Chapter 16: A Familiar Face
"What are you doing? I didn"t say I wanted to leave," Li Xin complained as Jun Qi dragged her out of the casino.
"You don"t even know how to play, what"s the point of staying? Come on, I"ll take you somewhere better. Gambling isn"t all there is to Las Vegas," Jun Qi said. He mind flashed back to the hungry, thirsty looks of the other players back at the casino. They had looked like they wanted to tear into Li Xin like she was a piece of meat, their eyes glimmering with dollar signs. A moving, beautiful gem like her was rare in such a chaotic place; a highly-coveted object.
Li Xin scowled. "You"re not about to tell me you brought me here to look at the stars, are you?"
"Star-gazing?" Jun Qi couldn"t help but laugh. "Please don"t a.s.sociate me with such tacky ideas. Those overly romantic things are below me. I"m just an average person! That stuff is too much for me."
His face was filled with repulsion. Li Xin took a look around at the bright lights shining throughout the city around them and then raised her head towards the blurry sky above. Although the sand swirling around in the air from the nearby desert didn"t completely blot out the sky, there was still nothing to see in the dark, vague abyss overhead.
"We"re here."
Dragged over to a chair by Jun Qi, Li Xin looked at him with her eyebrows raised. "I"m not into this intimate evening chat stuff."
"Do I look like someone who"s into that?" He asked with a laugh. "I told you, I"m just a regular guy, I don"t do over-the-top things."
"This is a Chinese restaurant, the food"s pretty decent. Try it."
Li Xin eyed the dubious-looking black contents of the dish Jun Qi was pointing at and grabbed some with her chopsticks. After a few bites, she shook her head appreciatively. It was delicious, and the taste was incredibly authentic.
Her satisfaction and subsequent enthusiasm put a smile on Jun Qi"s face, and he too picked up his chopsticks and joined her. He had known from the first moment he met her that she wasn"t a pretentious person. Her carefree nature and unaffected manner was both the source of his frustration and what drew him to her.
He could pretty much gather, from the car racing incident, that although she appeared distant and aloof on the surface, she was a principled and kind person underneath. He was determined to keep such a woman within his sights.
Clack!
Suddenly, both Li Xin and Jun Qi"s chopsticks clicked together as they both reached for the last piece of codfish. Li Xin smirked at him. "Manners, manners."
He shook his head. "A man can"t satiate himself with manners," he deadpanned. After a while, he smiled at her and added, "But if someone were my girlfriend, I could make an exception."
Li Xin scoffed, and he continued, "I"d give you anything you wanted if you were my girlfriend. And with my protection, even the Blue Clan wouldn"t touch you."
The implication behind his words was not lost on her. Li Xin concluded that the man sitting in front of her was certainly well-connected. Regardless, she rolled her eyes and laughed. "So are you paying for this meal or am I?"
Jun Qi raised his eyebrows at her sudden change of topic. "And if I say you are?" He asked.
"Then I"d tell you to forget me being your girlfriend," she replied with humor, "because, as they say, guests should appease their hosts."
Her companion smiled widely. "And if I decide to pay?"
Li Xin put her left elbow on the table and propped her chin up with her hand. "You sure about that?"
Jun Qi nodded. He never let his female companions pay — it wasn"t his way. But if Li Xin"s answer to his relationship inquiry was unsatisfactory, he wouldn"t mind letting her pay this once. Not letting women pay was something he did out of respect and grace. However, Li Xin would not consider such an act respectful of her, and neither would she think he was being graceful.
Li Xin let out a noncommittal hum and put down her chopsticks. "Waiter! Get us another plate of this," she shouted with her head turned. Honestly, it"s not as if they were in the hunger games or anything — there was no need for her to sell herself out for a piece of fish. It was absolute nonsense.
Her blunt straightforwardness caused Jun Qi to laugh loudly. What couldn"t be bought with money these days? It looked like his first attempt at a confession had failed. But although he found that both hilarious and frustrating, it further solidified his determination to not give up.
"Here is your…" The words had barely left their waiter"s mouth before he was interrupted by the piercing squeal of tires skidding across cement. A bright beam of light appeared from around the street corner, and a second later, a customized motorcycle came speeding towards them.
Its bright headlights flashed before Li Xin and temporarily blinded her; she tensed. In front of the light, the waiter was shouting, their plate of food long gone from his hands. In an instant, the motorcycle"s rider skillfully made a sharp turn and avoided crashing into the man. The force of the turn landed the motorcycle right in front of Li Xin.
The rider braked with one foot and used his other foot to stop the motorcycle from running her over. The movement caused Li Xin to momentarily catch a glimpse of his face. She felt her entire body freeze.
And then, there came the sound of engines revving up, and more headlights appeared from the corner the motorcycle had come from. In a flash, the man got back onto his vehicle. He stepped on the gas and flew off just as the other cars rounded around the corner, chasing futilely after him.
It had all happened in a few seconds" worth of time; the restaurant server was still shouting.
Jun Qi looked Li Xin up and down. "What"s wrong?" He asked with concern. She looked pale. "Did he scare you? Are you okay?"
Li Xin didn"t respond. After a long moment of troubled silence, she finally stood up, saying, "I"m fine. Let"s go, I"m full. I"m kind of tired and feel like going back."
Her answer satisfied Jun Qi, who grinned. He had witnessed Li Xin falling into a coma after a meal a plethora of times. He took the check and the two of them left the restaurant.
Li Xin followed closely behind him with a tight expression on her face. Her left hand was closed around an object. Unbeknownst to anyone else, the man on the motorcycle had handed it to her in the split second where he had stopped in front of her and they had come face to face.