Settle for a Draw

Leon gritted his teeth. "Don't drag other people into this. If you're going to drag me down, don't pull the Fangs too."

"Oh, but you leave me no choice, Leon." Mickey Xing chuckled. "You thought I would never find out, didn't you? I had found out the moment you went to the hospital with him."

"I always knew you were lying when you said you wouldn't go for a man. But...."

"Why him, and why not me?"

Wolfe Fang grumbled in disbelief. He hissed to Leon. "Not only is he a psychopath, he's also into you??? Leon Mo, you are a MESS."

"Shh!" Leon gestured, as Mickey just kept on monologuing.

"Leon, his family and my family are just on the same level as each other. I could also give you the same riches he's offering. If it's looks, well, I can clone his appearance now, even his voice. So why not me---"

"Because he's a human, Mickey. And you're a monster. I don't go for monsters." He answered coldly.

Mickey Xing chuckled. "Oh, you haven't seen me as a full monster yet, Leon Mo. If you take away my Dragonborn Project from me, I would make you and his life a living hell."

"These people aren't my only 'goons' as you say. And this isn't my only Jade Palace. If you get me in jail again, I can easily have my men bust me out. Meanwhile, you and your family will be there to rot, I will make sure of that."

Leon wanted to crush this man's head right now. He can imagine his toothy triumphant smile, always believing he will have the last laugh.

"So how about a truce?" Wolfe suddenly offered.

"Ah, the homewrecker finally speaks." Mickey said on the line.

Wolfe rolled his eyes. "I'm not the homewrecker if I'll be the one wearing the ring in the end. And just between you and me, Mickey... Everyone, whether man or woman or other, would never have a 'blabbering pathetic maniac' as a type."

"I'd love to put you on scaphism, Mr. Fang." Mickey answered in that sing-songy tone again. "Do you know scaphism?"

"I don't. But I'd love to put you on mute with how annoying your voice is."

"Pfft, I know you wouldn't know what it was. Leon has never been fond of the intelligent type, he always goes for those who have less than 50 IQ points than him."

"Well, you can shove all your IQ points up your ass---"

Leon rubbed his forehead. "Girls, girls! This is all very flattering, with you bitch fighting over me and all. But can we please talk negotiations now like civilized people, please?"

Wolfe frowned at him, but went straight to the point.

"You say you want to pull us down if we snitched on you, and that you can easily escape prison even after that. Cool. How egotistical of you to think our families aren't capable of also doing that, and will wage war on your tiny, flat ass once we are all out of prison?"

"It will be a massive mafia war, way worse than the gang fights in the 1920s. So to avoid that, I have a simple proposition to make."

"The police does not know about your whole Jade Palace business. What they are investigating is the abduction of an actress' child. We're here for that case, and here to clear the name of the person you used as a scapegoat."

"So how about you hand over the child to us and the people who pretended to be Yao Yuzhui and Wu Bei, and we'll leave your project be for some non-mafia-related detective to bust? We push away this fight for another day."

Leon Mo was genuinely surprised and impressed. "Not bad for your first negotiations."

Wolfe placed a finger to his lips to shush him, possibly as payback from last time. "Not yet, hon. My conditions are not over yet."

"What more conditions do you want?" Mickey Xing said with a growl. He sounded very displeased, possibly from the fact that he got to call Leon 'hon' and Leon made no complaints about it.

"It's simple, really. You can have all your experimental children and your Jade Palaces and whatnot. But do not get involved with me and Leon Mo anymore."

"After this matter is solved, he and I will be moving back to US to continue our jobs. Because unlike you, we actually have normal careers other than 'self-proclaimed Messiah/mafia boss'. We'll only go back once in a while to take care of the wedding and visit our parents."

"But we're keeping our distance here, so you should keep yours."

Leon gave him a certain look. He knew Wolfe Fang was doing this for his sake, he could just tell.

He wanted to free the children too, but did not want to put each other and their family in dnager. So the best solution was for both sides to take a step back.

"The moment we noticed you spying or scheming some shit, the deal's off." Wolfe said everything with precise and perfect delivery. "Capiche?"

Mickey Xing went quiet for a long time, about a whole minute.

"Hey, I thought you were a genius. Is your high IQ brain not processing after all that coolness?"

Leon could almost imagine him gritting his teeth and scrunching up his brows like a kid when when said. "I understand. I agree with your conditions."

"Good." Was all Wolfe Fang said before he slam the telephone back to its holder.

As he turned to Leon's awestruck expression, he can't help but wear a bit of a smug look.

"Case solved." Then he frowned. "But not in the way we anticipated or wanted."

"It's bound to be like that when you get entangled by Mickey Xing." Leon said, picking up the two imposters who were slowly recovering just by their clothes and dragging them.

They helplessly tried to fire their guns again with their bloody hands, but Leon just skillfully knocked out every single one of them faster than one could blink.

Wolfe followed after him as they exit the Jade Palace with Leon just carrying people as nonchalantly as how he would have carried two sacks of rice over his shoulders.

"You're going to give me some context on the history of you two or is that a story for another day? As well as this whole you being 'close to perfection' thing."

Leon raised an eyebrow. "You believe him?"

"Not really. I don't think you're Superman or anything." Wolfe looked away. "But well.... There must be a reason for him to believe that."

Leon inhaled deeply, then exhaled deeply.

"Another day. Maybe a long time after the dust settles."

Wolfe just nodded. "O-Okay. And, uh..... Leon...."

"Hmm?"

"What is scaphism?" Wolfe asked innocently.

Leon grimaced. "Don't even Google it if you want to keep your meal inside your stomach."

Two opposing meet a draw, but only for the battle. Their war had only just begun.