Beyond The Crimson Gate-Chapter 52: Ming Lee

Ming sat cross-legged in her room, her two curved knives in front of her.

Their edges had faint blue lines running through them but her eyes weren’t on the blades but on a faint logo.

The logo had faded due to use, but she could still make it out. It was a lion’s head that was shaped like a nut used in engineering.

It was the logo of Ryko-Tech. Her father’s company.

Her eyes lost focus as she fell into a memory.

______

"Dad, dad, dad. Look, looook..." A young Ming patted her dad’s clothes.

Her dad looked like a more masculine version of her, with the same eyes and hair color.

"What is it, my little flower?" He smiled, showing off wrinkles at the sides of his eyes.

Ming tried to perform a backflip and failed. Her face was quickly approaching the floor but a pair of strong arms held her.

Her dad’s smile had faded. "I thought I told you not to practice any martial arts anymore?!" He was quite angry at his daughter.

Little Ming’s eyes watered and her lips quivered. Her dad’s eyes softened when he saw that she was about to cry.

He picked her up and placed her on his lap.

"Tut, tut, tut. Shh, my little flower, don’t cry. Daddy’s sorry, okay?" He cooed into her ears, tickling her and making her laugh.

Her tears faded, and she hugged him, "It’s just that dad loves you so much, and it’ll hurt him if you get hurt." He sighed.

"You’re just like your mom, she is- was, she was obsessed with martial arts and spent her life improving. I lost one of the two people I love because of martial arts." His voice cracked and he let out a shaky breath.

Little Ming climbed off his lap and stood opposite her dad, his fingers on his crinkled eyes, as if in pain.

"Dad?" Her voice was worried. Her dad turned, "Sorry, my sweet. Dad just had a bad memory." His eyes were glossy and slightly red yet he smiled at her.

Her eyes noticed an image on his laptop, a lion’s head the shape of a nut.

Ming’s dad noticed her gaze and chuckled, "This is going to be the face of our new company. Isn’t that exciting?!" His smile seemed sincere.

Little Ming tilted her head in confusion and her dad chuckled.

"New company means more ice cream." He said in falsetto.

"Yay, new company!!" Little Ming screamed, smiling.

Then the memory changed sharply to another. One she prayed she’d forget.

Her house was on fire and she could barely see in front of her.

It was the day after her 12th birthday, and she was still wearing her party heart when she smelled smoke.

Her eyes stung as they made Cobra with the smoke while her lungs burned from prolonged lack of oxygen.

She heard some movements and ran there thinking it was her father.

Entering the flaming living room, she saw several men wearing masks with oxygen tanks.

Little Ming saw her father on the floor beside the strange men and her heart feared the worst.

She had stopped martial arts after her dad told her how her mom died.

Now, she couldn’t imagine losing her other parent so she ran and closed in on them.

Using the residual knowledge of martial arts, she performed a roundhouse kick that connected perfectly to the man’s jaw.

He fell to the ground unconscious and the other three turned to look at her.

Her little act had forced her to breathe in more smoke and she was starting to lose consciousness.

One of the men turned to her and pulled out a gun. He pointed the nuzzle at her and placed his finger on the trigger.

Just before he pulled it, Ming’s dad moved in front of her. The gun fires off into him.

Ming watched as a trail of blood flowed from his mouth. The men behind him panicked and ran, taking their unconscious friend with them.

Her dad smiled softly, "I guess even Dad doesn’t know everything. We’ll get ice cream after this okay? Ice cream, your favorite." His smile started to falter.

He took one of the masks that the men left behind and placed it weakly on Ming’s face.

"You look just like your mother." His eyes started to lose their light.

He fell on the floor and blood pooled out of his back, "Yeah, yeah. Ice cream. Vanilla right?"

The light finally faded as his heart stopped. He was dead.

Ming burst into tears, and she held the mask wanting to take it off to join her dad, but she just couldn’t.

Her dad had used his last bits of life to ensure her safety, and taking it would be an insult to him, and she wouldn’t do that.

Her eyes landed on a bit of blood that had left the man when she kicked him.

Rage boiled in her blood. ’I must get revenge.’ and so she did.

After resuming her martial arts training, she sold shares of her dad’s company using proxies to the military, investing in weapons.

Soon, she had tracked down the men and had them killed, but not before grabbing an important piece of information.

Someone had hired them to assassinate her dad, and that person was a higher-up in the military.

The same people she sold part of her dad’s heritage to were responsible for his death.

______

The memories stopped and Ming wiped away the tears that had flowed down.

Her hands picked up her knives and she spun them in between her slender fingers.

She hadn’t stopped thinking about her father’s death every day and she didn’t plan on stopping.

The green gas during their tests had given her a vivid and painful reminder of her drive. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Even if it killed her, she would get her revenge on the guilty party and all who got in her way.

.......

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