes out sounding more than a bit annoyed, the sudden adrenaline still coursing through his veins. He knows Lao Chu wouldn't have stopped so abruptly without a good reason, but he feels annoyed anyway.

He takes a long breath and tries to calm himself down a little. He hesitates for a moment and then kills the engine.

"I'll go take a look," he announces and then opens the door to step out.

"Be careful," Da Qing warns him.

The fog is still as thick as ever, the rear lights of the other car barely visible at all. The rumble of the idling car feels too loud somehow. He can't hear anything else. He suddenly wants to tell Lao Chu to kill the engine, but then he wouldn't even have the rear lights to walk towards, not that it's particularly hard to find the other car when he'd just nearly run into it.

His fingers trail lightly against the side of the car as he walks forward, and then moves to the other car. The driver's door is open. He glances inside, meeting Xiao Guo's large, frightened eyes before walking around the door and—

The headlights almost make it harder to see in the fog, but Zhao Yunlan can see the very large branch lying across the barely there dirt road. They'd almost run into it, which explains the very sudden stop. But there's no Lao Chu in sight.

He turns to look towards the car, but he can't even see inside it with the headlights shining towards him, and with the fog everywhere. He thinks about calling out to Xiao Guo to ask what happened, and where Lao Chu had gone. He snaps his mouth shut before actually saying anything, thinking better of it. If there is something out here, maybe he shouldn't be advertising himself that loudly. Not that the headlights and the car engine exactly make them subtle.

Suddenly, he thinks he sees movement at the corner of his eye. He turns around quickly, staring into the fog. His hand goes to the gun under his jacket, but he doesn't pull it out. It will definitely not help anyone for him to start shooting at things he can't see. Who knows what or who he might hit.

He's about to tell himself he must have imagined the movement, when all of a sudden Lao Chu steps out of the fog, close enough that Zhao Yunlan can actually see him. He's dragging someone with him.

"I think we found the village," Lao Chu says, pushing the man he's holding by the arm in front of him.

The poor man looks a little wild-eyed, but then being chased by Lao Chu in this fog might just do that to you. Zhao Yunlan looks at the stranger. He glances down at the branch on the road and then at Lao Chu again, this time giving him a very obviously questioning look.

"Maybe they don't like visitors," Lao Chu grunts.

Well, that answers that question, Zhao Yunlan supposes.

"Too bad, because we still need somewhere to stay," Zhao Yunlan says with a small sigh. Still, dealing with somewhat unfriendly people is probably easier than the alternative. If there really is something out here in the fog, and he's rather prone to take Shen Wei's word for that.

He peers at the stranger. Lao Chu has let go of him, and he's rubbing his head, glaring at Lao Chu.

"Could you take care of that, Lao Chu?" Zhao Yunlan asks, pointing at the branch. He'll probably have more luck talking to the man without Lao Chu's somewhat menacing presence right there. Besides, someone needs to move the branch before they can go anywhere anyway, and Lao Chu is probably the best choice. "And go tell Xiao Guo you're fine," he says as an afterthought.

Then he turns to the stranger, giving him a charming smile. It might be a little bit lost on the man right now, but well, it won't hurt to try.

It's surprisingly easy to convince the guy, who actually turns out to be the head of the village, to help. But it's also clear that Lao Chu wasn't wrong about the village not liking strangers too much. They aren't even invited into the village, instead they get escorted to what seems like an abandoned building somewhere on the outskirts of it. It does at least have a door that closes and boarded up windows.

They carry in what they need from the cars quickly. The fog seems to actually be dissipating, but the dark is already setting in and the creepy feeling Zhao Yunlan has had for a while isn't going anywhere. He still can't see anything out there, but he doesn't think that means much.

"You better come in, Lao Zhao," Da Qing calls out and Zhao Yunlan startles slightly, realising that he's been stuck standing outside staring into nothing for a— Well, he doesn't actually know how long.

He glances back at Da Qing, standing in the doorway of the house they've been given, looking at Zhao Yunlan worriedly. He's right, Zhao Yunlan should go inside. There's a reason they didn't want to stay out in the dark. He turns to look at nothing again. Shen Wei still isn't back.

"Where are you, Xiao Wei?" he mumbles quietly, looking down at the little spider on the back of his hand. It says nothing at all.

With a sigh he turns around, and then nearly falls as he stumbles on what he thinks is a rock. He looks down with a frown and then—

He stops. He crouches down and pokes at the thing in the ground. It turns around, empty eye sockets staring up at him from a yellowed skull. He swallows. It wasn't even buried.

Come to think of it, maybe the village head had been a little too quick to agree to let them stay. He looks around quickly, trying to see something more, but there aren't any other skulls lying conspicuously around that he can see.

"What is it, Lao Zhao?" Da Qing asks from the doorway.

Zhao Yunlan straightens up, leaving the skull where it is. It's better not to disturb some things any more than necessary. He has a feeling whoever that belongs to has been disturbed enough as it is.

"Trouble," he tells Da Qing, and quickly strides towards the door. "Did Lin Jing start warding this place already?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

"Yeah, just waiting for you to get inside, Boss," Lin Jing says cheerfully from behind Da Qing. Zhao Yunlan nods, stepping inside. Da Qing closes the door behind him, and Zhao Yunlan draws in a relieved breath despite himself. It's like the door had cut off some of that ominous feeling.

Zhao Yunlan can't sleep. Wang Zheng had entertained them for a moment with her memories of her previous life, which had been… Well, less than cheerful actually. If there are resentful ghosts out there, Zhao Yunlan wouldn't be particularly surprised. But their skulls also shouldn't be lying out there just like that. He wonders if it was deliberately put there. He wonders if the recent earthquakes have something to do with all of this. He wonders if—

Actually, his brain feels like it just won't stop. He opens his sleeping bag halfway and then wriggles out of it. There's no point in lying here and not sleeping. He wanders down to the main floor, finding Wang Zheng sitting at the old, scratched-up table. Well, she doesn't exactly sleep normally so where else would she be?

She's staring towards the door with a far too troubled look on her face.

"Thinking about leaving?" Zhao Yunlan asks, not really thinking about his words.

"I can feel them out there," she says softly, her voice barely even a whisper. Zhao Yunlan frowns and looks towards the door too.

"Are you sure?" he asks. He walks over to one of the boarded windows, peering out through a small crack. "There's nothing there." That seems somehow suspicious all on its own. He was expecting something to come for them. He's pretty sure they were put here because something would come for them. Maybe they're meant to lure whatever it is here, so the villagers will be left alone. That makes some kind of sense.

Wang Zheng makes a small sound, and Zhao Yunlan isn't sure if that's supposed to be agreement or not.

"I can feel them," she says, but she doesn't sound too sure.

Zhao Yunlan shrugs a little, and turns away from the window, joining her at the table. "You were just telling us about everything. It might just be your memories," he suggests.

The doubtful look on her face seems to speak for itself. "If I leave—" she starts to say, but Zhao Yunlan cuts her off before she gets any further than that.

"They won't come here?" he asks with a raised eyebrow.

Wang Zheng looks a little startled. She hesitates for a moment before nodding.

"Well, as your boss, I'm ordering you to stay here," Zhao Yunlan says, smiling a little to take the sting out of the words. His eyes briefly stray to the red line around her throat that will never actually fade, before he looks back up at her eyes. "We don't need anyone to sacrifice themselves, Wang Zheng," he says, reaching out to briefly cover her hand with his own.

The texture of her hand feels rubbery under his hand, and he quickly withdraws, before he's tempted to say something extremely stupid.

Her smile looks a little fragile. "The warding keeps me here," she says.

Zhao Yunlan looks towards one of the talismans on the wall. "You know how to break it from here," he points out, but if she did there would be nothing protecting them until someone actually re-did the entire thing.

Suddenly, Zhao Yunlan feels like smacking himself in the head. He knows the warding would hardly keep Shen Wei out, but he wouldn't want to break it either, if it offers them protection.

"That's why he isn't here," Zhao Yunlan mutters out loud.

"Boss?" Wang Zheng asks.

Zhao Yunlan makes a dismissive gesture with one hand. "I just realised something about the wards, that's all," he says.

She looks at him for a moment, with some mix of curiosity and worry. At least he seems to be offering her some distraction from her own thoughts, Zhao Yunlan thinks wryly.

"Are you worried about Shen-laoshi?" she asks softly. Honestly, it's probably not that hard of a conclusion to draw, considering the fact that Shen Wei hasn't returned and Zhao Yunlan is still awake at this hour. The question still makes Zhao Yunlan gasp softly. Hearing someone else say it—

"Just a little," Zhao Yunlan lies with a shrug. No point in telling anyone about how worried he actually is, when he knows it's just a little bit irrational. Even if someone had found the Awl, it doesn't mean they can harm Shen Wei. Hell, Zhao Yunlan doesn't even know how you could use the Awl to do that, he just knows it contains enough power to be dangerous. And by all accounts, they'd need all four Hallows to actually cast Shen Wei out of this world, and shy of that, he's pretty sure there's nothing anyone could do to permanently harm Shen Wei. He takes a slow breath and says, "There's nothing out there that can actually hurt him."

He tries to believe that, but despite what his rational mind keeps telling him, his heart is far harder to convince.

She nods a little and then neither of them says anything. They both stay there, sitting at the table quietly, for the rest of the night.

Zhao Yunlan jerks up as the table wobbles. A black cat stares at his face and Zhao Yunlan blinks blearily. He feels something slide down his shoulders, and automatically grabs for it. He ends up holding onto something that feels a lot like his sleeping bag. He blinks blearily, his brain refusing to quite catch up to what's happening.

"Why are you sleeping here?" Da Qing demands. "You know what it'll do to your back."

Zhao Yunlan sits up straight and then grimaces as his back twinges. He glares at Da Qing like it's his fault. A bit awkwardly he drags the sleeping bag into his lap. He looks down at it and notices that it's been unzipped almost all the way. Probably easier to drape it over him like that. He blinks at it a few times and then looks around.

"Wang Zheng?" he asks when he can't see her anywhere.

"She's with Zhu Hong. They didn't want to wake you," Da Qing says.

"Obviously you didn't have that problem," Zhao Yunlan mutters under his breath.

Da Qing looks a little smug as he stares at Zhao Yunlan. He'd definitely done it on purpose too, Zhao Yunlan thinks.

"Lin Jing was planning on opening the door," Da Qing says casually.

Zhao Yunlan straightens up a bit more and Da Qing gives him an annoyingly knowing look. Zhao Yunlan stands up and dumps the sleeping bag on top of the table. And incidentally on top of the black cat on the table.

There's an indignant meow that Zhao Yunlan ignores as he turns towards the door. Lin Jing actually looks like he's waiting for him. Zhao Yunlan blinks, rubs at his eyes for a second and says, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

Lin Jing gives him a look that speaks volumes, but Zhao Yunlan decides to ignore it. He waits impatiently for Lin Jing to undo the warding. It doesn't take all that long, but it still feels like a long time as Lin Jing makes sure it won't be too difficult to set it up again if need be. Zhao Yunlan rocks back and forth on his heels as he waits, and basically springs towards the door the moment Lin Jing is done, not feeling like waiting for someone else to actually open it, even though he probably should have let Lao Chu do that. He's the best equipped to handle it if there is something still out there.

But there's sunlight streaming in through the cracks in the boarded-up windows and something inside Zhao Yunlan is telling him that what's waiting out there isn't something that wants to hurt him. What's waiting out there is—

He pushes the door open, and a stream of tiny spiders meets him. Zhao Yunlan stops like he's walked into a wall. His heart clenches painfully, relief rushing through him so hard it hurts. He can't even get a word out as the spiders swarm around him, before finally rushing forward, climbing up along his legs until he's covered in them.

"Uh… Boss?" Lin Jing asks, his voice sounding a little squeaky.

Zhao Yunlan takes a long breath. "You're making people a little worried," he says, and his attempt at casual probably falls a bit short. He wants to pet the little spiders all over him, but all he can do is just stand there and let them crawl over him. He never wants them to go away again.

His breath shudders as the spiders retreat, climbing down to the ground and then finally reforming into Shen Wei, standing just a step away from Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan reaches out to grasp Shen Wei's arm. His fingers feel like they're shaking. He looks Shen Wei up and down like he could determine anything at all from the way Shen Wei looks right now.

"You're okay," he says anyway and then looks at Shen Wei like he needs Shen Wei to agree.

There's a little awkward noise from Lin Jing and he can just leave if he doesn't want to see this, Zhao Yunlan thinks. He doesn't need to stand right there, conveniently ignoring the fact that they're very much blocking the doorway and Lin Jing had presumably been heading outside.

"I am well, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says, apparently picking up on Zhao Yunlan's need to actually hear the words.

Zhao Yunlan lets out a relieved breath and nods.

"Fine. Then, as soon as everyone is settled you can tell us what you found out," Zhao Yunlan says. It's morning, there's probably a good reason why everyone suddenly wants to go outside. In fact, Zhao Yunlan kind of needs to make a visit outside too.

He steps outside, which brings him closer to Shen Wei. Wordlessly, he lets his hand fall down into Shen Wei's hand and pulls him with him. They only get a few steps away from the door before Shen Wei falls into pieces, spiders crawling up along Zhao Yunlan's arms and skittering up along his legs from the ground.

"I'm going to go take a piss," he mutters under his breath, which doesn't deter Shen Wei in the least. Well, it's not the first time they've shared that particular intimacy, he supposes. You rather get used to some things, when your boyfriend likes to spend a lot of his time as spiders hidden all over your body.

It's a while before they're all inside, eating breakfast around the one banged-up table. Well, there aren't actually enough places to sit for everyone, so Xiao Guo has decided to sit on the stairs leading to the upper floor, and Lao Chu is leaning against the railing not too far from him.

Zhao Yunlan had taken the time he and Shen Wei had alone to ask him why he hadn't shown up before dark, like he'd said he would. He didn't particularly appreciate Shen Wei pointing out that he hadn't actually said that, but he bit his lip and didn't start an argument they really didn't need right then.

"I was worried," is all Zhao Yunlan had said in the end and Shen Wei had told him that there hadn't been enough time to get back before dark, and once he had come back he'd preferred to stay outside to make sure nothing would get inside to threaten them. And that was pretty much it. Zhao Yunlan can understand the logic in that, even though he'd personally hated it.

He turns his head to look at Shen Wei. He's back in human shape again, for the benefit of everyone else, and standing right behind Zhao Yunlan, like he doesn't want to be too far away either. He'd declined the offer of a seat, and to be fair, he doesn't necessarily need to eat so it makes sense to leave room for others at the table. Zhao Yunlan reaches back, and Shen Wei grasps his hand.

He turns to give everyone a look. They all seem to be waiting for someone else to say something, and Zhao Yunlan realises the someone else is probably him. He takes a breath, leans back a little as he turns his head to look at Shen Wei again. "So, did you find it?" he asks.

"Yes. I believe so," Shen Wei says and doesn't elaborate.

Zhao Yunlan sighs. It's his own fault for the way he phrased the question. "Details, babe. We'd all love to hear them," he prompts, with a little grin. There are a variety of groans from around them.

Shen Wei gives him a look. It might be exasperated. So, maybe he isn't quite that oblivious to everyone else's reactions to them. Zhao Yunlan grins a little broader. He's feeling a little jittery after all the worrying. He feels Shen Wei's hand on his shoulder. It seems to settle something inside him, a little at least. He manages to let go of Shen Wei's hand.

He takes in a breath and turns towards the food waiting for him.

"There are caves. I can't quite sense what's inside them and I didn't enter. If the Mountain-River Awl is still here, I believe that is where we will find it," Shen Wei says matter of factly.

Zhao Yunlan's mouth is rather unfortunately stuffed with food, so he can't say anything, but he turns his head, grabbing Shen Wei's hand on his shoulder and tries to let Shen Wei know that he's very grateful Shen Wei kept his word about only looking.

"The caves are… infested with monsters. It would be unwise for you to enter them, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says, giving him a grave look. Zhao Yunlan charitably assumes that warning extends to all of them, and not just him.

No one else says anything however, so Zhao Yunlan takes a moment to chew and swallow. Then he asks, "The same things that were out there last night?" He nods slightly towards the door.

He sees Zhu Hong startle a little, and turn to look towards the door, like maybe she could still see something out there. He's not sure how aware the others had been that there really had been something out there in the night. After all, even Zhao Yunlan hadn't actually seen anything. Wang Zheng gives him a look, and he smiles a little sheepishly at her.

"No. Those were ghosts. Angry spirits trapped here by the power of the Hallows, and rather recently disturbed by the living," Shen Wei answers. Zhao Yunlan thinks about the skull out there. Had they really been deliberately provoked? To what end? "They will not be a problem for you again," Shen Wei says, sounding rather satisfied with that pronouncement.

Zhao Yunlan turns to give him a look. Shen Wei looks back calmly. Well, maybe the ghosts are a mystery that doesn't need solving then. Zhao Yunlan sighs, and says, "Thank you for taking care of it for us."

"They were here for me," Wang Zheng says quietly. Zhao Yunlan bites back another sigh. She's not necessarily entirely wrong, but judging by the skull, she's probably not entirely right either.

"It doesn't matter now," Zhu Hong says, reaching out to wrap a hand around her forearm. She gives Shen Wei a brief look that Zhao Yunlan would actually deem borderline grateful. Well, maybe eventually the relationship between those two will warm up a little too, he thinks.

He really is rather curious about what Shen Wei might have done about the ghosts. He looks at Wang Zheng and decides maybe now isn't actually the time to ask, besides they probably need to figure out what to do about the Awl, and not worry about things that Shen Wei tells them are already dealt with.

"So, cave full of monsters," Zhao Yunlan says with faked cheer. He turns his head to look at Shen Wei, it really is a bit inconvenient to have him behind Zhao Yunlan. How is he supposed to keep looking at Shen Wei when he's behind him? "We're all eager to hear more."

Shen Wei blinks and whatever he's thinking it takes him a moment before he actually says anything. "They are most likely drawn to the Awl. There's no other reason for them to be there."

Zhao Yunlan nods, turns to pick up something to put into his mouth, and then before actually taking a bite asks, "Dangerous?"

There's a long silence as he chews. And he's really starting to wonder why he has to carry all of this conversation.

"A-are they dangerous to… to us? To humans?" Xiao Guo stammers out from his seat on the stairs. Zhao Yunlan turns to smile at him, which apparently startles Xiao Guo. He looks at Shen Wei, making a gesture towards Xiao Guo because that is a very excellent question.

Once Shen Wei actually answers, it turns out he's maybe not the best judge of what's actually dangerous to humans. Or to supernatural beings that are not immensely powerful beings from beyond.

"Ah… Xiao Wei, maybe we'll just assume they're dangerous," Zhao Yunlan says, biting back a laugh. After all, he still hasn't quite convinced Shen Wei the neighbour's dog (smaller than Da Qing) isn't actually a potential threat to Zhao Yunlan, just because it tends to get a bit too loud whenever it sees him.

In the end, there wasn't all that much planning to do. A cave full of monsters and the Awl is somewhere in there. Maybe.

Shen Wei tries to argue that Zhao Yunlan shouldn't go because it's dangerous. Zhao Yunlan points out that it might be dangerous to Shen Wei too. He can't sense whatever is inside the caves and who knows how that might affect him when he walks (or crawls or possibly shadow walks or something) in there himself. It really doesn't help sway Shen Wei to Zhao Yunlan's point of view, but eventually, he relents anyway, agreeing that Zhao Yunlan can come. (Zhao Yunlan will have to remember that sometimes being stubborn definitely works.)

Other than the two of them it's only Lao Chu and Wang Zheng that are coming, everyone else is staying behind and hopefully safe. They probably won't have anything worse than possibly some less than trustworthy villagers to deal with. They should be able to handle that much.

Lao Chu is going because he can probably deal with whatever monsters on his own. And Wang Zheng is going because she absolutely refuses to stay behind, insisting that she needs to be there. It's actually Shen Wei that agrees to it, not Zhao Yunlan, offering to shelter her from the sunlight for the trek there.

"Why didn't he say he could do that before?" he hears Lin Jing mutter, a little too loudly, to Da Qing. Da Qing just shrugs in answer, like whatever goes on in Shen Wei's head is beyond him, which is probably accurate enough.

Zhu Hong is not happy to be left behind, but Zhao Yunlan has a quick word with her, pointing out the unfortunate fact that the chill in the air hasn't done her any favours and the cave is probably not going to be any warmer. He almost expects her to yell at him, but she manages to hold herself back, just glaring at him instead.

"It's better if you stay here and make sure these guys don't get into any trouble," Zhao Yunlan says. "I don't particularly trust any of the villagers, and if need be you can deal with them without needing to hurt anyone, can't you? You have been practising your hypnotism, haven't you?" Maybe he's laying it on a bit thick, but none of it is untrue.

Reluctantly, Zhu Hong nods. And that will just have to be good enough.

He gives Da Qing a look, not needing to say anything for Da Qing to get that he wants him to stay alert and careful.

"It might be… unsettling," Shen Wei says seriously as he looks at Wang Zheng, who's abandoned the… uh, doll she'd been inhabiting so far.

"I understand. I need to be there," she says, her voice soft but insistent. Zhao Yunlan suspects that there might be some details that she and Shen Wei haven't shared with the rest of them. Because nothing of the past Wang Zheng has shared with them so far explains why that particular cave would be particularly significant to her personally, and why she absolutely needs to be there. He supposes if she was touched by the power of the Awl, she might be bound to it the same way the other, now possibly former, ghosts apparently had been.

Shen Wei doesn't even take the time to acknowledge the words. A shadow just sort of surges out from him (from around him? It really is rather hard to comprehend where it suddenly comes from) and swallows both him and Wang Zheng whole. Zhao Yunlan takes a step forward, and Zhu Hong makes a distressed noise next to him, also moving towards the darkness. Zhao Yunlan grabs her by the arm, stopping her.

He's about to tell her not to do anything foolish, Shen Wei might not mean to harm any of them, but it's better not to surprise him. Zhao Yunlan might be secure in the knowledge that even taken unawares Shen Wei would never hurt him, but he's less sure about that when it comes to the rest of the SID. Before he has time to do more than open his mouth, however, the shadow is already retreating, leaving Shen Wei standing there like nothing had happened, with no trace of Wang Zheng at all.

Zhu Hong makes a sort of angry, distressed noise and pulls her arm free. "What did you—?"

"Wang Zheng is fine," Zhao Yunlan says, stepping past her and up to Shen Wei. "Right?" he says, giving Shen Wei a meaningful look. Shen Wei had sort of warned them, but somehow it hadn't quite occurred to anyone that Wang Zheng would just vanish like that.

"Of course," Shen Wei says with a small blink like he didn't quite register that this whole thing might be distressing to the rest of them. "I will remove her from the shadows once we're at the caves and there's no chance for the sunlight to harm her anymore," he says, and that seems to calm Zhu Hong down a little at least.

"I've been in there, it's fine," Zhao Yunlan says, turning to Zhu Hong with a reassuring smile. Suddenly he remembers the fact that Shen Wei had told him he could keep him there in the dark, and he wonders if this is what would have happened to him too. Can Shen Wei just make anyone vanish like that, stored in some convenient pocket of shadows? Or is it because Wang Zheng isn't exactly alive to start with? Another thing to ask Shen Wei when he gets the chance because now is certainly not the right time for it.

Zhu Hong stares at him accusingly and Zhao Yunlan shrugs a little, not entirely sure what he's done now.

For a moment, he watches Xiao Guo fuss worriedly over Lao Chu, clearly not happy about being separated. Yeah, Zhao Yunlan is pretty glad about the fact that Shen Wei had given up in the face of his stubbornness because there's no way Zhao Yunlan would be left behind a second time in less than a day. He would not be sitting here and waiting and worrying for him.

"Alright, we better be off. We're wasting daylight," he says out loud.

Chapter Text

"Did it have to be a cave?" Zhao Yunlan asks no one in particular as he looks at the rubble on the ground, left behind when Lao Chu had pulled the cliff face to pieces to make them a new entrance. Zhao Yunlan is sure someone's bound to have heard that, but at least there's some chance going in through a back door, so to speak, will mean not all the monsters will find them right away.

The trek here had been so uneventful that right now Zhao Yunlan is actually feeling both tense and bored. He knows it's not a good combination. He also knows it's probably going to get a lot less boring once they step in the cave. He really does wish the Awl wasn't in a cave, as soon as they get in there they're going to lose any advantage daylight might have given them.

He loosens his gun in its holster under his jacket and then looks at Shen Wei. He feels hesitant to actually draw it. Zhao Yunlan isn't actually all that fond of guns, despite carrying one around when he's working. They deal with enough actual humans that it comes in useful now and then, and some monsters are mortal enough that it's better to have it than not. He doesn't let his personal distaste for using it come in the way. Well, not anymore. That might not always have been the case.

"Do you think these are the kind of monsters that are vulnerable to being shot?" he asks Shen Wei.

Shen Wei's face contorts into a worried look and Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure he wants to tell Zhao Yunlan to stay here while the less human among them go inside. He doesn't say it though, and Zhao Yunlan kind of wants to hug him for that. It's probably not easy for Shen Wei, having a boyfriend who's so fragile, compared to himself. After last night, Zhao Yunlan is rather aware of how much he worries about Shen Wei, and he knows how little could actually hurt him.

"I do not know, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says unhappily.

Zhao Yunlan steps up to him and pats his arm, and then leaves his hand there, resting against Shen Wei's arm. He can sympathise, but there's no way he's staying out here and waiting, not when he has no idea what Shen Wei might face in there. He takes a breath and then pulls his hand away and draws his gun, holding it with one hand.

"I guess we'll find out," he says and looks towards the new cave entrance.

If they aren't vulnerable to guns— Well, then he's really not looking forward to what comes next.

Unfortunately it turns out the monsters are not particularly bothered about being shot. It slows them down momentarily, but that's about it. Also, they have blood that smells absolutely foul and burns if you get it on you, so that's a thing. Zhao Yunlan is fucking helpless.

Wang Zheng had vanished off somewhere the moment Shen Wei had let her out, despite Zhao Yunlan trying to tell her to wait for them. Hopefully, the monsters either can't touch her or will ignore her. In either case there's nothing much they can do to help her until they manage to catch up.

The monsters are definitely not ignoring the rest of them. Zhao Yunlan has no choice but to fall back and let Lao Chu and Shen Wei deal with the actual fighting, taking an occasional shot now and then, which at least seems to help keep the monsters away from him. He still has a knife, but considering he can't get their blood on him— Well, that's definitely a last resort only.

In other circumstances, Zhao Yunlan would find it an utter joy to watch the way Shen Wei moves when he fights. He's never seen Shen Wei fight like this before, staying in his human form. And that's exactly what worries him. Why exactly is Shen Wei staying in human form? He's not carrying around Wang Zheng anymore if that had been some kind of issue. There's no reason he couldn't turn into spiders. At least none that is apparent to Zhao Yunlan, yet clearly something is holding him back.

It doesn't take long before the last of the monsters falls before Shen Wei and Lao Chu.

"There will be more," Lao Chu says, looking down one corridor with a serious frown on his face. They'll have to pick which way to go and Zhao Yunlan isn't even sure which way Wang Zheng had gone, she'd vanished far too quickly.

He has no doubt that Lao Chu is right. He just hopes they'll keep coming a few at a time.

He looks at Shen Wei, who looks— Shen Wei staggers, a hand pressed to his side.

"Shen Wei," Zhao Yunlan blurts out. Cold seizing his chest. For a moment he feels like he can't move, like something is holding his feet rooted to the ground. Shen Wei straightens up, looking at Zhao Yunlan with a small, tight smile. But his hand is still pressed to his side and under it, Zhao Yunlan is almost sure he can see his robe is torn. Shen Wei's robe isn't really made of cloth, Zhao Yunlan thinks. It might be made of spiders like all the rest of him.

"Shen Wei," he says again, and now he's moving, hurrying to Shen Wei's side and grabbing his arm and— "Are you okay?" he demands.

He wants to look at whatever injury Shen Wei's hand is hiding, but it isn't budging even when he tries to tug at it.

"I'm fine, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says and Zhao Yunlan thinks maybe he looks even paler than usual. His entirely black eyes look into Zhao Yunlan's eyes like they're trying to convince him to believe the very blatant lie.

Zhao Yunlan stares back at him. He can feel his fingers tremble as he holds onto Shen Wei. Shen Wei isn't supposed to get injured. Shen Wei is supposed to be… beyond that sort of thing. "You're not fine," he tells Shen Wei, looking down at the hand pressed against his side.

Shen Wei sighs, and for a moment Zhao Yunlan doesn't know why it feels so wrong and then it hits him all at once, the lack of spiders behind the sound.

"Shen Wei?" he asks, his throat feeling constricted.

"This place… I seem to be unable to communicate with myself," Shen Wei says tightly.

The time it takes before that statement makes any sort of sense at all feels like an eternity. Zhao Yunlan frowns. It still doesn't really make sense, if it was true shouldn't Shen Wei just come apart in an instant, falling into tiny individual spiders, but Zhao Yunlan still doesn't know how—

He shakes his head. It doesn't matter.

"Is that why you're…?" he asks and then just gestures at Shen Wei helplessly. Why isn't there anything he can do?

Shen Wei nods. "If I let go of this shape now I won't be able to think," he says.

No, it definitely doesn't make any real sense, Zhao Yunlan thinks and then nods anyway because it doesn't need to make sense to him for it to be true.

This time, he touches the hand Shen Wei is pressing against his side gently. "Let me see?" he asks.

Shen Wei hesitates for a moment and then lets Zhao Yunlan pull his hand away, exposing the torn robe and the wound underneath. Shen Wei isn't bleeding, not really, not blood. For a moment, Zhao Yunlan expects to see spiders falling from the wound, and it takes him a moment to actually understand what he's seeing. There's something that looks almost like smoke oozing from the jagged cut. Zhao Yunlan swallows.

Concentrate on what you can do, he tells himself.

"Will it help if I bandage it?" he asks and then looks from Shen Wei to Lao Chu with his eyebrows raised in question.

"There's nothing coming yet," Lao Chu says, thankfully realising what Zhao Yunlan wants to know. Zhao Yunlan nods and turns a questioning look at Shen Wei. With Lao Chu there to keep a look, they can take a moment to dress Shen Wei's wound, even if they're a little low on supplies to actually do that with. Zhao Yunlan can improvise.

He doesn't like the thought of leaving Wang Zheeng alone out there for longer than necessary, but he likes the thought of Shen Wei suddenly collapsing on them even less. The mere thought makes Zhao Yunlan's chest feel tight, and he has to work to keep his breathing steady.

He doubts there's any chance of convincing Shen Wei to turn around and go back outside. And if he's perfectly honest, he's not entirely sure they can afford Shen Wei to do so, not if they want to go deeper inside and still get out of there alive. Zhao Yunlan is pretty much useless when it comes to fighting these things and Lao Chu… Well, Lao Chu can take care of himself, he supposes.

Maybe Zhao Yunlan should take both himself and Shen Wei out of here. But that's not going to happen, is it?

"Perhaps. At least it will do no harm, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says softly, snapping Zhao Yunlan back to the moment at hand.

He nods quickly and then just gets to it, not letting himself think about it any more. Thinking is just getting in the way of things right now.

Zhao Yunlan wants to stick as close to Shen Wei as he can, so he can support him if he needs it, but he knows he needs to give Shen Wei space to move in case they're attacked again. Which they have been, more than once. Despite the makeshift bandage standing out rather startlingly against the black of his robe, Shen Wei isn't really showing much ill effect from the wound itself. The bandage seems to have stopped the not-quite-bleeding and if Shen Wei is in any pain, he sure isn't showing it.

There's the growl of a monster and before Zhao Yunlan can even react, Shen Wei's claws are already digging into its throat, and the monster is dead. Shen Wei should have a weapon, he thinks, as he watches Shen Wei wipe his claws on the scrap of fabric left over from Zhao Yunlan's bandaging (it had been his shirt at one point, he's only glad that it had been chilly enough for him to be wearing an undershirt or he'd be going around bare-chested right now). Not that Shen Wei actually needs a weapon to be more than deadly, even while his full powers are a little hampered at the moment, but the blood isn't good for Shen Wei either, hence wiping it off as soon as possible.

"They're coming one by one now," Zhao Yunlan remarks.

Lao Chu grunts in response. Shen Wei lifts his eyes from his inspection of his claws, apparently satisfied with their cleanliness. "There are fewer of them left," he says, and Zhao Yunlan can't tell if he somehow knows that or if it's just an educated guess.

Zhao Yunlan nods in agreement. It seems the most likely reason in any case.

"We're almost there," Shen Wei says, looking up ahead, in the direction they're going. In all honesty, they haven't really walked all that far, but with all the monsters popping up, it has taken them a while to get anywhere.

There's been not even a glimpse of Wang Zheng and he hopes that means she's still fine.

"Good. I was getting kind of tired of walking around in the dark," Zhao Yunlan says and doesn't step closer to check Shen Wei for more injuries, even if he wants to.

Lao Chu grunts, but doesn't say anything. Zhao Yunlan gives Shen Wei another worried look, but he's already moving forward, and he quickly shakes himself and follows along. He's never, ever going to complain about Shen Wei falling apart into spiders at an inconvenient time again, because right now he'd very much like to see that happen, just to know Shen Wei is fine.

"Well, hurry up," Zhao Yunlan tells Lao Chu as he passes him. Lao Chu gives him a brief glare and then follows along, because keeping Zhao Yunlan in the middle makes sense, seeing as he's the most vulnerable one of them.

To be honest, Zhao Yunlan isn't entirely sure what happens. He has time to see that he's stepped inside a larger chamber of some kind, just behind Shen Wei. There's a howling sound and he thinks he can hear Wang Zheng and then in the next moment, Zhao Yunlan is entirely swallowed by darkness, the complete silence so sudden it feels like it echoes inside his head. It's one shock followed immediately by another and Zhao Yunlan can admit that he sort of freezes for a moment, his heart beating wildly in his chest, his throat constricting and cold fear flooding through him.

It's only a heartbeat before he realises the familiar feeling he's surrounded by.

He frowns and tentatively asks, "Shen Wei?" Shen Wei shouldn't be able to do this right now, but the darkness around him feels unmistakably like Shen Wei. He's been here before. It feels safe in a way Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure he shouldn't feel right now.

There's no answer.

"Shen Wei?" he asks again. He waits. Somewhere in the distance, very faintly, he thinks he can hear the hissing of thousands of spiders crawling.

The back of his hand tickles faintly, like a very small spider might be walking across it. He looks down, but of course, he can't see anything at all in the complete dark.

"Just you and me, huh?" he asks the tiny spider he assumes has wandered onto the back of his hand. After all, the spider is always somewhere on him.

He looks back up and still sees nothing. "I guess there really isn't anything other to do than wait, is there?" he asks the darkness that doesn't answer. Last time, even when Shen Wei had been busy dealing with Zhu Jiu, he'd still been talking to Zhao Yunlan, now it's like… Well, like Shen Wei's attention is firmly somewhere else.

Maybe that means he shouldn't be trying to distract Shen Wei.

Fine. He'll wait. But Shen Wei better be okay.

Time passes very slowly when all you can do is stand around in the dark and wait. He keeps fidgeting. He thinks about sitting down more than once, but then he'd have to scramble back up if something does happen. So he just stands there, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. At some point, he grabs a lollipop from a pocket, unseeingly unwrapping it and sticking it in his mouth. It's not quite as distracting as he hoped it might be and he ends up pretty much chewing the thing down until he's just left with the stick to gnaw on.

"At least tell me you're okay," Zhao Yunlan mutters out loud, getting no answer at all.

Then, so abruptly it still somehow manages to take Zhao Yunlan by surprise despite how he's waiting for anything to happen, there's the sudden almost overwhelming chitter-hiss of thousands of spiders. Out of nowhere, they're crawling all over him, pretty much blanketing him. He gasps and then spits out the lollipop stick before he chokes on it.

"Xiao Wei. Tell me you're okay," he demands.

"Everything is fine. I'm fine," Shen Wei assures him, his voice hissing around Zhao Yunlan.

Zhao Yunlan gasps again, his legs pretty much giving out in relief, but the spiders wrap around him so tightly that all that happens is that he sways a little, before being held up by them.

"You're not doing that to me again, Shen Wei," Zhao Yunlan says, anger suddenly rushing up through him.

"You are safe here, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says like that's the only thing that matters.

"I know! That's not what I'm talking about!" Zhao Yunlan yells out in frustration and then suddenly doesn't know how to continue from that. He takes a shuddering breath. The spiders keep crawling all over him, constantly moving as they cover him. He breathes out and then breathes in again. Shen Wei says nothing. "I don't mind being here. But you have to—"

Fuck! He tries to move and then can't because of all the spiders everywhere and he doesn't mind, except right now he does and he just—

"Damn it!" he yells out and then drags in a harsh breath, as the spiders hiss in agitation. He closes his eyes, which does exactly nothing because everything is already dark, and then drags in a long, steadying breath. "Just… We can talk about this later, Shen Wei. Get me out of here. I have no idea what's been happening and I want to know," he says.

There's a moment of stillness. The spiders stop. Then they're crawling away from him, streaming down, leaving him spider-free from top down, until there aren't any spiders on him anymore. It's done in moments, and all the time Zhao Yunlan wants to tell Shen Wei he doesn't need to do that, and then doesn't actually say anything at all.

As soon as the spiders are gone, the darkness falls away too, leaving Zhao Yunlan standing in a cave. After the total darkness it's bright enough to leave him squinting. He tilts his head back a little, squinting even harder at the sunlight that seems to be coming in from somewhere up there. He quickly looks down, his eyes watering. He blinks a few times and looks around.

There's rubble everywhere, large pieces of rock littering the ground. There's Lao Chu, looking back at him with an expression that seems judgemental. Or maybe that's just Zhao Yunlan reading too much into things. He shrugs a little anyway. It's not like it had been his idea to sit out whatever it is that had happened here. And it really does seem that whatever it had been it's entirely over now.

He looks around a bit more. Turning around to take in the whole chamber. Aside from more rock, and a sort of… broken… rock pillar? There's nothing there to be seen. He turns his eyes to Shen Wei, standing there in human form a few steps away from Zhao Yunlan. He doesn't think Shen Wei has looked away from him at all.

"Wang Zheng?" he asks tightly, his eyes drawn to the sunlight streaming down through the hole in the cave ceiling.

"She's secured. Back in the dark." It's Lao Chu saying it. Zhao Yunlan looks to him and Lao Chu nods slightly at Shen Wei, who still isn't saying anything at all. "She and her boyfriend," Lao Chu clarifies.

Zhao Yunlan lifts his eyebrows. "I thought he was dead," he says, and then re-thinks that statement as soon as it's out of his mouth, because so is Wang Zheng. "I mean, I thought he was gone." No one had said he might still be around. That probably explains why Wang Zheng had been so insistent on coming here.

He turns a questioning gaze to Shen Wei. Had he known? He might have. Shen Wei keeps looking at him but doesn't say anything. His expression doesn't budge either. Something cold tightens in Zhao Yunlan's gut. He doesn't like being at odds with Shen Wei, but— He takes a slow breath. They'll talk about it later.

"And the Awl? Was it here?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

There's a small moment of silence as apparently both he and Lao Chu expect Shen Wei to answer that question, but Shen Wei still says nothing. Zhao Yunlan tries not to think that something is actually wrong. Shen Wei is just angry at him. He'll take angry at Zhao Yunlan over Shen Wei being hurt any time. That thought makes Zhao Yunlan's eyes fall down to Shen Wei's side, where the bandage had been. It's gone now, as is the tear in Shen Wei's robe.

"It was here. We have it," Lao Chu says at last when it becomes painfully obvious Shen Wei isn't going to answer. Well, okay, fine then. Everything is dealt with and Zhao Yunlan did nothing at all for any of it. It's fine, he's not so self-important that he needs to insert himself into every situation when he knows others are far more capable of handling things. That's why Shen Wei and Lao Chu were here.

He'd appreciate a few more details about what had actually happened, but that can wait for later until they're actually out of here.

"Are there going to be more monsters coming?" he asks.

"There might be. But the Mountain-River Awl's influence on these caves is gone. It will not be a problem," Shen Wei states, his voice grave.

Oh. Right then. Shen Wei is back at full power. Well, he knew that already, what with the spiders and the darkness. It's just— Good to hear it, he supposes.

Zhao Yunlan nods. "Yeah. Okay. We should probably get out of here then," he says. And maybe he'll have time to find a moment alone with Shen Wei to actually talk. They'd promised last time they'd talk instead of letting the awkwardness linger between them. No matter how annoyed Zhao Yunlan might be at Shen Wei, he hates this feeling, this distance between them.

Somehow a good time to talk doesn't quite seem to arrive. They get back to the others. They pack up and before Zhao Yunlan quite even knows it somehow they're back down with the men they'd talked to on the way there, having that drink Zhao Yunlan had promised to have. Zhao Yunlan isn't exactly eager for it, but most of the others seem happy enough about it and maybe they deserve a nice drink and a meal after everything they'd gone through. Well, some of them had gone through more than others.

Wang Zheng and her boyfriend whom Shen Wei let out from—well, wherever he was keeping them, go off on their own since it's evening and there's no sunlight to worry about. Zhao Yunlan only gets a glimpse of said boyfriend before they're gone, which is just as well because trying to explain to their hosts why those two aren't partaking of the food and drink would just be awkward.

Somewhere along the way, after the first toast or two, Zhao Yunlan considers telling these men about the village, and maybe suggesting they take a look at whatever's going on there. But then he thinks better of it, because the Awl and the ghosts are gone, and whatever weirdness the village had going on, it's probably because of those things. It shouldn't be an issue now, and while Zhao Yunlan isn't exactly happy about having ghosts set on them (possibly deliberately), nothing had actually happened and it's not like he's that vindictive of a person. He can let things go.

There's another toast and then another and Zhao Yunlan knows he's had too many. He's tired and the alcohol is getting to him, and there's yet another toast and he knows better, but Shen Wei isn't even there (because he's spiders and Zhao Yunlan isn't sure where they went and he hopes it's not far away). He grins and lifts his cup before emptying it again.

Zhao Yunlan is drunk. He knows he's drunk. He's not entirely sure where he's going. They'd given him a room, but it's kind of slipped his mind right now which way he's actually supposed to go to get to it.

"Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei's voice hisses around him and Zhao Yunlan realises there are spiders crawling on him. Oh, that's nice, he thinks and tries to pat them, which only serves to make him stumble and he has to stop and right himself.

"I thought you weren't talking to me," he says, and has to concentrate really hard to get the words out right. His mouth feels a bit… weird. Suddenly, he feels overwhelmingly sad and has to reach out to the wall (where had that come from?) to steady himself. He doesn't like Shen Wei not talking to him. "I'm sorry," Zhao Yunlan says, the words slurring together. He frowns and says it again.

He's not sure what he's sorry about. But he's sure he's sorry about it. He's definitely sorry about anything that makes Shen Wei want to not talk to him.

"Zhao Yunlan. Are you alright?" Shen Wei asks, and he sounds so worried. There's no reason to worry about Zhao Yunlan. Nothing will happen to Zhao Yunlan. Shen Wei wouldn't let it.

Zhao Yunlan frowns again. There's something about that that makes him—

"Zhao Yunlan?" Shen Wei asks, the hiss of spiders turning his voice staticky in a way that makes Zhao Yunlan grimace slightly.

"I'm drunk," he tells Shen Wei. He's really, really drunk and he suddenly wishes he weren't because Shen Wei is here and he— "Fuck, I'm sorry," he says miserably. He tries to pet the spiders. His success is a bit iffy. "Please Shen Wei, I just want to sleep this off," he mumbles. That's what he was going to do. He was going to find his bed and go to sleep and hope everything makes more sense tomorrow.

Zhao Yunlan clutches at his middle, groans in pain and very gratefully sinks down on the not-too-comfortable bed he's been given. He doesn't need this now, he thinks fuzzily, pain and alcohol making his thoughts slow.

"Zhao Yunlan?" Shen Wei demands. He sounds panicked.

Zhao Yunlan instinctively tries to straighten up, wanting to make sure Shen Wei is okay. But the moment he moves, the pain flares up even worse, and with a small gasp he curls tighter around his middle. There's a loud hissing noise and for a moment it feels like he's falling. He startles, the pain flaring for a moment again, a gasp caught in his throat. He tries to open his eyes and then realises they're already open, it's just very dark.

It's dark and something—or someone—is holding him and Zhao Yunlan just curls miserably into Shen Wei. "It'll pass," he mumbles miserably. He can't remember if he'd packed any of the medicine he takes for this. He usually does but he hasn't had a flare-up in so long and now he can't remember if he packed the medicine or not.

"Zhao Yunlan, tell me what's wrong?" Shen Wei demands.

It feels like someone is wringing Zhao Yunlan's guts and he wishes they'd stop. He opens his mouth to try to say something to Shen Wei to make him stop sounding like that, but then all he can manage to do is gasp, as the pain burns at his stomach. He moans against Shen Wei.

Zhao Yunlan wakes up slowly. His head is pounding, his mouth tastes terrible, and his belly feels unsettled. He frowns, briefly flashing back to the pain from last night. It's all fuzzy, but he definitely remembers that. He shouldn't have been drinking as much as he did, he thinks, but at least the worst of the pain seems to have settled.

He moves his hand towards his belly. As soon as he moves he realises there are spiders all over him, like a blanket. As soon as he moves the spiders are all moving too. Very carefully, Zhao Yunlan tries to open his eyes and then realises there isn't any light to blind him, because everything around him is completely dark.

He has another flash of memory from last night, of the sound of Shen Wei's nearly panicked voice. He grimaces. That's— Well, he'd definitely fucked that up because he'd probably scared the hell out of Shen Wei with that sudden bout of gastritis.

"Morning," he mumbles finally. His mouth feels dry and he could do with a glass of water, probably. He feels ridiculously thirsty. He could also do with a visit to a bathroom, actually. He swallows, and then rather reluctantly mutters, "I'd really like to just keep lying here, but I need to go find a toilet."

The spiders don't exactly move away, they just sort of turn less heavy. Maybe that's just in Zhao Yunlan's head, but they do something in any case. Gingerly, Zhao Yunlan pushes himself up to sit. He still can't see anything.

"Xiao Wei… You kind of need to let me out," he says as gently as he can manage. They still definitely have a talk waiting for them, about this place and about keeping Zhao Yunlan here. Zhao Yunlan doesn't mind, right now he'd prefer to stay actually, it feels nice. But there's a time and a place, or something like that.

His head is aching and he needs a few painkillers before he even tries to say anything about it.

There's a wordless hiss and then the darkness kind of falls away. The light in the room feels very bright, and Zhao Yunlan squints a little. The spiders hiss as they crawl over him, vanishing somewhere into the folds of the clothes Zhao Yunlan is still wearing. Zhao Yunlan sighs and bends down to pull on his shoes. His head definitely doesn't like that, but it'll just have to deal. Finally, he straightens up, pushing himself up and walking to the door. Maybe he can find some painkillers after he finds the bathroom.

"Do you have any idea how much you freaked your boyfriend out last night?" Da Qing asks.

Zhao Yunlan squints at him over the breakfast table. They're taking the time to eat breakfast before getting into the cars. A handful of spiders crawl over the table, pushing a bowl of porridge in front of Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan sighs and picks up the bowl.

"I had to calm him down," Da Qing says very emphatically, glaring accusingly at Zhao Yunlan. And then, probably to console himself, Da Qing grabs some of the food and stuffs his mouth full.

Zhao Yunlan takes a spoonful of the porridge and swallows carefully. He's still waiting for the painkillers to actually do something for the headache. Slowly, carefully, he peers at the others around the table.

Wang Zheng and the mystery boyfriend aren't there. Which makes sense, seeing as they're outside in the sunlight. Lao Chu isn't there either, which makes less sense, but Zhao Yunlan can't be bothered to ask. Maybe he already ate.

There's movement on the table and his eyes are drawn to it. The spiders push a glass of water in front of him, and obediently Zhao Yunlan picks it up to take a drink. Da Qing mutters something unintelligible around his full mouth of food. He still sounds annoyed. Everyone else is very quiet. They aren't eating either.

Zhao Yunlan sets the glass down and looks at the spiders crawling on the table. He sighs and lets his hand that had been holding the glass fall down against the tabletop. He sighs quietly again and mutters, "I think we're freaking everyone out again, Xiao Wei. I promise I won't eat anything bad for me."

There's a moment of hesitation. Zhao Yunlan refrains from pointing out that Shen Wei could just turn human and stay around like that without disturbing anyone. They're all fine with having Shen Wei around like that, but apparently, spiders around the food is too much for everyone. Zhao Yulan should tell them in which form Shen Wei tends to cook the food they're all more than happy to eat whenever it's on offer. Maybe next time Shen Wei makes them all something.

Right now, he's getting the feeling that for one reason or another, Shen Wei isn't quite up to keeping himself together this morning. Slowly, the spiders crawl towards his hand, vanishing up under his sleeve one by one. He waits until he can't see any of them anymore and then lifts his hand from the table, grabbing his half-eaten bowl of porridge and giving everyone a pointed look.

Zhu Hong glares back at him, and then grabs something from the table, seemingly without even looking. Zhao Yunlan lifts another spoonful of porridge to his mouth.

Zhao Yunlan does get around to meeting Wang Zheng's boyfriend later, once they're back at the SID. He even gets a name; Sang Zan. Sang Zan himself doesn't actually say anything, because apparently, as Wang Zhen explains to him Sang Zan has been stuck in a stone pillar for a couple of hundred years and isn't really up to speaking yet.

Employing him as their librarian is really the first thing Zhao Yunlan can think of. Look, he needs to put something down on paper, just in case anyone ever asks. Honestly, he could probably have thought of a better position for him, seeing as the guy can't actually read the books, but oh well. They'll figure it out later because Zhao Yunlan wants to go home and he's pretty sure so does everyone else. Well, those of them who have homes to go to. Wang Zheng and Sang Zan are both staying at the SID.

Shen Wei hasn't made an appearance since before they started driving back, even though Zhao Yunlan can feel the occasional brush of spider feet against his skin. It's just barely enough to keep him from falling into an even worse mood than he already is in, thinking that Shen Wei has just left. Zhao Yunlan is not going to examine the fact that he's apparently incapable of going even a few hours without Shen Wei there with him. He's not in the fucking mood to think about it.

Eventually, what feels like far, far too late in the evening, he does get home. Da Qing had said he was going to stay at the SID, just in case Wang Zheng and Sang Zan needed some help getting settled. They don't. Well, if they do it'd be Wang Zheng taking care of it anyway. It's obviously just a reason for Da Qing to stay away from home for the night, but since Zhao Yunlan was trying to think of a way to ask him to do just that without offending Da Qing too much, Zhao Yunlan isn't complaining about the flimsiness of his excuses.

So, he gets home. He dumps his bag next to the door. He kicks off his shoes and then stares down at them for a full second before crouching down, picking them up and setting them neatly aside. He throws his jacket over the back of the couch and goes to the kitchen to get a glass of water. He still feels kind of dry after all the drinking and he doesn't want another bout of stomach pain or a headache right now. He fills the glass again after emptying it, thinking that he should probably eat something too, as he wanders back to the living room area. He stops, glass in hand, staring at the jacket on the back of the couch.

It feels like he stares at it for a good while, before turning to set the half-full glass of water down on the nightstand and then walking over to the couch and picking the jacket up before going to hang it next to the door. He accidentally kicks the bag sitting there. He looks down at it.

"I'm too tired to unpack it today, Xiao Wei," he mumbles, his throat feeling tight. He blinks his eyes, which are suddenly stinging. He takes in a shaky breath. His legs feel like they're not going to carry him for much longer.

He staggers a bit, moving back to the couch, and then just drops his ass down onto it with a thud. He slumps forward, burying his face in his hands, and resting his elbows on his knees.

"Please, Xiao Wei, can we talk?" he mumbles from between his hands. "I know you're not in the mood, but please. This really fucking sucks."

He waits for a moment, and nothing seems to happen. He lifts his face from his hands, waiting. Then he slumps down. Fine. So, Shen Wei still doesn't want to say anything to him. That's fine. It's not like Zhao Yunlan is looking forward to the talk they need to have, so that's just—

Spiders skitter out from under his clothes, crawling all over him, more of them than could feasibly be hidden under Zhao Yunlan's clothes. Zhao Yunlan makes a ridiculous little gesture, wanting to pet them or hug them or something. In the end, he just leans back in the couch, letting the spiders swarm over him.

"I need to say some things, Xiao Wei," he says after a few moments. He doesn't particularly want to, but he needs to. "And I need to know you're actually listening."

The soft skitter of spider feet turns into a loud hiss.

"Yeah, that's fine. As long as you're listening," Zhao Yunlan says. The hissing softens a little, sounding like agreement.

And then, instead of actually starting the conversation he's been thinking about, he says, "Are you still angry at me for last night? Because I really didn't mean for that to happen. And I am sorry for drinking that much, I shouldn't have."

The movement of the spiders turn more agitated, the hissing sharpening to something staticky that is nearing painful.

"I know I made you worried. I really didn't mean to do that either," Zhao Yunlan says, a little helplessly. The hissing softens a little, and Zhao Yunlan sighs. "I was just… I was kind of annoyed at you, Xiao Wei," he admits. And then thinks about that statement for a heartbeat. "Not that it's an excuse for drinking that much, in that situation," he adds very quickly. If he was going to get drunk, he should have at least waited until they got home, once everything was settled.

Zhao Yunlan lifts his hand to his face, rubbing at his chin tiredly. He needs to do something about his beard he realises, but tomorrow, he tells himself. Shen Wei still says nothing at all.

"Look. You can't just shut me away into… well, wherever you put me, the moment something dangerous happens. I know it was to keep me safe, but Shen Wei… It's my job. You have to let me do it," Zhao Yunlan says, all of his frustration coming out along with the words. The words don't feel like enough. He feels like Shen Wei isn't going to understand, but he can't think of the right words to say to make it clear what he means.

The spiders seem even more agitated. Zhao Yunlan sighs in frustration, pulling a hand through his hair.

"I'm not saying I don't appreciate you wanting to keep me safe, Xiao Wei. And that place is nice, it does make me feel safe. But, Shen Wei… Shen Wei-ah…" Zhao Yunlan says and then hesitates, not quite knowing what to say. "You should ask first," he says with a sigh. The words feel wholly inadequate.

The spiders crawl over him with a steady hiss, and then a moment later Zhao Yunlan can feel them crawl away from him. He's gotten pretty good at telling the difference. His heart lurches a little before he realises the spiders are all gathering in a spot next to him on the couch, rather hesitantly piling on top of each other. Eventually, slowly, Shen Wei is sitting next to him in his human form, his shape wavering a few times before settling.

"You're angry at me," Shen Wei says.

Zhao Yunlan sighs and drops his head against Shen Wei's shoulders. Then a heartbeat later he wraps his arms around Shen Wei and holds on very tightly. Shen Wei's hesitantly hugs him back.

"I was," Zhao Yunlan admits. Because he had been. "Now I'm just… I don't know. Frustrated probably," he mumbles against Shen Wei's neck. "But there's a time and a place for what you did, Shen Wei and the cave was neither."

"The Mountain-River Awl's power had been… set free. You would have been hurt," Shen Wei says, followed by an agonized sound that's more screech than hiss. Zhao Yunlan hisses in a breath between his teeth. Thankfully, the sound dies down almost immediately.

Okay. So, Zhao Yunlan had not known that. He takes a breath and lifts his head to look at Shen Wei, not willing to actually let go of him. He's almost too close to actually look at him, and sort of focuses on just one of his entirely black eyes.

"You mean… I was too human and something bad would have happened to me and that was the only thing you could do at the moment?" Zhao Yunlan asks, with a small resigned sigh.

Shen Wei nods very slightly, not actually saying anything. Zhao Yunlan sighs again.

"And you really didn't have any time to say anything to me," Zhao Yunlan says. It's not even a question this time, but Shen Wei nods anyway.

Zhao Yunlan closes his eyes. Takes a deep breath and then sighs. Again. He lets his forehead fall down against Shen Wei's shoulder, his arms squeezing tighter around him. "Okay. If that happens again… tell me afterwards so we can skip this whole not talking to each other thing," he mutters. He takes a slow breath before adding, a bit more clearly, "In circumstances when you can ask, Shen Wei, please ask first."

"I will," Shen Wei promises, and okay, that's good enough for Zhao Yunlan.

"Thank you," he mumbles and then just stays there, holding onto Shen Wei.

Later, once they've relocated to bed on Shen Wei's insistence, because Zhao Yunlan was starting to nod off, and sleeping on the couch isn't good for him, Zhao Yunlan manages to wake himself up enough to make a thorough inspection of Shen Wei. His fingers skim against Shen Wei's skin, where the cut had been. There's not even a trace left. It's not that Zhao Yunlan had expected there to be, not really, but it's still such a relief to see, to feel, that Shen Wei really is fine.

"I didn't know you could be hurt like that," Zhao Yunlan says, his fingers tracing the approximate shape of the wound.

"I'm not invulnerable," Shen Wei says.

Zhao Yunlan's breath shudders a little. "No. No, you're not," he agrees. Maybe it's not that hard to understand the way Shen Wei wants to keep Zhao Yunlan safe, no matter what. Zhao Yunlan wants to do the same with Shen Wei.

He takes a steady breath and then moves his hand away, letting it rest against Shen Wei's belly. There's that little bloom of heat in Zhao Yunlan's belly like there always is when he's touching Shen Wei, especially when it's a naked Shen Wei. It wouldn't take much for that to become something more, but right now— All Zhao Yunlan really wants is this. To be here, with Shen Wei.

"You want to keep me there. In the dark. Safe. Don't you?" Zhao Yunlan asks abruptly, lifting his gaze to meet Shen Wei's eyes. Zhao Yunlan can imagine it. Staying there, surrounded by Shen Wei.

"Yes," Shen Wei says, his black eyes looking back at Zhao Yunlan, the word feeling heavy with intent and the low hiss of spiders. For a moment, Zhao Yunlan thinks he can feel the darkness pressing up against them, and then a moment later it's gone. He sighs, feeling almost disappointed.

"Would you… I mean, could you do that now? Just for tonight?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

Shen Wei's black eyes glitter with something Zhao Yunlan struggles to put a name on. Then in the next moment, darkness swallows them, so abruptly it leaves Zhao Yunlan blinking. Then finally, he just lets his eyes fall shut since he can't see anything anyway. Blindly, he lays his head down on Shen Wei's chest, wrapping his arms around him as best he can. He sighs softly. He almost expected Shen Wei would somehow vanish, become whatever the darkness is that surrounds Zhao Yunlan.

"The bed came with us this time," he points out.

"Yes," Shen Wei agrees.

"That's nice," Zhao Yunlan says, a sudden, irresistible yawn cracking his jaw. "I think I'm going to fall asleep," he mumbles.

Spiders hiss softly around him, and it feels like the dark itself wraps itself around him. Zhao Yunlan hums softly and then lets himself slowly drift away.

Chapter Text

Zhao Yunlan watches the spiders take his jacket from where he'd thrown it haphazardly on the couch, moving it to one of the hooks by the door.

"Sorry, I'll remember next time," Zhao Yunlan says instinctively, even though he probably won't. The spiders hiss softly, a sound that makes Zhao Yunlan smile.

Suddenly he just has to sit down, because his heart feels too full with how much he damn well adores Shen Wei. He stumbles slightly as he gets to the couch, half falling down on it. Somewhat worried spiders crawl up along his legs, circling his waist and his arms, the hissing sound filling his ears.

"Have I told you how much I love you?" Zhao Yunlan asks, and the spiders sort of stutter to a halt. Then the hissing resumes again, and if the hiss of spiders moving on you can sound pleased, then it definitely sounds pleased. "I really don't know how you aren't tired of cleaning up after me by now, Xiao Wei," he says.

He'd had a… Well, he wouldn't call her a girlfriend really the whole thing had been too brief for that. But the point is, the entire thing between them had ended when Zhao Yunlan had gotten annoyed at her for basically following him around and picking up after him, no matter where they were. Well, no that wasn't exactly what had ended it, but that had been why Zhao Yunlan had never asked her to his home, because there was way too much to pick up there and Zhao Yunlan was getting annoyed just thinking about her in there. About six weeks into things she'd started really complaining about not ever seeing his home and then a little later she'd blown up about the fact that he didn't actually want her in his life, or something like that. He doesn't really remember all the details, as much as he remembers her yelling at him in his car, and then slamming the door as she left.

That's still his longest relationship prior to Shen Wei. He really can't imagine getting annoyed at Shen Wei for picking up after him, and not inviting Shen Wei to his home was never much of a consideration seeing as Shen Wei was there before Zhao Yunlan quite realised it. He'd cleaned up the whole apartment while Zhao Yunlan was sleeping. Yeah, if he was about to get annoyed about any of it he figures that should have been it.

"You could put some effort into putting things in their right places," the spiders hiss at him.

"Do you mind?" Zhao Yunlan asks, the warmth in his heart displaced by a sudden twist of worry. Most people mind. "You know," he says, waving his hand at the entirety of his no longer messy home, "That I don't?"

He could. If he really tried. It's not like he doesn't know how to pick up things and put them in their places. But somehow it just doesn't happen and at some point, Zhao Yunlan had given up on it because it was way more effort than it was worth and it's not like the mess particularly bothered him. He has more important things to spend his energy on than keeping his apartment clean. Mess just sort of happens and Zhao Yunlan has accepted that. So yes, he could put effort into keeping things tidier, but somehow that never actually seems to fix the issue.

There's what sounds a lot like a sigh from the spiders. Zhao Yunlan's chest tightens for a heartbeat as the spiders move away but then Shen Wei is sitting next to him on the couch, his hands holding Zhao Yunlan's arms. Zhao Yunlan smiles and leans into him, resting his head against Shen Wei's shoulder.

Gods he loves the spiders, but sometimes there's nothing quite like actually being able to hold Shen Wei.

"I can take care of it," Shen Wei says, and apparently that's it.

Zhao Yunlan smiles and turns his face into the smooth skin of Shen Wei's neck. "The cleaning, you mean?" he asks, his lips brushing slightly against Shen Wei.

"Yes," Shen Wei agrees.

Zhao Yunlan's heart really does feel like it's so full that all the warmth and softness is spilling over, suffusing his whole body, making him feel like he could just melt against Shen Wei. He can't help himself, pressing a small kiss against the side of Shen Wei's neck.

"I love you, Shen Wei. Did I tell you that?" Zhao Yunlan mumbles, before pressing his lips against Shen Wei's skin in another little kiss.

"Yes," Shen Wei says, a soft pleased humming under his words. Zhao Yunlan very much loves that sound too, the way it makes it so very obvious that Shen Wei likes being right here, right now. With Zhao Yunlan.

"Well, it bears repeating," Zhao Yunlan tells him, pressing yet another little kiss against Shen Wei's bare skin. He wants to keep kissing Shen Wei, he thinks, heat rapidly rising from the pit of his belly. He wants to put his mouth all over Shen Wei until Shen Wei can't help but burst into tiny little spiders.

Shen Wei hums, his arms tightening around Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan presses himself against him, a tiny little whine slipping from his throat.

"I love you too, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says, the words bursting out with a suddenness that makes Zhao Yunlan pause for a moment, almost like Shen Wei was worried that Zhao Yunlan might not know.

"I know," Zhao Yunlan says. He lifts his head, even though his lips already miss the feeling of Shen Wei's skin against them. He looks into Shen Wei's all-black eyes. "I know," he repeats, delighted. Because he does and it is. Delightful that is. He knows that Shen Wei loves him. There's no doubt in him at all.

He grins and leans in to press his lips against Shen Wei's. Shen Wei kisses him back with an intensity that leaves Zhao Yunlan breathless. His fingers stroke Shen Wei's back as he pulls away, gasping for breath, until he can lean in again, pressing his lips against Shen Wei's jaw and mumbling, "Let me make you feel good, Shen Wei. Please."

He kisses down along Shen Wei's jaw and throat, mumbling little pleas for Shen Wei to let him make Shen Wei feel as good as he makes Zhao Yunlan feel.

Shen Wei's fingers feel a little shaky as they pet his hair. "Of course, Yunlan," he says.

Heat surges inside Zhao Yunlan. He licks at Shen Wei's throat and then lifts his head, pressing their mouths together hungrily, his hands already scrambling to tug at Shen Wei's robe. With a little shiver, the robes vanish, and he feels a few spiders crawl over his fingers.

Their mouths press together harder, tongues gliding against each other. Shen Wei's hands pull at him and Zhao Yunlan scrambles to climb into his lap, straddling his thighs as they keep kissing, until Zhao Yunlan has to stop. He pulls away with a gasp, rocking slightly against Shen Wei's thighs, his erection pressing against Shen Wei's naked body through his trousers. A whine is trapped in his throat as he gulps in a desperate breath. He can feel Shen Wei's answering hard-on.

He lifts his hand, petting Shen Wei's cheek. His fingers shake a little, far too eager to touch Shen Wei and yet somehow, at the same time, he doesn't want to just reach down and grab Shen Wei. He wants to savour this.

He gulps in a few more breaths. Almost without thinking, his body moving on its own, looking for the pleasure it wants, he rocks against Shen Wei again. He gasps softly, his breath still unsteady. A hitched, hissing noise comes from Shen Wei, stuttering and starting again. Shen Wei's hands grasp his hips, and for a moment Zhao Yunlan doesn't know if he's going to pull him closer or lift him away. But Shen Wei does neither, just holds onto Zhao Yunlan, his grip almost too tight.

Zhao Yunlan's breath shudders, and he noses against Shen Wei's cheek, his lips brushing lightly against Shen Wei's skin. He wants to kiss Shen Wei again. He wants the taste of him in his mouth so badly.

"I can't keep my hands off you, Xiao Wei," he whispers roughly. "I want to taste you, I want to touch you all over."

Shen Wei shudders, and the hissing turns higher in pitch, the sound splitting and reverberating against Zhao Yunlan's skin.

"Will you let me? Please?" Zhao Yunlan asks, his voice shuddering, his mind already jumping ahead. He can already imagine the weight of Shen Wei in his mouth, pressing against his tongue, filling his mouth with the taste of him. "Please, Xiao Wei?" he nearly whines, pressing himself harder against Shen Wei.

His fingers shake as he caresses Shen Wei's cheek, waiting for Shen Wei to answer him.

"What… what do you want me to do, Yunlan?" Shen Wei asks, his voice breaking apart into static that almost makes his words incomprehensible. Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure that's an agreement.

"You don't have to do anything. Just sit here and let me make you feel good. Will you do that for me, Xiao Wei?" Zhao Yunlan asks, his own voice shuddering a little. He wants to get his own clothes off, he wants to rub himself against Shen Wei, he wants— He doesn't want to let go of Shen Wei at all.

Shen Wei shudders under him, his shape rippling slightly. Zhao Yunlan smooths his hand against his shoulder, the skin is warm and smooth under his touch. "I want you to feel so good you can't keep yourself together anymore," he whispers against Shen Wei's ear.

Shen Wei's whine feels like it goes straight to Zhao Yunlan's cock. Fuck.

Zhao Yunlan hates pulling away, but he tells himself he has to. He can't just make his clothes disappear, and he wants to get his mouth on Shen Wei's cock and—

With a shuddering breath, Zhao Yunlan tears himself away, nearly stumbling as he gets himself to his feet. His eyes rake over Shen Wei's naked body.

"Wait for a moment, Xiao Wei," he says, the words slurring as he rushes them out. He licks his lips, his hands fumbling at the hem of his shirt. "Just a moment," he says, a little more clearly, as he manages to get a grip on his shirt and quickly tugs it over his head. Well, tries to, but he gets stuck halfway through. He's so eager he's getting clumsy. He tries again and manages to get out of the shirt before Shen Wei needs to get up and help him. The trousers are easier, even if his fingers feel clumsy trying to unbutton them, but as soon as he gets them undone he just needs to push it all down, kicking all of it away. And then he's done.

His breath shudders, and he steps closer. His hands slide against Shen Wei's thighs as he kneels down, pushing Shen Wei's legs apart, before settling in between them. He knows he'd said he wants to put his mouth all over Shen Wei, and he does, but he doesn't have the patience suddenly. His eyes go down to Shen Wei's cock, half hard. He strokes Shen Wei's inner thigh with his fingertips, looking up at Shen Wei, looking for confirmation that Shen Wei is okay with this.

He watches Shen Wei's Adam's apple bob as he swallows, a small nervous gesture that makes Zhao Yunlan's heart melt. He strokes Shen Wei's soft skin and hears Shen Wei's breath shudder a little. Shen Wei is letting himself feel all of this, all the little things this almost-human body is telling him, that he might usually ignore. And he's doing it entirely because Zhao Yunlan asked him to.

Zhao Yunlan's heart feels so full and warm, that for a moment he almost forgets about his overwhelming need to get his mouth on Shen Wei. He flattens his palm against Shen Wei's thigh as he looks up at him.

"If you don't like this, please tell me to stop," Zhao Yunlan says, his voice coming out a little breathless.

The corners of Shen Wei's mouth curl up in the barest hint of a smile. He reaches out, his fingers hovering against Zhao Yunlan's hair for a moment like he's not sure about actually touching. Then with a little gasp, Shen Wei's fingers push into his hair, stroking him a little shakily.

Inadvertently, a little, needy whine slips from Zhao Yunlan's throat, and he tilts his head a little like he's some stray cat, hungry for more petting.

"I like it," Shen Wei whispers, the hissing sound making his voice reverberate, until it almost sounds like two voices speaking on top of each other.

Okay, Zhao Yunlan thinks, lowering his head, and pressing a kiss against Shen Wei's inner thigh. Shen Wei gasps softly. Zhao Yunlan's belly shivers with heat.

His hands feel shaky as he reaches for Shen Wei's half-hard cock. He touches it a little tentatively at first, his fingers light against Shen Wei's smooth, warm skin. He can't help the way his mouth waters, a little sigh slipping from his lips. His fingers reach around that perfect length, his grasp firming. He looks up at Shen Wei's face. Shen Wei's black eyes are looking down at him, his eyes a bit wide, his mouth hanging open a little, his breath shivering lightly. A vein in his cock throbs against Zhao Yunlan's hand, and he can feel the cock swelling slightly.

Zhao Yunlan bites down on his own lip. He thinks about saying something else, maybe asking if Shen Wei is really sure about this. But Shen Wei has already said he's okay with it, and Zhao Yunlan probably shouldn't go on about it. He takes a slow, steady breath, and his mouth waters a little more. It feels like he's moving in slow motion as he moves his mouth closer to Shen Wei's cock. His hand slides a little lower along it as his lips wrap around the head.

Shen Wei still isn't all the way hard, even though he seems to be getting there. Zhao Yunlan keeps his cock steady with one hand, as he carefully slides his mouth lower. A small moan slips from his throat and it seems to make Shen Wei's fingers clench slightly in his hair. For a second, Zhao Yunlan imagines Shen Wei grabbing him by the hair and making him take his cock. He moans again, heat sinking down into his belly, and straight to his cock.

He knows Shen Wei won't do that, but the thought is hot anyway.

He sucks gently at Shen Wei's cock, his hand stroking the base of it, trying to coax him into full hardness. It takes less effort than Zhao Yunlan was expecting, as he quickly feels Shen Wei's cock grow in his mouth, a sharp whine coming from Shen Wei.

That's it, baby, Zhao Yunlan thinks, moaning again as heat courses through his own veins. He wants to tell Shen Wei how fucking hot he is, but since that would mean letting go of Shen Wei's cock, it can definitely wait for later.

He takes his time, enjoying having Shen Wei's cock in his mouth, despite the need coursing through him, urging him to go faster. He closes his eyes, sucking gently, his other hand moving to fondle Shen Wei's balls. Shen Wei whines sharply, and Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure he feels a few spiders crawl into his hair.

Zhao Yunlan takes a deep, steady breath through his nose, a very slight musky scent filling his nostrils. Then, slowly, Zhao Yunlan relaxes his jaw a little more and slides his mouth steadily lower. Shen Wei's whine grows sharper, and Zhao Yunlan feels him shiver as Zhao Yunlan carefully deepthroats him. He's had Shen Wei's cock in his mouth before, but he hasn't taken him quite that deep before. It's been a while since he's done that to anyone and it's not particularly easy. If he goes any faster he knows he's going to choke himself and he's pretty sure Shen Wei wouldn't react well to that.

He can feel the head of Shen Wei's cock at the back of his throat. He swallows carefully, his throat tightening around the cockhead. Shen Wei shudders, making a noise that sounds almost pained.

"Yunlan," he hisses in a broken voice that seems to come from many places at once. His fingers tighten in Zhao Yunlan's hair, little spiders crawling down over Zhao Yunlan's face.

Zhao Yunlan pulls up a little, his lips sliding along Shen Wei's cock. He fights the urge to gasp for breath and instead takes a calm, steady breath through his nose. Then, he slides his mouth down again, taking Shen Wei in just a little deeper this time. Shen Wei shudders, a loud hissing echoing all around him.

Zhao Yunlan swallows again and pushes his head just a little lower, his hand gently rolling Shen Wei's balls, his fingers stroking down over Shen Wei's perineum.

"Yunlan," Shen Wei hisses, the hissing making the word nearly incomprehensible. His cock pulses inside Zhao Yunlan's mouth, the head twitching against his throat. Zhao Yunlan pulls his mouth back a little, before swallowing him down again. The whining hiss keeps growing louder and louder, and then, all of a sudden it goes entirely silent as Shen Wei comes, spiders bursting into Zhao Yunlan's throat, and falling all over him.

For a moment, Zhao Yunlan freezes and then he closes his eyes and swallows and swallows again. It feels like there are tiny spiders everywhere. And even though he keeps swallowing there's more of them, filling him until he's nearly choking, crawling inside him and on him. Zhao Yunlan moans, his hand falling down to his own hard cock. He swallows more spiders, as his hand desperately grabs onto his own cock, jerking himself off hard and rough.

He comes hard and quick, yelling out as come spurts out of his cock. He swallows, and this time he can only feel a few little spiders. He gasps, panting quietly as he leans forward, his forehead thumping softly against the couch, his hand still wrapped around his slackening cock. He feels tiny spiders crawling over him. He thinks he can feel them crawling inside him too, but that might be his imagination. Still, his hand moves to touch his belly, but of course, he can't feel anything different.

His skin tingles as the little spiders crawl over him, small shivers going through him, like little aftershocks of pleasure.

"That was hot," he mumbles softly into the couch. He's not sure it's what he'd imagined, but hot, definitely hot, he thinks.

It strikes him, a few moments later, that he's kneeling naked on the floor, with his head buried in his couch and he should probably feel ridiculous. He might be starting to feel a little cold.

He pushes his head up. He doesn't feel all that much like moving. He'd really like to cuddle with Shen Wei right now.

"Xiao Wei? You okay?" he asks. Shen Wei has been very quiet after that rather remarkable orgasm, or whatever he should call what Shen Wei does.

There's another moment of quiet and a small sliver of worry twists at Zhao Yunlan's belly. His fingers dig into his belly a little. Then a soft hissing that almost sounds like a purr winds around him, the little spiders sort of… shivering against him. And this time, he'd swear he can feel it inside him too. It feels like his chest vibrates with a weird little hum.

He chuckles softly in relief and then lets his head fall down against the couch again, his hand rising to press against his chest. He's going to get up because this really is a ridiculous position to be in, but… in a moment.

Zhao Yunlan makes a disappointed noise when the spiders crawl away from him, that comforting vibrating hiss stopping. Then, he feels Shen Wei's arms around him, and he makes a delighted noise instead, turning around to wrap his arms around him, nuzzling against Shen Wei's neck.

Shen Wei doesn't say anything, just wraps his arms around him and lifts Zhao Yunlan up from the floor, like he weighs nothing at all. Zhao Yunlan's belly swoops pleasantly. He sighs and wraps his arms around Shen Wei's neck as Shen Wei settles him into a princess carry.

"Where are you taking me, Xiao Wei," he mumbles against Shen Wei's skin.

"The bath," Shen Wei answers him.

Zhao Yunlan feels a small moment of disappointment that he can't quite put his finger on. He mentally shakes it off, and says, "Only if you join me. I want to hold you."

"Of course," Shen Wei agrees.

Zhao Yunlan smiles a little and lifts his head. He brushes aside some of Shen Wei's hair with one hand, so he can press his lips against Shen Wei's skin below his ear. There's an echo of that content hissing sound in response.

"I should really be taking care of you," Zhao Yunlan says. "Are you really okay, Xiao Wei?"

Shen Wei stops. He looks at Zhao Yunlan, his entirely black eyes as seemingly unfathomable as always. Fuck, Zhao Yunlan loves his eyes, he thinks, reaching up to brush his fingers against his temple at the corner of his right eye.

"Your eyes are so beautiful," Zhao Yunlan says, and Shen Wei turns his head away, looking embarrassed, and Zhao Yunlan doesn't know if that's because of what he just said or something else. "Xiao Wei? Everything okay?" he asks because Shen Wei still hasn't really answered that question.

"Some of me is still inside you, Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei says in this soft little hiss of a whisper.

Zhao Yunlan's belly swoops, lust sweeping through him, his cock twitching. He opens his mouth, and then all that comes out is this breathless little moan, because… yeah.

Apparently, Shen Wei doesn't miss Zhao Yunlan's reaction, because his gaze goes straight to Zhao Yunlan's crotch.

"That excites you, Zhao Yunlan?" he asks, sounding a little shy, and also, Zhao Yunlan would swear, a little pleased too.

Zhao Yunlan groans. Shen Wei is so stupidly hot, and he can't be surprised at the effect he has on Zhao Yunlan. Not anymore. Zhao Yunlan is a bit too obvious for that. He lets his head fall against Shen Wei's shoulder.

"Shen Wei, you could do anything and I'd find it hot. But you inside me… Fuck yes, that turns me on," he says with another groan.

"Oh," Shen Wei says like he's just realised something, but Zhao Yunlan isn't in any state to actually figure it out.

Without a word, Shen Wei starts walking again, quickly getting both of them into the bathroom. A handful of little spiders wander over Zhao Yunlan's skin. Zhao Yunlan buries his face in Shen Wei's shoulder, mouthing at his skin.

Shen Wei still insists on actually running him a bath. Zhao Yunlan doesn't mind all that much, or he doesn't when Shen Wei gets into the bath with him, wrapping Zhao Yunlan up in his arms, as Zhao Yunlan leans back against his chest.

He really should be the one taking care of Shen Wei, but he knows Shen Wei likes taking care of him and to be honest, Zhao Yunlan likes it quite a bit too. So it's a win-win really.

Zhao Yunlan's idle thoughts come to a halt when Shen Wei's hand wanders down to Zhao Yunlan's half-hard cock. He touches Zhao Yunlan's balls first, even as his lips trace against the side of Zhao Yunlan's neck. Zhao Yunlan moans, tilting his head to the side, gripping Shen Wei's forearm. He wasn't going to say anything about him sort of getting hard again, but he's definitely not complaining about Shen Wei wanting to do something about it.

Shen Wei's sharp teeth graze against his skin, nipping lightly, his hand getting very familiar with Zhao Yunlan's balls. By the time he moves his hand to touch Zhao Yunlan's cock, he's definitely all the way hard again.

With the way they're sitting, Shen Wei pressed up behind him, he can tell that Shen Wei definitely isn't hard, but that's okay. He's not surprised, Shen Wei probably needs a bit of time to gather himself after earlier, before he'll want to do something like that again. Zhao Yunlan moves one hand to touch his own belly, under the water. Maybe Shen Wei needs time to literally gather himself if some of him is still inside Zhao Yunlan.

The thought makes him moan, or maybe that's Shen Wei's hand squeezing his cock just right.

"You have no idea how hot you are, do you?" he asks, his voice all breathy. "Because… oh… fuck, Xiao Wei… You're going to drive me insane and… I'm going to love every moment," Zhao Yunlan babbles, the words broken up with moans as Shen Wei's hand keeps moving against his cock.

Shen Wei doesn't say anything, but then his mouth is busy kissing and biting at Zhao Yunlan's neck.

"Oh, fuck, Xiao Wei," Zhao Yunlan moans, grasping Shen Wei's arm tightly as his pleasure abruptly crests, his balls tightening before he's suddenly coming. Shen Wei presses little kisses against the side of his neck, his hand milking the last of Zhao Yunlan's orgasm out of him until Zhao Yunlan slumps against him feeling very pleasantly wrung out.

"I think two orgasms might be my limit," he mumbles a little incoherently, as Shen Wei's hand still holds onto his quickly softening cock. Not that he'd mind if Shen Wei wanted to keep going.

Shen Wei's hand moves against his cock, and Zhao Yunlan gasps shakily. Okay, he's a little bit sensitive. His grip on Shen Wei's arm tightens.

"Are you sure?" Shen Wei asks, his breath brushing against Zhao Yunlan's neck. Zhao Yunlan shivers.

"No," he answers, his voice coming out in a whine.

Shen Wei's hand goes still, just holding loosely to Zhao Yunlan's soft cock.

"Yunlan?" he asks in concern.

Zhao Yunlan blinks and takes a slow breath. "If you want to go for a third, Shen Wei, I'll be so into that. But I'm not sure how I'll react," he says honestly. He really doesn't want Shen Wei to get the wrong idea, if he starts whining or damn well crying. He feels like he might.

Shen Wei lets go of his cock, and Zhao Yunlan sighs quietly.

"Perhaps once I get you out of the bath. I would like more of me inside you when you orgasm," Shen Wei says, almost too matter-of-factly.

Zhao Yunlan gasps like someone had punched him in the belly. "Xiao Wei," he whines. His cock twitching and failing to get hard again. He takes a shaky breath, "You know, washing up is overrated anyway."

Of course, Shen Wei still insists on cleaning him up properly. And since it means Shen Wei's hands are all over him, Zhao Yunlan can't even complain.

By the time Shen Wei lays him down on the bed, Zhao Yunlan is ridiculously turned on, even though his cock is still not actually all the way hard. Maybe two orgasms really is his limit. His skin feels so sensitive that every touch makes him shiver. Shen Wei hasn't actually touched his cock again, and Zhao Yunlan feels both grateful and desperate to get Shen Wei's hands on that part of him.

He thinks, maybe Shen Wei is a little impatient too, because he didn't even take the time to dry Zhao Yunlan's hair properly. Usually, he wouldn't even let Zhao Yunlan close to the bed with wet hair, which is both a bit ridiculous and entirely endearing.

Zhao Yunlan winds his arms around Shen Wei's neck, trying to pull him down over him, but Shen Wei doesn't budge. Zhao Yunlan whines, but that seems to have no particular effect on Shen Wei.

"Xiao Wei, please," he begs and that finally has the desired effect as Shen Wei lets himself be pulled down into a kiss, his naked body pressing against Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan gasps into his mouth.

He feels something push into his mouth, and he's too distracted by Shen Wei's body pressed against him, by kissing Shen Wei, to realise what's happening straight away. But the feeling of tiny feet crawling in his mouth is entirely impossible to ignore for long. Shen Wei keeps kissing him, more tiny spiders crawling into his mouth. He can feel them crawling against the back of his throat, down his throat.

It's different this time. Slower, more deliberate somehow, and Zhao Yunlan can feel every one of them. He whines softly, tightening his hold around Shen Wei, pulling him closer against himself as he feels the spiders crawling down inside him, the little legs tickling at the inside of his throat.

It's almost too much, but Zhao Yunlan doesn't want Shen Wei to stop. His fingers press against the back of Shen Wei's head, tangled in his long, silky hair. He doesn't know how there's enough Shen Wei to go around, how he can be here, and crawling inside Zhao Yunlan all at the same time.

Suddenly, Shen Wei pulls away, and Zhao Yunlan is forced to let go of him. He gasps for breath as he feels the last few spiders still at the back of his throat. Shen Wei is staring at him with hungry black eyes, and Zhao Yunlan feels himself shiver. There's a little hissing growl coming from Shen Wei's mouth, his lips pulled back a little to reveal sharp teeth.

His teeth weren't quite that sharp a moment ago, were they?

Shen Wei's hands trace down his body, sharp nails scraping lightly against his skin, sending shivers of pleasure through him. Every little touch feels like so much and Zhao Yunlan still hasn't even caught his breath properly. Very deliberately Shen Wei slides down his body. Zhao Yunlan can feel the movement echoed inside him, and maybe it's just his imagination, but the feeling makes him gasp, his back arching from the bed.

Shen Wei swallows his cock into his mouth all at once, and Zhao Yunlan swears he sees stars, yelling out as his cock twitches helplessly.

"Xiao Wei, please," he begs, the words barely comprehensible with the way his breath is shuddering. Somehow his hand is fisted in Shen Wei's hair, and he doesn't know what he's trying to do as he tugs at it. Sharp teeth scrape lightly against his half-hard cock. It's too much, too overwhelming and a desperate sob tears through him. "I can't—" he gasps out. And then, "Don't stop."

He's going to die with Shen Wei crawling inside him and Shen Wei's mouth on his cock, and it's going to feel so good. He whines loudly as Shen Wei sucks at his cock, sharp nails teasing at his taint. "Xiao Wei," he whines again.

Shen Wei doesn't stop. He can feel him inside and out as he keeps touching Zhao Yunlan, keeps driving him towards the edge of that cliff, until eventually, inevitably Zhao Yunlan tumbles over it, sobbing as his orgasm rips through him, his body convulsing. His vision blacks out, his hands clenching into fists, his own nails biting into his palms.

Eventually, Zhao Yunlan blinks. He can't see anything, and he'd be worried, but that might just be Shen Wei's doing. He tries to loosen his fists, and it feels almost impossible, his muscles still spasming in the aftermath of the orgasm. One of his hands is still clenched in Shen Wei's hair, Shen Wei's weight heavy against his legs.

He tries to say something, but his jaw is clenched shut and he can't quite seem to convince it to move like it should. Words are overrated anyway.

"Yunlan?" Shen Wei asks, the words hissed from everywhere around him. Zhao Yunlan can't say anything. Slowly, the world around him seems to grow lighter, and he blinks again. His skin is tingling all over.

Shen Wei's fingers very gently pry Zhao Yunlan's fingers away from his hair. And then keeps massaging Zhao Yunlan's hand and wrist until his muscles seem to loosen, warmth spreading through him at Shen Wei's touch. He can feel his body relaxing, sinking deeper into the mattress. Shen Wei moves onto his other arm, massaging it gently.

I'm fine, Zhao Yunlan thinks, but somehow he still can't actually make the words come out of his mouth. That was fucking incredible, he thinks like maybe Shen Wei might hear him anyway.

He manages to open his mouth, and all that happens is that a small spider crawls out. He can feel it against his lips. His skin tingles where it walks, down from his lips and over his jaw.

Shen Wei looks at him with huge, worried eyes. Zhao Yunlan moves his jaw a little, and then rasps out, "Fuck. When can we do that again?"

Shen Wei ducks his head, but he can't hide how pleased he suddenly looks. Then he looks up, frowns a little and sets Zhao Yunlan's arm down. Zhao Yunlan makes a small sound of disappointment because that had felt really nice. Shen Wei's fingers settle against the side of his jaw, massaging him carefully.

Zhao Yunlan huffs out a little laugh and tries to lift his hand so he can actually touch Shen Wei, but it refuses to move. He really wants to cuddle right now. He swallows, his mouth feeling too dry as he tries to speak.

"Water," he says in the end, sighing a little. Drinking something will probably help.

Shen Wei blinks and doesn't move anywhere, even though Zhao Yunlan can definitely hear something moving in the kitchen. Then, by some magic, Shen Wei is holding onto a glass of what is definitely not water, but some kind of juice, helping Zhao Yunlan sit up and drink it.

It makes him feel better almost instantly, and he sighs a little leaning against Shen Wei's shoulder. Then he moves his head a little, kissing Shen Wei's shoulder. "Thanks," he says eventually.

Shen Wei takes the glass from him, and to be honest, Zhao Yunlan isn't entirely sure where it ends up after that. Not that he actually cares.

"Do you want more?" Shen Wei asks, his voice sounding a little subdued.

Zhao Yunlan still feels more than a little weak, but he leans back anyway, far enough to look at Shen Wei.

"You know I'm okay, right Shen Wei? I loved all of that," he says softly, reaching out to push a strand of hair away from Shen Wei's face. His throat feels better, but he still doesn't exactly feel like talking particularly loudly. He smiles a little. "And I'm pretty sure you liked doing that to me," he adds. He'd definitely seen a pleased, perhaps even slightly smug look on Shen Wei's face earlier.

Shen Wei captures his hand, lacing their fingers together. Honestly, Zhao Yunlan is relieved. Keeping his hand up on his own was starting to be a bit much.

"How are you, Xiao Wei. How much of you is still…" He hesitates for a moment, not entirely sure how to put it and then ends up on, "...inside me?" Fuck, even just saying it makes his belly swoop, lust still trying to weave through him, even though he's entirely too tired for anything. Damn it, even his skin still feels kind of tingly and oversensitive.

"Some," Shen Wei says, and can't hide the pleased look on his face at that. Then he ducks his head a little as he adds, "Not as much as before. It is harder to keep control of myself when…" he trails off, his words breaking off into a familiar hiss.

"Oh," Zhao Yunlan says, thinking about— His belly twists again and the lust really tries very hard no matter how much his body just isn't up to reacting like it wants to. "Oh," he says again, in realisation. That's why Shen Wei had been like that.

He leans his head against Shen Wei's shoulder. "Something more to drink would be good," he says, partly because he feels like Shen Wei really wants to do something for him and partly because it probably really isn't a bad idea.

Shen Wei still doesn't actually go anywhere, and really how much of Shen Wei is there to spread around? He drinks the second glass of juice too.

After a while, Zhao Yunlan manages to tiredly brush his fingers through Shen Wei's hair. He likes the way it feels against his fingers. He wonders if Shen Wei ever needs to brush his hair and if he'd mind Zhao Yunlan doing that for him.

"I don't really mind if you're a little bit out of control, Shen Wei," he says eventually. At the moment it seems better not to say that it's hot as hell, and Shen Wei should definitely feel free to throw Zhao Yunlan onto the bed and do anything he wants with him, anytime. He'll definitely tell Shen Wei that, just not right now when Shen Wei still looks worried.

"Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei rumbles in a warning tone, and the sound really does seem to come from everywhere, vibrating against his skin. Zhao Yunlan shivers and muffles a small moan against Shen Wei's shoulder.

Shen Wei can definitely throw him down on anything and have his way with him, any time he wants.

Chapter Text

Zhao Yunlan wakes up to the ringing of his phone. He tries to grope around for it and then realises it's all the way over by the couch where he'd fallen asleep, and he's currently on his bed. He opens one eye and squints around. The lights are still on in the apartment, which makes him quickly squeeze his eye back shut.

His head feels all fuzzy, his thoughts sluggish. If it was night time Shen Wei would have turned the lights off. If they're still on it probably means it isn't night. He thinks Shen Wei has just decided that's what humans do and since Zhao Yunlan is human, that's what he should do too. Or something. He's probably been observing the neighbours again to arrive at that conclusion.

Zhao Yunlan probably should say something about spying on the neighbours being impolite, but honestly, it's pretty harmless all things considered. Besides, they're probably a better example of how normal people are supposed to act than Zhao Yunlan is anyway. Who is he to put a stop on Shen Wei's attempts to learn more about humanity?

"What time is it?" he mumbles out loud, his mouth feeling about as sluggish as the rest of his head.

There's a small moment of silence, filled with a soft hissing noise and if it wasn't for the rather insistent ringing of Zhao Yunlan's phone, he'd probably just keep his eyes closed and fall back asleep. It had been a really long, stressful day. They'd had to deal with a case that involved a missing child and they'd all run themselves ragged, trying to find the kid in time. Thankfully, they had. But Zhao Yunlan deserves his nap. So whoever it is should just give up and try calling him later.

"Thirteen minutes past eight," Shen Wei says.

Zhao Yunlan frowns and then realises that trying to figure out what part of day Shen Wei means is just going to give him a headache. He thinks he can already feel it forming somewhere at the back of his head.

The phone just keeps on ringing and that's not helping. If it was closer he could make it stop.

He licks his lips. "Morning or evening?" he asks, managing to get his mouth working a little bit better this time.

"Evening," Shen Wei says promptly.

"Oh," Zhao Yunlan says and then listens to the ringing of his phone. He sighs and starts to push himself up, opening his eyes again. It doesn't feel quite so bright this time. "I should probably answer that," he says, not feeling like it at all.

By the time he's managed to actually lever himself up to a sitting position, Shen Wei has already brought the phone closer. Somehow, it still hasn't stopped ringing. Whoever it is, better have a good reason to be calling.

He gives the spiders a small smile, and reaches for the phone, mumbling a soft, "Thanks."

He answers the call without even bothering to look at the number, he just blinks blearlily and pushes the vaguely green shape on the screen before bringing it up to his ear and trying to sound a little bit clearer as he says, "Hello?"

"Zhao Yunlan? It's Uncle Gao," a voice says immediately, sounding kind of tense.

For a brief moment, Zhao Yunlan's brain just seems to go blank, before connecting the dots all at once. Zhao Yunlan hasn't called him that since he was a kid, and it's entirely out of place here and now. Zhao Yunlan tenses, because that means something has to be wrong. He shakes his head, hoping he can shake himself a bit more awake. The spiders hiss in agitation, moving restlessly around him, clearly picking up on the fact that something's going on.

"Minister Gao, how can I help you?" Zhao Yunlan asks, his voice still a little rough. He swallows, trying to get a bit more moisture in his mouth.

There's a small pause and then Minister Gao says, "Your father is missing, Yunlan." The sympathy in his voice doesn't sound real.

And suddenly Zhao Yunlan's whole brain really does go blank. Because what does that even mean?

"I thought it would be better if you— Well, I thought I should be the one to tell you," Minister Gao is saying and Zhao Yunlan barely hears him.

"What do you mean, he's missing?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

He listens to Minster Gao clear his throat and wants to tell him to get on with it already. His hand fists into the blanket bunched up on the bed next to him. Spiders crawl up against his hand, offering him comfort. Zhao Yunlan takes a slow breath.

"His car collided with another car. Once the rescue personnel got there, only the driver was there, Zhao Xinci was gone. It seems like the crash might have been purposeful, the other car had been abandoned entirely," Minister Gao explains, his voice tense and awkward.

"Do they have any idea who might have done it? Has he been getting threats? Anything?" Zhao Yunlan says. It wouldn't be the first time Zhao Xinci has been targeted. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Zhao Yunlan realises that Minister Gao probably shouldn't be revealing any details of an ongoing investigation, but he doesn't really care.

Apparently, neither does Minister Gao, because he answers readily enough. "No. They're looking into Zhao Xinci's correspondence of course, but his position is hardly well known to the public," Minister Gao says. And if the public doesn't know about Zhao Xinci, they shouldn't have much reason to target him specifically, not because of his job at least.

"Well, that narrows it down, doesn't it?" Zhao Yunlan says. It's not really a question. There are definitely people out there who hate Zhao Xinci. Zhao Yunlan could name more than a few just off the top of his head.

"It does," Minister Gao agrees grimly. "Zhao Yunlan… We're giving the case to the SID. But I need to know you can handle it."

Oh, Zhao Yunlan thinks. And then a moment later he thinks; well, that's not going through the right chain of command at all. Then, he shakes his head. That doesn't matter. Get your head together, Zhao Yunlan, he admonishes himself silently, his fingers twisting into his blanket. The spiders have crawled up along his arm, covering it in black, crawling spiders. They're spreading over his chest now. He can feel their tiny little legs. He concentrates on that for a moment.

"Yeah, we can handle it," he says. "Is there a reason why the investigation is being transferred to us, or is it just because it's Zhao Xinci?"

"There were a few witnesses. I was told their reports were… conflicting," Minister Gao says, in a way that means more than what he's saying. "You'll have the full report once you get to the SID offices," Minister Gao promises.

"Okay," Zhao Yunlan says and then almost hangs up on the Minister before hesitating. "Thanks for telling me, Minister Gao," he says awkwardly. There's an even more awkward reply, and then very quickly Zhao Yunlan says his goodbyes and hangs up.

"Did you hear that?" he asks Shen Wei. Eavesdropping is possibly not the nicest of habits, but right now Zhao Yunlan doesn't feel like explaining any more than he needs to.

"Yes," the spiders all seem to hiss. Then, a whole bunch of them turn away from Zhao Yunlan, hurrying towards his closets. Zhao Yunlan frowns a little and then realises that yes, he needs clothes if he's going anywhere.

"I'll take a piss first," he announces and stands up.

Once he gets to the SID's headquarters Wang Zheng is waiting for him.

"I called everyone in already, Boss," she tells him. Zhao Yunlan nods at her and she hands him the report he'd been promised. "Da Qing went to the scene to see if there's anything to find there."

Right, so Da Qing had probably still been here when the call had come in. So yeah, it makes sense he'd gone to the scene. Good on them for not wasting any time. "Thanks," he tells her, giving her a short smile. Briefly, he wonders where Sang Zan is, but then dismisses the thought. He might just be trying to stay out of the way if he can't be of any help.

Spiders stream away from him, quickly forming into Shen Wei's human shape. Zhao Yunlan waves the report at him a little and walks over to the couch to read it. Shen Wei follows him without a word, sitting down next to him, close enough for their knees to press together.

There isn't much to read. The whole report seems very hastily put together, but it has all the main points to get Zhao Yunlan up to date. He wishes the cars were still there, but apparently, this had happened in the early afternoon and by now, everything's been cleared away. Why exactly the SID hadn't been called in until now, Zhao Yunlan doesn't know.

Then he thinks of the missing kid they'd been trying to find all day and for a moment he feels thankful that he hadn't known about this until now. He would have had to put Zhao Xinci to the side while they dealt with that case because he will prioritise a missing child over Zhao Xinci and as much as he and Zhao Xinci disagree on most things, that's one point Zhao Yunlan is sure Zhao Xinci would even agree with him on. His fingers clench around the papers, wrinkling them. It would still have been a distraction. No matter what the issues between them, Zhao Xinci is still his dad.

He takes a slow, slightly shaky breath, unclenching his fingers. He turns to look at Shen Wei, who's leaning over far enough to read the report himself. Zhao Yunlan holds it out to him questioningly, and Shen Wei shakes his head a little, telling him wordlessly that he's already done reading.

Zhao Yunlan takes another breath and doesn't lean in against Shen Wei. He needs to keep it together for now, and he feels like if he leans on Shen Wei like that, he won't want to get up again. Besides, the others will be here soon.

"What do you think?" he asks Shen Wei, and then doesn't give him any actual time to answer, and instead turns around a little to look at Wang Zheng. "What else do we have?"

"Not much, Boss. I just got the addresses for the witnesses now. I'll call Da Qing and… Lao Chu?" she says, a little hint of a question in that last bit.

Zhao Yulan thinks about saying he'll go talk to some of the witnesses himself, but if Wang Zheng is suggesting those two, it probably means they're closer anyway. And time is of the essence.

He nods, and says, "Yeah, you do that."

He turns to look at Shen Wei again.

"That doesn't tell me much," Shen Wei says, nodding at the report in Zhao Yunlan's hands. "I'll need to talk to Da Qing," he adds.

Zhao Yunlan looks towards Wang Zheng, already on the phone. "Da Qing?" he asks, loud enough to get her attention. She nods in answer.

"Shen-laoshi needs to talk to him," Zhao Yunlan says, gesturing between them. She nods her understanding just a moment before she gives Da Qing the address he should be going to and then tells him to wait for Shen Wei to get on the phone.

Zhao Yunlan stares at the picture on the board for a moment and then turns around to look at everyone else. They're still missing Lao Chu and Da Qing, but the rest of them are there.

"So, if you didn't already know, we're dealing with another kidnapping," he says.

No one offers even a word of protest for being called in again, after already working a full day. Xiao Guo is staring at the board behind Zhao Yunlan, looking like he might start to cry. Zhu Hong's mouth is pressed flat, her eyes on Zhao Yunlan. Lin Jing is looking awkward and Wang Zheng and Sang Zan are—

It doesn't matter. Zhao Yunlan clears his throat. They all know who Zhao Xinci is by now.

"This is what we know so far," he says and then offers a brief summary that's not that far off from what Minister Gao had told him on the phone. Then he quickly turns to Shen Wei. "Did Da Qing find anything useful at the scene?" he asks. He hadn't been listening to Shen Wei's discussion with Da Qing, but he assumes that's what it would have been about.

"There were traces of Hallows energy there," Shen Wei says like it's just an observation of fact and not like that piece of news is something that will send everyone into a spiral of speculation.

Zhao Yunlan's gut clenches, and for a moment he doesn't even hear what everyone else is saying. If the Hallows are somehow involved then there's no doubt it's their kind of case, but why would they take Zhao Xinci? Is Zhao Xinci involved with the missing Hallows somehow? Or is it simply a coincidence? It can't be, Zhao Yunlan's belief in coincidences doesn't stretch quite that far. But it could be that someone with a grudge against Zhao Xinci just happens to also have come in contact with one of the Hallows, that's far easier to believe.

Zhao Yunlan shakes his head lightly, pulling his focus back and looking at Shen Wei. "Are you sure? How would Da Qing even know?" he asks, and that makes everyone quiet down, waiting for the answer from Shen Wei.

Shen Wei's black eyes look back at him. He blinks slowly. "Da Qing is very susceptible to Hallows energy. He didn't realise that was what he was feeling before I asked him, but I don't doubt his observations," Shen Wei says.

What does that mean? Zhao Yunlan thinks with some alarm. Susceptible to Hallows energy? That doesn't sound good. Shen Wei never wants to let Zhao Yunlan get too close to the things, but maybe Zhao Yunlan should be telling Da Qing to stay away from them too. Actually, now that he's thinking about it, Da Qing has never really willingly gotten close to them. He hadn't considered that might be on purpose, or maybe not on purpose if he hadn't known what he was feeling. He really needs to talk to Da Qing about that.

"Should I be worried?" Zhao Yunlan asks. "About Da Qing," he specifies because there are a lot of things to be worried about right now.

Shen Wei gives that some thought, which Zhao Yunlan doesn't find particularly reassuring.

"Do you feel it's likely he will run into one of the missing Hallows while questioning the witness?" Shen Wei asks at last. Oh, definitely not reassuring in the least. Zhao Yunlan's gut clenches, and he tries to tell himself Da Qing can handle himself.

I wish you'd told me earlier, Shen Wei, he thinks but refrains from saying it out loud. He could have sent someone to at least accompany Da Qing. Lin Jing maybe. Or he could have gone himself. But there's no point in worrying everyone else by saying any of it.

"It seems unlikely," Zhao Yunlan says.

"Then he shouldn't be in any danger from the Hallows," Shen Wei says calmly. For a brief moment, Zhao Yunlan feels annoyance rise in his chest and then it very quickly fizzles out. He's not going to start blaming Shen Wei for any of this. He's doing his best to help Zhao Yunlan. "But if you find the Hallow, you will most likely find Zhao Xinci as well," Shen Wei says.

Zhao Yunlan is the opposite of reassured. He remembers the last Hallow they'd gone after. Shen Wei had actually been injured. He doesn't want a repeat of that, but telling Shen Wei he should sit this one out is definitely not an option either.

"Do we know which Hallow it is? Or how to find it?" Zhu Hong asks a bit curtly. Zhao Yunlan sends a brief, grateful look her way. Those are questions he should have been asking, instead of being distracted by his own churning thoughts.

"Not based on the information Da Qing could tell me," Shen Wei says.

That makes Zhao Yunlan pause for a moment. Then his brain finally seems to agree to start thinking about something other than how worried he is about everything.

"Could you tell more if you took a look at the scene yourself?" he asks Shen Wei.

Shen Wei looks unsure for a moment and then admits, "I don't know."

Zhao Yunlan takes a breath, straightening his spine. "Okay, it's worth a shot. We'll go take a look, and in the meantime, you figure out what we know about the missing Hallows," he says. He turns to look at Lin Jing. "Lin Jing, go dig out an actual forensic report of the crash," he says. Hopefully, it's actually finished. It's Zhao Xinci after all, and there's a good chance they'd have sped up things quite a bit when he's the one missing.

"Okay, Chief," Lin Jing agrees without any further commentary.

Zhao Yunlan nods once at them and then strides out of the SID. They all know what to do. Shen Wei falls into spiders, who quickly catch up with Zhao Yunlan, crawling up over him and vanishing out of sight. Zhao Yunlan exhales, a shuddering breath, something in his spine seeming to relax. He quickly picks up his momentarily faltering pace.

The visit to the scene yields less information than Zhao Yunlan would have hoped. But yes, they do find out something. Shen Wei is pretty sure it's the Merit Brush they're dealing with, which is only because he's very sure it's not the Guardian Lantern. Zhao Yunlan tries to ask for an explanation, but all Shen Wei really manages to explain is that somehow the Guardian Lantern would be far more distinct. Brighter, is the word Shen Wei uses at one point and all Zhao Yunlan can think is 'Yeah, well, if it's a Lantern that makes sense.' He's aware that the name doesn't necessarily mean that it's used as an actual lantern, but Zhao Yunlan can't help the thought.

But there's no convenient trail for Shen Wei to follow. Of course, they wouldn't be that lucky, and if there had been a trail to follow, Da Qing would probably have been able to do that too. Maybe. So, Zhao Yunlan wasn't expecting it. Somehow, he's disappointed anyway, frustration making him feel snappish.

All there is, according to Shen Wei, is the increasingly faint feel of the Hallow's energy lingering in place. Zhao Yunlan refrains from saying much of anything, worried that he'll try to take his frustration out on Shen Wei by accident.

They return to the car, and somehow the rumble of the engine, the familiar motions of actually driving, seem to calm Zhao Yunlan down a little. Or maybe it's the spiders crawling all over the place. It could definitely be the spiders.

"I don't think the Merit Brush was ever there," Shen Wei says as they're driving back.

"What do you mean?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

The spiders hiss uncomfortably, skittering along his skin and on some of the surfaces around him.

"My experience with the Hallows is limited," Shen Wei says.

Zhao Yunlan doesn't take his eyes off the road, even though he feels like giving Shen Wei a look. Not that there's anything but spiders to look at right now, and it's always hard to decide which one of the thousands and thousands of little spiders he should actually be looking at to make it in any way effective.

"Do you mean you're not sure of the answer?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

There's a slightly louder hiss from the spiders, which Zhao Yunlan takes as agreement. Well, Zhao Yunlan is still inclined to take Shen Wei's word for it, even if Shen Wei can't articulate why he thinks the Merit Brush hadn't been at the crash site.

"So, what would leave Hallows energy around, without having one of them there?" he asks.

Shen Wei doesn't have an immediate answer for that, unfortunately.

"Well, maybe we need to figure out more about the Merit Brush," Zhao Yunlan says.

Lao Chu's interview with his witness is a little more fruitful than the first interview earlier in the day had been. Probably because Lao Chu is unlikely to dismiss the witness's words no matter what weird thing they say. The description makes it pretty clear that there had been something non-human involved. Apparently, the driver of the other car, according to the witness, had dragged himself out of the mangled car, his body twisting in ways a human body shouldn't, more like it was made of shadow than actual flesh and bone. It had been nauseating to look at apparently, and the witness in question had been too busy throwing up to actually see the kidnapping. Unfortunately, that means that what they didn't get was any useful description of what the driver looked like otherwise.

The forensic report Lin Jing had managed to get his hands on with surprisingly little trouble (apparently people really are rushing things when it's Zhao Xinci missing) hasn't given them anything actionable as of yet, though it does more or less confirm the witness's words, because with how mangled the driver's side of the other car had been, whoever had been driving shouldn't have survived that. Other than that, what they know is that the car had been reported stolen, and the fingerprints that have been found in it so far have all matched the actual owners.

As for Da Qing… Well, Da Qing isn't back yet.

Zhao Yunlan frowns, looking around at each of them. Da Qing should be here by now, shouldn't he?

He looks towards Wang Zheng, opening his mouth to ask her if she's heard from him, but she anticipates the question before he can even say anything and shakes her head slightly, her expression concerned. "The Deputy hasn't called in. And he didn't answer his phone," she says. Zhao Yunlan doesn't feel any better at the confirmation that someone else is also thinking Da Qing has been gone for far too long.

That suddenly makes everyone else aware of the fact that Da Qing's absence might be an issue. They all look around, like they might have just missed Da Qing's presence among them and if they look hard enough they might spot him. It's not entirely unthinkable, Da Qing is a cat. But of course, he isn't there, and Zhao Yunlan sees expressions of various levels of concern twist people's faces.

"M-maybe… maybe the interview is taking long?" Xiao Guo stammers out like he's trying to reassure himself, but sort of just ends up making it worse. He looks nervously to Lao Chu as if looking for some kind of reassurance from him.

Lao Chu looks back at him, and for a moment something flickers over his face. He grunts softly, which seems to be as close to agreement as he can manage. It's possible that Xiao Guo is right of course, but they're all aware that it shouldn't take Da Qing this long. And if he'd ended up taking some kind of detour for some reason, well, he'd at least be answering his phone.

"Okay, there's nothing we can—" Zhao Yunlan starts to say, but is abruptly cut off by the sound of the door. Everyone's eyes are drawn to it.

They all stare at Da Qing, who doesn't even seem to notice the attention he's getting.

Da Qing looks in their direction, seems to nod a little and then heads towards Lin Jing's lab without giving them any more attention. Zhao Yunlan glances at Shen Wei and then hurries after him.

"That was weird, right?" he hears Lin Jing ask somewhere behind him.

Zhao Yunlan catches up with Da Qing before he actually gets inside the lab.

"Hey, you stupid cat, what did you find out?" Zhao Yunlan asks, and somehow his voice has acquired this terrible fake casual cadence that makes even him want to wince. The question doesn't make Da Qing pause, but Zhao Yunlan grabbing his arm does.

Da Qing stops and turns to look at him and something about his expression just seems off.

"Nothing, everything was normal," Da Qing says and then turns away, pulling himself free. Zhao Yunlan wasn't exactly holding on that tightly. But he quickly grabs Da Qing's arm again, and this time he doesn't let go quite so easily.

Da Qing turns his head to look at him, annoyance on his face. "Let go," he says.

"Why?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

Da Qing frowns. "I need to find the Hallows," he says after a small pause and then tries to pull himself away. Zhao Yunlan's grip slips a little, and he quickly tightens it, but he doesn't actually want to hurt Da Qing.

"I can help," Shen Wei's voice says, because of course Shen Wei has followed him. Zhao Yunlan glances at him, and Da Qing tries to pull away from his grasp again.

Zhao Yunlan just nods at Shen Wei, his grip on Da Qing tightening. There's something wrong with Da Qing. He wouldn't be going near the Hallows if he can help it, not usually. Right?

Shen Wei doesn't answer. Instead, he steps closer to Da Qing, lifting a hand and darkness seems to flow out of it, enveloping Da Qing, and then growing. Zhao Yunlan gasps softly as the darkness reaches his hand and then seems to almost suck him inside as well.

Zhao Yunlan blinks and his hand flexes around nothing. Da Qing is gone.

"Shen Wei? Fatty?" Zhao Yunlan demands.

"It's fine, I have him." Shen Wei's voice seems to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. Zhao Yunlan closes his eyes and nods. He trusts Shen Wei.

"Is it the Hallows?" Zhao Yunlan asks. Has Da Qing been exposed to them? Have they done something to him? He has no idea how that would work, but Shen Wei had said—

"I don't believe so, this is something more—" There's a sudden pause. Zhao Yunlan's heart jumps. Sudden pauses aren't good.

"Shen Wei? What's wrong?" he asks.

"Nothing. It's fine, Zhao Yunlan. I can deal with this," Shen Wei promises, the hiss of his voice soothing.

Zhao Yunlan breathes a little easier, even though he still wants to insist that that was definitely not nothing. Shen Wei doesn't react like that to nothing. He doesn't have the time to say anything more, however, because the dark is already falling away. And there they are again, standing just as they had been before, Zhao Yunlan's hand still curled around Da Qing's arm.

Da Qing blinks, his face twisting in confusion. "How… Why am I here?" he asks.

"You don't remember?" Zhao Yunlan asks, feeling the weirdest mix of relief and worry all at the same time. Da Qing looks and sounds like himself again, even if apparently very confused.

Da Qing's frown intensifies as he tries to think, and then a moment later he shakes his head.

Zhao Yunlan uncurls his fingers from his arm and then pats Da Qing's arm several times. Then he steps forward, wrapping his arms around Da Qing. Da Qing makes an undignified noise, trying to push him away before just surrendering to the inevitable and lets Zhao Yunlan hug him.

"Okay, Lao Zhao. What's going on?" he asks after a few moments and then tries to push Zhao Yunlan away again. This time, Zhao Yunlan takes a step back, letting go of him.

"Someone was controlling your mind," Shen Wei says, calm and unconcerned. Sometimes, Zhao Yunlan wishes Shen Wei sounded more like he cared about anyone but Zhao Yunlan. And then he reminds himself it doesn't matter how Shen Wei sounds. It matters what he does. He reminds himself he doesn't like it when Shen Wei actually sounds concerned because that would mean something is very, very wrong.

He turns to give Shen Wei a look, raising his eyebrows in question.

"The girl we found earlier," Shen Wei says.

And now that makes Zhao Yunlan startle. He stares at Shen Wei. "What about her?"

"She is the one who was controlling Da Qing," Shen Wei says. "Or it was her influence in any case."

Zhao Yunlan frowns harder. He looks at Da Qing who still looks mainly confused. Then Da Qing frowns and hesitantly says, "I think I remember seeing her. She… she shouldn't have been there." He lifts his hand, pressing the heel of his palm against the side of his head.

"The innocent, harmless girl that got kidnapped. The one we rescued and gave back to her big brother? She was controlling Da Qing's mind?" Zhao Yunlan demands, his voice rising a little with each word.

"Yes," Shen Wei says, either ignoring or not registering the tone of Zhao Yunlan's voice. Or maybe he just doesn't know how to respond to it. Come to think of it, that's probably more likely, Zhao Yunlan thinks. He takes a breath, trying to calm himself a little.

"I think he was there too," Da Qing says a bit distantly, his forehead scrunched as he tries very hard to remember.

Zhao Yunlan shoves his shoulder, out of instinct more than anything, jostling him out of it. It's never good to let Da Qing spend too much time trying to remember, it makes him… Well, at best it gives Da Qing headaches.

"I didn't know she could do that. Why didn't you tell me she could do that?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

Now it's Shen Wei's turn to frown. "It didn't seem relevant. We'd already found her and she was back with her brother," Shen Wei says.

Of course. He would have only found out about her not being human after they found her, Zhao Yunlan thinks. That makes perfect sense. But why wouldn't he— Well, why would he mention it? Why should it matter if she's entirely human or not, especially to Shen Wei? But Zhao Yunlan isn't supposed to let people like that go. Does Shen Wei know that?

Zhao Yunlan nods, telling himself it hardly matters now why Shen Wei hadn't said anything. He'd like to think he would have let her go anyway. She's just a kid. A kid with a shitty home life that had—

He stops his thoughts before he gets too far along that path.

"The kidnapping. What if it's the same people?" Zhao Yunlan asks. "We still don't know who killed her father and—"

"She did," Shen Wei interrupts him, and Zhao Yunlan's momentary enthusiasm stutters to a halt as he stares at Shen Wei.

"You should have told me that," Zhao Yunlan says accusingly. Hurt flickers on Shen Wei's face long enough that Zhao Yunlan can't miss it before his expression smooths out into something very neutral. Zhao Yunlan bites back a sigh and shoves his own emotions to the side to be dealt with later. They don't have the time right now. "Well, she didn't kidnap herself," he says.

They'd caught one of the people with her. They'd been lucky enough that the car had been caught on camera and then sighted later. If it wasn't for that they would still be looking for her. Could the rest of them still be in the same area? They hadn't gotten anything from the kidnapper and he'd been given over to the normal authorities because he'd seemed normal enough. The SID had been called in because of the way the kid's dad had been killed, not because of the kidnapping as such.

Zhao Yunlan turns around, staring at the rest of the bunch standing there behind him and gawking like they're some kind of TV drama. Well, Lao Chu is looking more like he wants to be anywhere else, but he's followed them too, though possibly only because Xiao Guo is clinging to his jacket.

"Someone get me the kidnapper we arrested," he orders and for once he doesn't get any sort of backtalk. They just retreat very quickly to go do their actual jobs.

He looks to Shen Wei and for a moment he actually thinks about asking Shen Wei to— No, Zhao Yunlan shuts off that thought very quickly. He's not killing anyone for the information. No matter how much he wants to know. There are some boundaries you just don't cross and that is definitely one of them.

He turns his gaze to Da Qing instead. "I need you to think. Did you actually see the witness you were going to interview? Do you have any idea when or where you saw the girl?" Zhao Yunlan asks.

Da Qing frowns. "I… I can't remember the witness," Da Qing says, dragging out the words. His frown deepens. "It's all fuzzy," he says, more annoyed than apologetic. "I think… maybe they were there, waiting for me."

Well, that's worth following up on, Zhao Yunlan thinks. It's not like they have much else right now.

Before they leave, Zhao Yunlan calls Minister Gao (well his secretary) and tells him they need the prisoner from the kidnapping case back immediately because he's crucial to finding Zhao Xinci and there's no time to get caught up in bureaucracy, and he doesn't care what time of day it is, they'll just have to drag him out of wherever they put him even if it is night. Since Zhao Xinci is friends with the Minister, Zhao Yunlan can at least take advantage of it for once.

"Give it a bit of time and try again," Zhao Yunlan tells Wang Zheng, who's the one dealing with most of the official phone calls to other departments. The others would probably just make a mess of it.

He tells Lao Chu and Xiao Guo to take charge of interrogating the prisoner once they get him there. They're surprisingly effective at it together, and they might as well give it a try. And maybe Zhao Yunlan is removing himself, and thus Shen Wei, from the situation so there's no temptation to ask Shen Wei to—expedite matters. Besides, someone needs to go back with Da Qing to see if they can find a clue as to what happened to him, and to see if that might actually lead them anywhere.

Fuck, Zhao Yunlan is feeling like they're all running around in circles accomplishing nothing. "No more than with any other investigation," he mutters under his breath.

"What was that?" Da Qing asks, looking at him. Zhao Yunlan just shakes his head and continues driving.

Chapter Text

Zhao Yunlan puts his ID card away and looks at the now rather bewildered-looking man standing in the doorway, his hand still on the open door, like he might decide to pull it back closed any moment.

"That's… There's no one by that name living here," the man says with a frown, sounding a little hesitant, like he might have suddenly forgotten who actually lives in the same household as him. Zhao Yunlan doesn't put too much weight on that reaction however, he knows that sometimes that's just the effect that the police showing up and asking questions has on people.

Zhao Yunlan had just identified himself as the Chief of the SID and while they might be more independent than most branches of the police, his ID still says they're part of the police force. And the man had taken a very good look at it.

Zhao Yunlan glances back towards Da Qing, giving him a questioning look. Da Qing looks around and then shrugs slightly.

"I think this is where I was heading. I don't…" Da Qing trails off, an uncomfortable look on his face. Clearly, he's not entirely sure of what he actually remembers.

Zhao Yunlan feels his own expression tighten, despite himself. He shakes the expression off his face and turns back to the man still waiting in the doorway.

"I'm sorry sir, but a witness to an accident that happened today gave us this address," Zhao Yunlan tells him with a bland smile, at least attempting to set the man at ease. He then goes on to tell him where and when said accident had taken place.

"I didn't see any accident. I wasn't anywhere near there today," the man says, his tone starting to turn a little exasperated. Well, no one likes strangers at their door late in the night, even if they are the police. Or maybe especially if they're the police.

Zhao Yunlan keeps smiling at him, even though it feels like he has to force it a little bit more than usual.

"Is there anyone else living here that might have been present at the scene at that time?" Zhao Yunlan goes on to ask, as patiently as he can manage.

The man frowns and Zhao Yunlan can see the irritation growing by the moment. Still, he seems to hold himself back and answers politely enough. "There's just my wife. She's at work at that time," he says.

Zhao Yunlan thinks about asking to talk to her or asking a few follow-up questions. But the report had said the witness was a man, and Zhao Yunlan doesn't think they would have been mistaken about that part. In fact, he's increasingly convinced someone had been given the wrong address on purpose.

"And there's no one else at all?" Zhao Yunlan asks again, just to be sure, despite his growing conviction that this had just been a convenient fake address to give.

"Our daughter is only six," the man snaps out, and then going by the way his eyes widen slightly seems to regret his tone. Ah yes, Zhao Yunlan doesn't look like a police officer, but he'd identified himself as one. He's well aware how that can throw people off, and sometimes makes them forget how they're supposed to act, even when they know who he is.

"How about between now and three hours ago? Was anyone here at home then?" he asks, changing tracks. If they'd given this address, there's a good chance someone had been here waiting. After all, they must have gotten to Da Qing somehow.

"Yes. We've all been home that time," he says and then frowns a little. "Except my wife left for the store, but that must have been earlier, " he clarifies after a heartbeat.

"Did either of you notice anything strange or out of place happening out here tonight?" Zhao Yunlan asks him, biting back his irritation. He usually has far more patience for talking with people, but tonight his nerves are just a little frayed to start with. He rubs the back of his hand and then feels the small spider crawl over his fingers. His fingers go still and he lets go of his hand and keeps smiling blandly and politely to the man in front of him.

"What sort of thing?" the man asks, his irritation rather palpable now. Yeah, he really wants Zhao Yunlan to be gone already.

"Anything. Things or people that shouldn't be here, anything that stuck out to you," Zhao Yunlan prompts.

The man frowns. "No, I don't think so. Should we be worried about something?" he asks, his irritation faltering in the face of sudden worry for his family's well-being.

"No, I'm sure it's a misunderstanding. Someone must have misheard the address. I just have to ask anyway, to make sure," Zhao Yunlan reassures him. "Would you mind getting your wife? I'd like to ask her a few questions and then I can stop taking up your time. It's getting so late I don't want to disturb your evening any longer than I need to."

The protest the man had clearly been about to give, dies about halfway through Zhao Yunlan's words. Zhao Yunlan smiles expectantly.

"Yes. Of course. You'll have to wait a moment. She's already gone to bed," the man says.

Zhao Yunlan nods a little in understanding. "Maybe it's better we step inside, and don't give the neighbours any cause to worry, if we keep standing out here. We'll be quiet, and not wake up your daughter," Zhao Yunlan tells him.

There's a moment of hesitation and then the man steps aside, inviting them inside, even if reluctantly. He excuses himself, leaving Zhao Yunlan and Da Qing waiting by the door. Zhao Yunlan gives Da Qing a quiet look, letting him know he wants him to look around as much as he can, and see if anything looks familiar. Da Qing nods wordlessly.

Zhao Yunlan taps the back of his hand softly, and then under his breath he softly mumbles, "Can you look around, Xiao Wei? Don't do anything, just take a look."

There's no answer, except perhaps the faintest of hisses, and the feeling of a few spiders crawling down his legs. He looks down and thinks he sees a few small spots of black move away from him, swiftly vanishing into the shadows.

The husband comes back before his wife. Possibly because he doesn't want to leave them alone in his house for too long. It does cut Da Qing's chances of looking around short. He shakes his head surreptitiously, indicating that there's nothing that catches his attention in here. Well, at this point Zhao Yunlan didn't really expect Da Qing to ever have made it this far, but it also doesn't hurt to make sure.

They wait in awkward silence that Zhao Yunlan doesn't much feel like breaking at this point. It takes a while before the wife shows up and as soon as she does Zhao Yunlan realises she must have taken the time to actually get dressed.

No one invites them further into the house, and they talk in low, almost hushed tones.

The wife is equally sure she hadn't seen anything strange.

"Nobody hanging around that isn't here usually?" Zhao Yunlan still asks.

"No…" she says, and hesitates, frowning lightly. Zhao Yunlan feels like prompting her, asking what she's remembered, but he makes himself wait, letting her think through whatever it is. "There was a man and a girl. I don't think I've seen them before. She was playing outside when I left for the store," she says like she really doesn't think she should even be mentioning it because surely that isn't what Zhao Yunlan is asking about. "But that was earlier in the day," she adds a bit apologetically.

Zhao Yunlan nods a little and doesn't let his sudden sharpened interest show on his face. "Were they still there when you came back?" he asks.

She hesitates a moment, starts to shake her head and then stops. "I… I really wasn't paying attention. I was carrying in the groceries," she says.

"Of course. I'm sure it's nothing, but you did the right thing by mentioning it anyway. You don't happen to remember the time?" Zhao Yunlan says, mustering up a smile for her. They have done their best to be helpful, despite Zhao Yunlan knocking at their door at this late hour.

She grimaces a little, looking unsure. "I usually arrive at home after five, so it must have been later than that. I didn't stay home for long before leaving again," she says.

Zhao Yunlan nods again. It's too bad people don't actually look at the clock as often as they seem to in detective dramas.

"I'm sorry about the confusion. I'll be sure to make a correction in our records and I'm sure you won't be bothered again," he assures them, which leaves them having to thank him for his effort.

Zhao Yunlan nods, smiles and takes his leave. Da Qing doesn't actually talk to either of them the whole time.

They don't say anything at all until they're out in the street.

"They were waiting for me, weren't they?" Da Qing asks.

"It sounds like it," Zhao Yunlan agrees grimly. "Did they come here straight after we let them go? What the fuck is going on? Why would they go back to whoever took the girl in the first place?"

It doesn't make any sense. None of it makes much sense. But if they were here waiting for Da Qing, or someone from the SID at least, to show up, then that has to mean they took Zhao Xinci because they knew it'd get the SID involved. Right?

Zhao Yunlan rubs at his temple and gives out a frustrated sigh. He wants to kick something.

"They were at headquarters, if they wanted the Hallows why didn't they try to— Why go through me?" Da Qing asks, which is a very fucking good question, isn't it.

"Yeah, that's what I'm wondering too," Zhao Yunlan says. Had the whole kidnapping been some kind of elaborate setup that none of them had caught onto? But no, he doesn't think so, but right now he's not so sure of his own judgment.

He heads towards the car, before someone really does start wondering why they're lurking around in the dark. He stops abruptly a few steps away from the car, turning to look at Da Qing. "You can't feel the Hallows here, can you?" he asks. Da Qing or Shen Wei would have mentioned it, surely, but—

Da Qing frowns and shakes his head. Zhao Yunlan moves over to the car, leaning against it before asking, "Xiao Wei?"

He doesn't need to wait for more than a heartbeat, before a small army of spiders is crawling over his arms, spilling out from who knows where. They march upward encircling his throat, and Zhao Yunlan can't really help himself, instinctively tilting his head back a little.

"You know that's disturbing to watch, don't you?" Da Qing asks like Zhao Yunlan did this on purpose just to weird Da Qing out.

Zhao Yunlan takes a long breath. He feels— If he asked Shen Wei, he'd probably tell him he needs food and sleep, probably in that order. But Zhao Yunlan doesn't feel hungry or sleepy. He feels on edge, far too on edge. Shen Wei… makes him feel calmer.

He tilts his head back down and gives Da Qing a look. "I thought you'd be used to it by now," he says dryly, which earns him a somewhat incredulous look from Da Qing before his eyes very deliberately flick down to the spiders crawling over Zhao Yunlan as if to say he can't imagine anyone getting used to that.

Well, he supposes Da Qing might have a point, Zhao Yunlan thinks and then sighs. "Did you find anything, Xiao Wei?" he asks.

"Nothing of significance," a voice hisses softly, from what feels like it's right next to Zhao Yunlan's ear. "I don't believe this family was involved," Shen Wei says, confirming Zhao Yunlan's conclusions.

"Yeah, neither do I," Zhao Yunlan agrees. Then his eyes narrow slightly and he asks, "So, they're completely human, right?" At least this time, Shen Wei can't say he didn't ask.

"Yes," Shen Wei hisses softly.

Right, a completely normal, human family who got involved through no fault of their own. Zhao Yunlan sighs. He tries to tell himself he's not disappointed but doesn't quite succeed in making it particularly convincing.

"I wish I could remember," Da Qing mutters and then eyes the spiders crawling on Zhao Yunlan in a way that makes Zhao Yunlan straighten his spine, pushing himself away from the car.

"Fatty…" he says warningly.

"Well, he helped Wang Zheng remember," Da Qing says, sounding almost petulant, but also a little bit defiant. Zhao Yunlan's heart rate seems to spike at the words. He'd sort of hoped he was wrong, but apparently he had followed Da Qing's thought process right.

"Wang Zheng is dead," Zhao Yunlan says and then cringes at the bluntness of his own words. The technicalities of that statement might be argued one way or the other. She's still around after all, and managing to get on with her life pretty okay. But her actual body… As far as any of them knows, that's long gone, rotted and turned to dust. That's definitely not the case with Da Qing. "That's not a risk you're taking," Zhao Yunlan says, grabbing Da Qing's arm hard enough that Da Qing hisses at him. He feels angry suddenly. At Da Qing, at himself, at Shen Wei, at fucking Zhao Xinci for getting kidnapped.

There are still spiders all over Zhao Yunlan's arm and as he grabs Da Qing, some of them spill over to him. Da Qing hisses again, trying to pull away.

"Do you really want Xiao Wei crawling his way inside you? Eating his way into your memories?" Zhao Yunlan asks cruelly.

Da Qing shudders and Zhao Yunlan can see the memories in his eyes, the knowledge of what they'd seen Shen Wei do to others when he'd wanted what was inside their heads. Suddenly, Zhao Yunlan feels sick. He swallows, tasting bile in his mouth. He lets go of Da Qing, stumbling back a step. His back hits the car, and he leans back against it like he can't even support himself anymore. His knees feel weak.

The spiders hiss softly in his ears, sounding distressed, their movement feeling agitated.

"Sorry," Zhao Yunlan mumbles numbly. "Sorry." He's not sure who he's saying it to.

"I wouldn't," Shen Wei hisses after a moment. "I wouldn't do that to Da Qing," he says, and for once he does sound affected, like he actually cares. "It was different with Wang Zheng. I could consume her memories and give them back, without altering the state of her being. Da Qing is different. I wouldn't agree to try, even if he asked," Shen Wei says, the hissing rising and falling, and at the end, the pitch of it alters to something that feels like it grates on Zhao Yunlan's nerves.

"He won't. He won't ask," Zhao Yunlan says, trying to reassure— Himself. Shen Wei. He doesn't know. He looks at Da Qing.

Da Qing is staring down at his own hand. No. At the spiders still on his hand. He's holding it stiffly in front of himself, his eyes looking wide and maybe a little wild. He looks like he's trying to stop himself from shaking his hand, trying to dislodge the spiders.

"I won't. I don't want anyone else in my head again," Da Qing hisses tightly.

Zhao Yunlan takes in a shaky breath. Something unwinds in his chest. He holds his hand out towards Da Qing. He leans forward a little, his hand settling on top of Da Qing's hand.

"You're freaking out the stupid cat, Xiao Wei," Zhao Yunlan says, his voice a little shaky. He feels suddenly like he's just come back from a long run. His legs feel shaky, his skin clammy, his breath unsteady.

The spiders crawl up on Zhao Yunlan's hand, the rest of them hiss agitatedly, skittering along Zhao Yunlan's skin.

"It's my fault. I was the one trying to freak the cat out," Zhao Yunlan says soothingly because he can tell that Shen Wei is actually upset. He's upset because of Da Qing's reaction to him. Is that what the whole thing between them lately has been about? Shen Wei being hurt?

Why did he need to have this realisation now? Zhao Yunlan thinks tiredly. He has enough to deal with as it is.

Zhao Yunlan looks at Da Qing and takes a few long breaths. "We should get in the car," he says.

They need to figure out what to do next. Maybe Lao Chu and Xiao Guo will have gotten something out of their earlier kidnapper.

An address. That's what they have once they get back. Apparently, the kidnapper had said something and combined with the general area they'd found the kid in Lin Jing had managed to narrow it down to an actual address.

"Are you sure?" Zhao Yunlan asks, looking at the place on the map Lin Jing is pointing at. It's an actual map, pinned up on the board, with a red circle around the whole area. Lin Jing might prefer computers and technology, but they have a surprising amount of actual maps at the SID. Sometimes, for some things, old-fashioned just works better. In some cases, old-fashioned is the only thing that works at all.

"About as sure as I can be," Lin Jing says with a shrug, pulling his finger away and then picking up a pin and sticking it in place of his finger.

Zhao Yunlan doesn't bother to ask him how he'd figured it out. He'll take Lin Jing's word for it. More often than not Lin Jing is right about these things, and Zhao Yunlan isn't in the mood for an explanation.

He feels the skitter of spider legs, crawling away from him and turns to look at Shen Wei as he forms next to him. Their eyes meet for a second before Shen Wei turns his gaze to the map.

"That is where Zhu Jiu was staying," Shen Wei says.

Zhao Yunlan nearly opens his mouth to ask how he knows before he thinks better of it. Because he knows how Shen Wei would know that, and no one needs another reminder of that right now. Zhao Yunlan included. Instead, he just nods his understanding.

But that opens up a whole new font of knowledge, doesn't it?

"So were these people working with him?" Zhao Yunlan asks, looking at Shen Wei. "And how much do you know about the layout of the place?"

Shen Wei looks back at him for a moment, a small frown on his face. Then he says, "Give me a moment, Zhao Yunlan," and in the next moment he's fallen apart into thousands of spiders, quickly vanishing into the shadows.

Zhao Yunlan opens his mouth, wanting to tell Shen Wei to stop, to ask where he's going. His first thought is that Shen Wei is going to go to that place right now. He might, but he would tell Zhao Yunlan if that was the case, wouldn't he? He wouldn't risk getting close to someone who knows how to use the Brush all alone, would he? He'd at least tell Zhao Yunlan. They've talked about this, and they've agreed those are the kinds of things they need to tell each other.

But Shen Wei hadn't even mentioned the girl not being human, had he? But that's not the same thing, Zhao Yunlan tells himself.

"Well, that was unexpected," Lin Jing says. Zhao Yunlan takes a breath and gives Lin Jing a look. "I mean… I'm sure Shen-laoshi knows what he's doing?" Lin Jing says, but it sounds a whole lot more like a question.

"He does," Zhao Yunlan says, and hopes he's right.

"Did you get anything else useful out of the guy?" he asks, turning to look at Lao Chu.

There's not much else to do. He can only wait for Shen Wei to show up again and tell him what the hell he thinks he's doing.

They're in the middle of trying to figure out a plan of approach when Shen Wei reappears. Zhao Yunlan takes a step towards him, his previous words cut off mid-sentence.

"I know what the place looks like," Shen Wei says, his expression oddly tight. Zhao Yunlan wants to ask him what's wrong, but it's not the time for it.

He reaches out to brush his hand against Shen Wei's arm. "Did you go there to look?" Zhao Yunlan asks, trying not to sound accusing. It wouldn't have been enough time, surely, for Shen Wei to get there and back. But Zhao Yunlan doesn't know how the spiders travel through shadows, and who knows how far they might reach.

Why are there so many things that Zhao Yunlan doesn't know?

"No," Shen Wei says.

Zhao Yunlan waits for a heartbeat, but no actual explanation is forthcoming, so he lets it go. For now. Maybe it just takes Shen Wei some effort to figure out what he actually knows. That could be it. Zhao Yunlan hasn't ever asked about the details of how the… memory eating works. That's one thing he really doesn't want to know.

"So, tell us," Zhao Yunlan prompts.

"Put the gun down."

Things don't go according to plan. They really don't, Zhao Yunlan thinks as he stands there, looking at Zhao Xinci seconds from being fried with whatever power this guy holds. His eyes move to the Brush the guy is holding in his other hand.

Maybe they should have tried the same approach as they did with Zhu Jiu, and offered to trade the Hallows for Zhao Xinci. At least most of the others here are taken care of. That's where the rest of the SID is, dealing with all the other people here. Thankfully, there aren't that many, and the SID can deal with it.

But that's why Zhao Yunlan ended up here alone at this moment, even though that was definitely not the plan. He feels the tiniest touch of small spider legs against his skin. Well, not alone, never entirely alone. He looks at Zhao Xinci and then looks straight at the guy holding him.

"Fine," Zhao Yunlan agrees and bends down to put his gun down on the ground, before straightening again.

"Kick it further away," the guy demands. Zhao Yunlan knows him. He's seen him at his fruit stall outside the SID. He's bought oranges from him. He'd seemed like a nice, decent guy. At least he knows how he figured out Zhao Xinci is related to the SID.

"Yunlan…" his dad says warningly, despite how he really should be holding his damn tongue right now if he wants to not be killed. The guy's hand twitches and Zhao Xinci doesn't say anything more.

Zhao Yunlan bites back a sigh and does as he's told.

"You can trade me for him. The rest of my guys will care a lot more about saving me than him," Zhao Yunlan says.

"Yunlan, it's me he—" Zhao Xinci starts to say.

"Shut up dad," Zhao Yunlan spits out angrily, his voice rising despite himself. This isn't the time for Zhao Xinci's criticisms.

"I don't want your life," the guy says, and there's genuine hatred in his gaze as he looks at Zhao Xinci. So, it's not just about the Hallows, Zhao Yunlan thinks, followed by: What the hell did you do, dad?

"What did he do to you?" Zhao Yunlan asks. They need a distraction. As much as this guy doesn't look like anyone who could be a threat to Shen Wei, he is holding the Merit Brush in his hand, and Zhao Yunlan doesn't think he'll hesitate to use it. If he knew what the hell the Brush does, Zhao Yunlan would feel a whole lot better about what they're doing, but unfortunately, the SID's library hadn't had any definite answers about that, despite how much they'd looked.

Apparently, that's the right question to ask, because the guy's face twists, pain and anger written all over him. Or maybe it's entirely the wrong question, because for a moment Zhao Yunlan thinks he might just kill Zhao Xinci right then and there, but then, instead, he starts talking. He tells Zhao Yunlan about his wife and unborn child dying, in what sounds like a tragic accident.

Zhao Yunlan isn't looking down at the floor, but he can still see the movement behind the guy. He doesn't need to look to know that there are spiders emerging from the shadows. From where he is, down on his knees, Zhao Xinci will probably see them too, he realises in an instant. Zhao Xinci better keep his mouth shut, Zhao Yunlan thinks and nearly glares at him, before managing to stop himself.

"What does that have to do with him?" Zhao Yunlan asks, even though he knows how callous it sounds, taking a step closer, drawing the guy's attention to himself. The guy's fingers wrap threateningly around Zhao Xinci's throat. Even without any sort of powers at hand, that move is clear enough. "You can't tell me he was driving the taxi that bumped them," Zhao Yunlan says provocatively.

Shen Wei is fast enough that even if Zhao Yunlan's words are a mistake, this guy won't have time to kill Zhao Xinci, he tells himself. He hopes. The guy turns his gaze to Zhao Xinci, hatred burning in his eyes.

The guy opens his mouth, and spits out, "It's his fault."

It's all the explanation Zhao Yunlan has the time to hear. Suddenly spiders are crawling over the man, covering him in less than the blink of an eye. The moment the spiders touch him Zhao Yunlan is already reaching for the Brush, in a slightly desperate and mostly instinctive move. His fingers wrap around the shaft and he pulls. The guy pulls back, and for a moment they're engaged in the most ridiculous tug of war, both of their hands wrapped around the Brush. At least he's not threatening Zhao Xinci anymore, some distant part of Zhao Yunlan's brain provides.

He keeps pulling, but he can't get the Brush away from him. But at least he can't use it like this, Zhao Yunlan thinks. He hopes.

"Yunlan!" he thinks he hears Zhao Xinci call out, but it's lost in the general confusion and Zhao Yunlan's ridiculous, desperate tug of war for the Merit Brush.

Then all of a sudden Zhao Yunlan stumbles back as the guy's hold on the Brush gives out. The Brush flies off, clattering to the floor as Zhao Yunlan lands on his ass on the concrete floor. He stares up at the black mass of spiders that had been a man just moments ago.

He looks away, his eyes landing on the Brush just next to him. Without thinking he reaches for it, his fingers securely wrapping around the shaft. He feels his fingers tingle where they come into contact with it, something that's not entirely like a jolt of electricity travelling up through his nerves.

The Brush is in Zhao Yunlan's hands and he remembers suddenly he's not supposed to be touching the Hallows. At the moment he can't quite remember why.

There's a muffled scream from somewhere inside the writhing mass of spiders, quickly choked off. Zhao Yunlan swallows the bile and metal taste in his mouth. He tucks the Brush into a pocket, leaving it awkwardly sticking out but at least he's not holding onto it, which has to be good enough. He scrambles up from the floor, hissing as his ass twinges painfully. He'll think about it later, he tells himself, gritting his teeth and getting a move on.

He doesn't look at the spiders as he grabs Zhao Xinci, hauling him up to his feet by his bound arms. Zhao Xinci stumbles and he steps a little closer, offering support. Somehow, he manages to get Zhao Xinci further away, not listening to whatever it is he's trying to say to Zhao Yunlan. He doesn't have the time to listen. He doesn't have the time to care about whatever Zhao Xinci thinks he needs to say.

"Yunlan!" Zhao Xinci barks out, and Zhao Yunlan startles, staring at him. For a moment he thinks Zhao Xinci looks worried, and then he realises he's just glaring at Zhao Yunlan.

He blinks and then grins at Zhao Xinci. "See, there was a plan," he says, his voice bright, instead of shaky like he feels. Nothing has gone according to plan, but Zhao Xinci doesn't need to know that. This could have been the plan. It had worked on Zhu Jiu, after all, leaving it to Shen Wei. So what if they improvised it this time.

Zhu Jiu didn't have one of the Hallows with him. That's what had made this plan go to shit. The rest of them hadn't been able to get close to the guy. Just Zhao Yunlan. And the spiders sneaking in.

He glances towards the spiders, much further away now, unable to quite stop himself. It's probably too late to tell Shen Wei not to— Not to do anything permanent. He resolutely ignores what's going on there, and concentrates on something he can do. His thoughts feel like they're jangling around inside his head and he needs to do something. He digs out his knife. The blade is made of some alloy Zhao Yunlan is not entirely sure of and blessed by something or other, to make it work in situations where a regular gun won't be all that effective, but the blade is sharp enough and will cut non-supernatural things just as well.

He gestures for Zhao Xinci to lift his hands. He eyes the zip ties for a moment, before taking a breath, telling himself to keep his hands steady, and slips the blade between Zhao Xinci's wrists. He feels a bit shaky, but after the adrenaline rush, that's to be expected. Still, he manages to free Zhao Xinci without any trouble.

Zhao Xinci rubs at his wrist with a grimace and then glares at Zhao Yunlan. "You shouldn't have come, Yunlan," he says.

Zhao Yunlan gives him an incredulous look, and somehow the noise inside his head goes quiet. "No, 'Thanks, Yunlan for saving my life?'" he snaps out and then… takes a deep breath and tells himself not to take the fucking bait. They're still not actually out of here and this is not the time to let himself be distracted by an argument with Zhao Xinci. "You know what. I don't care what you have to say. We're getting out of here right now."

He has Zhao Xinci and he has the Merit Brush and—he glances towards the writhing mass of spiders and swallows hard… And Shen Wei will be with him once he's done. There's no reason to stay here to see if there's a few more bad guys lurking around somewhere.

He turns his back on the spiders. His fingers wrap tighter around the handle of his knife. He takes another breath and then goes to pick up his gun, just in case. If there are others, maybe they'll be human enough to hesitate at the sight of a gun. He takes a slightly shaky breath and starts walking. Zhao Xinci can stay here or come with him, it's all the same to Zhao Yunlan.

They make it out of there. They make it all the way to the cars. By then, he can already feel the spiders crawling up along his legs, winding around him.

Zhao Xinci grabs him by the arm, and Zhao Yunlan automatically spins around to look at him. "That thing, Yunlan—" he starts to say, disapproval and anger written all over his face and Zhao Yunlan has had enough.

"Xiao Wei saved you. So I don't care what you have to say about him," he spits out, and suddenly the spiders that had been making a very discreet return to Zhao Yunlan, hiding under his clothes, are very visibly crawling all over him, spilling out from under every fold of his clothing.

He doesn't need to pull his arm away from Zhao Xinci. Zhao Xinci gasps and stumbles back. For a moment, there really is pure horror in his eyes, before he quickly gathers himself, his face arranging itself back into a disapproving expression. He opens his mouth, and then a moment later closes it again without saying anything.

"You might have met before, but I don't think you've ever been formally introduced," Zhao Yunlan says like it's just an entirely normal situation of him introducing a boyfriend to his dad. Not that he's ever done that before either.

"Xiao Wei, this is Zhao Xinci. My dad. I know you might want to, but try not to kill him, okay?" Zhao Yunlan says with as much of a smile as he can manage. He feels weird. There's a sort of humming noise in his ears and he feels a bit detached from the whole situation. He looks at Zhao Xinci. Of course, he looks disapproving. It doesn't matter what Zhao Yunlan does, he'll still look like that.

He thinks his smile might be stuck to his face.

The spiders quickly march down and away from him. Not that far away really. Zhao Yunlan waits for Shen Wei to form, before saying, "And this is—" He hesitates. And then feels shitty for hesitating. It's not because of Zhao Xinci, he tells himself. "This is my boyfriend," he says very firmly. It feels like too little.

He needs to ask Shen Wei to marry him. He would ask him right now, but he doesn't want Zhao Xinci to be there for that. Then he can introduce him as his husband.

He can't really offer Shen Wei's name on behalf of him. That carries a bit too much weight.

Shen Wei reaches out to the pocket Zhao Yunlan had stuck the Merit Brush into and plucks it out easily.

"You can't let him—" Zhao Xinci starts to protest.

"Shen Wei. My name is Shen Wei," Shen Wei says pleasantly, and Zhao Yunlan's breath stutters slightly. He'd actually given Zhao Xinci his name. Shen Wei has gotten so much better at interacting with humans, Zhao Yunlan thinks. His smile looks almost sincere. The Merit Brush vanishes from his fingers, swallowed up into shadows. Zhao Yunlan reaches out to take Shen Wei's hand into his own. "We met briefly when you were trying to kill me that one time," Shen Wei says.

It's amazing really, how pleasant Shen Wei manages to make those words sound. Clearly, the practice with the SID has payed off.

"The Hallows are dangerous to Zhao Yunlan," Shen Wei adds, his tone turning dark, the hiss of spiders rising from beneath the words, suddenly putting a lie to any pretence of humanity and pleasantness.

To Zhao Xinci's credit, he actually stands his ground. "Shen Wei," he repeats, staring at Shen Wei in a way that makes Zhao Yunlan feel like his own presence might have been entirely forgotten. "Aren't you worried I will—"

"You aren't capable," Shen Wei interrupts him, his words sounding rather final.

Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure he knows what Zhao Xinci had been about to say. A name usually makes banishing something a lot easier.

"And neither is that thing inside you, Zhao Xinci," Shen Wei hisses in a way that's… Well, contemptuous is the only thing that comes to mind.

That does make Zhao Xinci take a step back, but Zhao Yunlan doesn't have time to observe him, because he's too busy staring at Shen Wei in surprise.

"What do you mean? What thing inside him?" he demands.

That could have gone better, but as far as introducing Shen Wei to Zhao Xinci, it didn't go quite as badly as Zhao Yunlan might have imagined. If he'd ever imagined actually introducing Shen Wei to him, which he hadn't. But Zhao Xinci is still alive, so it could definitely have gone worse.

Also, apparently Zhao Xinci has been possessed. For decades now.

Well, whatever Zhao Xinci has to say about Shen Wei will sound supremely hypocritical after that revelation, Zhao Yunlan thinks. Maybe that's why he hadn't said all that much about Shen Wei at all after that. That little revelation had quite effectively derailed any other discussion and ended up with Zhao Xinci declaring that it was none of their business and basically leaving.

Well, not so much leaving as asking Da Qing to drive him home. And honestly, at that point, Zhao Yunlan thought it was maybe better to let him leave. He needs time to think. He needs time to calm down. If he means himself or Zhao Xinci… Zhao Yunlan isn't even sure.

Zhao Yunlan looks at the car they're left with and the suspects the others have managed to apprehend and sighs.

"I'll take a taxi," he says. Maybe the SID should invest in more cars. He has no idea where he's supposed to find room for that in their budget.

Chapter Text

It's not like Zhao Yunlan particularly wants to go see Zhao Xinci. He saved Zhao Xinci and now Zhao Xinci is alive, he's probably back to work and so Zhao Yunlan's duty is pretty much done. Except it isn't. If you ask Zhao Xinci he'd probably tell you Zhao Yunlan failed his duty as a son a long time ago, and Zhao Yunlan can live with that. He's gotten used to it.

Unfortunately, he still has a duty as the SID Chief. And Zhao Xinci is possessed by— Well, by something.

Zhao Yunlan stares at the door in front of him and hesitates to knock. He can feel the heavy knot in his chest just looking at the door. His breath feels too shallow. He wishes Zhao Xinci had moved out of this particular apartment at some point. Zhao Yunlan doesn't need the memories it brings up. Especially right now.

Right now, he might regret it a little that he told Da Qing he doesn't need to come with him when Da Qing had offered. Da Qing had looked so stupidly relieved at that. He really hadn't wanted to come. Zhao Yunlan appreciates the fact that he made the offer regardless.

"Yunlan?" the spiders whisper at him from seemingly nowhere, sounding worried.

He smiles a little at the concern. Shen Wei will be here, he doesn't need to face Zhao Xinci alone. Not that he needs support for seeing his own dad. It's just that he's realising it's nice to have it regardless. Even if Shen Wei being there will probably just make things more difficult for everyone. Zhao Xinci definitely won't be too happy about it. Well, tough luck because there's just no scenario in which Zhao Yunlan will ask Shen Wei to leave him alone in favour of Zhao Xinci.

He sighs softly and straightens his spine a little.

"It's fine. I need to talk to him," Zhao Yunlan says under his breath. There are things they need to clear up. Not just the possession either. Zhao Yunlan would also really like to know that Zhao Xinci isn't going to try to do anything about Shen Wei. Shen Wei might not be particularly concerned about it, but Zhao Yunlan hasn't been able to stop thinking about it. Not entirely. Zhao Xinci spent a whole lot of effort trying to either kill or banish Shen Wei in the past. He's pretty sure Zhao Xinci hasn't changed his mind about the matter. Maybe he can't actually harm Shen Wei, but that doesn't mean Zhao Yunlan will just let him try.

He hasn't quite told Shen Wei that part, but he's not sure he really needed to. Shen Wei has hardly missed the fact that Zhao Yunlan has had something on his mind for the last few days. Well, admittedly part of what's been on Zhao Yunlan's mind is the fact his dad is possessed and Zhao Yunlan never even knew about it.

He has talked with Shen Wei about that part, because it is the SID's duty to take care of such things, and currently Shen Wei knows more about the matter than anyone else. Aside from Da Qing, Zhao yunlan hasn't told anyone else. He probably should have, especially before coming here but—

He's really not all that much better than Zhao Xinci, is he? At least not when it comes to this. Except, Zhao Yunlan has a choice. He's not so sure if Zhao Xinci—

Shen Wei says he doesn't know how much of Zhao Xinci is actually Zhao Xinci. The thing has been inside him for a long time, and all that Shen Wei could really tell is that it's so firmly stuck in Zhao Xinci's body that it can't leave, not until Zhao Xinci dies.

Of course, he'd asked if there's a way to get it out of Zhao Xinci without killing him. He wonders if Zhao Xinci had tried. He must have, right? He wouldn't just leave something like that inside him without at least trying to get rid of it. Unless, by then, it was already a choice Zhao Xinci couldn't make.

How had Zhao Yunlan never noticed him change? He should have, shouldn't he?

Shn Wei's answer to his question had been somewhat disturbing.

"I can eat it out of him," Shen Wei had said, even as he fell into tiny little spiders.

"I was thinking more like… some kind of exorcism or banishment type of deal," Zhao Yunlan had answered, his voice getting stuck in his throat.

He got the picture Shen Wei was painting a little too clearly. And he didn't particularly want to think about the spiders doing… that. Not to Zhao Xinci. Not to anyone.

He nearly started laughing thinking about trying to convince Zhao Xinci that it was a good idea. "Yeah, dad. Sorry. I need my boyfriend to eat you."

Not that it would be Zhao Xinci's choice. Zhao Yunlan is the Chief of SID, and if he deems that the thing inside Zhao Xinci is a threat to Haixing, it is fully within his authority to act as he sees fit to neutralise that threat. Sure, he'd have to get a bit creative in his reports when it comes to Shen Wei, but he could probably hire Shen Wei as a consultant for the SID and it would all be nice and legal.

He doesn't want to be thinking about any of that right now, but he has to. This is why he's here. Still, he pushes all the thoughts away for now, before he drowns in them, and resolutely knocks on the door.

Technically, he could just walk inside. He still has his own key. But he's not going to do that. He hasn't used that key in years, and he has no plans to start now. Besides, he's here officially, not as Zhao Xinci's son, he tells himself and doesn't quite know if he actually believes that or not.

It doesn't take long for Zhao Xinci to come open the door. It's a Saturday and Zhao Yunlan was hoping that meant Zhao Xinci would be at home, though it's never really been much of a guarantee that he wouldn't be at work. Of all the memories Zhao Yunlan has of this place, he was more often alone than not.

Maybe it's not the place that's bothering you then, a voice inside his head points out and Zhao Yunlan rudely tells it to shut up.

Zhao Xinci looks at him without much surprise. He was probably expecting Zhao Yunlan to show up at some point, which is kind of funny, when you think about it. It's been years since Zhao Yunlan has last been here. If it wasn't for all the recent revelations, he wouldn't be here now either.

Wordlessly, Zhao Xinci steps to the side to let him in. Neither of them says anything until they're sitting in the living room. Both of them in an armchair, entirely ignoring the couch. Zhao Xinci doesn't offer him anything. Not that Zhao Yunlan wants anything.

"Yunlan," Zhao Xinci says. It sounds neutral, but Zhao Yunlan thinks he can hear the disapproval in it anyway.

"Dad," he says, and for a moment that's all. No, things aren't strained between them at all, why would anyone think that?

He shouldn't have called him that, Zhao Yunlan thinks. Not if he wants things to be professional. But it's too late to change it now. Maybe it's this place, Zhao Yunlan thinks.

Zhao Xinci's expression tightens. His eyes fall a little lower, looking over Zhao Yunlan like he's looking for something on him. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what that might be, but Zhao Yunlan knows there are no spiders in sight. He'd asked Shen Wei to stay out of view.

"Is it here?" Zhao Xinci asks, and oh, he doesn't even try to hide that disdain, does he? Zhao Yunlan doesn't know what he was expecting. Surely not for Zhao Xinci to be even marginally polite to his son's boyfriend.

"Shen Wei?" Zhao Yunlan asks. A small part of him relishes in being able to say the name out loud to his dad. Zhao Yunlan wants to talk about Shen Wei. He wants to tell everyone about Shen Wei. Zhao Xinci flinches minutely, clearly not happy about hearing the name. Zhao Yunlan grins tightly, the small moment of elation quickly doused, leaving a slightly bitter taste in his mouth. "Oh, he's never gone, not really. But you should know all about that, Zhao Xinci," Zhao Yunlan says. The name comes out pointed.

Getting angry won't help, Zhao Yunlan tries to tell himself. Deliberately provoking Zhao Xinci probably won't help either. But it's hard to stay calm.

Zhao Xinci's expression grows even tighter. Zhao Yunlan waits for whatever he's going to say to that.

"It's not the same," Zhao Xinci says, his lips tightening in disapproval. Oh, so it's still judgement, is it? What room does Zhao Xinci have to judge?

Because I'm fucking Shen Wei? The words are on the tip of his tongue, crude and angry. Zhao Yunlan swallows them. His relationship with Shen Wei isn't something to slap Zhao Xinci in the face with just for some fleeting moment of satisfaction. He won't do that to Shen Wei. Shen Wei means so much more to him than that.

He takes a breath, and then— He takes another, because he needs it.

He has been thinking about it; the difference between himself and Zhao Xinci. The difference in having Shen Wei with him and— Well, whatever happened to Zhao Xinci.

"Because I had a choice?" Zhao Yunlan asks, keeping a tight grasp of his tone.

And that's where all the judgement comes from, isn't it? Zhao Xinci can't stand the idea that Zhao Yunlan would willingly choose to be with Shen Wei. Or maybe he doesn't believe it. Maybe he thinks Zhao Yunlan was coerced somehow.

A flash of anger travels through him, and in a fit of defiance Zhao Yunlan lifts his hand, gently tapping the back of it with the fingers of his other hand. Almost immediately, one small spider crawls out from beneath his sleeve. Zhao Yunlan holds his hand out towards Zhao Xinci.

Zhao Xinci stares at the spider on the back of his hand, his expression tight.

Zhao Yunlan lifts his eyebrows, looking at Zhao Xinci. Well, I showed you mine… he thinks, and then nearly snorts. A moment later, the little spider crawls back under his sleeve. Shen Wei knows Zhao Yunlan wants to talk to his dad on his own for now, and Zhao Yunlan feels a little burst of gratitude towards Shen Wei, for being so accommodating.

Zhao Yunlan takes a breath, and feels a little steadier as he faces Zhao Xinci.

Zhao Xinci looks back at him for a moment before sighing and turning his gaze to the side.

A moment later, Zhao Yunlan swears he sees his eyes glow for a moment. Zhao Xinci looks back at Zhao Yunlan, and his expression seems slightly different, less disapproving and more resigned. Or maybe Zhao Yunlan is just trying too hard to see differences where there are none.

"It's not that simple, Yunlan," Zhao Xinci says, his voice a little subdued. Or is it Zhao Xinci? Surely, Zhao Xinci wouldn't sound like that.

Zhao Yunlan stares at him, but honestly, the more he looks, the harder it is to tell. No wonder he'd never noticed anything, he thinks feeling a little like he might start to laugh. Maybe he's going insane. Maybe all of them are going insane.

His dad had never been home enough for Zhao Yunlan to notice anything. It's not his fault if he didn't notice that—

Suddenly, Zhao Yunlan's thoughts stop.

He wasn't home enough.

Maybe that had been the whole point. Because Zhao Yunlan wasn't supposed to notice, was he? Bitterness wells up in his chest, and he can't stop himself thinking that maybe if Zhao Xinci hadn't been possessed—

Zhao Yunlan takes a breath and forces that thought aside.

He looks at Zhao Xinci. There might not be any way to actually tell, but his gut is screaming at him that whoever is looking at him through Zhao Xinci's eyes right now, it isn't his dad.

"Who are you?" Zhao Yunlan asks coldly.

For some reason, it's like he wasn't expecting the direct question at all. His mouth clicks shut and he looks at Zhao Yunlan with some level of dismay. And then slowly, he smiles, and it's really a very odd expression on Zhao Xinci's face.

"I'm called Zhang Shi," he says carefully.

Zhao Yunlan nods and then stiffly says, "I'm sure you'll understand if I'm not particularly happy to meet you."

Zhang Shi huffs softly and then suddenly shakes his head a little. Suddenly, he grimaces.

And oh… that's Zhao Xinci looking at him again, isn't it? Zhao Yunlan thinks so. He can read the disapproval in his eyes.

"That," Zhao Yunlan states very calmly, "is a lot creepier than having a few spiders hang around with me."

Zhao Xinci gets a pinched look on his face, but clearly even he can't argue that point. Shen Wei isn't in Zhao Yunlan's head. He's not impersonating Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan's actions are his own.

"Does that happen a lot? Him just taking over like that?" Zhao Yunlan asks. He's not sure if he expects Zhao Xinci to actually answer, but it's a question that begs to be asked, right along with the question of how much of Zhao Xinci is still actually Zhao Xinci, but that one Zhao Yunlan keeps to himself. Besides, would Zhao Xinci even know? How do you tell that you're not yourself?

"More than it used to," Zhao Xinci admits reluctantly.

Shen Wei had mentioned that the more time the thing spends inside Zhao Xinci the more… integrated it would be. Considering how long it's been—

"What does it do when it's in control?" Zhao Yunlan asks, settling his hands on his thighs as he looks straight at Zhao Xinci. He's the SID Chief, these are things he needs to know.

If this was back in Zhao Xinci's time at the SID, he'd already be in chains in an interrogation room. Or there'd be a bullet between his eyes, Zhao Yunlan thinks spitefully, or if that didn't work a knife or a—

Zhao Xinci should be glad it's Zhao Yunlan in charge these days. He's probably judging Zhao Yunlan for this too, even if it is to his own benefit.

"Well. He sent you your trainee," Zhao Xinci says.

Zhao Yunlan blinks. "What?" he asks and then pauses for a moment. "Xiao Guo? Why?"

Zhao Xinci just looks at him for a moment. Zhao Yunlan looks back. Okay, if it was someone else, Zhao Yunlan would assume he was just fucking with him. But it's Zhao Xinci. Humour is probably beyond him, even bad humour.

"Honestly, I have no idea. He seems to think it'll help you," Zhao Xinci tells him.

Zhao Yunlan thinks about it for a second and then shrugs. "Well, we do need more people," he says.

Zhao Xinci might be telling the truth—Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure he is—but the reason he brought it up out of the blue— Well, Zhao Yunlan is also pretty sure he's trying to distract him.

And Zhao Yunlan— Of course he wants to know why anyone would send them Xiao Guo. Zhao Xinci knows he'd want to know. But he's not—

He suddenly wishes he wasn't here, even more so than he had before. He wishes he'd never found out about any of this, because now he's talked to Zhang Shi, even if ever so briefly. Now he has a name. Now he's real.

How is Zhao Yunlan supposed to decide what to do about this? He doesn't just go around killing people, and now— Now Zhang Shi is starting to feel far too much like a person.

He looks Zhao Xinci straight in the eyes and asks, "What do you think I should do about this?"

Is that surprise on Zhao Xinci's face?

"You don't usually ask for my advice," Zhao Xinci says mildly. And if Zhao Yunlan was feeling charitable, he might think there's regret in his voice. Maybe there is, he's just not sure it matters all that much at this point. Maybe Zhao Yunlan regrets some things too, but it is what it is.

He spreads his arms a little, shrugging his shoulders wordlessly. The circumstances are pretty exceptional. Maybe Zhao Yunlan feels like doing something unusual. Besides, Zhao Xinci probably should have some say in things. It's his life they're talking about. Or maybe he forfeited the right to have any say in the matter when he decided to keep Zhang Shi a secret from everyone.

And maybe someday the next SID Chief will be on Zhao Yunlan's doorstep to pass judgement on him. Not that Shen Wei would ever let them, he thinks, and then has to pull his thoughts back before they spiral down that little rabbit hole of a hypothetical future. If that day ever comes, Zhao Yunlan will deal with it then.

"You know what you should do," Zhao Xinci tells him.

Zhao Yunlan snorts. "Yeah, but it looks like neither of us is going to do that," he says.

There's a moment of silence, and Zhao Yunlan wishes he knew what Zhao Xinci was thinking. He wishes he knew if it's Zhao Xinci thinking it. There's a pinched, unhappy look on Zhao Xinci's face, until it's suddenly wiped away.

"I'll retire. After all, I just had surgery, so no one will question it if I claim I have health issues," Zhao Xinci says blandly, like he's fine with that idea.

"You had what?" Zhao Yunlan blurts out.

Zhao Xinci had had heart surgery and he wasn't even planning on telling Zhao Yunlan. That's why that guy had seen him in the hospital. It must have been urgent, if they'd taken him to surgery before a pregnant woman. Or maybe that's not how it works at all. Zhao Yunlan isn't exactly up on the internal policies of hospitals.

Zhao Xinci says that the condition might or might not be made worse by the strain Zhang Shi is having on his body. He's not entirely sure. It's not really like that's the kind of thing you can just ask the doctors about, Zhao Yunlan gets that. Maybe it says something about him, that hearing that, for a split second, he's entirely ready to tell Shen Wei to do whatever it takes to get Zhang Shi out of his dad.

But Zhao Yunlan takes a slow, steady breath and the moment passes.

"Have you seen… anyone else about it?" Zhao Yunlan asks. He wants to ask why Zhao Xinci hadn't told him. He wants to ask why he's telling him now. But maybe Zhao Yunlan already knows the answer and he doesn't need to hear Zhao Xinci say it.

Zhao Xinci just gives him a look. No, of course not, because he can't let anyone know about Zhang Shi. Given Zhao Xinci's position, if that got out it would be—bad. It was a stupid question to ask, wasn't it. Zhao Yunlan wasn't thinking.

He swallows. He'll get Zhao Xinci down to the SID. Let Lin Jing poke at him at least, he tells himself. Zhao Xinci is supposed to avoid stress, so retiring will be a good thing for him.

He really could have made things difficult for Zhao Yunlan on that front and not made the offer to retire.

Why had he suggested that so easily?

Zhao Yunlan doesn't know. He can't quite make himself ask.

In the end, there isn't much more for Zhao Yunlan to do there. Not tonight. Just as he's about to leave, he stops and turns to look at Zhao Xinci once more.

He'd almost forgotten. How could he forget?

"Are you going to do something about—" He waves his hand towards himself vaguely, feeling awkward. Shen Wei, he means, but if feels not quite right to shove that in Zhao Xinci's face right now.

Maybe Zhao Yunlan should be the one stepping down from his position. All things considered.

"What could I do?" Zhao Xinci asks.

Well, the answer is quite a few things actually, but for once Zhao Yunlan feels like he understands what his dad is saying. He nods shortly, and then just… leaves.

It's not until he's in the car, driving home, that it occurs to him that he never asked Zhao Xinci if he wanted to get rid of Zhang Shi.

"I could have told him. That we could get Zhang Shi out of him," he mumbles under his breath. He could have told him that it'd kill Zhang Shi and that Zhao Xinci would probably survive it.

He could have told him Shen Wei could eat Zhang Shi out of him.

He's not sure he wants to know what Zhao Xinci's decision would have been.

"It's not without risk," Shen Wei hisses.

Zhao Yunlan hums a little in answer but says nothing. For a moment, the spiders move to the seat next to him, forming into a human shape. Shen Wei sets his hand on Zhao Yunlan's thigh. Zhao Yunlan removes his own hand from the steering wheel long enough to squeeze Shen Wei's hand. He turns his head a little to give Shen Wei a quick smile, before turning back to look at the road.

A moment later, there are only spiders again.

They find the Lantern in a box at the SID. It's all ridiculously anticlimactic. Zhao Yunlan just happens to remember it one day. Not that he knows that's what it is, until they find the box and Shen Wei is suddenly standing there taking the whole box away from him.

"So. What now?" Zhao Yunlan asks as he looks at the Lantern, now sitting on the table in front of everyone.

No one seems to have anything to say. They have all the Hallows now, right? Well, Shen Wei has two of them… somewhere. And the SID has one. Still, it feels like something should happen now.

"Xiao Wei?" he asks, as he watches the spiders circling the Lantern, and then suddenly swarm over it. At least it means no one else is tempted to pick it up—and by someone else, he does specifically mean Lin Jing. Zhao Yunlan is pretty sure he'd love to run some tests.

Everyone might have gotten used to having Shen Wei around, but that many tiny spiders all at once still makes people nervous.

A few moments later the spiders retreat. To Zhao Yunlan's surprise the Lantern is still standing there on the table. He turns to look at Shen Wei, just coalescing into a human shape next to him.

"It needs a wick," Shen Wei says, a rather ominous hiss under his voice, his dark eyes looking at Zhao Yunlan.

Zhao Yunlan isn't sure he likes the sound of that at all. He reaches out, and takes Shen Wei's hand, grasping it tightly. Shen Wei gives him a faint smile.

"So, where do we find that?" Zhao Yunlan asks, and something in Shen Wei's look tells him he doesn't want to know. But he has to ask.

Shen Wei tells him. It turns out he's right. He really didn't want to know.