Chapter Text
The scream of a fire alarm broke through Zhao Yunlan’s sleep and dragged him into waking. This wasn’t an unusual occurrence for him, so after the initial burst of adrenaline had faded he rolled over in an attempt to get at least a few more minutes of rest.
Sadly, he wasn’t to be so lucky and eventually gave up, ceding victory to the still ongoing alarm that seemed determined to sink into every inch of the morning air. Groaning out of bed, he picked up the first items of clothing he could see from the pile of clean laundry on the floor and walked to the bathroom to get ready for the day. At least the shower should hopefully drown out the majority of the noise.
By the time he had left the bathroom the alarm had finally stopped. Internally breathing a sigh of relief he walked over to the kitchen to locate something that could serve as breakfast. He struck gold when he checked in the cupboards, finding a packet of instant noodles which as a bonus didn’t even seem to be out of date. As the kettle boiled he made a note to himself to try and buy some more today so that he’d have something to eat in the evening.
Once he’d finished his meal he left the small apartment and locked the door behind him. This turned out to be a mistake as the heavy odour of ozone immediately assailed him. Zhao Yunlan almost found himself missing the fire alarm. Covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve he walked along the corridor, heading towards the origin of the smell and presumably also the cause of whatever had set off the alarm.
The end of the corridor it opened out onto a balcony, which itself constituted the second floor of the SID. As he reached it the smell became all the more pungent. The question of what had caused the smell was immediately solved by Zhao Yunlan when he caught sight of the popcorn machine sat on the centre table being scrutinised by a manic-haired Lin Jing. It looked fairly dejected, covered in a thin layer of residue from the fire extinguisher that had yet to be blown away by the breeze from the open windows.
The metal stairs rang out with the sound of his footsteps as Zhao Yunlan descended them, causing the assembled crowd of Lin Jing and Zhu Hong to look up. The latter looked exasperated and her mood did not improve upon noting Zhao Yunlan’s presence. “Only 20 minutes late today, that must be a new record!”
“Aiya Hong-jie, you’re just too rude. I’m not that late!” Zhao Yunlan quickly decided to switch the focus of the conversation to the other one at fault here. “So Lin Jing,” he draped an arm over his shoulder, “What did you do to our popcorn maker this time? You know that’s official SID property you’re damaging.” He ignored the scowl Zhu Hong shot at him for nimbly side-stepping out of the spotlight to shift it onto someone else.
Lin Jing shifted his glasses up his nose and continued to poke at the broken machine. “I was testing out a new invention, a battery of sorts. In theory it should gather and store ambient magical energy which it can then use to power electrical devices, like a generator. It didn’t quite work, I think I need to add more dimensions to the mechanical manifold? Then the energy will have more paths it can take so I can keep it looping within longer without it escaping.”
Zhao Yunlan understood none of this, but to his credit he stood there and nodded through the entire explanation, the perfect picture of someone listening intently. In reality he was just hoping to keep Lin Jing talking long enough to distract Zhu Hong from his tardiness, but it wasn’t as if he hadn’t already spent several years in Lin Jing’s presence, listening to him methodically explain the minute intricacies of the workings of magic and yet still understanding none of it.
As Lin Jing continued to muse on the mathematics required to not blow up the popcorn machine whenever he next tried his hand at this specific invention, the corded phone set into the wall rang and Zhu Hong took the opportunity to escape Lin Jing’s one-sided conversation. Zhao Yunlan released Lin Jing’s shoulders from his grasp but continued standing there, having a feeling that his presence would be required to deal with whatever the phone call was about. After speaking for a minute she hung up and replaced the phone. As she walked back over Zhao Yunlan poked Lin Jing and he stopped talking, likely only just noticing Zhu Hong’s absence.
When Zhu Hong spoke, Zhao Yunlan’s prediction was confirmed. “The bureau just called in a case. Talismans again. Nobody hurt but they want us to check it out to make sure it’s safe.”
“Again?” At his dismayed look Zhu Hong only nodded. Zhao Yunlan sighed. “All right then, you have the address? I’ll grab Lao-Chu and Xiao-Guo and we’ll drive over and check it out. Give the newbie some field experience.”
As he strode off to accomplish this, Zhao Yunlan noted that at the very least this meant he’d get the chance to stop off at a shop and pick up some more food on the way back. He might be besieged by paperwork later but at least he wouldn’t starve doing it. Probably.
Zhao Yunlan hated cheap talismans. Half of them didn’t work and when it came to the few that did, the magic was never properly bound within them, always itching for a way to escape and often finding one. Properly binding energy to prevent it from exploding out of its constraints required skill and was delicate, painstaking work. Very few were capable of storing magic in such a way that it could survive for more than a few hours without dissipating, and the work of anyone who could didn’t come cheap. Hence the existence of cheap talismans, made en masse and all the more affordable for it. It wasn’t as if it was really possible to properly regulate them either, and any attempts in that vein just ended up stuck in bureaucratic purgatory without hope of ever reaching the light of day.
So instead, while those up above with their cheap suits and fancy offices partook in their endless debate over the correct wording for legislation which, once discovered, would perfectly delineate between the dangerous and the benign, it was left to the SID to clean up the mess whenever shoddily made magic went awry. When Zhao Yunlan was lucky that would be at most two or three times a month. This was the second this week and there were still three days to go. Zhao Yunlan hated cheap talismans. With a passion.
He had to give some credit to whichever cheap hack had made this particular talisman though, because it had technically done what it was meant to do. According to the report he’d read on the drive over, what had been hung up in this car had been a talisman that would keep an area around it warm. Sadly, warm as defined by this particular talisman ended up being several hundred degrees warmer than most would prefer, which is why Zhao Yunlan was now staring at the newly blackened and crumbling chassis of what had once been a car. Luckily no one had been in it at the time, and the car itself had been sitting on the side of the street in one of the less busy areas of the city so it hadn’t done any real damage. Even so, just because the talisman had gone up in flames once didn’t mean that it couldn’t do so again, which is why the SID had been called to the scene to make sure everything was safe and that any residual energy had fully dispersed.
Since Zhao Yunlan couldn’t innately detect magic like its users could, he was mostly here because of procedure while Chu Shuzhi did the actual work. Or at least, Zhao Yunlan assumed he was doing work. He mostly seemed to be walking around the burnt out husk and staring intently at it while Guo Changcheng followed his every move, intermittently writing in his small notebook. The latter had as much magical talent as Zhao Yunlan did, but evidently that still wasn’t stopping him from trying to absorb every hint of knowledge he could glean from the other members of the SID out of a determination to be as good at his job as he could be. Or something. Maybe the kid just really liked following and looking at Chu Shuzhi.
Sighing, Zhao Yunlan absent-mindedly rocked back onto the heels of his shoes, casting his gaze around the area. Across the street from him there was a man, short dark hair and glasses, smartly dressed, and staring right at him. The moment they made eye contact, the man turned around and started walking briskly along the path. Quickly checking to make sure there weren’t any cars coming towards him - luckily it was a fairly quiet area and there were none that he could see - Zhao Yunlan jogged across the road towards the retreating stranger.
“Hey!” At hearing his shout, the man in front of him paused. Zhao Yunlan took this opportunity to catch up, stopping a few paces behind him. The man slowly turned around to face Zhao Yunlan, looking directly into his eyes with a pleasant yet unreadable smile. The intensity of his gaze was at odds with the perfectly curated polite serenity that the rest of his face bore.
For a moment Zhao Yunlan couldn’t think, knocked speechless by some strange flicker of familiarity, as if this wasn’t the first time he’d felt the weight of this gaze that felt as if it could see right into his core. Feeling strangely on the spot, Zhao Yunlan blinked, taking a second to reorient himself and remember why he was there. Right. The case.
“You see any of what happened there?” As he said this Zhao Yunlan gestured by turning his upper body to face the car, motioning with his hand towards its ruined carcass for maximum effect. He aimed a disarming grin at the man for good measure, hoping that if he couldn’t find anything out about what had happened then he could at least coax his number out of the man.
The man’s eyes flicked to the car, before shifting to the pavement at his feet and returning to stare into Zhao Yunlan’s own, accompanied by the ghost of a polite smile. “No, I apologise. I’m out on a walk and just stopped out of idle curiosity, I’m sorry I can’t help you shed any light on the situation.”
Zhao Yunlan grinned in response. “Ah, no need to apologise! We already know what happened, I just saw you across the street and was curious.” The man looked down at this, seemingly embarrassed. A faint redness tinted the tops of his ears in a way that Zhao Yunlan could only describe as endearing.
Sadly, it was at this moment when his responsibilities came to drag him back down to earth. Guo Changcheng’s voice drifted across the street, faintly registering in the back of Zhao Yunlan’s mind. “Hey, Chu-ge, look here...”
Moments later this was followed by the unmistakable sound of something exploding, and Zhao Yunlan turned around just in time to catch sight of a pillar of flame retreating back into the car. Chu Shuzhi was holding onto the back of Guo Changcheng’s collar with his hand, luckily having been able to pull him out of the way in time.
Relieved at seeing that neither of the two were in any immediate danger – the fire was already barely visible – Zhao Yunlan turned back to face the stranger, opening his mouth to continue the conversation. To his surprise he was greeted with the view of an empty street in front of him, completely bereft of any mysterious men in suits. Zhao Yunlan looked around, turning in a circle as if doing so would somehow reveal some kind of clue about the identity or location of the stranger. His cursory search turning up empty, Zhao Yunlan sighed, shaking his head before resigning himself to the knowledge that unless he secretly turned out to be a criminal mastermind, the chances of him running into the man again were slim to none.
Walking back to the car, he noted that luckily neither of the two standing by it seemed to be harmed, although Guo Changcheng looked even more frightened than usual. “Any more unexpected explosions on the forecast for today or have you both finished?”
Chu Shuzhi looked up, shaking his head and shooting a glare at Guo Changcheng before responding to Zhao Yunlan. “No, that was the last of it. Everything’s dissipated now, it’s safe.”
Zhao Yunlan nodded in response. “Good, we’ll notify the owners once we get back. Xiao-Guo, write up the report and once you’ve done that you can reread through the official guidance on how not to get blown up by volatile magic.” He walked over to his own car which was luckily undamaged by the recent explosion. As the other two followed and got in the car after him, Guo Changcheng stuttering and apologising repeatedly as he did so, he closed his eyes and breathed out, hoping that the remaining half of the week would be less eventful.
Zhao Yunlan wasn’t paying much attention to the voices, instead just letting their familiarity wash over him. He was sat on what, in his mind, was the most comfortable of the SID leather sofas with his feet propped up on the table, customary lollipop already in his mouth for him to toy with absent-mindedly in concentration.
His job meant that he met new people regularly. Admittedly his job also meant that the people he met were always embroiled in some disaster or another, and as such not exactly the best people to get to know, but he did meet them nonetheless. So, for Zhao Yunlan, running into some stranger on the job really wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, even if that person happened to be good looking. And had mysteriously vanished. Yet neither of those were what Zhao Yunlan kept on coming back to in his mind. The disappearing was suspicious, sure, and he had been objectively hot. But that wasn’t what had stuck with him the most. That would be the gaze of the man. The way his eyes had burned and seemed to pierce right through to the core of Zhao Yunlan. Who was this man that he knew he had never met before, couldn’t have met before without remembering him, and yet looked at Zhao Yunlan with such intensity that he’d almost forgotten how to breathe under its weight.
As he stared off into the distance, attempting to map the answers to the fragments of his thoughts, the conversation broke through his reverie, tugging his mind away from the puzzle he was now determined to solve.
“I’m just saying, I don’t understand why no one has tried to do anything to ban them. Letting just anyone who thinks they’re able have free reign to make and sell whatever talismans they want is stupidity. They’re a science, and they need to be made properly, otherwise you’re just asking for something to go wrong and then we’re the ones who have to go in and fix it when it all inevitably blows up in someone’s face!” Lin Jing hated cheap talismans even more than Zhao Yunlan did. For Zhao Yunlan it was more about the danger they posed, he couldn’t really care less about who was making them and it wasn’t as if he’d never had to deal with the results of someone who ‘knew’ how to properly make talismans messing up. Lin Jing, however, held a lot of pride in his training and the time it had taken him to become as talented a magic user as he was – the top of his field as he would often take great pains to point out – and so he took people casually making cheap and often volatile talismans as a personal affront.
Zhu Hong cut across him. “Well sure, cheap talismans are bad, but not everything can be reduced to a science. Not everything should be! The Snake Tribe have been making talismans for centuries and you don’t see us setting cars on fire just because we don’t make them the way your ‘science’ says we should.” This sort of disagreement between the two of them was pretty commonplace, and Zhao Yunlan had learnt long ago that it was best to stay out of it. Neither one had managed to change the others mind yet and the chances of that ever happening were looking slimmer with every day.
“But when you break it down everything is science – even your shapeshifting is just one we don’t understand yet.” Zhao Yunlan couldn’t see his face from this angle but he could picture Lin Jing’s face as he said this: eyes wide and animated, the curiosity and excitement that talking about his research always gave him shining clearly through his face. “Magic and science aren’t opposites, they’re just two sides of a single coin that we haven’t properly figured out yet, but it’s only a matter of time until someone does.”
“And by someone you mean you?” Zhu Hong threw back, the incredulity thick in her voice. Zhao Yunlan sighed internally, preparing to turn around and cut into the conversation before it devolved too far into bickering. He was almost amazed with the fervour that they held their views because despite also dealing with magic on a daily basis, Zhao Yunlan had never found himself too concerned with the how or the why of it. When all was said and done what could knowledge of the source of magic do to stop a cursed dagger as it was spinning towards him? What could it do to deal with any of the numerous cases that crossed the desks of the SID? As long as Zhu Hong’s magic and Lin Jing’s scientific form of the same worked and didn’t cause trouble for him that was all he cared about.
Luckily, before Zhao Yunlan could make what even he knew would be an ill-advised attempt to break apart the argument, Wang Zheng stepped in to mediate. He hadn’t noticed her enter the room but by now he was used to having a semi-corporeal co-worker to the point where he was rarely surprised by her sudden appearances. The same could not be said for Guo Changcheng who still continued to make yelps of terror even after several months. “Whatever you want to call it, magic works; whether it’s your clockwork, Lin Jing, or your shapeshifting, Zhu Hong. Neither way of looking at it is better than the other, and only with understanding of both viewpoints is it possible to truly appreciate it.”
Zhao Yunlan heard a small huff of annoyance from Zhu Hong but she stayed silent, as did Lin Jing. Both of them knew that Wang Zheng was more talented than either of them could ever hope to be and as stubborn as they were they both knew a losing argument when it was staring them in the face.
Now that the crisis had been averted, Zhao Yunlan settled back into his mind, thoughts drifting back towards the mysterious man who’d been watching him. Or, strictly speaking he’d probably been looking at the car, but a man could dream. Sadly his train of thought was once again interrupted, this time by a finger rudely prodding into his shoulder. Zhao Yunlan opened his eyes and turned his head to give a withering look at Da Qing, who was draped across the back of the couch as usual.
“Hey Boss, why do you get to nap at work but if the rest of us do it you dock our pay?”
Before Zhao Yunlan could defend his honour and standing as Chief of the SID and point out that he was very clearly taking a break to consider the intricacies of the latest case (not to mention the fact that somehow his threats had never managed to deter Da Qing from spending half the working day asleep on various surfaces), Guo Changcheng spoke up: “Chief Zhao met a man today!”
Da Qing’s reaction to this was instantaneous, his eyes lighting up with curiosity that was even worse disguised than the way the rest of the team were clearly now hanging onto every word. Nothing was worse than having nosy friends. Zhao Yunlan groaned dramatically, lifted a cushion from the sofa, and tossed it in the vague direction of Guo Changcheng. It hit its mark – Zhao Yunlan was fairly practised at this by now - but sadly it didn’t change any of the past few seconds and the members of the team present continued looking at him expectantly and with unbridled curiosity at the prospect of new gossip.
A wide grin split across Da Qing’s face. “Zhao Yunlan, it hurts me that you didn’t feel you could confide in your oldest and dearest friend. How come the newbie knows more about your life than I do? Anyone would think you didn’t value our friendship,” Da Qing clutched at his chest dramatically, a betrayed expression on his face, “The time we’ve spent together! How could you do this to me?”
Zhao Yunlan was not amused. “What Xiao-Guo meant to say,” and saying this Zhao Yunlan shot another stern glare at the boy in question, “Was that I spoke to a potential witness as a routine part of the case.”
Da Qing’s grin grew even wider and he pulled out his trump card. “So he wasn’t hot?”
In response Zhao Yunlan swung one of the remaining cushions towards Da Qing, attempting to catch him with it. Sadly trying to hit Da Qing with any kind of object was a battle that had been lost even before it had begun. Da Qing jumped back off the sofa and shifted seamlessly into his feline form, landing perfectly on four limbs and darting off towards the kitchen. His laughter could still be heard even after he’d left the room.
Zhao Yunlan shook his head in despair, standing up and bringing himself to his full height before stretching. He turned on his heels, looking up at his team. “What are all of you still doing standing around here for? You’re not being paid to have fun and gossip.”
At his words everyone immediately looked down or walked off, pretending to find something to busy themselves with. Well, almost everyone. Zhao Yunlan walked towards his office, past the still awkwardly frozen figure that was Guo Changcheng. Next to him, Chu Shuzhi plucked the cushion that he was still gripping tightly from his hands and tossed it back to its home on the sofa before turning towards his desk and dragging Guo Changcheng with him.
Looking down at the paperwork lying on his desk, Zhao Yunlan groaned, inwardly cursing cheap talismans and their makers even more.