Chapter 29 - Glitter

Qing Chen opened his left eye first then his right. He could hear his phone vibrating on the night stand. He tried to stretch but felt that his arms were trapped. He took a look and found Feng Xuan still curled against him with both her arms in between them.

Qing Chen craned his neck and moved slowly to not wake Feng Xuan and reached for his phone. Once the alarm was gone, he yawned, thinking of going back to sleep instead of starting his day already. He usually took a couple of minutes before getting up the bed to get his bearings straight. This time, he spent it watching Feng Xuan.

His wife got a taste for silk nightwear; sleeveless tops that bared her shoulders, arms, and neck; shorts that only covered about a sixth of her long legs.

Qing Chen's mother used to have porcelain dolls. Whenever his mother visited another country, she would like to have a native doll as a souvenir. Most of them had been made of porcelain.

Somehow, Feng Xuan reminded him of those dolls. He didn't even fight the smile that showed on his face. "Ah," he sighed in his mind in satisfaction.

It would be easier for him to wrap the idea of Feng Xuan as a fragile and delicate than to imagine her as anything else. He was not going to limit his mind to that but he wondered how he would take it…

The satisfaction in him dried up just as easily it had sparked in him. He remembered his deal with Feng Lizhao. "She cannot know what she did," the man told her.

In Qing Chen's opinion, Feng Xuan should know what really happened the night her mother died. She ought to know! But he didn't want to be the one to break the news to her. It was not something he could stick his nose into because it was not his place.

He could not even imagine just how would Feng Xuan react to the things that was being kept hidden from her.

For now.

He would reopen the conversation about that with Feng Lizhao. He just needed time to be able to prove that he could support Feng Xuan in all aspects—mentally and emotionally included—when she would find out everything about her life.

She deserved that much after all that she had been through. If it would come down that he would have to be the one to tell everything, he would. He'd tell her about the mafia, about what really was going on in the city that she deeply wanted to come back to, about her mother, and about herself.

He would the right person to tell her all of that, in time.

He was just about to get up when Feng Xuan suddenly stirred, curling against him some more. Permitted, it was a cold morning and maybe she just wanted some heat. But then, just as soon as she came close, her body jerked and almost hit Qing Chen's chin when she snapped her head to look up at him.

Qing Chen easily recognized the relief in her eyes that were just adjusting to the light. "Good morning," he said to her.

Feng Xuan slowly closed her eyes again and laid on her back. "Good morning."

"You slept well?"

Feng Xuan nodded to Qing Chen. "Yes, hugging while sleeping was really warm. Like another layer of blanket. Did you sleep well?" Then she got up so fast she was dizzy for a split second. "Oh no, is your arm okay?"

Qing Chen twisted his wrist first and worked his way up to his shoulder. It did hurt. But he was not going to tell her that. "It's perfectly fine."

"Are you sure?" she asked. She felt the urge to massage his arm and fought with her everything to not reach up to him.

"Yeah," Qing Chen answered and got up from the small bed. Once he was standing, he examined the bed and wondered how they were able to actually sleep on that comfortably. On their first night, he noticed that Feng Xuan liked her space on the bed that he could place a pillow in the middle of them because that was how far apart they were.

Feng Xuan also started with her daily routines. Last night, Wang Yimin invited her for lunch and she also planned to do buy some supplies she would be using in her office.

They met in the kitchen where breakfast was already waiting for them. Feng Xuan was in a better mood and was about to greet Ms. Shao a good morning but she was nowhere in sight.

"She must be in the garden," Qing Chen said as he took a seat. "It keeps her busy."

"She must be so bored," Feng Xuan said. There was nobody to make the house dirty, leaving Ms. Shao with little to do.

"She'll be fine," assured Qing Chen. Ms. Shao developed a lot of skills and hobbies during her service to the Qing family. He was fairly sure she would be able to keep her hands working.

Their morning was pleasant and they talked about their day plans during the meal. Of course, Qing Chen left out some of the details that would really happen tonight. He just told her that he would be coming home a little later than usual due to a shareholder's meeting later that night.

Like last night, Ms. Shao suddenly showed up just as they were about to finish their meal. Feng Xuan was still talking with Qing Chen as she walked him to the door.

"I'll update you later when I get home," she told him.

"That would be nice," Qing Chen said, fixing his tie and coat. "Well, I'll see you later."

"Yes," Feng Xuan smiled. "Bye."

Qing Chen already had the door open when they heard a loud clearing of throat. At the same time, they turned to Ms. Shao who looked like she was expecting some show to happen.

"Oh!" Feng Xuan gasped, realizing what it was. She stood on her tiptoes and gave Qing Chen a kiss on the cheek. "Bye, husband."

Qing Chen's eyebrows raised, he smiled. "Good bye, wife," he breathed out because the sudden closeness to her just took his breath away. He knew that whatever would happen tonight, he would find his wife safe and sound in their house, waiting for him.

When Qing Chen was gone, Feng Xuan shut the door closed and turned to find Ms. Shao still looking at her with a blank face. "Thank you so much for breakfast. I wouldn't be here for the rest of the day."

Ms. Shao just gave a cold nod before Feng Xuan went up the stairs.

In his office, Qing Chen kept on watching the clock in his office. He had long dismissed his secretary and was waiting with Qing Lok who was too busy playing on his phone to even notice his brother's mild anxiety and raising temper as the inevitable came closer and closer.

Finally, the clock stroke nine in the evening and they were in the car, on the way to the port where the shipment would happen. It was not always that his presence was needed to receive shipment. But every quarter of the year, he would have to show up to confirm his identity. It was all to make sure that the other end of the party was still dealing with the correct person.

The scent of the sea and rust mixed in Qing Chen's nose as he was walking with Qing Lok to the docks. They had a few bodyguards with them. They weren't really necessary because these things usually go smoothly. But just in case…

He was just reading a message from Feng Xuan that she was already home and even sent a picture of everything she bought today. It looked like she also bought some new gadgets that Qing Chen had to have encrypted some time this week.

"What are you smiling about?" Qing Lok asked. Thankfully, he had pocketed his phone already.

"It's my wife," he answered and kept his phone in his coat.

"Is she funny?"

"She's fine," Qing Chen smiled. He wanted to tell Qing Lok some more, but he didn't want to appear to be so over the moon with his wife. Not yet, at least.

They turned a right and they found the car that was waiting for them. The windows were open and the people inside were smoking. When they were spotted, the man from the backseat came out of the car.

He was called La Hiena. The Hyena. He was from the southern west of the world and liked to accompany his shipping containers all over the world. "Mr. Qing," he said with welcoming arms, a fat tobacco dangling from his lips.

"Good evening, Mr. Hiena," he said. "How are you?"

"Good," he said, nodding. "It's always cold here, isn't it?"

"It's fall season," he informed.

"Ah," La Hiena said. "A piece of news made all its way to the border."

Qing Chen felt his gaze harden. Even his muscles tensed.

"You got married, the news said."

Qing Chen's jaw tightened but he forced his lips to smile. "Yes, that news is true."

"Congratulations," the older man said. He was also wearing a suit, an absurd color of orange. The color Qing Chen hated the most. And who wore orange suits?

"Thank you," he answered in a clipped tone. Maybe their plans of having Feng Xuan marry him had holes; the biggest one would be letting the whole mafia world know that she was the wife of the new boss of Enigma. But somehow, their parents were convinced that Feng Xuan would be safer if everyone knew she was already part of the Qing family.

La Hiena snapped his fingers and one of the men from the car jogged to give him a clear plastic with multicolored tablets on the inside. "This is called Glitter. It has become very popular in our country. Especially to students. This is our new product."

Qing Chen was told that he had to accept whatever it was that La Hiena would offer. Most of the time, the drugs he sold were a little safer than most. Qing Chen took the package, turned it and saw a rainbow of colors inside before handing it to Qing Lok. "What does it do?"

"Oh," La Hiena said and took a small drag from his cigarette, his heavy gold chain on his neck reflecting back the moonlight. "Just lets them have a little more fun than usual. They would wake up with just a mild headache. Complete memory from the night before. Although, on the peak of the drug, they would see glitters in their visions. I tried it once myself, it was very pretty," La Hiena laughed. "Our chemists just do not run out of ideas to make people happier."

Qing Chen fought the urge to not be impressed. After all, they were still prohibited drugs. "Thank you. We will inform you of the sales of this new drug soon."

"Yes, yes," La Hiena answered. "It's very cheap but the high is not very long. That was why people buy a lot to keep it going."

Qing Chen nodded. "Take care of yourself, Mr. Hiena."

"I'll see you in three months, Mr. Qing," La Hiena smiled at him crookedly. Qing Chen did not return it but shook the other man's hand.

Back at the car, Qing Chen was looking at the drugs together with Qing Lok.

"Should we try it?" Qing Lok asked.

Qing Chen's hand flew fast to Qing Lok's neck. "Are you crazy?!"

"I'm just kidding," Qing Lok said, rubbing the part where Qing Chen smacked him. "But we have a third of a container van to sell. Surely, one could not be missed."

Qing Chen tossed the pill back on the plastic and looked out of the window. He knew that Qing Lok would not be stupid enough to actually try it so he pushed that out of his mind. Another reason why he wanted these shipments to be over, it was because not everyone was smart enough not to try these drugs. Being a dealer just meant they were contributing with building people's addiction.

In his heart, he was just really troubled. Aside from this nerve-racking side of the business, it felt like he would always be constantly worrying about Feng Xuan. This was one of the reasons why he wanted to let Feng Xuan know what really happened to her in the past because she had to be fully-equipped if she was going to get sucked in his world. She had to be able to protect herself.

When he got home and saw her on the bed peacefully sleeping, he thought about just how long he could pretend that danger was not always following him anywhere he went.