As Never Was

Chapter 9

Once upon a time, Charles thought Shao Long was a.....pest. 

Not that he wasn't still. 

But it wasn't the same feeling, referring the word pest to a fly and then.....well something closer to a spider. Maybe like. Like a Tarantula. Or better yet. An Asian Giant Hornet. Whichever works best. Either way, it was enough to make him shudder. Shudder and brace himself with a metaphorical pesticide. 

So yes, once Shao Long was a common house fly, and then slowly evolved to become a monstrous, dangerous, terrifying Asian Giant Hornet. The transition was so subtle that at the exact moment Charles realized that this was no pest he could swat to death, he was already way too deep in the cloud of resentment that trapped them both. Once, Shao Long's advances made him scoff. He had thought the Chinese to be something not worth his attention. And then Shao Long started being more and more dangerous, and Charles, in a fit of irritation, responded to his hostility with his own wrath. Before he knew it, he stopped outright winning and Shao Long stopped outright losing. There were always some sort of consequence for both their parts. 

By the time they were adults, Charles learned a trick to keep himself on the winning side. Or rather, a trick to make Shao Long believe that he was the winning side. Because honestly, the both of them just stopped winning some time around the age of 24. The consequences were heavier and the benefit was close to nonexistent, but Charles maintained his image by always appearing that he had won that round. Most of the time it worked. Sometimes though, not even he could fool Shao Long that they had both lost completely.

The last time it happened, Charles thought that he really needed to end whatever the fuck was happening between him and Shao Long. He had thought that Shao Long would agree with him as well. It was no longer about who falsely snitched on who during kindergarten then. It was no longer about who snapped the picture of who, or who accused who of what. Their petty little hatred for each other may not completely diminish but they could stop it once and for all. They could just ignore each other completely and pretend they didn't exist. Simple as that. 

But before they could come to that agreement, Shao Long had locked himself away and worked from home. It was the last the world had seen of him, and it was safe to assume that Shao Long didn't have any human interaction during the span of two years. His business slowed down, not enough to alarm the world, but enough for people to know there was something wrong was going on. Two years ago was the last the people in the business industry had to fear Shao Long's mad genius business skills. 

When that happened, Charles understood that plenty of people ccould finally breathe out in relief. Because professional Shao Long being super duper interested in making money was no joke. It should be impossible for someone of his age to single handedly boost the country's GDP per capita, and China wasn't one that actually needed it. But Shao Long had done more than just be rich all around the world, he made his workers rich, he made the whole of China rich, he made the whole industry rich. And just when you thought that was it, he proceeded to become even richer. 

The people in his industry was terrified of Shao Long. He may not be the richest man in the world, but it wouldn't be long before he could squeeze somewhere in the top 3. Charles could bet that if the two of them hadn't fought two years back then, Shao Long would become the world's richest person in roughly a decade or something. Maybe less. 

So it was really a breath of relief. No one had to face his terrifying business skills any longer, and neither would Charles have to face Shao Long's intimidating everything. 

That is to say, he hadn't been on the receiving end of Shao Long's wrath in about two years. Seeing it now made him....quite uncomfortable and vaguely excited.