Untamed Chroma

Chapter 8 - Fuzanglong's Assignment

Panting heavily as the last set was done, he put the weights down and went into the locker room. Entering one of the stalls, Zhurong enjoyed the relief of a warm steamy shower, the tense muscles and pounding heartrate starting to give way to some relief. He finished the shower, got dressed in his sleeveless hoodie and sweatpants, packed his bag, and headed out into the damp warm humid air. He made his way across and in between the crowded streets of Luoyang city. After getting frustrated at the crowded train station, he managed to get into a train.

It was awfully crowded, as expected from a weekend night. Holding onto the railings, he scrolled through his phone waiting through several stops before heading out, now in a totally different part of the city.

He left the industrious part of the Luoyang full of sky scrapers, busy streets, and pompous high class people, and was now in the parts he was more familiar with. Downtown streets blaring with neon lights and signs. Food markets and thrift shops all around, dogs barking and music blasting by two street dancers that gathered a crowd.

Taking a right into a small alleyway, he went into a quiet run down bar, sitting on of the stools with his hoodie on as he hunched over as the bartender approached him.

"What can I get you?" He asked as he wiped a glass as Zhurong looked up at him, silent for a few seconds

"Moutai Dragon cocktail" He replied as the bartenders expression changed. He put down his glass and looked around before replying in a discrete voice.

"Follow me sir" He said as he went to the other side of the bar and unlocked a small hidden door, opening it and letting Zhurong slide through before locking it again.He entered the room that looked like a completely different place, way louder, more crowdedThere was a group lined up sitting on the bar stools, as one of them coughed as they saw him enter and put down his drink.

"Oh! Zhurong! Look who finally made it and isn't half an hour late!" He said as Zhurong sat in between them.

"Be quiet Yao. The meeting starts at 11. It's 10:30, smartass" he said as one of the bartenders gave him his usual drink.

"The boss said be here at 10 and it most certainly is not 10" The yellow colored Yao replied.

"Since when are you the fucking boss" Zhurong said before taking a sip.

"When are you gonna drop the act. Always acting tough and making it look like you hate everyone" The one on the other side of him, Mizuno, said.

"Who told you it's a fucking act. You're all insufferable" Zhurong said

"Then why do you keep coming back?"

"It's my fucking job, Mizuno" Zhurong said as he faced the green man on his right.

"If you hate it so much, just leave"

"Leave? Yeah I'm sure the boss would love that. It's not like this is my entire fucking life or something" Zhurong said.

"Does anyone know what the meetings about today?" Yao asked.

"Handing out this months tasks, I believe" A purple girl on the other end of the bar said as she took a puff of her cigarette.

"You'll probably have to sit this one out Zhurong, I don't think he'd trust you taking on another subject" Yao said poking more fun.

"Oh for fucks sake when are you gonna drop it. The one subject I didn't kill was Mazu. It was one fucking time" He replied.

"Yeah but you've gone soft ever since! Remember that one time? Dianmu had to come save your ass" Yao said.

"I'd like to see you fight off 10 armed drug dealers on crack on your own" The purple Dianmu said