A Circuit of Time: Book Two of Spark (A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Eleven

(Nanjing, The Nation of Peculiar Asia)

Yang's Flower Shop didn't have many customers today. A young man in a business suit brought a bouquet of peonies, and because he had peculiar ID, he only paid half the price. A normal couple brought some roses, but a levitating man soon showed up and bullied them into giving the flower to him.

Yang Ren-Feng saw all of it and didn't intervene. Because intervention would only bring him trouble, and sometimes not just for him, but them, too.

Running a successful business meant knowing when to stand out and when to step aside.

The doorbell rang, six foreign people entered the shop. They were dressed in long, dirty coats. They wondered in the shop for a while, then a woman came forward.

"Looking for anything?" Yang said in Mandarin.

"Do you have any nightshade flower here?" she asked, also in Mandarin.

"Not in stock." Yang replied, "But we have heard a batch is coming."

"Really?" the woman said, "Can I expect it tonight? I heard they are beautiful under the moonlight."

"Then you're lucky, weather report said it's a full moon." Yang answered.

"I'm sure the stars will still shine through, though." The woman said.

"Men's toilet, the third cubicle from the left. The lock is hidden in the sixteenth brick on the fourth row, counting down from the top. The password is the birthday of the first republic." Yang told her in a whisper.

"Thank you very much," Francesca Bittern said.

The wall of the third cubicle in men's toilet turned out to be a camouflaged door. Behind it was a long stairway going down.

"I have had enough of dark stairways for a lifetime." Ethan mumbled, but he still followed everyone else into the darkness.

Suddenly someone shouted something in Mandarin and Miss Bittern quickly replied. Then the light suddenly flickered on. They were in a dungeon, ten masked men surrounded them, each armed with a rifle.

"Nice to meet you at last." An elderly man came forward and shook Miss Bittern's hand. "I'm Bodhi Yang, clockwinder for all loops in Nanjing and the leader of Southern China Alliance."

*

"Ma'am, our informants confirmed they are in Nanjing." Lieutenant Wang Hong-Chang reported to Valeria Gullveig in her office in Beijing.

"Good. Keep an eye on them. But do not engage until I give the order." The Supreme Chairwoman of The Peculiar Nation of Asia replied.

"And there's one more thing." Lieutenant Wang said. "Emperor Caul's representitve arrived ten minutes ago."

"Tell him I will see him an hour later."

"Ma'am, it's her. He sent Isabelle Llywelyn."

"The PSB agent, I see." Valeria thought for a second, "Just tell her my stance on Caul sending Soulbender for this task remain the same. And let's hope Caul doesn't drag that idiot Murnau into this."

"With all due..." Wang started.

"Save that for Caul." Valeria interrupted, "Get to the point."

"Okay, do you think challenging emperor's decision directly is really a good idea?"

"Yes, especially when his idea is going to turn on himself if we don't intervene. Trust me, I know that." Valeria said, "Now go tell our guest I'm going to see her in one hour."