Chapter 13: The Locked Cabinet

Mrs. Shen walked them upstairs herself.

Shen Yan's room was at the end of the second-floor hall, behind a white door.

"Mr. Xiao will have the blue room," she said. "The housekeeper has aired it."

"Thank you," said Xiao Chen. "I'll take whichever room is closest to Shen Yan's."

"Of course. You are so protective of him."

She smiled and went back down the stairs.

Shen Yan opened his door and stopped on the threshold.

The room was exactly as he had left it.

The bed was made with white sheets, and the school books stood in a row on the desk.

On the nightstand sat a glass of water and one foil strip.

A single tablet had already been pressed out into the saucer beside it.

"She was only out of the sitting room a few minutes," Shen Yan said.

His voice was very small.

"She wants to see if you take it," said Xiao Chen.

"And if I don't?"

"Then she knows you know."

"She already knows. She saw the spoon."

"Yes." Xiao Chen folded the strip and the tablet into his handkerchief. "So she will move fast. Probably tonight."

"Move how?"

"I don't know yet. That is why we move first."

Shen Yan sat down on the bed and stared at the glass of water.

Xiao Chen crouched in front of him and took the glass out of his hand.

"We drink nothing in this house," he said. "We eat what the old secretary's niece brings in a bag. Tonight we open that cabinet."

Shen Yan lifted his head.

"Together?"

"You know the house. I know what to look for."

He stood and held out his hand, and Shen Yan took it.

The house went quiet at midnight.

They went down the east corridor in their socks, past a row of closed doors and a window full of dark camphor leaves.

The brass key turned in the cabinet lock without a sound.

Inside were four shelves of brown glass bottles with typed labels.

Shen Yan reached out and touched one, and his hand shook.

"This is the colour of the vitamins she used to give me."

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Saved the Heir, Then Won His Heart from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.