Until Then...

Chapter - 45

There is something called expectation, the flimsy noose around our necks that keep our heads above the water. We expect ourselves to be good, brilliant, courageous and outstanding among this six billions human on earth. Mentally, physically and even spiritually, we demand the best out of ourselves. Our lives look like fleeting mirage on an empty highway on a hot summer day.

All our lives, we are on racing track, practicing to be better, preparing to be better and lunging ourselves into the red line to be the best of the best. And when the finishing line come and we look back to bear witness of our efforts come into fruition, will we be pleased? Will it finally satiate us? Like a bunch of blood thirsty piranha, will our greed wash away when the final breath left us? Or will we hang around as hungry ghosts till the end of time?

It was not a big deal for a healthy male to eat portions made for two just like it was nothing to prepare a dinner. Mo Guang Shan was a chef in the making and for him cooking a not-so-extravagant meal was child play. And just as he ate the pasta he prepared for the supposed to be dinner with He Tian all by himself, he actually didn't feel sad or lonely. As he drank the beer and cleaned up the plates, the thought of He Tian not showing up for their supposed to be first date-ish dinner didn't hurt him as much as he thought it would. And when he lay awake in the bed at 1 am with his countless calls left unanswered, he felt nothing in particular. Just a soft murmur that brought one of his many thoughts to physical world. "...I should have expected this..."

He Tian sat in attendant's chair and watched his brother lay pale on the hospital bed, tubes and wires attached to his body. The monitors beside him beeped nosily and each hiss of air escaped from ventilator reminded him how much of a failure he had been. But self loathing wasn't the only thing he was feeling at the moment. Even while knowing what was done to his brother wouldn't change, he wanted to and aimed to empty his gun in the face of those who orchestrated this. They lost their men, took a huge hit in the stock and he was sure that wouldn't even be the end.

Leaning his chin on crossed fingers, he watched He Cheng's chest rose and fell with each artificial breath from the machine. Before things escalated, he would certainly have the skins of those who wronged him and his family. There was no moon that night. It wasn't that the clouds were hindering its appearance. It was simply just a moonless dark night where shadows stretched their arms and light retreated into the crevices in midnight sky waiting for the time when they would be allowed to rise again.

"Boss, you need to head home and rest." Secretary Li said sighing out his distress from having to see his dearest master tattered and dirtied like a common hobo. For two days, He Tian didn't move from He Cheng's side. He didn't sleep or eat except for water and cigarette. His handsome face had lost its shine with huge dark circles and eye bags enough to wonder whether he had been awake for his whole life or something. And because he couldn't take care of himself, stubble had grown on his chin making him aged by 10years. He didn't speak to anyone except for work and the atmosphere was starting to drag everyone down.

Secretary Li had been running the business at the headquarter for the past two days and he had literally wear himself out trying to manage the angry directors and shareholders on one hand and keeping a keen eye out for the feud development in their own backyard. They barely managed to keep the news under wrap but it was only a matter of time before all hell broke loose. He had to get He Tian back to his normal self before they went to war and there was only one way he thought possible at the moment. The scrawny red headed Mo Guang Shan. Even though he was shocked to hear, the boss wasn't contacting him either in these two days, he was certain if there was anyone who could bring boss back to his fighting shape, it was definitely Mo Guang Shan.

He Tian didn't even look up at him from the reports piled on his lap and mumbled something under his breath as he circled several line in red. "Boss, you need to go home and rest a bit. Tiring yourself out like this would do you no good." Secretary Li shifted closer to He Tian's line of vision and tried his best to persuade the boss to get a fricking bath and looked alive. "Master Cheng would recover. He is not someone who gives up easily. He has all of us here and brother Qui too. He is in good hand." When he saw that He Tian wasn't responding to his pleads, he decided to give his all and dropped to his knee so that he met He Tian's eyes.