Chapter 107: Join You In A Toast
A polite but annoying chime pulled me from my book at the most inopportune time. Grumbling under my breath, I put aside my cell phone and turned to look at the display screen.
"There is an incoming call from Midnight," said Jun Li as his face appeared in front of me. "Shall I answer it?"
"Please," I said, trying my best to be polite. However, all I wanted to do right now was figure out if the female lead would learn that her stalker was in her building or not. I mean, he wasn’t the murderous stalker type, more like the obsessive, possessive stalker. One of my coworkers had recommended the book to me but warned that there were a lot of red flags when it came to the behavior of the male lead.
Honestly? I hadn’t come across a single one yet. I mean, yes, he got her fired because he didn’t like her boss, but it wasn’t like he left her in the lurch. He provided her with a brand-new home on the other side of town. How was that a red flag? Yes, he was in the same building as her, but that didn’t seem to be all that ’red flag’ either.
I shook my head in frustration, wondering where all these red flags I was supposed to see were.
"Merciless?" came a deep growl, pulling me out of my thoughts. "You good?"
"Yeah," I grumbled back. "Just trying to understand how some people’s brains work."
"Have you ever tried pulling them out and looking at them from a fresh perspective? I find that helps sometimes," said Midnight from his captain’s chair. I looked up to see him sprawled out with one leg over the armrest and his arm hanging over the back. There was a very disgruntled-looking first officer standing behind him with a touchpad in his arms.
"Pulling what out?" I asked, not sure what we were talking about.
"The brains," replied Midnight. I chuckled in reply. "I wish, but they are a bit too far away right now. Besides, it has been said on more than one occasion that I am the one with the messed-up head," I expanded, not really upset over not seeing red flags. Maybe one person’s red flags were another one’s ideal. Who was I to judge?
"I think your brain works just fine. In fact, I think that it works better than most others," said Midnight as someone off-screen handed the male a glass of red liquid. I snorted as I saw him sipping from the liquid. "Something funny?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.
"I once saw something online on my home planet, and it was a cup with red liquid in it. On the glass said, ’Blood of my enemies. Just joking. It’s red wine.’ Now you have me wondering if that is just red wine or the blood of your enemies," I said with a shrug. I had always wanted to buy that glass, but unfortunately, I didn’t drink wine, so it was pretty much pointless.
"And if it was the blood of my enemies?" he asked, raising his eyebrow. I shrugged my shoulders. "It’s not my blood. Why would I care?"
Midnight rearranged himself in his chair and sat forward to look at me. "I might have been joking before, but I would like to be your friend," he said, and I could see the serious look in his eyes as they turned amber in front of me.
"I seem to be making enemies faster than I am making friends," I said, slowly thinking about what my chess move should be. Friendship, simply to be friends, was a foreign concept to me. There always needed to be some type of benefit for either party or both in any interaction. "But a friend would be nice to have," I answered him after a moment.
Even if I couldn’t think of the benefit right at this moment, it didn’t mean that there won’t be a time in the future where he would be useful.
"If that is the case, then yes, you were right. It is the blood of an enemy. And considering that he is still hung up in one of my colder holds, I will be able to savor it for a while," admitted Midnight as he swirled the liquid around a few times before taking a large gulp. "Never trust a traitor to live."
"Sage advice," I said with a nod. "But here is some unsolicited advice, if I may?"
"By all means," he said with a wave of his hand that was still holding his glass.
"Kill him fast," I said, completely seriously. I don’t think I have ever encountered a situation where keeping someone alive who betrayed you or was your enemy ever came out well.
Midnight simply stared at me, not moving. "If he is a traitor, there is no guarantee that he is the only one that you have. Therefore, there is a good possibility that he is just hanging around waiting to be saved by someone else. And even if he isn’t waiting for backup, he could just be biding his time, pretending to be weaker than he is to escape. Either way, it is not to your benefit to prolong his life. If you want to use him as an example, make his death so memorable that no one will cross you again. If you don’t, simply kill him. But don’t keep him around and breathing a second longer than you have to."
The wolfman on the other end of the screen simply looked at me before coming to his feet. "Wise words, friend," he said, looking at me. "I will return in a bit."
"You interrupted my book for a reason; what is it?" I asked before he could turn around and leave. My brain would drive me crazy if our conversation ended without him telling me why he had called in the first place.
"Tyris is... indisposed. I’ll be purchasing your zmaj from you," shrugged the giant of a male as he turned around.
"Midnight?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. "Save a glass for me. I’ll join you in a toast next time I see you."
