“We are making you both something to eat,” Ai says, guiding me and Jake into the main seating area of the restaurant. From here, we can see the kitchen where five people are hurriedly working away to cook us a meal at an hour where most people are rarely awake.
The sumo man is dicing up red peppers on a cutting board, while two tall, lanky men with darker skin lean over one of the stoves and mix various ingredients in a pot. The final person in the kitchen is an older woman who is sitting in the corner counting up the money that all of them grabbed off the floor. Each one of them is conversing in Mandarin with one another, making their excited conversation impossible for me to understand.
I wonder how they would react if I gave them a massive pile of diamonds.
The thought crosses my mind but is quickly knocked out of it as I sit down at the table that Ai and her twin sister direct us to.
“I speak English, if you couldn’t tell,” Ai says. “This is my sister, Loi. She never studied English, nor did anyone else here, but I can always act as the translator for all of us.”
“Wait one second.” I shoot up from my seat and run to the bathroom. The door is still open with cash littering the floor—I guess the imperial soldiers didn’t find tens of thousands’ worth of yuan lying on the floor to be suspicious.
Once inside the restroom, I open the bag and deliver a command to the Chimera Cube. “A dozen translating devices.” I find it easier to let it create too much translating devices rather than try and count in my head what the perfect amount would be. Twelve black cylindrical devices about the size of a test tube form in the air. Attached to the top of each device is a thin black string that one can use to wear the device as a necklace and make translating seamless during conversation.
I run back out of the bathroom holding the dozen devices in my hand. Jake knows exactly why I weirdly ran off, so he doesn’t question it. Meanwhile, Loi and Ai both look so surprised that I had all of those in my backpack that they don’t even seem to care where they came from.
Loi whispers something to Ai, her eyes glaring at me suspiciously.
“Are these all for us?” Ai asks.
“Yes, of course.” I do my best to keep my tone warm and lighthearted. I have no idea how long we will be with these people, but we need them to trust us the entire time we are here. “Jake and I always carry a bunch around because we aren’t from here. I had to go check and make sure I had enough before I gave them all to you guys, but that should definitely be enough to have one for everyone here.”
We all grab one from the pile that I dumped at the center of the table. I place the necklace over my head and switch the receiving end of the translator to English and the transmission setting on the translator to Mandarin.
The simple touch pad on the front is an easy enough interface for everyone to figure out in seconds.
“Great, I can actually talk to you guys now.” Loi speaks into the translating device, but when her words come out, they echo in a deep masculine voice.
“Loi, oh my!” Ai laughs and grabs the translating device from her. There is no brand on the device, yet it looks very similar to some of the most popular ones used today by tourists in America.
Ai taps the bottom of the device once and motions for Loi to speak again. Her voice sounds like that of a tired old man, which is not exactly the impression she is going for.
“You messed it up even more.” She rolls her eyes at her sister. This time Loi taps the bottom of the translating device herself and instead of a groggy masculine voice emanating from the machine, a higher-pitched feminine one rings from it.
“It’s working now.” Ai holds up a thumb and then switches her attention to me and Jake. We both sat and watched their little interaction amused the entire time, but when Ai looks at us, the energy shifts.
She is still in shock.
“Just so you know, they were definitely looking for you guys,” Ai says, her translator in the tone of a deeper, affirmative woman.
“Oh, we know,” Jake says, leaning forward on the table. I follow his eyes and notice him checking her out in the way that one does almost subconsciously, but then proceeds to very consciously think about the person. “We are the most wanted men in this country.”
“What?” Ai stares at me. She reaches her hand out as if she wants to investigate if my blond hair is real or not. “You were right about to compete in a charity tournament earlier this evening. The livestream ended up getting cancelled, but I saw your name on the lineup. How the hell did things change so fast?”
She says the words so fast that I am left winded by her response.
“There was a rebellion inside the government.” I begin, slowing down my thoughts so I make sure that I say the right words.
“Wait,” Jake butts in. It’s weird to hear his voice echo in Mandarin right after he speaks in English. In four-way conversations, these devices aren’t always the most convenient, but it is the only thing that truly works besides brain-to-brain communication, which is a bit extreme for our purposes. “Are there any security cameras in here?”
“No,” Loi says. Her nature is relaxed as opposed to the more hyperactive energy radiating off Ai. “We have never had any. Our parents who own this restaurant have been harassed by the local police for years who want them to put one up. They eventually have started paying a regular fine worth thousands of dollars.”
“Why do they pay the fine?” I ask, although I am momentarily thankful that they do, because if they did have security cameras like most residences and businesses in China, then we would be screwed. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to get one installed?”
“They would lose money if they did that.” Loi looks back at the kitchen, where sumo man holds two dishes that he is carrying out to our table. “Three of the people in this kitchen are illegal workers from Indonesia who they pay under minimum wage all in cash. They save loads of money doing that each year instead of hiring domestic labor or investing in robots.”
Jake and I nod along with her statement as sumo man places the two plates down on the table.
“Dad, put this on,” Ai says, “that way you can introduce yourself.”
He glances at her hesitantly at first, but after a second he relents and puts the necklace over his head. “I’m Chef Bolin Chen, and tonight you are being served Peking Duck with rice pancakes, spring cucumber, spring onions, hoisin sauce, and the skin on the side with sugar and garlic.” He pulls chopsticks out of a pocket in his apron. “Normally, this dish takes a very long time to make, but we had two leftovers from the day, so it worked out.”
“Thank you.” My mouth waters as I stare at the wide dish full of food that I have never eaten before, but I have never been one to complain about free food, especially when it is served to me like I am a king. His charming presentation almost makes me forget about the fact that his flab was almost eating me alive earlier.
Note to self: this guy has a few screws loose.
Jake already shovels a pile of the rice into his mouth, an expression of pure delight flooding his face. The dish has a savory, sweet smell emanating off it, and soon after I take my first bite, every one of my taste buds relishes the juicy, tender flavor to the duck meat.
“How do you like it?” Chef Chen asks, pulling up a chair at our table. His eyes are intently focused on us as we eat.
“Very good,” Jake and I both say at the same time with our mouths full.
He nods, his expression unchanging from the tense manner he looked at us earlier. An awkward silence follows where the only sounds in the restaurant are the sounds of a few machines running in the back and the obnoxious chewing of Jake and me.
“Let’s get back to talking about the important stuff.” Ai glances up at a clock on the wall impatiently. She must know that our time is running out—all of us do. Yet part of me never wants to leave this restaurant. There’s something about sitting down and eating a relaxed meal that sounds so boring that I miss it. “So, there was a rebellion against the
government? That’s old news.” She gulps and nervously glances out the side of her eyes at her dad. He tenses up just at the mention of rebellion. “The rén have been rebelling for years.”
“This time it wasn’t the rén, though,” Jake says. “That’s why I wanted to make sure there were no security cameras here. Government insiders tried to assassinate Li Wang. The freak has like a million clones and wants to destroy the People’s Republic of China for good. And we were there for the rebellion and ended up being the lone survivors. So now we are here, and the government wants us dead, and all we want is a place to hide for a little bit. Just a place to regroup so that we can figure the rest of our lives out.”
Jake speaks like his lips are on fire and eyes me in the end as if searching for approval.
“I couldn’t have worded it better.” I nod at him, part of me feeling proud, although I did nothing in the process of him saying those words.
Chef Chen mutters under his breath, his translator turned off as he speaks. I have a feeling he has some choice words for Jake and me.
“I know somewhere you guys can stay.” Chef Chen focuses his gaze back on us after both his daughters nod at him. “My brother is a monk in a monastery in Tibet. That region is the only part of China that has remained fairly autonomous. In the monasteries there are no cameras, and the government is more apt to let the people of Tibet do what they want.”
“Would they let us in?” I question. Two young American boys who know nothing about Buddhism don’t seem to be their ideal candidates for living with monks.
“Money talks,” he says. The translator is set to the deep voice that Loi was on initially, but the intimidating tone fits with him. “If you guys didn’t bring any, I would have sliced you in half with a kitchen knife. We can’t risk having this business shut down and being killed over nothing. But that diamond, it’s the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. Like I said, money talks.”
“Well, we have money.” I smile. The hairs on my arms stand up, this time with excitement. We can buy our way in with anyone in this world. “We have lots of it.”
“We will need all of it,” he says. If the diamond took more than a split second to produce, I’d let him know that the diamond is already worth tens of millions of dollars, but I am happy to give him billions of dollars’ worth of gemstones.
I have nothing to lose at this point.
I just need time to regroup before we go to war.
“Get us there safely first,” I counter. “Sounds like the trip to Tibet won’t be easy.”
“We should head out now,” Ai states. She is nervous as she speaks, her words slurring together as she rushes to the end of her sentences. “We can shove them into the trunk of the car and then once we get out into the rural area of the province, past all of the police checkpoints, we can let them out. If we leave now, we won’t have to worry about traffic or the imperial soldiers coming back. They must know about me.”
“You are not coming,” Chef Chen says, standing up. The entire time someone else is talking, I shovel food into my mouth. I’ve never been good at using chopsticks, but no one seems to notice my animal-like behavior. “You, your mother, your sister, everyone stays here. If I don’t make it back, you will have that diamond to sell and you can sell this business and—” He chokes up.
I finally can see behind the veil of anger and madness covering his face. He was enraged and devastated because he thought I was going to take everything away from him. Now he realizes that we gave his family a shot at living the life that he has worked so hard for them to enjoy for decades.
“Don’t talk like that,” Loi says. She places a hand on her father’s shoulder as he stands behind his chair, looking unsure of what to do with himself. “You are all going to be fine.”
I strain my ears to hear her. She is talking loud so that the default volume of the English voice transmitting out of the device is overpowered by her speaking in Mandarin.
“Do you see who is here?” He looks at us like we are two babies in the corner who can’t understand him, meanwhile his translator is turned on. “We have two criminals. I don’t care what they were caught in the middle of or what they did or did not do. These two people came from America out of nowhere, and I know they can only be trouble.”
“Sam is amazing!” Ai stands up. “I’ve been following him online for years, Dad. I used to talk about him all the time, his dad is the CEO of Chimera. He is practically changing the world, and Jake is right along with him.”
I continue to eat at an uncomfortable pace, hoping that by keeping my face full of food no one can discern the uneasiness in my expression. Jake eyes me. I know I have fans all over the world—that was no secret from the moment we landed in China.
But this situation is weird on many levels.
For one, this fan saved my life and managed to deliver what may be the most surprising hug in my life. And Ai has no idea about the truth of who I am. She has no idea that I failed to stop a genocide that killed fourteen million and that today alone I have been responsible for the deaths of dozens of people.
“The government is after them.” Chef Chen clears our plates from the table without even making eye contact with us. Jake and I both inhaled that dish as if it was the first time we have ever seen food. “What do you not understand about that? They wouldn’t go after them for no reason.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what happens all the time.” Ai rolls her eyes at him. As her volume increases, it becomes harder to hear the translator in English. “Jake said it himself, they want to wipe out the Chinese people. It’s time you and everyone else in this family stops being in denial about this. Things are reaching a breaking point, and we have to act now.”
“You can believe whatever you want.” He keeps his expression firm. From the way his fists are clenched, it is obvious he is about to explode. “But none of you are coming with us on this trip. It’s going to at least take a day if not two in a car. I can’t gamble your life away and then lose. I won’t let that happen.”
“I have supported the rén since the day I turned thirteen. I have become a community leader, even an ambassador for those who have been served injustice under the new order.” Ai is back to racing forward with each word at a dizzying rate. I’m surprised the machine can even keep up with her. “Just because your business is doing fine and is protected now doesn’t mean it will be that way forever. I have to go. I have to at least sit in that car. My entire life I’ve wanted to do something like this, something exciting instead of being in this freaking restaurant every day, and now I finally have my chance.”
“Ai, be quiet,” Loi objects before her father can. “That rén club or whatever that thing you are a part of is for little kids. And you passed the gaokoa. You can go to university, get any job you want, and you are sitting here complaining because you choose to continue working in your parents’ restaurant?”
“Why does it always have to go back to that one test?” Ai stares at Loi, annoyed. For the first time in the conversation her speech slows, her hands instead nervously fidgeting with themselves in her lap. Now Jake and I really feel uncomfortable. Having two sisters we barely know fighting is not what I picture happening after we found a hideout from the government.
“Because you always complain about how you’re not happy when you scored so high on that test without even trying.” I can feel the jealousy emanating off Loi. “You could have done anything with your life, and instead you choose to stay here even though everyone around you tried to force you not to.”
“I-I do things differently.” She looks at me nervously. “I don’t want to follow the normal path—I refuse to. I want to be what I’m doing now, trying to spark a resistance. And these guys right here witnessed it themselves. They are the lone survivors of the rebellion. If they are going to Tibet, I at least have to travel with them too.”
“Can I really not stop you this time?” Chef Chen shakes his head, almost dropping the two wide dishes he is holding.
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“Are you kidding, Dad?” Loi narrows her eyes at him. “You can stop her every time, you just have to man up and learn how to say no to your favorite daughter all because she did well in school her entire life while I failed.”
“I’m eighteen.” Ai twirls a bunch of her hair around a finger. “You can’t stop me from doing what I want. I’m an adult now.”
“Well, if she’s going, then I’m going too.” Loi says.
“It’s settled, then!” Jake stands up. He sighs impatiently. “It’s party time, we are all going!” He pretends to sound super excited, and his weirdness ends up distracting from their own argument.
“I hate to be abrupt.” I stand up and push my chair back underneath the table. “But if we are going, let’s go. Jake and I have been on the run for several hours now, and every minute we wait, they are one step closer to finding us.”
Chef Chen nods and moves swiftly to place the two plates on one of the counters in the kitchen. For someone so large and unruly in his manner, he has an agile, gentle way about him.
“Enjoy your last time seeing light.” Chen smiles at Jake and me as we follow him and his two daughters into the kitchen. The man is so large that it seems almost impossible that two rather short, slim girls are related to him. “If you thought our little hole to hide the people we don’t want them seeing was bad, get ready for what’s next.”
Chapter 20
I never will ever recommend this to anyone.
If you are offered to get into someone’s trunk, don’t do it.
Actually, that’s a dumb thing for me to say. Odds are if you are in someone’s trunk, it’s not because you made any choices to end up there, but regardless it sucks.
A lot.
And I thought being trapped in the back of a container truck with feces on the floor was bad.
“This is the most intimate I have ever been with someone.” Jake’s hot breath touches the exposed skin of my arms. His crotch is resting somewhere on my stomach, his head is leaning on my arm, and somehow both our bodies are simultaneously managing to strangle each other.
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