Capítulo 27: Beautiful Restaurant
Yang Yi hoped that by introducing his identity first, the receiver would somehow trust him and open up. Of course, if it wasn't the person he was looking for, all that hope would be for nothing. It wasn't Mr. Phillip who picked up the phone, but a woman who protested in frustration, "What Mr. Phillip? I told you, this is my number! Don't call again!"
Yang Yi was quite discouraged by their current circumstances even though there were two more numbers left. He tried the second number but remembered that the owner was already deceased and ended the call. He decided to call the only number left instead.
It was a number in Hong Kong. Yang Yi didn't really think about how calling someone that far might not do them any good. At this point, he was just trying to get anyone he could reach to help.
"Eh? Ben gei ah?" The call connected and Yang Yi heard a voice speaking in a language he couldn't understand. It sounded like Cantonese, but that was just Yang Yi guessing based on the location of the owner. He assumed that the person was asking for his identity.
He replied in English, "Hello, I'm looking for Dwayne."
"Oi, nai ge ye sei hua? Wu zhi ni shi do gon se gai?"
Yang Yi switched to Mandarin and said, "I'm Yang Sheng's son. I'm looking for some assistance. Can you put Dwayne on the phone please?"
"You should've just spoke Mandarin from the beginning! I don't understand Gweilo (TN: weird foreigner) language. Anyways, you said you're the son of Yang Sheng? Yang Sheng?"
"Not Yang Sheng, Yang Shèng! Sheng for victory! He left me this number and told me to find someone named Dwayne. Are you Dwayne?"
The man's tone became much more serious rather abruptly, "This is Dwayne speaking."
Finally!
Yang Yi had lost all the help he had, but his heart began racing since he was finally seeing a spark of hope. The help he needed wasn't guaranteed yet, but at least there was someone listening to his cry for help. The fact that Dwayne used an English name bothered Yang Yi a bit, though. The man didn't even speak the language his name was in.
Yang Yi asked urgently, "I need help. Can you assist me even though I'm in London?"
Instead of answering the question, Dwayne remained silent on the other side of the phone. Apprehensively he said, "Your father has passed away for eleven years."
"Yeah, it's been eleven years."
"How can you prove that you're his son?"
"I don't have a way to prove it to you now… Does the fact I can call this number count?"
Dwayne stayed silent again. Before Yang Yi was started to feel uncertain again, he responded in an almost unconcerned voice, "Sure, whatever. Since your father left my number to you, then I reckon I'll do my part and help you out."
"I'm in London and some hitmen are after me. I need…"
"Wow, that's a pretty bad situation."
"...Yes, it is. Can you help me?"
Just as Yang Yi was about to get his hopes up, he remembered the man on the phone was in Hong Kong. Even if he did decide to help, it would probably take way too long before Yang Yi got the help he needed.
It's not like there's any other choice.
"I'm not going to ask too much about your situation. Where in London are you at? How about this... go look for a Chinese restaurant called Beautiful Restaurant. It's near Paddington Station. When you get there, find their manager Danny. He will probably help you out. He owed your father a favor."
"Paddington Station, right?" Yang Yi's eyes widened since Dwayne gave him such a useful piece of advice. He then asked in an urgent voice, "I'm very close to there! I'll go there immediately. Do you have his number?"
"I don't have his number. Just go to the restaurant and remember, the name of it is Beautiful Restaurant. I can't help you with anything more than that. Good luck and goodbye." Dwayne hung up the call immediately after speaking.
Dwayne spoke Mandarin with a very heavy accent, but Yang Yi was sure he heard the name right. Beautiful Restaurant. Yang Yi put his phone back in his pocket and shouted to Kate frantically, "There's hope! We have hope now! We just need to get to Beautiful Restaurant!"
"Beautiful Restaurant? How… do we get there?"
"A taxi, of course! We just need to get to Beautiful Restaurant and we can get help! Come on, get it together!"
Kate didn't get up. Instead, she raised her head and said faintly, "It's cold.."
"Get it together. I can't carry you to the taxi. You have to do walk yourself. We'll be fine soon."
Yang Yi scanned around, searching for a taxi, but strangely, there didn't seem to be one when he needed it. After five minutes of holding his arm out on the side of a road, Yang Yi finally managed to get a taxi to stop. He said in an agitated voice as soon as he got in the car, "Head to Beautiful Restaurant. Move as fast as you can. Thanks."
Surprised by the anxious voice, the driver turned his head to look in the back. He saw that Kate and Yang Yi were clinging to each other. However, the two didn't seem to be in a pleasant mood at all.
The driver was confused. He asked Yang Yi, "Beautiful Restaurant? Where is that?"
"It's near Paddington Station."
"Near the Paddington Station, you say? I don't recall any restaurant with the name Beautiful Restaurant. Not even any of the new ones. Are you sure the name is correct?"
Yang Yi paused for a bit before asking, "Wasn't there one before?"
"No."
A bit shocked by the response, Yang Yi tried again, "Maybe it's a different name, but with a similar connotation as the word beautiful."
The response was the same, though. As the driver shook his head again, Yang Yi became even more frustrated than he was before, "Just drive around Paddington Station first. Are there any famous restaurants around here?"
"There's a lot of them."
Seemingly unaware of the agitated tone behind Yang Yi's question, the driver continued on, "If you're looking for a Chinese restaurant, I would suggest Pearl Liang. It's a pretty fine place if you're looking for quality Chinese cuisine. If you don't mind spending more than you normally would at a restaurant. Other than that…"
"Wait, what restaurant did you say?"
"Pearl Liang restaurant. What about it?"
Pearl Liang…. Pearl Liang. Piao Liang?
"Yes! That's the place!" Yang Yi shouted ecstatically. He assumed that Pearl Liang was referring to the Chinese word for beautiful. He immediately thought that Dwayne had called the restaurant by its translated name.
Once their destination was decided, the driver got to Pearl Liang restaurant in no time. However, it was already ten at night, and the restaurant was about to close. Just as Yang Yi was about to enter the restaurant with Kate, a waitress stopped them and apologized, "Sir, we are just to close. I'm sorry, but we cannot serve you at the moment."
"It's alright. I'm looking for your manager, Danny. Can you get Danny for me please?"
Despite looking a bit confused, the waitress nodded and soon after, she came back out from inside the restaurant with a Chinese man.
The manager, appearing to be in his forties, wasn't small or big in stature. Despite looking slightly obese even in clean, dark attire, his eyes held a sharp vigilance. He was already showing a displeased look before he even walked out of the restaurant. He rubbed his nose and said after he arrived in front of Yang Yi and Kate, "I do apologize, but our restaurant has closed for today. If you would please leave via the exit door."
After speaking, the manager started to walk away. It was almost as if he was trying to run away. Yang Yi raised his voice and shouted desperately in Mandarin, "Dwayne! Dwayne told me to come here! Also, I'm the son of the Yang Sheng!"
The manager suddenly stopped walking and looked back. After counting something with his fingers, his face scrunched up and his eyebrows furrowed. He asked, "You…son of…. Yang Sheng? Dwayne… let you…. Come?"
"Yes! Are you Danny by any chance?"
The manager didn't outwardly deny it, instead, he scratched his head and murmured something in Cantonese. Then, with a frown on his face, he spoke in very poor Mandarin, "I came London pretty long ago… Mandarin is not good… When you say Mandarin, please be slow… My name is Danny."
Realizing it was the language barrier which made Danny rather unwilling to speak, Yang Yi quickly switched to English, "Could you please help my colleague here? Please! She's severely injured."
As though in relief, Danny took a deep breath, "You speak English? Ha ha ha, no worries now! What have you gotten yourselves into? She was shot in the stomach. Who did this, the police?"
"It's not the police. I don't know who did it." Yang Yi said. He knew that telling the truth wouldn't do them any good. Danny wasn't buying it though.
"Be honest, young man. If you want me to help you, at least tell me what happened. Otherwise, how do I decide if I should help you or not? Now tell me, who is it that wants to kill you?"
Yang Yi looked at Kate, who could barely stand because she had lost too much blood. She could lose consciousness at any moment. Yang Yi had no choice but to keep begging, "Can you people please save her first? I swear, I will tell you everything. But for now, please, save her!"
Yang Yi dropped to his knees, but Danny's attitude didn't change. He shrugged his shoulders and said unconcernedly, "Don't drop to your knees so easily, young man. There's no use in it. If someone wants to help you, you wouldn't need to beg at all. And if they're not going to help, it wouldn't matter how much you beg them."
But would anyone help someone that has the Marthall Family and the Cicero Family after them? If Yang Yi told the truth, no one sane would dare reach out their hands to help him and Kate. He had finally found the help he was looking for, but Yang Yi's heart grew cold again as he realized he wasn't going to get it after all.
Yang Yi was losing all sense of hope and then Danny spoke, "I'm someone that wants to help. Your father was good to me and nothing to me is above loyalty. Alright, we'll treat her first, then we'll talk about your situation."
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