At the boys' house....
9 PM...
Ten is on his laptop doing some investigation on Lucas and Hendery. The boys and him are now suspicious that they could be associated with the stalkers, and could be involved in the death of Xiali's mom. He is sure that those two guys are trouble, and is willing to prove that to Xiali. However, after about 2 hours of trying to get any infomation, he wasn't able to find anything besides the fact the those two are from Hong Kong.
Damn it...This isn't enough. Ten thought.
Ten stares at the laptop with a stressful look. As he continues to scroll the internet, he stumbles upon an eye catching article.
Wong Feng? He just opened another club in Hong Kong. Ten thought.
As Ten continues to read the article as he wonders whether Lucas and Hendery could be linked with Wong Feng.
"The king of covering up his bad reputation," Ten says to himself. "Yet I don't remember him having sons. Or so I thought..."
Ten lets out a sigh before he turns to face the ceiling as he puts his hands on his head with a stressful thought. He starts to wonder whether the Wong brothers are associated with Wong Feng, and though he still hasn't found much information about them, all he knows is that what's most important now is to protect Xiali.
Meanwhile, at Lucas and Hendery's apartment...
Lucas is on the phone with his mom as they talk about what happened today.
"I'll give you one week to bring her to me profesionally." Vivian says through the phone.
"Won't that be too fast, Ma?" Lucas ask.
"That's enough time for you to make her fall into your hands. I want to finish her in Hong Kong, and I don't want you to waste much time in approaching her," Vivian says. "Get the girl fast."
Lucas lets out a sigh. "Ok, Ma. I'll get her to trust me as soon as I can," Lucas says, though his heart feels uncomfortable somehow.
"That's good, my son. Now you better get some rest. Goodnight," Vivian says.
"Goodnight, Ma," Lucas says before he ends the call.
Lucas lets out another sigh before walking to his bed and lies down. He starts to remember what happened two days ago, when he puts his plan in action with some help from his men. At first he only thought about doing what he was told to do, yet somehow his heart feels odly heavy tonight. The image of Xiali's expression from today starts surfacing in his head as he tries to not remember it. He couldn't lie to himself that he felt sort of guilty deep inside.
The next day...
8 AM....
Ten and Xiali walks inside the college building. Ten notice that Xiali's eyes looked puffy and that she has dark circles under her eyes. It's obvious that she didn't get much sleep due to crying.
Without her concern, Ten gently grabs Xiali's hand as the they walk through the hallway. He knew how broken she's feeling right now and wanted to comfort her, but other than that, he didn't want anybody to get near her, especially Lucas.
"Ten?" Xiali says as she feels awkward that everyone is starting to stare at them. "People are watching."
"Just let them watch," Ten says as the two continue to walk. "By the way, the boys and I did some investigation about the Wong brothers last night."
"And? What about them?" Xiali ask.
"Whoever they are, they're pretty good in covering up their identities. The only information I found about them was that they were born in Hong Kong. Yet there's a possible chance that they could be linked with Wong Feng," Ten says.
"Who's Wong Feng?" Xiali ask with a curious tone.
"A gang leader from Hong Kong. Yet it was known that he didn't have sons, but who knows? That guy is famous for covering up everything about his life," Ten says in a quiet tone as he didn't want anyone to hear what he was saying.
Xiali nods after hearing Ten's statement. She starts to think if Lucas and Hendery are really associated with Wong Feng.
"So far, the boys and I haven't found anymore informations," Ten says. "But my guts keep telling me something's not right about them."
"At this point, I'm just exhausted, Ten. There's too much going on that it makes my heart sick," Xiali says.
Ten lets out a sigh. "As far as this might sound hard, we have to keep an eye on those brothers. I have a feeling they could be involved with your mom's death," Ten says.
"What? How? How are they involved?"  Xiali ask with curiousity.
"For now, we don't have much prove yet, but isn't it weird that your mom got murdered a few days after he drive you home? Not that I'm acussing him, but it happened too fast. They could even be too good in covering up their secrets, just like Wong Feng," Ten says.
Xiali starts to think about Ten's statement, which kind of make sense. Yet, she still didn't want to jump to conclusion before she has all the proves that Lucas and Hendery are really involved with her mom's death, and the stalkers. "I don't really know for now, Ten. I just want to get through this already. All these dramas with the stalkers are making me stress," Xiali says.
Ten turns his head to look at Xiali. "Don't worry. We'll get through this and find out who's behind all of this," Ten says, making Xiali nod.
At the boys' house...
8:30 AM...
Xiaojun and Yangyang are practicing shooting in their garden while Kun is busy sorting out some files in his office room.
"Damn it! Missed," Yangyang says as he puts his gun down with a disappointed look.
"You need to focus on the target," Xiaojun says as he aims for the dummy right in the center target. He pulls out the trigger sending the bullet to hit right in the spot.
Yangyang watches Xiaojun in surprised at his perfect aim. He thought about how he had been losing his skills in shooting recently due to lack of focus. Xiaojun turns his head to Yangyang to see him with a surprised look. "Focus is the key," Xiaojun says.
Yangyang lets out a deep breath before he picks up his gun again. He tries his best to focus again on the target, but as he pulls the trigger he realized that the bullet had slip the target.
"Shoot!" Yangyang says to himself. "What's wrong with me?"
"Are you ok, Yangyang?" Xiaojun ask as he noticed that Yangyang failed again to hit the target.
"No," Yangyang says. "I need to focus on my aim."
"Looks like it," Xiaojun says. "Got something taking your focus away?"
"Yeah," Yangyang says.
"Is it Zhang Xia Li?" Xiaojun ask with a curious tone.
"How did you know?" Yangyang ask with a surprised tone as he gives Xiaojun a curious look.
"What else could be taking away the focus of Liu Yang Yang?" Xioajun ask with a sassy tone. "A.K.A the sharp-shooter wannabe!"
"I'm really worried about her, Ge," Yangyang says as he takes a deep breath and walks back inside the house with Xiaojun following him from behind.
"What if she's next?" Yangyang says with a worried tone as he takes a seat on the couch.
"We're gonna protect her at all cost," Xiaojun says as he grabs a bottle of water from the fridge. "Besides, Ten is with her."
The thought of Xiali still being the target of the stalkers had been running around Yangyang's mind, especially after what they did to her mom. At this point, the boys knew that the stalkers are more dangerous than they thought. However, since the incident that happened between him and Karina at Taeyong and Yeri's wedding, Xiali had been ignoring (and also avoiding) Yangyang as she can and is now spending more time with Ten, which irritated Yangyang.
What am I gonna do?
Yangyang thought.
A few hours later...
At Jiang University....
The bell rings as the students exits their class and heads to the cafeteria. As Winwin walks through the crowd, Yiren is also following him from a distance along with her friend, Tzuyu.
"So are you two dating?" Tzuyu ask. "I mean, at least that's what some people said."
"Hell yeah, of course we are. He's the sweetest person ever," says Yiren, though if she had to be honest with herself, her relationship with Winwin still feels like they have no strings attach, despite her being madly in love with him.
"Ah, you're so lucky to date such a handsome and sweet guy," Tzuyu says. "All the girls will envy you."
Yiren just lets out a giggle at Tzuyu's sentence. Though most of the students in college thinks that they are both dating due to Yiren being the only female friend he has, yet Yiren knew well that Winwin hasn't move on from his late girlfriend, Meixi.
A few hours later...
After college...
Xiali closes her locker and is about to catch up with Ten who is waiting outside the college building, when she sees a familiar male figure approaching her. His face odly looks uncomfortable, which made Xiali a bit confuse.
"Hey," Lucas says as he forms a smile. "Ready to go home?"
"More likely going to work," Xiali says.
"Want to catch a ride with me?" Lucas ask as he tries to sound a bit flirty.
"No thanks. I'm going with Ten. See you!" Xiali says as she walks away from Lucas.
Lucas watches Xiali from a distance. He watches her ponytail keep swinging as she disappears into the crowd.
"I see she's a hard target," Hendery says as he walks over to Lucas.
"Yeah," Lucas says.
"Seems like she's pretty close with Ten these days. Are they happen to be dating?" Hendery ask with a curious tone.
"That's what the ladies told me when they saw me trying to hit on her," Lucas says.
Hendery starts to laugh. "Oh man, don't tell me they told you that so that you would start to hit on them."
"Seems like it," Lucas says.
"They're probably just saying that so you'll think twice before asking her out," Hendery says. "I mean, who cares anyway if she's taken? You can always make her take a turn."
"It's already annoying me. I have to get Xiali in my hands," Lucas says.
"And in your pants to add," says Hendery before starts laughting again, making Lucas blush intensly out of embarassment after hearing his statement.
Meanwhile....
Xiali runs up to Ten who is waiting for her outside the college building. Ten sees Xiali and gives her a small smile.
"Ready to go?" Ten ask.
"Yup," Xiali says.
"Let's go," Ten says as he drags Xiali to follow him to his car. The two enters the car and Ten starts the engene.
"So...did Lucas try to hit on you again?" Ten ask as he starts to drive.
"Well, he offered to drive me to work, but I declined his offer," Xiali says.
"He doesn't seem to get tired of trying," Ten says.
Xiali turns her head to look at Ten who has his vision focus on the road. She starts to mesmerize his charm from the side, before finally saying something to break the awkward silence.
"Are you jealous, Ten?" Xiali ask, but this time she's not smirking or trying to tease him. This time she actually wants to know how he feels if she's getting close with other guys.
"No. Why would I? I'm just worried that he has bad intentions," Ten says as he tries to sound casual.
Hearing Ten's words somehow made Xiali feels a bit sad inside. She didn't know why but she wasn't satisfy with his answer. In fact, she is pretty disappointed to hear that. It feels like he just shoot a bullet at her heart. It hurts.
Ten glance at Xiali for a second and notice how she suddenly look sad. "Are you ok?" Ten ask.
"Yeah. I'm fine," says Xiali, though she knows her lie is pretty obvious because she didn't look fine at all.
Ten didn't want to start a drama by telling Xiali that she doesn't look ok. He thought maybe she was still sad about the incident that happened to her mom, or maybe there was something else. Was it something he said? Maybe, he thought.
Ten puts his hand on top of Xiali's hand which she placed on her lap. Xiali glance at Ten as her heart starts to flutter at his touch, making her cheeks blush.
"Let's have dinner together after your shift," Ten says.
"Ok," says Xiali in a low tone.
Ten glance at Xiali and notice how she is slowly starting to smile again, which made him smile himself. He already prepared a big surprise for her tonight. One thing he knows, that he's gonna make it an unforgettable night.
Just then, Xiali's phone starts ringing. She grabs her phone and sees that Winwin is calling her.
"Hello, Ge," says Xiali as she picks up the phone.
"Hey! Where are you?" Winwin ask.
"I'm on the road, heading to Retro Red Bar," says Xiali.
"Ah ok. What time will you finish your shift? I could pick you up," says Winwin.
"Ah thanks, Ge. But I'll be going out for dinner with a friend after," says Xiali.
"Ah ok. Stay safe! Bye!" says Winwin.
"Bye bye!" says Xiali before she hungs up.
Meanwhile...
At Jiang University...
Winwin lets out a sigh as he puts his phone back in his pocket. He opens his car door and enters it, before he starts the engene and drives off.
To be continue...