Chapter 21 Hunger Cravings

When Wu Dishi came out with the painting tucked under his arm, Ru was leaning against the side of the car waiting for him. She had been spinning the black name card with her fingers.

When she felt Wu Dishi’s presence, tucking the card between her index and middle finger, she struck the card towards Wu Dishi as if throwing a shuriken. Alarmed by her move, Wu Dishi barely managed to catch the card before it could cut his face with its sharp edges. It was a good thing that his training made his body agile.

He frowned staring at the business card in his hand and looked inquiringly at his master.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

"Arrange a meeting!" Ru said and without explaining any further, she climbed inside the car leaving a dumbfounded employee of hers outside.

’Arrange a meeting? But why?’ Wu Dishi thought to himself. ’Well, it’s not like master will give me an answer. So, I better just listen to him.’ He sighed to himself and after placing the painting in the luggage compartment with care, he took his seat behind the wheel.

Ru was silently gazing out at the passing road and cars when she heard Wu Dishi’s voice, "Master, what should I do with the painting?"

"Send it to the gallery." She replied absentmindedly.

"The gallery in London?" Wu Dishi asked again carefully analyzing his master’s expressions.

"No. The gallery in Imperial will do for now."

Wu Dishi bobbed his head up and down saying, "Yes, master!"

"Stop the car." The car ride was passing in silence when suddenly Wu Dishi heard his master’s order. Without any delay, he parked the car at the roadside and looked back at Ru.

"Is something the matter, master?" Wu Dishi inquired and as he saw Ru getting out of the car, he followed.

"You can wait here or just go back," Ru said and whipped her body to leave.

"But master, what are you gonna do here?" Wu Dishi was quite curious about the reason for stopping here. He looked around and saw a brightly lit street. It was a food market and seeing it, he could roughly guess the reason.

"I’m going to eat, of course. I’m very hungry." Ru didn’t have to tell him that but she felt like he should know where she was going.

"Master, I can ask the cooks to prepare dinner for you," Wu Dishi felt like banging his head after suggesting that. He might have spent the least time with his master but he had heard that Lord Alev Knight was obsessed with street food. Leaving an extravagant meal, ’he’ would always run to a stall.

Naturally, Ru frowned at his suggestion and looked at him oddly with her green eyes. "Mr. Wu, do as much you are asked to. This lord has never been fond of useless suggestions." Her words said with calmness surely snatched away Wu Dishi’s calm as he shuddered a bit. "Now, shoo away! This lord has some Baozi[1] cravings to satiate."

"But master..." He hesitated in his speech. He knew he had no right to say anything but he was still worried about his employer.

"Now, what?"

Wu Dishi cleared his throat and reminded her courteously, "Master hasn’t been sleeping for the past three nights. This subordinate thinks that the master should take some rest. Otherwise, it might have a bad impact on the master’s health."

Ru gave him a bleak look saying, "You don’t have to worry about that. I’ll find my way back to get some sleep later." Although she said this, she knew it was another sleepless night. When she was younger, she was asked to learn all the time leaving no room for her to adopt a habit of sleeping for long hours.

But from the past decade, sleep and she was at odds with each other. Not sleeping for days was a quotidian thing. Until now, she had been holding her body because of her expertise in traditional medicine otherwise... She would have long lost this battle with life. She could only sleep with a heavy dose of her personally made medicine and that also could make her sleep for a couple of hours since the nightmares never let her be at peace.

Leaving Wu Dishi, Ru briskly walked towards the food street. It was Imperial’s famous Xiāngliào[2] food street and it had everything that Ru could wish to eat. Her hunger was quite unusual for people. Even her only best friend used to say, ’Ru’er, your hunger puts me at the ends of my tether [3]. Can’t you just control this hunger of yours?’

She used to reply, ’What’s so wrong with my hunger? I work my arse off for this hunger. Just like everyone else.’

’Not everyone works for hunger,’ he used to say making her scowl.

’Yes, they do!’ She challenged him back then as she added, ’All of us... work for hunger in life. Now that’s different, that our cravings are contrasting.’ He gave her an odd look and she went on, ’Some of us have the hunger for money. Some have the hunger for power. And there are some carving for love. But for me... I’m one of those who have a hunger for food. And I really don’t find anything wrong with that.’

’You are impossible to argue with. I don’t even know where these logics come from.’ He used to shake his head at her in disbelief.

But she never cared for others opinion about her hunger cravings. She loved food and that was that. No-one could change that. If even her old master who used to punish her several times for this unusual hunger couldn’t even stop her from eating excessively than how could anybody else could?

She made her way to a Baozi stall and took a seat gracefully. Her elegant figure was quite contrasting with the surroundings but who cares? Definitely, she didn’t! She just lost herself in the doughy bun filled with meat and veggies. The world around her was lost as only she and that steaming delicacy in her hand were left.

Meanwhile, Qin Qu narrated all about his encounter with Xie Rong to Xiao Zhi-Ren right after coming back from the auction.

"Why are you telling me about the chairman of Metrix Consortium? We certainly have nothing to do with him." That was the reply Qin Qu received from Xiao Zhi-Ren making him roll his eyes at his best friend.

"Will you please focus?" Qin Qu sternly said and continued, "Xie Rong was the person who sent that chess-set on your grandfather’s birthday."

Now, this got Xiao Zhi-Ren’s attention and he looked at his friend for more information. "Really?"

"Yup! I had to go through so much trouble to find this information," Qin Qu rubbed his forehead tiredly and went on, "At first, there were no clues. Not even in CCTV footage. Then I tried bribing a few individuals at the hotel and they told me that the hotel’s big boss was the one who bumped into you." He sighed heavily in between his talk and took a sip of water before continuing, "Then it was another big mystery that who’s the big boss of Imperial Grand hotel? Most of the things pointed towards Mr. Wu Dishi but when I looked deeper, I found out that Mr. Wu Dishi is merely the CEO of the Metrix Consortium. There is actually someone above him calling the shots. And that’s how I figured that it must be Mr. Xie Rong- The chairman of the group."

Xiao Zhi-Ren was lost in thoughts and didn’t bother saying anything to Qin Qu. He had already figured that the person behind that gift swap was someone powerful. But about this Xie Rong, he was a bit skeptical since Metrix Consortium only emerged in Asia for the past two years and until now, Xie Rong was just a name that nobody could put a face on.

He wasn’t wrong with his skepticism since Xie Rong was nobody two years ago and now, he was one of the biggest tycoons in Asia. Xiao Zhi-Ren was more interested in knowing how Xie Rong managed to get that chess-set with his influence. After all, it can’t be that a man that emerged two years ago was more formidable than himself who had been working from the age of 19 to build his Tech Empire.

But since Qin Qu had already made a move by offering to meet, then he can only take advantage of this fact and observe this mysterious person.

[1] "Baozi": Chinese Bread Buns

[2] "Xiāngliào": It literally means spice

[3] "At the ends of my tether": This idiom means, To reach the end of your patience.