Darkness settled before Wenjie's eyes and enveloped him. No ray of light came inside because the door was perfectly set in its frame. The slit between the floor and the door was missing, plunging the entire room into a deep blackness. 

The sudden loss of his sense of sight created stress in his body, which manifested itself in an increased release of adrenaline. Wenjie closed his eyes and took three deep breaths in and out. This calmed his nerves, which were taut as wires. He was well aware of his situation. That was why he had been cooperative. Unfortunately without success. Mister Xu seemed to understand what was going on inside of him.

Wenjie concentrated on his remaining senses. With his hands, he could feel the beginning and the end of the mattress. This allowed him to get a rough orientation. He heard a low whirring sound. It was probably coming from the ventilation system installed somewhere on the ceiling. The air smelled fresh, due to the system that provided a constant air exchange. 

If there is a ventilation system here, there must be a ventilation shaft somewhere, he guessed. It would certainly be difficult to get into it without tools, but first, he had to find the light switch. The mattress was right next to the wall, which he had seen before. Therefore, he felt his way across the mattress to the wall to use it as a guide for his search. Slowly, he crawled along the wall until he came to a ridge, which was probably the door frame. 

From his sitting position, he would not be able to reach the switch. With his back against the wall, he supported himself with his hands on the floor and stood up carefully. He was not quite standing when his shoulder touched the switch. Wenjie breathed a sigh of relief, but the light remained off. 

He grabbed the door frame with one hand before turning sideways and feeling for the switch with the other. Several times he pressed the switch. It remained dark. Damn it, he thought. Xu Zhengqing must have turned off the lights in the room altogether via the fuse box, which meant that the ventilation system was not connected to the same power supply. 

Wenjie knelt on the floor next to the door. He doubted he would succeed in escaping through the door if he simply waited here until Mister Xu came back. The trick of hiding behind the door wouldn't work on someone like Xu Zhengqing as well. Then I'll just have to find the chair, put it up against the wall, and feel my way forward piece by piece. In the darkness, he would risk losing his balance on the chair and falling, but he couldn't think of anything else to do. In any case, sitting around idly was not an option. 

Finding the chair turned out to be much more difficult since he could no longer orient himself by the wall. The chair was somewhere in the middle of the room. And in the dark, one quickly lost one's orientation. Wenjie pushed the thoughts aside and fumbled his way across the floor. His knees began to ache after a while, as the constant rubbing across the floor put increasing strain on them. 

Wenjie didn't know how much time had passed when he felt a wooden chair leg. He had the second one in a moment, too. Now all he had to do was move the chair back to the wall. Stop. He paused in his position and listened into the darkness. Except for the whirring, he heard no sounds. 

From which direction did the whirring and the breeze come? That was where he should push the chair. But was it wise to do that now? Or should he better wait until he had light again? Then he could get his bearings. Because if his escape didn't succeed the first time, it certainly wouldn't do him any good. 

With a heavy heart, he groped his way back to the mattress. It wasn't particularly comfortable, which he sure was just as intentional as the light deprivation. If only he had listened to Captain Luo and not kept anything from him. Then he would not be in this precarious situation now. At the latest after Liao Detong warned him about Mister Xu, he should have spoken to Captain Luo. Frustrated, he pounded his fist on the mattress and leaned against the cold wall. 

Time passed and the soft buzzing in his ears increasingly clouded his sense of hearing. Fatigue befell his limbs and forced him to lie down on the mattress. It was quite uncomfortable since he was able to feel the springs through the fabric. Hopefully, Captain Luo can do something with the number I transmitted to him or will be able to catch Dai Mendge, he thought, as he tried to find an acceptable lying position. To no avail. Everywhere he turned, something always poked out through the fabric, making it impossible for him to sleep and eventually causing him to prefer the floor. The cold that drifted up through the floor added to the tension in his body but wasn't quite as uncomfortable as the mattress. 

At some point, he didn't know how much time had passed in the meantime, he lapsed into light sleep, broken only when the lights came back on and Mister Xu opened the basement door.

It took Wenjie a moment to get his bearings. Sleepily, he rubbed his eyes and sat up. His muscles were quite stiff and he had to get used to the bright light. 

Xu Zhengqing had brought a bowl of wonton soup and a cup of tea. With an almost affectionate smile, he squatted in front of him. Then he placed the bowl and cup on the floor in front of Wenjie. 

"Eat and drink something. I don't want you to collapse on me."

Wenjie reached for the warm bowl and risked a glance at the door, which was ajar. The hallway was empty. 

"I hear you're particularly fond of the wonton soup from that restaurant on Jinbao Street."

Wenjie listened up. "How do you know?"

"I have my eyes and ears everywhere, my boy."

Wenjie's breathing quickened. Was Xu Zhengqing just suggesting he had a mole in the police or had he paid someone at the hospital to spy on him? Or had he just stalked him so often that he had noticed where he liked to buy food? But more important was the question of whether they were near Jinbao Street and who had gotten the soup. Mister Xu probably not. Xiao Dao, perhaps. No, more likely Mister Xu's accomplice Dai Mengde. Then there would be a vague hope that the police were already on their trail. 

He carefully sipped the soup. It really tasted like the one from Jinbao Street. Gloom pressed on his heart. Under other circumstances, he would have been very happy about the soup. Not wanting to anger Mister Xu for taking the trouble to get him the soup, he began to eat. 

A comforting feeling of warmth spread inside him. It released the tension in his muscles and created a tingling sensation in his fingers. Strange, Wenjie thought, after eating the last spoonful. Until now, the soup had never caused a tingling sensation. And when he tried to put the empty bowl on the floor, it almost slipped from his grasp. 

Suddenly he felt incredibly hot. His vision blurred before his eyes. He tipped forward but never hit the ground.

to be continued...