Chapter Text
After spending nearly a decade with the Wu family, Li Cu thought that nothing could surprise him anymore. He was proven dead wrong. They had all decided to go out to celebrate that weekend. Laoma had managed (somehow) to uncover a decades-old conspiracy within Warehouse 11 while adding several more "kids" to his ever-growing brood. (Pangzi had been giggling like a fool when Wu Xie explained all that had transpired during his stint at the Warehouse.) Piaopiao was more than happy to take in the Warehouse trio for a little bit while Rishan-yeye did a bit of house cleaning. Wu-nainai had taken upon herself to buy not only Piaopiao's salon but also the other businesses surrounding her with the claim that all of her money was going to rot away and why couldn't she use it to help the family? Lan Meifan even paid for some minor remodeling to be done on the surrounding buildings. Because of all that, Piaopiao had more room than she and her daughter could deal with; taking on a few tenants would be no trouble. Piaopiao had tried to refuse the offer. Similar to putting up a valiant effort in face of a tsunami. Li Cu had explained to the woman the way that Wu-nainai went about taking care of her family, always caring about their well-being and not about how money was spent. (Li Cu had seen her bank book one time, it was enough to almost make him spit blood with how many zeros he counted. That didn't include all the different pieces of art and antiques she kept about her home.) His adoptive great-grandmother was every bit a tigress as Pangzi described her to be.
They were all on their way to pick up Piaopiao and the others (animals included) when a loud gunshot caught their attention. Pangzi had hit the brakes so hard that he would’ve hit his head on the steering wheel if Su Wan hadn't acted so fast. Xiaoge had quickly pulled both Wu Xie and Li Cu out of the way. Liu Sang had hunched over the kitten’s carrier. Soon after a second shot rang out, much closer than the first one. Li Cu had to wonder if the shooters were blind because the cars that he and his family were in clearly belonged to the Sanctuary (the logo of the tiger rising out of a cloud and the name of the Sanctuary was printed underneath in an ice blue font) was painted on the side.
“The sound came from the direction of the salon!” Liu Sang shouted, popping back up. Worry seeping into his tone.
“That bastard!” flew from the fat man’s lips and before anyone could register what was happening, his foot hit the gas so hard that everyone was flung backward. Li Cu turned his head ever so slightly to catch a glimpse of the second car that was following, Kan Jian at the wheel. They were only a few blocks away. When they got there, it seemed like they stepped straight into an action movie scene.
Several guys dressed in dark suits ganged up on the Warehouse trio, and a figure shielding Piaopiao who tried to shelter her daughter and an additional child. Xiao Xiao and Xiao Xie were standing next to the mother, poised to attack the unlucky soul who dared to get any closer. Without a moment to lose, Laoba jerked the side door open, his sword in hand (how did he get that? He didn’t have it when they got into the van!). A swing with his sheathed sword and one went down like a sack of bricks. When the would-be attacker hit the ground, Li Cu got a good look at the other who was fighting against the thugs. It was the sniper from that mute village, Jiang Zisuan. The one who had some unspoken grudge against his Laoma. He had looked worse for wear; his clothes were ragged and he had a dirty bandage wrapped around his left arm. Li Cu had wanted to jump out of the van to attack the other male but he changed targets when he saw the sniper pull a suit away from Piaopiao after she had punched the creep in the nose. (Off to the side, Li Cu heard Pangzi whoop real loud.) Instead, the brunette delivered a spin kick to one thug’s head when the guy pulled out a knife. A grunt of pain escaped the grunt’s lips before he crumpled like a poorly made dumpling. Right behind Li Cu, Yang Hao grabbed a guy who must’ve been sneaking up on the other, because Li Cu had turned around just in time to see Yang Hao throw the guy over his shoulder by his captive’s arm. Once the creep hit the pavement, Yang Hao twisted the captured arm until it snapped. “You always leave your back wide open, Ya Li!”
“Because I know you’re right behind me.” Li Cu offered him a smirk before he reaching out to clothesline one thug who had been trying to run away from Tianzhen. Looking over to where his aunt was, Li Cu noticed that Su Wan and Laoma were standing next to the woman gripping a small, dirty child dressed in rags close to her chest. Xiao Mei was standing next to her mother with Stitch and Xiao Moli in front of the small group. The young girl was also using a smaller version of Kan Jian’s “battle” slingshot, using pebbles as ammo to shoot at any thug holding a weapon. She was almost as good as her “teacher”, though she mostly hitting the suits in the ass. Every time she hit one, Stitch would let loose one of his happy yips. One guy got too close to the small group, only to be blindsided by Lu Que. The “fisherman” had his reel wrapped around the guy’s throat. With an extra pull, the silver-haired male swung his catch into two others before Liu Sang and Kan Jian delivered a powerful kick that knocked the three onto the ground. Li Cu couldn’t feel any prouder than he did right then watching his “little brother” hold his own with their family. Even the Warehouse trio were holding their own with the help of Laoba. Xiao Bai would aim low, sometimes too low, while her two “brothers’ would aim high to send them flying for Zhang Qiling to finish off.
“Shit! These guys are too strong.” One of the thugs growled. All of his pals were either laying in a heap on the ground groaning, or outright unconscious. Li Cu took notice that his family was in a lot better shape, even if some of them were a little winded. Xiao Mei was smiling as she shouted at Kan Jian and his boyfriends about how all their training had paid off. All three men had bright smiles on their faces, even as her mother looked ready to scold them. Pangzi had taken it upon himself to look over his old childhood friend while Su Wan looked over Wu Xie and the child.
“This is Wu territory. This area is protected by the Tigress herself.” Li Cu proclaimed, pointing at the sign that hung above his aunt’s shop. In the bottom corner was a much smaller version of the logo on the vans. Several of the other shops in the area now had different variations of the logo somewhere in plain sight that showed they had some affiliation with Wu-nainai’s Sanctuary and the Wu family. The thug that was left standing turned pale as he took in his surroundings. A few of the others who were still on the ground came face to face with five very angry, very protective animals (one of which looked very much like a large bear). All of them tried to back away in fear but all they did was make their injuries worse and the animals growl in warning. Soon the sound of clapping could be heard. Turning to see who was making the noise, a large grin split Li Cu’s face nearly in two. “Rishan-yeye!”
Said man was dressed in his chairman attire. A dark chocolate suit with a dusty golden button-down peeking out from under the suit vest and jacket. At his side was his fiance, dressed in a formal changpao of a dark blue with a red scarf, holding their English creme puppy. To the other side of the Chairman was a pair of men, one of whom the young man recognized as one of his former college professors. The professor was dressed in a dark blue 3-piece suit much like his grandfather’s in style, while he wore a blank expression on his face. Standing next to his professor was a man that Li Cu had seen on a few occasions in the professor’s class. He always wore some outfit in white, much like he had done now. This one also looked like it was done by the same tailor that did Zhang Rishan and the professor’s as well.
“Professor Zhan…” Li Cu greeted his former teacher. It felt a little odd to see them with his “paternal” grandparents (Su Wan had joked that once Ba Ye married the Chairman, that would make the man Tiezui-nainai), but he was quickly coming to terms with the phrase “six degrees of separation”. It seemed like his life now was full of happenstance that connected his growing family to the people around his new “normal” life.
“Li Cu.” The older man acknowledged his student’s presence. “I should have known that you were the one he was always bragging about.” The doctor gave the Chairman a small glare. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him be more open than when talking about his ‘wife’ or his grandkids.”
“Not that I’m not flattered,” the young man felt his cheeks heat up, a small bit of joy fluttering to life in his heart. Though that might have also been a bit of adrenaline slowly ebbing out of his system from the fight. “But why are you here?”
“We’ve had a tip of a child trafficking ring,” the one in white said as he eyed Li Cu’s Laoba who was now standing next to his Laoma and Aunt. Piaopiao was still looking over the child over for major injuries with Su Wan and Wu Xie. Even from where Li Cu was standing, he could see rope burns around the wrists and ankles. (It was the injuries on the inside that were the hardest to heal. Especially ones to the heart.)
“Lan Meifan did not take kindly to the news of child traffickers in her territory.” Ba Ye had said as he set the puppy down to go over to the other animals, who were still on guard against the men laying on the ground. When it got close, Stitch nudged the puppy behind him where Xiao Mei had bent down to pick her up. The fortune-teller smiled as he watched them.
“That still doesn’t explain why you are here …” Li Cu motioned to the guys around them. Still one of them had made a move to get up, seeing as how they were now surrounded by a few officers that had now made their way over to them from where apparently Rishan-yeye had parked his car.
“Oh, that.” The Chairman’s fiance nodded to his spouse-to-be. “We had a little surprise for Piaopiao and Xiao Mei, again.” The older man pulled out two slips of paper from his inner coat pocket. Li Cu had noticed that she looked torn between walking over to meet the man with or without the child in her arms. Luckily, Li Cu’s Laoma easily took the child from her, soothing them just as Xiao Xie jumped up onto his shoulder. Piaopiao nodded to the younger man before turning to look at what the Chairman had offered her. The Warehouse Trio made their way over (Xiao Bai had an iron death grip on the sniper) to see what was given to their Dajie.
“These are…” Piaopiao’s eyes went wide with surprise as she read what was written on them. Curiosity got the better of him as he made his way over. Su Wan, Yang Hao, and Liu Sang followed after him. Leaning over her shoulder to read them, Li Cu could also feel his eyes bug out of his head as he saw several bank transactions in her ex-husband’s name from off-shore accounts from all over the world.
“Your husband apparently was laundering the money for our traffickers, pretty well in fact. Until someone found out about them…” The man in white said as he motioned for the officers to take the thugs away. “And apparently he did not know he had messed with the wrong tigress.”
“Nainai…” Li Cu saw the tears begin to gather in the corner of her eyes.
“We were able to pick him up half-drunk and babbling about how he missed the chance to sell his own daughter for some quick cash. It didn’t matter that she was sick.” Professor Zhan had reached into his pocket to give his aunt a handkerchief. The way that he had growled out daughter was something that Li Cu had never seen the man do. Usually, he was all calm and collected (unless dealing with his ‘partner’?). “When I found out that he was your ex-husband, I made a call to an old acquaintance.”
“On that second piece of paper is the most important surprise.” Ba Ye sounded excited as he motioned for her to take a peek. When she switched the papers, everyone reading it had to do a double-take at what it said. Not even Li Cu could believe what he was reading. He had to rub his eyes a few times to make sure he was reading it correctly.
“Lan Meifan had asked me to create a family tree for you to add to the ever-growing one at the Lan compound. An old tradition she said. As I did some digging, I noticed some inconsistencies with what was listed as your birthdate and what I calculated for you.” Ba Ye explained. “With a little help, I was able to dig up some old records. Apparently, you were adopted when you were a baby.”
“This is a lot to take in.” Piaopiao had said through a shaky breath. Li Cu could feel the world almost brighten as he read in the fortune-teller’s beautiful calligraphy at the list of relatives that he had found. At the very top was ‘ Qi Tiezui, maternal great uncle. Guo ChenChen, grandmother . Guo Jiayi, mother .’
“You’re her granduncle?” Su Wan shouted in surprise while Li Cu heard his boyfriend to a spit take as everyone digested the grand reveal. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Li Cu was just imagining all the implications of what the glasses-wearing man was saying. According to him, Piaopiao was a blood relation to an actual Old Nine Gates member, and that she now has even more connections to them than just through her informal adoption by Laoma and Nainai. His brain almost short-circuited trying to figure all of it out. And he had a feeling that he would need to see all the research that Ba Ye had put into this little project of his.
“While I don’t want to ruin the happy reunion, but what are we going to do about this one?” Xiao Bai raised the arm of her captor, who wasn’t really trying to get away. Li Cu had seen the man in action against Laoba in Zhang Qiling mode. The sniper could have easily broken her hold, no matter how superhuman her strength was. “I saw him following Xiao Xie from an alley. I know you said that she likes stealing kittens, but these two are a little too big to be kittens.”