Wei met Yunlan again. That wasn't the original plan, but he found that his feet took him to the same part of town  where he had met him before, even if he had tried to fight it and quickly turned around, his treacherous feet would kept bringing him there, a part of him really wanted to see him again.

And sure enough there he was, Yunlan, who had thought the same thing and had finally found him.

Yunlan smiled that intriguing smile of his saying how lucky he was to meet him again, and "I've been looking for you, but that's ok, you're worth chasing after."

Even if Wei didn’t believe he was, his heart beat faster at those easy words.

Conflicted between his Envoy side who had to follow orders and his ShenWei side who only wanted to follow Yunlan forever, he could only tell himself that it was part of his mission after all, that to learn what kind of people were this Haixingians and find out more about other Dixingians was part of why he was here, so there was nothing wrong in talking to Yunlan...

So Wei asked him about his work... but he knew deep down that he was much more interested in his company that in what he might learn from his answers.

He discovered that this place was not as peaceful as he had thought at first, but he wasn't surprised, he had actually expected it, this world wasn’t much different from his and people would always find ways to hurt each other.

He listened intently to anything that was being said to him but kept dodging every question about himself, always redirecting the conversation on Yunlan, asking him instead about the kind of people he had to deal with and how dangerous it was.

"Are you worried about me?" Yunlan asked teasingly, then he put an arm around his shoulders playfully. "If you are, you should stay close to me to make sure I don't do anything stupid."

Wei was troubled by his careless attitude and shameless flirting, his heart liked it but his brain reminded him that he wasn't here to have fun, he told himself that he had a mission and he knew too well the consequences of making the king angry, he couldn't let himself be charmed by the man in front of him.

He chose to ignore the part of his brain that said too late.

"Be serious," Wei told him. "You shouldn't take danger lightly, you should value your life and take care of it, so not to make people who care about you worry."

Yunlan looked finally serious and stared intently at him. "You seemed worried, does that mean you care about me too?"

Wei didn't answer right away. He tried to fake indifference but he knew that it was useless; eventually he said, "I don't wish for you to get hurt."

"Then stay with me, and make sure that I don't."

Wei remained speechless, there was nothing that he could say out loud, he really wanted to stay with him and follow him for eternity, but he knew that he couldn't do that, it wasn't his choice and he should just stay away from the man, but he was not sure he could ever do that now.

Yunlan noticed his hesitation as well as the absence of a firm denial that he cared about him, so he moved closer to Shen Wei. He saw the hidden gasp and moved closer and closer until there was no more space between them.

Wei froze, watching that charming face so close to his, he knew that one more second and they would be kissing, he wanted to close his eyes and let himself go but after the first moment of surprise he turned his head the other way. He said, "I have to go," and basically ran away.

~~~~~

Chu went to meet Guo as they had agreed. He was a silent man and didn't talk much, but that didn't seem to be a problem since Guo talked enough for both of them.

Guo said that he had just been paid and they were now going to do some shopping, he said that he was going to visit some friends and he couldn't show up empty handed, so he lead him into a shop that sold clothes for children.

He bought 13 t-shirts size S, 9 size M and 4 size L, choosing them one by one murmuring children's names every time he picked one, then he lead him to an orphanage where a horde of children welcomed him loudly. He gave them the chosen shirts promising to bring sweets next time.

The children soon gathered around Chu, they rarely saw new people and kind of assaulted him with questions, pulling at him in all directions while he remained too stunned to say a word.

By the end of their visit, all the children screamed their disappointment at seeing them go, but Guo promised that they'll be back soon while Chu was busy lowering down the two small children that had took residence on his shoulders.

"I usually come here alone, I'm so glad that I've met you," Guo told him when they walked out.

~~~~~~~~~~

Every sunset the three men met again to report what they had learned. Wei didn't really have to, he was their superior and he only answered to the king, but he wanted to tell them, he welcomed that bit of human interaction.

The three of them told the others what had happened in a few words, leaving a lot of it out, most of all their own feelings; they could all sense that there was more in the others' stories, but they didn't ask questions.

Unfortunately none of that was something that would interest the king. He had been pleased to hear that the Envoy had executed an anarchist like Liu Pei, but after that there had been nothing important to report to him.

It had been two weeks since they started visiting Haixing but if the first week had provided them with a bit of knowledge on Haixing that had interested their king, the last week had brought no news.

For Wei it had been a week full of casual meetings with Yunlan.

For Chu a week of visits to hospitals or to lonely old people's houses where he listened to the stories of their lives, enjoying them much more than he would have thought. Guo brought him along every time, and old people loved the way the two of them listened intently to their every word, and Chu found every story interesting.

For Sang it had been a week when time had been spent thinking of one thing only: Wang Zheng. He had followed Wang anywhere, mostly watching her from afar, until she suddenly came up to him to confront him. He had lost her for a second and before he knew it he had a beautiful face looking up at him in a menacing way while pointing the barrel of her little gun to his crotch.

"Who are you? What do you want from me?" she had asked him.
He hadn't replied, he had only managed to raise his hands; she hadn't looked satisfied and had repeated her questions. He had only been able to murmur: "You're magnificent," and she had smiled, but hadn't removed the gun.

He knew then that he was hopelessly in love and would never get tired of her.
That was how they finally knew each other, and it wouldn't be the last time they met.