Special Investment - part 4

Special Investment
by tension68

Part IV (Final part)

Now, the reason why our cars were not parked in the hotel parking lot was because we prefer open spaces. If there is one thing I learnt, was from my last encounter with someone who tried to bash my head with a metal baseball bat. Yes the sport is not popular here, nor is it rarely seen at all, but the equipment is still being sold. I found myself defending my head with only my bare hands. Good thing my earlier years practicing Choi Lei Fatt equipped me with sturdy hands. Good thing also that I still practice on the weekends, sometimes anyways. I still ended up with a badly bruised left arm. And so, after that, I played it safer by parking in open spaces, where it would be difficult for people to hide and come up behind me without me knowing it. I was to learn another lesson in the art of survival.

Ah Siong and myself were almost at our cars, which were parked alongside each other, his in front of mine. Then, all of a sudden, a mini van can along and placed itself along our cars. It was a brave move on the part of the driver to have boxed Ah Siong's car and mine in. I was somehow amused that someone would be so daring to try a stunt like this, and Ah Siong was already cursing in Hokkien loudly.

It was a white van, the kind that you see doing deliveries. It had a sliding door and there was only the driver who was visible, and giving us a very how lian smirk. Both me and Ah Siong went to the front of the van and we challenged the driver to come down. He was a young man, probably in his twenties, tinted hair and a cocky attitude. Both me and Ah Siong wanted to teach him a lesson and one went beside his door, while the other went over to the other side, closer to the sliding door. I was the one who was at the driver's side and I asked him, "Eh shao lian eh, what you trying to do ah?" Even before I could continue the young man pushed the door hard, causing it to open fast and almost hitting me in the chest. Lucky thing I had my hands on the door, so I was only pushed back. But the force was enough to cause me to fall on my bum. Ah Siong rushed over and that was when the sliding door opened. It had no windows, so we could not have known what was inside. And I must have been really off that day, after the sex session, otherwise I would have been more street-wise and stayed away to check out before going over to the van. But, it was too late. Three other men rushed out of the van, each holding a weapon. Luckily for both me and Ah Siong that it was not knifes, otherwise we may not have made it. One had a metal pipe, and another had a spanner, while the third had a wood baton. Two went after Ah Siong, who tried to kick at one. The third, with a spanner, came at me, along with the driver, who had a hammer.

Because the driver came at me first, I was able to fend him off by kicking him in the stomach. In my years of martial arts, fighting and all else, I learnt that to stop a man wielding a weapon, you could block the weapon, which meant harm to your hands, or evade, which meant him being able to continue attacking, or kick him. I prefer to use the third option, which means I had the chance to aim my kicks where I wanted to. But one needs to have a little skill, experience, and a lot of guts to pull it off. I could have aimed for his balls, but his stride with his left foot forward meant I had to turn, which I had difficulty since I was only getting up from the ground. I could not have went for his knee because there was not enough leverage or angle for me to do so. His hammer was on a down swing, which meant that it would still hit me even if my kick landed on his knees, either knee that is. So, I kicked his stomach. I was getting up from the ground and was pn my left side, so using my arms as for more power, I launched my right leg up a little and straight into his stomach. His momentum, coupled with my forced launch, meant a double crunch on his abdomen. My kick sent him bending over and dropping his weapon, as he kneeled to the ground.

I could not follow up and finish him off because the man with the spanner came at me quickly. As I was recovering from the kicking the other guy, his spanner caught my right arm near the shoulders. Try as I might, I was not able to dodge his attack. After that, he tried a few more swings at me, but I was able to evade, while clutching my right arm. The pain was dull, but my whole arm was numb from the wound down to my fingers. I only regained the senses when the driver recovered and went at me with the hammer again.

Ah Siong was not so lucky, he was set upon by the two men at the same time, and he was fighting for his life. His right ear was hit by the wood baton, and the metal pipe was jabbed into his stomach. And then, I was losing the advantage against two men with weapons, but was still holding my own ground. The driver called out to the man with the metal pipe and he left Ah Siong to the beatings of the man with the wooden baton and came over to assist is assaulting me. In that moment, I thought that was the end of my loan shark days. All those goodies that I had, all those privileges I had had, was soon to be over. Somehow I could have ran, but I did not want to leave Ah Siong alone to be slaughtered. Somewhere in my mind, I was hoping that Lok would come and save us. But I soon gave up when the metal pipe hit my left leg and sent me kneeling down on one knee. The spanner followed and I was barely able to use my left hand to grab at it. I used my right hand to cover my head, as the hammer came swiftly. One hit, and my head was burning with pain. I almost blacked out, if not for my hand covering my head. But now, even my right hand was numb with pain too.

At that instant, I fell to the ground, shriveling up like a shrimp or prawn. It seemed that the men did not want to kill me, as they only kicked me around and used their weapons on my body, arms and legs, never hitting at my head again. The next thing I know, The three men attacking me suddenly stopped hitting and kicking me and jumped back into the van and sped off. With my blurred vision, I etched out the face of Lok and Xiao Lee, along with other men who I could not make out. Then I passed out.

When I awoke, I was on a bed in a hospital. Xiao Lee and Lok was on my sides and I can see Ah Siong across me. I found out then that Xiao Lee had been trying to reach me when he saw Alan at the hotel entrance with two men. Xiao Lee overheard Alan telling the men my car number and describing my looks to them. It made him curious so he tried to call me. But since I never answered his calls, he gave up after some tried. He tried to come back into the hotel to inform us, but Alan stopped him when he found out Xiao Lee wanted to go to the suite I was in. Alan must have recognized Xiao Lee while he was talking to the two men. When Xiao Lee came out of the hotel, he tried to stay to wait for us to come down. But after a few minutes some police came and questioned him, saying that they had a complaint that Xiao Lee was harassing people who entered the hotel. Xiao Lee had no choice but to leave after the police let him off, they took down his particulars cos there was no solid evidence. Xiao Lee still tried calling me, but I was not answering my phone, so he decided to get some helpers on his own.

When he found two friends to help him, he came back to the hotel, but found only Lok and the girls. He called his taxi driver friends to fetch his girls to their home base while Lok and himself and the helpers went to find me and Ah Siong. I was warded for four days, and was discharged when they found I did not have a concussion. I only had a badly bruised right hand, one cracked ribs, bruised legs, but otherwise ok. Ah Siong stayed longer, his right arm was broken by the beatings of the wooden baton and the metal pipe, so they had to put it in a cast.

Alan went into hiding, as I tried to find him. The police questioned me on the incident, but they knew my background and warned me to be careful. I made no attempts to let the police know that Alan did it, because I wanted to take care of him myself. I later found out he was hiding in Sentosa, in one of the hotels there. When me, Ah Siong and Lok caught him at the hotel room, we made sure he remembered what pain was.

After the whole affair, Ah Siong and I thanked Xiao Lee for his help in the nick of time. I even promised him that I would make his share in the girl's takings more. Xiao Lee was happy but said, "Aiyah, I only protecting my main investor mah." Well, that was what you get for this kind of special investments.