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Part 9
Page 1
Hours later, and it was yet still another day.
They'd fallen asleep in a heap in the back room,
quite by accident. To some surprise when they stirred to sunrise the next
morning, finding they were still alive, and Guonan had latched onto Shujuan's
leg.
There was yelling after that, and fighting and argument,
and Jianmin pulling out any remaining ground for Shu-rin to stand on when
he pointed out she'd cuddled up a bit too comfortably on his stomach. Which
led to a volley of thrown things. It was a good thing there wasn't much
left in the room to break.
Wensley was the one that ended up getting breakfast.
This was easy for him, to the point that the other
three often called it one of his talents. Without his glasses, Wenlong
could guilt and wibble at big-hearted housewives so successfully it turned
into its own art. And in this case, a great heap of hot bagels and molasses-thick
coffee. No one was going to complain about taste. And really, after the
out-and-out brawl Shujuan and Jianmin got into after Jian teased the girl
about her coat again, they'd all worked up a fairly large appetite.
It was working for far too long in this way, this
quiet pretend-normality. Wenlong couldn't tell who out of the four was
really convinced by this sudden silence, but he knew he wasn't. What would
possess the greatest gang in Beijing to just up and disappear? It was plain
unnatural for the streets to suddenly find themselves free of any Triad
presence. No one had even seen the boy Shujuan had stolen her coat from.
You'd think that that'd be one thing someone would see to.
But there was no one. Nothing. Mind that business
was still slow, and with no money to burn, there left a lot of hours sitting
around and staring at nothing, with no words between any of the four of
them. Uncomfortable loud silences, where Wenlong grew far too aware of
Shujuan's breathing and the shift of her muscles under her skin. And caught
himself wondering just how anything living could be that skinny and still
seem perfect.
It was the word 'perfect' that made his brain lock
up.
He didn't want to know what the other two were thinking.
Really, really didn't need to know about that. Would that that could stop
him from seeing it crystal clear on their faces.
Didn't dare leave Jianmin alone with her, unless
Guonan was around too. Even then Wensley's mind impaled itself thinking,
maybe, that those two would conspire against him behind his back, work
something out between them and leave him thoroughly out of the loop while
they, say, peeled that leather off Shujuan's skin, tugged off her boots,
unfastened her jeans and...
Cao Wenlong had to hit his head against something
hard right then. The nearest object was a wall.
"Wen, you all right?"
"No..."
And so it was a real nightmare, that evening, after
late rush hour was done with and they'd scraped up food for the night.
When Wensley's weak, underpowered office cell set off ringing with a familiar
call number. And the voice at the other end wasn't Ol' King Kou's, but
still needed them for a job, and how could Xiaolong really refuse the work?
And it needed two people to carry. And Shujuan and Jianmin were the ones
to volunteer.
Wenlong had no time to argue about it either, because
Jin called soon after. Guonan was already tuckered out and curled up in
a ball in the back room, and Jian and Shu-rin were already packing up to
head out for the Beijing Hotel, no place for Wen to wedge in some sort
of objection to the arrangements.
He watched them leave and tried not to think, This
is it. It's all downhill from here.
Tried, didn't succeed. And also failed to stop the
thought that he was, really, the one to blame for a lot of this. His own
stupid indiscretion.
But at least it was a quiet night.
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