Whoa, what? I've returned!? A shocker to even myself, I know. Life and plagues have gotten in the way, but I have not forgotten this story. I have renewed passion to continue what I've started, and hopefully, to give an escape from the crazy reality we have found ourselves in during 2020 (I would know better than many, being in the medical field. Sheesh!).
To clean the rust off the cogs, I'm returning with a side-story, to begin with. This little short takes place in the month break between Second Generation and Imbroglio. Hope you enjoy and remember - feedback is what helps the cogs keep moving!
Feng Wen's PoV
No matter how many times I get myself in trouble with my lack of direction, I always do it again.
"The line on the map says to go east on Confucius Street..." I mumbled to myself, craning my head up from my phone to the nearby street sign, "... but which way is east?" I took another survey of my surroundings, not seeing anything that stuck out from the average urban city fare. I glanced at the GPS on my phone again, fumbled it back into my coat pocket, and wobbled to the left on my crutches.
It had been two weeks since the incident at the warehouse, where my life had been turned upside down in a matter of hours. The beginning of that fateful evening I had walked into Infinite City's arena to a thunderous crowd of thousands cheering my name. The end came that night in the ICU of XX City Hospital, with my foot shattered and my mother in critical but stable condition. From that moment, the norm of mobs surrounding me at any given moment changed to a two-week-long quarantine from society as my family recovered in the hospital.
I really should have gotten up the courage to ask Hong Peng if it was okay to drop in, embarrassment causing my heart to flutter. As much as I'm an introvert, after two weeks of barely seeing anyone except my family, medical staff, and Hong Peng at the hospital, even I got a little stir-crazy. They call it stir-crazy for a reason, I suppose, since it's led my dumb self to wander the streets of XX City on a Friday morning alone.
Fridays were the only weekday that Hong Peng and I didn't have classes, which meant that I knew Hong Peng was at home this morning instead of at school. While I knew he was going to come by the hospital later in the afternoon to visit, my strong desire to get out of the bleak hospital atmosphere pushed me to sneak out of my mother's hospital room and out into the inner city streets of XX City. My destination was Hong Peng's house, for a hopefully pleasant surprise visit.
As I continued down the sidewalk that lined 32nd Street, it became apparent that the area gradually became rougher and rundown. When my journey started 30 minutes ago, I was surrounded by bustling crosswalks along densely packed streets and buildings of modern-day gleam. Now, I shared the sidewalks with the occasional shabbily dressed individual, the buildings featuring graffiti and wooden boards across the windows. I'm looking for a transporter, but considering how expensive they are to use I find it unlikely that there is one close... I stopped and pulled out my phone, confirming that I did, indeed, go west instead of east. Curse my mother's sense of direction! To make matters worse, my phone notifications showed that my father had called me six times in the last 10 minutes. Sensing I was going to have to bite the bullet and admit defeat, I ignored the notifications and started to call Hong Peng, Maybe I can avoid a lecture from Dad if I can get a hold of Hong Peng in time. I felt a bit guilty about my little scheme.
"Hello? Feng Wen?" Hong Peng's voice rang through.
"Hong Peng!" I replied, "Sorry to wake you up so ear— "
"What the hell is going on!?" He demanded, "I woke up to your Dad blasting my phone with 3 different calls! And the voicemail he left consisted primarily of unintelligible hysteria! I was about to call him back when you called!"
I let out a small sigh of relief, well at least I caught him in time. "Look, Hong Peng, I'll explain more in detail later. Right now, come meet me somewhere on..." I swiveled my head around to look for a nearby street number, "468 West 32nd Street. I'll let Dad know that everything is alright, okay?"
Hong Peng remained silent for a moment, "... Feng Wen, why are you in that part of the city?" he asked with suspicion.
In the corner of my eye I noticed a few seedy-looking men coming up the sidewalk a couple of kilometers behind me, their presence a reminder to how defenseless I currently was, "Please Hong Peng, I told you I'll explain later! I need you to hurry!"
Hong Peng let out an exasperated sigh, "You better have a good one, Feng Wen. The last thing I want is to be the next victim of your mother's triangle chokehold. I'm on the way." With a beep, the call ended and the countdown to my rescue began. I hurriedly started to hobble away from the men who were getting closer, before remembering that I needed to stay put if I wanted Hong Peng to find me. What do I do... I quickly looked around again, cursing myself for the situation I had put myself in. A small alleyway separated the blocks nearby, with a dumpster sitting at the end for the perfect cover. I looked back to see the group was roughly a kilometer away now, still oblivious to my presence as they carried their boisterous conversation.
As quickly as my crutches could take me, I made my way over to the dumpster, ducking between it and an adjacent trashcan. I sat there in silence as the men passed by the entrance of the alley, thankful for my good instincts as snippets of the conversation became audible.
"About damn time we started pushing back in on this area!" One of the men exclaimed, "I'll show those little shits to think twice before squatting on Hóng Hǔ's territory!"
"Shut it, Chen Jui," a gruff voice replied. "Dumbass 49s that talk like that are the first to go down in a fight, all talk, and no brains." Isn't 49 a gangster term? I could feel my heart quicken as the man continued, "We are just doing recon, anyway. We want to avoid a confrontation with any Lán Hè crews if we can. We ain't got enough firepower on us right now for a full-on brawl."
In my nervous state, I began to back a bit closer to the dumpster. Per my usual luck, when I fumbled with my crutches, one of them smacked the side of the metal dumpster with a loud bang.
The conversation went silent, causing my heart to drop. A chorus of clicks that I could only assume was the safety of handguns being disengaged.
"Probably just a cat or something, don't get too spooked," the gruff man answered.
A third man chimed in. "Still better go investigate it, though. That means you, Chen Jui!"
Shit! My panicked mind started racing through ideas as I heard Chen Jui make a slow, cautious approach. Act homeless? Play dead? Pray he doesn't see me?
"Who's on Lán Hè's turf, huh!?" A new voice called out from the other end of the alleyway, gritty and intimidating. "Unless you're a chick selling tofu* you'd better be running!" I didn't think it could get worse, but it did. Why does it always get worse!?
"Who you calling a whore, huh!?" Chen Jui bellowed back, enraged. In preparation for a firefight, he grabbed the trashcan beside me for cover, slamming it into me in the process. My crutches flew out of my hands from the force, clattering onto the pavement.
"What the hell!?" I found myself grabbed by Chen Jui from the collar of my hoodie, his appearance matching his status as a small-time gangster. "You bastard! You blew our cover!"
My mind went blank in fear, "I-I-I—"
"Keep stuttering and I'll rip your tongue out!" Chen Jui threatened, ripping back the hood covering my face. I winced in preparation for a beat down, but it never came. Instead, I cautiously opened up my eyes to see Chen Jui with a perplexed expression, before it turned into glee, "No shit, you're that Yi Min guy! This is our lucky day!"
"Wha...?" I mumbled out, confused, and terrified by his words.
Two glass bottles flew from the left of the alley, one startling Chen Jui, who dropped me as the bottle hit the pavement. The second hit him directly in the head, sending him to the ground with me. There was no chance to orient myself as I felt another pair of hands pull me up, this time from my hood.
"Well, well, what do you know," my captor began, his smooth voice a mismatch to his rough appearance. "Looks like you can find treasure with the trash, after all." In the corner of my vision, I noticed what looked to be half a dozen men from the direction of the bottles. "You, my friend, are going to make Lán Hè very rich once we hand you over to the big guys who want you."
I glanced down, seeing one of my crutches directly underneath where we were standing. Without a thought, I stomped down on the bottom edge of the crutch, propelling the other end upwards. I'll feel bad about hitting him under the belt, later, I thought as he crumpled to the ground. I quickly twisted around and scurried up the dumpster beside me. I didn't think this through, but this is better than the alternative!
"Get him!" A Lán Hè crony yelled as I heaved myself up and into the dumpster, landing on a surprisingly comfortable bag of rotting lettuce.
"Back off, he's ours!" Someone from the Hóng Hǔ's direction called out, the noise of the commotion intensifying. I grabbed a half-decomposed head of iceberg as a weapon and cautiously lifted my head over the edge of the dumpster to prepare for a siege.
What I wasn't prepared for, however, was the incredulous sound of my rescuer. "Feng Wen, what the actual hell is going on!?"
"Hong Peng!" I cried out, dropping my trash projectile. Wearing a button-up and jeans, Hong Peng looked more like a man on his way to the coffee shop than one who would have to face off against two different triads.
The two gangs stopped their fighting to see their new opponent. Chen Jui, having recovered from his earlier injury, was the first to challenge Hong Peng. "Back off, stiff! This is Hóng Hǔ business!"
Hong Peng grimaced in annoyance. "Seriously, Feng Wen? You just had to get roped up with some local gangs? Are you trying to get us in trouble with your mom?"
Hong Peng's tone seemed to irritate a member of Lán Hè. "Who do you think you are, talking about us like we're a buncha nobodies!? We control half of XX City!"
Now Hong Peng was irritated, opening his mouth to answer before he paused. His eyes flickered over to me, and then back to the gangs, who seemed to have made a temporary truce in the light of their new common enemy. Slowly, Hong Peng replied, "Even if you controlled all of XX City, it means nothing to the heir of Wan Sui Ye."
What is he blathering about? Bewildered both by his words, and the reactions of the gangs, who collectively looked as though they had seen a ghost. He calmly began to approach them, maintaining eye contact with the groups. With every step he took towards them, they took one back. Eventually, someone seemed to recover from their shock. "Wait!" they shouted, causing Hong Peng to stop just as he passed the dumpster I was residing in. "That's a big claim from a guy who's dressed to go to the library!"
Murmuring began to ripple throughout the groups, demands of "Prove it!" and "We need proof!" clamoring among them.
Even with Hong Peng's back to me, I could tell that his confident façade had slipped, his demeanor now anxious. He quickly turned his head towards me, his expression one of worry as he turned back towards the gangs.
With a deep sigh to calm his nerves, he moved his arms in front of his shirt. "Okay, I will then." Is he... Unbuttoning his shirt? To add to my compounding confusion, with his right hand he pulled back the right side of his shirt, bearing the front of his chest to the gangs.
Whatever he did or showed them, it did the trick. Any color that had been regained in their faces was quickly washed away, and the entire group scrambled away in sheer terror from Hong Peng. As they ran for what seemed was their very lives, Hong Peng quietly began to button his shirt back up. When he was done, and the alley was thoroughly deserted, he turned around to offer his hand. "Sorry, I'm not climbing in there to carry you out," he said jokingly.
I took his hand, and carefully climbed out of the dumpster. "You asked me what I was doing, but what in the world was that just now!?" I asked in disbelief, "Heir of the Wan Sui Ye? What that is all about?" Hong Peng remained silent as he grabbed my crutches and handed them to me. I continued with sarcasm, "And why did you unbutton your shirt!? Did you think you could scare them off with your abs or something?"
Hong Peng waited a moment before replying nonchalantly, "Oh that? It's just some historical term for triad leaders, I learned it when I was studying for my Chinese History class. I figured if I said that, it might scare them to think I was someone not to mess with."
"And your shirt?" I quirked my eyebrow in anticipation of his answer.
Hong Peng stared back, before exclaiming in panic, "Don't worry about that right now! I just remembered I told your dad I'd have you back 20 minutes ago!"
"Oh shit, Dad!" I yelped, quickly beginning to hobble towards the main road, "Hong Peng, hurry up! He's going to kill us!" Or worse yet, Mom!
In my frantic state, I missed Hong Peng's relieved sigh, thankful he was able to avoid the question. Nor did I see his somber expression as he followed behind me, wondering how long he could hide his secret. Neither of us were aware of how soon he would give his answer.
* This is apparently a Chinese term for a prostitute.
