Hanamichi and Rukawa reached the door to the redhead's hotel room past 9 o'clock that night. When they got in, Yohei, Ling Ling and Mr Chung, the curator, was inside waiting for them.
"Hi, what's up?" Hanamichi asked them, curious at the small gathering.
"I think you both should sit down first," Yohei said, motioning for them to take a seat.
Puzzled with his friend's request, Hanamichi wanted to ask but then decided to wait when he saw the serious expression on their faces. The redhead obliged, sitting down with Rukawa beside him on the sofa opposite to Yohei's armchair. Ling Ling and Mr Chung sat silently on another sofa to their right.
"What the matter?" Hanamichi asked again.
"It's this," Yohei said handing over a photograph to the Rukawa, "Looks familiar?"
Hanamichi heard Rukawa take a soft but sharp intake of breath when the raven-haired conductor looked at the picture in his own hand. The redhead took a look for himself and saw that it was a picture of a statue, like the one they saw at that Terracotta exhibition, with an armour and hairstyle like the others. What's the big deal? thought Hanamichi but when his eyes rested upon the face of the statue his eyes went wide. It looked like-
"It's you!" Hanamichi gasped.
"We found it at Shaanxi. I cannot explain how the statue managed to resurface after all those years. The scientists thought that it was caused by an earth tremor," began Mr Chung, " The authorities hushed up the incident to avoid any superstitious worry as most chinese people wont to do. I was placed in charge of restoring the statue there and I took the photo for my own records."
"The statue that I saw was intact," Rukawa cut in, "why did it need restoration?"
"There were some cracks on it," said the curator, "We built a hut near the sea while my people worked on it. It will be shipped here to the museum once they are done."
"How come it was in the sea to begin with. I mean all the statues were found in the tombs, right?" said Hanamichi.
"I accidentally dropped it there," replied Mr Chung.
"Excuse me?"
"26 years ago I was in the Archeological Unit. During our time-off my friend and I would go off on our own excavation. Our belief was that countless treasures are buried in China's earth and we will be one of the people who will find them. One night we did find one of them. It was long before the Qin's terracotta army were found..."
~flashback~
Li Chung and his two friends, Wang Han and Chen, stepped back to admire the lying statue, still half covered by the earth made wet by the drizzling rain. They have never seen anything like it before and they knew that it was invaluable.
The three dug it up and carefully carried the heavy statue out of the pit and onto higher ground before the rain could submerge it. Carefully, but with full of excitement, they brushed the mud off of the statue to get a better look of their find beneath the yellow light of the gas lamp.
Suddenly Wang Han's fingers brushed upon something smoother than the statue's stone surface. Bringing his lamp closer, the young man found a dagger stuck at the hip of the statue.
~end flashback~
Mr Chung placed a rectangular box on top of the table and opened it. Taking the item out he asked Rukawa, "Rukawa xien sheng, have you seen this dagger before?"
Rukawa took the dagger out of Mr Chung's hands and inspected it closely, turning it around from side to side. The blade has gone blunt with age but he could imagine that it was once a beautiful weapon with the ivory hilt and the red gem embedded in it.
Hanamichi suddenly exclaimed, "Hey! I've seen a dagger like that before. In one of my dreams. Only that the stone was white jade, not red."
Mr Chung looked at the redhead in surprise. "Actually, it was originally a white jade and the scientists confirmed that it was stained permanently with blood."
Taking the dagger from Rukawa and placing it back in its box he continued his story, "The three of us towed the statue along the river of Shaanxi with a tug boat by using a make shift raft. We weren't expecting anything to happen when suddenly Wang Han went bezerk. He was suddenly a man being possessed, wanting the dagger for himself..."
~flashback~
Li Chung and Chen looked out of their boat in surprise. There was Wang Han, sitting on the statue which tied to a raft, the young man trying to free the dagger out of the statue's hip.
"Wang Han! What are you doing?!" demanded Li Chung.
"Stay here!" Chen told Li Chung and before Li Chung could stop him Chen jumped out of the boat in the rain to swim towards the raft. Upon reaching it, Chen climbed up and grabbed Wang Han by the collar.
"What's the matter with you?!" yelled Chen.
"Let go! It's mine!" growled Wang Han. They both struggled and suddenly the raft tipped and they fell down into the fast flowing river.
"Chen! Wang Han!" Chung screamed. He began searching wildly for any signs of his friends, when suddenly a tremendous vibration rocked the boat and he was thrown off his feet. There was a loud sound of wood and metal grating and the boat jarred again. Chung quickly got onto his feet and ran to the helm of the boat and saw that they had crashed into a cruise boat. Quickly, he took control of the wheel and steered them away from each other.
The boat passed by them and he could vaguely see through the pouring rain the cruise boat 'Silk' and the people aboard yelling at him angrily. Once he was sure the boat would not steer into any more obstacles he ran back out and was horrified to see that the raft was gone, together with the statue. His two friends were no where to be seen.
~end of flashback~
"I called you father just now," Yohei spoke up.
Hanamichi looked at his best friend in surprise. "Why?"
"I remembered that he once told me you were born in Shaanxi when they were on a trip there with their friends. Your mother bore you prematurely when they were on that nightly cruise. Their ship was called 'Silk'."
It was silent before Yohei spoke again. "In the morning he held onto you and brought you outside the cabin. There he saw a couple who was standing beside the river, also holding a new-born baby. The couple held up their baby and waved to him and without realising it, he did the same with you."
"They were my parents and the baby was me," Rukawa said.
All heads turned to the tall brunette as Rukawa continued, "My parents told me that I was born beside the river when they were touring the country side. My parents were avid tourists and they weren't expecting that I would come out that early. A few weeks later we were on a plane back to Japan."
Hanamichi took Rukawa's hand in his grasp and held it tight.
Fate.
Hanamichi sat in the lobby of the apartment building, flipping through a magazine he picked at random. Feeling eyes on him, he turned around to see Ming Mei looking at him blankly.
Hanamichi stood up and after a moment of silence between the two, the redhead bowed before giving her a smile. The woman narrowed her eyes and twirled towards the elevators to reach the pent-house where Rukawa has gone to.
True to her guess, the raven-haired man was inside the pent-house quickly packing up all of his clothes into a brown suitcase. Suddenly remembering his music notes he turned around to see Ming Mei standing under the threshold of their room with a sad but resigned expression on her face.
The woman took off her coat and her shoes before she climbed onto the bed to pull the still-open suitcase towards her.
"I always pack for you when you have to go off somewhere. Let me," she said.
Rukawa stepped back and quietly leaned against the wall as she expertly packed up all his clothes, toiletries and music notes neatly in the bag. When she was done she pushed the suitcase back towards him and said quietly, "Now its your job to close it."
Her ex-lover bowed in gratitude and reached out to zip the suitcase shut with both hands. The zipping sound reverberated in the quiet room making Ming Mei want to cry but she bravely fought the tears back. Once Rukawa was done, he picked up his luggage and looked at her.
"Ming Mei, you've been everything to me these eight years," he said.
Ming Mei looked up at him with glassy eyes.
"There was no Hanamichi. Those 8 years weren't a lie," Rukawa continued.
"It wasn't just a dream?" Ming Mei asked with a trembling voice, a drop of tear slipping past her cheek.
"No, it wasn't a dream," he replied.
Ming Mei finally let her tears flow free. "I wish it was."
When Rukawa remained silent Ming Mei asked, "Embrace me one last time?"
She slowly lifted herself up on her knees and leaned towards the man she loves, who was standing motionless beside the bed.
"Please," she softly pleaded.
Rukawa slowly put his suitcase down and hugged her tight. A few minutes, he eased his hold but she did not let go. Instead Ming Mei held on tighter and her lips found their way towards his in a feverish manner.
Through her tears Ming Mei suddenly felt a small measure of hope as she felt her body being lowered down onto the bed, her mouth still working on Rukawa's soft lips.
Then she was alone.
"Goodbye, Ming Mei."
She sobbed as she opened her teary eyes to see Rukawa stepping out of the room with the suitcase in hand.
Hanamichi paced the short corridor restlessly, torn between wanting knocking the door to Rukawa's pent-house and going back downstairs to the lobby to wait for him there. When the door opened and Rukawa stepped out, the readhead looked relieved.
Hanamichi walked towards his lover and without a word they went towards the elevators when suddenly a voice called out, "Kaede..."
The two turned around and to their horror Ming Mei was leaning against the threshold of the door, her white blouse covered in blood.
"Kaede..." she called again, slowly stepping forward with her arms open to her love.
Snapping himself out of his shock, Rukawa suddenly moved, catching the woman in his arms before she could fall to the floor in a crumpled heap.
"Ming Mei! What did you do?!" the brunette cried.
"Kaede..." the young woman whimpered, clinging onto him, her tears still falling as the blood flowed out of her body.
When Hanamichi reached them, Rukawa handed him Ming Mei to hold. "I'm going to call for help!" the fox-eyed man said, standing up, "Stay here and watch her!"
"Aa!" the redhead obeyed holding Ming Mei's bloody hands. Rukawa ran back inside the pent-house and immedietly picked up the phone on the table near the entrance, leaving the door ajar.
"Please, don't die!" pleaded Hanamichi enveloping Ming Mei's small hands in his big ones.
The young woman gazed at the redhead through her tears and whispered to him, "8 years or 2,000 years, it's still love."
Then her eyes fluttered shut.
Hanamichi looked up at Rukawa through the doorway as the dark-haired man held the phone to his ears. When Rukawa turned towards the redhead, the brunette saw the dispair on his lover's face and he instantly knew that Ming Mei was no more.