Part 2

            “Damn!” Duo swore. “I didn’t know to get a date… err… an interview with a girl is going to be so troublesome. It has to include undercover work?? Teaching a kid? But it’s worth it. Well worth it! Considering I can get stories from both sides…”

            Right now, he was employed by Master Chang, the Dragon Group leader, as an English tutor for his son, Wufei Chang. With letter of recommendation from Meiran, Master Chang had gladly let him filled the open position.

            “Well, at least I get to learn about the most powerful family in Shanghai. This could be fun too. And I am getting paid three times for the same job; Big Boss Chang here is paying me for his son’s tuition fees, Quatre is paying me as a reporter, and Meiran,” he whistled in his mind, “Meiran is going to pay me in her own ways too. Haha!”

            Duo looked at his watch. Well, 3p.m. My student should be here anytime now…

            He waited until 4p.m. and nobody showed up.

            “Excuse me, do you know where Wufei Chang is?” Duo stopped a servant looking person who was passing by.

            “The young master?” The servant shook his head, “I don’t know. The young master never let the people below know where he is going.”

            “What? And Master Chang had gone to Guangzhou …” Duo scratched his nose rapidly, trying to think of a plan.

            Three days later, Duo was officially pissed.

 Even if I’m not REALLY an English teacher, I don’t deserve to be treated this way. This brat had no respect for his teacher, skipping classes the way he did. No, he completely ignored the fact that he had a tutor waiting for him!

Duo had finally found a way to meet Wufei. According to the servants, Wufei usually was not at home. But there’s a routine that he never missed; his martial arts training at 5:00a.m. every morning.

            “And that’s when I’m going to get you; give you a lecture you would never forget and whip your sorry ass…” Duo promised darkly.

5:15a.m.

            “Damn!” Duo cursed again, as he forced his heavy eyelids to stay open, and struggled to find his way in the dim light.  “Why does this brat had to get up this early??” Then he stopped dead in his track.

            He was not prepared to see what greeted his eyes.

            In the early morning light, open field, surrounded by a group of men in black, was a slender figure clad in white, wielding a broadsword at lightning speed; he was moving with such grace that it almost seemed like an elegant dance. The figure was in constant motion; his movements were strong and subtle, stylized to perfection, exuding the grace and beauty that stunned everyone seeing it. Every kick was powerful, every strike precise, and every turn fluid. Duo had never seen anyone practicing martial arts before. For the first time, he realized why it was considered a form of arts. This couldn’t be the little brat he was looking for, could it? This was a warrior in training. 

            30 minutes later, apparently coming to the end of his morning practice, the white figure handed the broadsword to one of the men who bowed his head at him. Knowing he had the right guy, Duo rushed to the field and waved, “Hey there. Chang Wufei.” The white figure paused slightly, but did not acknowledge Duo’s presence. One of his servants stopped Duo from getting closer, and signaled him to be quiet.

            “Back off!” Duo snarled; he was not getting up this early for nothing. Sure, he got to watch a pretty good performance, but that was not the reason he was here, at this ungodly hour.

            “Chang. CHANG. Wufei. WUFEI!” Still being ignored, Duo yelled, “Wu-man!”

            That got him a reaction. The figure clad in white turned in one swift motion, facing Duo.

            Duo gasped audibly. He stared. The boy was around 16 years old, bronze skin, dark, silky hair tied into a tight pigtail. He had high cheekbones, and nice, delicate features. But all Duo saw was his eyes. Onyx, dark eyes with fire burning in them. He had thought Meiran’s eyes were feverish. But these eyes! The fierce passion within them was sufficient to melt an iceberg. It could arouse the deepest desire within one’s soul with a mere look.

            The boy’s lips moved. Immobilized by those fiery eyes, Duo heard the voice but his mind failed to register any of the sentences.

            “I said, who are you, and what do you want?” The boy growled. Obviously patience was not a common practice to him.

            Finally getting over his initial shock, a grin was plastered onto Duo’s face, as he tried to calm down his accelerating heartbeat, “Duo Maxwell. I am your English teacher.”

            “Ha.” The boy gave a humorless laugh. “A YOUNG thing like you? You don’t know anything.”

            “You are younger. If I don’t know anything, then you must be an idiot, worse than ‘know nothing’.” Duo smiled sweetly. Verbal abuse? No worries there. The person that could win over him in a verbal battle was yet to be born!

            The boy’s face reddened with anger. His eyes narrowed dangerously,  “Watch your vicious tongue. It might bring misfortune.” Then, ignoring Duo, he gestured a servant to help him with his white coat, getting ready to leave.

            “Hey there, Wuffie…”

            “My name is Wufei. WU_FEI.” The boy stopped in his track and twisted around, the coat falling to the ground. “And how dare you call me by my first name?!”

            “Hell, if you expect me to call you ‘young master’, you can dream again. And since I am the teacher here, I can call you anything I want. You should be grateful if I decided to call you Wufei. I might want to call you Wu-brat, Wu-boast, or a personal favorite, Wu-banana!”

            “How dare you! I will have you punished for speaking like that to me.”

            “Yeah yeah yeah! Whatever! Mind you, I am not one of your servants there.” As if to proof his point, he stuck out his tongue at the bad-tempered uptight young master.

            Wufei glared at the annoying boy in front of him who claimed to be his teacher, realizing for the first time he hadn’t a clue how to deal with him. He could beat him up, he supposed, but it would be an injustice. He did not like fighting the weak.

            “What do you want?” Wufei crossed his arms and waited for an answer.

            “I want to make sure you don’t ‘get lost’ on your way to lesson this afternoon.”

            “No.”

            “Yes.”

            “Make me.”

            “I will.”

Duo’s answer made Wufei widen his eyes. Recovering from his shock, he snorted, “Alright. How do you plan to ‘make me’?”

“I will fight you in order to make you come to lesson.”

“Fight me? ME?” Wufei laughed conceitedly. “I have been trained in martial arts since I was 6.”

“I know that.”

“And you still want to challenge me?” Wufei asked in disbelief. He is out of his mind, or suicidal.

“Yes, I do. If I win, you will come to lesson every afternoon at 3 o’clock sharp.”

“What if you lose?” Wufei asked casually.

“You don’t have to come to class, plus, you will have the pleasure of beating me up.” Duo offered.

“Deal!” Wufei agreed; if this crazy kid wanted to be beaten, he would grant him his wish.

Wufei didn’t rush into the fight, but when he delivered his first punch, he didn’t miss an inch from his target. It was straight at Duo’s stomach. Duo bent down as air was knocked out of him.

The second blow landed nicely on Duo’s right cheek. He tasted blood as he felt his lips split. A kick followed, and another. Duo tried to block it, but Wufei was fast and accurate, a terrible opponent.

“Weakling!” Wufei was getting ready to stop when he saw Duo curled into an embryo position on the ground.

Suddenly, Duo’s hands sneaked out and pulled at his legs. He tumbled onto the floor and in a flash, Duo was on top of him and his strong hands around his neck, squeezing as he spoke, “How do you like that? I might not have any martial arts training, but I grew up on the streets, fighting to death is my second nature!”

Wufei started suffocating as Duo applied more pressure to his neck. He had no doubt Duo could break his neck if he chose to. He stared into those violet eyes, and felt himself lost in them. The owner of these eyes had experienced more pain than one could imagine, and Wufei felt the need to protect, to deliver justice to those who… his thoughts were brought to a halt as the air supply to his lung was cut off.

“I … yield…” Wufei choked out the words. The pressure was gone instantly, and the weight moved away from him. He slowly struggled to get up from the ground.

Silence.

Duo calmed his breathing from all the adrenaline rush, and realized everyone around was staring at him. Now what will this young master do? Duo wondered. He could go back on his words, or worse, had the others beat him up for daring to lay hands on him.

Wufei’s face was unreadable as his hands went up to touch where Duo had strangled him. Then, surprising everyone, he smiled. A genuine smile, not the wicked grin he had been showing Duo. It felt like a sunny afternoon after a long winter.

“You should smile more…” Duo murmured. The boy was absolutely beautiful when he smiled.

The smile was gone in a heartbeat, replaced by the arrogant expression normally on the young master’s features. “3p.m. I will be there.” He dropped the line and with a wave, left with the group of attendants.

##

            2:45p.m. … 2:50p.m…. 2:55p.m…

            Duo paced relentlessly inside the room, watching the old grandfather clock tickling away seconds by seconds.

            “Ah…” Duo groaned as he accidentally lifted his arm and being reminded of his injury. “He better be here… or else I am going to kill him.”

            A small knock interrupted him. Duo got up to open the door, muttering to himself, “This cannot be that little brat. No way he knocks before he gets into a room! He will just kick it open with his ever-accurate flying kick and stormed in. Even if he did knock, it will be ‘BAM! BAM! BAM!’, not this polite little knock. This must be his servant, sent to inform me that he had an appointment to keep at some whorehouse…” Duo continued his babbling and pulled the door opened.

            Outside, stood Wufei in a clean blue shirt and white silk pant. He carried several books in his arms. Giving Duo a slight nod, he entered the room and laid the books quietly on the table, not throwing them down; something Duo expected him to do. He gave Duo a smirk, as if saying, “Sorry to disappoint you!”

            Recovering from his shock, Duo proceeded with the lesson. He was once again amazed by Wufei’s serious learning attitude and almost quiet nature. After all, Wufei Chang was the only son of the most powerful Chinese mobster in Shanghai, and the future leader of Dragon Group. Although Dragon Group rarely engaged in gang fights nowadays, it was still regarded as the most dominant power in the dark underworld, according to some. In the few days of waiting for his student, Duo had pictured Wufei to be a spoiled brat and a relentless criminal; one with greed and sex written all over his face. Instead, he was rewarded with a soft-spoken, scholar like student. Well, not when he was beating you up, he wasn’t that ‘shy’ then…

            “Well, the lesson is over.” Duo announced almost regretfully. He had enjoyed teaching, or rather, communicating with Wufei. Though he couldn’t agree with some of the ideas Wufei had, it was interesting discussing them.

His talk about justice and honor… you wouldn’t expect that from the son of a crime lord. I must jot that down, it would be interesting in my article…

            Wufei stood up and gathered his books into his hand, then surprising Duo, he laid his free hand on Duo’s elbow, urging the boy to follow him.

            Duo waited in the middle of Wufei’s room while the other boy went to dig up something from his drawer.

            “Here, let me help you.” Wufei appeared with a small bottle of Chinese medicine on his hand.

            “What’s that for?” Duo asked curiously as the Chinese boy signaled him to sit down on the bed.

            “For your injury, idiot.” Wufei replied impatiently and scrolled up Duo’s sleeves, carefully applying the medicine on the swollen part.

            Duo bit down his retort. Well, that’s more like the ‘young master’ I heard about, arrogant and impatient. But Wufei’s gentle motion didn’t fit in. Why is he being so nice? He could just give the medicine to me, or ask any of his servants to do it. But Duo chose to keep his mouth shut as Wufei’s expert hands massaged his muscles and reduced the pain.

            “Take off your shirt.” Wufei ordered when he noticed more bruises on Duo’s back and chest.

            Duo obeyed silently. Wufei ran his hand over the injuries, careful with the amount of force he applied, causing only the minimum unavoidable pain to apply the medicine.

            Duo smiled and felt his eyelids heavy. I did get up incredibly early this morning… Wufei’s hands seemed to sooth away the pain and sleep is calling him…

##

            It was nearly midnight when Duo woke up in the comfortable bed. A blanket was laid on him to keep him warm. He looked around and saw Wufei sitting on a sofa not far away, reading under the soft light.

            “Wufei?”

            The Chinese boy looked up from his book.

            “Decided to wake up? You slept for almost 5 hours.”

            “Why don’t you wake me up?” Duo yawned and sat up from the bed.

            Wufei shrugged. “What for? You looked like you are having pleasant dreams in your sleep.”

            “I guess I did.” Duo answered. Indeed, he seldom slept so peacefully, especially when he was injured. Wufei’s pillow, his bed & blanket, with his scene, seemed to have a comforting effect on me…

            “Well, I have ordered the kitchen to prepare some supper, or more correctly, dinner for you. Do you want it to be delivered to your room?”

            Duo decided to try his luck. “I’m hungry, but it’s no fun eating alone. Could you join me?”

            Wufei hesitated for a second before nodding.

            “Great!” Duo was suddenly delighted. “So, what are you reading?”

            “Well, YOUR recommended novel!! The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.”

            “How far are you? Don’t you think it’s an interesting book?”

            “I have read up to the point where Dorian wants to keep his youthful appearance forever, at all costs … …”

TBC