"Men, kill him!"
The men lunged at Ding at the command and the tender had a worried look in his eyes. He immediately interjected trying to prevent the handsome man from ending up hurt or injured. To the tender's knowledge, Ding did not seem to be having an air of a killer since he boldly assumed he was just a handsome customer who needed his help and nothing more.
"Please, no need for violence, why don't we... urk!"
The leader grabbed the tender by his neck, fingers digging into his flesh as he strangled him. Ding side stepped the oncoming man's punch and retaliated with an attack of his own. The man fell to the ground in pain and another one jumped after him, filling in his position. The tender struggled in the man's grip but he was not strong enough to stand his ground against him. Soon, darkness began creeping into the corner of his eyes indicating the short air being sucked into his lungs. Ding turned his attention from the approaching men and towards the direction of the tender and saw the life slipping out of him. Wasting no time, he advanced towards the man, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him back. The sudden force Ding used caused the man to loosen the grip on the tender and he fell to the ground gasping for air. Before the leader could come to terms with what was going on, he felt the cold surface of a blade pressed against his neck.
"How did..."
Ding positioned himself behind the leader using him as a human shield.
"Make a move and your leader gets it!"
The men seized attacking their gazes fixed on Ding.
"You wouldn't dare hurt an innocent civilian," the leader said and Ding tilted his head to the right.
"Innocent? Don't make me laugh."
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed around them and panic kicked into the system of the customers causing them to scatter and head towards the exit. Taking advantage of the commotion, one man crept up behind Ding and sank his blade into his side stomach. Ding cussed silently at the sudden pain which shot up from his stomach and loosened his grip on the leader and this gave him room to punch him using his elbow. Ding fell on his knees and the leader hovered in front of him.
"Did you really think you could get away with placing a blade on my neck?"
He grabbed Ding by his hair and slammed his face hard against the concrete floor.
"Where did all the arrogance go? Huh?"
He kicked Ding and he rolled and hit the counter. He groaned and using a near chair for support, struggled to his feet. Blood gushed out from his stomach wound and stained his designer suit but he made it seem like it was a mere cut one would get while cooking in the kitchen. As a member of a mafia group, Ding had been trained to withstand pain. The scabs and bruises on his body were nothing compared to what he received when he was young to the business.
"Seems like you haven't had enough," he said and turned to his men," kill him."
Ding raised his head and sank his hand into his back pocket. He grasped the gun handle and before he could think about pulling it out, one of the men fell to the ground dead a bullet hole stained with blood visible on his back.
"Who.."
Thud! Another body fell to the ground dead. The leader scanned the area looking for the person responsible and Ding took this chance and finished the remaining men leaving the leader on his own.
"Sir, are you okay?" Lian asked advancing from the darkness.
"Huh?"
Seeing Ding's shocked face, the man sought the chance and ran out of the club yelling insults in his direction. He pushed Lian aside and he fell to his knees since his injury was not fully healed. Ding let out a sigh and returned his gun in its holder. The tender emerged from his hiding spot behind the counter and immediately rushed to Ding.
"You okay? he asked worriedly and Ding brushed him off and walked towards the door.
"Sir, your wound..."
Ding looked at him and walked past him ignoring his concerns. His clothes were now soaked red and the pressure he was applying on the wound wasn't doing much help to stop the bleeding. His eyesight became blurry and he stumbled on his own feet falling to the ground.
"Dammit! I've lost too much blood."
He tried to stand up but his body refused to listen to his commands and he lay on his back blankly staring at the ceiling.
"An ambulance! I'll get the ambulance!"
The tender searched for his phone in his pockets before clumsily trying to key in the emergency number with shaking hands. Lian on the other side crawled to Ding's side and gently shook his shoulders.
"Sir, don't pass out on us."
Ding looked at the men wondering what they were panicking about. He opened his mouth to speak but no words came out from his throat. Darkness began to slowly crawl into the corners of his eyes and everything in the background faded into blurriness and echoes. Lian noticed that Ding was beginning to lose consciousness and his hands were now stained in Ding's blood. Tearing Ding's shirt, he inspected the cut and it was a lot deeper than he had imagined. Lian decided to try and stop the bleeding in hopes of keeping him conscious to no luck. As he pressed his hands over the wound, new waves of blood gushed out of the wound and he frantically looked around.
"First aid kit. Do you have a first aid kit?"
The tender rushed up to him the white box in hand.
"The ambulance will be here in a while. Should we try and stop the bleeding? If he losses any more blood..." the tender paused weighing his words carefully but Lian nodded his head.
"... he'll die."
Ding wandered what the two men were talking about but the more he struggled to try and understand anything that was going on around him, the more his consciousness threatened to give up. Slowly, he allowed the darkness to consume him and his eyes closed shut.
"Sir? Sir!"
Lian shook him but nothing, his body remained unconscious and the tender, Brian, suggested they tend to the wound first. Using a pair of scissors, Lian cut the bandage and tied it around Ding's stomach trying to prevent more blood loss.
"Wait! Did you disinfect the wound?"
"Wha?"
Lian looked at him wide eyed as if not knowing the first step to deal with an injury is disinfecting it to avoid infection. This did not seem like common knowledge to Lian. After a few minutes, the faint blaring of sirens gradually became louder till the ambulance came to a stop in front of the bar. Ding was hauled onto a stretcher and kept in the back of the vehicle with Lian and Brian by his side. The ambulance drove down the path and headed towards the hospital. Throughout the entire ride, Lian tightly held onto Ding's hand. Once they arrived at the hospital, Ding was rushed to the emergency room and both men were told to wait outside as the doctors rushed into the room closing the door behind them. Lian sat on the chair and buried his face in his hands. He did not care about the fact that his hands were covered in blood all he wanted to do was cry but the tears seemed to have plans of their own. Brian noticed his dejected posture and sat next to him placing a reassuring hand on his back. Lian made no attempt to shake him off.
"He'll be fine. Don't look so miserable."
"..."
"Hey, he seemed like a strong guy. Am sure he can make it."
No matter how hard Brian tried to comfort him, Lian remained motionless, he just kept his face hidden in his hands.
"Lian?"
Tsun rushed up to them and Brian turned to him.
"Do you know each other?" he asked and Tsun smiled taking a seat beside him.
"You can say that. What happened?"
Brian explained everything and Tsun nodded his head as he listened to the story attentively. Just as Brian was done, a doctor walked out from the room and they all looked up in unison.
"Excuse me, is any one of you his family?"
"That would be me," Tsun said and stood up.
"I would like you to come sign some documents."
"Okay... how is he?"
The doctor remained silent and the three took this as a not so good sign.
"This way to fill the documents."
Tsun turned and looked at Lian and Brian, gave them a firm nod and walked away with the doctor.
"Do you think he's..."
Lian choked on the words afraid to say what was on his mind.
"Is he..."