Chương 74: Put him back where you found him

The Dong Huong is a gigantic five-roomed restaurant which can accommodate almost one hundred clients at the same time. It’s located at the crossroad of three different avenues, right in front of a tram station, in the busiest location of Chinatown.

The high quality of its service and ingredients mixed with the fast and well-organized chefs’ skills and affordable prices, makes it a most prized restaurant for gourmets, families, and office workers on their lunch break, and the restaurant is often filled to the point that people are waiting outside in line for a table, even though there are more than twenty other restaurants in a less than five-minute walk’s distance.

It’s actually my first time setting foot in such a big and crowded restaurant, but even though it was extremely noisy and lively before we came in, the mood drastically shifted once the Chinese men and I had entered the place.

Of course, nobody had commented anything, and even quickly moved aside when we cut the line. I even noticed one of the waitresses run away to the kitchen with a panicked face.

As the eleven of us walk deeper into the main room, the only audible sounds are the clients slurping on their soups, and the shuffle of a family rapidly standing up and going away, leaving a lot of money on their table.

This is probably way more than they needed to pay… Maybe I can discreetly snitch one or two bills when nobody is looking…

A man with a chef’s cap hurriedly comes out of the kitchen and bows his head. “Good day, welcome. How may we help?”

“You know why we are here.” TIAN HUO responds.

The chef bows deeper. “I know, I know. But we’re still in the lunch rush, could you please come back at three? We’ll make sure to respond to your demands once the restaurant is closed.”

TIAN HUO shakes his hand and turns to his comrades. “That won’t do.” He simply says, and the Chinese boys instantly divide themselves in four groups of two, two, two and four.

The group of four, led by XIAO SHUI, starts moving to the furthest room, two groups of two follow them and file into the other two rooms and the final group stays with TIAN HUO and me, and announces to the clients: “We apologize for the disagreement but there is a fire in the kitchen. The situation is under control, but please leave for your own safety. No need to panic and no need to call for the fire brigade or an ambulance since we already did and calling them multiple times will only slow them down. No need to pay either, just leave right now and don’t forget to take your things.”

“W-what are you doing?” The chef starts panicking, but TIAN HUO pushes him back into the kitchen.

“Let’s talk about this mouse problem.”

“Shixiong, it’s a fire.” One of the two boys corrects him.

“Right, let’s talk about this fire.” TIAN HUO signals me to follow him.

The whole staff is standing anxiously in the kitchen while TIAN HUO is silently waiting for all the clients to leave.

“What am I supposed to do?” I ask him.

“Take all their phones.” He responds.

I approach the staff members one by one and ask for their mobile phones, which they give me without complications. I must admit some of them look really cute with a bunch of stickers. I wonder if Boobies will be happy if I bought stickers for her phone too.

The chef and the other staff members whisper to each other until one of them suddenly complains: “I’m done with this place! The work is too hard and nobody is doing their job properly! Boss, how many times did the manager tell you not to trust those guys?!”

“Shut up, idiot!” The chef scolds. “Do you want to get fired?”

“I’m leaving anyway!” The waiter throws his apron on the floor.

“Ah, I don’t recommend doing that.” I interrupt before TIAN HUO’s confused eyes.

“What?” The waiter turns to me.

“You shouldn’t leave yourself. Don’t you know you can get indemnities if you get your boss to fire you instead? You should grab that occasion to get more money.” I explain.

He turns to a woman from the staff, whom I assume to be the manager and asks her if that’s true; she confirms, which enrages the chef who start cursing me before meeting TIAN HUO’s cold stare and remembering in what situation he is in, making him keep quiet.

Once TIAN HUO judges that he has waited enough, he starts speaking again.

“Why did you stop paying the tributes?”

The chef doesn’t respond, so TIAN HUO continues. “Did you get an offer from someone else?”

“Yes.” The waiter who wants to get fired responds under the fiery stare of his boss and the worried face of the manager. “A few months ago, a bunch of guys proposed to pay tributes to them instead. I only know this because I overheard it, but us from the staff are not responsible. Please let us go and do your business with our boss.”

“I can’t.” TIAN HUO shakes his head.

“Why not? We are also victims of his tyranny!” The waiter continues.

“I won’t give you an opportunity to call for help. Let’s keep things between us. Who are you paying tributes to?”

“Nobody!” The boss yells, then points at his dissident waiter. “And you shut your stupid mouth or I—”

TIAN HUO extends his hand and takes one of the phones I was keeping. He stares at it for a couple seconds and then throws it in the deep fryer while its owner gasps and cries. “Who is it you are paying money to?” He repeats. “Your hand is next.”

“NOBODY!” The chef screams. “We don’t pay tributes to anybody anymore! The people this idiot was talking about were taxes inspectors! We went through a little financial crisis and had to pay more tax than usual so we ran out of money to send you!”

“One of our services allows you to avoid taxes. Why didn’t you contact us?”

“Because the lawyers were already here! Your services aren’t worth shit! I barely avoided prison!”

“You are one very stupid and small-minded fellow. Are you even sure they were real tax inspectors?” TIAN HUO sighs.

“Uh…” The chef scratches the back of his head. “Of course they were!”

“How do you know?”

“They had a warrant or something. They came with a whole folder of our tax evasion history.”

“Did you read it?”

“Of course not!”

The chef suddenly realizes the problem.

“Then how do you know it was real?”

The chef turns red and suddenly stops speaking.

“Did you really think you could literally just walk away from tax evasion? If they were real inspectors, you wouldn’t be able to work right now. The whole restaurant would be forced to close and you would be going through a trial, where you would have to pay much more than 3 months’ worth of tribute.” TIAN HUO sighs, holding his face. “Such a display of idiocy.” TIAN HUO’s eyes fall on the manager and he asks her: “The boy mentioned that you were against it, is that correct?”

The manager looks at her boss with a panicked face, but acquiesces.

“Well, you’re the boss now.” TIAN HUO announces, then points at the chef. “Let’s go to your office after that so you can transfer the ownership to this woman who is clearly more intelligent than you are.”

The chef seems bitter but doesn’t say anything and keeps his head low.

“Shixiong?” One of the Chinese boys enters the kitchen and addresses TIAN HUO. “There is one last client that doesn’t want to leave.”

“Hm?” TIAN HUO raises an eyebrow then turns at me. “Can you take a look? I’ll finish with these guys alone.”

I nod and start walking away when TIAN HUO calls me back. “Leave their phones with me…”

Ah… Too bad…

The boy shows me the way to the fourth room, where all the others are standing in a semicircle.

“Come on, we told you to leave!”

“He doesn’t understand Omen or Mandarin?”

“Maybe not, but he should understand punches! Come on, throw him out!”

I approach the group and get on my tiptoes to stare over XIAO SHUI’s shoulder.

In the furthest corner of the room, a lad in his early twenties is loudly finishing his pho, then puts the bowl down on the table with a satisfied smile on his face.

His Asian features are very pronounced but I wouldn’t be able to tell where he’s from exactly. His slim black suit and tie fit perfectly with his handsome jet-black hair and eyes.

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But the moment I see him, I understand.

There is something wrong with this person…

“Hey, come on! You finished your soup, now you can go!” One of the boys approaches and grabs his white collar.

The man smiles and finally starts speaking in a light and cheerful manner.

“What language is that?”

“Isn’t this Wu? Doesn’t one of us speak Wu?” XIAO SHUI recognizes the dialect.

“I think Da Bao shixiong does, but he isn’t here…”

There is something wrong.

All my senses are focused on each of his movements.

He reminds me of someone.

His eyes meet mine and he smirks.

“Move away.” I whisper, making the boy who is still grabbing his collar perk up.

“Uh?” He turns to me before a stream of red bursts out and stains the table.

The Chinese boy’s grip loosens and his inert body falls on the side in a thud.

Before anyone had time to react, the client had pulled out a bloodied butterfly knife and now starts juggling with it, a confident smirk on his face.

Everybody is shocked by this display of skill. I am also stunned by the realization of whom he reminds me of.

These knife skills, in addition to the clothes he’s wearing, his airhead attitude and the tone of his voice…

He’s reminding me of myself… Of whom I was a few years ago…

Laughing, he stands up and slightly loosens his tie, the same way I used to do when I was about to engage, and pronounces in what everybody is able to recognize as Japanese: “Nice to meet you. My name is NANAYA, and my rank is Oni!!”

 

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“TORA.” While I was enjoying a well-deserved nap in my office, a tall and hairy man, with arms like a gorilla’s, calls at me.

“What’s going on, DORA?”

“Ohime-sama is asking for NANAYA. Do you know where he is?”

“Isn’t that brat always hanging around in Chinatown?” I rub my eyes.

“Yeah, maybe…? Ah, but she also sent GON on patrol, so maybe she can find him!”

“Good idea DORA, now how about you let me sleep?”

“Wait, I’ll call her.”

“You don’t have to do it in my office…”

“Hello, GON, it’s me DORA.”

“Of course I know it’s you! I see your name on the phone!” No way he’s also put the speakers on so I have to hear GON’s voice too…

“Oh wow, you’re so smart.”

“I know! Gosh, did you see how TADPOLE treated me earlier? I’m so heartbroken right now!”

“Yeah, it wasn’t very cool…”

I am ready to bet both my hands that she was harassing him again.

“What do you mean ‘it wasn’t cool??’ TADPOLE is ALWAYS cool, OK??”

“Uhhh… You’re right!”

“Didn’t you have something to ask her?” I sigh.

“Oh, is that that stupid TORA? I bet he was asleep, hahaha! Hey, loser, don’t you know the night is for sleeping?”

“I’m a night animal…” I sigh, too tired to argue.

“Lololol! I know! I should tell this in my story… Thanks for the content! Mwahahaha!”

I have no clue what she’s talking about and put my face in my hands.

“Ah, right. GON, do you know where NANAYA is?” DORA finally remembers what he’s calling her for.

“NANAYA? How would I know where that brat is?”

“Ah no. TORA said he might be in Chinatown. Can you look for him while you’re on patrol? It’s for Ohime-sama.”

“Sure, I’ll do it. Ah, but there seems to be some movement in Chinatown right now.”

“Hm? What’s going on?” My interest is piqued.

“Maybe you guys should come… Some kind of huge truck is blocking the biggest avenue.”

“A truck?”

“TORA! DORA!” The silver-haired man named UMA enters my office as well.

“I told you I hate it when you call us in this order…” I roll my eyes.

“Oh right, excuse me. DORA! TORA!”

“Yes!” DORA responds with three hundred milliseconds of ping.

“Look, this is my new boyfriend! Isn’t he cute!” He exclaims, showing someone the way in.

What do these guys think my office is for?!

“I really couldn’t care less.” I shake my head, but DORA seems hyped about it.

“Here you go, his name is Sora Mizu!” He reveals the face of a man I know quite well, because I am the one who interrogated him.

“No, UMA. That is not your boyfriend, that is our prisoner from the Triads, please put him back where you found him.” I press my temples, wishing I’m just daydreaming.

“Who are you to go against love?!” DORA smashes the table.

I look at the Chinese’s smirk, realizing that he might have successfully seduced the best person for his escape.

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