Chapter 5
"That despicable Zuo Hong Ye," Shao Fei vents his anger out on the courtyard's swing set, having stormed out earlier to calm himself down, "Why didn't you give me a chance to explain? Why are you angry with me?"
The chains hanging from the swing on both sides clash, the noise piercing to his ears. Shao Fei glares at the way the swing shakes incessantly, muttering to himself. It's not as if he doesn't know how important Zuo Hong Ye's place is in Tang Yi's heart. How was it any of his business who the Young Tang Master dotes on, is biased towards, or cares about - so why did he feel so annoyed and upset?
"Hmph!"
Still, he really does feel upset!
Bam!
The innocent swing set is kicked another time.
"What is Officer Meng angry about?"
Jack walks out from the dark, with his hands playing with his sharp butterfly knife*.
"Everyone knows that Zuo Hong Ye doesn't hold back when she speaks. Besides, the perspectives of a police officer and the mob has always been different. Is there a need to be this angry?"
Even though Jack is the type of person who always has a smile hanging off his lips, someone who seems hard to get close to, he looks at Shao Fei who is currently considering his words and shooting confused looks in the direction of the main house, and continues, "Looks like you're not angry with Zuo Hong Ye, but more concerned with our boss. I'd like to remind Officer Meng, don't forget the reason why you're staying here. If you act on your impulses, you'll only ruin things. Goodnight."
Jack says his piece, then smiles and leaves the spacious courtyard, leaving behind Shao Fei with his eyebrows furrowed.
===
Shao Fei stands in the courtyard for a long time, and only sometime in the middle of night does he drags his numb legs back to the guest room on the second floor. Just as he pushes open the door and enters, he hears a voice coming from the dark, unlit room.
"I know what Hong Ye said, and I also know how much Lee Li Zhen means to you. I apologise on her behalf."
As quickly as Shao Fei tensed up, he relaxed just as fast as he recognised who the person was. Reaching out to hit at the light switches on the wall, switching on the big light on the ceiling. Looking at the Xing Tian Meng's leader who has been sitting here for who knows how long, Shao Fei waves him off.
"Forget it. If the person involved doesn't think she's in the wrong, then as an outsider, your apology is unnecessary."
"Hong Ye is the only person I can trust completely."
"I'm going to sleep now, please leave. Whoa-"
The more Tang Yi stresses on the bond between him and Zuo Hong Ye, Shao Fei feels increasingly frustrated and upset. So he might as well just go over to the bed, flip the sheets over and demand Tang Yi to leave, hoping that the man who's making him feel this annoyed can disappear from his sight. Suddenly, a hand grips onto his wrist and pulls.
"What are you doing?!"
Shao Fei ends up sprawled over the bed. He turns around and looks at the man who's sitting on him, stunned. Tang Yi is even pulling his shirt up high from the back. Holding onto a bottle of ointment made to treat bruises, Tang Yi shakes it before Shao Fei's eyes. "Applying ointment."
"I can do it myself."
"You're hurt on your back, how are you going to do it yourself? Lie properly."
Tang Yi presses on Shao Fei's shoulder so that he's lying flat on the bed. With his palms smothered in the ointment, Tang Yi places them on the back of Shao Fei's waist and gently massages the bruises that emerged from when Shao Fei struck the chairs during the argument with Hong Ye earlier. At the soothing sensation, Shao Fei who is comfortably lying on the bed, squints - he can smell not only the smell from the ointment**, but also a scent that is uniquely Tang Yi's.
His gaze following the line of bruises stretching from Shao Fei's back downwards to his buttocks, Tang Yi then hooks his fingers into the elastic waistband of Shao Fei's pants and pulls them down towards his thighs.
"Wait a second!" exclaims Shao Fei, startled into sitting up, but he's once again pressed back to the bed with pressure to his shoulder.
"Be good, lie still!"
The ointment is applied to his firm buttocks, its minty scent wafting through the air. Shao Fei buries his embarrassed, red face into the pillows, because no one has ever massaged his buttocks for him like this before. However, since he is unable to use his eyes and see what's happening behind him, his brain is coming up with the sensual scene for him based on just the sensation of the fingers on him.
"Nnn..."
"Does it feel good?" smiles Tang Yi, gentle, at the sound that Shao Fei made unconsciously.
"It's... it's okay, oh-"
Shao Fei refuses to give more than an average rating for the massage, but he can't help but think, "Damn it! This guy's hands and the way he's applying the ointment is really pornographic."***
"Since you're comfortable, then I'll help you to massage a little more."
The fingers massaging at his buttocks start to move towards the end of his spine and entering the crevice between Shao Fei's tailbone and a more private area.
Shao Fei, with his face stuffed into the pillow, suddenly stiffens at the movement. Sensing the reaction and afraid that he was hurting Shao Fei, Tang Yi asks, concerned, "What's wrong?"
Shao Fei straightens immediately without warning, and red-faced, he pushes the man sitting on his thighs off of him. With a really strange posture, bending over, he shoves Tang Yi towards the door.
"Enough, enough! You can go now, goodnight!"
Bam!
The guest room door slams shut, the lock turning from the inside.
This is a first for the Xing Tian Meng leader - for Tang Yi to be so pathetically thrown out of a room. He stands in the corridor holding onto the bottle of ointment, staring uncomprehendingly at the tightly shut door.
"Whoo... whoo... whoo."
Leaning against the door and panting harshly for air, Shao Fei pulls open his pants which are already halfway down his legs and looks at the bottom half of his body - at his own biological reaction. He then slaps himself on the face.
"Meng Shao Fei, are you fucking mad?!"
He was only touched a few times, and he's already hard?
"Not only is the other person a man, he's also a mob boss that's standing against the police, you wouldn't have really fallen for him... right?"
Realising suddenly what he's saying, Shao Fei slides down to the ice cold floor, his back against the door and stares at the messy bed sheets with wide eyes.
Hold on, what did he just say?
Fall in love with Tang Yi? How is that possible-
Just as he's about to refute his own thoughts, he suddenly remembers the conversation he had with Zhao Zi.
"You've been hounding him for the past four years. People who don't know you would think that you have a crush on Tang Yi."
"Have a crush, your head! He's a gangster and I'm a cop, how is that possible?"
"Let me tell you, don't be so confident. God loves to slap people in the face."
"If I say it's impossible, it's impossible!"
"Fuck.." Shao Fei rubs at his face, cursing under his breath.
Suddenly, he understands why he was so mad at Tang Yi kissing someone else at the bar the other day, and the anger at seeing Tang Yi believing more in Zuo Hong Ye than in him earlier.
"Why... did I have to realise..."
Reaching out and grabbing at his left chest, Shao Fei endures the waves of pain there. The person on the chase, falling into love's trap, falling in love with a man - a man who's currently a mob boss. And in the other person's eyes, Shao Fei doesn't even rank as a 'friend'.
"Of course.... God indeed loves to slap people in the face. Haha... haha.... Ha"
Shao Fei sits leaning against the door and laughs, the sound mocking. Turning his face upwards and closing his eyes, he lets the tears fall from his eyes.
Under a bridge
A black van is parked in a secret spot under the bridge, and a man carrying a briefcase heads towards the vehicle. He stands at the side door with his arms wide open, allowing a subordinate to search him, until he's sure that the man is not carrying any weapons with him. Then, he opens the door to let him sit in the back seat. In the back seat, the man takes out a tablet and on the screen the personal details of Xing Tian Meng's main members are seen, including Tang Yi, Jack, Zuo Hong Ye, Gu Dao Yi and some other important members of the group.
"Boss Chen, Wang Kun Cheng passed away too suddenly. The foundation that he's built all these years can't vanish like this, and since Tang Yi doesn't want to give us a way out, we can only look towards you."
Also seated in the back seat, Chen Wen Hao picks up a bottle and takes a sip of the strong whiskey. Using the back of his palm, he slaps at the man's face and says snidely, "Do you think I can't get these things myself? What I want is all the information and details on Xing Tian Meng's processes and dealings with both the underworld and in their legal businesses. If you want to cooperate, then bring out your sincerity, understand?"
"Boss Chen, Xing Tian Meng, during Boss Tang's time-"
"Boss... Tang? Why, you still can't bear to change the way you address him?"
Chen Wen Hao's challenging raise of a brow has the other man correcting himself anxiously, and continues, "Xing Tian Meng was already reforming before Tang Guo Dong died. Originally he left a bit of space for the brothers to make some money, but after Tang Yi took over, he's been steadily cutting off all drug deals. On the surface, all of us don't have any place to say anything, but privately, we're pissed off. My brothers and I just can't take this lying down, which is why we're here to support Boss Chen. So Boss Chen... we-."
Chen Wen Hao interrupts the man in his drivel, and asks, "Tang Guo Dong and Tang Yi, what is their relationship?"
Even though the man wants desperately to confirm their partnership as planned right now, he also doesn't dare to not first answer him.
"We're not very sure either. That year, when Tang Guo Dong brought Tang Yi and Zuo Hong Ye back, only Tang Yi changed his surname."
"All these years you never investigated where Tang Yi came from?"
"Boss Chen, how could we dare to ask more? But the both of them really are as close to one another as a biological pair of father and son would be. Plus, when Tang Guo Dong died, he left a will pointing Tang Yi as the successor, so when he took over as the leader, no one said anything else."
"Fuck!" Chen Wen Hao snaps, slamming his whiskey bottle down.
Everyone watching him swallows, no one daring to say another word. All they hear is the air being blown out from the air conditioner in the car, and Boss Chen spitting out, "Son!"
The Tang Household
Due to Shao Fei's request, Zhao Zi can only bring a big bag of equipment and tools to the Xing Tian Meng leader's home, and help to check out and strengthen the security systems here.
"Shorty."
"Hi!"
"Hey! You're a little too comfortable with me, aren't you?"****
When Jack saw him earlier, he immediately walked up to him, but Zhao Zi responded by throwing down his heavy bag. In this place, where everyone who sees him has to call him 'Jack Ge'*****, only the shorty would dare to be this rude to him.
"What?" asks Zhao Zi, staring confused at Jack, whom Zhao Zi feels he doesn't need to guard himself against, and not understand that he's done anything wrong.
"Forget it, but I really didn't think that you would know this."
Lifting his chin up in pride, Zhao Zi boasts, "Don't look down on others. If I had money, I could assemble a Bumblebee****** for you, and the kind that can transform!"
Jack whistles, putting his thumb up and praises, "Great, you're great."
"Oh right! When are you going to introduce some girls to me?
"Girls?"
"Didn't you say you were going to introduce some to me?"
Or else, what did they exchange their LINE for?
"Oh, that. We'll talk about that next time. I haven't thought of anyone suitable for you just yet."
"Is that so? Then when you find one you must contact me."
"Nnn."
Zhao Zi's shoulder droop in disappointment. Taking a few tools out, he then moves towards one of the surveillance cameras.
"Tch, he actually remembers," Jack watches as the shorty indiscriminately touches another Xing Tian Meng subordinate, and scoffs, annoyed.
The muscular subordinate walks over to Jack, clears his throat and mutters, "What is that idiot cop actually doing? This is a complete waste of time."
All he did was to bring Zhao Zi a ladder, and the cop began to touch him all over.
"Watch him carefully," Jack says, pointing at Zhao Zi, who is stopping with every few steps he takes. "The areas where he's stopping at are the cameras' blind spots. He's probably intending to search for all the dead corners, then make adjustments to the lens of the cameras or increase the number of cameras. No wonder he's Meng Shao Fei's partner, he's a got a trick or two up his sleeves."
How interesting! To be able to make him so interested, Zhao Li An, you're the first!
"But is it really okay for the police to have a look at our security systems? What if they do something to it?"
"I will check another time, don't worry," Jack smiles and pats at the man's shoulder, looking at the shorty who is now adjusting the ladder.
"I really hate cops the most, the moment they come near my entire body starts to itch."
"Then earlier when he touched you, why didn't you feel the itch?"
Jack retorts at the man who let Zhao Zi touch him all over without stopping him, his voice tinged with jealousy.
"My fists were really itchy."
The muscular man clenches his fist and comments, then immediately leaves this place where the idiot cop is at.
The corners of Jack's lips curve upwards coldly. He then walks over to the ladder and asks, "Do you need help?"
"No need, but the men you have here are really petty! They don't even want to let me touch a few more times."
"Do you have a muscle fetish?"
"It's not that serious," Zhao Zi's nose scrunches up as he laughs, and touching his own chest, he adds, "It's just that no matter how I train, it's still all soft, it can't firm up, so everyone laughs at me and calls me a white chicken."*******
Jack opens his right palm, and to the shorty, he says, "Hand!"
"Huh?"
The red-haired man cannot be bothered with further explanation, and so he simply grabs both of Zhao Zi's hands and presses them directly to his own chest. He doesn't mind at all that the shorty is squeezing and pinching in a way that would constitute as sexual harassment.
"Wow! Your chest muscles are so big and so firm! You're not like the legends say, someone who when wearing clothes looks slender, but when you take off your clothes, you actually have a lot of muscle on you?"
"If there's a chance, you should check it for yourself."
"Really? When the time comes you can't find excuses to refuse me just because you get shy!"
Jack smiles, charming, and moves closer to Zhao Zi's face. He knowingly says, "The person who will be shy later is definitely you."
As Zhao Zi climbs up the ladder with his tools, he says, "Tch. It's not like I haven't seen men naked before. Previously when I was at the police academy, I even saw my peers and seniors' butts!"
"It's pretty dangerous, being a cop. Why did you choose to be one?"
"Because I didn't have to pay any school fees studying at the police academy, plus they'll give us a living allowance. Grandma went through a lot of hardship bringing me up, and after investing in me for so long, she should have gotten some returns on that. Unfortunately she died when I was in year two, and she couldn't even reap any rewards before it ended..." Zhao Zi says wistfully, sitting at the top of the leader.
Jack presses his lips together, berating himself. He only asked intending to have a casual conversation, who knew he would remind shorty of sad memories? So he deliberately lightens the tone of his voice, and jokes, "Then your grandma must have thought she was losing out big time."
"I think so too! You're not the first person to say this to me."
"Who's the first?" Jack squints, his neck straining upwards and asks, annoyed.
How can there be someone who thought of this method to comfort shorty, earlier than he did, before he met shorty?
"Ah Fei!" Zhao Zi straddles the ladder, and says, "When grandma passed away I cried so much, Ah Fei said that to me, and then I was laughing."
In that moment, Jack suddenly feels the urge to murder Meng Shao Fei.
"Okay done!"
After installing a new surveillance camera in the blind spot, Zhao Zi pats off the dust from his hands and happily prepares to move down the ladder, when the shift of balance suddenly has the ladder leaning to the right.
"Watch out!"
Jack, with his fast reflexes, immediately opens his arms wide to catch the person falling from the ladder, but he is also unable to stop the momentum from pushing him backwards, so both of them end up falling into the pool outside.
"Am I... Am I still alive?" Zhao Zi asks the man who has been hugging him to his chest all this while, his eyes shut tightly and peeking only just a little bit.
"Please, at this height, no one will die, okay?"
"Wow!"
After ensuring that he was alright, Zhao Zi's eyes flew open immediately, and then he sees Jack's white shirt made transparent by the water, revealing the two firm nipples on his chest.
Jack lowers his head to see what Zhao Zi is looking at so intently, then laughs, incredulous, "You don't intend to 'check' my body here, do you?!"
Zhao Zi swallows, the sound echoing from his throat. Jack, who's suddenly so intently scrutinised, suddenly understands what it feels like for a wild wolf to be targeted by a rabbit.
Shi Hai Corporations
"Did you check it through?" Tang Yi asks Dao Yi, who's standing right next to him, as he flips through the documents on the table.
"Boss, through the dealings we've had in these few years, about 70% of the accounts are already clean. We will invest the returns to next month's D82 project. This time, this BOT has gained quite a lot of attention and popularity in the industry."
Hong Ye sits on the couch, picking up the tea cup and taking a sip of the tea that Tang Yi brewed for her earlier and says, "Ah Yi, I think D82 is worth not only this amount of money. There are still a few days left before we have to make our bid, you lend me a few people and let me check it out first, and at the same time do a last assessment."
"You make a list for me, I'll get them to go over and help you."
"Okay," Hong Ye smiles and nods, then moves off the couch, walking out of the office just in time to see Shao Fei who's busy brewing coffee, so she points at him. "Ah Yi, I want to buy some things. You make him go with me."
"Me?" Shao Fei points at his nose and repeats,
"Miss, let me-" Dao Yi walks over, but Hong Ye completely ignores him to continue looking at the person she dislikes.
With a challenging raise of her brow, she adds, "Officer Meng can fight really well, but he's here washing cups and brewing coffee. Aren't we squandering his skills by making him do these small things? Why not you lend him to me, and he can also properly show his skills off."
"Thank you CEO Zuo for your praise. Indeed, I fight pretty well," agrees Shao Fei, nodding happily at the praise.
"Alright, Meng Shao Fei, I'll have to trouble you to protect Hong Ye."
"Wait, that's not right. The person I'm supposed to be protecting is you, not her."
"If you protect her well, that's more important than protecting me."
Shao Fei looks at Tang Yi's serious expression, and even though he's still upset at what happened before, he is able to put it aside. There's nothing he can do about it - after all, Li Zhen Jie did tell him that no matter what happened, he's supposed to first protect women and children.
"Okay! Let's go! Where does CEO Zuo want to go?"
"There are a lot of places I want to go, you better prepare yourself."
"Haha, I Meng Shao Fei, have nothing but energy!"
"That's what you said, later don't tell me you're tired, Officer Meng!"
"Ladies first, please."
Shao Fei moves aside for Hong Ye to step in front in her high heels, then only does he slide both his hands into pockets and follow behind. Both of them are going out to shop, but it feels like they both are prepared for a fight, and Tang Yi cannot help but laugh.
Seeing Dao Yi's helpless expression, Tang Yi makes a rare comment on the relationship between him and Hong Ye.
"If you don't want to promise her, then don't blame her for being this cruel to you."
"It's not that I don't want to give, it's that I can't give her what she wants," Dao Yi responds dejectedly, holding onto his own wrists.
"It's not that you can't give her what she wants, but you're not willing to give, and thinking too much on it will only hurt you both."
Tang Yi pats Dao Yi's shoulder, then leaves the office as well, leaving behind Dao Yi to stand alone in his spot with an indescribable expression on his face.
Department store parking lot
"I really went all out today, and seeing that you worked so hard today, I'll treat you to ice cream later."
"Thank... you.... CEO... Zuo..." Shao Fei replies wearily, carrying with him seven to eight bags of shopping, and putting the items in the boot of the car.
"Open the door for me."
"Yes-"
Just as he rolls his eyes, offering his service to this spoilt Miss Zuo, he suddenly sees from the rearview mirror another car in the same parking lot, strangely winding down the window on the side of the front passenger seat. A black gun emerges.
"Zuo Hong Ye!"
Shao Fei jumps over out of reflex, and in that moment all he feels is a sharp pain in his abdomen, then everything fades to black before his eyes.
-
*I usually refer to Jack's knife as a knife because I wasn't sure what kind of knife it was and if it really was a butterfly knife (literal trans from Chinese) but I just googled and yes there exists a butterfly pocket knife!
**The novel says '万金油' and the most common ointment (it's minty, burns a little when you put it on ur skin because it's so cooling) - And the most common brand of ointment of this kind is Tiger Balm
***The novel says 'OS' - So a little bit of Taiwanese slang tangent here, OS was taken from 'off-screen' and is meant to annotate what the person is really thinking on the inside. I was confused and had to go google a bit, anyway this means that SF was thinking in his head about that, even while trying not to praise TY's massage skills
****The exact phrase is "you really don't stand on ceremony with me, do you?" but I don't know if it sounds weird, so I paraphrased a little
*****Jack Ge = Brother Jack, but I think Brother Jack sounds a little too formal for him hahahaha
******Yes, I think he really means Transformers' Bumblebee
*******If any of you have had chicken rice before, then you'll probably know Hainanese chicken rice - we've got a few variations, but the 'white chicken' he's referring to is one where the meat isn't fried or roasted but boiled/braised-ish