Hello!
Sorry for the late update. I wanted to combine this chapter with the next one, but it isn't finished yet and I'm not sure it will be before I leave for holiday.
Ok. So, a few more moments of peace and love before things go boom :)
Five: Midnight meetings and sleeping spells"Hi!" Chloe greeted Lex.
"Hey," he said back. "How was your day?"
She was flushed from running and cold, and tasted vaguely of salt and coffee when he kissed her. After the latest marathon session of discussing technical and law-restrictive problems, which he didn't think were problems at all, seeing her was almost as good as imagining taking a gun and put it against Wong's head. If it wasn't Shanyuang bringing up protests, it was Wong. And if it wasn't Wong, it was Madonna. He was so sick and tired of Asians and their exhaustingly polite 'nos' disguised as 'yeses'…Thankfully he could completely avoid them for the next two days. Well, the Sparkling Sources Asians, that was. Unless he locked himself up in his room, he'd probably have to face other slanted-eyed, yes-saying, no-meaning, clay-faced little people. That's an idea. Hide Chloe's clothes and lock the door. Yes, I could definitely spend the weekend that way…
"…and then we talked about cutting off the hind legs of frogs," Chloe said earnestly. She'd been talking for a while, the sound soothingly English to his overwrought ear drums. "It was such fun."
"Really? That's nice." If he'd known the number of objections he'd find in his path, he would have waited another month or two before actually agreeing to meet these people. Sure, rescuing the manager had helped. But it hadn't solved the problem of underground wiring for electricity, and it hadn't miraculously changed some crazy Chinese law against laying cement housings for cables…
Wait.
"What did you just say?" he asked, dragging his mind out the grasp of today's aggravating business.
Chloe grinned. "I said I met a gang of suicidal warrior monks who specialized in the ritual dismembering of frogs."
He raised an eyebrow. "Did you?"
"No. But I was curious whether you'd pick up on it. You looked very much caught up in your own thoughts."
He rubbed his forehead, trying to rub out the visual of ten arguing Chinese men and women as well. "I was. Sorry, long day. Do you know that there is a law that…No. No, I'm not going to talk about that stupid law anymore. I'm out of my thoughts. What DID you do, today?"
"I made new friends," she said happily, and actually skipped two steps before falling back into pace next to him.
He smiled. "Warrior monks?"
"Not exactly. Teenagers."
"Might be equally dangerous," Lex murmured, remembering Smallville. She thumped his arm. He was becoming calloused on that spot, he suspected. He didn't even bruise anymore.
"They weren't dangerous! They were lovely. And they told me a lot of very interesting things.
'Such as the fact that Phoenix Fire is distributed by a gang that calls itself the, surprise, surprise, Phoenix gang, and that that gang selects its members and then provides those members with drugs that damage the heart."
Only Chloe will introduce herself to the local youth with the question if they know anything about a drug she's heard about, Lex thought, amused; then clacked his tongue and exclaimed "Like that girl!" just as Chloe added, "Do you remember that girl?" It was only now that he realized she was in full reporter mode. That was the reason she was so bouncy; she was on some sort of track, or so she thought. And she might be right, he supposed. "It doesn't sound like a good idea to get your gang members addicted to a drug that causes heart failure," he mused aloud.
"I want to know if that girl is still alive," Chloe said.
Lex nodded, slowly. "Me, too. But I wouldn't know how. I didn't get her name. I mean, I could call the hospital and ask what happened to the girl that was brought in with chest pains two days ago, but I doubt they'd give me a straight answer."
"Maybe Lung and Co. could find out."
"Lung?" Lex asked, and was treated to a story of rebellious teenagers with henna tattoos on their arms and one real tattoo on the back. Chloe also told him about Mayor Fengfei's car crash not two months ago, and that made him frown. "Wong didn't tell me anything about that."
"Maybe he didn't think it important," Chloe shrugged. "What intrigues me, is that the Phoenix keeps coming back all the time. Phoenix Fire, Phoenix gang, Fengfei's connected to the phoenix too…"
"His name means phoenix," said Lex. "It's quite a common name. And the bird rising from the flames of its own destruction is generally considered positive symbolism."
"So what are you saying?" Chloe asked, doing another little hop. "That it's all coincidence?"
Lex smirked. "I don't believe in coincidence."
"Oh right, I forgot it was YOU I was talking to," she retorted, but he sensed that she didn't mean it as an insult. Like his, Chloe's world was populated with people who thought the world hung together from coincidences. She was probably overjoyed to have found someone who took as many wild leaps on reason as she did. And that was good, because his brain was elated to have something else to do than translate Chinese refusals that sounded like agreements.
"I'm just trying to make things add up, and so far they don't. Firstly, that girl you stumbled over? She was…maybe fourteen, fifteen years old? That is a little young to be part of a drug-dealing gang, isn't it?"
"The Metropolis gangs recruit teenagers, too," Chloe argued. "And even in Smallville we had juvenile junkies. Kids want to fit in, and they want to look tough. The badder the gang, the younger the kids."
"That's true. But that couple that called the police wasn't at all alarmed by having her found on their doorstep, nor by the term Phoenix fire. They knew of it, but it didn't really scare them. And gangs, as far as I know, are not only about drugs. They do more."
"Theft, extortion, black market activity, a syndicate maybe," Chloe agreed, nodding vigorously. "Yeah, I associate gangs and doped-up kids with crime, too. You're right, they weren't shocked at all. Worried about the girl, but nothing more. You'd expect some level of fear at least. Come to think of it, Ta didn't mention anything about the Phoenix gang doing illegal things either. It's as if they purely exist to distribute their nasty stuff—and even that they do with more care than you'd expect, since they actively select their users."
Source language is similar to target language. Continue or abort? Lex squeezed the bridge of his nose, urging his brain to stop trying to convert Chloe's words from Chinese into English. "Ok," he said. "Maybe they're only selling. And maybe you have to meet certain conditions in order to be found worthy to use their drug. Still, as a gang, you want to keep your members happy, right? Giving them substances that cause heart attacks doesn't sound like much of a bonus to me."
"Mmmm," Chloe murmured, sounding neither affirmative nor negative. They had thoughtlessly wandered into the square, where a lone woman was just finishing scrubbing the First Buddha's foot with algae removal solution. The chemical spraying from the nozzle of her cleaning machine smelled of artificial lemons and made Lex's nose prickle. He sneezed, and a moment later Chloe sneezed as well. Now I see how they keep their beloved statue so sparkly clean. If I am correct America took this chemical off the market 70 years ago. It's a good thing they don't use this stuff on the Buddha in the mountains, or all water filtering through the ground here'd be contaminated. That'd be a laugh. They wouldn't need heart-damaging drugs anymore; everybody'd be permanently damaged since birth by the water.
I wonder if it is harmful when transmitted through air. That woman is wearing a mask over her nose and mouth.
"Let's eat," Lex proposed, sneezing again and backing away from the woman and her nozzle. She smiled apologetically. "Somewhere warm, cozy, and preferably free of this lemony…" he sneezed again, "gunk."
"Gotcha there," Chloe said, and they beat a hasty retreat to one of the nearest little restaurants.
*
Chloe didn't hold her chopsticks quite right, but she could use them pretty well by now. She could even talk about Phoenix Fire while holding a piece of Tahoe suspended in the air and keeping it there while she gestured with her chops. Lex followed the piece with his eyes while she talked.
He didn't want to tell her, but he really didn't care all that much about the drug. Had the so-called Phoenix gangsters followed him and the Sparkling Sources people around with 'Foreigners Out!' banners and explosives it would have been something else, but so far the entire village seemed eager to welcome the outsiders into their world and build the water installation. Unless they were stupid or lazy, the gang seemed to share this sentiment.
He could guess why, too. If more people came to work in the village, the populace would grow, and the more people, the more consumers. He had seen it more often, and while he was no supporter of criminals, he had never bothered rooting them out before concluding a business deal in a place run over by that mob in question. Everybody had to make a living, right? Criminals as well as honest business people. Only the ignorant and hopeless would fall into their hands; who was Lex Luthor to stand in the way of Darwin's natural selection?
The only thing that kept nagging at the back of his mind, was that the gang was so selective choosing their users. That didn't make sense at all. And so he listened to Chloe's theories and posed some of his own, intrigued despite himself. Yet neither of them could come up with an explanation, and by the time Lex fished the last lychee out of his dessert bowl, they were both tired of the subject.
He was tired, period. He didn't mind working hard to achieve his goals, but he did mind spending ages cajoling, begging and prodding people to do what was so obviously the most logical, profitable thing to do. And then finding out that the reason they had brought up all those ridiculous objections was some local law that…
He sighed. I really need a break. Here I am sitting at a table with my delightful young reporter, and all I can think about is that stupid law.
"Are you tired?" Chloe asked.
"Mm."
"You look tired. But you're off for the weekend, right? I mean, you ARE free, aren't you? They aren't continuing over the weekend?"
"If they would, they'd have to do it without me," Lex said with quiet vehemence. "If it were up to me, I wouldn't see a single Chinese face for the next two days."
"That might be a problem…us being in China and all."
"Huh!" huffed Lex, and she giggled.
"You're carrying an aggressive vibe, Lex. Maybe you should work out for a bit, get it out of your system."
"What I need, is these stupid cows to give me straight answers and not say 'yes', 'yes', 'yes', while they mean 'no', 'maybe', and 'I don't have a fucking clue'. But," he added, pushing his frustration back where it came from, "you're right. I think I'm going to go for a swim."
"You can't." Chloe said, picking up a drop of molten ice cream from her coupe and licking it off her finger. "Not this shortly after dinner. You'll get cramps."
"Then I'll first do something to diminish the chances I'll get cramps," he gave her a bright, promising smile that could still make her blush, "and then I'll swim, and then we can lounge around for a bit. Unless you wanted to go out?" To his immense relief, she shook her head. He was dead beat. The last thing he wanted was to hang at the bar and down bad whiskey with the yakking of bar-frequenting Shuengians in his ears. But he did ask, because it would be rather selfish to expect her to spend another evening at the hotel if she actually wanted to go out. But she didn't. Thank god. "Tomorrow," he said, perking up, "I want to get two ponies and go up to the ruins of the first temple."
"Do you think you can get the ponies without the guide?" She correctly assumed he didn't want anyone else accompanying them.
"I will if I pay enough," he shrugged. He knew from experience that almost any and all objections could be taken away by currency. "Besides, Miss Zhen knows I ride well, and if you take Ping I doubt anything could happen if you wanted to. We can picnic up there in the mountains."
"Provided it doesn't snow."
"Provided it doesn't snow."
"Sounds great. Although, if we have some time left in the afternoon, I'd like to hit the internet café and maybe meet up with Lung and his friends."
"Sure," said Lex. "I want to check my email, anyway. I can't believe the hotel doesn't have a proper connection!"
"I can't believe the internet café does!" Chloe said. "We're in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by mountains and valleys. Really, I'm BAFFLED by the fact that I can still access my account."
"Ze internet rulez ze world," Lex lisped, and she laughed.
"I thought money ruled the world."
"It does. But it is actually the puppet of the internet."
"Its puppet, eh?"
"Whipping boy, in fact," said Lex, and stuck up his hand to get the check.
*
At 2 PM Chloe was woken by a soft sound. For a few sleep drunk moments she wondered if it was some kind of amorous whisper, but no, the only part of Lex's body touching hers was his knee. A midnight phone call, then? she wondered without opening her eyes. No, the murmur was not regular enough to be a conscious, one-sided conversation.
She sighed, opened her eyes and rolled over to watch the source of the muttering sound, and found Lex lying belly-down, talking again.
He had started talking in Chinese in his sleep the night before. As a matter of fact Chloe suspected he was conducting entire meetings while he was dreaming. The first time his mutterings woke her up, she thought he was having a nightmare, but when he interjected, "No, I don't agree with that, and could you please let me finish my argument?" she had laughed and listened for a while, hoping he'd fall into a deeper sleep soon. Yesterday, he had after a couple of minutes, but this time, he didn't.
He'd fall silent for a few minutes, and then suddenly start talking again, his hands twitching into fists in the sheets. All in Chinese.
Looks like those patented high-quality Luthor brains finally got overloaded, she thought with a snicker.
But it was kind of annoying, listening to someone talk in his sleep, especially since she didn't understand a word of it, and after twenty minutes of slurred fragmented monologue, she woke him up, or at least got him to open his eyes. "Lex. Wake up. You're not in a meeting."
"Mmm?"
"You were talking in your sleep. You're not in a meeting. You're in bed with me, and it's weekend. You're supposed to take a break from speaking Chinese."
"Oh. Sorry." He said something else in Chinese. It sounded like 'would you shut up!' She was not coming through, that was for sure.
She put her hand on his chest, winced and moved it to his shoulder as he tensed. One day she was going to find out why he reacted that way. "Ok, listen to me. Are you listening?"
"Absolutely."
She giggled. "You're such an obedient boy, Lex."
"Don't patronize me." It came out so coolly she cast a searching glance at his face…but no, still on auto-pilot; he'd even closed his eyes again.
"Ok, sorry. I won't patronize you. The meeting's finished. You can go to sleep now. You've concluded your speech and they've all listened to you, and now you can stop speaking Chinese."
"But then they won't understand me," Lex murmured.
"They don't need to, honey; meeting's over."
Lex's eyes opened at a slit. "Honey?" he repeated, and while his voice was still heavy with sleep, it at least sounded as if he actually knew what he was saying.
Chloe rolled her eyes. "What are you, a bee? I'm having entire conversations with you and the only word you react to is 'honey'?"
"Sorry." He rubbed his face. "What were we talking about?"
"About the fact that you should stop talking."
"Was I talking?"
"Yes. In Chinese. I think you were trying to persuade the Sparkling Sources people to let you finish your argument."
"They're in the habit of interrupting me," he muttered. "Especially that friend of yours."
"Crystal?"
"Wong. Keeps on talking and talking and talking…" He heaved a deep sigh, pushed his face against her shoulder and fell asleep again.
"Ah," said Chloe, who was now very much awake. "That is unfortunate indeed." She stroked an inquiring hand over the smooth dome of his skull, but he didn't even stir. No, she corrected herself, there's nothing 'again' about this. The word 'again' in this context would imply that he woke up at one time. He continues sleeping. I doubt he'll even remember this conversation in the morning.
She sighed again. "Well, as long as you keep silent, Mister Luthor. Or maybe I should call you Ruthor. To keep you in the right state of mind."
"Bzzzzzz," Lex buzzed.
"You ARE awake! You bastard!"
He caught her hand before she could thwack him on the arm. "Go to sleep, Chloe."
"You woke me up with your Chinese babbling."
"I'll babble in English."
"I'd appreciate it if you stopped babbling at all."
"Consider it done," said Lex sleepily, and when she next spoke to him, he didn't give any reply anymore.
*
The next morning Chloe physically restrained him when he tried to get up at seven.
"No, no, no," she said, hanging on to his waist while he tried to pull himself out of bed. "You kept me awake half of the night with your midnight meetings. You can't possibly have slept enough to rest up properly."
"What on earth are you talking about?" Lex asked, giving up the struggle. He settled back under the covers, and was immediately partly absorbed by Chloe's sleep-warm body. Or at least that was what it felt like.
"You talked in your sleep."
"Luthors don't talk in their sleep."
"Then I suggest you check your parentage, honey, because you were as chatty as a fishmonger."
Lex blinked. The word 'honey' sounded familiar for some reason. "That is an awful comparison."
"Hence my request for you to stay in bed for a bit." She tightened the hold of her arms and legs around him.
Lex experimentally moved one leg. Her arms squeezed harder. "Request, huh?"
"A gentle petition."
"What if I need to go to the bathroom?"
"Do you?"
He considered. "Yes."
The tentacle-like limbs loosened their death grip. "You may pass. But you can't get up yet. Not yet."
Lex chuckled. But he went to do his business and then obediently returned, and to his own surprise he dozed pleasantly for another one and a half hour before his body told him that it was now definitely done sleeping, and wanted to go and do something.
They had breakfast and coffee at the hotel, simply because the restaurants in the village only served rice, egg and fried vegetables for breakfast, and Lex and Chloe agreed that rice for breakfast was unpalatable.
Then they did some shopping for their lunch up in the mountains—the weather was good, Feng Lao said, and would remain that way until the next day. "Tomorrow we get snow," he predicted, while he inserted new menu sheets into the leather folders. "Lots of snow."
"But not today," Chloe asked, just to make sure.
"No. Today is good day. Nice day for going outside."
"Good." She gave him full wattage, and Lex just KNEW what she was going to ask the guy next. "Say, Feng Lao…Have you ever heard of something called Fènghuánghuǒ?"
And the man stiffened. He controlled his features immediately, and his hands stopped folding for less than the blink of an eye, but he did go rigid for a split second before he nodded, and said, "Yes. I have."
"What do you know about it?" Chloe asked excitedly.
"Only that it's trouble."
"What about the Phoenix gang? Do you know anything about them?"
He closed the menu he was working on, put it on the stack and started with another one. "I know they exist."
"What IS the Phoenix gang, exactly?" Lex asked. He kept an eye out for the other hotel staff, but the only other personnel present was the man behind the desk on the other side of the lobby.
Feng Lao didn't look up from his menus. "I don't know," he said.
"But," Chloe tried again, "what do they do, what's their place in this society? What…"
"I don't know," Feng Lao repeated, and folded another menu.
"But," Chloe said, and then she fell silent. "You don't know," she said. She shot Lex a glance, and he raised his eyebrows. This must be the very first time I have heard a Chinese say he didn't know anything. His paranoia spiked.
"Well, too bad," he said brightly. He took Chloe's arm. "If they aren't notorious enough to sprout tales of horrors I guess we're in no danger." He stared hard at Feng Lao, but the man's face was now so bland it had even lost its semi-permanent sad expression. He does know. If there is anything to know, he does. And it may be a very bad idea to force him to confess. "Let's go, Chloe. We have a long way to go."
"He knows something," Chloe said in the car. "He definitely knows something." Her eyes were shining.
"Something he doesn't want to tell," Lex said.
"Yes? So we make him spill!"
"Spill what?"
"Well, whatever he knows, of course!" She almost punched his arm, then decided it wasn't safe when he was driving. "Come on Lex! It's suspicious! He's probably part of the gang!"
"I sincerely doubt it."
"But Lex, he…"
"He is a bellboy at the biggest of the three hotels this town has. His heart is obviously in good shape. He doesn't want to talk about the Phoenix gang, and we are not in the position to make him."
"But maybe he…"
"We don't have the right. You are not a reporter here, Chloe. And this is not my city."
She was silent for a moment, looking pouty and angry and disturbingly childish—then she chuckled and said, "Your city?"
"Yes. Metropolis is my city."
"You know, it's strange, but Clark always says that as well."
Now it was Lex's turn to chuckle. "I doubt he means it in the same way as I do. Clark doubtlessly sees Metropolis as his city to save, protect and cleanse from evil influences. Me…I own Metropolis. Literally." He shot her a sideways glance. The pout was gone. He had mentioned his ownership of Metropolis before, but it had always been in a sarcastic or flippant tone of voice. He was perfectly serious now, showing a side of him she knew that was there but rarely saw, and she was fascinated.
"Go on."
"I know every businessman that counts in Metropolis—by name, face, and résumé. The same counts for all influential politicians and other crooks and criminals. Although I don't know every one of the last in person, I must confess. Even though most of them appear in public to flaunt their infamy all the time—much like me." He smiled, still completely serious. Chloe was never to know, but he did know most of the crime lords in person. Some of them he might even call colleagues.
Crime would always flourish. It was like sex: where people congregated, there would be those who would live off of them. Crime was impossible to eradicate completely, and Lex was aware of this. He had never tried to banish it; instead, he attempted to regulate it.
The thing was, it was much easier to keep an eye on what was going on in a city when crime was organized. Knowing who was behind narcotics, who behind prostitution, who dealt with gambling and who with smuggling gave one an immense advantage when trying to curb one of those activities. Lex much preferred one scary Hungarian Prostitution-Emperor with whom he had once had a comfortable chat over a glass of Talisker and Cuban cigars (which he had faked smoking), than a dozen of small-time felons he had never seen. He had never made deals with the big criminal fish of Metropolis—deals could be traced, and he wasn't stupid. But if he found small scouting fish on his turf, little guppies tasting the Metropolitan waters for new, bigger fish, Lex wasted no time pointing out said fish to the criminals he did know.
He made himself no illusions that having a drink with the Hungarian would keep said Hungarian from putting a bullet in his head if the man deemed that Lex Luthor's life was forfeit—but it might give him some leniency at least. Meeting them in person gave Lex the chance to show them how fucking intelligent he was, how influential, and how profitable it was for them to remain on his good side. And in return, knowing the CEO of LuthorCorp and LeXCorp did…not as much approve as condone…their presence, kept the criminals happy with what they had.
They had a lot. They reigned the underworld of Metropolis. But they would never have more than Lex would give them. They didn't see it that way—the Hungarian in particular thought most of his business was flying under Lex's radars. He didn't know that his right-hand man reported monthly to one of Lex's bought Homicide cops. Who, in turn, reported to yet another link in the chain. Lex held the chain; it dangled lazily from the little finger on his left hand. Very few people suspected it was him making the puppets dance. That was one of the many small pleasures he got from his Uncrowned Metropolis Empire.
"Everyone who is vaguely important in Metropolis knows me, and, I should like to say, holds me in some regard. But this is not my village, and I have no one to fall back upon if things go wrong. So," he parked in front of a small supermarket, already crawling with shopping house wives. "I would appreciate it if you didn't risk your life for something that may not be worth it."
"Good god, Lex, I'm not 'risking my life' for anything. I just want to get some answers."
"Then I suggest we find someone who's willing to give you some answers, like those kids you met, and not harass hard-working bellboys with unwanted questions." He got out of the car, blinking at the sun. It was surprisingly hot.
Chloe closed her door, leaned her hands on the roof of the car and looked at him with her head a bit to the side. "You're not forbidding me to investigate this?"
Lex shrugged. "Who am I to forbid you to do anything? I can imagine you want to find out more about the Phoenix gang and their weird drugs—that's what you do, you ferret out secrets. The only thing I am saying is: don't take risks you don't need to take. Why antagonize people if you have perfectly willing informants?"
"Why, thank you for these wise words," she said with a sneer, and Lex frowned, getting angry himself.
"I'm sorry if I come across a little patronizing, but we both know that while you are incredibly good at finding dirt, you're pretty much liable to get a shovel on your head and get buried right along with it."
"What do you mean with that?" she asked, voice dangerously low.
Lex put his hands on top of the roof as well and stared her down across the car. "What I mean is that you always get into trouble whenever you start investigating suspicious activities. And I personally am NOT looking forward to finding your dead body in the lap of that Buddha over there because you stuck your nose in some gang's business."
She opened her mouth, probably to tell him exactly what he could do with his anticipations, when she unexpectedly swallowed her words and grinned.
"Wow, Lex. I'd almost think you loved me."
"I do love you," he said, annoyed. "You know how I feel about you. Don't change the subject. You can do whatever you like, but I would really appreciate it if you didn't get shot in the process."
She was still grinning. Lex sighed. Another woman who thought he was adorable when he really wasn't trying to be. Why was it that Mayors and criminals were suitably impressed when he lectured them, and women only grinned like that? He locked the doors.
"Are you coming?"
In reply, Chloe held up something small and brown. She squeezed it, and it chirped that it loved him. "Looks like the therapy helped."
Lex facepalmed. "I wish I had another meeting today."
"No, you don't," Chloe said, and gave him a hug.
*
The ruins were a bit of a letdown. The journey up was lovely; Lex had indeed managed to persuade Miss Zhen to let them go up on their own, and the path was quite clear. Miss Zhen had given them a map, a first aid kit and two flares in case of calamities, but the practical look in her eyes while she tucked these away into Lex's saddle bags took away all excitement Chloe might have felt when facing calamities.
"Be caleful when you reach snow," was all she said when they left. "Let horses find own path. Don't drive them."
Chloe personally thought she'd need more than reins and boots to drive Ping. A whip, at least. Or maybe a taser, a cattle prod, or a gun.
But when she spoke the magical words Dā, qūxiāo!, the pony readily followed Lex's, and they spent most of the remains of the morning riding through the mountains, with the sky endlessly blue above them, the sun shining hot on their faces, and the snow glittering like diamonds in the bright light.
The temple ruins were precisely that: ruins. There was no tantalizing, half-collapsed entrance, no mysterious faceless statues; the whole thing was rubble, and the only proof they found that the moss-overgrown pile of rocks had once been a temple were a few eroded bass-reliefs on one of the stones.
"Are you sure this is it?" Chloe asked, after she'd taken as many pictures of the picturesque, if not very interesting place as she cared to take.
Lex, who no longer looked like Metropolis' clandestine ruler with his sunburned nose and cheeks and the hat that covered his head like an egg warmer, pointed at a small plate attached to a broken pillar. "It says so over there." He studied the ruins with his hands in his pockets. "It isn't as impressive as I'd hoped."
"No." She tucked her camera away again. "The view sure is pretty, though."
"Mmmm…" His impassive eye followed the stunning display of golden mountains against flawless sky, and suddenly he grinned widely. "Not a Chinaman in sight."
Chloe rolled her eyes. "Lex, really, you need to let go of things."
He turned to face her, and slowly opened his hand so the gloves he had pulled out of his pockets fell to the ground. "I know how to let go of things?"
She stuck out her tongue, and he laughed. Chloe turned her attention back to the ruins. "Where shall we eat?"
"There's a flat bit of rock over there," said Lex, pointing. "I think the Buddha must have stood there, before they moved it down to the village."
They spread out the thermal blanket they had taken along for this purpose and sat in the middle of the ruins of the ancient temple, gazing down on the valley below, and toasted to the weekend. And if the ground had been less sacred, and Chloe's hands a little warmer, they would probably have made love there as well, but in the end they just made out like a couple of teenagers.
And when they delivered the horses back at Miss Zhen's stables, three bottles of wine and six hours later, they both agreed that email was something that could be checked the following day as well.
TBC
There. Plot delivered. Now on with the action…