You are not inferior from them

Three days had passed, and Mei Wang was a little worried, Melvin hadn't called him yet. 'Maybe he is still scared hopelessly', thought Mei Wang.

His secretary knocked on the door. "Come in", Mei Wang answered. The secretary came in, she looked somewhat scared, she said politely, "Sir there are police cops outside. They want to meet you."

Mei Wang thought it was strange, of course, he had done many things that could land him in prison, but each time he was very careful. He made sure that there was no proof left. Though he didn't want to praise himself, he was quite an expert in these things now. After all, he was doing these things for a long time.

He looked at his secretary and commanded, "Take them to the meeting room. I will be there in a few minutes." The secretary nodded and went away.

She knew most of the things done by Mei Wang and was very afraid of him. But her younger brother was critically ill and she couldn't bear the hospital expenses alone. She has no other way but to hide these things. She could only keep her mouth shut. After all Mei Wang paid her quite a hefty amount to keep her mouth shut.

But she was also not dumb. She knew someday Mei Wang would try his advances on her too. So she secretly collected some pieces of evidence against him and told him that if he ever tried to do anything to her, she would send the evidence to the police and commit suicide. Nonetheless, she was still frightened by him.

Mei Wang reached the meeting room and he saw two cops there waiting. Both of them were of strong build, while one was short and fair and the other was tall and a little tanned, "Sorry to keep you waiting, officers", he apologized.

The shorter cop said, "We understand, Mr. Mei." Then he introduced themselves, "I am Eddie Berger - Ivanov and this is my partner, Vladimir Ivanov."

"It's nice to meet you, officers", Mei Wang said while shaking their hands, "What can I do for you?"

The taller one, Vladimir said, "Mr. Mei, we are investigating a case. Do you know anyone by the name of Melvin Evans?"

Mei Wang said, "Melvin.... yeah Melvin I know him. He is my friend. Why? What happened to him? He was going abroad."

Eddie told him, "We are sorry for your loss, Mr Mei. It seems that he got in an accident on the way to the airport. We found his dead body in the forest.

Mei Wang enquired, "Melvin met an accident? What happened? Tell me all about it."

Vladimir said, "Mr Mei, it seems that his car crashed into a forest and a beast found him. A local has reported to us about it. We couldn't ascertain what type of beast it is but it's probably a bigger one."

Mei Wang was now scared, for a moment he thought 'Maybe the man was telling the truth.'

He asked the cops, "What does the post-mortem report say? Did he die by venom?"

Vladimir told him, "No Mr Mei, according to the report, both the bones in his legs are broken and his face and body were wounded very much. The beast was not venomous. Maybe it's just a ferocious animal or something like that. We couldn't recognise the victim's face and then we found his passport. After some investigation, we found that he was your friend. We apologise for your loss again."

Mei Wang thanked them and asked them when he could claim the body. "In a few days, Mr Mei," Eddie told him. After some formalities, they parted ways.

Mei Wang was now sitting on one of the chairs in the meeting room, he thought, "That scum! Even forgot how to drive. Now he got himself killed and I have to arrange a funeral for him!"

After some time he thought again, "For a moment I really thought that 'he' had come back. Hmph! such an absurd thought! How can he come back?"

****

The funeral for Melvin Evans was extravagant, but there was not a single person who was there to mourn for him. Each of them has to come for one reason or another. Some came because they couldn't reject the invitation of Mei Wang, while others came because they wanted to know for sure if Melvin was really dead.

Mei Wei was also there along with Aman but they didn't stay for too long. Although nobody was really there to mourn, everybody was estranged by the fact that Melvin's twin brother Kevin Evans didn't show his face. Neither Kevin nor Sage Saetang, the fourth member of their so-called group, came.

After this, everywhere in the business sector, there was the gossip that Kevin Evans, Melvin Evans' twin brother didn't come to his brother's funeral. Everyone felt shocked to know this.

*****

On the other side, in a different country when Kevin Evans heard the news of his brother's death he felt momentarily sad. Then he looked around the boys and girls around him who were there for his entertainment. He smiled broadly and started having fun.

'About his brother's funeral? Mei Wang could arrange it. He doesn't want to go to a boring place when he can have fun here,' he thought.

*****

A month has passed and everyone has already forgotten about Melvin and his death in the forest. Mei Wei was sitting alone in the living room, reading a book. Today Aman was not here. He was on leave. Every month Aman took his leave only for one day. He never told Mei Wei what he really does on this holiday of his, always making some excuse.

The only thing Mei Wei felt on this day was frustration, he knew that Aman had the right to go anywhere he wanted, without telling him. But it doesn't mean he has to like it. That's why on this day, nobody messed with him. But today a guest came to disturb him.

None other than Alex Cooper.

Alex saw Mei Wei sitting alone in the living room and asked him, "Young master Mei Wei, why are you sitting alone? Where is Aman?"

Mei Wei replied, a little annoyed, "He is not here."

But Alex was not the one who liked to shut up without knowing things completely. He asked again, "What do you mean by he is not here? Where does he go? How can you not know? He tells you every single thing."

Alex has stepped upon Mei Wei's painful nerve because it was the only thing Aman hadn't told him and he was really frustrated about it. He shouted angrily, "What does it have anything to do with you? It's my business if he has told me or not. Why are you so pestering? Aman has never shown interest in you but you keep pestering him. Aren't you shameless?"

Having called shameless Alex also became angry, he shouted, now enraged, "Yeah, you are right. He doesn't show any interest in me because he has to take care of a big baby like you, 24 hours a day. How can he have time to look at others? How can he know that I love him? He is always burdened by you."

Mei Wei shouted again, "You.. you what nonsense are you spouting? I am not a burden to Aman." Alex snorted. Mei Wei continued, "Moreover you don't love him. You just like him because he has good looks and a good physique."

Alex spoke again, "So what if I like him because of his looks? Think about it, how good both of us will look as a couple."

Mei Wei angrily, "You can't be a couple."

"So you can? I ask you, Mei Wei, have you ever looked at yourself in a full-length mirror? It's only your face that is rather good but what about the rest of the body? Tusk...tusk... look at you. You don't have any muscle at all and now look at me, I have biceps and six-pack abs. But most importantly I can walk. If someday Aman accidentally stumbled, I can at least help him. Not like you, who needs help from him. You are just a burden. If something happens to him, you can't help him. On the contrary, he has to help you instead. Such a pity."

Mei shouted now completely enraged, "You...you ...get out of my house, now. Get out." Alex stomped his feet and went away.

Mei Wei sat there for a very long time, thinking about the things Alex said. He didn't even realise that it was already night now. After some time he called a servant and said, "Take me to my room and arrange a full-length mirror." It looked like the servant wanted to say something but he compiled Mei Wei's orders.

Mei Wei was now sitting in front of the mirror, he looked at his reflection. As Alex said his face was very good, he had black hair that curled at the end, a pair of phoenix eyes with shining black pupils, thin red lips and a structured face but then he looked at the rest of his body. Sitting in the wheelchair, although his upper body was healthy, but compared to Alex's fit and muscled body, he had nothing.

He felt very disappointed. He looked in the mirror, but now he didn't see his reflection, but he saw Aman there standing not with him, but Alex. As Alex said they really were looking good. He saw Aman stumbled upon a rock, but before he could fall, Alex saved him.

The scenery changed again. It was not Alex but he and Aman this time, they were on some type of mountains. Suddenly Aman's foot slipped, and he fell off the mountain, but he caught a tree branch. Aman was pleading to Mei Wei to save him but he couldn't do anything. At last, Aman fell off the mountain.

Seeing this Mei Mei shouted, "Nooooooo...." he then broke the mirror with his bare hand. His hand was heavily bleeding, it was painful but Mei Wei didn't pay attention to it.

Suddenly hurried footsteps could be heard, the door opened and Aman burst into the room, he looked at the condition of the room and saw Mei Wei bleeding. He sighed. He went there and took Mei Wei to the bed. He then opened the first aid box and started to mend Mei Wei's hand. Mei Wei was silent the entire time.

Aman started speaking, "The servant told me everything. Don't believe in that rubbish. Alex is crazy."

"Aman, am I a burden to you?" he asked suddenly.

Aman answered without even thinking, "Not at all. You are not a burden. People who say that you are a burden are the people, I hate the most."

Mei Wei said again, "But Aman it's true. Even if you don't believe me, everybody knows that I am a burden. People give me respect if I go somewhere, but I know what they say behind my back. Why, Aman why? Why am I inferior to them?

"You are not inferior to them", Aman told him like he was stating a fact.

But Mei Wei argued again, "It is indeed true that I am inferior to them. I can't take care of the things I love. Even if something happens to them, I can't help them at all. Why am I like this?" Aman hugged him tightly and started combing his hair with his fingers.

Mei Wei started crying, he was still hugging Aman and said, "I want to walk, Aman. I want to walk shoulder to shoulder-with them. I want to take care of you like you take care of me."

Aman was rubbing his head with his other hand, he wiped his tears and said, "Shh....shh. My Prince, you are a good boy, right? "

At this, Mei Wei nodded. "Right so listen to me carefully, first always remember you are not by any means inferior to anyone. You are my favourite human being. Secondly, you are not a burden to anyone, especially not me. You don't have to change yourself, everybody likes you as you are."

Mei Wei was still adamant, "But I want to walk, to run, to jump. Is there anybody that can help me?" Seeing Mei Wei's pitiful state Aman was silent for a long time. He was still hugging Mei Wei but now loosely.

He then asked Mei Wei, "Do you really want to walk?"

Mei Wei nodded and said, "Yes but Grandpa has already contacted the world's best doctors for me but they couldn't cure me."

Suddenly Aman looked into his eyes and said, "If you really want to walk I can help you".