Shaofei was, he thought, clearly a very responsible person, not to mention a lucky one. But for whatever reason, there was always somebody trying to keep him from doing something that had just happened to cause injury one time, like they all considered him a pitiable disaster magnet rather than the nigh unkillable badass he was.
He had had just about enough of this. “Hongye,” he said, and if it came out a little petulant, who could blame him? “I am not wearing that.”
Hongye rolled her eyes but didn’t pause in shoving what appeared to be some kind of full-body bubble wrap into his arms. Where did she even find such a thing? “Fine. Don’t wear it. Wear whatever you want for all I care, but you can never get on a motorcycle again. Or a trampoline. Or a pogo stick. Or any kind of heavy machinery or springloaded contraption.”
Like she had any say in his choice of contraptions! She was not the boss of him. But that kind of thinking wouldn’t win him any arguments. He breathed in and out once through his nose and tried to think of something she couldn’t rebut. “How could you possibly enforce that, Hongye? And don’t say you’ll tell Tang Yi. I know you’re no snitch.”
She snorted. “Nice try. But you should know by now that I would do anything for my brother. Either one of them.”
Aw, she thinks of me as her brother! He beamed at her, almost giddy. But wait. Weren’t they arguing? Focus, Shaofei. He couldn’t let her get her way every time she played the sister card; Tang Yi was already doing enough of that for the both of them. Very sneaky of her. He narrowed his eyes. “You can’t honestly expect me to wear this. Do you want me to go around looking like a marshmallow and embarrass the family?”
Another eyeroll told him she wasn’t taking the bait. “Everybody wears protective gear –”
“Yeah, a helmet, and maybe some leather. Not what appears to be a Michelin Man costume!”
Hongye scoffed. “You could never wear a helmet. Everyone knows you’re much too vain about your hair.”
Shaofei’s jaw dropped. Of all the things to say! “Me? I’m vain? About my hair?! What on earth – that’s the most ridiculous –” He could practically feel his blood pressure rising. Forget motorcycles, didn’t anyone think of his cardiovascular health? One of these days he would probably just drop dead in the middle of an argument. That would show her.
He had tried to be patient, but surely not even Tang Yi would expect him to stand here and take this character assassination! With a huff, he threw the absurd ensemble to the floor and stomped out of the room.
Hongye stayed where she was, waiting. A minute later she heard a stream of muffled curses accompanied by a barrage of noise that, if you knew what to listen for, sounded a lot like a person unearthing a motorcycle helmet from under a stack of boxes in a storage closet.
She smiled to herself. It was good to know that all the money she’d paid two of her employees under the table to construct a fake safety outfit out of hot glue and packing materials had not been wasted. She would almost break even, once she’d collected her winnings from Tang Yi. After all, as she’d told her brother when they were placing their bets, Shaofei may be stubborn, but he was in fact quite suggestible. You just had to know how to go about the suggesting.
