That is bloody brilliant and I am captivated. The grit of this Zhao Yunlan is wonderful; he's a lot less polished but shines just as brightly. He's sneaking around solving crimes with no legal power, a trustful chunky cat, and the bare bones of his back! I love that in this AU, this first-second meeting is a reversal of their second-first one, where Shen Wei is cleaned-up in his full power and Zhao Yunlan is the slightly wild dangerous one. I also deeply appreciate how within Shen Wei's first instinct, "SOMEBODY FEED HIM" stands out.

Those glimpses of backstory hurt so good! The masks Yunlan hides behind are stark contrasts but in the end he wants the same thing as he's always wanted: to help people, and perhaps, unbeknownst to him yet, to meet Shen Wei.

Shen Wei will have to sweat buckets while hiding his identity, but I wonder about a Zhao Yunlan growing up even more alone, and without a team to rely on, but with his same charisma - is he even less trusting? Could he have a Creep Wall of his own about the Black Cloak Envoy and figure it out even faster? Does he still collect stray Dixingen and accidentally already adopted the whole boxing ring youth club, where he too sometimes gets paid for a few rounds? Everything about this AU sounds worth exploring!

This is very compact and hurtful and well done!! :D