As Caroline got dressed, she suddenly had a strange gut feeling.

 

It was not her shift, so she just put on some simple clothes and ran into the parking lot.

 

The car with the shiny red and gold paint, it was still in the parking lot.

 

“Hey, the guest you gave the free egg fried rice to yesterday evening, you checked her out?” right after barging into Jianmen’s room, Caroline asked hurriedly.

 

“Yeah. And what’s the rush?” Jianmen barely took his eyes off from the computer screen, “She left like there’s no tomorrow.”

 

“But she left her car here, so she couldn’t have left by her own will!” Caroline became really worried, “Crap, she must have been taken by other minions of the son of a bitch abuser!”

 

“You mean the daughter of a bitch.” Jianmen started chuckling.

 

“Why are you laughing? It is not funny!” Caroline was getting a little bit upset.

 

“It is a little bit funny.” Jianmen turned around and saw Caroline’s slightly angry expression, so he stopped his insensitive chuckling, ”look, I know you feel obligated to help her, OK? But you helped quite enough. I told you, she’s trouble. And I am not talking about a butch ex who has a few lackeys.”

 

“Then what do you mean? Care to explain? Or are you still gonna dish out riddles?” Caroline felt like she could not help but raise her voice.

 

“Relax, you know I cannot just tell you stuff. I don’t know most of it myself.” Jianmen answered in a calming voice shaking his head, “But, if you do feel she needed your help, something tells me you can find clues in her car.” then, he reached down from his computer desk and took out a car key: ”Lucky for you, our guest was in a hurry and was quite forgetful.”

 

“Thanks, Boss.” Caroline took the key and was almost ready to head out, then turned back to Jianmen and said: “ I’ll take more shifts if you’d like.”

 

“I’ll take your word for it.” Jianmen smiled and turned back to his computer, “Don’t forget, bring Jason when you need backup. And, don’t take this the wrong way - do trust your gut sometimes.”

 

“Ok. Thanks?” Caroline thought for a second whatever could Jianmen meant, but then she just decided it was just one of those riddles that she just complained about.

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After getting into the guest’s car, Caroline started searching for things that could be clues to the whereabouts of the off the book Mary Jane.

 

Just like any new owner of an expensive car, the car was kept quite clean, with almost no personal decorations. She did find a small box of napkins and some useless car related documents from the glove compartment. 

 

After reaching her fingers down to the small space under the big flat control screen, Caroline pulled out a piece of folded paper - a drive thru receipt to a fast food restaurant, dated to the day before yesterday.

 

Then under the driver seat, she found a single bullet still in the cartridge, and a small rolled up piece of paper with an address on. The place, after a quick search, turned out to be a relatively new one due to it being recently turned into a developer site for office buildings and movie studios.

 

“Emerson Street huh?” When Jason saw the address, he seemed to recognize the address: ”I heard that place is gonna be pretty cool, they are trying to build some of the next gen studios there. Couple of those big studios are teaming up with some tech companies, kind of a big deal for the movie and TV folks.”

 

“So why would someone running away from her abuser leave her car here, and with this kind of things laying in her car?” as Caroline and Jason waited around their table during lunch break, Caroline asked Jason.

 

“I don’t know, maybe she was in a hurry and she had to ditch her car to avoid being tracked?” Jason anxiously tapped the table as Jianmen was getting their lunch ready.

 

“But then she could just park her car nearby on the street somewhere and walk here. This place is not deserted, so that would give her ex more trouble.” Caroline scratched her right ear as she said, rather confusedly, “That’s what I’d do.”

 

“Well, not everyone has as much experience evading trackers or troublesome family members.” Jason shrugged.

 

“You can worry about those later, here’s your lunch.” Jianmen brough two big plates onto the table, inside each is a piece of slightly charred steak with mushroom, some kind of steamed vegetable roots as a side, and a small lump of chopped berries made from some unknown berries glazed with Jianmen’s homemade honey sauce.

 

“Wow, this is extra nice, what’s the occasion Boss?” Jason laughed as he happily rubbed his hands.

 

“This, is to celebrate your first breakthrough. You are officially first layer cultivators now. Here’s I will need to upgrade your bi weekly medicinal meal so you can continue with your cultivation properly.” Jianmen smiled and went back to get another smaller plate for himself, “a nice piece of marinated steak for your protein and more. Some mushrooms, some steamed Ling Gen roots to stabilize and harden your Spiritual Roots, and some chopped arcane berries of will to temper and harden your mind and help you shape your Intent, just like your medicinal bath tempers your bodies.”

 

“Yeah, about that, what is this ‘Intent’ anyway? You just started mentioning it and I am not sure I follow.” Jason swallowed a mouthful of steak, then asked.

 

“Intent, or the Chinese word ‘Yi’, is a special manifestation of one’s will power.” Jianmen smiled as he sipped his tea, then answered in an educating tone: “On the general and vague side it helps you dissect and understand the world around you and the powers that be. One the more concrete side it can transcend your moves and especially attacks. When you punch with Yi, your fist can strike  with the physical power to crush and bludgeon, and the spiritual power to lock onto your foe and shock them into inaction.”

 

“That is … not that helpful.” Caroline shook her head as she cut her steak into smaller pieces and ate up one small chunk, ”Steak’s delicious though. You should try getting into a competition.”

 

“Meh, I will join, once you two reached the second layer of cultivation, which will require you having a basic knowledge of my cultivation method and meditation method.” Jianmen laid back into his chair, “And of course, you will reach the second layer of your body tempering process, and the second layer of the martial arts I taught you.”

 

“And… what would that mean for us?” asked Jason.

 

“That would mean … you mean this? Won’t hurt you as much.” Jianmen grabbed the bullet on the table and showed it to both Caroline and Jason.

 

Both of them almost spit out their food in their mouths.

 

“Seriously? You are kidding right?” Caroline forcefully took the bullet away from Jianmen, “A bullet? What the hell? Are you gonna shoot us?”

 

“Relax, this is just a normal 9mm. And yeah, once you reached the second layer, as long as it is not point blank or over some critical areas, you will bruise and hurt, but you’ll live.” Jianmen chuckled with an extremely punchable expression.

 

“And how bulletproof are you, Boss? Can we test you?” Jason pointed his steak knife at Jianmen, with a jokingly jabbing motion.

 

“Yeah well, you see, I am very good at dodging attacks, so I have yet to find out.” Jianmen’s smile just became more punchable, “Just like I dodge trouble - I rarely get in trouble because I just lay low.”

 

“Geez, boss, way to dodge the important question as well.” Jason laughed and continued with his steak.

 

“Speaking of important questions, do you want your break this evening or not? You can have your answers or you can have a break this evening.” Jianmen put down his tea and asked in a half threatening tone.

 

“Break please, of course! That was not important at all.” Jason raised his hand and yelled.

 

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“Hey, is Miss Caroline Baker and Mr. Jie Lin here?” just the minute three of them finished their lunch, two tall and serious looking individual walked into the inn, one was a man with clean cut hair, tall nose, brow hair, brown eyes and bulging muscles that are barely hidden by his tight shirt under his jacket, the other was a handsome woman with black shoulder length hair, deep and brown eyes who looked additionally tall with her slim figure and long legs and her jeans and boots.

 

“Hello police sir and police lady, I no speak english. My employee help you.” Jianmen was no fan of dealing with cops, so he turned on the Chinese accent and laid out the “I don’t speak English” card and slithered back into the kitchen with all the dirty dishes.

 

“So, you are cops huh?” Jason sort of had no choice but to start talking to these two police officers, “How can I help you, officers?”

 

“Ok, first off, do we really look like cops?” the man from this duo frowningly asked Jason.

 

“Um, I am so sorry, are you not cops?”

 

“Yeah we are, but still!”