Chapter 23

"Would you be willing to have Wang Zi Mo killed?" Asked Liu Wei suddenly.

Wang Chao looked at him and tried to figure out where this was coming from. "No," he said simply.

"Not even if it means protecting the rest of your family?"

"He has not done anything to warrant being killed. I might not like the man, but he is family," Wang Chao said, putting the issue to rest. "Did she say something?"

Liu Wei smiled. "Does it matter if she did or not? You have spoken and the man will not be killed."

"What did she say?" Asked Wang Chao, now curious about Li Dai Lu's next plan.

"If you refuse to believe her, then there is no point in talking about it," responded Liu Wei standing up. "I'm going to go. I'll see you tomorrow."

Wang Chao nodded his head as he watched his long-time friend leave. He, too, would need to take some time and think about things.

----

Liu Wei called me a few days after saying that he was bringing a few people for a visit that afternoon. I was a bit peeved that he didn't give me more of a heads-up, but I guess three hours was better than thirty minutes by any stretch of the imagination. I still left the gate open for them to get through when they came though.

It was mid-April and all of my plants had been put in the ground. The nights were still cold so I would just cover them up, but the days were so warm that it would be a shame not to use the sun to its full advantage.

The owner of the seed store had even thrown in a few other things that he thought I might like so, apart from my vegetables, I now had a whole section of land as a dedicated orchard.

I will fully admit that the wannabe farm girl in me screamed over the idea of having my own orchard, and so, when the workers left after planting all the different types of fruit trees, I did do my own happy dance, complete with singing at the top of my lungs.

I was now the proud owner of cherry, apple, orange, lemon, and lime trees. I wanted to see if I could get some banana trees, but apparently, City A was not conducive to growing bananas. That was fine. I had a whole freezer filled with the fruit so I could make banana bread on demand.

Did I pick up enough peanut butter? If you have not tried peanut butter banana bread, you are really missing out.

As my mind once again ran through all the possible things that I might want for the rest of my life, I heard the convoy of cars coming down my driveway.

I met them on the deck and waited until everyone got out of the SUVs. I will fully admit that it looked similar to a clown car, but I wasn't going to point that out to one of the most powerful families in City A. I figured that might become an issue in the future if I was to compare them to clowns.

Wang Chao and an older gentleman that I could only think to be the Old Master stepped forward first, followed by Liu Wei.

"Brace yourself," he whispered to me as he led the other two men into my house. It took me a couple of seconds to see why he thought it best to give me advance warning; there, at one of the cars in the back, was Wang Zi Mo stepping out of the vehicle, his brother coming out behind him.

I might not be able to identify a lot of people by sight alone, but Wang Zi Mo was most definitely one of them. Now, all I had to do was figure out how I was going to kill him before November 1st.

Maybe I should have been nice and given him that additional year, maybe, just maybe he would not turn out to be the same man as in my previous life. And maybe, he would be much worse… and Wang Chao and Liu Wei just gave him a complete set of directions to my house.

Not bothering to wait for the others to come in, I quickly followed behind Liu Wei. "You, with me," I hissed at him when I entered the same living room that we had been in a few days ago. The Old Master was startled when he heard me talking, but Wang Chao remained impassive.

"Whatever you have to say to my assistant, you can say in front of us," said Wang Chao as the rest of his party filled the room.

I looked at him… and I froze. Part of me wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, that he didn't just let someone I begged his assistant to kill into my house. The other part of me wanted to let everyone in this room burn. I debated back and forth, wondering which way I would go when I felt the presence of someone behind me. The familiar smell let me know that it was Liu Wei, but I was not in a forgiving enough mood to acknowledge him.

"I'm sorry," he said, whispering in my ear so that no one else could hear him. The raised eyebrows of a lot of people in the room said that even if they couldn't hear him, his gesture did not go unnoticed. "I will explain."

I turned my head, my lips barely missing his cheek, and returned the gesture. "You two have signed the death warrant of everyone in this room, I hope you realize that. And as of right now, neither one of you has the power to take me down before I do it."

"You brought us to Liu's girlfriend's house?" came the soothing voice of a man that I wished I could forget. I shuddered at the sound and my left hand kept twitching, lighting the pink flame in my hand. As if he could sense what I was doing, Liu Wei's hand glided down my arm to my hand, entwining our fingers together. I don't know if he didn't feel the pink flame or if he just had a high tolerance for pain, but he did not move his hand from mine.

The only question that popped into my head was: who was he trying to protect? Me or them?