Chapter Five (Part 2 of 2)

Fortunately for the hungry guests the head chef’s announcement that the banquet dinner was ready put an end to the out of tune performance of the monkey pair.

At the long banquet table An Xiao Li bit into a piece of meat that she had no idea what animal it came from, but she thought it was delicious!

‘Delicious?’ the girl asked.

‘Um.’ An Xiao Li said and bit another piece of meat.

‘I’m Gu Yan, what’s your name?’ Gu Yan asked.

‘I’m An Xiao Li,’ An Xiao Li introduced herself.

An Xiao Li extended her arm across the banquet table to shake hands with Gu Yan. An Xiao Li was friendly since she was a kid and was extra friendly toward Gu Yan, because Gu Yan was big boss’ little darling.

‘Are you Qin Song’s girlfriend?’ Gu Yan asked.

Based on Chen Yu Bai’s reaction to An Xiao Li and Qin Song’s pa.s.sionate stage performance, Gu Yan already knew the answer.

An Xiao Li picked up another meat and was prepared to say no to Gu Yan but the ice glacier spoke on her behalf.

‘No!’ Chen Yu Bai said coldly.

‘Almost!’ An Xiao Li lied.

Gu Yan was ecstatic Chen Yu Bai’s complexion was ready to paint the room blood red. She waved Qin Song over who was chatting on a sofa with Ji Nan. ‘Qin Song, come here. Your girlfriend is looking for you.’

Qin Song wasn’t within earshot of Gu Yan, he only saw Gu Yan wave him over. He hopped of the sofa and strode to the banquet table and in his oblivious state he even patted An Xiao Li’s shoulder. ‘Later let’s have another singing session.’

An Xiao Li smiled sweetly. ‘I’m full, let’s go sing now.’

Gu Yan focused on Chen Yu Bai’s half gloomy jilted lover and half murderous expression, it took a lot of will power for her not to laugh.

Qin Song wasn’t a fool and quickly realised An Xiao Li was using him to provoke his third brother. He looked back at the sofa he considered as a no man’s land and planned his retreat. ‘What’s that… fourth brother you called me?’

Qin Song wanted to run to the sofa – third brother’s expression meant that the ticking time bomb in Qin Song’s mouth was about to detonate.

The heavens turned their back on Qin Song, his fourth brother was no different. The smiling a.s.sa.s.sin Ji Nan walked to the banquet table. ‘What? I didn’t call you. What’s wrong?’

Qin Song’s eyes were teary – that heartless fourth brother!

Chen Yu Bai swept his eyes over An Xiao Li, Ji Nan and Gu Yan then he picked up a wine gla.s.s and silently left.

An Xiao Li didn’t know why but the moment the ice glacier turned his back on her, her heart tightened… like that time when she was a kid she broke her wicked mum’s crystal gla.s.s swan figurine.

An Xiao Li used Qin Sang to threatened Qin Song. Qin Song’s jelly legs wobbled to the stage. He picked up the microphone that by morning would be used for his eulogy. He chose children songs that contained no lovey dovey lyrics to sing to appease his third brother, if he was going to die then he wanted a quick death and less suffering.

Gu Yan shadowed An Xiao Li the rest of the night and laughed happily. Liang Fei Fang was also happy and ordered Chen Yu Bai to bring Chen Yu Bai’s little girlfriend to their future gatherings for her to spend time with Gu Yan.

Chen Yu Bai nodded his head to accept his first brother’s order and diverted the conversation to punish little Qin Song for daring to encroach on his territory. ‘Last time you asked me to research about expanding overseas. Two days ago I finished compiling the research. The likelihood that Liang’s company will be able to be compet.i.tive in overseas markets isn’t high, around the 55% mark.  But after having Liang’s company branded overseas for a few years then the likelihood of reaping rewards in the long term is high.’

Liang Fei Fang listened carefully to his third brother’s a.n.a.lysis and nodded his head to give the green light. ‘That’s good. I want you to oversee Liang’s company overseas expansion planning and implementation.’

‘Um,’ Chen Yu Bai accepted his order. The gleam in his eyes behind his gla.s.ses became brighter. ‘But, the initial expansion in the Middle East will be hard for me. I’m not familiar with the Middle Eastern Royal Families. It’ll also take me a long time to understand the business culture in the Middle East in order not to offend powerful households.’

Liang Fei Fang laughed and looked straight through his third brother’s transparent eyes. ‘You can stay at headquarters and delegate. As for the physical field work, I’m happy for you palm it off to anyone of your choosing.’

Chen Yu Bai pushed up his gla.s.ses and laughed coldly. Little Qin Song who had good relations with Middle Eastern Royal Families jumped off the stage after being forced to sing, obliviously approached Chen Yu Bai thinking that singing children songs should appease Chen Yu Bai.

‘Third brother… hehe,’ Qin Song said sweetly.

Chen Yu Bai patted little Qin Song’s shoulder. Chen Yu Bai was extra attentive and gentle that it nearly made little Qin Song cry tears before being led to the guillotine.  Chen Yu Bai pinched little Qin Song’s cheek. ‘Your third brother knows you’re a good boy.’

But Qin Song didn’t know his third brother wasn’t a good boy until later, because his third brother wanted to wait for the best opportunity to use the guillotine.

An Xiao Li’s female intuition told her that she unintentionally caused strife for both herself and Mr Wild.

Chen Yu Bai’s eyes focused on An Xiao Li like a lighthouse emitting a bright light, there was no place for her to hide!

After An Xiao Li met the ice glacier she whole heartedly believed in the saying – ‘if near ink you will be black, if near light, you will shine.’ She shivered when the ice glacier smiled wickedly the moment they left the banquet venue and were alone.

An Xiao Li was ready to leap out of the ice glacier’s car, he pushed his gla.s.ses up and stared at her intensely. ‘I…’

‘Look at the time, the security gates of your IT college campus will be locked by now,’ Chen Yu Bai said gently. ‘It’s better if you stay over my place tonight.’

Suddenly An Xiao Li thought about the first night she unintentionally slept on his sofa overnight. Usually after dinner she’d clean his house and he’d be working overtime in his study room. That night it took him longer to finish his workload and she took out a DVD to watch and waited for him to finish and take her home. But she was hooked on the DVD and forgot about her IT college campus’ curfew and ended up sleeping on his sofa for the night.

Since that night An Xiao Li noticed the appearance of new DVDs in Chen Yu Bai’s living room each night. She was someone that forgot the time when watching DVDs and gradually she became acquainted with his living room.

‘I… will stay over at Sang Sang’s house,’ An Xiao Li said softly.

‘Oh? You don’t feel embarra.s.sed knocking on her door at this hour?’ Chen Yu Bai teased.

‘Why would I be embarra.s.sed? I… I… I’m her best friend,’ An Xiao Li stuttered.

‘You wrapped it up and you were ready to give it to me, right?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.

An Xiao Li shrugged her shoulders. Since the ice glacier knew then she wasn’t going to make a big deal out of the matter. In the past many men have used her to get to Qin Sang, adding the ice glacier to the long list was trivial and if he wasn’t added to the list it didn’t dent the long list either.

An Xiao Li felt that she was already too civil toward the ice glacier who used her. She thought she finally met a gold turtle… but that day she saw him and Sang Sang in front of her hometown school canteen. He and Sang Sang sat on a bench in front of the canteen. The bench was long but they sat closely together. His long fingers gently opened Sang Sang’s water bottle and Sang Sang shyly had her head down. She’d spent more time with him than Sang Sang. She worked for him, fixed his hateful computer, cooked and cleaned his house for weeks… but not even once did he say something nice about her that wasn’t a backhanded compliment. The way they toasted their water bottles and laughing together was a picturesque commercial – a handsome man and a beautiful woman side by side under a shady tree and drinking happily together. But at that moment her eyes stung at the perfect live commercial and she carried her loose change back to her wicked mum’s house. Miss Chen added another stab to her heart by lecturing her about what a useless daughter she was.  Miss Chen’s rampage against her flaws lasted a long time. Comparing her to Sang Sang – Sang Sang’s beautiful, smart, a heavenly G.o.ddess and elegant. She wanted to scream – ‘then you should all go ahead and like Sang Sang!’

After the brutal lecture An Xiao Li packed her suitcase, silently left Miss Chen’s house and took the earliest bus back home.

Back at home it wasn’t that she didn’t feel sad and angry. But she calmly thought about each of Sang Sang’s strengths. She was dim about many things but she understood what was more important – her friendship with Sang Sang for more than a decade was more important than a man who wasn’t reliable or trustworthy. She pushed aside the strange feelings in her heart and decided the right thing to do as a best friend was to unite the two lovebirds. She thought someone like Sang Sang who was a deep thinker was a perfect match for someone like the ice glacier.

‘Too bad your matchmaking attempt failed,’ Chen Yu Bai said. ‘You’re always like that, thinking someone else’s IQ is higher than yours by forty or fifty. Not right, An Xiao Li, you don’t have an IQ.’

‘You’re smart! You have a high IQ! But wasn’t it you who used me to get to Sang Sang? You have nothing to gloat about!’ An Xiao Li said. She paused to catch her breath. ‘My IQ is not high has nothing to do with you! Who needs you to care? Ah!’

An Xiao Li’s rant was silenced.

Chen Yu Bai pushed An Xiao Li back on her seat. He used his lips to silence her lips. She kept her teeth tightly closed but his tongue kept licking her teeth. He gripped her chin and she was forced to cry out and his tongue made it through the barrier of her teeth. His tongue seized her tongue and when she couldn’t breathe she used both her hands to beat his back.

An Xiao Li’s hands beat Chen Yu Bai’s back a dozen more times than she’d hit a drum with her bare hands. But he didn’t let her tongue go. The person that felt sore was her, her hands were like gla.s.s. .h.i.tting against his mountain back.

A patrolling cop noticed a car parked illegally on a road and stopped his patrol car to check what was happening in that car. He saw a man leaned over a girl who sat on the pa.s.senger seat and the man was forcefully kissing the girl. He immediately knocked on the driver’s window.

The cop knocked on the driver’s window to no avail and was forced to walk over to the pa.s.senger’s side and knocked on the pa.s.senger’s window.

Chen Yu Bai ignored the intruder and slid his left hand down An Xiao Li’s shirt collar. She was lost in his kiss until she was startled awake when she heard someone knocking on her window and immediately bit hard down on his left hand.

Chen Yu Bai was more annoyed at the intruder than having his left hand bitten by An Xiao Li. He momentarily let go of her lips. He took out his phone and locked her back against his chest. He dialled a number, pressed the b.u.t.ton to open the pa.s.senger window down and gave it to the cop who thought intruding on his private time with her was going to be routine. ‘Back off far away and take the call.’

Chen Yu Bai didn’t care about the cop’s scared look and pressed the b.u.t.ton to close the pa.s.senger window.

Chen Yu Bai helped An Xiao Li to adjust her shirt but his bitten left hand stroked her collar bone.

‘I’m giving you two options. A, we’ll finish what we were doing before we were interrupted right here in the car or…’ Chen Yu Bai said.

An Xiao Li wanted to protect herself from a public embarra.s.sment and carelessly made a decision. ‘I choose B.’

Chen Yu Bai stroked An Xiao Li’s hair. ‘Good girl.’

An Xiao Li shivered at the sound of his gentle tone more than his usual cold tone.

The cop who finished the phone call gently knocked on Mr Chen junior’s window.

Chen Yu Bai opened his window and listened to the cop. ‘Mr Chen junior, the chief of police wishes you… a satisfying evening.’

Chen Yu Bai retrieved his phone, pressed the b.u.t.ton to close his window, pressed down on the accelerator and his car sped off like a shot arrow.

Chen Yu Bai sped all the way to his house, it was too fast that An Xiao Li didn’t know if he ran any red lights. At his house, he dragged her upstairs into his room. He closed the door and turned her around for her back to face the door. His body pressed her body against the door and he kissed her. She tried to push his body off her body until there was no oxygen left in her brain, only regret… she found out the hard way – B, wasn’t a good choice.

An Xiao Li thought choice B meant she got to crash on his sofa for the night like the times she fell asleep on his sofa after watching a DVD. But the reality of choice B was that the usually cold Chen Yu Bai was taking off her clothes like a maniac.

An Xiao Li blindly bit Chen Yu Bai’s hand.

‘Stop biting!’ Chen Yu Bai said. ‘You’re the one that chose B. B is coming to my house to finish what we were doing in my car. Why are you still biting me?’

Chen Yu Bai gripped An Xiao Li’s waist. He pulled her white dress down. The white dress she wore all night that revealed too much cleavage and she was flirting with that b.a.s.t.a.r.d sixth brother of his. The only vow that consumed him whilst he watched her sing and dance with someone else was that he was going to rip the white dress she wore into one hundred thousand pieces.

An Xiao Li cried out, her hands held her dress that was about to fall against her chest, she slid to the floor and looked up at Chen Yu Bai who was in a burning haze.

Chen Yu Bai’s chest throbbed violently. The only thing that turned him on more than a naked An Xiao Li was the half-naked An Xiao Li on the floor in front of him. He smiled gently but his hands forcefully pulled her up. He lifted her into his arms and carried her to his bed.

An Xiao Li was thrown onto the bed. There were two sayings that appeared in her head at the same time after she fell on the bed… ‘to be, or not to be.’ The second saying was ‘when one door closes, another door opens’ – she wasn’t deluded enough to believe both sayings were true. Chen Yu Bai’s A and B options were both to be and when he closed the door for her, he wasn’t going to let anyone else open the door for her.

Chen Yu Bai ripped An Xiao Li’s white dress to pieces as he vowed he would.

‘Chen-Yu-Bai! Take a good look! I’m not Qin Sang!’ An Xiao Li yelled.

Chen Yu Bai’s body froze on top of An Xiao Li’s body. She felt her heart tightened, of course she wasn’t Qin Sang.

‘An Xiao Li! You-don’t-want-to-live-anymore-right?’ Chen Yu Bai asked through gritted teeth. He fisted both his hands, punched hard into the pillow and trapped An Xiao Li’s head in between. ‘Can you be any more of a dummy?’

‘Do you think a person like me who likes someone else would need to use a dummy like you to chase after that someone else?’ Chen Yu Bai asked.

‘Of course I’m not Qin Sang! If I was half as smart as her I would be thanking heaven and earth!’ An Xiao Li said.

‘You’re really a…’ Chen Yu Bai said.

An Xiao Li really thought she truly was too civil and slapped Chen Yu Bai hard.

Chen Yu Bai was shocked. It was the first time someone slapped him.

‘Monkey fart! You’re a pig head! Whether I’m a dummy or not I would know best! Who needs a pa.s.ser-by like you that’s neither close to me or my enemy to criticise me? Who do you think you are that gives you the right to exploit me and trample all over me? It’s you that doesn’t want to live anymore! If I didn’t take into consideration that you are my debtee than I would have called the cops to report that you a.s.saulted me! d.a.m.n it, get out right now!’ An Xiao Li cursed.

An Xiao Li kicked Chen Yu Bai hard and he fell off the bed onto the floor. Her naked body was exposed and she pulled the bed sheet over her naked body only exposing her head. She looked down at Chen Yu Bai who didn’t move his position since he fell on the floor.

A long time later Chen Yu Bai crawled onto the bed.

An Xiao Li crawled further under the bed sheet. Chen Yu Bai silently laid next to her like a cotton ball.

On the bed were white pieces of the white dress An Xiao Li wore. Her body was covered by the bed sheet up to her chin and she breathed heavily. Chen Yu Bai who still wore his suit laid next to her and stared at the ceiling.

In Chen Yu Bai’s world everything fell into two categories – 1, were things that he needed and 2, were things that he didn’t need. He’d fight for what he needed and he’d destroy what he didn’t need.

Chen Yu Bai thought An Xiao Li was someone he needed but when angry she was someone he didn’t need. But suddenly he realised she didn’t belong in his world.

‘I don’t like Qin Sang. That day I went to your hometown was to kidnap you back here to cook dinner, without you, I’m hungry,’ Chen Yu Bai explained.

An Xiao Li forgot everything that happened before Chen Yu Bai said what she wanted to hear – he didn’t like Qin Sang, he came to get her back home to be with him and without her, he was hungry.

Suddenly she felt the bed was empty and noticed Chen Yu Bai got off the bed. ‘Where are you going?’

Chen Yu Bai swept his eyes over An Xiao Li’s half-naked body. There were his kiss marks all over her snow white neck, shoulders and chest. He opened the door to leave. ‘I’m going somewhere a pa.s.ser-by should go.’

End of Chapter Five (Part 2 of 2)