?


    Wang Chao knew that he had screwed up when he agreed to help Commander Huang Nian Zu with his mission. In fact, he had told Li Dai Lu that and even apologized for it. But he hated to be questioned. Especially questioned by the men around him.


    However, they did have a good point. He had promised Li Dai Lu that he would stop answering the calls of humans, and he had yet to keep that promise. Was he really worthy of standing by her side if he was willing to sacrifice the five of them for outsiders?


    "I understand," said Liu Wei softly,ing up and sping Wang Chao on the shoulder. "I really do. But I think what the others are trying to say is also correct. We need to have a better understanding of where the orders areing from before we offer our support."


    "What happens if it is the head of a safe zone that is sending military members out toplete the missions for them? I am sure that you have met more than your fair share of leaders that shouldn''t be leaders. Are you really willing to help those men simply because their underlings asked?"


    "Then what do we do?" asked Wang Chao, putting aside his pride. He needed to change his thinking. Instead of following themands of a higher-up, he needed to realize that Li Dai Lu was his ultimate authority. He would not make a decision and then tell the Leader how it was going to be. Instead, he would talk to the Leader before making any decision.


    "We talk to Li Dai Lu and ask her what she thinks," said Liu Yu Zeng with a shrug. "But seeing as she is sleeping, I think it would be best if you two went and tried to find us a ce to spend the night," he continued, trying to give the other two men the hint to fuck off.


    Liu Wei looked at his brother. He got the hint that he wanted to talk to Chen Zi Han but did not understand exactly why he couldn''t do it with the other two around.


    With a shrug, he started to walk down the beach, wanting to see if there were any cabanas that they could safely spend the night in.


    Wang Chao looked at Liu Yu Zeng in confusion before following Liu Wei.


    "Alright, they are gone. What do you need?" asked Chen Zi Han. Li Dai Lu was sleeping soundly in his arms, and he wasn''t willing to disturb her.


    "I think you and I need to start training again. Like we did in the old days," said Liu Yu Zeng, looking out over the horizon and watching the sun set on what had to be the longest day of his life.


    "We aren''t exactly 18 anymore," said Chen Zi Han, following Liu Yu Zeng''s gaze. "What brought this on?"


    "Li Dai Lu," admitted the other man. "We were talking in her space and she asked me how good of a fighter I was."


    "That seems random," remarked Chen Zi Han, raising his eyebrows in surprise. Li Dai Lu never seemed to care about things like that. Not like how some of the other women interested in them were.


    "I agree. However, she said that if I wanted to be by her side all the time, I had just under two years to be good enough to be able to take out a Reaver."


    "She is nning something then," said Chen Zi Han curiously. "Something she wasn''t originally nning on letting us know about."


    "And it is important that she is nning this years in advance."


    "Okay then," answered Chen Zi Han. "We might not be 18 anymore, but I like to think that I have picked up a few tricks in that time. Now, the real question is … do we tell the others?"


    "I don''t think we can," admitted Liu Yu Zeng, knowing that that part was going to be hard. The four of them were a team. They might fight, but they no longer kept secrets from each other. Not if they wanted everything to work.


    "That''s fine," said Chen Zi Han with a shrug, not really as upset over the idea.


    "You seem strangely fine about that," said Liu Yu Zeng suspiciously, his eyes narrowing at the other man in concern.


    "I am," replied the other man. "But I see this rtionship differently than you do."


    "How do you see it?" asked Liu Yu Zeng, intrigued. It was one of the reasons why he had Chen Zi Han as his second. The man could look at the same situation ande up with a solution that he had never considered.


    "You three seem to think that this rtionship is a circr thing, that we all have to get along with each other for the best result."


    "And you don''t see it like that," said Liu Yu Zeng, wondering how else to think about their rtionship.


    "I don''t," admitted the older man. "I think of it more like a sun. Li Dai Lu is in the center, keeping us in her orbit." He took a finger in the sand and drew a circle with four linesing out of it. "At the end of the day, the only rtionship that matters is the one that we have with Li Dai Lu." He made a separate oval around the line and the circle four times. "As long as you are putting Li Dai Lu first in all things, then the rtionship with the other men will be fine. If you don''t put her first, then your rtionship with everyone will suffer."


    "Kind of like Wang Chao," said Liu Yu Zeng.


    "Exactly. You know him better than I do, so maybe that is why you fight to maintain the rtionship between you and him to the point where you feel ufortable at the idea of keeping something secret from him. But I look at it as Li Dai Lu is the one keeping the secret. If I am in on it, then that is because she trusts me. It is not my ce to decide for her who needs to know the secret."