It was a normal night, and the weather was great. I was on my way home from high school, when I saw someone. He looked so terrifying that I wasn't even sure if it was an object or a human.

I lived alone in a small house in a deserted area of Hong Kong, and I am twenty years old. Once I saw that man, I am quite certain that my heart started beating two hundred beats per minute. I ran for my life, when that person took a step towards me.

Once I got home, I ran to my bedroom, and then suddenly... Everything darkened and I collapsed.

When I woke up, there were white walls surrounding me. I was lying on a white bed. There was a man, leaning against the wall, in a corner of the room. He was the very man that I saw the previous night. The man didn't seem that frightening after all. He was tall and well-built. He was fully clad in black and his teeth clenched onto a twig from a mango tree. The man looked towards me, and I noticed something else. The man was wearing black sunglasses. "He's blind," I thought.

"Am I dead?" I asked the man.

"I'm Li Wei. I know that you are Zhang Xin and that you ran and collapsed once you saw me last night. Also, child... You are not dead. I brought you to the hospital," Li Wei replied. "How do you know where I live?" I questioned again, still in shock.

"I have been trailing after you for some time now," Li Wei answered, holding out the Black bag that was in his possession, "You are the boy I'm looking for. In this bag, is a sum of two million renminbi. I will give you the other two million when we return from the expedition that I want you to accompany me in. You understand? Take it as I am a good kidnapper who has only kidnapped you to go on a journey with me, eh?"

"Expedition with you?" I stuttered, "But... Aren't you blind?"

"Blind?" Li Wei laughed.
 
"You... You are not blind then?" I started trembling.

"Half blind. I can see in the night without these sunglasses and I can see during the day with these sunglasses. And, young boy, would I have located and taken you out of your house, all the way to the hospital if I was blind?"

I shook my head rapidly, "No Sir. B- but I never did agree to go anywhere with you."

"I have already given you my name and you have agreed to go with me on my expedition. Why do you talk with such formality?" Li Wei grinned.

I gulped. Li Wei walked towards my bed. I was seated, leaning against the bed arm. Li Wei placed his right hand on my left shoulder and then placed his left hand on the part of the bed arm that was on my right.

"Boy. I have offered you money, and you have no way out. Your parents have died, you earn money for your education by selling homemade cookies and anyway, you barely pass your tests. The expedition that I am going to take you in is going to shape your future. You also earned two million already. What could be better?"

"I have school tomorrow-

"Oh, just take a break. Your teacher won't mind you being absent for a week, right? Although it might take a bit more than that... It doesn’t matter. Pack your necessities and meet me tomorrow at the park's rear entrance," and with that, Li Wei walked out of the hospital room, leaving me in a daze and utter despair.

"He said he was tracking me. However, he knows a lot! He even knows my exact personal history. And to come to that... Even his eye sight is strange!" I exclaimed to myself.

In half an hour, a young female doctor, no more than twenty- five years of age, came into my room and told me that I could leave. I was dazzled by the doctor's beauty, that instead of answering her, I kept staring right into her eyes. I only came back to my senses once she cleared her throat and walked out of the room. Then all the cup cakes and rainbows disappeared from my mind and all I could think of was the deadly, yet secretive man, who was going to wait my arrival at the park the next day. I was clueless about what was to happen.

I walked home that day, head bowed in misery.

When I entered my kitchen, next to the stove there was a note, and next to the note there was a bowl of instant noodles, still steaming hot and delicious. I ravenously gulped down the noodles and then went into reading the note. The sender was anonymous, but the note read:

If you are not used to or you have a problem with direct sun rays, it is best to bring sunscreen along with you.

If you hate the darkness, pack extra torches.
 
The letter's content shocked me to the core. I felt a cold shiver run down my spine. The next day, I went as promised to meet up with Li Wei in the park, with three torches, extra clothes and one bottle of sunscreen.
 
"First, you were my savior, then my kidnapper, and now I'm your assistant, on your expedition?" I moaned to Li Wei, as we set off towards where Li Wei was going to take me, by his minivan. "Not savior, boy. Just kidnapper," Li Wei smiled, looking at me from behind his black glasses. "But… You are so nice to me," I mumbled, without thinking twice. "Young man, it would be advisable to not get to the point in which you would be diagnosed with Stockholm syndrome," Li Wei grinned.
 
"What's that?"
 
"It's when the hostage falls in love with the hijacker."
 
"Oh, keep quiet! Focus on your driving."
 
We travelled on and on for around twenty hours, stopping at various small shops to get things to eat. When we finally arrived at our destination, I was worn out. However, my curiosity prevented me from falling asleep. Li Wei leapt out of the van with his bag, while I simply dragged mine out, along with my tired feet.
 
That was when I saw what Li Wei was so excited about. "What do you think Zhang Xin?" Li Wei questioned in enthusiasm.
 
I was so sleepy that I had not even noticed that Li Wei was driving the van up a steep and broad mountain. Under our feet, there was sand, but this sand was dry and white. The sand was as white as snow, and the strange thing was that the entire top of the large mountain was covered in this sand. The weather was freezing cold, but the sun was shining so brightly that the rays were clearer than that of normal visibility. Even my skin had turned pink. I was proud of myself for having put on the sunscreen beforehand.
 
"Where are we?" "Somewhere near the Gobi Desert," Li Wei answered. "We've travelled that far!" I exclaimed. "Was I fast enough?" Li Wei asked, staring up at the sun that had just started to set, "Let's put the tent up or we won't have anywhere to stay for the night."
 
The tent was soon set and Li Wei and I sat around a little blazing fire, eating a few biscuits. The night was cool and dark. "Why are we here?" I asked Li Wei, "Are you an archaeologist?" Li Wei kept silent for around a minute and then spoke, "You'll see tomorrow, and I am not an archaeologist, I'm entangled in a dangerous profession, to which I've dragged you in as well. It's tomb raiding." I stared at Li Wei. He was not lying.
 
Then Li Wei decided to change the subject, "It's night now. I can see without my glasses, but my eyes are a bit different from yours. Would you mind if I take them off?" Li Wei's words paused my heart beating for about ten seconds, and then I nodded.
 
Li Wei took his glasses off. I gasped.
 
My kidnapper's eyes were of three unique colours. His iris was outlined in crystal deep blue and the interior was silver. Tiny gold stripes swam around in the areas where silver lay. "Are you scared?"
 
"No- no-" I quickly stammered. "It is best to look away, unless you want to be hypnotized." Li Wei's eyes pierced into mine. I hurriedly turned away.
 
The following morning was quick to come. Li Wei woke me up and instructed me to follow him without questions, which I did rather reluctantly. I took along with me, my bag of necessities and a torch. Li Wei armed himself in a similar manner. He had put his sunglasses back on. We walked across the mountain- desert until Li Wei ordered me to stop. Li Wei then crouched over a patch of sand that seemed to have turned slightly yellow. “Dig here,” Li Wei said, handing me a shovel. I dug my shovel into the sand, and before I pulled it back out, the sand collapsed down, forming an opening on the top. Under the ground, there seemed to be a tunnel.
Li Wei lit a matchstick and held it inside the tunnel, through the hole. It stayed lit. “There’s enough of oxygen in there,” he stated. I started to tremble. He wasn’t-
Li Wei leapt into the tunnel and called me in. “Don’t be afraid,” he comforted, “I’ll catch you.” I gulped and leapt down. Li Wei steadied me upon my landing. “Careful,” he warned, “Don’t touch anything here unless I tell you to.”
The tunnel was extremely dark, with the only source of light originating from both Li Wei and my torches. The walls were made out of strong black rocks which was the main reason as to why the tunnel had a haunting atmosphere. “Where is this place?” I questioned. “An ancient tomb.”
We kept walking for about fifteen minutes, when Li Wei finally spoke the words I was long awaiting, “Let’s have a rest. I’ll tell you why we’re here.”
Li Wei and I sat, leaning onto the wall of the tunnel. The tunnel had come to a stop with a grand hall full of ancient treasures and statues at its end.
“Let’s explore the hall once you’ve heard all you’ve wanted to know,” Li Wei said, “There was a friend of mine, who always tagged along with me when I suggested raiding tomb after tomb. His name is Yin Mao. Then one day, we came to this one, and experienced something unfortunate. Yin Mao went missing. I searched for him for three whole days but then realized that to find him, I needed a companion, so I chose you. It’s been a month now, since he went missing, but I am sure that he’s alive. He’d at least be able to survive by eating rats and insects and drinking their blood for water.” At this point I felt a wave of disgust. “Why me?” I asked. “You are clever. I also like your sense of self-awareness and-
A shadow flashed across the hall. Li Wei and I got up. “It’ll be fine,” Li Wei told me, “Don’t get scared.” Then we heard footsteps, and then, a man appeared right in front of us. He looked terrifying. I gave a scream and hid behind Li Wei who said, “Yin Mao? You’re alive?”
The man, who Li Wei referred to as Yin Mao, had bulging eyes with purple eye bags. His lips were pale, dry and white. The man’s hair was in one big knot, tied with many strands of hair, which on their own also, consisted of many knots. Yin Mao kept shifting his feet and his hands kept swaying. He looked as if he had a mental disorder that was worse than Schizophrenia.
Yin Mao pushed Li Wei backwards, causing him to stumble on the floor. “Li Wei!” I gasped, pulling my friend off the floor, by his arms. “I’m okay,” he grunted, patting his aching back. “You went through all this trouble, just to find me?” Yin Mao laughed hysterically, “Well, too bad isn’t it? That I was hoping to end my life today.” And before anyone could stop him, he pulled out a small, glass bottle from his pocket and opened its lid. Within a second, the air was filled with deadly sarin gas. I started to choke. I looked around frantically, searching for Li Wei. To my surprise, Li Wei snatched a serviette from my bag and covered my nose with it. I could see that he was suffering too, and I didn’t want him to die. However, my attempts to save Li Wei failed as he would not loosen the serviette from my nose. Yin Mao collapsed to his death, right in front of my eyes.
After having watched my friend’s friend die and after knowing that my friend was in the brink of death as well, my head started to feel heavy and I passed out.
When I woke up, I was outside the tunnel, but there was no sign of Li Wei. Someone had blocked the entrance of the tunnel from inside, so that the gas would not mix with the air outside. Li Wei’s tent and van were still on the mountain. As to what happened… There was only one possibility. “Li Wei!” I cried, trying to dig out the opening of the tunnel again. But it wouldn’t open. “No, no, no you can’t be dead.” I went back home that day, feeling miserable, and disappointed in myself.
A month passed by, unnoticed. The days were too long, and I felt like an entirely different person. There was only one sentence that I could think of without being a muddle head. That is, “Is Li Wei really dead?”
On the eighteenth of August, the weather was in a bad mood. It was pouring cats and dogs outside. Even the lightning strikes were brighter than the ones that I have usually seen. Then there was a knock at the door. I opened it and found a parcel there, lying under a clear umbrella. I gently carried the parcel in and opened it. There was two million renminbi inside!
I immediately rushed back outside, and saw, to my surprise and amazement… Standing at the entrance, was the person who I thought was dead. The person who I’ve admired. The black blindman. My unexpected visitor. “May I come in? I’ll catch a cold outside.”