Slowly, Li Na moved close to Li Jun and tried to check if he was okay. His eyes closed, and he sighed, and a slow, adorable smile spread across his face. His eyes grew soft and very warm. "You are still here."
"Yes, I'm still here and I'm not going anywhere for now," Li Na said as she ran her fingers through the soft curls of his hair, and tucking it behind his ear.
"Li Na, please don't go." In one swift movement, Li Jun clasped her wrist, pulling her toward him and closing the distance between them. He shifted slightly on the bed to accommodate her, wounding his arms around her body.
"I won't," 'Li Na reassured, as she snuggled close to him, she ended up with her cheek placed on his chest and she relishes the warmth that he was emitting.
'I don't want you to leave me as they did,' he told her, moving his hand now to cup her face and resting his forehead on hers. 'I just can't imagine what would happen if anything happens to you.' he murmured.
"Hey, Li Jun, nothing will happen to me. Okay. I am still here okay" she said, her hand coming to rest over his gently beating heart.
Instead of answering, Li Jun's fingertips traced her arm which was exposed before slipping his hands under the baggy cloth of his shirt she'd worn. He ran his fingers across her skin until his hand finally stopped at her lower back. He sighed deeply and seemed to pass into his dreamland once again.
Li Jun closed his eyes and turned his head, his breathing beginning to regulate again. Li Na lay motionless as she pondered whether his parents' deaths had left him feeling sad and lonely. Looking at him she ran her fingers through his hair and gently placed a kiss on his eyes. At that moment she realized that whatever might have happened to him, however beautiful he was, regardless of how far apart in age they are, she knew that for some strange reason he needed her right at this moment. And with that thought in mind, she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep wrapped in the arms of Li Jun.
---------------
In his dream, Li Jun suddenly woke up as he took a deep breath but choked on the blood that had pooled in his mouth. He turned onto his side, feeling the sharp, searing stab of pain through his chest, and he groaned.
"Finally." He heard his friend, Chen Guang''s rasping voice from across the room. He blinked into the dim half-light, managing to make him out where he was slumped against the wall, his hair matted with dirt and blood. 'Sleeping prince his awake.'
"How long I've– ?" he croaked before another coughing fit overtook him and a trail of fire ripped across his chest again. 'How long have I been out?' he managed.
"Couple of hours," Guang told him, his voice hoarse and accent thicker, but other than that, he sounded as calm as if they were still at their hostel lodge and not handcuffed to freaking electric chair in a filthy, blood-stained concrete cell. 'Now Your Highness is awake, what is our next line of action?' Guang asked.
"Where's Chu Hua? Where's she, xiǎo Guang?" he groaned, resting his back to the wall to ease the aching pain in his back.
'They put her in a separate room,' he said simply. 'They took her while you were sleeping.'
'No, Not Hua…' He coughed again and then groaned as different scenarios passed through his mind. 'Why her?'
'Well, I don't know. When you were asleep, I heard them saying something about a file, and without the file, they won't release us.'
'File? Which file?'
'How should I know? Those stupid cào nǐ mā* tying me like this,' he spat.
"Shit!." Li Jun frowned.
"Yep, we are in deep shit!" Guang sighed.
He couldn't see him properly but he noticed him expel a very frustrated huff of breath. 'They've killed all the bodyguards, you know. I wonder what is in the so-called file they were asking for," Li Jun flinched as he heard that all the security guards that his dad put on him were dead.
'Maybe it's the file that I heard when yé yé*, my father and uncle were discussing in yeye's study,' he whispered absently, bracing himself with his hands on either side of the electric chair in an attempt to stretch his tightened muscle. The cold metal of the handcuff tethering him to the chair cut into his flesh as he pushed his legs against the floor. 'Ha!,' he yelped as he cursed when he finally managed to straighten out his cramped legs. He was bleeding in his arms and legs, he could feel the effects of every single one of the blows from the steel-toe boots those useless cowards had worn. His eyes that were dim were now adjusting to the light better now and he could make out Guang's face more clearly.
'What happened to your face?' he croaked, and Guang frowned, his hand going up to touch the dried blood covering his mouth and his jaw, then he smiled with his front teeth out.
'Well,' he said slowly, smirking eerily and his teeth appearing glaring red with what seems like blood. ' well since our Tai chi skills are lacking against their own and you were out cold as a dead fish. I bit one of them in the ear and thigh almost to their crotch, they made the mistake of believing that I could not fight without the use of my arms or legs. Those fools were screaming that I should fight like a man. Well, who will fight like a man in this kind of situation." he nodded over towards the floor, and Li Jun gagged as he made out the small shape of what looked to be a human ear and a piece of skin. 'They will not make this mistake again, I think.' He laughed.
'Yes, they won't,' Li Jun replied, swallowing the bile back down over his already aching throat. He was beginning to see why people call Chen Guang "The Pitbull of Tainan city". He was hands down the most uncompromising person he had ever encountered. 'So, what now?'
Guang pulled on his own handcuff, causing it to clink against the metal of the metal chair, then jerk his head towards the door. 'Let's wait till they come, they will make another mistake, and then, will try and see what they want, maybe trick them, and then we will rescue Chu Hua.'
Some hours later and what seems like an eternity Li Jun's throat was dried and aching more furiously than ever. The heat in the room they were being held in had increased as the early hours of the morning gave way to the middle of the day. The buzzing of flies in the small space was all they could hear, and, just as he had started to imagine that they had been left there to rot, he heard a heavy lock falling open on the other side of the door.
A man that Li Jun recognized as the person who was just recently hired as a close aide to his father, strode into the cramped space wearing what seems to be a brown suit and a green shirt, looking around the room in disgust. The man smirked at Li Jun as he started swinging a bloodstained knife in his hand.
Li Jun who wanted to stand up and hit the smirk off his face noticed him grimacing down at the mangled ear on the floor, giving Guang a particularly very wide berth, and started making his way over to Li jun's side of the room. Three other men followed, both of whom Li Jun recognized from earlier when they kidnapped them from their lodge, They were dressed in the same brown overall they had been wearing before.
Brown suit Man handed Li Jun a bottle of water and Li Jun didn't hesitate to wrench off the cap and take a few deep gulps – if it was drugged or poisoned so be it, he would die anyway in this heat with no water. Having finished half the bottle, and before the man could take it away from him, Li Jun threw it across to Guang, who plucked it out of the air with ease with his handcuffed hands and drank the rest of the water at very high speed. Brown suit Man's eyes flashed with anger but Li Jun noticed that he did not try to move towards Guang who was smirking at him.
"Mr, Gui, You traitor! coward!" Li Jun spat out.
'Tsk-Tsk, Kids nowadays. Come on, That's no way to say hello to an elder. Hmm. I think maybe you have enough time to tell me where the file is, no?' The brown suit man called Mr. Gui said smoothly, stepping back and crossing his arms over his chest. " don't think you can buy time by not answering, Because your bodyguards that your darling father place on you are all dead. And your sweet little girlfriend, who knows might be dead by now."
"Do not touch her! Do not f**king lay your filthy hands on her" Li Jun shouted, veins popping out of his neck.
"There's nothing you can do boy! File or your Life. The countdown starts now!" Mr. Gui moved towards the wall as he spread his arm in an annoying manner.