1 The Fourth Murder

-Shen Wei-

It was late at night and Shen Wei, found himself still working in qualifying some student's essays for his last class. There were so many talented students that year, that he became immerse in their work, pleased that most of them had done quite well analyzing the the clinical case he had prepared for them, yet, when he open his desk drawer to finish the last students essay, he realize he had actually left them on his office.

He had attend a conference that afternoon from another college, so he forgot to brings the works with him before walking back to his dorm, now he had two options, either he grade the reaming essays early in the morning, as he was supposed to deliver the works already graded to all his students, tomorrow, just before the weekend or go for a quick walk to his office now and finish it all tonight.

The decision was quite simple, tomorrow he may be too busy to finish grading in time for his last group, so he end up taking the keys and leaving his room, located in the teachers' dormitory inside the campus of the Dragon City University. Shen Wei took the elevator to go down four floors, going out to the lobby and greeting the security guard of the building. The old man was kind hearted and as usual, he came to great him with a smile.

"Ah, professor Shen... goodnight. Anything I can help with?" The guard asked eagerly and Shen smiled back at him.

"Goodnight, Mr. Lee. I know it's a bit late, but I need to retrieve some documents I left on my office. I forgot to bring them with me when I left the office and I need them for tomorrow's classes." Wei said, a bit apolitically. He was aware that after some recent serial murders, the Dean had taken the decision to suspend night classes and put a curfew after six thirty for all students leaving inside the dorms or outside the University grounds.

However, he was not a student, but a professor and the killer only had women as victims so far and even if the killer had chosen to also hunt men too, he was more than capable to defend himself in case he needed it. He was in fact a collaborator to a special investigation department of the police and during some training drills, he had become a target to defeat, as no one so far had manage to do so, not even Chu Shuzhi or Zhao Yunlan, head Chief of the small unit, which was quite good at martial arts.

Thinking about Yunlan, the shameless handsome devil, only make his heart race, as his attraction for the man was unmistakable, yet irrational because it happen in an instant hit the first time he saw him, five years ago when he was first asked to join the team occasionally.

Then over the years, his attraction for the Chief of SID became stronger, evolving into love, but never materializing into a real relationship, mostly because he knew Yunlan's father was not exactly pleased with relationships between the same sexes and the last thing he wanted was for their already bad relationship between father and son to became even worse.

"Oh, you are so young, yet working quite hard... just give me a second to tell my partner I will escort you to your office..."

"That's not necessary Mr. Lee... I know its curfew, but my office is not that far and..."

"Nonsense, I will escort you, professor Shen. It's my job after all and it's time for me to do some rounds anyways. Just wait for me for just a few seconds..." The older man insisted and so Shen Wei waited, as he looked outside the glass door. It was already past eight in the night and although the campus was well illuminated, the night sky was cloudy, devoid of the shinning moon that usually tinted the ground with the moon rays.

It looked like it was going to rain soon, so he was glad that Mr. Lee was back to join him as he promise, just after less than a minute. They walked toward the teacher's office building, talking about the recent attacks horribly committed against young girls. He disliked serial killers the most, among those who committed crimes, because the complexity of their sick minds needed time to be properly analyze, time to see the pattern in full, time to see the common factor among the victims, which wasn't always plain too see and time to catch him/her, before another victim could be found or the killing evolved to something else, shortening the time between killings and shortening the chance to rescue the victim or prevent the killing for happening again.

They were the cruelest murders, carefully planned, carefully committed to avoid leave evidence behind, yet most of them were brutally controlled inside their sick and devilish minds. He had try his best to help catch those criminals, to save as much victims as he could, helping Zhao Yunlan and his team to catch them as soon as possible. He had not been called yet for the latest one, mostly because it had been ruled a serial murder just a few days ago, with the third victim been killed just a few blocks from the University, a brilliant student with a good future ahead of her.

"You knew her, professor Shen?" Mr. Lee asked him after he retrieve the forgotten works from his office.

"Not personally, she was not one of my students, but I saw her quite often at the library." Shen said as he closed his office.

"Will you be working for SID again? I honestly hope so, she was a student from this University and just as any victim, she deserves justice and you are such a genius..." Shen Wei smiled politely.

"Thank you, but I'm not a gen..." He stopped in his track as he felt a strong cold that run his back, a chill that almost paralysed him in the spot.

"Professor Shen? Are you alright?" The guard asked a bit worry for the sudden halt, but as the professor turned to look back, the lights of the small hall begin to flicker on and off all at the same time.

Shen Wei didn't looked up at the lights and wonder was wrong with them, as Mr. Lee did, because he knew the reason far too well. He had not experience that other side of the world in moths, yet he watched the girl at the end of the hall, half cover with her own blood he could even smell, with horror. He knew she was a ghost, he had always been able to see and sense them since he was a kid, so he was more than sure the girl was no longer among the living, yet his horror was not because she was a newly ghost, but because it was obvious she was killed... killed there, inside the campus.

"Mr. Lee, call the police right now. Tell them to come as soon as possible, we had the killer here and call an ambulance!" Shen Wei hastily said to the guard as he begin running toward the girl, which run away as he chase after her with his heart full of adrenaline. He followed her through the halls and the turns as fast as he could. Halfway, his phone ringed as he turned in a corner and already knowing who it was without the need to look at the caller's name, took it out in a hurry.

"Ah, Xiao Wei I was wondering if you..." Of course, it was none other than Zhao Yunlan, who just like him had a six sense, although his was not about seen ghosts, but of sensing him in troubles, like he was somehow bond to him.

"Yunlan, come here to the university as soon as possible, I think another students had been murder, you can trace my phone to the exact location..." Shen Wei hastily said, putting the phone back inside his jacket pocket still unhanged, ignoring Yunlan's concerned yells that were muffle by the fabric of his jacket. Soon, Shen Wei saw the girl stop in front of the door to a lab room.

She signal the door and Shen Wei stopped his mad dash, to calm himself first. If she was murder just a few minute ago, maybe he could still save her or at least catch the killer if he was still there. He looked around, but saw nothing more than the ghost girl still signaling the door. He open the door very slowly, his adrenaline just giving him the extra boost to ready his body to take action as soon as he enter.

The room was submerged in darkness, but he could smell the blood to the point it was overwhelming. Then a sudden movement behind the door caught his attention just in time to avoid the flask that was meant to hit his head. His agile movements also save him from the killers' knife, directed at his heart, yet as an expert in martial arts, he moved to grab the killer arm and force him to drop the knife, then he kick him, sending him backwards over a table who broke from under the sudden strong force and weight.

The loud sound of broken glasses, make Yunlan yell again from inside his pocket, yet Shen Wei was too busy to reassure him he was fine. They fought for a minute or so, yet Shen Wei was too good to be overwhelmed with the killer low level of martial arts and soon he knock him down to the floor with relative ease. He make sure the man was completely unconscious before he check on the girl's condition.

She was bleeding profusely closer to the green board, with two fatal wounds, one over her heart, the other over her neck, from which her blood had been spilled, covering most of the floor with it. He resisted the urge to throw up at the sight. Such a young girl, yet her life stolen in such a way. He was sure he had interrupted the killer from mutilating her, as the other girls had been, but he had not arrived soon enough to prevent her death, as the girl was beyond salvation, but at least he manage to catch the killer, which will free the girls spirit, at the very least.

She smiled at him before disappearing and Shen Wei smiled back, glad he could do at least that much for her. However, as he was about to take out his cell phone, he felt something sharp pierce him from his back. A great deal of pain assaulted him as he turned to face the killer, however, as he saw the one who stab him was not the man that was still unconscious on the floor, but someone else he was utterly shocked to recognize, he hesitated for a fraction of a second, out of pure surprise and disbelieve.

"You..." Shen Wei said just before he was hit on his head with a piece of wood from one of the tables broken and fell to the floor. The man sneered at him, licking the knife with his blood, like it was cover with some kind of strawberry syrup, just before the noise of coming people was heard. As Shen Wei closed his eyes, unable to keep himself conscious, the man ran away, leaving him to bleed to death or so he wished, because help was already on the way.

AN: Okay, I took this out of my system, so thanks for reading and give it a chance. This one will be a bit different, less playful, but their relationship even deeper. Hope it was good enough for a start, don't worry Shen Wei will survive this sneak attack and be sure Yunlan will take a very good care of him, after he give him a piece of his mind for scaring the hell out of him. Slow updates, take care. 😁😄😙