[CONTENTID1]

Confession 2

Lawyers and Night Terrors

Ba wasn’t home—probably working at Guhui, the old abandoned fire department in downtown Tianhai that now served as Fenghuang headquarters—but our family lawyer, Ming Longhua, was in my living room, along with a young man I didn't know. Ruochi was also home, already back from elementary school, and busy bothering them with as much dignity as an eight-year-old could muster.

"Jie, you're home!" she called in delight once I entered the apartment, and turned back to the two men sitting on the couch. "This is my jiejie, my bossy big sister, Wen Lei," she said in a serious tone. "She is in charge when Baba isn't home."

"And this is my meimei, my annoying younger sister, Wen Ruochi." I said in kind, although I wasn't actually that annoyed by her. I had long grown accustomed to the bratty behaviour only young, spoiled children could have. I had practically raised her, after all. "She is in charge when I’m not home. Go away, mei."

She stuck her tongue out at me and bounced away to the kitchen. As I shrugged my bag off my shoulder and onto the dark wooden floors, I could hear her opening the door to the freezer to grab a popsicle.

"Hello, Longhua xianshen," I said politely, smiling at my lawyer. I addressed him formally, for the benefit of the mysterious stranger sitting with him, although I never called him “Longhua xianshen” when we were with friends. Ming Longhua was a tall, thin man with hardly any hair along the top of his skull, and he always wore a suit that looked too large for his skinny frame. Thin, wire-rimmed glasses were placed on his beaky nose, and his smile was gentle. I had known him all my life. He had worked for Ba before I was born, and he visited our home so much I thought of him almost as a second father, or perhaps a distant uncle.

I turned to the man sitting beside him. He had a round, handsome face, minimally styled hair, and he looked a little nervous. Extremely pretty round eyes as bright as stars blinked up at me.

"And you are?" I prompted, politely and carefully. Young men in suits, especially in this line of work, were not to be trusted.

"This is Kim Minseok," Ming Longhua said hurriedly, standing up. Minseok jumped up with him, like he’d been electrocuted. "He's my apprentice, I guess you could say. He comes from South Korea. Say hello, Minseok."

Minseok bowed and greeted me through anxious, accented, but relatively fluent Mandarin. "Hello, Lei xiaojie. It'll be an honour to work with you."

I bowed back. "Same here." As I straightened up, I glanced at Longhua meaningfully, and he instantly took the hint. Bless the man.

"Minseok, Lei and I are going to talk for a bit. Can you keep Ruochi company?"

Minseok nodded, looking just as nervous about keeping an eye on an eight-year-old as he was talking to the eldest daughter of a mob boss.

At the sound of her name, Ruochi's small dark head popped around the corner, lips and hands sticky and blue with melted popsicle juice, and she stared at Minseok for a few moments. Then she glanced my way, questioning, and I sent her a look. Sisters could put a whole lot of meaning into looks.

Finally, she smiled, revealing a missing front tooth. "Can you help me with my homework?" she asked innocently, and Minseok's shoulders sagged with relief. That he could do.

I waited until Ruochi—thank goodness she was behaving today—led the Korean man to her room and closed the door, before I turned back to Longhua. The polite formality I used with him in the presence of Minseok dropped immediately, and I was now at liberty to speak to him the way I always did—casually, affectionately. "Why do you need an apprentice? You're fine."

It was childish, I knew, but I didn't feel comfortable with the idea of Longhua leaving for any reason. It was a hard business in my family's line of work to trust anyone, but I could trust Longhua with my life.

"Oh, Lei, I'm an old man," Longhua said tiredly. "I’m nearly sixty, it’ll be time to retire before you know it. I won't be here forever, and my heart problems have been getting worse lately.”

I spluttered for a few seconds. “B-but you’re taking medicine for that! You’re still taking your medicine, right?”

“Yes, yes, I am. You’re such a mother hen sometimes, honestly, I get pecked on enough by my wife. Look, I know you're wary around strangers, but I've been training Minseok for three years. Your father approved of him. He's young, but he's determined. He can take care of your family if anything happens to me."

"Longhua, don't say that," I said, dismayed. "You'll be our lawyer forever."

Longhua just shook his head. "You can trust Minseok. He's bright and works hard, and what's more, he has numerous connections to the law enforcement that will benefit Fenghuang. He's a good asset to the Wen family.”

“He could barely speak to me. He’s jumpy.”

“He’s just nervous. He wants to do a good job, and this is the Fenghuang we’re talking about.”

“But—”

He heaved another world-weary sigh, and called me by my old childhood nickname. He only ever did so when he was truly exasperated with me, and only he and Ba were ever allowed to call me that. “Xiao Lei, please."

"Alright," I said, just so we wouldn't argue anymore. "I haven't seen you in ages. How have you been?"

Longhua shrugged his lanky shoulders. "Well, besides visiting South Korea with Minseok and helping run some business errands for your father, I've been good. Has your father told you the news of the Golden Lion family yet?"

I frowned. "No." I quickly dug through my mind for information on them.

Finally, I remembered that the Golden Lion family was an important and well-accomplished mafia from South Korea, one that had a reputation for dabbling in the worst of crimes, the kinds of crimes Fenghuang wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, such as human trafficking and murder. They were also notoriously fickle, switching loyalties with other mafia families very easily, which was one reason why an alliance with them had broken down when I was just a small child. "What happened? Are they declaring war?"

"No, no," Longhua quickly comforted me. "Don’t be so dramatic. In fact, it's a little better than that. We're looking to make an alliance with them again. Weisheng had me visit them when picking up Minseok. It's tentative at best right now, but hopefully we'll manage. Spreading the family's products to South Korea would do great with business—they have lots of connections in South America for us, and they'll make some profit themselves with the Mood Drugs. It's a smart partnership, and doesn’t encroach upon anyone’s territory.”

"Oh, alright. That's good." I tried not to pretend to know more than I actually did about the mafia and crime, although I was plenty smart enough to know it was all about three things: money, how to make it, and how to keep the other guy from getting it.

It was essentially a giant, complex business company, albeit one that established itself almost firmly on the illegal side of the law. Illegal products got you more money; that was just the way the metaphorical cookie crumbled.

Just because Ba was the leader, though, that didn't make me any keener on joining the fam. I enjoyed the life, I’d admit that. I got access to things nobody else could get for free, and there wasn't a single person in the city of Tianhai who didn't know the name of Wen Lei, eldest daughter of the Fenghuang crime family leader. But I also enjoyed my freedom as a normal high schooler, too, and I was in no way planning on taking over if anything should happen to Ba. My uncle Boqi would most likely inherit Fenghuang, being Ba's last surviving brother. I was perfectly fine with that.

Longhua’s voice shook me out of my thoughts.

"We'll be expecting some family members to come visit us from South Korea in about two weeks. I probably don't have to remind you of this, but please be on your best behaviour. Golden Lion is a fickle bunch, and we can't afford to do anything that would make them back out of the deal."

I rolled my eyes, and said, "Longhua, you know me. Would I do anything to ruin Fenghuang?"

"No, but ..."

"It'll be fine."

At that moment, I heard a key click in a lock, and the door swung open. Ba walked in, filling the door frame with his hulking, bear-