The Black Swan Behind (Beauty of Fire)

175 Inciting

Lune’s nod made Emma and Rachel smile with satisfaction. It turned out that threatening Oscar’s men was as easy as they thought.

“Alright,” Emma said while pulling back the knife from Lune’s neck. Because the knife was very sharp, it left a bloody scratch mark on his skin.

As soon as she made sure Emma was out of the car, Rachel yanked off her belt reluctantly, “You better do it well, you bastard!” she hissed emphatically before exiting the passenger door.

As soon as the noose around his neck was released, Lune instantly coughed and took as much breath as he could because he had only been able to draw in little oxygen.

“Shit! Fuck! Dammit!” He exclaimed while beating the car steering wheel as an outlet for his anger over the bad luck that came repeatedly. It seemed that what the girl at the mini-market said oppositely happened to him.

Lune stared at the figures of the two men in all black who disappeared into a small alley. Then not long after, a motorbike slid out from there and drove away at full speed. He did not know that Black numbered two people.

Since that night, Lune’s life had become increasingly hard. He kept getting messages of terror from Black who always asked about what was going on in his group. The mysterious man also always pressured and threatened him to instigate Oscar to start a war.

“Is there any sign of RJC coming?” Oscar asked. He was standing behind the window, as he had done so often these days. Dark circles could be seen under his eyes.

Lune shook his head, “Not yet, Boss. But they’re still roaming our area so our men couldn’t find prey for extort.”

.....

“Fuck! It’s all because of that bastard swindler!” Oscar growled. In fact, he wanted to find out who had cheated on him so bad, but he was short of money now that it could not be done. It was because everything costs money, even just to find someone.

Lune cleared his throat. He had not yet started to speak but his heart was beating wildly and his palms were cold. However, he had no other choice because his life was in danger now. In the end, his logic chose Black as the party he should be afraid of over Oscar. It was because Oscar was already on the brink. If the man no longer had money, he couldn’t do anything because of his weakness.

“Pardon me, Boss. If I may have an opinion, don’t you feel that there is something odd about Commander Lee Mu Fei? All the troubles that have happened to you and our group have come in a row as if someone had planned it on purpose.” Lune said cautiously.

Oscar frowned, “You mean, this is Afei’s plan?”

Lune shook his head slowly, “I’m so sorry Boss. I’m not trying to accuse the Commander.” he stepped back respectfully.

“No. Your thoughts are not wrong. That’s because I also have the same prejudice. That bastard Afei, he’s been spying on me and looking for my faults. Indeed, he wanted to kick me out of the Creeper from the start. He betrayed all my struggles that made him possible to own the Creeper group and live a comfortable life. When he’s successful, he’s too greedy to share the profit results with me,” Oscar mumbled furiously.

Lune nodded, “But there’s nothing we can do now. We can’t possibly attack the Chingsu District Creeper because we’re outclassed by them.”

Lune’s statement offended Oscar. It was true that the group he led was less powerful than the one Afei led, but that didn’t mean that Afei was greater than him. If Afei did have the muscle power, Oscar would prove that he had brain power. “We are going to attack the Chingsu District,” he said.

“Pardon?” Lune pretended to be surprised. But in truth, he knew that his words just now would hurt Oscar’s pride. As an assistant who had followed Oscar for many years, Lune knew very well that the man had a shallow mind and a high ego. He realized that Oscar had been jealous of Lee Mu Fei all this time.

“That’s right. If Afei kicked me from the Creeper, I don’t want that group to still be able to stand by and enjoy all the profit of my hard work. I want Afei to be destroyed,” Oscar said with great emphasis. Then he glared at Lune, “We will cause trouble in Chingsu District and attack their base. I know where Afei keeps all his treasures.” he smiled widely.

***

“So your grandfather is in danger now?” Emma asked Rachel. The two girls were sitting at the cafe in front of the campus, waiting for Kathy and Poppy to arrive.

Rachel nodded, “It’s not just my grandfather. All employees who have debts are getting chased by the Creeper. You remember when you first saved me, right?”

Emma nodded.

“It happened exactly like that. They didn’t bother the employees while they were in the factory because there would be a lot of eyes watching. That’s why they purposely terrorized the employees outside the factory when they were alone. Creeper know that a prey who stands alone is much weaker than the preys standing together.” Rachel explained.

“Hm.. Since they couldn’t fight the employees who were protesting together, they decided to attack the employees one by one on their way home. So, their dashing style doesn’t reflect their cowardice at all, isn’t it?” Emma looked disgusted.

“Oh?” Emma was moved when she heard the tone of an incoming text message on her cellphone. She immediately took the object she placed on the table side by side with her Matcha latte, “This is Lune!”

Rachel’s eyebrows shot up. She immediately leaned forward to get closer to Emma, ??”What did he say?” she asked quickly as she looked left and right, just in case Kathy and Poppy had arrived.

Emma smiled broadly, “Lune succeeded in inciting Oscar. They are going to attack Chingsu District this Saturday. He said Oscar would target Lee Mu Fei’s treasure vault.” she said after reading the message.

“They must have kept all the contracts in there,” Rachel muttered.

“It seems so,” Emma nodded. “We need to come up with a plan with Marcel. This is the last mission. We’re one step away, Rachel!” she exclaimed happily.

Rachel also smiled widely but she immediately nudged Emma’s hand and signalled through her eyes to tell her to shut up. After that, two girls came to their table and sat on two empty chairs.

“Gosh.. She’s troublesome,” Kathy grumbled.

“Who?” Emma asked.

“Who else? Of course, our new instructor, Ms Tania, that witch. She literally handed all her work to Poppy. That woman got money for nothing. I don’t even know anymore, who’s the teacher and who’s the assistant teacher,” Kathy replied with all the annoyance on her face.

Poppy let out a long sigh, “Don’t mind it, Kathy.. Just leave her be,”

“Leave her, like how? I can’t stand to see her doing things like that to you, Pops! You’re too kind and obedient to her. That’s why her head is getting big and she keeps telling you things.” Kathy scolded.

Emma’s face also looked objected to what she heard, “I know you are trying to be patient and understanding, Poppy. But from what I witnessed, what Ms Tania did was indeed excessive. We are not the only ones who don’t like her, but all the students in ballet class.”

“Because of that crazy woman, not only me but many ballet class students feel like transferring to another auxiliary class,” Kathy added.

“They are? If that’s the case, our class might be short of students. Wouldn’t an additional class be deactivated if there was a shortage of students?” Rachel asked.

Poppy nodded, “That’s true. That’s what made me willing to help Ms Tania even though she hands me a lot of work. I’m afraid that if she does everything herself, she’d end up abusing our grades. I can’t stand if the ballet class is deactivated.”

“Of course that’s unacceptable. I chose Jardin University because there’s a ballet class here.” Emma said with a snort. If there was no more ballet class, wouldn’t that mean all her struggles were for nought?

“Do we need to make a petition to dismiss that woman?” Kathy asked.

But Poppy shook her head weakly, “I don’t know, Kathy. But from what I’ve heard, she is related to the owner of Jardin University. There are rumours, too, that she has a lot of money.”

“A lot of money? Does she think that by having a lot of money so she can be arbitrary to other people?” Kathy growled.

“Maybe she doesn’t just have money but there’s something else that makes her feel like she can do anything,” Rachel muttered.

“Let’s just don’t mind it, girls. Let’s just leave Ms Tania alone. Maybe she is adapting to her current job. We’ll see how things go later.” Poppy tried to calm her friends who seemed angrier than her, the victim.

“By the way, how’s the location for your studio going, Poppy? Are you renting Rachel’s building?” Emma asked.

“Actually, I haven’t had a chance to get there because Rachel is always busy. But we’ve talked about the price and it’s fine,” Poppy answered.

Rachel nodded, “That’s right. Poppy just has to see the place.” Then she looked at Poppy with an uneasy face, “Sorry, Poppy. Soon, I won’t be as busy as now so I will have more time. At that time, we will take care of everything. I promise.” she smiled.

“Of course, it won’t be long.” Emma nodded confidently. She knew what caused Rachel to have no time, even just to sleep.

“You don’t have to feel bad for me, Rachel. I’m still working on things for my studio, so you can take it easy,” Poppy answered.