Does It Matter

37

Zhang Qiling was not known for patience. Neither was he known for loyalty, unless money was involved. And yet, lately, he seemed to find himself constantly changing direction from his clients and losing out on quite a bit of payment.
He couldn't say why or how exactly he had ended up here, lurking around the shady edges of this city, but he simply couldn't bring himself to leave.

He had ultimately been delayed three hours in the village, gathering further Intel for the police to deal with them. He didn't have time to weed out an entire village, though he had allowed himself a little time with the inn keeper and the man who acted as a guard. He recalled the sickening crunch that their hands had made with great satisfaction.

By the time that he had gotten back on the road—having taken a detour to get his stolen car—and followed the tire tracks up to the point where they swerved off of the road, the truck was long gone, but he was in time to see the two men who had been in the cab crawling out of a ditch, cursing and growling.

He stepped over to stand over them as they pulled themselves fully up onto the road, and watched with disdain as they froze under his shadow, slowly peering up at him.

"Where is he?" He demanded with the calm demeanor that he was so well known for.

The two stared up at him dumbly, still processing this new appearance. "I'm only asking this once, after this chance it's an order on penalty." He stated with authority, already ready to be done with the interaction.

One, a little more timid it would seem, startled at the threat, his body trembled as he lifted his hands placating-ly. "We- we don't know... He attacked us and stole our truck." The man was apparently wanting to pass himself off as a victim, while the other caught on and nodded along, probably intimidated by the sword on his back. Qiling noted the rough sound to his voice, and paused as he noticed the dark bruising around the men's throats.

He had never taken Wu Xie for the type to strangle someone, or to go out of his way to cause harm to another person, and Qiling realized that he must have been truly panicking and desperate to have done so.

He realized he had been zoning out, and glared back down at the bastards, before letting out a frustrated sigh. He needed to move on. He couldn't kill them now, as he didn't have time to cover the bodies, and it wasn't like in a tomb where they would stay buried with no questions. With one last glare, he kicked them back into the ditch to climb out again, listening to the thud as they hit the ground.

And he had followed the tire tracks as far as they allowed, before the solid nature of an asphalt road interrupted his trail, leaving him to guess where to go from there.
He was ultimately forced to recognize that he did not know the other man very well yet, as guessing where he might have gone to while in peril proved a challenge.
The only two hotels in town had no record of him, or if they did had not seen fit to tell him, and he had seen no trace of either truck or person throughout his traversing the streets. He was currently standing outside a filthy little convenience store, debating if it was even worth checking there. He knew that the other had grown up in a fairly shady environment, yet still, in the little time that he had spent with him, he had felt that Wu Xie had an extreme dislike for the lifestyle. He recalled the younger's designer jackets and sports car, both almost obsessively clean.

No, he doubted that he would have come here, to this run down and questionable shop. But all other likely locations had already been searched and questioned with no luck, so he might as well try at the least.

With apprehension he pushed open the door, hearing the tinkling of the little bell attached to the frame. The teen at the counter barely glanced at him, engrossed in a celebrity gossip magazine displaying some actress on the cover.

Zhang Qiling stepped up to the counter and cleared his throat, causing the teenager to begrudgingly close the magazine, keeping a finger between the pages to keep his place.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a man." Qiling stated, wishing that he had a photo to show. He disliked anything that involved speaking to strangers.

The teenager raised an eyebrow, giving him a look that clearly implied how he thought he was being messed with.

Qiling continued, not wanting to waste time. "Early twenties, slightly long hair, short stature..?" Qiling had to pause a moment, realizing how basic this info was. He swallowed and decided to try again, focusing on remembering the details. "He has brown hair, about this length..." He gestured according to his own head. "Small features, dark brown eyes. He's about this tall..." He tried to think of what else he could be recognized from, but he really hadn't been paying attention to whatever the other had been wearing while being thrown in the back of a truck, not to mention how all of his truly recognizable items had been left behind at the hotel and now were in Qiling's possession.
Giving up, he stared down the attendant, who watched him with suspicion.
He eyed the sword on his back and thought for a moment, before he seemingly came to a conclusion.
"Haven't seen anyone like that come through, though I normally don't study the customers."

Qiling mentally sighed at the cover up, annoyed that he wouldn't get further information beyond the unintended confirmation that he had been there at some point. But at least he could understand the kid's suspicion. He supposed that Wu Xie would have come through looking like hell after the last week's events, and himself coming through looking for him after, with a sword and ready to intimidate for information would seem suspicious.
 He must have quickly been pegged as a kidnapper or human trafficker. As irritating as it was- and offensive- He somehow felt that WuXie would find his predicament quite amusing if he were here to witness.

He tried to think of where the other might have gone, not yet familiar enough to know his usual habits in regards to hiding, but having seen enough of his habits in regards to running away that he could safely say that the other was reckless and didn't take always take the time to stop and think before he was actively moving. That being the case, he assumed that he had probably skipped town to move on as soon as he had found a way to contact someone for assistance. He didn't know how many people were on the list of individuals that he might contact in case of emergency, but he supposed it didn't matter so much at the moment. The younger clearly had very little trust for those around him, so Qiling felt that it was safe to assume that he would be very choosy about his emergency contacts.

He glanced at the payphone outside of the store as he slid back into the driver's seat of the ugly little red car, wondering if Wu Xie would have used it.

He had attempted to turn on the phone that Wu Xie had left on the night stand, but without the password there wasn't anything that he could do with it. Maybe it was time that he learned a little more about technology. He would have to reach out to his cousin for help with that later. Or maybe Wu Xie could show him... no, he wouldn't give the younger more things to tease him about.

With that thought in mind he selected the nearest road leading back to Hangzhou.

*Authors note: I really don't recall if I had previously mentioned a description for Wu Xie, or stated which actor I was imagining, but  at this point I think it's just up to the reader.