Chapter 243 - The Mafia's Rose

Qing Lok was peacefully in his room, talking with Liu Meilien on the phone when he heard a commotion on the floor below.

"I'll call you back," he said, eyeing his bedroom door.

"Why? What's going on?" Liu Meiliens voice asked him with her gentle and sweet voice.

He plastered a smile on his face to ease the sudden wrinkle in between her eyebrows. "I think I heard something happening down below. I need to check it. My brother might be trying to set something on fire."

"Qing Chen?" Liu Meilien laughed. "I don't think he's that kind of a man."

Qing Lok silently cursed himself. He meant Wuming. "Well, we never know. I'll call you later, okay?"

"Okay," she said. "I think I'm going to catch up on some sleep."

"Yeah, you do that. You're starting to break out."

Liu Meilien glared at him but she knew that he was only joking. "I have flawless skin."

"Of course," he winked. "Message me when you wake up."

Her eyelids were already starting to fall. "Yes, I will."

The moment the call was over, Qing Lok bolted from his bed, through his door, and padded heavily on the stairs. Everyone was in the living room. Qing Chen was there, Wuming was there, even Feng Xuan was there. The whole team was setting up on the living room, taking their spaces on the couch and on the floor with the mess of cords and extensions.

"What's going on?!"

For a second everyone seemed to stop moving. It was Qing Chen who was in the middle of the room that answered him. "We're testing the prototype you made."

"Now?!" he looked around the team. "You have already created it and you didn't bother to tell me that it's done?"

They looked down, guilty and unable to meet his glare.

"Don't take it out on them," Qing Chen said. "Remember, it was you who wished to not have a part in this. Right?"

"But I didn't mean that it would also apply to the things that I actually created."

"Well, you made this so we could track down The Zookeeper and he's a part of the problems of the family that you decided not to concern yourself with. So I told them once they were done, they should come to me."

Qing Lok wanted to scream at his brother but he was not that kind of a person. His hands fisted into balls on his sides and his face had turned red.

"Or," Qing Chen followed. "You join us and you can actually get to see your creation work to life."

His head snapped to the person nearest the archway. "Get my laptop."

That person scrambled upwards and Qing Lok took his seat beside his other brother. 

"Do you really think you can outsmart Chen into not helping the family?" asked Wuming. "Of course he would hold your prototype hostage."

"I am not interested with how it can be used to track down an enemy. I just want to see it would work," he grumbled.

"Tomato, tomahto," Wuming said. "You can't pull yourself away from this. It's only the three of us right now. You can't really think of fighting with us."

"I am not fighting with you."

"You're crazy to think that we're really going to kill Father. That's the most stupid thing."

"If it's the most stupid thing then how can you even think that?!"

"Becuase it's the most stupid thing," Wuming shrugged. "We're not going to kill Father and we'd certainly not kill you. Stop pulling this family apart and get your shit together, okay?"

Qing Lok's jaw moved in annoyance. "Fine."

"Qing Chen and I owe you drink."

Finally, his laptop arrived and they waited for his next words. "Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked the team. "Get to work."

The prototype might have been done but they had to make sure that all of them would be working. What Qing Lok did was create a special paper that was marked with codes and microscopic trackers. 

He thought that it was impossible and it was impossible until today. He got the idea from a spy movie. The Zookeeper seemed to be a fan of letters so they would write him one. In good faith, they believe that the last messages they had sent found its way to the receiver although containing no address and postage.

"The farthest the last model reached was all the way in Africa," explained one of the engineers in a hushed excited voice. "With the new tweaks, we think it would be able to reach anywhere the world."

Qing Lok nodded even though he already knew that. He was also excited to see if this would really result to something. They had figured that The Zookeeper would have applied safety precautions and would have send the letters everywhere before it reaches him, just to confuse people, then once he read it, he would put it back in the system to confuse them more. It was a stretch but if he was smart that was what he would do.

The envelopes would also have its own codes that would be scanned on the database in the post office—which they also hacked. He figured they would also need to hack the other countries' post offices but that was the easy part. They would have no trouble with that.

"Who's writing the letter?" he asked, ready to type in the code that he formulated—he thought it would exercise The Zookeeper's mind.

"Wife, would you like to say a few words?" Qing Chen asked. Feng Xuan was quiet and was leaning against the wall, watching the outside of the house from the floor-to-ceiling windows.

"Sure," she answered. 

"Ready whenever you are," Qing Lok answered.

"Dear Zookeeper," Feng Xuan began. "I hope you have had plenty of rest the past few months. This message is to let you know that we're coming for you.

Yours truly,

The Mafia's Rose"