Chapter 18: Time To Leave
Shao Lin placed the small flashlight between her lips as she roamed inside Zhong Bai's bedroom when he left the door ajar. She quickly searched through his wardrobe, his dresser drawers, beneath his bed. Nothing. She went to his desk, wiggling the knobs of the drawers. Locked.
Shao Link tried to pull the draw of his desk free, but it was no use. It did not budge.
Shao Lin felt like giving up, knowing that Zhong Bai would return anytime soon when something caught her eye—his nightstand. She walked toward it, opening it.
There it was.
Trembling, she looked through an envelope of printed photos taken of her from a distance. Some of them were recently taken outside her home, during times Zhong Bai claimed to have been working. Was his work stalking her?
She kept flipping through them. Others took place at the time her father was still very much alive. It was older than five months. Heart pounding, she kept flipping them one by one quickly. Her at a salon appointment. She with Yi Xiu. Her in the garden. Finally, she had found one of her fathers with a man close to his age, red hair and arctic blue eyes.
"Lin?" she heard Zhong Bai say. "What are you doing?"
Her stomach dropped. She didn't hear him come. The electricity was not running and she was shaking so hard, she tried not to show it. She didn't answer.
He glanced at the photos in her hand, his expression hardening a bit. "Why were you looking through my things? Everything in here is private. That makes me upset, Lin," he told her, his voice harsh.
"I'm—I'm sorry. I was just curious," she explained. Tears stinging her eyes.
His expression was far from gentle or understanding. It was as if the Zhong Bai she thought she knew was not there.
He stalked toward her. She flinched.
Zhong Bai grabbed the photos from her hand. "From what you learned, yes, I've been watching you, but I do it to protect you."
"Then why are some of the pictures other than five months!" she demanded. "Who do you claim to protect me from?"
Zhong Bai shook his head as if the question she asked had sounded ridiculous to him. "I have been keeping tabs with your father. He was a very paranoid man before he died. He asked me to investigate those around him."
"So you were already here when I called for you?" She countered.
He nodded. "Mostly staying at hotels. But I did what I had to do to help him. I'm only sorry that I've failed because I don't have the information as to who killed him."
Shao Lin felt like she couldn't breathe. She didn't believe him. Every word that came out of his tongue was a smooth and calculating lie that rolled off so easily.
She straightened. "I understand," she lied.
Zhong Bai gave her a tight smile. "It's getting late, Lin. You should get to bed."
Shao Lin nodded. She then carefully stalked past him, entering her bedroom quickly, shutting the door behind her. She took a deep breath, but the air felt like it had escaped her.
She wanted to leave. Now. Desperately while she still can.
Shao Lin went to grab a carry-on, her hands trembling as she quickly took some folded clothes from her dresser, pushing them into her bag. She put on a cardigan over her nightgown.
She then reached for her bedroom door and turned the knob. It did not open.
She kept twisting it, panic flaring as it did not budge. Her heart started to constrict, her lungs robbed of breath. She tried to calm down, to breathe. It was no use as her panic attack overtook her completely.
She reached for her phone. The Internet was cut off, but she quickly dialled a number in her contact list.
Someone answered, relief welling inside her when the caller picked up, but no words left her mouth. She was too scared. Terrified. She made a choked sound and sobbed over the phone, crying so hard she was shaking. The phone then cut off.
Shao Lin glanced at her screen, noticing the phone service had been cut off, too. "No," she gasped. She kept repeating the word "no," as she realized she was trapped in her own home. Her supposed safety. She did not feel safe anymore.
She then curled up to a corner in her room, her shoulders slumping before she fainted.
…
Long Xia had only seen that look on her brother's face once before.
He tried to appear standoffish, but his eyes yielded something like fear—panic. It was rare to see him unravel any emotion aside from his usual, cool aloofness.
Long Yat-sen had sent her a message to meet at Shao Lin's home, and she arrived just as quickly as him, knowing that the reason they'd be there would be different from the last time just by his sense of urgency.
The front door was locked, so Long Yat-sen went to grab a bar handle. They went around the back of the house, toward the garden. They found the backdoor—also locked. They didn't have the time to bring the tools they did last time, so Long Yat-sen smashed into the window, shattering the glass. The house alarms went off, meaning the police would arrive soon, but they did not care.
Long Yat-sen lowered his arm over the small window, reaching for the doorknob. He unlocked it swiftly, the glass shards piercing his arm, but he did not seem to mind.
Once they entered, Long Xia and Long Yat-sen made a quick sweep through the house beneath low lighting. She could tell Long Yat-sen was looking for the girl; there was nothing else on his mind.
She heard something move from her side. The man was quick, but she was faster.
Cocking her gun with the silencer, she shot the man in the arm. Then the other.
He groaned in pain.
Her brother had already disappeared, so Long Xia went to find the bleeding man who sunk to his knees, barely conscious.
Zhong Bai.
There was a gun by his knee, so she pushed it away with her foot before she crouched down to his level. It was not like he could use the gun since she immobilized his arms, but it was just a precaution. She grabbed a fistful of his hair, pulling his head back. "What the hell were you doing?" she demanded.
The detective only smiled slightly, sweat trickling down his forehead, refusing to give an answer.
"Sick bastard," she said to him.
"Sadistic…witch," he replied low and breathless.
Long Xia pushed him backward, and he fell, losing his consciousness that instant. She looked at the man below her pathetically. She then turned to find Long Yat-sen descending the stairs with the woman in his arms. Shao Lin.
His expression was soft and tender, and his eyes were on her as if nothing else in the room mattered, as if to him, she was the most precious thing in the world. Long Yat-sen held her against him as he stalked past them toward the front door, not giving a damn about the detective. Long Xia followed, ditching the bleeding man behind.
The police would arrive soon anyway.
Long Xia slipped into the driver's seat while her brother stayed in the backseat cradling a sleeping Shao Lin in his arms, stroking her hair gently.
She then sped out of the driveway, and the three of them left together.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone