Chapter 42 Played
Manager Lu looked perplexed. He kept shaking his head at me, “Zhang Chao, you’re a good man, a good hearted and talented man, but I can’t afford to keep you around anymore. I really do thank you for that contract with Juen that you salvaged, but I really need to fire you. Otherwise I won’t have a company to run anymore.”
“What!?” Lin Fang’s desperation overcame her usual fear of contact with people. She grabbed Manager Lu’s wrist and asked, “Why!?”
“You don’t know this, but this morning, someone from Juen called and told us that, if I don’t fire you, they’ll make it certain that my company won’t last before this Sunday comes. And then, after that, all of the company’s bank accounts were frozen, and my personal account too. Calling the cab to come here to tell you this just cost me the last bit of cash that I still had. Zhang Chao, I’m a man of my words, really, I tried, but Juen really isn’t someone that I can afford to mess with. I panicked so much that I seriously considered jumping out of my office window and give myself a quick one. I thought I’d wait for you to come to the company, but you didn’t show up, so I had no choice but to come for you.”
Lin Fang was stressed to the point of tears, “Then what about me?”
“Well, uhh, they didn’t say anything about you. They only mentioned Zhang Chao.”
“Zhang Chao, say something. What should we do!?”
I was actually a little surprised. I never took Chen Yuzhou for the type that would stay his hand because of past friendships, but I really must commend him for this. Even now, he kept Lin Fang outside of this little farce between us.
Manager Lu said, awkwardly, “Chao, just… please, for old time’s sake, I… I had been good to you too, so do me one last favor, and let me and my company go. This Land Rover… I’m taking it back, give me back the keys.”
Lin Fang was more desperate about it than I was, “No, Manager Lu, if you fire him, he won’t have a job anymore!”
“Lin Fang, if I don’t fire him, none of us would have a job! There are so many jobs out there, he can find himself another one.”
Obviously, Manager Lu no longer wanted anything more to do with us. He stepped forward and grabbed the key to his car off my hand, then turned to leave. But unexpectedly, Lin Fang who had always been gentle and soft spoken, dashed after him and grabbed one of his sleeves, stopping him from leaving like her life depended on it.
“But that was Juen! If they did this, who else in the entire Tong City would dare to give Zhang Chao a job!?”
“What…! What does that have anything to do with me!? Unhand me! Why don’t you ask yourself that before you go and offended Chen Yuzhou!? Here in Tong City, he is God! Even I would never try something as stupid as that. Get lost!”
I hugged Lin Fang from behind, and spoke softly beside her ears, “Relax, easy now. Let him go.”
Only then did Lin Fang let go of her hands, and Manager Lu scurried away into his Land Rover. As soon as he got on the car, he started the engine and disappeared from our sight in a matter of seconds.
Lin Fang trembled and cried into my chest. I endured the pain in my heart, but for now, the only thing I can do for her is to hug her even tighter in my arms.
“Relax, don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”
Lin Fang didn’t know whether to trust me or not. She cried and cried as if the heaven itself had collapsed and fallen onto her. Which, might be very true for an ordinary girl like her.
I kept comforting her, so much that I missed the fact that a pair of merciless eyes had locked onto me as soon as I came into his sight, coming from a dim corner in our apartment building.
In the hand of the man whom this pair of eyes belonged to, was an odd pistol without rifling in its barrel.
When I finally noticed that something was amiss and looked in his direction, the gun barrel was already pointed at Lin Fang’s back, its opening as dark as the abyss.
My heart skipped a beat, and before I knew it, I already pulled her around and changed place with her, shielding her in my embrace with my back turned to the pistol barrel.
Lin Fang exclaimed in her surprise, and was just about to ask why I had done that when she also noticed the man with the gun pointed at us. She screamed.
All of this took place in less than a second. I didn’t even have the time to think. I simply acted out of reflex, and the singular thought that I mustn’t let Lin Fang get hurt.
Then I shoved her backward, away from this danger, “Go! Call the police!”
Lin Fang stepped backward, and then suddenly, she tripped and fell onto her back. She froze in fear, and strengths left her knees. Try as she might, but she was unable to get herself back onto her feet.
“Go, quick!”
I yelled, shielding my vitals with my arms, I ran towards where Lin Fang fell and pulled her behind the closest obstacle for cover. It certainly was a little strange that the man had held back firing at us with his pistol. Back then, when I saw him, he already had his eyes on me, so he should have fired at me already.
“Stay there!” Just as I wondered, a voice called out from the wall behind that corner, loud and clear, in Vietnamese. Chun Tang.
Then, like a panther, the man at the corner leapt into action to get away from Chun Tang. He was fast, so fast that the leaves on the pot plants on the hallway rustled as he ran past, almost knocking them over.
With Chun Tang on his tail, the man ran as fast as he could. Then, he suddenly appeared behind the obstacle that Lin Fang and I hid for cover.
Anticipating his appearance, I rammed my cranium into him as hard as I could. I got him right around the waist. He was running at full speed already, and I stopped his momentum short by ramming my head straight into him, focusing all the force of the impact into one spot. He may as well as have run into a steel pole, with the impact reducing him to clutching his stomach in intense pain while rolling around on the floor.
I got back onto my feet immediately and ran to where the man was rolling on the floor. He was somewhat dark skinned, and was dressed completely in black. He swore at me, in what sounded like something in Thai.
I was going in for a follow up kick, but before I got close, he bounced back onto his feet like a spring, and began throwing punches at me like a machine gun.
Different from how Chun Tang approached us when he tried to kidnap Chu Xiaoxiao, this man went straight for the kill. His punches came at me as rapidly as machine gun rounds, and as heavy as rocks. This is classical Muay Thai.
As I dodged and blocked, I paid special attention to the gun he had. But either he had lost it or Chun Tang somehow disarmed him, he was unarmed now.
Breaking away from him momentarily, I yelled at him in Thai, “Who sent you!?”
“I’ll tell you before you die.”
He spat on the ground, with traces of red in his spit. I got him good with that tackle back then.
Then he lunged at me again, this time with kicks mixed in with his punches as well.
Even trained as I was, I prefer not to take him face on. With those professionals who practiced Muay Thai, taking even one direct hit from them more or less means visits to the hospital.
I concentrated on dodging and parrying him. I kept myself on the defense, but never turning back to run or backing off. I kept him engaged, like playing with him in a game of tag.
After about five minutes later, finally his stamina couldn’t keep up with his attacks, and his steps faltered for a split second. Not letting this opportunity go, I took advantage of his momentary weakness and pulled his torso forward, then raised and rammed my kneecap right into his stomach.
When I trained in the special ops, we didn’t bother with fancy moves or extravagant flourishes. In the forces, we value simplicity and efficiency above all else.
This reduced him to rolling around on the ground in pain again, this time also gasping for air, looking like a completely different person from the ruthless killer that he was merely seconds ago.
“Now, who hired you?” I tapped his face with the sole of my shoe.
But he kept his mouth shut, and only smiled viciously, the smile of a predator that had his prey in clutches. Then, ignoring me altogether, he simply got up and limped off.
“Zhang Chao, are you alright? Why did you let him go?” Seeing that man limping away and disappearing off into the distance, Lin Fang came out from where we hid and asked nervously.
I had a bad feeling about this, a really bad feeling, and it annoyed me no end.
“Not good, I think we might have been played.”
“What do you mean?”
I don’t have the time to explain it to Lin Fang. Running towards the elevator and pushing down on the button, I found the entire elevator had been put out of commission. Without other means to get up to my floor, I had no choice but to take the stairs.
Finally getting to my floor, I rushed into my apartment, and went straight for my laptop computer.
“Which website did Chu Xiaoxiao upload the video?” I already began typing, while shouting out my question to Lin Fang, who did her best following me all the way up the stairs, and was now panting hard fighting for breaths leaning against the side of my door.
“Just a few usual SNS that she usually frequents, and she mailed her circle of her friends. Not long after she sent them out, all hell broke loose.”
