Three hours in, Lan Zhan stops them working when he hears Wei Ying's stomach making noises which it shouldn't be.

He looks pointedly at Baoshan Sanren, who sighs and rings a bell.

It's a stroppy looking Xiao XingChen who enters the library, and then he actually rolls his eyes when she tells him to bring food.

"What would you like to eat?" Baoshan Sanren asks Wei Ying.

"His favourite restaurant is the Green Dragon. They make an extra spicy dumpling and noodle combo, and if they haven't got that, then their Hotpot Special. Extra spicy." Lan Zhan smirks at the silent outrage on Xiao XingChen's face. "Please." Lan Zhan adds it like a slap.

No one says anything else until he turns around and leaves.

"Um, sorry about that, Grandma. Lan Zhan's still sore about er, Uncle XingChen taking me away. On Tuesday." Wei Ying clarifies to his grandmother, while Lan Zhan carries on looking smug. "He can be a bit petty sometimes, don't mind him."

"Oh, don't worry about it." Baoshan Sanren dismisses it with a wave of her hand. "XingChen can be a little bitch too, sometimes. Comes from living in each other's pockets and probably a case of blue balls."

Wei Ying choked on air.

Lan Zhan looked like he was getting ideas...

"Why did you do that? You know I've never eaten anything from that place!" Wei Ying whisper-shouted at Lan Zhan, who refused to do anything other than shrug.

Grandmother threw back her head and laughed.

Forty minutes later, Xiao XingChen returned with Wei Ying's order, putting it down harder than necessary on the side table, and scowling at Lan Zhan, who wore the most serene expression on his usually stoic face.

"Thank you so much!" Wei Ying immediately stands up, ready to go investigate the food.

Lan Zhan also gets up and makes him sit down first, by the little coffee table, and then he brings the takeout bags closer. He opens up the containers of food and their space is immediately fragrant with spices, garlic and pork.

Xiao XingChen takes a seat on the other side of Baoshan Sanren, looking through the papers she's been arranging in neat, tidy piles. He lets out a low whistle of surprised approval.

"Is this...?" He glances between the grandmother and the grandson.

"Yep. All of this is Wei Ying," she tells him. "We've gotten through two and a half boxes so far."

"But we still don't know about the locket." Lan Zhan points out. "Grandfather hasn't mentioned it at all."

"I remember when he gave it to my daughter. She was only eight, and as mischievous as they come, but that night, it was as if she knew that was the last time she was going to see her father. She hugged him tightly and wouldn't let go, not until he slipped this around her neck as a gift, and told her to keep it safe." Baoshan Sanren sniffed.

Lan Zhan knew how she felt.

The inability to cry was something so precious forever stolen from them. It was a build up of emotions like a volcano getting ready to spew forth all its anger, all its ash and hatred against the world in a much anticipated outpouring, only to have its fire stolen by water being poured down its throat. The sudden drowning of all those feelings still buried inside was one of intense suffocation.

That's what it felt like to not be able to cry.

In some ways, it was worse than when Lan Zhan hadn't been able to go outside, having been robbed of the sunlight.

And although he didn't want to upset Wei Ying's grandmother any more, his next question was going to do that, whether they liked it or not.

"How did Wei Ying's grandfather pass away?" Lan Zhan asks Baoshan Sanren.

It's important that they know, and it's something Wei Ying would want to know.

"You remember I told you Wen Mao had discovered the Blood Pool high up in the Demon-Quelling cave? Well, none of us realised that my husband had begun using that out-of-the-way and isolated place as his workplace. It was the perfect deterrent because of the high concentration of Resentment energy, no one dared to go up there. That's where all these notes were written.

"All of his work was there, including talismans, prototype ideas, tools he wanted to develop into solid workable methods for cultivators everywhere, making his ideas open and usable for laymen. Being a rogue cultivator, he wanted to give freedom back to the common people, so that even if the sects refused to listen, or came too late, the villagers could deal with small ghosts and the like.

"I think that's where he forged this locket in the first place. If you're curious enough, you may want to look under your father's photo. You'll find a picture of me."

"Wow. Do you think Grandfather knew that was going to be his last fight ever?" Wei Ying asked in a small voice.

"No. Death creeps up on everyone without notice, most of the time. I don't believe he thought about it." She was quiet now, her silver eyes distant, seeing visions of the past, long gone and forgotten.

"Did you go back there? Is that where all of this came from?" Lan Zhan says after a while, as always, constantly thinking.

"Yes. I wish I had gone up there sooner, actually. You know we don't sleep. That night, well, it was a difficult one. I'm sure all those nocturnal beasts were making their usual sounds, but you know when you're on edge, everything seems so much louder, including the thoughts in your head. That night, foxes screamed, crows just wouldn't shut up, and then the wind started blowing. I have never felt it blowing so ominously as that night.

"My husband didn't come back. Two days later, I left my daughter with our neighbour and decided to go up there to look for him. It was..." she shuddered, "a bloodbath. Whoever it was, they took no chances. There were body parts everywhere. The Blood Pool was completely destroyed, papers all over the place. It was a mess."

Wei Ying gets up to go and sit next to her, wrapping both arms around her body.

This woman had lost so much.

Not only her husband and their life together, but then later, her daughter and her husband. She might never have found Wei Ying if it hadn't been for Xiao XingChen walking into the coffee shop that day.

She hugs him back, blinking fast.

"Go finish eating. I'll spare you the details..." She tries to laugh about the subject matter.

Wei Ying lets go of her reluctantly.

He's the only one here who needs to eat, and it's super awkward being alone to do it.

His grandmother pulls herself together and carries on telling them what happened.

"I burnt everything. And I prayed that he would move on, maybe come back to me in another body, if reincarnation was really possible. If his spirit was still hanging around there, I didn't want anything awful to happen to him. But going back into that cave, I could see there were lots of things missing. Not just papers, but items that he had made. There were dusty shapes everywhere, evidence of missing items. And I knew, if I ever found anything belonging to my husband, I would find his murderer, too."

"So we don't know who it was? Who killed him?" Wei Ying asks her.

She shook her head.

"I had my guesses. But there was no way to prove it."

"Who?" This time, it's Lan Zhan who asks her that.

"Wen Mao. He was the only one strong enough to take on my husband. They'd had a rivalry anyway, and I don't think there was anyone else crazy enough to venture into the Burial Mounds. He was already a vampire by that point. I took my child and ran from there."

She gets up to brew more tea.

"Hundreds of years passed, and my daughter grew up. I realised my husband had been right to serve the people like he had, using his skills to help whoever crossed his path. He did not deserve to die like that."

Wei Ying can see the way she's gripping the edge of the table, her shoulders hunched in on herself, head bowed in grief.

She still loved his grandfather.

Did love ever finish? Run its course?

He looked over to Lan Zhan and was surprised to see him staring back, with the same question in his eyes. And then something settled deep within those brilliant orbs, shining towards Wei Ying, a certainty that with them, it was going to last forever.

Had they been alone, Wei Ying had no doubts that he would have planted himself in Lan Zhan's lap and kissed him with wild abandon; Lan Zhan was looking at him with a mirroring hungry gaze, and Wei Ying knew his thoughts had taken a nosedive into explicit territory. He forced himself to look away from the temptation that was his boyfriend.

"And then I met Xiao XingChen and Song Lan. That's when we discovered that while Wen Mao might not be around anymore, his descendants certainly were. I used the time in between to hone my fighting skills. In fact, if you've finished, I have something to show you." Baoshan Sanren looks excited suddenly.

In fact, so does Xiao XingChen, and when he raises a brow towards her, she nods, smiling.

"He's proved to be my grandchild. There's nothing left to hide now," she explains to him.

They follow her out of the library and back to the elevator.

"This must have taken years to build." Wei Ying remarks, as they go up a couple of floors.

She hums noncommittally.

The doors open onto a training ground. It reminds Wei Ying of a gymnasium at a typical high school, except that would be for babies, if this was any comparison.

There are targets situated against a far wall, and all manner of weapons decorate both sides of the hall. There are swords from all over the world here, katanas from Japan with matching Samurai swords, their scabbards elegantly designed with colourful dragons and plum blossoms. Lethal looking curved blades with engraved handles, broadswords from India with matching spears. Chinese long range weapons, nunchucks, knuckle dusters, knives and daggers. Two curved twin blades with serrated teeth on both sides of the blades, and bows with matching quivers full of arrows.

"You have grenades?" Wei Ying is at a loss to explain why.

This part of the wall is full of bomb making equipment and other explosive items.

"Yeah. Beats stuffing gunpowder in ceramic pots, lighting a fuse and hoping for the best. Terribly dangerous," she says, sagely as if this was a normal conversation they were having, grandparent to grandchild. "Wanna have a go?"

"Yes...I wouldn't mind..." Wei Ying doesn't want to sound ungrateful.

"But?" Concerned, she comes closer and lays a hand on his shoulder, even as he rubs the side of his head.

"But I think we should get back to Grandfather's notes. I don't know, I can't explain it, but I can't get rid of the feeling that something is gonna happen, and soon. Maybe I'm just being silly, superstitious...I dunno..."

She hugs him then, tightly.

"My child, if there's anything I've learned over the years, it's to trust your instincts." She smiles as she pulls back from him, wiping under his eyes so much like her own.

Her beautiful daughter had the same lovely eyes, so open and at one time, carefree. In her opinion, childhood passed by too quickly.

"Okay, let's go back, but while we're here, let's take a quick look at the armoury." She takes his hand and with a wild laugh, she runs them to a discreet wooden door, again with the coat of arms engraved upon it.

It opens when she puts her hand on an invisible spring at the bottom.

"The simplest solutions are often overlooked," she murmurs at his raised brow.

Lights come on immediately.

There are display cases all with fingerprint recognition technology and keypads for presumably pass codes, because the contents are expensive, high-functioning weapons for the elite. One wall has more swords, because she claims, "you can never have enough!" And Wei Ying doesn't agree, but what does he know?

And the rest of the walls display guns.

He's reminded of a scene from the Matrix movie, where the main character says he needs guns, lots of guns.

This room is full of them.

"I have to ask...Grandmother?" Wei Ying says, feeling a little light-headed.

"Hm?" She turns to him, absent-minded.

"What exactly are you expecting to happen?" He knows he sounds incredulous, but really, can he be blamed?

She begins to laugh again, not bothering to answer him exactly.

"I'm just prepared..." she says, enigmatically.

"Prepared, squared." Lan Zhan says under his breath.

Wei Ying throws him a look that says, 'right??'.

She leads them out of there, still laughing.

************

But in the elevator, she remembers something.

"I think you should carry this." She tries to slip him a gun.

Wei Ying is shocked.

"No! And when did you take that?!"

"It's the easiest thing. You just point and shoot!" She's assuming his reluctance is from a lack of skill.

"No, thanks! I'm not going to go around shooting people!" His eyes are wide with disbelief. "And don't you need a licence or something? To carry one of those?"

She gapes at him for a good few seconds before clutching her sides and roaring with laughter.

"For a second there, I thought you were serious!" She exclaims, still laughing helplessly.

"I am! There's no way I'm touching one of those! I have kids!" Wei Ying doesn't understand why she doesn't get it.

"Fine. It's your choice, but if I had any Jin sniffing around me, I'd start shooting first, and asking questions later. They don't deserve any skill to dispatch them over to the other side. Especially Jin GuanShan." She wrinkles her nose in disgust.

"You know them? Do you know the guy in the alley?" Lan Zhan asks, suddenly interested.

She throws him a scornful look.

"Of course, I do!" She sucks her teeth, annoyed. "And the fact that you don't, is far more worrying."

"What about them?" Wei Ying says, still at a loss to explain why she's being like this.

In the library, she comes closer to him, her hand cradling his face. Wei Ying leans closer to her touch. He wants to believe his mother might have done the same thing to him, once upon a time.

"My boy, I've only just found you. I want to keep you safe. You cannot fault me for that."

"If you were to meet a snake and a Jin, stab the Jin." Xiao XingChen says wryly, walking past them and sitting down in the lone armchair.

Baoshan Sanren giggles.

It makes Lan Zhan smile because the sound is much like Wei Ying's own laughter.

"Well, he's not wrong," she says, sobering up. "What did he ask you?"

Both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan explain about what happened to Mr and Mrs Lan, about JingYi coming to live with them, and Wei Ying's trip up to their apartment. They tell her about Mrs Lan dying and then coming back to visit them, her fears that Mr Lan was on the prowl, and then the medication, leading back to their discovery of it in copious amounts at the Wen Laboratories.

She listens to them with a thoughtful look in her eyes.

"You better watch yourselves," she warns them, at last. "They're getting bold, coming after you in broad daylight. They'll try something again, mark my words."

Lan Zhan growls, a deeply threatening sound. He cannot help it; any threat to Wei Ying makes him want to loosen that self control.

He knows he can be dangerous; is a dangerous being now. And he will do his best to protect Wei Ying, who is giving him cow eyes at that little display.

"The question is, do they know who you are? It won't take them long if they start following you." She starts to pace.

"But, because they're looking for Mr Lan, it means they don't know where he is. And he's definitely dangerous. Look what he did to his own family? And that was before turning into a vampire." Wei Ying returns to his place on the floor, where the papers still needing to be translated are waiting for him. "We haven't seen Mrs Lan, either."

"For all we know, the Wens have them by now. It's no secret that the Jins are closely working with the Wens. Probably planning something together. They've been too quiet recently." Baoshan Sanren taps her nose, thinking hard.

"Why do you say that?" Wei Ying has stopped doing whatever it was, and is now paying greater attention to her.

Baoshan Sanren looks at Xiao XingChen, as if she's telling him to explain.

"We were investigating the disappearance of your parents. It was Jin GuanShan who lured them to an abandoned warehouse with information about Xue Yang," he says, leaning forward.

"And then what happened?" Wei Ying is hardly breathing, anxious to know more, but terrified to find out.

"That's it. They never made it out alive." His face is grim.

"They were ambushed." His grandmother says, in a hard, unforgiving voice. "And I bet that Slimy Pig had something to do with it."