by Pauline Loh
Ricky attempted to sit up but collapsed backwards, drowsy from his painkillers. Lung San steadied him, shocked by how weak and feeble he looked.
“Shifu’s here! There’s nothing to apologise for,” Lung San said.
“Yes, there is!” Ricky screwed up his face as if the mere act of thinking hurt him. “You told me never to perform Lion Skips like the Ram without your permission. The doctor says I may never dance again. It’s my bao ying—I’m being punished for disobeying you.”
Ricky’s body started to heave. Ying Ying thought he was trying to cough, then she realised that he was sobbing.
“Rubbish!” Lung San said agitatedly. “The doctor doesn’t know Ricky is Lung San’s disciple! I’ll teach you how to compensate for injuries. I’ll have you on your feet soon enough—we’ll perform at this very hospital and make the doctor eat his words.” He examined Ricky gently. “Where does it hurt, son?”
Ricky’s bleary eyes looked past Shifu and spotted Ying Ying. His hand moved feebly to the left side of his chest. “Here.” He smiled wonderingly. “Oh look, it’s the drummer who owns my heart.”
Ying Ying came forward and spilt some items on his bed eagerly. “It’s me—Ying Ying! I brought apples and caramel sweets for you. Is there anything else you want? I can go downstairs and buy them.”
While she was babbling, Ricky’s shaky finger came up and poked her in the eye. He brought his finger close to his face and examined it dreamily. “Shifu,” he asked weakly, “is Ying Ying crying? She never cries.”
Lung San cursed softly and said, “Son, what have they been drugging you with?”
A harassed nurse pushed a medication cart into the room at that moment and started when she saw Lung San and Ying Ying. “Hey! No visitors allowed,” she grumbled. “Out! Out!”
Left alone again, Ricky dozed off. He woke and remembered having a vivid dream that Ying Ying and Shifu had cried over him. He looked around the empty room. He told himself it was just a dream and fell back asleep. The next time he woke up, he felt ravenous. Why were there apples and caramel sweets on his bed? He ate some of them hungrily, and decided to look for seaweed chips—his favourite snack. He picked up the metal crutches next to his bed and hobbled into the bright corridor. There was a vending machine along the corridor next to a green door marked “Exit”. Ricky felt a stirring of excitement. Chips!
He stopped in front of the machine and viewed the contents. Then he remembered that he had no money, because the Hot intern had taken his wallet along with his mobile phone. He groaned.
He decided to go to the nurses’ station and beg for some coins to buy a bag of chips. A middle-aged man stood at the counter with his hands on his hips. There was something familiar about that spreading waistline and thinning hair… Ricky gasped. It was the reporter who had visited Legends Hall and demanded to see his tattoo!
Ricky whirled around and tried to tiptoe away but his metal crutches made a clacking noise. His room seemed very far away, and there was a green door that was nearer. Ricky hurried to the door and slid through as quietly as he could.
CHAPTER 46
A HUNTED LION
Ricky hobbled out onto an open-air terrace. It was a tiny space, bordered by a low metal barrier, where the staff went for their smoke breaks. There were only a few potted plants, and nowhere to hide. However, beyond the plants, there was another exit door! Ricky hopped forward. The old Ricky would have vaulted over the row of potted plants with little effort but now, with his foot in a cast, that obstacle might as well have been Mount Everest. Ricky gritted his teeth and tried to inch past the pots. He was dangerously close to the low metal railing.
“Wait! Wait! We can talk. There is always a solution! Don’t do it!”
Ricky froze. He turned his head and saw a male nurse staring at him. Ricky paused, confused. What was the man talking about? He glanced at the railing and saw that it was the only thing between him and a steep drop from the eighth floor. The man must have thought that Ricky had wanted to jump and end his life.
The nurse continued blabbering. “Wait, okay? Just let me get your relative or a doctor, or…or somebody.” He ran back through the green door.
Ricky cursed. If the nurse started shouting, the reporter would surely come over. Ricky half climbed and half fell over the plants. His leg exploded with pain and he hobbled to the other exit door. It was locked! With nowhere to go, Ricky huddled near the railing and covered his face with his cap.
The nurse hurtled through the door again, accompanied this time by a security guard. Ricky shouted at them, “Don’t come near me! I don’t want to see anybody!”
The guard said quickly, “The doctor is coming…”
“No!” Ricky shouted. “Don’t let anybody through that door! Just…just get me back to my room. If I see anybody, I’ll…I’ll…” He stood up, looking around desperately for an escape.
The two men panicked, thinking that Ricky was going to jump over the railing. “Okay, I swear I won’t let a living soul past the door”—the guard put up three fingers like a Boy Scout—“but you must come quietly!”
Ricky thought quickly and ordered the men to get the other door unlocked, and demanded a wheelchair and mask. Finally, he was wheeled quickly and efficiently off the terrace into another ward of the hospital building.
The atmosphere in that ward was hushed and solemn. All the doors were closed. Ricky read a sign on one of the doors: “No entry. 24-hour suicide watch.”
A white-coated doctor and nurses waited for him in a dimly-lit room. “I wasn’t trying to commit suicide. It’s a misunderstanding!” Ricky protested. But a needle was inserted into his arm. A dark wave engulfed him and dragged him soundlessly into a bottomless ocean.
CHAPTER 47
A LOWLY JACKAL
Sly had bullied Ricky’s room number out of the young nurse at the reception counter. But when he got to the room, it was empty. He sat down to wait, hoping that Ricky would return soon.
After the Hot troupe had left the airport, Sly was left cooling his heels. He wondered if Ricky might sneak through the customs gate to avoid the press.
Then, his office hotline operator called. A tip had come in from an Elite Hospital nurse who claimed that she had seen the idol checking into the hospital! Although everybody knew Ricky to be in Taiwan, Sly had felt the familiar tingle in his news sense. He hopped into a taxi and raced to the hospital.
He waited gleefully for the Leopop idol to return and looked forward to the smackdown. Instead, minutes later, Sly heard a commotion outside the room. He popped his head out and heard somebody calling loudly for security. His instinct flared again and he hurried to the locus of the activity.
He tried to shoulder his way past a uniformed officer standing guard outside a green door. “We have a hospital situation here,” the officer barked. “No visitors allowed.”
Sly gritted his teeth but retreated to a corner to wait. He kept his eyes riveted to the door. Security personnel hurried to and fro. A senior employee in a suit came and the guard updated him: “It’s a suicidal patient, sir.”
Sly wondered if the patient was Ricky. If it was, the mystery had deepened. Ricky was the hottest and most desirable star in Leopop today. He had won a trophy and was romantically linked to an up-and-coming actress. Why would he want to kill himself? Sly’s news sense told him there was another, bigger, story here.
Sly intercepted the employee in the suit and demanded, “Is the suicidal patient Ricky Kang? Tell me!”
The officer turned to a guard and ordered, “Escort this man off this floor.”
Sly cursed. As he was manhandled out of the hospital, his mind locked on the mystery like a bull terrier. Ricky’s mystery woman—the one who had inspired the tattoo—must have rejected him. Ricky must have then had a rebound romance with Sassy in Taiwan. But now that he was back in Singapore, the mystery woman was probably threatening to reveal information that could destroy his newfound fame, which accounted for his suicidal frame of mind.
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Sly felt it was even more urgent for him to get a look at Ricky’s tattoo and to find out the identity of his mystery woman. He knew that there were younger, hungrier rookies waiting to scoop him. He took a lift to the basement and found a laundry room. Shortly after, he emerged dressed in a hospital uniform, with a surgical mask and cap. He tried the employees’ lockers one by one until he found one that was unlocked. Opening it, he smirked when he saw a staff badge.
He returned to Ricky’s original hospital room, but the nametag on the door had been removed. A quick peep revealed that the bed had been stripped of its sheets and the room was now vacant. He bit back a curse. Ricky must have been moved to a different room.
As he stood there pondering his next move, he overheard two orderlies talking.
“Did you hear? One of the patients on this floor tried to kill himself!”
“Gosh, it’s the suicide ward for him then.”
Sly smiled triumphantly. He took the staff lift to the locked psychiatric ward and used the badge he had pilfered to tap himself in. He flitted from door to door until he found Ricky’s name on one of them. In an instant, he had entered the room.
It was dark but he did not dare to switch on the light. Sly could see Ricky’s inert form on the bed. Sly wondered how he would be able to check for the tattoo without waking the boy up. He crept nearer and listened to Ricky’s breathing. It was deep and there was a long pause before each snoring breath. Ricky must have been drugged!
As quietly as he could, Sly lifted the bedsheets. He activated his mobile phone torch and gently pulled down the waistband of Ricky’s pyjamas, but all he saw was clear skin. Sly moved to the other side of the bed and tried again. Still no tattoo!
Ricky stirred. Sly was getting more anxious, and less cautious. He pulled up Ricky’s pant legs to check. Suddenly, a bright red light above Ricky’s door started beeping. Ricky was awake and had pressed the nurse call button for help. Ricky’s eyes were wide and fearful but he was too drugged to push Sly away.
Sly threw caution to the wind and forcefully pulled up Ricky’s shirt. Bingo! He caught a glimpse of the tattoo on Ricky’s chest. He scrambled to open the camera app on his mobile phone, but Ricky had pulled the sheets over his head.
A male orderly came into the room. His eyes widened with shock when he saw the unauthorised visitor, and promptly dragged Sly out of the room. Sly did not put up a fight. He had scored what he had come for.
A staff nurse bustled into Ricky’s room. Her lips tightened when she saw Ricky’s anxious state. She started to administer medication that the doctor had prescribed.
“I don’t want them,” Ricky croaked.
“Doctor’s orders,” she said firmly, and Ricky reluctantly swallowed the pills.
CHAPTER 48
CONSPIRACIES ABOUND
Ying Ying got out of bed early after a sleepless night. The day before, she and Lung San had gone to the hospital administrative department to ask about Ricky, but were turned away as they were not his family members. They had then returned to Ricky’s room, except he was no longer there. When they had enquired about him at the reception counter, the nurse had looked at them suspiciously and called for her superior, who called for an even more highly ranked superior. Finally, an administrator in a suit had them brought into a private room, where he had asked them questions in a roundabout manner about Ricky’s mental health.
Lung San had rung Uncle Ang’s number several times to ask for permission to visit Ricky, but the calls went to voicemail. It was almost midnight when Ying Ying and Lung San gave up and left.
Lung San had tried not to involve Ricky’s parents as he didn’t want them to worry, but he had no choice now. He needed their signed letter appointing him as Ricky’s temporary guardian so that he could get access to Ricky. Ying Ying knew he was probably in the office waiting by the fax machine.
She arrived at Legend’s Hall and, as was her daily habit, she switched on the television to the news channel. A headline dominated the ticker tape at the bottom of the screen: “Premier lion dancer Ricky Kang attempts suicide!”
Ying Ying had to read the headline twice before her brain could make sense of the words. Ricky had tried to take his life? But…but when? And why? She had seen him less than 24 hours ago and he wasn’t suicidal then. He had been weak and disoriented, mumbling that he might never be able to dance again, but surely that would not have been enough reason for him to want to kill himself?
No, no! It’s just the media making up stories! Ying Ying laughed shakily. She pulled out her phone and went online to search for more information. She found a news article that reported: “Is Ricky Kang being warded at Singapore’s Elite Hospital? Ricky shot to fame after a successful debut in the Taiwan Showcase just days ago. Why has he attempted suicide? What is the Hot Lions boss, Ang Mong Jang, hiding from the public?” The report raised more questions than it gave answers.
The TV was now showing a flushed and triumphant Sly Seetoh from Leopop Weekly giving a live interview. Thinking that he was reporting on some entertainment gossip, she was about to change the channel when she heard him mention Ricky’s name.
“I was the one who discovered Ricky Kang on suicide watch at Elite Hospital.”
The news presenter, Bryan Lim, interrupted Sly. “But the hospital has yet to verify whether Ricky Kang is one of their patients.”
Sly huffed and said loudly, “Hospitals aren’t allowed to give out information about their patients.”
“But how did you get into the ward? The press are not allowed there,” the presenter countered.
Sly straightened up and said haughtily, “I’ve been a journalist ever since the current lot of reporters was in diapers. I have my own ways of finding things out.”
Bryan nodded, but his attention was no longer on Sly. He was listening intently to his earpiece. Addressing the audience again, he said, “We’ve heard one side of the story. And now, we will hear from someone else who will help us get to the bottom of this mystery—hopefully.”
The camera cut to Ang Mong Jang, who was dressed in a sharp double-breasted jacket; he checked the mike attached to his lapel and launched straight into a heated speech once he knew that his camera was rolling.
“Hot Lions brought glory to Singapore at the Taiwan Showcase. With our blood, sweat and tears, we won the coveted trophy and humbly carried it back to our motherland. And this is the thanks we get? To be called liars and cheats?” Boss Ang spread out both his hands in righteous indignation. “I slept the sleep of the just last night and woke up this morning to a cock-and-bull story that I had lied about my employee. Some nonsense that he is gravely ill and tried to end his life?!”
Boss Ang planted his fists on his hips and thrust out his jaw. “And some have said that Ricky Kang was injured during a performance? Really? All his performances were seen by audiences of hundreds and were captured on camera!” He shook his head and sighed. “I feel sorry that the public has so little faith in the words of an honourable man. The truth is that Ricky is a raw recruit. He was traded up by Lung San of Lion Legends for my most prized disciple, Hercules. I agreed to the talent exchange as a favour to my brother, Lung San. The exchange period has come to an end, and Hot Lions looks forward to welcoming Hercules back. Ricky will return to the Legends, and it is my fond hope that the boy has grown wiser and more experienced from his exposure to our world-class Hot Lions.”
Ying Ying trembled with fury. She guessed that Uncle Ang must have heard the doctors’ prognosis that Ricky would not be able to dance again, and he was cutting his losses while he could! How could he treat Ricky that way, after all that Ricky had done for Hot Lions in the Showcase?
Ying Ying became aware that her father had joined her in front of the television. The programme went to a commercial break and the office phone started ringing. Lung San picked it up and Ying Ying realised from the ensuing conversation that it was a reporter on the other end.
“Yes, yes, Ang was right—I did ask Ricky to go to Ho
t Lions,” her father confessed. He was always too honest with reporters. “Did he like the exchange? I think so, but of course it always takes a while to adjust to a new organisation. Where is he now? I… No comment!”
Lung San slammed the phone down, looking rattled. He avoided Ying Ying’s eye.
The television commercial ended and Bryan Lim came back onscreen. He was about to end the interview when Sly said urgently, “Ricky Kang really is in hospital! And I know why he tried to end his life!”
Pleased that he had recaptured Bryan’s attention, Sly puffed out his chest and nodded at the camera. “The picture!” he barked at the off-screen studio crew. The camera cut away from the two men to show a drawing.
Ying Ying gasped. She was staring at a sketch of her grandmother’s hairpin. The flower was inaccurately drawn, with petals flaring instead of being folded like a bud, and the leaves were the wrong shape. But it was undeniably her hairpin.
Sly continued talking but Ying Ying could hardly take in his words. “Ricky Kang just had a triumphant tour de force. He is the most sought-after lion dancer in Singapore, in Asia! Why would he end it all? This tattoo is why! Ricky had this done just before he left for Taiwan. I saw this, with my very own eyes, inked on the skin right under his heart. This flower accessory obviously belongs to a special woman in Ricky’s life. I say that when we know the identity of the mystery woman, we will find out the reason for Ricky Kang’s suicide attempt.”
Ying Ying jumped up, sending her chair clattering to the floor. “Dad, I have to get to the hospital now,” she said urgently.
CHAPTER 49
NO PLACE TO RUN
Her father was waiting for Mr Kang’s fax, so Ying Ying made her way to the hospital alone. In the taxi, Ying Ying recalled with a pang Ricky’s accusation of her treating him like a commodity.