Wenjie was cold, freezing cold. On top of that, there was a growing feeling of nausea. The room he was in had no windows and apart from the chair he was tied to, there was nothing here but a mattress.

With a smug grin, Xu Zhengqing stood before him. "Are you looking for something?" Xu Zhengqing said as he pulled the tape from his mouth. "I'm not as careless as Madame Hong. That's why you won't find anything here that you can use to escape." His gaze wandered over Wenjie's body. 

No matter how much Wenjie racked his brain, he couldn't tell what Mister Xu was up to. Only one thing was certain: the police would not find him anytime soon, even if Captain Luo could do something with his morse code. He was at the mercy of Mister Xu. The smartest thing he could do in this situation was to play along and keep his eyes open for opportunities to escape.

Mister Xu smiled slyly. "I know what's going on in that little head of yours. You're already racking all your brain cells on how to get a message to Captain Luo, or escape from your prison."

Wenjie said nothing. His heart pumped adrenaline through his veins. 

"He'll be worried about you. What a tragedy. Oh, before I forget. A friend of yours has been asking about you."

Wenjie's eyes widened. The air seemed incredibly thin to him again. Panicked, he tugged at the shackles that held his wrists mercilessly. "Let my friends out of this," he almost shouted. 

At the same moment, the door opened. A young man with short hair, dyed silver-gray, leaned against the frame. In one hand he played with a folding knife. A cheeky grin graced his lips.

Wenjie's thoughts were racing. He felt hot and cold by turns. 

"You're worried about me?"

Wenjie blinked in irritation. "We're not friends." His lips quivered as he thought about Ding Wei, alias Xiao Dao, getting the idea of approaching Zhiyue again. "Don't you dare...."

"What isn't yet, may still become." Xiao Dao stepped into the room and approached him slowly. Like a predator would his prey, he circled the chair. Then he put away his knife and touched the backrest from behind. As he leaned down toward him, Wenjie could feel his breath. "You're not exactly in the position to make demands. How are you going to stop me from comforting your girlfriend, huh?"

Wenjie's hands began to tremble. His breath quivered. He opened his mouth to say something but barely brought a sound past his lips. "What do you want?" he hissed out between his teeth. 

"You know that. And you might start worrying more about yourself. Your girlfriend is fine. After all, she's at the university, not at an unknown place, tied to a chair, with a not-so-rosy outlook." Xiao Dao turned the chair around so that he now stood in front of Wenjie, looking down at him. "I've only seen her from a distance. She misses you. If you behave, maybe you can send her a sign of life someday."

Wenjie would have liked to reach out with his hand and slap Xiao Dao. But the tape was too tight. There was simply nothing he could do. "If you want to be my friend, you should take off the tape first. I can't leave here anyway." Especially not when both Xu Zhengqing and Xiao Dao were in the room, and who knew which guys were still standing guard in the building? 

"When you're allowed to move freely again is up to the boss. But you'll soon wish you hadn't rejected my friendship." Xiao Dao let go of him. "I'm only protecting my friends. And since we're not," he said with a shrug. Without another word, he left the room and the door slammed shut with a crash that went through Wenjie's spine. 

Again he found himself face to face with Mister Xu, who eyed him with a now almost thoughtful look. "You don't seem to know the situation you are in right now," he murmured. "But I have enough time to make you understand it." A long pause arose before Xu Zhengqing loosened the tape around his wrists. He didn't put much effort into it. 

Wenjie pressed his lips together and suppressed any sounds that wanted to come out of his mouth. The skin around his wrists was reddened and burning as if someone had put hot coals on it. But he didn't want to be embarrassed to show his pain. Mister Xu might have liked that. However, he could do without that. "I know I have no choice but to cooperate," he countered. 

Xu Zhengqing grabbed his battered wrists and squeezed. "That's just not good enough for me. I want your absolute obedience and loyalty."Wenjie swallowed the pain. Xu Zhengqing needed him alive and certainly in good shape. "If you harm my friends, you will get nothing from this. And if you break my wrists or my fingers like you tried to do to Liao Detong, I can't work for you anymore either"

Xu Zhengqing laughed. "Oh my, you have no idea what means I have at my disposal to break your will. What do I care about your friends?"

Wenjie felt a little queasy, but he still managed to keep his composure. "If I give you what you want, you can save your threats and resources." He didn't set out to find out what Mister Xu was going to do to break his resistance. "I can't leave here. You've made sure the police won't find me. You won't let me out of here anytime soon either. You still want the secret of the painting and you said you only need me to get it. What do I have to do? I will not refuse or try any tricks. Is that proof enough of obedience and loyalty?" He looked at him with an emotionless expression, hoping that Mister Xu would get involved. 

"No." Xu Zhengqing released his hands from his wrists and straightened up. "You're trying to get your head out of the noose because you know you have no other choice. But it won't work. Don't even try. I know you. I know what's going on in there." He then tapped Wenjie's forehead with a finger. "You're just waiting to betray me. Just like your father."

Then Xu Zhengqing grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet, only to push him down onto the mattress rudely a moment later. "If you want to convince me, you'll have to come up with something better than that." He turned on his heel and disappeared from the room, but not before turning off the light and locking the door. 



to be continued...