Chapter 302: Now He Knew
Chenghai took the machete from the stunned man’s hand, threw it across the parking lot toward the SUV, and punched him hard enough to send him sliding across the pavement.
The final man stopped running.
Look at that.
That was the first intelligent decision anyone wearing red had made.
Lingyun walked toward him while flames rolled lazily across his knuckles. He didn’t need the fire, but it looked impressive, and the man had ignored him earlier.
That sort of thing had consequences.
"Do you give tours?" Lingyun asked again.
The man backed away. "What?"
"I asked about the tours of your territory. You never answered."
"This isn’t—"
"Do visitors need visas? Are there forms? Do you stamp passports? I need details in case my woman wants more crafts to do. I don’t want to have to go through all this a second time."
The man looked toward his companions for help, but most of them were either unconscious or too injured to be useful. Their leader had dropped to his knees, clutching his poisoned hand while the baby vine returned to Rouxi’s wrist.
Lingyun smiled. "It’s rude to ignore people."
"Leave him alone," Rouxi called from behind him.
Relief crossed the man’s face so quickly that Lingyun almost felt bad for him.
Then Rouxi continued.
"He didn’t touch my stuff."
Lingyun let the fire disappear and stepped aside. "That lucky fucker."
The fight had lasted less than five minutes. Six armed men had become six problems scattered across the parking lot, while the craft supplies remained safely inside the cart and the basket. Chenghai checked the basket Yuche was carrying as though counting the bundles of thread, and Yuche used one finger to straighten a package of flowers that had shifted during the fight.
Zhenlan looked toward the surrounding rooftops. "There will be more."
"Probably," Rouxi agreed with a nod.
She crouched in front of the leader, who was still staring at the dark veins spreading beneath the skin of his arm. Sweat covered his face, and whatever authority he had possessed several minutes ago had disappeared along with his ability to stand.
"What did you do to me?" he demanded.
"I didn’t do anything to you," she denied, the smile on her face changing just enough to have a bite to it. "It was my baby that bit you."
"I can see that," the man hissed as his hand started to tremble.
"Then why did you ask?" asked Rouxi, cocking her head to the side.
The man swallowed hard. "Stop the poison. Give me the antidote."
Rouxi looked at the vine wrapped around her wrist. Both heads stared back at her with innocent expressions that fooled no one.
"Can you stop it?" she asked like she was talking to a precious treasure. Lingyun swore that he would get Rouxi to talk to him like that one day.
The vine hissed and shook their heads in perfect unison.
Rouxi nodded thoughtfully before turning her attention to the other man. "Apparently not."
Lingyun had no idea whether that was true, but the leader didn’t need to know either.
Zhenlan picked up one of the fallen radios and turned it over in his hand. Voices crackled through the speaker, repeatedly asking for an update.
The leader heard them too. "If we don’t answer, Gu Han will send more people."
Rouxi stood and held out her hand.
Zhenlan gave her the radio without asking what she planned to do.
She pressed the button. "Your people tried to steal my thread."
Silence answered her before a man’s voice finally came through the speaker.
"Who is this?"
"The person keeping the thread."
Lingyun covered his mouth, although he wasn’t sure whether he was hiding a smile or stopping himself from joining the conversation.
The voice became colder. "Where are my men?"
Rouxi looked around the parking lot. "Mostly on the ground."
"You attacked people inside my territory."
"They attacked me first."
"That street belongs to Gu Han."
Rouxi’s expression remained calm, but the baby vine lifted both heads again. "I don’t care who tied ribbons around the neighborhood," she said. "I’m taking the purple thread. You can keep the rest of the street."
She released the button and dropped the radio onto the pavement.
The leader tried to reach for it, but Rouxi stepped on the device before his fingers touched it, crushing the plastic beneath her boot.
Lingyun looked down at the pieces. "That seemed unfriendly."
"He threatened my supplies."
"He did."
"And my life."
"That too."
Rouxi glanced toward the cart as though one offence mattered significantly more than the other. "We’re going home."
No one argued.
Chenghai began loading the supplies into the SUV while Zhenlan collected the rifles and removed the ammunition before putting each one into the vehicle. He even went over to the small machete that was lying on the ground and picked it up. "Don’t worry," he assured the previous owner. "We don’t take half." He paused for a moment before a big grin appeared on his face. "We take everything."
Lingyun looked toward the man Rouxi had allowed him to leave alone. "You should probably carry your friends somewhere safe."
The man stared at him, the anger on his face unmistakable.
"Unless working in Gu Han’s territory doesn’t include medical care. You never explained the benefits package."
"Lingyun," Rouxi called.
"Coming, Sweetness." He looked back at the man on the ground and winked at him. "My little Tinkerbell is calling. We’ll continue this conversation next time we meet. I hope you won’t forget me in the meantime."
He turned away from the survivors and joined the others at the SUV. Behind them, the poisoned leader groaned while one of his men finally found the courage to pick up the broken remains of the radio.
They would report everything that had happened, which was fine with Lingyun.
Gu Han had wanted to know what kind of people had entered his territory.
Now he knew.
The only question that remained was: what was he going to do with that information.
