Safe House

His guilt slowly morphed into bitterness as he extracted his hand from hers. What did she know about anything? She was just a master of manipulation who cared about no one but herself and used others as stepping stones.

Her eyes hardened at his defiance, but she said nothing as Xin Tuyong walked away. He thought he heard a sigh as he heard her, too, leave to her own room.

For the next week, he was glad that she was at the office for most of the day. Unfortunately for him, she didn't stay overnight at all, and they never said a word to each other at home.

The tension was almost palpable. Xin Tuyong was still upset, thinking that Huan Mao was just using everyone selfishly, while Huan Mao was irritated with his reaction.

She could tell that he didn't think much of her anymore. As he bristled past her, her mouth curved into a sardonic smile. He would learn eventually.

That night, as he was half-asleep in his bed, he heard his door creak open, then quietly click shut. The covers beside him were peeled back and a familiar warmth radiated from the body next to him.

He was groggy and forgot his anger as she inched nearer until she was hugging him closely. He tensed momentarily at the contact, but relaxed into a deep sleep.

In the blink of an eye, he woke up to a harsh whisper, "Xin Tuyong, get the gun." Huan Mao's voice was tinged with anxiety.

"Hm?"

"Xin Tuyong. Get. The. Gun. Someone's here."

His half-lidded eyes flew wide open in an instant as he reached his arm behind the bed, pulling out a case containing his gun and a loaded magazine.

He loaded the gun and tiptoed silently to the door and pressed his ear against it, while Huan Mao stayed in her seated position on the bed, away from the door.

The muffled sounds of light footsteps could be heard, combined with the sound of multiple voices whispering.

Xin Tuyong didn't understand how Huan Mao knew that there was an intruder, but his heavy sleep kept him from hearing what she heard.

The steps drew near and Xin Tuyong knew what he had to do. He took a deep breath and threw open the door, firing multiple consecutive rounds, first blindly, then with a target.

Two rough yells sounded out as the intruders fell, clutching their wounds. He struck one in the leg and one in the chest as far as he could tell — painful, but not lethal, just the way he learned. They needed information.

Xin Tuyong felt along the wall for the light switch, lighting up the room with more than dim light.

He glanced down at the intruders and gasped in shock. Fan Qentian was clutching his stomach tightly, his hands drenched in his own blood. Next to him, a rough looking man was unconscious on the ground with a hole in his upper thigh and abdomen.

Fan Qentian met his eyes with a dark expression. Xin Tuyong had a bad feeling as he asked, "Fan Qentian, what are you doing in my house?"

The evidence was right there in the form of a gun less than a meter from Fan Qentian's hand, dropped when he was shot, but he had to hear it from his friend's own tongue. Please don't say it, Xin Tuyong silently begged.

Fan Qentian hissed in pain before gritting his words out, "Your boss is a murderer. I don't know how you're involved with her, but you can't protect a monster like her. Whatever hold she has on you, I can help you escape from it."

Xin Tuyong felt pulled in both directions. He had no reason to distrust his friend, but certainly no desire to kill his boss. "What did she ever do to you?"

"F*** your mother," he muttered as he pressed harder on his wound. "If I die right here, I can't tell you s***. Help me."

Xin Tuyong put the safety on his gun and put it on a table nearby, far out of the reach of Fan Qentian. Fan Qentian's skin was getting pale and his breaths were shallow and labored, worrying Xin Tuyong.

His loyalty towards his friend outweighed his doubts and he pulled his friend to sit against the wall to wait while he grabbed gauze. He wrapped the wound firmly -- it wouldn't stop the bleeding, but it would definitely slow it.

Fan Qentian's eyes fluttered as if he were dazed, then they refocused. Both of them were covered in dark blood.

"Fan Qentian, why are you here?"

His head lolled to the side to look at him. "To put it shortly, she's killed people dear to me. And after doing a little digging, I found out that she's been pulling strings to mess with you too."

"Mess with me? What do you mean?" Xin Tuyong couldn't hide his confusion.

"I know you're not her housekeeper. I can only assume she's blackmailing you considering what she's done in the past. She killed my cousin, and I don't even know where to begin with what she did to you. Do you really not know?"

Xin Tuyong shook his head as Fan Qentian continued, "You lost your job because of her. She's the one who put you on the streets. She manipulated you into working for her and killed some people you might know. Where is she?"

Xin Tuyong understood how she was involved with his job situation, but it wasn't entirely one-sided. He couldn't feel angry at her because he knew why she did what she did.