Tea Leaves and Diamond Bracelets

Uncle, Shion, and Gifts

Match Fifteen: Uncle, Shion, and Gifts:

-Ju-

Despite the joy of having a baby, there is still my uncle to deal with. It's been silent for the past couple of months. I do not like this. It's like when a child is quiet in the background. They are probably up to no good. The same goes for Jianjun. With Junjie in his corner, I don't want to know what they are plotting. I took the liberty of calling up Junjie's victims to see if they were okay. I've gotten to know them so well. They were all scared of what would help now that their attacker was out of jail. I have even Szu talk to them sometimes.

"Is it helping?" I asked her one day.

"Yeah, a little," she said. I put my arm around her shoulders.

"We will end this soon," I said. Szu looked up with a sad look in her eyes.

"When will that be?" she asked. I refused to be in despair. I pulled Szu closer to my chest.

"You hear me out," I said. "We will not give up. We have eyes and ears everywhere. I am calling and checking on all of you every day. You can't give up either. Got it?" She pressed her lips together and nodded.

"Good," I said. I know keeping my word will be hard for this, but god damn it I am trying. We all are.

I sat back in my chair and looked down at my belly. Must be easy for Little Bean. They just grow and sleep inside of me. They don't have worry about business meetings, chasing down rapists, and back-stabbing family members. Lucky. I looked on my phone. I'm due for another appointment soon. Other than trying to track down Jianjun and Junjie, everything is going fine. Yao doesn't seem to be off in a fog. He still won't exactly tell me what's wrong though. I don't know how to get him to talk without pushing too hard. I just want to help everyone.

"Don't put too much stress on yourself or you'll hurt the baby," Bik told me. Cai has been constantly blessing and saying incantation to keep the child alive.

"You shouldn't be doing this much work," she said. "You need to take a break."

"I wish that I can take a break," I said.

"Fei has his police friends looking for those creeps," Cai said. "The boys can run things until the baby's born." I almost feel bad for telling her that I can't. We all can't rest until the Jianjun and Junjie are stopped.

I didn't feel like doing paperwork today. I turned and looked out my window. Maybe I could go outside and just enjoy the day.

I paused because I'm not alone anymore.

"How long have you been there?" I asked. I looked out of the corner of my eye to see Shion standing in the corner.

"I'm surprised you saw me so quickly this time," she said. I turned to face her.

"What do you want now?" I asked.

"I'm just checking up on the child," the woman with fox mask said. I tilted my head.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Does it matter?" Shion asked.

"Yes," I said. "I can't have some crazy woman looking after my baby for no reason, now can I?" Shion shrugged as she floated, yes floated, over to my desk. I looked down at her feet. Yep, they weren't touching the ground.

"You do have a point," Shion said. "I am a spirit from limbo. I look after unborn children."

"Uh-huh," I said. "Why?"

"Does there have to be an answer?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. Shion sighed and pushed back her hair from her forehead.