Fight, Flight, or Freeze: The Healer's Story
Chapter 361: I Vote For His Idea

Chapter 361: I Vote For His Idea

I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing at the expression on Rip’s face as Wang Chang Ming asked him that question.

It took him a couple of minutes to recover before he could give a response. Keeping a completely straight face, he replied, "I don’t know; why don’t we test that theory? Next time you are having fun, I’ll come and take it away. Sounds good?"

Now it was Chang Ming’s turn to be stupefied as his face paled and his mouth opened and closed a few times. "No, it doesn’t sound good! It sounds bad, and stupid, and something that I really, really don’t want to do!"

"All right, you two," I said, interrupting their argument. Let’s get some sleep."

"But... but my fun," groaned the child as if Rip was really going to try and take it away.

"If Daddy Rip takes it away, then Silly Daddy can give it right back," I sighed, turning away from the guys and heading into the hotel. What I really wanted to know was who was letting my son leave the building by himself anyway.

Someone really should have been here by now, looking for him frantically.

"Whose turn is it to look after you?" I asked, looking over my shoulder as I opened the door to the building. Before anyone could answer, I was barrelled over by Hu Wen Cheng.

"Sorry!" he grunted, not actually looking at me. "Did you happen to see a boy? About three years old? He should be around here somewhere. I turned my back for like a minute, and he was gone."

"It was more like two hours," sneered Chang Ming, clearly not impressed with the older man. "And I told you that I was going to wait in the lobby until Mommy and Daddies came."

"But that was days so," sighed Hu Wen Cheng, catching himself in his words quickly. He looked at me, recognizing me for the first time, and started to panic. "That doesn’t mean that I have left him alone in the lobby to wait for you for days. It means that he told me that if he disappeared, that was where he would be. Which is why I came here looking for him. Which is why I ran into you."

"Okay," I said, holding up my hand. "I need you to take a breath and calm down. No one is upset... yet. What’s going on that is causing you to be like this?"

"I didn’t want you to think that I couldn’t look after a three-year-old when you put me in charge of all of this city’s policing operations," replied Hu Wen Cheng, looking a bit sheepish. It is easier to deal with adults than it is with a kid."

"I agree," I nodded slowly. "Don’t worry." I mean, I really was partly to blame. I was the one who left my child with strangers that I had really only known for a few months. Strangers who were now in charge of rebuilding an entire city.

Plus, it wasn’t like Wang Chang Ming was injured or upset.

All’s well that ends well, and all that.

Hopefully, we can figure out babysitting duties some other way, especially with us all at the cabin together from now on. There was no need to leave our child to someone else.

"I’m never going to be looking after that kid again, am I?" asked Hu Wen Cheng, a dejected look on his face.

"Nope," I agreed. "But just think. Instead of looking after an actual child, you will have all this extra time to deal with adults that act like children."

He snorted as I walked inside the hotel, the rest of the guys following behind me.

"Your room was left empty for you," shouted Hu Wen Cheng as we strolled past him to the stairs.

"It better have been," answered Bin An Sha with a smile that was definitely not a smile.

-----

When we first arrived at the hotel after our exodus from City A, I had thought that this room was perfect. The mattress was better than anything I had ever slept on, and it just gave me a feeling of safety.

However, after three days between the bunker and the cabin, this hotel... sucked.

I spent the night tossing and turning, and I could have sworn that Chang Ming knew every time I had just fallen asleep because that was when he decided to give me a swift kick to the ribs.

Yeah, I was really looking forward to going back home, but I wanted to make sure that there was nothing that I couldn’t help with here first.

By the time the sun rose, I was absolutely exhausted but rearing to go at the same time. It was a weird combination that made me feel like I was both on a coffee high and that I couldn’t keep my eyes open to save my life.

And apparently, I wasn’t the only one to have had a bad sleep.

"I want to go home," whined Si Dong as he stretched out as best he could. "Can we go home?"

"Yup," I replied, trying my best not to look in the mirror to see the bags under my eyes. "Just gotta see if there is anything that we can do."

"Bah, we got here because of you. That really should be enough," grunted Rip as he rotated his head, trying to work the kinks. If we were outside, I could have easily given both them and me a boost of energy, but as it was, I was about ten floors up and completely out.

"Just think about it this way," interjected Bin An Sha, the voice of reason. "The sooner we see Zhao Jun Jie, the sooner we can leave and the sooner we can get home."

"Yup!" shouted Wang Chang Ming, coming to his feet on the mattress and bouncing up and down. "I vote for his idea."

Chuckling, we quickly got ready and headed out.