Chapter 242 - We Need To Talk About The Zookeeper

Feng Xuan came home with a renewed sense of self. It was as if her new motivation was exuding off her. She felt energized and after spending an emotional afternoon, she was smiling.

Qing Chen was not yet home when she got there so she decided to wait for him in her office. She needed to finalize everything if she would be adjusting her priority list in the next few days.

She had been able to finish the majority of tasks when she heard a car roll up their driveway. She immediately turned off her laptop and rushed downstairs. She had asked Qing Chen to stop by a store to get them fried chicken.

"Hey," Qing Chen looked up at her. "How was your afternoon?"

Feng Xuan was smiling as she stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek. She took the paper bags from him and headed to the kitchen. "Everything went well, surprisingly. My mother wrote me a letter she never got to send."

"Are you alright?" Qing Chen asked worriedly. 

"Yeah, I am alright."

"Okay, that's good," he said and followed her inside.

Feng Xuan started preparing the food. "I have to say it was enlightening. What happened with your father?"

"Actually, Wuming already knew about his condition—at least, he suspected."

"That's great! Now, you have another person to talk to about it. What about Qing Lok?"

Qing Chen shook his head. "He's still mad at us, but he's going out with Liu Meilien tonight. I think things are going well for them."

"This is all my fault," Feng Xuan smiled. "It's a good thing he has someone good in his life."

"Yeah, it would be really handy when we tell him the truth."

Feng Xuan put the plate on the table and Qing Chen washed his hands before sitting down.

"Where did you get that?" he asked, smiling a little when Feng Xuan pulled out a set of canned beers from the fridge. 

"I figured it would go well with chicken," she answered and eyed his lap. It had been her favorite seat for a while but she opted for the chair in front of him instead. She pulled up a feet before she started eating. "When are you going to tell Qing Lok?"

Qing Chen popped his can open and took a swig. His face contorted with the bitter taste. It had been a while since he had beer. "That's what we don't know yet. Based from his reaction to us earlier, it would be hard to find an opening."

Feng Xuan took the chicken apart and gave Qing Chen a leg. She took a wing. "Do you think he'd be cooperative with the mafia matters?"

"Of course he would be. Whether he admit it or not he cares about the mafia." He leaned back against his chair. "Do you want to talk about your mother?"

Feng Xuan started to shake her head but stopped. "There's not much to talk about. It was a letter meant for my sixteenth birthday. It was a draft. She just said she would support me if I chose to go with father—with the mafia and the assassination classes and all that."

Qing Chen reached for her leg and put it on his lap where he squeezed it. "Did you cry?"

"Until I was dehydrated," she grinned. "I didn't think she would really let me go. It was sad that she died before then." Feng Xuan felt the tears coming again so she swallowed it down and thought about another topic. "How's your farewell with your father?"

Qing Chen breathed in. "It was hard. But we got through it. I could tell he didn't really want to leave without telling them. You know… at one point, Wuming and Qing Lok asked when they would be back and there was some sadness that crossed him. It was sorrow."

"Did you cry?"

He shook his head. "I don't think I'll ever be able to cry. On the funeral I guess I might," he said and downed his beer. Qing Chen was also uncomfortable with talking about the inevitable death of his father. "We have to talk about The Kingly."

Feng Xuan perked up at the mention. "Yeah, I was going to talk to you about that too."

Qing Chen narrowed his eyes. "You mean… we're going to be running it together, right?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "What else is there?"

Qing Chen took a breath of relief. "Great."

"What?" she smiled. "Did you think I wasn't going to take it? Didn't we talk about about this already? What else is there to do than to help you?"

"Because taking a part of The Kingly also meant taking part in Enigma. With the way things ended the other night, I did not think you would really be up for it."

Feng Xuan took some meat and chewed. "It needs refinement, sure. I'm up for all the things you want to change."

Qing Chen felt a sense of hope inside of him for the first time since the past few days. He was about to say something when Feng Xuan beat him to it.

"Listen, we have to talk about something else. We need to talk about The Zookeeper. We can't just be like sitting ducks here waiting for him to shoot us."

He leaned forward. "That was what I was just about to tell you. Wuming and I talked and we arrived with the same conclusion. We're going to go after him."

Feng Xuan felt a zing of energy inside her. "We're going to ruin his plans. Catch him off-guard if we can. But first we need to track him down."

"Our IT team and engineers are going to do a demo soon. It's currently on trials, but we might have found a way to find where he is."

Feng Xuan nodded her head. "We have to move fast. After him, we'll reform the mafia. Then… maybe we could get a happy ever after."