บท 80: You, Boy, Are Going To Start A War
It was late in the afternoon when Wuming finally got back in their house. He looked like he had not slept in the last forty-eight hours—which was true anyway. He had not caught a single wink of sleep even on the plane. His main priority was to get home and find out who were these people messing with their family.
He was not even surprised that all of them were assembled in the living room. But before he talked he gave the little note he found from the zoo to the staff for decoding. There were no hugs and how are yous for the mean time. He quickly recounted the story of how he had come across The Zoo and what he found. And yes, they were really after their family.
He collapsed on the other end of the sofa Qing Chen was sitting on and pressed a hand to his temples. His head felt like it would explode. His body was begging him to sleep but adrenaline was still rushing in his veins and he would not be able to shut his eyes peacefully if he did not know anything about that stupid note.
"On other matters," their father began. "Qing Chen, where is that plan I asked you to do?"
"It's there," then he pointed at the folder on the glass table.
"What is that?" Qing Lok quietly asked, he was seated on the couch closest to his father's one-seater.
"It's your brother's ten-year plan for the mafia."
Qing Lok sounded mad, in defense for his older brother. "Did you just seriously ask for him to do that?!"
"Well, I have to know if he's going in the right direction. That bold move about raising the membership fee for The Kingsman's Club threw people off guard and wanted to have his head," their father gruff, sending a glare which Qing Chen did not catch.
Wuming turned to his brother. He was perfectly focused on his phone. On his screen there was a map and a steady blinking of a red dot. "Is that the wife?" he asked.
"Yeah," Qing Chen answered. "She's at school."
"She's okay with her bodyguards?"
"She found them annoying."
Wuming cracked a smile. "If people would be following me around all day I would be pissed too."
"Yeah, she wanted them to wear normal clothes so—"
Qing Chen did not get to finish his sentence because in a flash, their father was out of his seat and pulled him to his feet by his collar, a murderous look on his face. The cup of coffee Qing Chen was holding spilled its contents on the sofa. Xie Changying gave an awful cry—Wuming did not know if for Qing Chen or for the coffee stain on her beloved couch.
"You, boy," his father snarled, pointing a fat wrinkled finger at his brother's face. Qing Chen had long gotten taller than their father but in terms of size, Wuming was pretty sure their father could still beat the crap out of his brother. "You are going to revise your plans for the mafia. You are going to put down the membership fee to normal and everything will stay exactly the same if you have no intentions of making it better. Wait for Qing Lok to grow a pair and hand it down to him."
Wuming rolled his eyes as he looked at them lazily. "Can we not do this right now? You can resume, say, after midnight—but we can't just have a little peace and quiet to think while we're figuring out who's trying to get our heads on a spike?"
Qing Zihao did not spare him a glance and kept his deadly glare on Qing Chen's face. His brother on the hand, looked calm like his father was not wanting to rip him to shreds. He knew their father would react like this.
Qing Lok looked at Wuming in question but he only shrugged in return. He was just about to reach for the folder on the table when their father spoke again.
His father's voice seemed to boom in the house. "This, BOY, wanted to end our partnership with La Hiena—"
"I never wanted to deal with drugs in the first place. You kept the garbage disposal routes just to spread his product and its costing us money—"
"It's called an alliance! La Hiena is one of the most powerful allies we can have!—"
"And he's not really doing anything for us," Qing Chen's voice was stern as he returned his father's glare. "What, protection? A space in the South West? We don't need that."
"Boy," his father's lips curled. "You are going to retract that plan. We are not ending this partnership with the richest drug lord in the planet."
"I am not going to retract that. And yes, I AM ending that partnership."
Qing Lok finally got hold of the folder and his eyes quickly scanned the document. There were plans on it, VERY DETAILED plans that ended in his big goal. "Chen wants to legalize all the businesses of the mafia."
Even Wuming threw his head back and laughed at that. "Brother, are you going crazy?"
Qing Chen threw him a glare before returning his gaze to his father. "Most of the illegal businesses had been shed off throughout the years as the laws got tighter. Aside from the dead bodies, our family's biggest sin is letting La Hiena use us to get the Chengshi market."
"His drugs are mostly harmless—they are PARTY drugs!"
Qing Chen shrugged, remembering the first time he had met La Hiena and his absurd orange suit and the rainbow colored pills on the plastic bag. "Still drugs."
His father shook him, hard enough that his teeth rattled. "What are you, a preacher?! You're going to cleanse this mafia of all its evilness?"
Wuming gave another laugh and Qing Lok just looked horrified. Their grandmother was watching all of these unfold with a grave look on her face. "What else does it say?" he asked his youngest brother.
Qing Lok read, his voice small as if he did not really want to incriminate his older brother by reading it aloud. "Chen wants to open The Kingsman's Club to the public and erase The Underground's auctions for stolen goods and treasures."
Qing Zihao spoke again. "He wants to cut all of our income from the mafia."
"You have enough money!" Qing Chen said and pushed his father's grip off his collar. It had been squeezing his windpipe. He huffed out and ran a hand through his hair. "You have trillions in your accounts! How much do you want before you stop?"
Qing Zihao walked towards him as if in challenge. His emotions went down but he still had that hate from when he grabbed Qing Chen. "If you cut ties with La Hiena, he would only find a smaller gang to let him keep his business here. And once that smaller gang rose to power with his, they would come for our family."
"They won't come for our family," Qing Chen said tiredly. "Because it is THEIR alliance that we would keep and by then, we won't have anything to do with illegal matters."
"And what of the mafia?!" his father bellowed. "It will be gone?!"
"We can keep it," he answered. "But just the legal businesses."
His father's face twisted as he held his face in both of his hands. A look of disbelief and detest on his face but at the same time he looked like he wanted to cry as if he was looking at the biggest disappointment of his life—or because he finally saw sense that they did not really need the mafia to keep themselves alive. "Why, why, why?" he sounded like he was pleading to Qing Chen—he wanted to know why his heir was speaking like this.
Qing Chen breathed out. He knew how much the mafia meant to his family and how it defined them as people—how they were able to control this city because of it. But no.
Qing Chen was staring at the screen of his phone with the blinking red light. He knew his father would be mad and that it would be hard to convince him to get on board with his plan. But he had to stand up to him if he wanted to really lead. "Because I don't want my family to be under threat. I don't want my wife hurt and I don't want my future children to live in a world like this."
Qing Zihao breathed out and rubbed his hands on his face. "I am not having any of this," he said after a moment. "Wuming, you settle back here again and run the mafia—"
Wuming threw both hands in the air with a grin. "Father, you know I left because I don't want anything to do with it."
"Then Lok—"
"Is too young to handle any serious matter."
Qing Lok's head dipped because it was true.
"Enough!" said the grandmother who was throwing each of them a glare. "You boys are shouting in my house?! Did I not raise you all properly?! Have you forgotten that we take votes when such a matter threatens to rip our family apart? Chen is obviously on the legalizing the mafia. Zihao is on keeping it. Lok!"
Qing Lok's head snapped upwards.
"What say you?" the grandmother asked with a hard voice.
Qing Lok looked around, his face red. He probably did not think he would get a vote in this. "Uh… I… I stand with father," he said. "Chen, we can't let all of this go. It is by the mafia's power that we ensure our safety."
Qing Chen felt like a deflated balloon. "It's alright, Lok. But you have to know that the mafia is also the thing that makes us targets."
Their grandmother turned to Wuming. "Wei! What's your vote?"
Wuming shook his head. "I disowned you all, remember? I am not taking a vote."
Xie Changying's lips pressed into a hard line. Now she had to choose if she was going to side with Qing Chen or vote for her son. But then her lips quivered and her eyes shook as she looked apologetically to her son. "I am sorry, Zihao. But I believe Chen is right. We are no longer in the sixties and the times are changing. We really go out on a limb for La Hiena and it's not worth it anymore."
"It's two on two," his father said in a low voice. "Wuming, you decide. You can't not say anything. We need a decision."
Wuming groaned. "This is crazy!" he whispered under his breath. One of the reasons he disappeared to the north was to avoid complications like this. He was certain that he was going to choose his father's side—but when he opened his mouth, a flash of a sweet pretty face came to his mind. "U—uh," he cleared his throat and looked at his father. "I stand with Chen."
The anger seemed to build up in their father again and he glowered at all of them, but mainly on Qing Chen. "You, boy, are starting a war."
Qing Chen sighed in relief. "I am fully aware."
"Don't come crying to me when you can't find a way to end it."
Qing Chen suddenly felt like he wanted to laugh. Cry? Who was going to cry? He nodded his head. This was what he wanted in the first place. He was ready for its consequences. "I won't."
Wuming looked between his red-faced father and Qing Chen who was the face of tranquility at the moment. He was about to say something but then there were immediate footsteps that echoed in the house.
Their IT expert was out of breath when he reached the living room, he skidded to a stop and his glasses almost slid off his nose in haste. His hands and voice were shaking so bad Wuming thought he would pass out before he could say anything. "We decoded the symbols and it read: Hello, Wuming and Qing Chen. Today is the day. Let us see if you can save her. Mrs. Qing is next."
There was a frozen second that none of them moved. And then before anyone could say anything, Qing Chen had already snatched his phone from the sofa and was out the door.
**
When Feng Xuan's classes were over, she got in the SUV manned by two of the bodyguards.
It was completely unnecessary in her opinion. Of all the people, why would the murderer come for her? Maybe she could get Qing Chen to totally rid her of her bodyguards.
She was taking a final look at the portfolio in her seat when she heard the growing multiple loud honks that almost deafened her. By the time she figured out where it was coming from—she did not even have the time to scream—the other car's bumper had already connected with her door.
Her head hit the window and she heard it crack before she lost consciousness.
******
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Hello! I have applied for this book to be on Premium starting at the end of April. Chapter 80 will be the last free chapter and I promise to bring (almost) all your wishes about the story to life in the coming chapters. Qing Chen will improve, obviously. The whys on why he was weak are to be discussed.
From now on, I will try my best to write two chapters a day and they would be shorter and more concise to let us move faster in our story line.
The next chapter might cost a lot--I wasn't aware of the pricing of the chapters until today. Chapter 81 is 2.3k words so it might be a shock for it to be 11-12 coins. Chapter 81-91 are around 8-9 coins each. But I kept the price down starting Chapter 92 with 6 coins. I'll try my best to keep it 5-6 coins each onwards.
Please read the Author's Note ALWAYS: I will give a hint about the next chapters if they would just be a filler chapter and you can decide if you want to purchase them or just skip to the next one.
Thank you all so much for all of who you who share your thoughts and concerns about the story and the characters. I keep them all in mind and hopefully you will see the development of in the coming chapters. Please don't hesitate to leave CONSTRUCTIVE criticisms in the comments.
I hope all of you will still continue your support with this story! I am beyond thankful!
xoxo
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