The Jade Seal
Page 14
“Please forgive my oversight, my Princess. I had feared for your safety, and hidden you in Australia until you turned eighteen years old. I did everything to protect you…” Huang said, trembling with regret.
“Thank you, Uncle Huang. I’m grateful for what you did.” I put my hand out to him. Huang rose, took my hand and kissed it.
“Please leave with your men. You’ll be well looked after in your retirement,” I said to Huang.
“Thank you, my Princess.” Huang, Mrs Gan and the group of shaved head men left the Yuwen Foundation’s office, carrying their casualties with them.
Matsuda closed the door, and helped Shinkichi and Sean to pile up the rifles that they took from the gunmen in a corner of the office.
“The kid popped out from nowhere, but at the right time. Now, I’ve earned some spare rifles for my regiment; ha-ha, ha-ha,” Sean laughed with joy, counting the rifles with Shinkichi and Matsuda.
“Your Highness.” Sikaichi knelt in front of me.
I gave him the Jade Seal. “Sikaichi-san, I entrust you with the Jade Seal. Please keep it safe.”
“Your Highness, I’ll protect it with my life.”
“You must come to me when I call you.”
“Yes, I will always do.” Sikaichi kissed my hand and flew out of the window in a flash of green light.
“Kid, are you playing with your Jade Seal again?” Sean asked, smiling at me.
I immediately realised that no one could see Sikaichi except me.
“Babe…” Shinkichi swept me off the ground, holding me up with both hands; and running around the room as if he had just found a piece of lost treasure; then he put me down, and caressed every inch of my face.
“I can’t believe you’re here. Did the Jade Seal bring you here? No… I mean, were you hiding inside the Jade Seal? Were you the one who hit me and kicked my tummy all the way from Blagoveshchensk?”
“That’s because you didn’t listen.”
“Mate, it was 'payback time' for you; ha-ha, ha-ha,” Sean laughed.
“Ha-ha, ha-ha, ha-ha,” we laughed and laughed all the way to Sean’s favourite hotel, the Oceana Beach Club Hotel.
In the following weeks, Matsuda engaged a team of experts to help us to take over the operations of the Yuwen Estate and Yuwen Foundation. We ceased the operation of the Yuwen Foundation, but recovered only a fraction of its losses by liquidating Ibin Gan’s assets. We segmented the Yuwen Estate, and invested the assets into Japanese corporations. Shinkichi took a position of executive in these corporations.
Sean was busy, too. Most of the time, he did not come back to the hotel until mid-night; and sometimes did not return to the hotel at all. As usual, he did not tell us what he did or where he had been.
After weeks of hard work, it was time to go home. As we walked past a newsagency on our way to the boarding lounge of Japan Air at LA International Airport, the Los Angeles Times caught my eyes: ‘Businessman Huang Xin took his own life’ in big bold letters on the front page. I took the newspaper off the shelf.
‘The body of Huang Xin was found at the grave of Mr Yasumichi Yuwen, his late employer, who died in a car accident about 10 years ago. A note was found in his hand stating that he had betrayed the trust of his late employer…’
I passed the newspaper to Shinkichi. He read it and gave the newspaper to Sean, who read it along with Matsuda.
Tears fell down my cheeks. “Why did it end this way?” I sobbed.
Shinkichi took me into his arms.
Author’s biography
Yuriko Taira has held a Master Degree in Law, and worked for the Government of Australia. Yuriko has a passion for history and geography and loves animals. She concerns about planet Earth and participates in activities of environmental protection. Yuriko has travelled to many places in Asia and the USA. The knowledge and experience that she has acquired from higher education, travelling and the workplace inspired her to write. The Jade Seal is a fiction based on the observation of the author and life experience of the people who she met during travelling. It is a thriller combining action, crime, fantasy and romance in one.