The Tale Never Ends

Lin Feng strode to a corner where he found his dart and returned it to its pouch before he rejoined us. Edelweiss hurried back to me, anxious to check on my condition.

Big Sister patted on her shoulder gently and gestured for her to remain calm. “I’ve seen him just now. The wound is deep but his organs are fine. He’ll be okay.” Edelweiss wiped away her tears, nodding, and she held my hand, still choking between her sobs. “I’m sorry, Shiyan…” I forced a weak smile and pinched her cheek softly. “What is there to be sorry about. I’m fine.” “If only I knew what she was going to do, I’d never let her hurt you! Aunt Ulan had instructed me to take good care of you. Yet I…”

Well, this is how a strong woman thinks, I mused amid the pain, She would never whine and moan like some teensy little girl and ask how am I. Instead, she only wants to protect me from harm. “Shiyan,” Lin Feng suggested and said, “Shouldn’t we notify the hotel management? They have surveillance cameras here in the lobby. We might be able to find out where did the woman go to.” I thought for a moment and said, shaking my head, “No. I believe we can safely say that the woman is no our usual garden-variety hitwoman. Escalating the issue will cause panic and innocent people might get involved and hurt. We cannot risk that. Moreover, it’s clear that this woman has a beef with me. I don’t think flipping the whole hotel over to search for her will yield anything now. She can easily escape through the windows upstairs even if she’s not a guest here.”

Big Sister came back to us. She had gone off to collect the hitwoman’s severed arm. She swung it around, waving it like a toy and I realized that it was not even a real arm, but an artificial prosthesis. It looked so much like a human’s arm, but if the fingers clasped together, it would make the palm of the artificial hand looked like a knife. It was a meticulously-built contrivance and it was still dripping with my blood. Chongxi was fiddling with his calculations when he looked up with a confused expression. “What the hell?” “You can divine nothing about her, am I right?” I confirmed his doubts and he nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know what’s going on but it’s just strange. I can’t even find out where she’s going to. Everything about her is completely blank and I can’t even find out who she is.”

Before any of us could say anything else, a cascade of footsteps filled the lounge as seven to eight men poured out of the elevator, rushing towards us. With a quick wave, Big Sister made everything—everyone’s weapons and the severed limb—disappear. It was the security personnel of the hotel. They saw me clutching at my bloodied wound, sitting on the sofa being surrounded by my friends and yelped, “What on earth happened here?”

Lin Feng was about to recount to them everything but I quickly stopped him by gripping his hand firmly and giving him a hard look. Then biting my teeth through the pain, I clambered to my feet and asked the captain of the security guards, “What took you so long?” “We’ve had some issues with our surveillance system. We were just back online when I saw you wounded! What happened here!?” A sharp Big Sister realized her chance. She yanked at the collar of the captain’s uniform and spat, “What happened?! My brother was mugged here! In your hotel lobby! A robber was hiding here and he tried to mug my brother and now my brother’s stabbed! Where have you been and how are you going to solve this!”

The captain became flustered with Big Sister shaking him down aggressively. Frantically, he gasped, “P-please! Please calm down! We were fixing our CCTV system, and none of what you said was recorded! We need more proof!”

We all saw the light. So the hitwoman in black had done something to sabotage the CCTV surveillance system with some unknown methods while she mounted her attack. It was only when she had successfully escaped, the CCTV system came back online and the security guards saw only a wounded me lying on the sofa. That was why they came rushing to us. They were frightened to see me injured during the course when they were still trying to fix their system.

“But my brother is hurt!” Lin Feng bellowed, “That is proof enough! Don’t you try to shirk off your responsibility by an excuse as feeble as ‘it’s not recorded’!” “Indeed! Our brother is hurt and we want justice!” Chongxi quipped, “Your management must answer for this! They must answer for the laxness in security!”

The captain’s head was rolling with beads of anxious perspiration as he began to fear for his job. The rest of his underlings did their best to calm and placate Big Sister and Lin Feng. But this was attempted murder. Something was so serious that he, a simple security guard, could not handle. His hands moved down and into his pocket where he found his phone. Another security guard appeared with a little first-aid kit. He offered some iodine and gauze for the few-centimeter deep wound which was fortunately not life-threatening, otherwise the entire hotel would be on general quarters by now.

The captain of the guards spoke into his phone. He winced suddenly and grimaced. Clearly, somebody must be giving him quite an earful from the other end of the line. He put down his phone later and came back to us, grinning broadly in a beguiling way to Big Sister and Lin Feng who were still seething. “The manager is on the way here. Do you need an ambulance?” My companions looked at me and I nodded.

It was late in the night and the ambulance arrived in no time. The manager followed us to the hospital in the ambulance. He did not neglect to rain more admonishments to the security guards although I suspect it was only for our benefit. Then again, I was not interested in the guards. Going to the hospital, I was only wondering who was that woman and I could see that my companions were also brooding quietly over the same question. One that none of us uttered because of strangers around us.

The hotel manager tried to convey his apologies for the mishap much to the indifference and disgust of Lin Feng and Big Sister that the hotel manager grew worried with sweat.

“Rest assured that the hotel shall take care of the medical charges. That also includes the rest of your stay at our hotel,” the manager muttered with sweat raining down his head. Big Sister propped up her leg and snorted disdainfully. This made the hotel manager all the more anxious at Big Sister’s disinterestedness to come to a peaceful solution. But an idea came to him suddenly and he slapped his thigh hard. “Ah, yes! How about this! We’ll pay for everything you need. So long as you keep this whole affair a secret from the authorities!” He turned to plead as a last resort. “Please, all of you. We will never be able to survive a lawsuit! I admit, this incident is a result of our own negligence, but I beg of your forgiveness!”

Big Sister tossed a probing look at me, signaling me to make the decision. Lying on the stretcher, I waved to the hotel manager, indicating silence. “So be it then,” I said at last, “I won’t force you off the edge and sue you.” And the decision from me, the victim of the mishap with no objections from my companions came as a relief to the hotel manager

Just then, the driver of the ambulance up front seemed to have heard our exchange. “Now wait up there, my friend. I have met my fair share of cases like you. The police will be waiting for you to get a statement later. This is attempted murder!” He ripped his attention from the wheel to look briefly at the hotel manager. “You’re the manager, aren’t you? If he were really attacked in your lobby, there would be no way to keep the hotel out of this. These kids here might not sue you, but that doesn’t mean you’re off the hook.” The manager’s neck shrank in fear as more cold sweat began to flow.

The nurses immediately wheeled me into the emergency room as soon as the ambulance veered into a stop at the hospital entrance. The doctor on duty cleaned my wound and chatted with me, “So, what caused this, my friend?” Thanks to the anesthesia, much of the pain was no more although there was no way I fail to miss the throbs as the doctor sewed my wound shut. “Would you believe me if I tell you a person stabbed me with her hand?” “Humph. Quite the joker, aren’t you? Most people with such cases would have already been unconscious. You’ve trained before in martial arts?” “A little,” I muttered, drowsy from the sedative effect. “Well, I’ll pry no further since you have no intention to talk. People like you are rare these days. All that gallantry and bravado, these are things of the past. I have sewed guys like you for years, but I’ll say that very few of them are like you.”

I managed a weak smile. This doctor must have mistaken me for a street urchin injured in a street brawl. Still, it beats having to explain more, I mused The doctor must have seen more than he was willing to allow from my wound.

Finally, I was pushed out of the ER where I found my companions outside. But they were not alone. Aside from the hotel manager, they were joined by a few police officers. The nurses brought me to a medical ward and the officers came to me. I had already thought up a story to feed them, but the leading officer spoke before I could utter anything, saying, “Wow, whoever she is, that person must be not your everyday variety of thug or hoodlum. To think she’d dare attack an officer of the law.”