Rivalry is in Blood {HongIce Mafia}

Chapter IV

The bright music of the Jazz band echoed in Li's ears as she waltzed around the house. The air was thick with a mixture of fumes that swirled together to create a dizzy headache. Men sat at tables, drinking, smoking, shouting and gambling away their money. Her surroundings seemed so vulgar and impure, even the women seemed to present no virtue.

Silently padding away through the party, she felt completely out of place amongst the party goers. It was a public event, but members of rival gangs were forbidden to come. The entrance to the Wang mansion was flooded with people, desperate to take part in the festivities. Parties were a good source of income for gangs throughout the city as they provided new business opportunities. The whole lot of it disgusted Li.

She took a sharp turn into the hallway, softly pushing past men and women standing in the hallway. She eventually arrived at a smaller lounge room where her sister sat surrounded by other older women. Despite Lien being younger than Li, she definitely acted like she was the elder. She was more involved in the activities of the mafia and did not have much of an issue with the way the family was run.

"Lien, how much longer is the party going to go on for?" Li asked as she neared her younger sister.

"The night's only just begun, sister, if you have any problems doing business just bring it to me and I'll handle it for you," Lien assured seemingly more interested in her surroundings than her sister. Li sighed and distanced herself from the buzzing chatter around her sister, just hoping to stay away from her father. Earlier that night she had seen him talking to that young man named Ping and desperately wanted to avoid talking to her father about it. Fortunately he had been too preoccupied organising the party to be able to talk to her about it.

Meanwhile, Emil neared the front entrance of the Wang mansion with his accomplice, a slender man who had a very generic type of face and seemed incredibly unfazed by the fact that Emil had no experience with infiltrating. Emil attempted to stop himself from shaking with fear as he climbed up the front steps through the crowds of people surrounding the entrance. The chatter surrounding the area was a mess of chatter and shouting that blurred into a deafening buzz. The two arrived at the entrance and before entering, received a quick pat down search by the security to check for weapons they may be hiding. The two passed the inspection with a gruff nod from the guard and entered the house.

As soon as he stepped in, he was hit hard with the powerful aromas that hung in the air. The air felt so thick he felt that he could hardly breathe. Emil quickly regained his composure and walked in further, keeping on the look out for possible opportunities to gain information. His accomplice soon parted ways with him to do his job.

Out of the corner of his eye, Emil caught a glimpse of a familiar face amongst a crowd of men at a poker table. He froze automatically and felt his blood run cold when he realised who it was. There, smoking a cigarette and laughing bitterly along with the men who surrounded her, was Mei Wang. Whether it was by pure chance or incredibly bad luck, at that moment Mei suddenly spotted Emil and gave a disgusted frown. Shooting up from her seat and excusing herself from the group, he flew up the stairs nearby, disappearing to find Ivan.

Suddenly able to move again, Emil realised what could potentially happen when Mei would come back. He darted off in the opposite direction in a desperate attempt to find somewhere to hide. He couldn't get caught in the enemies' head quarters, he would be killed for sure.

Mei stormed down the hallway toward the sectioned off room she knew her boss, Ivan, would be in. She couldn't believe the audacity that boy had to turn up to a party he was forbidden to attend, the thought made her steam with a ferocious anger. She hated the Bondeviks and was determined to fight them off to defend not only her own honour, but the honour of the Wang Mafia.