Chapter Text
Shen Wei was in the middle of a lecture when there was a knock on the door. It opened moments later and Professor Ouyang came in.
“Excuse the interruption.”, he said apologetically.
“Not at all,”, Shen Wei said, though he did mind a bit. He didn’t like being interrupted when speaking on an important topic, but customs had to be upheld.
“Please come in.”, he said then. “Everyone, this is Professor Ouyang, the best biological engineer Dragon City has to offer.”
Professore Ouyang came to the front of the room and bowed to the students.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your lecture. I was here on an appointment and couldn’t resist the chance to see your teacher here.”
Shen Wei smiled politely. He didn’t like all the praising of each other, but he wasn’t really in a place not to do it, so he just went along.
The students seemed to be excited though and one of them even raised his hand. Shen Wei gestured to him to ask his question.
“Professor Ouyang, can I ask what you are working on right now?”
Ouyang seemed to be grateful for this question and started explaining an experiment he was working on. Shen Wei listened attentively, though he noticed that Ouyang was pretty vague in some areas. Probably due to the fact that he worked in a research institute that belonged to the government and he was not allowed to talk in detail about his work.
Suddenly Shen Wei felt a pain in his neck and only realized afterwards that Professor Ouyang had moved very quickly. With a syringe in his hand, he had stabbed Shen Wei at the side of his neck and squeezed the liquid into his veins. At first Shen Wei couldn’t react at all. He was completely caught off guard. He had not been particularly on guard at the moment, given that he was at the university and was giving a lecture. There’s not a lot of danger in this… usually.
Dimly, Shen Wei heard shocked noises from the students. Then he felt his body go numb. He felt dizzy and only barely managed to keep himself upright by holding on to the desk in front of him. Ouyang was struggling with something in his pocket and Shen Wei saw that he pulled out another syringe. This time he knew the stab was coming but he still couldn’t do anything about it. His arms just wouldn’t move anymore. A new wave of dizziness hit him and he felt his knees give in. He fell to the floor, thankfully falling sideways so he wouldn’t hit the floor face first. In his blurry vision, he saw two of the students get up and hurry over to him. Then they were held back by some dark figures that he couldn’t make out clearly. But he was sure no help was coming.
One of his arms finally answered his call and he could slowly move it to his neck, trying to shield himself from another stab. But it was useless. Professor Ouyang, on seeing that Shen Wei was still conscious, got out a third syringe, forced Shen Wei’s hand away and stabbed him again. Shen Wei felt his vision go dark. Before he lost consciousness, he whispered a name, that was all he could think about. Just that one name, the one man who could help him now.
~+~
The students didn’t know what to do. They just saw their teacher getting knocked out by another professor. It all went so fast that none of them could really react. They heard their teacher whisper “Yunlan.” No one, except for Li Qian knew a face to that name. Then Professor Shen lost consciousness. His body lost all tension and he lay there helpless.
The few students who had actually gotten, trying to help Professor Shen, were stopped when the door opened again and six soldiers, holding machine guns, walked in. they stopped 5the two students trying to protect Professor Shen and then ordered all the students to stand at the far side of the classroom. All of them complied immediately, way too scared to do anything else.
“I apologize for this mess.”, Professor Ouyang said to them. “But this is for your own safety. Professor Shen is not what he seems to be.”
That was the only explanation they got. After that two soldiers grabbed Professor Shen and carried him out of the room.
Li Qian was so shocked, like a few other students, she was just standing around, trying to comprehend what was happening. But other students immediately went to other classes and told the teachers what had just happened. In a short while, the students of Professor Shen’s class were surrounded by other people asking questions over questions.
One of the other teachers called the police. All of them were stunned that something like this had happened at their university. The few policemen that arrived took statements, but seemed very uninterested in the whole incident.
For Li Qian it felt like they already knew that this would happen. And none of them seemed like they would follow up on this case. Maybe they were ordered not to and to just keep up appearances. Li Qian wasn’t a big conspiracy person, but all of this felt strange. The policemen just felt off somehow.
So finally, she made it home. Immediately she went to her desk where she still kept Zhao Yunlan’s business card. She didn’t really know what his job was, he was somehow police but somehow separate from them. It didn’t matter. All she knew was that Professor Shen and Zhao Yunlan were close friends. She saw Zhao Yunlan in Professor Shen’s office more times than she could count, at this point.
Li Qian got out her phone and typed in the number. The phone rang six times until she heard Zhao Yunlan’s voice.
“Hello?”, he asked, sounding sleepy.
“Mister Zhao?”, Li Qian asked. “This is Li Qian, I’m one of Professor Shen’s students.”
“Oh yeah yeah, I remember you. What’s up?”, Zhao Yunlan asked.
“Something happened today. We had a class with Professor Shen and then Professor Ouyang came in. He knocked Professor Shen out with some kind of drug, then soldiers came in and took him away.”
“What?”, Zhao Yunlan screamed, sounding extremely angry and alarmed.
“Tell me everything that happened. In detail!”, he said then.
Li Qian complied and told him everything she remembered, down to the police who seemed off. She had told Zhao Yunlan about a ghost and magical family heirloom in the past, so she felt like she could tell him that without being laughed at.
Zhao Yunlan asked her a couple of follow up questions to clarify some details. Then he hung up.
~+~
Zhao Yunlan stormed into the main room of the SID.
“Everyone, we have a situation.”, he called and everyone there gathered around him.
“I just got a call from one of Shen Wei’s students. He has been drugged and kidnapped. I don’t know where to.”
All of them were silent and listened. They seldom saw their boss so upset.
“Pull up security cameras, everything you can get your hands on. Find out where they brought him!”
Zhu Hong, Lin Jing and Wang Zheng sprinted to their desks, getting to work.
“Lao Chu, Xiao Guo, you come with me to the university. Let’s ask around. Maybe someone saw something that helps us.”
Gou Changcheng grabbed his bag and his notebook and sprinted after the other two. The drive to the university was frightening. Zhao Yunlan seemed to have forgotten that red lights and speed limits existed.
~+~
Shen Wei slowly regained consciousness. At first he only felt cold. He wanted to move his arms and curl up to warm himself. Then he notices he couldn’t move. There was something sharp cutting into his wrists. He tried to move his legs and his ankles found the same resistance. What was going on? He started to panic. He was so cold, he couldn’t move, he didn’t know where he was.
Shen Wei tried to open his eyes, which proved to be a difficult task and when he finally managed, he had to close his eyes quickly again. It was so bright. It felt like the light shot daggers into his eyes. What the hell was going on? He needed to calm down. Panicking wouldn’t do him any good now. Slowly he turned his shallow gasps into deep, calming breaths. Shen Wei’s heart rate slowed down a bit and he was finally able to think. Then he remembered what had happened at the lecture. Professor Ouyang had drugged him. After that he was probably brought somewhere else.
Why would Ouyang do something like that? His heart felt like it fell through his stomach when he realized what the reason was. Professor Ouyang was studying Dixingren biology. That was something he had found out recently. He didn’t know the specifics of his work, but it had definitely something to do with Dixingren. Had Professor Ouyang found out that Shen Wei was Dixingren himself? Shit. What did he plan to do?
“Professor Ouyang, he’s regaining consciousness.”, Shen Wei heard a voice close to him say. Busy footsteps came closer.
Shen Wei tried to open his eyes again and the light was a little less painful this time. He forced himself to keep his eyes open even though he was hardly able to see anything. He only saw the bright light, then three shadows came into his vision. One of them was probably Ouyang and one of the others was probably the someone who had just spoken.
“Where am I?”, Shen Wei croaked. He found his throat to be as dry as parchment.
Everything hurt.
“You’re in one of our research facilities.”, Professor Ouyang said matter of factly but provided no further explanation.
Then he felt someone pull the eyelids of his left eye apart and was attacked by an even brighter light. Shen Wei tried to turn his head away and lift his arms to fight this man off. However, he was reminded that his arms couldn’t move and felt the sharp metal dig into his skin. Then the light was shown into his right eye. Again, he couldn’t really fend it off.
“Pupils are reacting normally.”, the voice, that had spoken before, said now.
“Wha… What’s going on.”, Shen Wei asked, who was still very confused about the whole situation.
“Take a look at yourself, I’m sure you can figure it out.”, Ouyang said.
“You’re smarter than all of us, aren’t you?”, he added spitefully.
What did he mean with that comment?
Shen Wei struggled to open his eyes again. He tried to lift his head and look around. His head felt like it was filled with lead, but still he managed and looked down himself. Even though his vision was still blurry, he could see that he was dressed in a paper clinic gown, which ended at his thighs. He was strapped to a metal table with cuffs for the arms and legs out of the same material.
Around him he could see three people. Professor Ouyang and probably an assistant on one side. On the other side was the person who was still holding a small flashlight. This must be the person who had checked his eyes. He could also see some medical tables distributed around him. They had a sterile fabric draped over and various instruments on top of them, but he couldn’t make out what kind of instruments there were.
“You thought you were so clever, fooling all of us.”, Professor Ouyang said then.
Shen Wei could hear so much hate and disgust in his voice that it actually scared him.
“Did you think you could fool us forever? Making us think you’re human? Normal, just like us?”
Ok, so this was definitely about him being Dixingren. But how had they found out? He was so careful about it. Sure, Zhao Yunlan had found out, but they also had spent a lot of time together. In many attempts to keep Zhao Yunlan safe, Shen Wei had to be reckless, so it had only been a matter of time until he found out. But he didn’t think he ever even had a situation with Professor Ouyang where he had to cover up that he was the black cloaked envoy. He couldn’t think of a single thing that would make Ouyang suspect him.
Zhao Yunlan had actually reacted a lot better than Shen Wei had expected, when he found out Shen Wei wasn’t human. He had feared Zhao Yunlan would hate him and be disgusted by him. Zhao Yunlan only saw the worst of Dixingren, so he wouldn’t even blame him for it. But none of that was actually true and Shen Wei was eternally grateful for that. He was sure he would not be able to deal with Zhao Yunlan hating him. But all the things he had expected from Zhao Yunlan were now very openly displayed by Professor Ouyang. He really had a deep seated hatred for Dixingren.
“When we found out you were one of those monsters, we had to act immediately.” Professor Ouyang started to explain. “But all of this turned out to be a blessing after all.”
The smile that spread on Ouyang’s face made Shen Wei wish his vision hadn’t improved in the last few minutes. It was eerie.
“Now we have one of the most powerful of you Dixingren to experiment on.”
That was what Shen Wei had feared when he saw all the equipment. What kind of experiments did they plan to do? Well, to be honest, he wasn’t gonna stay here to find out. He felt less shaky now, he could see better and he had a better handle on his body. Now or never. Shen Wei started channeling dark energy in his hand to destroy the cuffs around his wrists. But as soon as he started, a sharp pain ran through his arms and his hands went numb.
Shen Wei gasped from the pain. What had just happened?
Professor Ouyang started to laugh.
“Did you really think we didn’t take any precautions?”, he asked gleefully. “You won’t be able to do any of your dirty tricks with those cuffs. They’re especially made for your kind, stopping you from hurting innocent people.”
Innocent people? Shen Wei failed to see how people who kidnapped him and planned to experiment on him were the innocent ones.
Of course he tried again to channel dark energy, but his hands were still numb and he couldn’t do anything. All he got was another sharp pain from the cuffs.
“You can try as much as you want, but you won’t get out of here any time soon.”
He couldn’t channel dark energy. How the hell was he supposed to get out of here? The panic started to get a hold of him again. This time Shen Wei heard a beeping that got faster and faster. They probably had plugged him up to check his heart rate. If he couldn’t get out of here, he wouldn’t give them the satisfaction to show that he was scared. So again, he tried to calm his heart. But it just didn’t work as well as the first time. Shen Wei had no idea how to get out of this. He couldn’t use his powers. He couldn’t free himself. He was helpless, completely helpless.
Then Zhao Yunlan sprung into his head. Yes, Zhao Yunlan could help him. He would find out eventually what had happened and he would look for him. He was certain of that. Zhao Yunlan would save him. He would come and rescue him. It was only a matter of time. He only had to hold out until then. That was all.
Finally, Shen Wei managed to calm down a bit. He thought of Zhao Yunlan and felt immediately safer. He would come and rescue him.
“Alright, let’s get started then.”, Professor Ouyang said, pulling Shen Wei out of his thoughts.
“I wanna start by testing the healing powers.”, he said, directing this to his two assistants.
“Let’s start with the arm.”
One of the assistants picked up a scalpel and made a shallow cut on Shen Wei’s arm. It healed up almost as soon as it appeared. Shen Wei was relieved to see that his healing powers still worked. It was probably because he kept the energy inside his body. The cuffs probably only worked when they came into immediate contact with dark energy that was outside of his body.
“Deeper.”, Professor Ouyang instructed.
The assistant proceeded to make a deeper cut in his arm. Shen Wei concentrated on not making any noise. Sure, it hurt, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. And he would not give them the satisfaction of showing them how the pain affected him.
The cuts got deeper and deeper until Shen Wei heard the scalpel scrape over his bone. It was a sickening sound and Shen Wei closed his eyes, so at least he didn't have to look at it.
"Keep the wound open now.", Ouyang instructed.
Shen Wei opened his eyes in shock again. He saw how the assistant used some clamps to open up the wound more. He scraped over his bone to free it from the muscle clinging to it.
Shen Wei clenched his teeth together. He felt like the experiments were more designed to torture someone than to actually test his healing powers.
The assistant now got some other instruments and got to work. He actually had a hammer and a chisel, then started to proceed to destroy his bone. A sharp pain that was stronger than any of the "tests" they did before. Shen Wei heard again how his heartbeat quickened on the monitor. His breathing got heavy but he refused to make any sound. Though it got a lot harder now.
Then there was a particular loud crack and Shen Wei knew his bone had broken through.
"Stop now.", Ouyang said.
The other assistant started a timer and they all stared at Shen Wei's broken arm and waited until it healed itself again.
Shen Wei was still able to heal himself, but he noticed that he was definitely getting tired. It took a little bit longer than it should have to heal the bone. He was no stranger to broken bones, not by a long shot, so he knew how fast he could heal bones. But having to heal himself constantly for probably half an hour now, was exhausting. Not to mention he was still affected by whatever they used to knock him out.
His whole arm burnt like it was on fire. The entirety of his underarm was an open wound now, still held open by several clamps. Shen Wei just wished they would finally remove them and just leave his arm alone. He would even be ok with having a wound somewhere else. All the cuts they did in his skin just added up and the pain was almost unbearable now.
Shen Wei breathed heavily and felt sweat running down his face.
“Alright, let’s remove the clamps and move on to stage 2.”, the assistant next to Professor Ouyang said.
Stage 2? How many more stages would they do to torture him? Please, Zhao Yunlan, hurry!
He finished up some notes and then got a new clipboard. Apparently they had prepared all the “experiments” beforehand with matching questionnaires. All very professional. Though that didn’t change the fact that they were torturing Shen Wei right now. But they felt indifferent to the suffering they caused. It was always easier to do something like that when you thought that the subject you used wasn’t fully human.
Though right now, he was just glad when the clamps got removed and he could heal up his arm. The pain got better immediately and it gave him the chance to take a few breaths to calm down and brace himself for whatever stage 2 was supposed to be. Shen Wei couldn’t expect any compassion or empathy from them. He was not a Haixingren and therefore his suffering had no effect on them.
Zhao Yunlan, where are you?
Shen Wei was getting desperate at this point. It had been a really long time since he felt this helpless. There was nothing he could do to make them stop. He was at other people’s mercy; people who didn’t even consider him human. They were going to hurt him and it wouldn’t stop until Zhao Yunlan would rescue him. That, he was sure of. He felt naked, exposed, vulnerable and nothing he could do would change that.