Annina heard sounds of a fight and went to the private room next door. She saw Xia Lei, and Ahn Sujun on the floor, and froze. What had happened?
“Brother! What was that for?” Xia Xue cried, “How can you treat my friend this way?”
Xia Lei glared at Xia Xue. “What sort of friends are you making? A Korean of all people.”
“What’s so bad about Koreans? You’re biased against them!” argued Xia Xue.
Annina was wise and did not interrupt. She closed the door of the private room.
Xia Xue then pointed to Annina and said, “You can get an English girlfriend and I can’t get a Korean boyfriend? You’re being unreasonable!”
Annina was not English, of course, but Xia Lei had introduced her as such when they’d been introduced and Xia Xue did not know Annina’s real identity.
Xia Xue grew more emotional. “I’m already an adult, not a child! I have my own life. What right have you to police the sort of boyfriend I have?”
Xia Lei had calmed down. He pointed at Ahn Sujun and said, “Do you know what he just did?”
“I just know that he treats me well!” Xia Xue was stubborn. Women in love easily lose their sense of reason and she was in this such condition.
“He tried to drug you!” Xia Lei pointed at the glass which Ahn Sujun had spiked. “Is this what a boyfriend does? Is this sort of person worth your feelings?”
Xia Xue looked dubiously at the wine glass, and said, “I don’t believe it!”
“You-” Xia Lei was so angry he could not speak.
Annina then spoke in halting Chinese, “Xue, your elder brother loves you most on this Earth. You should trust him. He won’t harm you, won’t lie to you.”
“I’m not listening! Not listening!” Xia Xue covered her ears.
Xia Lei raised a hand in anger, about to slap her, but his hand stopped in the air. He had never hit Xia Xue in all his life.
“Hit me! Go on!” Xia Xue seemed to have been greatly wronged and tears flowed more freely down her cheeks.
Annina quickly pressed Xia Lei’s hand down. She was a woman too and she understood Xia Xue’s reaction. Girls in love were able to leave home for their love and their parents could not do anything about it - what more could a mere brother do?
“Leave! All of you!” Xia Lei pointed to the door of the room. “I don’t want to see you!”
“You’re actually....” Xia Lei was hurt and his voice shook, “You’re actually telling me to leave because of a Korean you’ve just met?”
Xia Xue screamed, “Go away! I don’t want to see you!”
Xia Lei was so angry he could not speak. He had torn up the acceptance letter from Jingdu University so that she could study all those years ago. He had toiled from dawn to dusk on construction sites so that he could earn money to support them and she could study without worries. What did he get in return? She was now treating him like this because of a Korean punk!
Seeing the gap widen between the siblings, Annina got anxious too and said, “You two, calm down. No more fighting.” She looked at Xia Xue. “Xia Xue, I believe your brother. If you think this Korean boy didn’t put drugs in your drink I will drink this glass and prove it.”
So saying, she reached for the glass.
Xia Lei grabbed her hand. “If this has to be drunk then it’s not going to be you. This punk should drink it.”
Xia Lei took the glass away and pressed Ahn Sujun’s Renzhong acupressure point.
Ahn Sujun awoke with a snort. Xia Lei squeezed his mouth open before he could speak and poured the spiked wine down his throat.
“Uggh… Cough cough…” Ahn Sujun choked.
Xia Xue wanted to stop Xia Lei but she changed her mind. Annina had moved her stubborn heart when she offered to drink the glass of wine - an outsider had unwavering trust in her brother but she suspected him. She wanted to know the answer but it was going to be difficult for her to forgive her brother if the wine was not spiked. If Ahn Sujun had really spiked it then she owed her brother an apology.
Ahn Sujun grew anxious after he was force-fed the wine and he got to his feet to attempt to escape.
Xia Lei grabbed him and put him on a chair. “Who is Ahn Suhyeong to you?”
“What Ahn Suhyeong? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ahn Sujun grew nervous and his eyes darted away. “Let go of me. I’m Korean!”
Xia Lei gave a cold laugh. “So you can do what you want because you’re Korean? This sort of talk is just like Ahn Suhyeong.” As he spoke, he used his X-ray vision to check Ahn Sujun for lies.
“I don’t know any Ahn Suhyeong. Let me go!” Ahn Sujun struggled for a bit, to no avail. He looked pleadingly at Xia Xue. “Xue, is this person really your brother? He can’t be! This guy’s just a thug! But I won’t blame you. I still love you.”
Pah! Xia Lei slapped Ahn Sujun on the cheek. This punk was still trying to pander to his sister at a time like this!
“Brother! There’s no drug in the wine!” Xia Xue seemed to have the answer she wanted. She said angrily, “Do you really want to be a thug? Let him go!”
“You’ll soon know if he spiked it,” said Xia Lei.
Ahn Sujun cried, “Let me go! Let me go! HEL-”
Xia Lei covered his mouth and stopped him from shouting. Just then, Ahn Sujun’s face flushed rapidly, looking as if he had drunk Baijiu. His eyes looked about shakily, then glazed over.
The drug had taken effect.
Xia Lei removed his hand from Ahn Sujun’s mouth and looked at him quietly.
Xia Xue stared in shock. She could already see that the Ahn Sujun now was a different person from before. Why would he suddenly become like this if the wine had not been spiked?
Ahn Sujun shook his head, trying to clear it. However, this action was futile and he looked more and more out of it; he did not faint.
“Heh Heh… Many pretty girls… I like…” Ahn Sujun mumbled, then started tearing at his clothes, smirking as he undressed. “Let’s play… I’ll make you feel good…”
Ahn Sujun spoke in Korean and only Xia Lei understood him. The girls were smart and figured out what type of drug was in the wine from Ahn Sujun’s reaction to it. It was not a sedative, but a hallucinatory aphrodisiac!
Ahn Sujun was naked from the waist up. He walked unsteadily to Annina with a twisted smile on his face. “Hey, baby. Let’s play. My tongue can do wonders.”
Annina did not understand him but she knew that he wasn’t saying anything nice. She kicked him between his legs.
Ahn Sujun fell to the floor but didn’t seem to feel the pain. He climbed to his feet again and went towards Xia Xue. “You foolish girl. My cousin told me to play with you. I’m going to play with you so hard that you break.”
“You liar!” Xia Xue understood everything now and she was ashamed of herself. She slapped Ahn Sujun across the face but her anger was not satiated. She clawed at Ahn Sujun’s face like a cat next and he was so slow to react he could not dodge. His handsome face was instantly ruined by a multitude of scratches.
Xia Lei did not stop her. He looked calm on the surface but he was boiling mad. He’d suspected that this Ahn Sujun was related to Ahn Suhyeong somehow and what Ahn Sujun said confirmed it. This punk was one of the Ahns, and had received orders from Ahn Suhyeong to come ruin Xia Xue.
‘Fuck you, Ahn Suhyeong! You’re dead!’ declared an icy cold voice in Xia Lei’s head. His gaze was frighteningly chilly.
He’d asked Qin Xiang if he had the air of a killer and had no answer, but he was radiating this air now.
Ahn Sujun fell to the floor but Xia Xue was still hitting him. She kicked and kicked - he was like a football which wouldn’t roll away.
Annina held Xia Xue in a hug. “Stop. You’ll beat him to death.”
“Wuuuh…” Xia Xue started crying. “Brother, I… I’m sorry… Please forgive me… Whuuh…”
Xia Lei let out a sigh. “It’s fine. I’m your brother so am I going to sulk at you for the rest of my life if I don’t forgive you?”
“Brother!” Xia Xue ran into Xia Lei’s arms and started sobbing.
The door was suddenly pushed open by a server. He looked at the goings-on in the room and said in surprise, “What happened here?”
Ahn Sujun got to his feet and staggered towards the doorway, speaking in Chinese as he went, “Hey Handsome, let’s play.”
The server looked at Ahn Sujun in horror and stepped aside to avoid him.
Ahn Sujun removed his belt and his trousers as he walked, and even removed his last bit of clothing in the end. He walked into the main dining area of Quande Roast Duck buck-naked.
Screams came from the women and angry cursing roars from the men; it was chaos. Ahn Sujun did not react to these at all. He threw himself on women with a smile and what came next for him was, naturally, a beating.
Xia Xue watched all this, her face ashen. She could not imagine what would have happened if Xia Lei had not turned up. What would have been the result if she drank the spiked wine that Ahn Sujun had given her? If what was happening to Ahn Sujun happened to her, she would jump off a building and kill herself.
Xia Lei had a dark thought - What would he have had to deal with if he had not brought Annina to Quande Roast Duck for a meal?
He didn’t even want to think of the answer to that question.
“Annina, take Xia Xue back to the military factory,” said Xia Lei.
“Where are you going?” Annina looked worriedly at Xia Lei.
“I need to take care of some things,” said Xia Lei.
“Okay, I’ll take Xia Xue back.” Annina did not ask further.
“Brother, I…” Xia Xue begun, and stopped. She was filled with remorse and shame.
Xia Lei smacked her upside her head and gave her a smile. “Silly girl. Big Brother’s fine. Go with Xia Mei.”
“Nn.” Xia Xue nodded obediently.
Annina brought Xia Xue out of the room.
Xia Lei suddenly called out, “Wait, Xue, didn’t I get Lu Sheng to protect you? Why isn’t he with you?”
Xia Xue thought for a bit, then said, “He was with me in the morning but I don’t know where he went afterwards. He didn’t call either.”
Xia Lei’s heart sank. “It’s all right. You two go back first.”
Where had Lu Sheng gone?