Chapter 156 - Auntie's House

Qing Lok had been trying to pull something out of Wuming for the last ten minutes—hoping he could get enough for him to find the woman. But Wuming only nodded and smiled at his youngest brother, keeping his lips shut.

"That's enough, Lok," Qing Chen said. "He'll tell us when he's ready."

Wuming turned to Qing Chen. "Promise you'll stop him from checking the CCTV cameras"

"Lok, I'm going to cancel all your cards if you would try to find who this girl is."

Qing Lok only scowled at the grin on Wuming's face. "I got daddy on my side."

Qing Chen groaned. "Can you please stop arguing? And I've waited long enough." Just as he stood up, the door slid open.

It was Ma Min. "Missed me already?"

The under of her eyes looked dark and she was looking pale. Qing Chen smiled. "Still not over the escape you did earlier this morning?"

She rolled her eyes. "Sit down."

**

"It's about time you give us answers, Ma Min," said Wuming. "Because clearly, we all need sleep. The sooner the better. Start now."

Ma Min glared at him with her downturned eyes. "Entitled bastard," she commented. "Why do I even have to talk to the three of you? You weren't the ones who I was targeting there."

"Yeah," Qing Lok said. "But Master sent us. Why did you want to kill Shao Fang?"

"He was getting close," she answered cooly. "I knew I had to get rid of him."

"You were really going to kill him?" asked Qing Chen.

"Of course. What, have I learned nothing in that school? Go for the kill, isn't it?"

"You could've just left."

Ma Min leaned backwards. "I was planning to pin it on someone else after I got rid of him. You know the mysterious 'person in the woods'."

Qing Chen was getting impatient. "Let's not waste each other's time. Tell us why you're in the woods."

"I was sending a message."

"To who?"

"To Auntie, duh," she answered. "I was updating her with everything that was happening in that place."

"You were not allowed to communicate to the outside. What were you telling her?"

Ma Min smiled. "That you were there. That the three of you were there."

Qing Chen felt a chill on his spine. He exchanged a quick look with his brothers. "Why? Why does she need information about us?"

"You narcissistic bastards." Ma Min laughed. "You are not the ones we want. Look around," she gestured to the place. "You're in a place surrounded by women. Why would we want men?"

"You want Feng Xuan," he concluded. "What do you want with my wife?"

"To join us, of course," she said, her head tilting to the side.

"To be a service provider to men?"

"What?!" Ma Min laughed. "Didn't Auntie tell you?"

"Tell us what?"

"You boys didn't know what you've gotten yourselves into," she smirked and felt under the table. When her hand appeared, she was holding a machete. "This is a slaughterhouse."

**

"This is f.u.c.k.i.n.g nuts," Qing Lok whispered under his breath. In a louder voice, "You're telling us that you… kill men in these rooms?"

"Only upon request of course," she smiled, twirling the blade in her hand. "Men thinks women are too defenseless and all that crap. That's why men come here, because they think they can buy girls and do everything they want with them. And then the next thing they know, they're breathing their last breaths."

"You mean, all the girls here participate in these activities?"

"And they get paid," Ma Min's lips stretched wider. "Isn't that the best thing? Doing what you want and actually earn money from it?"

Qing Chen interrupted. "That doesn't answer the fact why you escaped. If you wanted to… I don't know, recruit my wife, why do you have to escape—to the point that you're willing to kill another student?"

Ma Min shrugged. "A lot of us are in assassin schools. We inform Auntie with every new girl that comes. When I told her about Feng Xuan, she told me to stand back and wait for further instructions. I had to go back to the forest every once in a while to check if there were new messages. Shao Fang just got in the way. I really cannot risk exposing my identity. Master would've called the other schools and push out all the other girls he would think that were associated with us."

Stand back and wait for further instructions? He thought in his head. There had to be someone else higher than Auntie. She was only waiting for an instruction too… 

Wuming spoke, "I take it, you're an organization? You pose as a restaurant in the morning, a brothel at night, and in the wee hours in between that it's really an assassin's house."

Ma Min nodded.

"That's impressive."

Ma Min's face softened and for the first time ever they saw a genuine emotion from her. "That's really flattering coming from you. A lot of girls look up to you here. We're betting you'll make it in the history books of assassins."

Wuming felt his heart leaped. "Really? I got fans? Like, real fans?"

"Yeah," Ma Min nodded. "But getting back at the matter at hand," she turned to Qing Chen. "I don't see your wife. Where is she?"

He didn't answer.

"I see, she's still there. Don't worry. Auntie said we should ask her after she's done with her training. Surely, you won't stop your wife if she wishes to work here."

Qing Chen looked around the place. He honestly could not see his wife here pretending to entice men into rooms. But he could definitely see her dicing men into tiny pieces and putting the meat in her next soup. "If that's what she wants then so be it."

"Then we have nothing else to talk about," Ma Min said and stood up. "No harm will come to you and your family. We'll come see her when she's out. Let her decide."

When she was gone, Qing Lok commented, "It's cute when small girls threaten you, right?"

Qing Chen and Wuming only laughed.

**

It was late afternoon when they stepped out of the restaurant-slash-brothel-slash-assassin-house. They got back in the car and went on the road to home.

Qing Chen was already typing a message for Master—apparently, he did have a cellphone.

"Clearly, Auntie is working for someone else. Do you think it's The Zookeeper?" Qing Lok asked.

"That's what we have to know," Wuming answered. "I would want to ask Zookeeper myself but he might just get another idea to trap us."

Qing Lok scratched his head. "This is so stressful!"

"We have to get right to it and know if we need to get Xuan out of there." Qing Chen sent the message and began to type another one. "But I honestly don't think it's The Zookeeper."

"Me too," Wuming answered.

"Can't we all just be simpletons and think that maybe the head is Auntie and no one else?" Qing Lok asked. He only groaned with the look his brothers gave him. 

It would be a long night with him and his computer.