Time passed without Wenjie making any significant progress. His stomach growled. His throat demanded liquid. Coldness drifted up through the floor and he felt a pressure in his bladder. Since Xu Zhengqing had left the lights on this time, he reached the door without difficulty. 

Firmly, he knocked against the metal. "Uncle Xu?"

It wasn't long before Mister Xu opened the door. An affectionate smile played around his lips. "Miss me already?"

Instinctively, Wenjie shook his head. "I have to go to the bathroom and I," he put in. By then Xu Zhengqing had closed the door again. 

The watchmaker was still driving him crazy with this behavior. And of course, that was exactly his intention. "Uncle Xu," he called out, continuing to pound on the door. 

Xu Zhengqing returned and asked the same question as before. 

Wenjie clenched his hands into fists. "Yes, Uncle Xu," he squeezed out the words.

"Doesn't sound very convincing."

As he was about to close the door, Wenjie quickly placed a foot in the crack. "I miss you, but I really need to go to the bathroom." It had been many hours since the last time.

Xu Zhengqing kept silent and eyed him with a thoughtful expression. The pressure in Wenjie's bladder grew. After a few seconds that felt like hours, the man stepped aside. "You haven't eaten in a long time either," he noted. 

Then he led Wenjie to the bathroom. This time, Mister Xu allowed him to enter it alone and do his business there.

Back in the hallway, Xu Zhenqing grabbed him by the arm and took him to another room. Unlike the rooms Wenjie knew from the first hiding place, this room was comfortably furnished, with a corner bench, a small table, two chairs, a rug, vases in the corners, and pictures on the walls. 

On the table, everything was ready for a hot pot meal together. The smell brought tears to Wenjie's eyes. Painfully, he thought back to his dinner with Captain Luo. If Xu Zhengqing prevailed, there would never be another dinner with Captain Luo.

He felt a pressure on his shoulder and pressed his lips together. Glancing to the side, he was reminded of the crushing weight of the cruel reality that had been tormenting him for days, or was it weeks already? He swallowed the tears and walked over to the table. 

Xu Zhengqing wouldn't have put knockout drops in the pot. He would not be doing himself any favors if he had. The tea cups were still empty. Thus, there was no danger as far as the tea in the teapot was concerned. 

Wenjie sat down on the sofa and looked at the steaming pot. 

"Enjoy it," Mister Xu urged him to take something. 

As if in a trance, Wenjie reached for the chopsticks beside the plate. 

They did not speak during the meal. Wenjie was grateful for the silence. At least in his mind, he could escape this place and experience a sense of normalcy for the moment. Far too soon, he suspected, this illusion would shatter again. 

Neither the tea nor the water in the kettle had any substances clouding his consciousness. His body relaxed with each mouthful. For the moment, he felt transported back to the time when Xu Zhengqing had not yet shown him his true colors. 

After the shared meal, Mister Xu even granted him to stay in the room. While this did not diminish the terror Wenjie faced, it did allow him a break to regenerate, which he gratefully accepted. 

When he had taken the dishes away, Xu Zhengqing even brought him paper and stains to paint. Wenjie, however, did not touch any of it. He found himself unable to draw because his worries about Captain Luo and the memories paralyzed him too much. Not even Xu Zhengqing's temporary absence changed anything. 

Hours later, Wenjie believed, Mister Xu returned. He took him to his room and turned out the lights. Wenjie knew the procedure and his body slowly began to get used to Xu Zhengqing deciding when it was day and when it was night, unless he was losing consciousness due to mental stress.

This went on for what felt like an eternity until he found himself replacing Xu Zhengqing and Mister Xu with Uncle Xu in his mind. The realization produced sweats and increased his stress level. But he could no longer manage to resist.

Uncle Xu seemed to register this with favor, as he allowed Wenjie to stay longer in the beautiful room. The paralysis receded from his body and he finally even took the opportunity to draw. 

"I will have to leave you alone for a few days," Uncle Xu revealed to him one morning. "Ding Wei will take care of you then. If you're good, you'll get your necklace back as soon as I get back."

Wenjie said nothing in reply. A spark of hope stirred in the back of his mind, but it died out as quickly as it had come when Uncle Xu put the day's news on the table. The cover page completely pulled the rug out from under his feet. 

It showed a picture of Captain Luo and Officer Liao. Underneath there was a text, written in bold letters: Police Mourn Colleague's Death. Wenjie stared at the picture without reading the article. Tears gathered in his eyes. Of all the mean things Uncle Xu had come up with, this news hit Wenjie the worst. 

"This is not real," he sobbed. But why would Uncle Xu lie to him? "He can't be dead." Wenjie shook violently. "Say it's not true." Tearfully, he met Xu Zhengqing's gaze. 

Uncle Xu remained silent. 

Wenjie's lips quivered. Desperately, he crumpled the newspaper and threw it across the room in a high arc. He didn't want to believe this. It couldn't be true. 

"I know he was almost like a father to you," Uncle Xu countered. "It hurts. But you have me. I won't leave you."

Wenjie bit his lower lip. He felt hot and cold at the same time. 

Uncle Xu grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet. Then he took him to the dark room. Feeling powerless, Wenjie sank onto the mattress, where he remained in a daze. 

Captain Luo was dead. He would never go out to dinner with him again or be angry because he was worried about him when he was investigating on his own. There was' so much unspoken between them, he could never tell him. 

The light went out. Blackness settled in front of his eyes.

In his dream, Wenjie stood alone by the river. A body was floating there. It was the body of his father. As he approached the shore, the current turned the body and the dead man's face changed into that of Captain Luo. His eyes were fixed to the sky. Something broke inside of Wenjie and a thousand pieces of glass rained down on him.

to be continued...