The Son In-law They Mocked Found The Lost Vault

Chapter 3_The Gate

Adrian ran like his life depended on it. But it was not his life he was afraid for.

The old city was dark and wet. His ribs burned with every step, and the cut on his hand had opened again. He did not care. He jumped off the roof, landed hard in an alley, and ran toward the Feng estate with the half jade pressed against his chest.

Ten minutes. He had left her alone for ten minutes.

He took the shortcut through the fish market. Then he went through the broken door, down Tea Lane, and over the low wall. Now every street he had walked for two years was helping him. His breath came out in white clouds. His mind kept saying one thing again and again.

Please be there. Please be okay.

He reached the back wall of the estate and climbed it in three seconds. At the top, he stopped.

Below him, near the back gate, a black van sat with its engine running. Its side door was open. Two big men in dark coats stood next to it, and between them was Helen.

She was fighting.

One man held her arm. She twisted and kicked at him with her high heel. The man cursed and tightened his grip.

"Stop making noise, lady," he said. "Nobody will hurt you if you walk to the car."

"Let go of me!" Helen shouted. "Do you know who my family is?"

"Yes," the second man said. He was laughing a little. "That is why we came."

Adrian looked around fast. The garden was full of old stone pots, tall flower beds, and a rusty water bucket. A long wooden pole leaned against the wall, the kind the gardeners used to cut high branches. He took it.

He jumped down without a sound.

The first man never saw him. The pole hit the back of his knees, and he fell forward with a loud cry. Helen pulled her arm free and stumbled back. The second man turned, his hand going into his coat.

"Helen, down!" Adrian shouted.

She dropped. The second man pulled out a short black stick that crackled with blue light. A shock stick. He swung it at Adrian's face.

Adrian moved his head. The stick passed so close that he felt the heat on his cheek. He swung the pole up and hit the man's wrist. The stick flew from his hand and landed in a flower bed, still crackling.

Then the first man got up. He was bigger than Adrian by a whole head, and he came in angry, with both fists. Adrian had no real fighting skill. His grandfather had only taught him to move his feet and watch the other man's eyes. So he did that. He stepped left, and a fist went past his ear. He stepped right, and another one missed. But the third one caught him straight in the stomach, and the world turned white.

He fell on his knees. Air would not come.

"Now you are done," the big man said, and lifted his foot.

Something flew through the air and hit the man's face with a hard crack.

It was Helen's shoe.

The big man screamed and grabbed his nose. Blood ran between his fingers. Helen stood there on one bare foot, her chest rising and falling, her eyes huge.

"I told you to let go of me," she said.

For one second, Adrian almost laughed. His wife, the quiet, perfect Helen who never raised her voice at her own mother, had just broken a man's nose with her shoe.

Then the second man ran at her.

Adrian did not think. He pushed himself up, grabbed the rusty water bucket, and threw it. The bucket hit the man in the chest and spilled cold water all over him. The man slipped on the wet stone and crashed into the flower bed, right on top of the shock stick.

The blue light flashed. The man screamed, shook, and fell flat on the grass, smoking and twitching.

It was quiet again.

Adrian stood there with the pole in his hand. His whole body was shaking.

"Run," the big man said weakly, still holding his bleeding nose. "Run. We are leaving."

He dragged his friend up and pushed him into the van. The door slammed. The engine roared, and the van shot off down the lane. In seconds, the taillights were gone.

Helen was still standing there with one shoe on, watching the road.

"Are you hurt?" Adrian asked. He walked to her slowly. "Did they hurt you?"

She turned and looked at him. For a long time, she said nothing. In the moonlight, her face was pale, but her eyes were sharp and clear. They moved from his bleeding hand, to his torn sleeve, to the half jade he was still holding tight in his other fist.

"Who are you?" she said quietly.

"Helen."

"No. Do not say my name like that. Do not lie to me tonight." Her voice shook, but not from fear. "A man who cannot hold a job does not climb walls. He does not fight two men with a garden pole. He does not know which way a van will turn. Two years, Adrian. I lived next to you for two years, and I do not know who you are."

Adrian looked down at his hands. He wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to put the jade in her palm and say, this is why I never came home before midnight. This is why I wore the same suit. This is why I let your mother call me useless.

But the words would not come. If he told her, she would be in danger forever. The Han family had just tried to take her. They would try again.

"I can only tell you one thing tonight," he said. "Those men did not come for money. They came because of me. I am sorry. I did not think they would touch you."

"Because of you?" Helen took a step back. "What did you do?"

"Nothing wrong. I promise you."

"That is not an answer."

"I know." He met her eyes. "But it is the truth. And tomorrow I will tell you more. I swear it."

Helen was quiet. Behind them, far away, the doors of the main hall banged open, and many voices shouted her name. Her mother's guards were coming. She looked at him for one more second. Then she bent down, picked up her shoe, and held it in her hand.

"Tomorrow," she said. "If you lie to me again, I will sign those papers myself."

"Fair enough."

Slowly, something moved in her face. It was not a smile. It was not forgiveness. It was a small, careful thing, like a window opening just a crack.

"Thank you," she said, so softly he almost missed it. "For coming back."

Then the guards ran around the corner of the garden, a whole line of them, with flashlights, and shouting, and her mother walking behind them in her green silk dress.

"Helen! My daughter! What happened here?"

Adrian stepped back into the shadows. He slid the half jade into his inner pocket and turned his face away.

That was when he heard it.

A clap. Slow and calm. One, two, three.

A man was walking out from the side of the garden, under the paper lanterns. He was young and handsome, in a perfect white suit with a red flower on the chest. He moved like a person who had never been in a hurry in his life. Behind him came two more guards in dark coats.

"What a show," the man said with a warm smile. "I only came out for some fresh air. And look what I found."

Madam Feng's face changed at once. "Mr. Han! Oh, I am so sorry. Please do not trouble yourself with this."

Mr. Han.

Adrian's blood went cold.

The man in white walked straight toward him. He stopped three steps away, still smiling, and held out his hand.

"You must be Adrian West," he said. "I have heard so much about you. I am Victor Han."

Adrian did not take the hand. He was looking at something else. Hanging out of the man's jacket pocket, half hidden under the red flower, was a thin string of green jade. The other half. The one with the mountains and the door.

Victor saw where he was looking. His smile got wider.

"Beautiful piece, is it not?" he whispered, for Adrian's ears only. "I think we should talk. Just you and me. Before your wife finds out what kind of man she really married."