“By the way, my name is Hui. Nice to meet you Mr…?” Zheng Hui tried to make conversation but Jin seemed to be absorbed looking into his phone. Jin was typing in the Pandamonium chat with Lee An and Xue Ping, the police inspectors he made friends with when he got them to help out with Xiong Da.
“Surname’s Xie,” Jin said with a slightly ignorant and lazy tone to show one’s arrogance, which did not fail to piss off Zheng Hui. “You little brat, just wait a little while longer, and I will make you come down from your high horse.” Zheng Hui thought to himself, but smiled on the outside and tried to keep the dialogue going with some small talk.
“How long have you known Zhen Qing? How did she catch your attention? I mean she was just a street cook not too long ago. How many times did you do it?” Zheng Hui asked a variety of questions even trying to address Jin’s ego, but it was like talking to a brick wall.
“Okay, understood. I do not know what you are planning, but you are putting yourself in a dangerous position.” Xue Ping replied fast in the Pandamonium private chat.
“It’s for a friend, Zhen Qing, the chef that made the Black Pepper Pork Buns. I ask that you do me this simple favour. Please? In return, I will give you some tickets to the brand new instance when it comes out. I know it might be a false alarm, but can you have someone look after Zhen Qing at this address I am going to send to you as a precaution?”
“You do know that you are somewhat bribing a police inspector. I could catch you for that.” Lee An managed to type something in. Maybe, Xue Ping had alerted her husband about it.
“Hahaha, then let me run away first. You can catch me with this location tracking ping that I am going to send you.” Jin sent a devious panda emoji in his reply along with a tracker designed by the System to track Jin down. Eventually, Jin also answered one of Zheng Hui’s questions after successfully sending Lee An the specialised tracker app.
“Long enough to know she is special,” Jin replied. Zheng Hui thought this was a good time to hook him for more. If that Mr Xie had some feelings for her, asking the debtors to catch his no good, useless daughter that doesn’t want to give him allowance would be a good idea to ask for even more ransom from this arrogant young man.
“Double kidnapping and my debts will not only be cleared, but I will even have some cash to party afterwards.” Zheng Hui smiled to himself as he already imagined himself gambling and drinking more alcohol. In the end, he would still blame Zhen Qing for all the loss he made.
“You still have yet to tell me what exactly happened to Zhen Qing.” Jin folded his arms as he acted all proud gazing outside the window of the van Zheng Hui was driving.
“How much did she tell you?” Zheng Hui was agitated just remembering that particular incident, but the ride to the restaurant which the debtors assigned was far. He might as well vent his anger out.
“Enough to understand.” Jin tried to be vague and continued acting the part of a young noble master. He looked annoyed for getting another questioned back instead of receiving an answer. However, he noticed something peculiar. Even her father referred to her as Zhen Qing rather than Lynn.
“Fine. I will give the short version, so the story at my side is complete. That way, you can compare it yourself. Zhen Qing was an assistant chef for the Tsukemen Grandmaster Mimasaka Sensei. They were in this secret yet grand Gala Dinner for the meeting of some VIPs. Only later did I find out that those VIPs were Yakuza Heads. Apparently, she was one of the few culprits that poisoned the Yakuzas. But the thing was, they did not die on the spot. No. Almost every Yakuza Head who ate the food died exactly 24 hours later.” Zheng Hui said in a loud voice which Jin listened intently despite his involuntary yawning.
“It was called an operation by the police. That’s what she said to me. Merely told me I didn’t need to worry too much. They would never come and find us. But what bullshit. The next few days, I heard rumours from the neighbours that they, the Yakuzas, were hunting down chefs in the vicinity. I panicked and quickly asked my wife and Zhen Qing to pack up.”
“Yet, Zhen Qing fucking had the gall to continue telling me not to worry. That we would just need to go to the police. However, even before we had the chance to reach the police, the yakuza grabbed us from the streets and brought us to the town’s nearby seaport. They hung us from the cranes and left us to hang there for a while. Later, they… THEY FUCKING DROPPED US INTO THE SEA!” Zheng Hui could not help but bang his hands on the steering wheel, and the van horned rather loudly. He did not care and continued to drive.
“My wife could not swim, and she drowned because of it. Zhen Qing and I managed to break out of the bindings in time. Yet when we got out of the sea port, the Yakuza were still waiting for us. They did not intend to let us off that easily. They brought contracts with them and forced us to sign them. Right there, right in front of them. With guns pointing at our heads, making us sign them with our own blood.”
“100 Million Yen! (Approximately 900K USD) HOW AM I GOING TO PAY 100 FUCKING MILLION YEN? And that was for each of us. So 200 million Yen in total. We were in total debt, even had to sell the house. Guess what? It was not even close to cover everything. We begged them to let us off, but the Yakuza simply replied that if we did not oblige to the contract, they were going to take Zhen Qing away and sell her to the brothels. Oh, don’t forget the exorbitant interest rate those gangsters charged.”
“And in hindsight, you probably regret you did not do that.” Kraft sneered in Jin’s thoughts.
“I had a friend who was a hobbyist fisherman. After getting money from a loan shark, I managed to pay him enough, that he was willing to risk it. He helped us to escape the Yakuza for a hefty price and here we are.”
“Meh, he is telling the truth. From his perspective that is.” Kraft informed Jin.
“How do you know?” Jin asked, and Kraft sighed.
“He came into contact with you while he wrapped his arms around you right? That was sufficient contact for me to have one of my foxes infiltrate his nervous system and go to the memory area of the brain like the amygdala, hippocampus blah blah blah.” Kraft explained.
“So all you need is just close contact…” Jin finally got to know how to use Kraft.
“Please, he can be considered barely conscious. Still rather intoxicated from last night’s drinks. Definitely, one of the easiest targets for me to break in. Heck, it is a wonder how he can drive so smoothly in that state. Must have plenty of experience in that regard.” Kraft analysed.
“Big Brother Xie, how about passing some pity money to me? Maybe I can pay back my debts that way?” Zheng Hui giggled a little as he tried to ask for some money directly.
“Why are you having difficulty paying them when you already ran away from them?” Jin questioned.
“I uhh, I found out that, I can return- I mean we can return to Japan. See, there is a guy here that knows the Yakuza explicitly. He said that as long as I fulfil the contract, we would be able to return to Japan. He said he has a high enough standing to ignore the interest.” Zheng Hui started to lie so obviously, that even Jin could figure it out without Kraft’s analysis.
“Oooo that’s good to know. Why would he do such a thing? Won’t collecting the interest be more beneficial to him?” Jin questioned.
“Ahh, Brother Xie, You have underestimated me. I am able to make friends with all kinds of people. I befriended him before I knew his true identity. When he told me who he really was, I confided all my woes to him and that is why he is doing that for me!” Zheng Hui answered.
“He said the contract money would be used to increase his standing and by doing that he will be able to remove that contract from us! It looks like we found a silver lining within all this mess after all! I mean, if Big Brother can help us, I can make sure Zhen Qing will be able to express to you how very very grateful she is going to be. Get my drift? You can surprise her with this kindness of your heart.” Now Zheng Hui sounded a little more believable this time round, but still too fake in Jin’s eyes.
“Perhaps, I could prepare to make some arrangements since it seems that your story tallied with Zhen Qing’s. A slight variation no doubt but I can understand through the difference in viewpoint. How can I meet this friend of yours? I could try to work out a contract with him.” Jin lied. Luckily, he had Kraft to figure out whether what the father had said was the truth.
“Oh! You are just in luck, Big Brother Xie. He is actually the owner of the restaurant. He should be there today. I can bring you directly to his office! You can talk to him there!” Zheng Hui gleefully suggested as he saw the exit of the highway.
“This idiot will never know what is coming.” Jin thought to himself.
“This idiot will never know what is coming.” Zheng Hui thought to himself.
