Moves

***LEI***

I stood frozen at my spot. I was a little unsure how to respond at the female elderly's words.

"What's wrong?" Coby elbowed me. He must've noticed the change of my expression and got worried.

"Nothing." I replied and smiled at him.

We all sat down around the table and those who could speak Mandarin fluently started a conversation with Grandma Chen. My thoughts were not quite there though, it drifted to my own memories of my grandmother, dad's own mother. I remembered she had always been mean and strict to many, especially to me and Chen. Mom's mother on the other hand, never really liked me in the first place.

"-brought you here to Changsha?" I heard Grandma Chen ask, which broke me out of my trance.

"We're looking for someone, grandma." Chen answered.

The previous night, Coby thought of a crazy plan and shared it to us…

"So, here's the plan… It's simple. We visit the manor and deliberately slip out Shadow Garden to important people of the Chen Family. It's bound to attract their attention, right?" he sported a mischievous smile and I could see the familiar glint in his eyes. The same glint I would see in his and Blake's eyes when they were planning some sort of mischief.

"Have you lost your mind?" Calvin exclaimed. "That's a bad plan!"

I was a little surprised at Calvin's reaction since he would usually join Coby and Blake on their pranks.

"I know it's a bad plan, but it's still a plan, and we don't really have any other plans in hand, so I think we shouldn't give up on it."

I eyed Seven and Chen who seemed to agree at Coby's plan. It did sound a little creative and nobody was really offering another plan, so I agreed with it as well. I turned to Leo who also voiced out his agreement. Since everyone was in agreement, Calvin had no other choice but to agree with it as well.

"We can do that." Leo added. "The Chen Family is an assortment of people. The servants aren't blood-related as well, so some of them might actually be part of Shadow Garden."

My trip to memory lane got interrupted when Leo sprung 'the' question. Just per our plan.

"Grandma, do you know of Shadow Garden?"

My attention was suddenly drawn to the servant that was serving our snacks. Her hands slipped and almost broke a tea cup. Luckily, Seven caught it with his impressive reflexes before it could fall to the floor. After that, she seemed to had become very interested on the floor. At the same time, Leo's grandmother stiffened and immediately dismissed the servant-girl.

I couldn't help but be suspicious at her response. As well as the servant's.

"How did you know that name?" she asked with an edgy tone.

"Grandma we-"

"Never utter that name here. It will only get you into all sorts of trouble." she warned.

"So you 'do' know about them." Seven commented.

"Grandma, you have to tell us how to find them. We need their help!" Leo pleaded.

"Asking them for help? You will only lose your life. Do not pursue them."

"Grandma-"

"I hope you will not be staying for dinner. You have to leave now!" Leo complained but she stopped him. "This is for your own sake, Xiao Yi'er. Trust me you do not want to be entangled with them."

With that, she chased us out so we had no other choice but to leave the pavilion.

"She definitely knows something." said Chen as we were on our way back to the front gate.

"It was very obvious." Calvin seconded.

"But she seemed very afraid at the mention of them, though." Seven pointed out. "What do you think made her act like that?"

"I don't know." Leo replied. "It's my first time seeing grandma that flustered. I don't like it."

We reached the courtyard and were about to cross it when a group of people suddenly stopped us. There were eight of them and their leader was smiling smugly at our direction, specifically at Leo's.

'I have a bad feeling about this.' I thought.

"If it isn't cousin Rong Yi." sneered the one leading the group. "I thought you no longer care about us? Being a global sensation and all."

"Get out of our way A'Li. We don't want any trouble." Leo retorted.

"Oh come on cousin. We haven't seen each other in a long time." A'Li replied, his face still plastered that smug look like every thing and everyone was beneath his feet.

"And who was the reason I couldn't come back here in the first place?" Leo retorted.

My friends, brother and I just watched at the sides as the two glowered at each other. I was a little worried at Leo at the sudden trouble he found himself into. A'Li seemed like a very troublesome kid.

"I suppose." A'Li smirked. "But why are you back? Didn't father and third uncle forbid you from coming back?"

"That's none of your damn business. We have some matters to attend to, so let us pass."

"How about… no."

They suddenly had us surrounded. Truthfully, we could've handled them easily, but Leo stopped us.

"Trust me A'Li. You do not want to anger me."

"Try me."

A'Li swung his fist at Leo, but the latter evaded it and tripped him instead. The former fell face-first to the floor.

"My… my nose! You broke my nose?!" A'Li screamed. "Get them!"

They all lunged, but Leo eyed us and we stepped out of the way. He was telling us he wanted to take care of his relatives himself. He kicked two, then elbowed one of them. He slapped another one and threw another person across the courtyard. In the end, they were all sprawled to the floor.

"Didn't know you could fight like that." I stated.

"Between becoming Artemis' and Seven's punching bag, you learn a thing or two." Leo crouched at A'Li's fallen figure. The latter's eyes were filled with fear. "You're the next head of the Chen Family, maybe you should grow up and be mature already. Let's go guys."

We just followed him out. Somehow, I had the feeling of being proud of him. I knew Leo was an outcast and was exiled from the Chen Family. He had been living a hard life in South Korea before getting discovered by MME and was scouted while in the middle of his part-time job. But even with such horrible memories, he put that aside to help Dean and Tim. Plus, he stood up against his jerk of a cousin.

"I've always wanted to do that. I felt like a heavy weight was finally lifted off my chest." he smiled as we walked in the hallway. "I didn't use my powers too."

"Kudos to that." Seven replied.

All of a sudden, I heard a strange sound and one by one, my brother and friends fell down. I felt a sting on my neck and I felt dizzy.

"What the hell -"

My vision blurred and I fell to the ground. Even with my clouded vision, I could see a pair of brown shoes stop in front of me.

"Who -" I didn't manage to finish my question because I blacked out.

I hated sleeping the past few days, but since my body demanded it because of our hectic schedule, I couldn't help it.

Whenever I slept, I get weird dreams. Even though most of them were about my past life, but how my death scene always played in a loop was very disturbing.

We thought the demon lord was already out of the count, but he was actually still alive. He was about to stab Artemis (Agymista's Artemis) with his cursed sword, but I intervened and took the blade for her. The thing about cursed weapons was, my normal healing abilities wouldn't be effective against it. It's wielder could also cast a curse on whoever was touching the weapon.

"What a foolish boy." the demon lord snarled. "Just for a woman you're willing to throw away your life. I ended up like this because of a woman as well, you know. Well then, you're already dying, and you can never be saved. I shall make you suffer as my revenge. I curse you to always remember, but those who will bear 'their' souls will not. Remember that."

I would wake up sweating and jittery after that. It sucked. But other times, I would dream about that empty space where I could converse with Xiena, the chief goddess of Agymista. The same sealed young man was still there and he would stir sometimes. Xiena would then kick me out.

When I woke up, I was in dark room. Light seeped in the small gaps of the boarded windows, but other than that, I couldn't see anything clearly. With the little light in the room though, I could make out the figures of my friends.

'Where's Chen?' I thought when I noticed he was missing among my friends sprawled to the floor.

I noticed that I wasn't tied up or anything so I began searching the room. But my younger brother was nowhere to be found. Once they all woke up, we began discussing what happened.

"So we got kidnapped." Calvin grimaced. "Again."

"At least my plan worked." Coby said.

"How are you so sure we got kidnapped by Shadow Garden?" asked Leo.

"You think those runny-nosed kids could so this?" Coby retorted.

He was referring to Leo's cousins. Leo looked like he was about to retort as well, but before he could even talk, the door to the room opened and a man with a dangerous aura entered.