Chapter 348 - Christina

As the girl refused to tell him her name, Qing Zihao leaned against the counter and asked the owner. The girl disappeared to the kitchen to fulfill the next set of orders. "What's her name? She's not wearing a name tag."

"She's new. She'll be getting one soon," answered the old woman. 

"So what's her name?"

The old woman just stared at him and he stared back. He was not going to be backing down on this. "Christina," the woman said, her lips barely moving.

"Pft," he scoffed. "What's her surname?"

"She didn't say."

"Where are her papers?"

The old woman glared at him before removing her gaze, focusing on the register. "Not my story to tell."

Qing Zihao bit on the inside of his lips. Christina, he muttered in his mind. What a fake name. Probably no papers. Did she come here illegally? That would seem the only logical reason for this.

When the girl walked back to his table carrying a bucket of chicken, he inclined his head to the side. "You're taking the easy way or the hard way?"

"What do you want?" she asked back, refilling their glasses with soda.

"Your name."

The woman only chuckled in dare. "I'm not going any way. You're the one who's going to choose. You can force it out of me today—that's the easy way. Or you're going to be patient until I feel like telling you my name—that's the hard way. It's not my choice. It's yours."

"Christina," he said. "That's not your name. That's bullshit."

She shrugged. "Why, don't you like that name?"

"It's generic. Like a Jane or a Karen."

"It's not that generic."

"Uh-huh, sure."

She sighed with a hand on her hip. "Is this you forcing me to tell you my name?"

He did not answer and that made her smile.

"The hard way it is, huh?" then she left.

"Boss," said the would-be-Clown from his seat with a concerned look on his face. "You have it bad."

Qing Zihao only grinned. "I don't."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

**

The following evening, Qing Zihao went back to the diner. This time, he was alone. Everyone in his family was strongly against letting him leave the house by himself. All the other mafia families wanted to kill one another. It was not safe.

After pretending to have gotten a stomachache a few minutes after dinner, he disappeared to his room. The next couple of hours he spent lounging on his bed and reading some business magazine.

When he heard that his parents were already on the other room, he got up and went to his window. He made sure to wedge something in between the sills so he would be able to open it when he returns.

He climbed down from the second floor, sliding on tubes that he wished would not give under his weight.

Then he was finally on the ground.

"Sweet geezus," he muttered under his breath, wiping his hands clean on his jeans. "I really do have it bad."

**

Qing Zihao did not bother to take a car so public transportation it was. He was never the kind of person who got anxious walking down on the dark alleyways. There was that thing in between his legs and the fully-loaded pistol at his waist.

He was the person in the shadows, the one chasing the people who kept on trying to step into the patch of light for assurance that they were safe.

Wouldn't that make things scarier? In the dark, you would not see your death coming. There was just black and then nothing. But in the light, you would see who the person who would try to harm you and kill you. Then, you would be filled with terror instead of surprise.

Qing Zihao shook his head as he walked down the streets. People lingered in small huddles shirtless, probably snorting something through their noses. Cheap drugs that came from the supply last month. There were women in skimpy clothes, smoking in neon-lighted storefronts.

Everyone knew that this was the shady part of town. You don't come here and expect to find peace and rainbows. You come here because you want to get into trouble. He was more than sure that about two or three streets over, there was a rumble.

That was why it was a wonder why that woman in the diner was here. What was she doing? Of all the places? Why here? There were about a dozen other places that was not as sketchy as this one. Was she that desperate?

He did not like not knowing. He told himself that that was the reason why he was there. Because he wanted answers. Once he got them, he would leave her alone.

Hopefully.

But something in his gut was already telling him that he would not.

Qing Zihao was never one to believe in love at first sight. It was not like he felt things when he first saw her. She just… he made her curious about something again.

He was the kind of person who did not think that love was possible to him. How could he? He was the son and a descendant of a rising mafia lord. What did he expect his life was going to be? It was just filled with guns and crumpled peasant money.

If he wasn't going to be a bachelor, surely his father would set him up in an advantageous wedding. A daughter of a businessman or the daughter of the other mafia lord so they could make a pact and join their families together. To make them stronger.

He was not even sure how his parents and grandfather was going to react when they find out he snuck out in the middle of the night to see a girl.

Well, what was the worst that they could do to him? He was an only child. They would not kill him.

But they might kill her though.