The Son In-law They Mocked Found The Lost Vault

Chapter 5_The Old Pier

Adrian did not go to the pier right away.

He sat on the narrow bed for a long time with the phone in his hand. His heart said, Marcus is your friend. His mind said, Victor Han told you the truth.

Both could not be right.

At last he stood up. He pulled up a loose board under the bed, the one he had hidden things under for two years. He took the half jade from his pocket, wrapped it in an old cloth, and put it inside. Then he pushed the board back and covered it with his shoe.

If it was a trap, they would not get the jade.

He needed something to carry in its place. He went out through the back door and walked to the garbage bin behind the Feng shop. It was a dirty job, but he knew the shop owners threw broken things there every week. After a few minutes, he found what he wanted. A small piece of green glass, cracked, about the size of his hand.

In the dark, it looked almost like the real thing.

He put it in his pocket and walked out of the back gate without telling anyone.

The old pier was at the end of the city, where the river met the sea. At night, it was a lonely place. The wooden boards were black with age, and the fishing boats sat quietly in the water like sleeping animals. A cold wind pushed the smell of fish and salt into his face.

A single light burned at the far end. Under it stood a thin man in a gray coat, shoulders bent, hands pushed deep in his pockets.

"Marcus," Adrian said.

The man turned. He looked terrible. His glasses were broken on one side. There was a dark mark under his eye, and his lip was cut.

"Adrian." Marcus ran to him. For a moment, Adrian thought his friend would hug him. But Marcus only stopped one step away, his eyes full of tears. "You came. I did not think you would."

"What happened to your face?"

"They hit me." Marcus laughed in a broken way. "They hit me many times. Adrian, I have to tell you something, and you will hate me after. But please let me say it all."

Adrian said nothing. His hands stayed in his pockets, one of them holding the piece of glass.

"Two years ago, when we started working together, I did not know who I was working for. I swear it. My sister was sick, and I needed money for the hospital. A man came to me and said, there is a young scholar who has his grandfather's old papers. Help him. Tell us what he finds. You will get paid every month."

Adrian felt the ground move under him. "That was the Han family."

"Yes." Marcus covered his face with both hands. "At first it was only small things. I told them which markets you visited. Then which old houses you knew. And then you became my friend, Adrian, my real friend. I tried to stop. I told them I was done. But they said they would stop paying for my sister's medicine."

For a long moment, the only sound was the water hitting the boats.

Adrian wanted to shout. He wanted to take Marcus by the collar and ask him how he could look at him every day for two years and lie. But when he looked at the thin man crying under the lamp, he saw something else. A man who had made a terrible choice because he was afraid.

"Why did you call me tonight?" Adrian asked quietly.

"Because tonight they said they will hurt my sister if I do not bring them the jade. And you will be dead by the end of the week." Marcus wiped his face. "I cannot do it. I cannot do it anymore. I want to help you. Look."

He pulled a folded paper from inside his coat. It was old and yellow, with torn edges.

"I found this three weeks ago in your grandfather's old books. I never gave it to them. It is the last page of his journal. The page that tells how to read the two halves together."

Adrian took it with shaking hands. He opened it under the lamp. The writing was small and tight, in his grandfather's neat blue ink. His eyes moved down the page, and his breath stopped.

At the bottom, the old man had written one line.

The door will not open for greed. It will open only for the one who loves what lies inside more than what lies beyond.

Adrian read it three times. His eyes burned.

"You kept this from them?"

"I kept it for you," Marcus said. "It is the only good thing I did in two years."

For the first time that night, Adrian felt something loosen in his chest. He was still angry. He might be angry for a very long time. But this man had come to the pier with a split lip and the one thing that mattered most.

"Marcus," he began.

Then every light on the pier went out.

The lamp above them died with a small click. The boat lights died. In one moment, the whole place was black, and the only sound was the water.

"Run," Marcus whispered.

Footsteps pounded across the wood from three sides at once. Adrian turned, but there was nowhere to go. Behind him was the river. In front of him, dark shapes were running down the pier, six of them, maybe seven, all in black.

A hand grabbed his shoulder. He swung his elbow back and hit something soft. A man cried out. Another man tried to take his legs. Adrian kicked, fell, got up, and kicked again. A fist hit his jaw, and he tasted blood.

"Get the jade!" a voice shouted. "He has it on him!"

Hands tore at his pockets. They found the piece of glass and pulled it out. Someone held it up to a small flashlight.

"It is glass!" the man shouted. "He tricked us! It is fake!"

Then a deep, cold voice cut through the noise. "Bring me West alive. And bring the other one."

Two men grabbed Marcus, who was screaming. They twisted his arms behind him and dragged him toward the end of the pier, toward a black boat Adrian had not seen before.

"Adrian!" Marcus cried. "Adrian, the page, keep the page!"

Adrian was trying to reach him when a heavy arm wrapped around his neck from behind. He could not breathe. The black spots came again. He tried to pull the arm off, but it was like pulling a steel pipe. The page was still in his hand. He pushed it down the front of his shirt with the last of his strength.

Then bright headlights flooded the pier from the road.

Tires screamed on the stones. A white car skidded to a stop at the entrance, and a door flew open.

"Let him go!" a woman's voice shouted.

Adrian could not see her through the black spots, but he knew that voice.

It was Helen.

The man holding Adrian froze. "Who is that?"

"It is the wife," someone said. "Boss said nobody touches the wife."

"Then what do we do?"

The cold voice answered from the dark, calm, almost bored. "Take both of them to the boat. I will deal with the Feng girl myself."

Adrian heard Helen's heels running toward him, and then, behind her, something much worse.

The sound of a second car engine, and a gun being loaded.