Yoh was sitting in his studio, and in front of him was the only door and on the side wall, at a certain distance from him, the only window.
Definitely, that was the best position to defend himself from attacks by anyone who had tried to enter the room.
Not that he had many alternatives.
He was not sure about how many men Lee Feng would bring with him, but he was confidant that there would not be that many.
FeiLong had to support the request of the head of the Lee family, because that would be beneficial to the Baishe - a benefit payable at the insignificant price of a traitor's life - but certainly he would never have allowed a large group of strangers to go around armed in his territory.
In normal cases, FeiLong would allow Lee Feng to take with him a maximum of five men, while the men of Baishe would monitor them from afar.
The Triad Leader, however, communicated to Yoh that, in this case, he would allow Lee Feng to take with him no more then three men.
FeiLong told him this that very morning, while he watched him dress…, and then he let him go.
Yoh revised mentally his chances: he was aware of Lee Feng's arrival, something that his foe could not predict. This gave him a certain benefit, because he had the opportunity to be ready and receive him.
Maybe it was not so absurd thinking that he might be able to get away with it.
While he was loading the gun he was going to use, after having ensured the spare one was in the holster that was tied to his ankle, Yoh thought that FeiLong had done for him much more than he deserved. First, he had warned him to leave Hong Kong, and now that he knew that this would not happen, the leader of the Baishe was minimizing the number of men that would be after him.
In fact, Yoh was trying with all his strength not to give to this behavior a meaning that is beyond magnanimity, or piety, but...
On one hand, he did not want to pass the possible last moments of his life living in an illusion, but, on the other hand, in the bottom of the bottom of his soul, the idea that FeiLong could feel something for him was simultaneously the sweetest consolation and most tormenting goodbye to his life.
...
Yoh sat on the floor, waiting.
The man massaged his eyes with his left hand, while the right one was firmly holding the gun. He was very tired, and certainly, this was not the ideal condition to face four armed and determined men whose only aim would be to kill him.
At that moment, his concentration had to be total, but his thoughts could not help but go back, like waves that endlessly chased up the beach, to the previous night.
He went to the villa, hoping to have the chance to see FeiLong from afar, perhaps for the last time.
This thing sounded so pathetic, he was well aware of it, like one of those silly lines in a trivial, stupid love novel for an old maid, but it was nothing but the truth.
He had spent the last seven years watching him, from afar, parted from him by the bubble of loneliness that FeiLong, methodically, had built around himself since he was in prison.
It is probable that the leader of the Baishe was entrusted to him, and had raised him to the role of a man of his confidence, exactly because Yoh seemed to have no interest in crossing that barrier.
Last night, however, Yoh had the delight to see that bubble breaking into a thousand pieces.
Not that he was so haughty to think it was thanks to him. FeiLong that night had somehow managed to free himself from the memory of Asami, if only for a short time, though perhaps now he was thinking back to the Japanese man.
Who could know? And what could it matter, now?
The only thing that mattered was that the previous night FeiLong had looked at him, and for once, he had seen a person.
Not an object, not a tool, not a piece of Baishe.
He had watched him and saw, simply, Yoh.
More than the memory of the sex they had, the things that were still shaking the veins in Yoh's wrists, the things that he would bring with him wherever Fate was leading him to, would be the memories of FeiLong's face while he slept in his arms, their fingers intertwined in the silence of a lullaby played by the rain and FeiLong's amethyst eyes shining in the dark of that gray morning, at the moment of their parting.
Yoh could not tell if in that look there was some pain, some sorrow for their farewell, and honestly, he did not even expect any of that.
But he knew that a light smile graced FeiLong's soft lips, while he brushed the other's hand.
A smile he had seen very few times, and was not for him, until now.
The man looked out the window, and the sun had begun to move westward, with a descending parabola that summarized very well his life.
If FeiLong had shaken off from him his unhealthy desire for Asami, soon that smile would be directed to someone worthy of welcoming and returning it.
Someone worthy to give his love to FeiLong, and to be loved back by him.
Yoh prayed for this to happen, whoever this man would be.
...
Lee Feng tightened his jaw, while a rush of hatred ran through his mind.
His personality, however, was too rational to let the emotions prevail. He did not allow them to hinder him in the past, and he would never let it happen now.
In front of him, the leader of the Baishe, with a relaxed, almost seraphical air, was sipping his bourbon religiously, looking into his eyes.
Lee had heard about Liu FeiLong, the young leader of the most powerful drug syndicate of Asia, as being handsome and wicked, but after their first meeting, he believed that the gossip about him was exaggerated, because back then, Liu FeiLong, was indeed proud and stunning, yet seemed to him to not be so temperamental and gratuitously cruel.
But now... now he was there, with an amused air, watching him, making him feel as though he was on tenterhooks, and that long haired son of a bitch had the nerve to ask, in exchange for the miserable life of someone whose death could only make him happy, even Lee's route in their arms' trafficking.
A blatant provocation!
It was true that the weapons trade was not the main activity of the Lee's, but it had, potentially, a great economic value, especially as an object of bargain with the right people.
Recently, Lee Feng had started preliminary contacts with some foreign groups, traffickers of high caliber that would pay very well, with money and favors, to his small business, because it would be able to eventually bring them billions.
"Why are you asking for this? To my knowledge, Baishe is not particularly interested in this business ...," said the boy, and FeiLong mentally complimented Lee Feng for the aplomb he was able to maintain despite the disappointment that was boiling behind his still adolescent face.
"I'm not into this activity per sé, in fact...," the leader of Baishe admitted, waving to the valet in order to make him again fill the glass of his guest.
"Some ice?" he asked then.
"Then, why?" Lee retorted, maybe with a bit too much vehemence, stopping with a hand the boy who was pouring the amber liquor.
Wang, standing in the corner of the room, tensed, but his boss seemed very calm.
FeiLong put the tobacco into the bowl of his ivory pipe, showing nonchalance about the insolence of his guest, daring to criticize on a decision made by the leader of Baishe, in his own house.
That presumptuous little bastard had guts, but FeiLong found it very funny to challenge his patience, and turned the attention toward the younger man, smiling.
"It is not polite asking all of these questions," said the older man, bringing the mouthpiece to his full and tempting lips, "... but I have no problem in answering you. You asked me why. Well, because it is very funny...," he concluded, blowing a thin puff of smoke in the direction of his interlocutor.
The nostrils of Lee Feng vibrated slightly, the only clue in his appearance that made FeiLong understand the big effort he needed not to show his irritation.
"Bastard...," the boy thought.
FeiLong had possibly became some way acquainted with the negotiations that Lee group was going to start with Asami Ryuichi, and evidently he found it very funny to pester the life out of him... or maybe he enjoyed pestering the life out of Asami?
Lee Feng's eyes reduced to a slit, maybe there was something hidden under this entire situation, and he had slipped into a very dangerous war.
"You are not obliged to accept, besides, the life of that man can not mean so much for you...," FeiLong pointed out, overlapping his long willowy legs.
"I accept," was the dry reply of Lee Feng.
FeiLong nodded, showing no surprise about it, because he had never thought Lee Feng would withdraw. There was at stake something very different from money.
The leader of the Baishe knew, from harrowing experience, how some "issues" lead you to damage yourself, and what you cared for, beyond all reasonableness.
But...
But he could not see the desperation in Lee's eyes, nor that fever, that blind rage that vengeance brings with it.
Those feelings, which had ruled him for the last seven years now, disappearing on the horizon along with Asami and Akihito, had made him feel as if he was emptied of himself.
FeiLong had heard about Lee Feng's reasons from Yoh, but he was not able to reconcile the story of Yoh told him with the light in the eyes of the boy.
He decided to ask directly to him.
"Why are you so willing to kill that man?" he asked.
"To avenge the death of Lee Yue Qiu, my sister...," Lee Feng's voice, cold and low, although it still resonated of the light tones of his adolescence, replied in a solemn way to FeiLong's question.
The leader of Baishe continued to look into those eyes, the eyes of the young leader of an organization with some power.
Twenty years.
Almost the same age he has when he was forced to become the leader of Baishe.
Destiny is mocking.
In the figure before him, FeiLong could catch a glimpse of what he was a long time ago.
A boy at the head of a group of men, who were twice his years, and who entrusted him for any decisions on their lives. Or on their death.
But Lee Feng's reasons were so different from his own, now he could see it in his expression, cold and impatient.
FeiLong took the path of revenge because nothing remained of what his world was.
So he had to rebuild it, piece by piece. Making it strong, frightening, powerful.
And then, used it against the only man who was simultaneously the cause of his misery and of his rebirth.
He had hated, and he had loved Asami. He was his reason, his obsession and his nemesis.
Yoh, for Feng Lee was, on the contrary, was nothing.
The leader of Lee family had no real interest for the man he was after.
Lee Feng...
FeiLong was amazed about how it was so simple for him to see through the boy.
Lee was not really interested in avenging his sister, and possibly not even in bringing about his father's honor.
You can understand from a man's eyes if he acts out of love, hatred, revenge or self-preservation.
Lee Feng wanted to save himself.
FeiLong could not tell from what, but he knew that was the case.
"Yoh would have killed your sister? A boy who that was … uhm, 22 or 23 years old would have killed the daughter of the boss? And your father was not able to..."
"My father was a great man," the boy said, with a crack in his voice, perhaps with too much more momentum than he would have wanted.
"I understand…," added FeiLong, rising from the armchair on which he graciously accommodated, immediately imitated by Feng Lee.
Yes, he understood perfectly.
Lee Feng was struggling to keep alive the false notion of honor and respect around the figure of his father, to defend every ideal according to which he had grown, to defend the pride that held together his personality, fearing it could go into crumbs in front of a truth that, deep down, he had already guessed.
Lee Feng made a brief bow to FeiLong, and accompanied by him, headed towards the door.
"Only three of your men," FeiLong said, pushing away the long braid behind his shoulder, which fell heavily, caressing his back.
That day the leader of the Baishe was not wearing one of his precious cheongsam's, but a pair of tight black trousers and a shirt, this one also quite adherent. A pair of black army boots completed his outfit.
"What?" Lee Feng turned his head, with an air that could hardly not betray his anger.
"You can take with you only 3 persons... are they not enough to chase a man alone?" repeated FeiLong, pretending to not have grasped the lack of respect inherent in Lee Feng's tone.
"Yes, Liu Laoban ...," the boy said between his teeth, before to open the door, and exiting.
...
Wang was seated in the limousine, at the driver's seat.
As soon as Lee Feng was released from the office of his master, FeiLong had looked into his eyes.
During his meeting with Lee Feng, his boss seemed so easy, almost amused and contemptuous, but as soon as the leader of the Lee group had gone, a serious and tense expression had taken the place of the relaxed demeanor that he had until then.
Apparently, FeiLong had a plan, which included not only Lee Feng, but also someone more important to him …, and was planning it in that moment that he had made the unexpected request.
Wang was so surprised that the leader of Baishe had asked him to bring him to one of the lower class districts.
What amazed the older man more was that FeiLong had ordered him to not say to anyone else where they were going and to not take any other of his men with them, in addition, FeiLong obliged him to wait for him in the car, and left alone.
This is what caused the most worry, because FeiLong was not a man that could carelessly walk like everyone else into crowded streets, and as well, Wang was very aware what this district was, and unfortunately, he suspected what his boss was going to do here.
** to be continued **