The Jade Garden (The Barrington Patch Book 2) by Emmy Ellis (reading diary txt) 📗

for Jiang,” Zhang Wei said, hands flying in excitement. “But I need your help. Will you loan me half of the money? There is a shop for lease over in Sheffield, and I think it is perfect for my son. A nice estate, good people, and he will earn more money to put the children in the school he wants them to go to.”

Li Jun would have given the money without asking for any back, as he would for his own sons, but sadly, the venture couldn’t go ahead, unless it was for Yenay, who had a good head for business and deserved a chance to get away from the Jade, especially now. If only Zhang had mentioned this before, weeks ago. Jiang would have been safe in Sheffield.

“I have something to tell you.” Li Jun winced, his heart pattering too fast, his bottom lip wobbling.

“What has happened?”

Zhang Wei’s smile dropped, as Li Jun had known it would. This was beyond horrendous, what he had to say, but say it he must. He appreciated how Zhang Wei would want it told straight, so he plunged in.

“Jiang was killed at work tonight.” He stared into Zhang Wei’s eyes, waiting for the fallout.

They lost some of their light, and his lids fluttered. “What…?”

“Someone came to steal the drugs, and Jiang stepped in to stop him hurting me. The man sliced his neck.” How blunt that had sounded. How soulless Li Jun felt. “Your son died protecting me, and I am forever in his debt.”

Zhang Wei crumpled to the freshly cleaned tile floor, a wail unlike anything Li Jun had ever heard coming out of him, an animal in pain, caught in a trap with no way of getting out. Li Jun got down there with him, held him tight, rocking him while he sobbed, letting his own tears run free. Jiang had been like a son to him, their family so close they all loved one another deeply, and he experienced Zhang Wei’s pain as if it were his own. It cut deep, scoring a trench in his heart, one that would never heal.

Never.

Zhang calmed after a while and eased back to stare at Li Jun, determination overtaking the sadness in his eyes. “Cassie?”

Li Jun sighed. “She has dealt with the person responsible.”

“Who was it?”

“I do not know.”

Zhang Wei shook his head. “Do not lie to me, brother.”

Li Jun should have known the deception wouldn’t work. Zhang Wei was an extension of himself, of the same mind, the same emotions, their faces near identical with the tells that exposed a lie.

“I cannot tell you,” Li Jun said. “It is for the best that you do not know. She is looking into whether the man’s family is involved.” He didn’t think Geoff from The Donny would’ve had a hand in this, but Helen? She’d sell her own mother to a passing tribe for twenty pounds if it meant she could buy her booze.

Zhang Wei clenched his jaw. “So there are more who knew about this. More who planned to steal what was not theirs and kill my son?”

“I do not think the murder was planned. The man panicked. Jiang was strong. He would have taken the intruder down had he not had a machete.”

“A machete?” Zhang Wei pushed himself to his feet and held a hand out to help Li Jun up. “That is serious, to enter a business with one of those. You cannot tell me they did not have murder in mind with a blade that big.” He stared at Li Jun. “You will tell me who it is so I can visit these family members, so I can tell my wife upstairs that I have done something to avenge his death.”

Li Jun thought about The Life and the message in it. Zhang Wei wouldn’t have received it because he didn’t work or live on the Barrington. “The estate leaflet went out, saying Jiang has moved back to China. It is so no one knows what happened and we are kept safe from the police. We must keep quiet. You know the rules as well as I do. If you go to his family, this…this killer’s people, it will leave us wide open to the authorities getting involved. Cassie can only hide so much.”

“You will tell me what I want to know, or I will scour the Barrington until I find who I need.” Zhang Wei glared at him, anger so obviously brimming beneath the surface.

Li Jun couldn’t deny his brother anything.

He sighed and opened his mouth, praying the words he intended to speak didn’t ruin everything.

Chapter Ten

Li Jun held the keys to the Jade. They were heavy in his palm, cold—as cold as the dread seeping up his spine. He stared around now Lenny had left, fully soaking in the gleaming takeaway. This was his dream, like Nuwa had said. The shop and flat were now theirs in all but name, and they’d tell anyone who asked that they owned it, per Lenny’s instructions, although they were to make it known at every opportunity that they were under Lenny’s protection. This, Lenny had said, would stop anyone ‘playing silly buggers’ with them.

First thing tomorrow, they’d clean the whitewash off the windows and receive the first food delivery, due at eleven a.m. In the evening, they’d light up the hanging menu case with its yellow background, and open for business. Lenny would tell Karen Scholes to let everyone know the Jade was up and running via the little pamphlet that had sometimes drifted through the shared letterbox at the bedsit. Li Jun had found out, through those snippets of information, that Lenny Grafton was a man they should avoid, yet here they were, held fast in his giant web.

Nuwa could handle cooking rice and noodles, chopping onions and other vegetables, plus packing up the