The 3 B's- Beauty, Brains and Bravery

Rong Family Mansion, 03:00;

Rong Chang stormed into his son's room, a piece of 'The Tribute' in his left hand, "Did you do this?", he asked, pointing his index finger toward the article concerning the Xis, his tone filled with disbelief, "And I want a straight answer today. Yes, or no?"

Gu Hong, and the man's grandparents, rushed in too, as Rong Chang's yellings reached them. It took them a moment to comprehend the situation completely, but as they did, they were equally shocked. 

Rong Yufan was bewildered, of course, by the tone, his father had just spoken to him in. No one had ever talked to him like that in the family. They would be dramatic, they'd try and pressurize him emotionally too, but they'd never raised their voices at him. Even so, he wasn't offended. Or affronted. Not to the least. He'd expected this reaction from the family. 

"Yufan, did you or did you not do this?", Rong Chang demanded yet again, a coldness in his gaze. 

"I might have.", the young man shrugged, leaning back in his Black leatherette bean bag, focusing on the game console in his hands, "Let's not act like any of you feel even a pinch of sympathy for the Xis. I know you all better than that. So no need to exaggera--"

But before the man could finish his sentence, a sharp whopping slap landed across Rong Yufan's face, an eerie silence spreading throughout the house. Gu Hong gaped, covering her wide open mouth, stepping back from her husband. She'd never seen Rong Chang this infuriated before. The Rong family elders found themselves stuck in a similar situation. They did not dare defend their precious grandson today, for they knew how reasonable their son's anger was at the moment. 

"Exaggerate?! What an idiot you are, boy.", Rong Chang vociferated, his eyes bloodshot with fury, "Do you even realize what you've done this time? Xi Yuan. That man will rip us all apart, believe me, for the little game you've played this time. 

"How dare you aim at the Xis?! Did you, for a second, even think of the consequences of provoking them? Or were we too delusional to put the future of this family into your hands?"

"I--", Rong Yufan stood up from his seat, unable to think clearly as he attempted to recover from the slap. 

"Calm down, Chang.", the man's grandfather spoke up, anxiously, "He is still your son."

"An embarrassment is what he is!", Rong Chang argued back, turning to the elders, "We were fine with him going after Xinghe because she was nothing back then. A nobody. Her life did not matter.

"But now that I look at him, I realize just how capable that girl had always been in front of him. How competent, and witty, and far-sighted, she'd been, even as a kid. Him, on the other end, what has he done all his life? 

"Plotting the perfect revenge against a woman he felt underpowered by? How humiliating, that is. Playing with people's minds, and killing them for pleasure. That's all he has to himself. And to date, I didn't care about his 'habits' because those people were too insignificant to cause a ruckus. 

"But this time, it's the Xi family. And the mother to the Business King, at that! God forbid, if Xi Yuan uncovers the fact that Yufan did this, do you think he'll stop at just this lad? No. He will reach for each one of us, one by one, mercilessly, and calmly, making us plead for death before finally putting an end to it all, as he sees fit."

"He surely wouldn't do something like that, would he?", Gu Hong questioned, concerned, "He is just a businessman, after all."

Rong Chang glared at his wife, and then at his son before he stormed out of the room, and into the hallway. Xi Yuan had never been just a businessman. A man like that could never be satisfied with mere wealth, obviously. He was much more powerful than average minds like Rong Yufan or Gu Hong could even begin to imagine. 

He needed to protect them. He needed to protect his only son. No matter what sin he'd committed, he couldn't let Xi Yuan find out about Rong Yufan's involvement in this attack. Else, it would be the end of everything for them. Their business, their status, their lives even, if things were to get out of control. 

But there was a famous saying. Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.

It applied very well to Rong Yufan, as the words 'Just how capable that girl had always been in front of him' resonated through his mind, a damaging darkness enveloping each and every atom in his body. Even his own father believed so. That she was better than him. 'I won't lose to that woman.', he told himself, reaching for the phone in his pocket after a few minutes. 

"Yufan...", Gu Hong glanced at her son, noticing his trembling hands, "Where are you going, son?", she asked, desperately following behind him as he dashed out of the mansion.

But he didn't stop. He didn't want to. He needed her to suffer and cry, for the rest of her whole pathetic life. That's what she truly deserved, he repeated to himself yet again, as he reached for the handle of the SUV parked at the entrance. 

"Hello?", a woman's voice came through the other end as the man got into his car. 

"I need you to leave for Afghanistan.", he commanded, "Logar province. There's a village there.

"Meet me at the International Airport right now. I'll give you some supplies for the next plan. And I will give you another call when the time's right. Got it?"

"Understood.", Huang Biu replied, her voice just as confident. 

The man then hung up on the woman, dialing another number now. The other person picked up at the third ring, "Adrian Novikov here.", the man mumbled absent-mindedly.

"Is it true?", Rong Yufan questioned, his eyes on the road, "Is she really there?"

"Oh... Yufan!", the man was taken aback, "Uh, yeah. She is here on a mission, disguised as a man. I have a lot of contacts in here, so I am sure. There's an ongoing construction of my motel a few meters from Rakhatal, so I keep visiting the village every now and then. As for how I figured it about her guise, in order to survive in a place as dangerous as this, you have to have inside informers everywhere."