"Don't move too much, alright?" reminded Qing Lok as Qing Chen got inside. "Stay seated as much as possible. We'll have problems if he would ask you to walk around—"
Qing Chen chuckled. "Yes, I'll take the lead in the conversation, don't worry." Every inch of the surface was covered in green apart from the couch that they had dragged from the living room.
"Everything will be fine," he told Qing Lok. "Remember, you're the key in the first part of this. Don't mess up."
"I got everything under control here."
"I know. I trust you." He ruffled his youngest brother's hair. "Hey, when I get back, let's talk about you getting back to school, alright?" Qing Lok looked down at his feet. "Something with computers. You seem to be really great at that."
Qing Lok lifted his head with a smile. "Yeah, let's talk about that. But first, bring back my sister-in-law. I'd hate to get a new one if she dies."
Qing Chen rolled his eyes. "She's not going to die."
A minute later, the huge truck was rolling out of their property and he and Wuming were seated in the couch, waiting to get to the place. They were quiet until one spoke.
"How are you so sure she's not going to die?" Wuming had asked, like he had been wondering about it for quite some time. Qing Chen was so certain his wife was going to live that Wuming was starting to believe him too. "Humans are complex beings. What if the moment we announced our arrival they blow her head off?"
"The senator will not kill her. He was not going to get a confession out of me if she was no longer alive," he answered. "That's why we're not going to give it—why we're going to take the power he has over us. I'm the only one he could pin those murders to. Mr. Wei was an unruly employee and member of the board. Mr. Zhang was one of our shareholders. We only have the slightest motive but that would be enough because the police wants it to pin it to someone. The vigilante schtick threw them off our trail for a little while but it will end if the dead bodies of bad men stops coming.
Admit it or not, if the senator went to the police with what they haave right now and they did a lot more digging than usual, they will find the mafia in the windmills—everything will start to unravel once we lose our support from the government. He could not go yet because he was the man who poisoned the water in Dong Yi. He needed someone to take the fall for him.
Then they'll find that Hu Wen is our father, our so-called friends will drop us all out to keep their names clean. Eventually they'll look into Mr. Zhang's death. Turn the whole world upside down in search of all the truths we buried. Then all the arrows will point to us."
Wuming had long thought about it—how in this spiderweb of lies and false stories were they able to keep their sanity? Suddenly, he was reminded on why he left Chengshi—it was because of this. Because when you were too close to your family things get complicated.
Wuming started stretching on the green floor, reaching his toes, flexing his arms, and jumping around.
Qing Chen almost laughed watching him. "Is this what you do before you go to a mission?"
"It's to make sure I don't die," he snapped back. "I need all the extra inch I could stretch today." He was rolling his shoulders when the truck slowed to a stop. "Well, I'm off, brother. I'll see you on the other side."
"You sure you want to go without a gun?"
"Eh," he shrugged. "I'll find one there." The huge doors opened and Wuming jumped outside without saying good bye.
"It's time to start filming, sir," said one of their men.
Qing Chen moved to call the senator.
**
They had about twenty men with them but Wuming agreed he would be first to infiltrate the first line of defense. He jogged over the uneven ground of the woods before he saw the clearing, jumping from trunk to trunk, hiding behind hedges and walls.
He watched the men's rotation before attacking the one nearest him with a hand over the mouth and a quick slash on the throat. He quickly dragged the body to the side and went to the next one.
Once he had gotten rid of the first four men noiselessly outside the little building, Wuming slung one of the armalites across his body. Guns irritated him, it was too loud and took out the art of killing someone. It was like a golden ticket to heaven—or hell.
The building was an unfinished one. In the windowless windows he saw a group of men inside having a pleasant game of cards at the table. The enemy was a senator, Wuming understood the laxness of his men—no one would put a bounty in the head of a politician. But there he was…
Wuming took out four knives and quickly flicked his wrist, striking close to the neck. The last one saw him and had managed to press the trigger before dying.
Welp, that was the announcement that the Qings had arrived.
**
The senator and Qing Chen were meant to be talking more. He had been nervous about the call—there were too many external factors that it could go wrong, a bad signal, the internet connection, the cords that run under the green curtains, or that their most stabilized truck (they had every possible anti-roll bar in it) would encounter a huge hump and it'd be too obvious in the camera.
But then Qing Chen had heard the gunshots and needed to end the call quickly. The car started to lurch forward and when he got out of the back, their other men had already got into position. "Scan the area, kill everyone you see," he ordered.
When he had heard the gunshots a jolt of adrenaline hit him. What if it was Wuming who had been shot? He quickly got in the building, passing the dead bodies with bloody necks and saw Wuming in all black—like a shadow leading the clearing.
He quickly followed and Wuming nodded when he had caught up. Then Wuming shook his head. No sign of her yet.
He nodded back. Surprisingly in this small building, there were a lot of rooms. It could have possibly meant to be a resthouse or a small cabin. He tossed Wuming a gun with a silencer and they slowly crept forward on the narrow hallway, snapping in the corners of the rooms and finding nothing.
Qing Chen was already kind of feeling impatient when he heard gunshots from outside. Both he and Wuming picked up their pace to round another corner and found light pouring from majority of the doorways. She had to be in one of these rooms.
They prowled each room and found more men they could imagine.