Chapter Six #2
Clarity sliced through the fog. He leapt to his feet, snatched the clothes from the bed, and immediately began to change. I probably won’t recognize any of them. I haven’t seen or talked to any of them since I was a child. He meticulously smoothed out the fabric of his shirt.
His stepmother turned back around. She placed both hands on his shoulders and pushed him to sit down on a chair. “Your hair is a mess. Could you not have set an alarm to wake up earlier? Must I take care of everything? You need to think of the family.”
You never told me when they were going to arrive. He sealed his mouth shut.
She pulled his hair one way, then the next, then forced her brush through tangles, pulled them up so hard that he swore she yanked them out of his scalp. He clenched his hands, gritted his teeth, and kept quiet.
In this situation, she was his only ally.
“Speak only in Chinese,” his stepmother instructed, clambering up the stairs.
“Mr. Zhou will probably come first. He’s always early.
Mr. Yang will come next. Always right on time.
Mr. Chen is last, always a little late. You just need to remember them that way.
” She stopped him in the pathway leading to the door and took her place beside him.
Shoulders straight, chin up, and eyes staring at the front door.
They both stood like statues with bated breaths.
A large shadow loomed through the glass of the front door. The doorbell echoed across the house. From the corner of his eye, Aiden spied He Bao peeking around the corner before a hand dragged his stepbrother away from sight.
His stepmother took a deep breath. She flew to the door and, with an elegant flourish of her hands, opened it. “Mr. Zhou —it is such a lovely night tonight! Thank you for coming today.”
Mr. Zhou walked in without acknowledging her.
His eyes skimmed the doorway with a slight furrow of his brow.
His arms remained stiffly by his side like someone nailed them to his body.
With a grunt, he motioned to the guards dutifully waiting behind him and didn’t bother moving as they carefully navigated around his large body to stand by each side.
His eyes turned toward the living room. “Where will we be having the meeting tonight?”
“In the dining room,” Aiden’s stepmother answered with a forced laugh. She closed the door and danced around Mr. Zhou to stand behind Aiden instead. “I am terribly sorry if this house isn’t up to standards yet. Many things have happened as of late.”
Only then did Mr. Zhou’s eyes swivel down toward Aiden.
With every step forward, Aiden swallowed his spit and tried not to lean back.
The man towered with broad shoulders and large hands.
There was no question that Mr. Zhou hid a gun, perhaps even multiple, in the folds of his perfectly pressed pitch-black suit.
I think this is the type of man that I’m not supposed to talk until spoken to. Aiden decided.
“Hui Lang?”
He swallowed. “Yes. Hello, Mr. Zhou.”
With a grunt, Mr. Zhou motioned to his bodyguards and moved past Aiden.
“Right over there. I already have tea prepared,” his stepmother continued to coo. Aiden held his breath, listening to her voice grow distant. He sighed, shoulders slumping the second he could no longer hear their voices.
That was only the first.
“Yin Mei! Let me in! It’s a lovely house you have, and I want to see the inside!”
Mr. Yang arrived with a persistent ignorance of the doorbell and a never-ending knock. His stepmother dashed down the hallway and opened the door with the same elegant flourish as she did earlier. “My goodness, must you knock like that? Our doorbell exists for a reason!”
“Woooow, this place is nice! I hope you cut a good deal. If not, I can always force my men out there to find you something.” Mr. Yang entered with a deep breath and a wide smile.
He handed a basket of fruit to Aiden’s stepmother without glancing at her, kicked off his shoes, and wandered around the living room before turning on his heels to look at Aiden. “Is that who I think it is?”
“Hello, Mr. Yang!” Aiden emulated Mr. Yang’s spirit. “I’m sorry if I don’t remember you. I was very young back then.”
“Oh please, I don’t think we ever met. You’re different from Hui Ye, aren’t you?
” Mr. Yang stopped in front of him, patting his head, feeling his shoulders, and grabbing his arms. “Skinnier. Shorter. Humongous eyes. Wow, you’re a beauty, aren’t you?
” Without waiting for a response, Mr. Yang took two steps back to tip his head and looked Aiden up and down.
“Yes, very beautiful and very different from Hui Ye.” He swiveled his head to Yin Mei. “Anyway, I hope you have snacks.”
“We do have snacks. I know you too well not to prepare snacks or tea. Mr. Zhou is already here.”
“Bah, that stiff man must always arrive before me, must he?” Mr. Yang clicked his tongue and wandered into the house without any guidance from Aiden’s stepmother.
Aiden didn’t have time to breathe before the doorbell chimed.
His stepmother hurried forward to the door again, ditching the hand flourishes. She opened the door.
Mr. Chen entered with a respectful nod. “Yin Mei, hello.”
“Hello, it’s good to see you again.”
Mr. Chen stepped out of his shoes, lining them at the entrance. “I apologize for the intrusion during these times.”
“No, it’s no problem. We are always honored to see you. I want you to meet someone.” She gestured Aiden to step forward.
Mr. Chen’s eyes softened at the sight of him, and a warm smile appeared on his face. “Hello Hui Lang. Hui Ye doesn’t usually talk about you, but when he has, he has only spoken good things.”
The breath he held inside escaped in a second. His body slightly drooped, but he smiled effortlessly. “I’m glad. Welcome to our home, Mr. Chen.”
“So polite,” Mr. Chen chuckled and slipped out of his jacket. “Am I the last one?”
“You aren’t late,” Aiden’s stepmother reassured.
“Then let us proceed.” Mr. Chen turned toward Aiden. “Hui Lang. I know this is your first meeting with the rest of the family heads, but please don’t hesitate to ask us any questions if you get confused.”
The sweatiness against Aiden’s palms evaporated. With a slight nod, he followed Mr. Chen to take his place in a seat around a round table. Mr. Zhou and Mr. Yang sat next to each other but apart, while Mr. Chen sat across from Mr. Zhou.
Aiden chose to sit next to Mr. Chen, across from Mr. Yang, while his stepmother lingered in the back of the dining room.
Mr. Chen took a sip of tea. “The chemical company is doing its job well. No one questions the formulas, and anyone who does has been taken care of.”
“I suppose these sorts of things take time.” Mr. Yang yawned and leaned back in his chair. “How long will it take?”
“It could take several months even with our ownership of other companies for our formulas to get popular.”
“The more important thing is to get it selling on the street,” Mr. Zhou interrupted.
He interlocked his hands and stared a hole through Mr. Chen.
“There is no point in just earning money through a corporation. We will be missing out on profits without the idiots hoping to make an easy buck through our products. It’s not as if the lesser quality in the formula will be noticed until years later. ”
Aiden’s eyes widened in horror as the discussion continued.
Desperately, he glanced back at his stepmother, who angrily motioned him to face forward when they made eye contact.
I can’t—I don’t. I won’t listen to this.
I can’t be a part of this. I—this is. His thoughts shambled.
His knees crashed into each other, yet even still, he remained frozen in his chair.
Ge was involved in this. Ge was okay doing this. How could he do something so cruel?
“Xiao Hui,” Mr. Yang sang across the table.
Aiden snapped his head up with his eyes still wide.
“Can you let us know if the sale will go through?”
“Wh-what sale?” Aiden’s voice came out in only a whisper.
“Your brother promised to sell the land to us. It was on paper at an inflated price, but that was just to keep other folks from buying and developing it. Surely you know about that. We’d like the sale to proceed, you know? There’s business to be made with that piece of land.”
“I…don’t know,” Aiden said. His scrambled thoughts continued to remain broken. “What were you guys going to do with the land?”
“Real estate obviously.”
“I…don’t think I can do anything when the will hasn’t even yet been executed.”
The room fell to silence.
What did I say? Was that inaccurate? Aiden’s heart pounded his eardrums with increasing alarm.
Mr. Zhou’s face darkened. “You don’t know Hui Ye’s businesses, do you?”
“My brother never talked about his businesses with me—”
“Are you stupid?” Mr. Zhou reached into his breast pocket, grabbed a cigarette, and lit it. “It’s not Hui Ye’s responsibility to tell you. It’s your responsibility to ask.”
“I…”
“Wow. You never even asked?” Mr. Yang leaned forward with a head tilt. “Not once?”
“I.”
“You didn’t even want to help him?”
“No, I.”
“Selfish is what you are.” Mr. Zhou huffed a cloud into the air.
“Mr. Zhou, Mr. Yang, you are overwhelming him,” Mr. Chen interrupted. He turned his chair, facing Aiden. “Hui Lang, can I call you Xiao Hui?”
Aiden nodded with tears brimming in his eyes.
“Xiao Hui, this isn’t about you. This is about Infinite. We have built our wealth from scratch, and we deserve to have it continue. I know Americans like to stress on individuality, but this isn’t the way we live. We live always thinking of how to benefit everyone.”
Aiden’s heart sank as Mr. Chen droned on.
A hole of despair swallowed him. With every fiber of his being, he forced himself not to shove the chair and run as fast and far away as possible.
I don’t want this. Aiden wanted to scream at them.
His body teetered against the chair. I’ll go insane if I do this.
“Hui Lang doesn’t understand how Infinite works at all. His brother coddled him and wouldn’t let him know even when Hui Lang asked. I tried to explain to Hui Ye that he was being overprotective, but he wouldn’t listen to me. He resembles his father too much.”
A hand steadied his body not to fall back in his chair. Aiden stared with mouth open as his stepmother stepped forward. “Please be patient with Hui Lang. He will learn, and perhaps, he will be even better than Hui Ye.”
“We don’t have time.” Mr. Zhou tapped the table.
“Then I will take over the businesses. You are okay with that, aren’t you, Hui Lang?
” She smiled. “I have been a housewife, yes, but I can do what needs to be done. In the meantime,” without waiting for an answer, she turned back toward the other men, “you can work Hui Lang. Have him learn through experience.”
“Have him work what? He’s useless,” Mr. Zhou scoffed.
“Whatever you want. Whatever you think is necessary for him to learn as I temporarily take his place.”
Whatever protests Aiden had for the situation, he kept them sealed.
His acute awareness of his immaturity boiled over onto his face in reddening heat.
He lowered his head but felt the eyes of the other men hanging over his neck like daggers.
A chill rose through his body at the unworthiness of stepping into his brother’s position and the inherent anger that his brother would even engage in such disgusting acts of business.
But I knew. I just chose to avert my eyes.
He needed to listen to his stepmother. These men would kill. They could kill even her and her children for his mistakes.
He swore then and there to obey her every word for the sake of protecting her children, grasping onto the last vestiges of his morality in the black business of the mafia.