LI JUN

Slow burn

Every bone in his body feels like they're going to shatter. Every muscle hurt. He hadn't had that kind of work out since he was starting out as a young man in the business.

He cradled the stiffness on his shoulders, his swollen wrists and his knuckles. He winced at all the pain nagging at him. He could use a nice massage right about now.

Li Jun walked into his mansion. He'd been out all night. The jacket on his shoulder remains in good shape, though the expensive white-collar shirt was stained and possibly ruined. He's exhausted and he looked like he just crawled of hell.

It has been a long night.

This is what happens when you hire a thief for a goon, he thought. You risk getting stolen from.

"Welcome home, Mr. Lim!" Ms. Bing, the main housekeeper, yanked herself out of her seat. She stayed up all night waiting for Li Jun to come home.

She helped him out of his jacket, calling Lin for assistance. "Lin, dear. Would you be kind enough to take these clothes to the laundry?"

"Xing!" Answered Lin right away and rushed to picked up the dirtied jacked folding it into her arms. She backed away soon after, getting out of the way.

"Go run me a hot bath." Ordered Li Jun once the ladies were finished, and paced painful strides lifting his heavy legs through the stairs. He started unbuttoning rest of his shirt and loosening his wrist watch that's cutting the circulation of his swollen hand. "Don't let anyone disturbed me, I want to relax all day."

"Yes, master Li Jun." Answered Ms. Bing. She then glared at Lin who had a blank look in her face. "Go! What're you waiting for? Go get the hot bath running for him!"

Lin stepped back and run to the alternate stairs hidden in the back, it was built as main traffic for housekeepers, so the masters won't have to share the stairs with them.

Lin beat Li Jun to his master bedroom, rushing to get the bath ready. She turned the hot water on, poured bath salt, and readied some fresh towels.

Li Jun made it up to his room, breathing in relief. Finally, he can get out of his clothes. The first thing he did was kicked his leather boots and stripped his shirt, leaving the bloodied clothing on his handsome wooden floor.

He walked over to the bathroom; pants still worn, hearing the hard flow of the bath water relaxed and soothed him.

Lin soon emerged out of the steamy fog, head tucked and eyes to the floor, she asked her master if, "there's anything else, I can do for you?" She tried not to lift her gaze, although the massive patches of ink in Li Jun's body proved hard to ignore.

She's seen bits of pieces of them. Lines on his neck poking out of his collar. And sometimes, when the weather is hot and Li Jun wears nothing but a thin camisole on, Lin could somehow make up the shapes of his tattoos.

She made no attempt to admire the mysterious tattoos at the time, they seemed to be a symbol of his criminal lifestyle.

"Tell Bing I will need a masseuse after all. I'm quite sore. I need a massage and I need help scrubbing myself."

"Sure." Answered Lin unable to stray her glance away from Li Jun's swollen hands.