"Two men who traveled back from China were murdered, and their killer left them messages in Hang Zhou numerals." Sherlock told one of Soo Lin Yao's colleagues, "Soo Lin Yao is in danger. That cipher, it was just the same pattern as the others. He means to kill her as well."

"Look, I've tried everywhere- friends, colleagues. I don't know where she's gone. I mean, she could be a thousand miles away." Andy replied.

"What are you looking at?" I asked Sherlock.

"Tell me more about those teapots." Sherlock said, walking toward a display case with clay tea pots.

"The pots were her obsession. They need urgent work. If they dry out, then the clay can start to crumble." Andy said. "Apparently you have to just keep making tea in them."

"Yesterday, only one of these pots was shining. Now there are two."

That night John came with us and we stayed hidden in the bathrooms until the museum closed. Then we went to the basement where Soo Lin Yao was.

"Fancy a biscuit with that?" Sherlock asked.

Soo Lin gasped and dropped the tea pot and Sherlock caught it.

"Centuries old. Don't want to break that." Sherlock stood up and gave the pot back to her,

"Hello." I said.


"You saw the cipher. You know he is coming for me." Soo Lin said.

"You've been clever to avoid him so far." Sherlock replied.

"I hd to finish, to finish this work." Soo Lin responded. "It's only a matter of time. I know he will find me."

"Who is he? Have you met him before?" I asked.

"When I was a girl living back in China. I recognize his... signature."

"The cipher?" Sherlock asked.

"Only he would do this. Zhi Zhu."

"Zhi Zhu?" John questioned.

"The Spider." Sherlock said.

Soo Lin untied her shoe and showed us a tattoo on her foot, "You know this mark?"

"Yes. It's the mark of a Tong." Sherlock answered.

"Hmm?"

"Ancient crime syndicate, based in China." Sherlock said, looking at John and I.

"Every foot soldier bears the mark. Everyone who hails for them." Soo Lin said.

"Hauls?" John questioned, "You mean you were a smuggler?"

Soo Lin put her shoe back on, "I was 15. My parents were dead. I had no livelihood, no way of surviving day to day, except to work for the bosses."

"Who are they?" Sherlock asked.

"They are called the Black Lotus. By the time I was 16, I was taking thousands of pounds worth of drugs across the border into Hong Kong. I managed to leave that life behind me. I came to England. They gave me a job... here. Everything was good. New life." Soo Lin answered.

"Then he came looking for you." I said.

"Yes. I had hoped after five years maybe they would have forgotten me, but they never really let you leave. A small community like ours, they are never very far away." Soo Lin wiped her tears away, "He came to my flat. He asked me to help him track down something that was stolen."

"And you have no idea what it was?" John asked.

She shook her head, "I refused to help."

"So you knew him well when you were living back in China?" John questioned.

Soo Lin nodded, "Oh, yes. He's my brother."

Well that was a plot twist.

"Two orphans. We had no choice. We could work for the Black Lotus or starve on the streets like beggars. My brother has become their puppet, in the power of one they call Shan, Black Lotus General. I turned my brother away. He said I had betrayed him. Next day, I came to work and the cipher was waiting." Soo Lin said.

Sherlock grabbed the pictures from his pocket and lied them out, "Can you decipher theses?"

"These are numbers."

"Yes, I know."

"Here, the line across the man's eyes, it's a Chinese number one." Soo Lin said.

"And this one is 15. But what's the code?" Sherlock asked.

"All the smugglers know it. It's based upon a book." Soo Lin started when the lights turned off. "He's here. Zhi Zhu... He has found me."

Sherlock started running for the door.

"Sherlock, wait!" I yelled.

"Come on, over here." John said, moving Soo Lin and I and we hid behind a counter.

"I have to go and help him. Bolt the door after me." John told me.

After a few moments I stood up, "I'll be right back. Don't go anywhere."

"John, where is he?" I asked John when I found him.

"I don't know." John answered.

Then we heard a gunshot from the room I was just in.

"Oh my god." John said softly.

We ran down the stairs and back into the room. I looked around before stopping. On the counter was Soo Lin. With a black lotus in her hand.


"How many murders is it going to take before you start believing that this maniac's out there?" John asked the Detective Inspector Dimmock.

Dimmock didn't answer John and walked past us, "A young girl was gunned down tonight. That's three victims in three days. You're supposed to be finding him."

"Brian Lukis and Eddie Van Coon were working for a gang of international smugglers, a gang called the Black Lotus operating here in London right under your nose." Sherlock said.

"Can you prove that?" Dimmock asked.

We left after that. Sherlock was panning on going to Bart's to look at the bodies.

"I'll see you two at the flat." I said.

"You're not coming with?" Sherlock asked.

"I've got work tomorrow, Sherlock." I replied.

"But I need you. You're better at this than John is." He whined.

"Okay, tell you what. In a month or so I get a week long vacation. I'll help you with every case you got then, okay?"

"Fine."

"Don't pout, Sherlock. It makes you look like a puppy that's been kicked." I mocked before patting his head and getting into a different cab.

I got back to the flat and said good night to Mrs. Hudson on the way up the stairs. I went into my room to change into my night clothes which were short shorts and a Batman tank top before falling asleep on my bed. I woke up about an hour later to noise coming from the living room. It was midnight!

I walked down the hallway and saw crates stacked up. They were filled with books. Sherlock was grabbing books and giving them to John.

"I don't even want to know." I said to myself before going back into my bedroom and to my warm bed.

"Amelia!"

"Amelia!"

"Amelia!"

I groaned and used my pillow to block out the noise and fell back asleep.

"Amelia, wake up."

"Leave me alone, Sherlock."

I then felt pressure on my stomach and I lifted the pillow off my face and saw Sherlock straddling me.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"John's gone and I need help." Sherlock answered.

"Where'd he go?" I asked.

"Work." Sherlock replied with a look of disgust on his face.

I gasped, "He got the job at the clinic?!"

"Yes."

"Oh, good for him. You need help with the book thing?" I questioned.

"Yes."

"Ugh. Fine." I said, "Can you get off me now?"

Sherlock got off and walked out of my room.

"Child." I muttered before following him.

I followed him into the living room and helped him with the books. He explained to me that the numbers are pages and words in books. So Van Coon and Lukis need to have a few of the same books.

"What's book that everyone would own?" Sherlock asked.

"Ummm... dictionary?" I replied.

I looked behind me and he was at his book shelf, grabbing a few books.

"15, entry one."

He looked through the three books before throwing them into the crates, obviously frustrated. As he was ruffling his hair, John walked in.

"I need to get some air. We're going out tonight." Sherlock said, "Amelia, can you come?"

"Work till midnight tonight." I replied.

"And I've got a date." John said.

"What?"

"It's where two people who like each other go out and have fun." John replied.

"That's what I was suggesting." Sherlock said.

"No, it wasn't." John replied. "At least I hope not."

"Where are you taking her?" I asked.

"Cinema."

"Dull, boring, predictable." Sherlock commented. "Why don't you try this? In London for one night only."

"Thanks, but I don't come to you for dating advice." John said.


"Have fun at the circus." I told John before I left for my shift.

I was in the middle of my shift, serving a tourist couple, when I noticed a book they were looking at. There were a few other people in this place, one other group had one.

London A-Z.

Then it hit me. A book everyone would own.

I walked into the kitchen and out the back door, grabbing my phone out of my pocket.

Come on, come on, pick up." I whispered.

"What?" Sherlock asked harshly.

"What's up with you?" I asked.

"I'm frustrated. Now tell me what you want."

"I know the book." I said.

"What?" He asked.

"The book, it's London A through Z." I replied.

"Lukis and Van Coon had that same book." Sherlock responded after a few seconds, "Amelia, you are brilliant!"

"I'm brilliant." I smiled to myself before going back inside to finish the last hour of my shift.


"What was it?" I asked when I ran into the flat. "The message?"

In the kitchen John and Sherlock stood on either side of the table, drinking tea.

"Here." Sherlock said, giving me the picture.

"Nine mill. Million?"

"Million." Sherlock confirmed.

"Nine million for jade pin. Dragon den black tramway." I said, reading the words Sherlock wrote.

"An instruction to all their London operatives. A message- what they were trying to reclaim." Sherlock said, giving me a mug of tea,

"A jade pin." John replied.

"Worth nine million pounds. Bring it to the tramway, their London hideout."

"Hang on. A hair pin worth nine million pounds?" I questioned.

"Apparently." Sherlock replied.

"Why so much?" John asked.

"Depends who owned it." Sherlock answered before drinking his tea.


The next morning the three of us went to the bank to tell Sebastian that the case was solved.

"Two operatives based in London. They travel over to Dalian to smuggle those vases. One of them helps himself to something, a little hairpin." Sherlock said.

"Worth nine million pounds." John said.

"Eddie Van Coon was the thief. He stole the treasure when he was in China."

"How do you know it was Van Coon, not Lukis?" John asked. "Even the killer didn't know that."

"Because of the soap." Sherlock answered.

"Soap?" I questioned myself as we walked into the bank.

John and I were in Sebastian's office, getting the check, that apparently he was going to give us when we solved the case.

"He really climbed up onto the balcony?" He asked.

"Nail a plank across the window and all your problems are over." I joked.

"Thanks." John said when he gave us the check.

"I think he bought it at a street market." The secretary said, giving the jade pin to Sherlock.

"I think he pinched it." Sherlock replied.

"Yeah, that's Eddie."

"Didn't know it's value, just thought i would suit you." Sherlock said.

"Oh? What's it worth?" The secretary asked.

Sherlock smiled, "Nine million pounds."

"Oh, my god! Nine million!"

She was totally freaking out!