3.10 Crimson paint

In the cloudless night a man walked towards a private bar, It wasn't particularly cold but the man still wore heavy, dark clothes to mask his presence. In the alley, he finally reached the inconspicuous entrance to the bar, the body gaurd obviously recognized him since he was a vip. The gaurd offered him a mask and said his usual line "No fights, No outside consumables. No electronics."

The man took the mask and raised his hands to allow the body gaurd to check him.

"lose the hood, you can have it once you are out." The body gaurd said.

The man obediently took off his hoodie and his shadowed face finally came to light under the neon sign lit up at the end of the alley.

It was a beautifully lined up face, straight nose, lidded eyes and a perfectly symmetrical face structure with dark brown hair. A beautiful face indeed. The gaurd though, behaved as if he was seeing something totally normal, not even a raise of an eye. The gaurd checked him and let him go inside.

Inside the club, a mind numbing music was playing and the air itself was hazy, as if inlaid with drugs. The man didn't even bat an eye to the strippers or the alcohol and walked further in towards a door. The man knocked thrice then waited for 2 seconds and knocked 7 times in a tune.

*click* The locked door opened from the inside and the beautiful man walked in to find three other masked people. It seemed that 2 were men and 1 was a women. There was a solemn air between them. Like they had a grudge against each other. The man walked in and locked the door behind him. The music from outside the room faded out, like the world outside and the world inside the room were two different worlds.

As soon as the door closed a masked man sitting in the room said "Young master, you heard what happened at the court today right? The detective later inquired me and I am sure I didn't mess up but there is a grave problem. Now that they have found the sculpture and about the fake sculpture it has complicated things for us." Saying this the man who spoke looked at the only women in the room accusingly.

The girl said in a guilty tone "I am sorry XingChen. I just wanted Xue Fan to face consequences for the construction of that building. I am sorry." It was like the women was in a trance, and would take accountability for anything as long as she didn't disappoint that beautiful man.

XingChen held out his hand indicating for the girl to stop speaking and looked at the man who spoke first saying "Su'er I am sure there are other things you wish to tell me, go on."

Xin Su spoke with his head low "The detective says he has found a part of the footage in which the sculpture moved." The man quickly looked as if pleading and said "But don't worry young master I will definitely retrieve it tonight. The detective is dumb enough to believe it was a ghost, so once I retrieve it, his doubts will naturally dispel."

XingChen said in an angry tone "Then what the hell are you still doing here? If you have nothing else to say then leave right now and make sure the footage doesn't cause me any problems." XingChen paused and looked at the women and said "you too, don't cause me any problems just make sure Mr.Lin does his job properly."

One man and one women simultaneously got up and left. There remained only 2 inside the room. The previous solemn atmosphere was nowhere to be found between the 2 men. It was more like a tactic understanding they had with each other.

"Xie An." XungChen said in a low voice like a guilty person.

"You don't have to play pretend, I will still work for you. I have played my part up to now, is there anything else you want me to do?" Xin An said in a cold voice.

XingChen tried to form a sentence but no words came out of his mouth.

Xin An sighed, standing up. He walked forward to gently pat XingChen's head but the words that came out of his mouth were harsh without pity "XingChen, my siblings are naive. They still see you as the young master of the man that helped us survive. Your father did a lot for us and it seemed right to serve you in his stead. Now the situation has changed. If tomorrow my siblings are in danger, I will leave you without a second thought. You can play your revenge game all you want but once it crosses my line, I'll leave you. Think carefully what you want to do from now on. There is still time. You can stop your intervention and let the case progress on it's own. Killing Bai Jiao and Lan Zhou is enough. This is my last warning to you, Young master."

After saying this Xin An left.

"Young master..." XingChen said in the quiet room. It sounded like the funniest joke XingChen had ever heard. It started out as a low chuckle but XingChen continued to laugh. A crazy person. No more like a pitiable vermin.

"Young master." He repeated this word as he laughed as if repeating this word would break a curse.

The man abruptly stopped laughing. In front of his eyes was an image of a man, who looked much like how he did, he was kneeling in front of another man begging for something. Why was my father the only one who had to suffer? Only one thought. This thought had bought XingChen to where he was today. Even if he wanted to turn back now, there is only an ever stretching wall behind him. He couldn't give up now. Being so close to his goal.

The man took a deep breath and walked out of the room.

-------x-------

Cool dark colors were spread on the canvas. It seemed to be nighttime in the scenery. The setting was a regular room of a college student. Not much furnishings. On the bed lay a man around his 20s sleeping ever so peacefully. On his face was not only peace, but pure belief that this peace would last. Beside the bed stood a man who looked exactly like the one sleeping. Like he was watching himself sleep. The man standing had a face full of love. Like he would do anything to protect the man sleeping.

At first this painting would look like a man obsessed with himself. But on closer look you'll see that in the blend of cool colors there was crimson red flowing at the right side of the canvas. The origin of this crimson paint came from the mirror reflection of the room. The mirror was painted in the far right corner and could easily go unnoticeable if not for the eye catching reds.

In the reflection, the man sleeping on the bed was now awake with 3 holes in his body spilling out hot blood. The blood had flown down from the bed and flowed through the mirror into the actual room. The face of that man in the mirror showed extreme terror and through the reflection he was looking at himself in the real room begging for help, the mirror clearly not following the laws of reflection. The man standing beside the bed, in the mirror had a knife with dripping blood, tightly clutched in his hands. His face showed pure craze to murder the one in front of him.

It was already evening when Shu XinYi had completed the painting, He looked at the final outcome and was satisfied with how it turned out. Xiang Li hadn't called at all today but he had sent a messege that he would be buzy today. Later on when Shu XinYi was cooking dinner at night he saw all what had transpired in the private room of that bar. Although snow could do live voice recording of almost everything inside the world, It could only video record or display the contents of 2 only people's perspective at a time.

The first one was Lan Cheng, since he was the main reason for the original goods facing a bad fate. The second one was Song XingChen. He decided the day Shu XinYi had realized Song XingChen is behind all this. So naturally he saw all that they talked about. When he heard the part where Xin Su told about the detective believing there are ghosts involved in this case, Shu XinYi finally understood what Xiang Li had been buzy with.

The next trial was in 3 weeks. Shu XinYi was almost sure that Song XingChen would take a drastic action in this time, unless he had a really powerful mental capacity. So Shu XinYi knew that he didn't have to work a lot to bring him out.

The next morning Xinag Li had come over when Shu XinYi woke up, Shu XinYi had given him access to the house. Shu XinYi was showing Xiang Li his newest painting when Xiang Li suddenly asked him "Who do you think is capable of making the fake sculpture?"

Shu XinYi thought for a while and said decisively "According to logic, only Song XingChen is capable."

Xiang Li then asked "Then, if logic is not used?"

Shu XinYi said "My answer would still be Song XingChen. But it is not possible for him to make a new fake sculpture fully. It was only 4 days after I finished that sculpture, I hosted the gallery. In 4 days, even a world class artist can't make a 94% accurate copy and It should be a given that Song XingChen should have a really good memory."

Xiang Li hypothesized "What if Song XingChen took pictures?"

Shu XinYi said "I don't know about anything else but, If I don't allow my art to be captured or seen by others, then it won't. Now now Mr.Detective why don't you focus more on me, now that you are with me."

Xiang Li smiled and asked "I have one last question, If you answer honestly then I will reward you. How do you know that the broken sculpture found at the construction site is the real one and not a fake?"

Shu XinYi smiled knowing he was in the wrong, although, Lan Xiao did mark all his work with a very specific signature seal, it was not a given that it couldn't be copied. To mark his art, Lan Xiao went as far as to have multiple custom made seals and different signatures so this could allow him to prove to the court that the broken sculpture was the real one, but Shu XinYi could tell that Xiang Li wouldn't believe it.

Shu XinYi still tried "Ah, Mr.detetive there is a signature seal on every art piece of mine and all the ones displayed in the gallery have the same one, you can check."

XiangLi smiled "But you didn't check the sculpture in court before you announced it real, so how did you know for sure that there must be a seal?" Xiang Li shook his head thinking of something and smirked asking "When did you know?"

Shu XinYi put both of his hands up in a give up stance saying "Okay, okay Mr.detetive, I lied. But that really is the real one because the "fake sculpture" doesn't exist, I know and you know so what's the point in knowing who knew first. Besides that, I lied. So are you going to punish me now?"

Xiang Li "That's a given." and well there were no questions asked and Shu XinYi was punished several times in several positions.

To Xiang Li it didn't matter if Lan Xiao had killed someone, he would make sure that no harm comes to him regardless. Much less did he care whether his XiaoQi was scheming something. If he wants to play then I can only play along. Xiang Li was suprised but not taken aback by his thoughts. He trusted XiaoXiao even more then he had anticipated.

The next day Xue Yao called Lan Xiao, for a double date. Shu XinYi suggested that they meet up at the house, since Lan Cheng still didn't know that he was going out with Xiang Li. So he could give the excuse that Xiang Li was there to film. Xue Yao agreed, they seemed to be happy. Maybe the events of the court hadn't settled in or perhaps they were anticipated, hence adaptable. Whatever the case, if Xue Yao made a decision then Shu XinYi won't interfere unless it intercepted him.

Lan Cheng had moved back to his home almost a few weeks ago, Mrs.Lan had too, since her home was nearer to the company. But both of them visited more often then what the original goods got, atleast from Lan Cheng.

It was a day off for Xiang Li, he just went to report in the morning and then came back to Shu XinYi. Since Shu XinYi had invited them home, he would have to prep dinner so he texted Lan Cheng a list saying "Gege, bring these things on your way here ok. Oh and don't be late, I can't start cooking unless you bring these things."

Lan Cheng replied in a while "Sure, I'll help you cook."

Shu XinYi thought a little and then wrote "Oh, Gege I am shooting with my cameramen today and I had to let him stay since I wanted to finish. So I invited him to dinner as well."

Lan Cheng replied almost instantly "Your cameramen, you mean that detective? No way, send him away."

Shu XinYi used old tricks "Gege (｡•́︿•̀｡), I already invited him. Can't he stay?"

Lan Cheng "Whatever, but this is a one time thing. I don't want you getting friendly with that detective."

Shu XinYi vaguely said "Thanks, oh and bring cashews as well, I forgot to add that in the list."

Shu XinYi looked up from his phone at Xiang Li who was cleaning the studio while Shu XinYi sat on the table.

"My brother and Yao'ge are coming over."

Xiang Li didn't react much saying "Hmm, I'll help you cook."

Shu XinYi was a bit curious so he asked "Don't you dislike gege?"

Xiang Li looked at XiaoXiao in confusion saying "No. Why would I?"

Shu XinYi smiled saying "Oh nothing, just that there seemed to be bad blood between you 2 in the mall that day."

Xiang Li continued cleaning as he said "Not really, On the contrary I am happy that you have such a brother. He cares about you and that was the reason he might have resented me that day. In any case, I am not a child so I understand. You can introduce me to your family whenever you feel comfortable."

Shu XinYi hummed and didn't say anything, thinking that no words were needed but it seemed that Xiang Li had become a little nervous at his lack of response.

Xiang Li removed his apron and went to wash his hands then he came back to XiaoXiao, who was sitting on the on the counter top, using his phone and searching recipes. Shu XinYi didn't realize until Xiang Li held his hands that he came to acknowledge the situation.

Shu XinYi and Xiang Li still haven't confessed properly to each other and given the situation they were in, it was hard to just come to terms with each other that way. So they had just hung around each other, being comfortable around each other. So Shu XinYi thought that they were good like this.

But now looking into Xiang Li's eyes as he held his hand, Shu XinYi understood that Xiang Li was feeling insecure. Who knows when the correct time to confess is? Right now?

Shu XinYi smiled looking at Xiang Li struggling for words. He held Xiang Li's face with his palms and said with nothing but clarity in his eyes "What are you worried for, I have already imagined a lifetime with you. Not as my manager or cameramen or whatever but as my lover, Will you?"

At this Xiang Li's eyes cleared up and he said without any hesitation "Yes. I will. I love you Lan Xiao."

"I love you too Xiang Li. Please take care of me."

Although it was a very subtle confession, both of them were true to their feelings.