The summer night sky shimmered with stars. A cool and refreshing night wind blew in from the window, carrying away the heat in the room.

“You did great today.” Long Bing snuggled lazily in Xia Lei’s embrace, her voice tender.

“You mean the bombing of Fan Fan’s laboratory? I’ve long wanted to do that,” said Xia Lei.

“Nope, that’s not what I meant,” said Long Bing lazily.

Xia Lei looked a little surprised. “Then what were you talking about?”

“Nn, I’m talking about what we just did.”

Xia Lei was speechless.

Section Chief Long made jokes once in a while, but her jokes were cold jokes.

“Where did that Su Xiao take you?” Xia Lei changed the topic.

“I don’t know.” Long Bing tried to recall the situation. “She covered my head when I was being taken away so I couldn’t see the roads. However, I know that she deliberately drove in a big loop before bringing me to the destination. Afterwards, she took me to a closed interrogation room.”

“What did she ask you?”

“Nothing at all.”

“Nothing at all?”

“She really didn’t ask me anything. I was just confined there for around 30 hours before she brought me to your company,” said Long Bing.

The reason why they didn’t ask anything was evidently because they didn’t want Long Bing to know too much. Fan Fan had just regarded her as a bargaining chip she could take advantage of from the beginning. However, she had used the chip outside of the gambling den, and never in the core of the game.

‘That girl Fan Fan really wasn’t a simple woman. But then again, she is the country’s greatest bioengineer as well as a core member of Bureau ZN. It’d be strange if she was a simple woman,’ Xia Lei thought.

He had been deceived by a total of three women — Liang Siyao, Shentu Tianyin, and Fan Fan. None of the three were simple, but if you were to rank them, Fan Fan would undoubtedly be the champion. When it came to scamming somebody, she was even better at it than Shentu Tianyin.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I dragged you into this.” Xia Lei released a sigh before he said apologetically, “If it wasn’t for me, you wouldn’t have had to go through this.”

“Don’t say that, I don’t want to hear it.” Long Bing glared at Xia Lei. She knew he had a lot of secrets but she never pried. She also knew that being with him would be very unstable, but she had never been bothered by it.

Xia Lei was moved. His hand, too, started making small movements. “Then what would you like to hear?”

Long Bing flipped around abruptly and pressed Xia Lei to the floor below her. “Enter me.”

Xia Lei was speechless.

The dead of the night was filled with amourous sounds.

Long Bing left Thunder Horse Military Factory the next morning. She had been, for some reason, taken away by Bureau ZN for interrogation, but was never asked a question from beginning to end.

Xia Lei saw Long Bing off before going to the villa alone.

The villa wasn’t completely destroyed. Only Fan Fan’s laboratory room had been bombed. Two of the room’s walls had broken down, but the damage wasn’t serious and it wouldn’t affect the structural integrity of the villa.

Xia Lei had just arrived when Wu Xiaoguo strode up to him, his face filled with anger. “Mr Xia, you brought in a plastic engineering box yesterday. Was that where you stored the explosives? You’re too brazen, too reckless!”

“Explosives?” Xia Lei’s voice was calm. “Don’t make random guesses. The box was just full of cosmetics.”

“You...” Wu Xiaoguo stood there angrily. As the colonel of the Special Forces in charge of defending the ancient alloy, he had never ever been ridiculed like this. Xia Lei had always treated him politely before, but he didn’t have the least bit of respect for him now!

Xia Lei continued talking. “Colonel Wu, let me tell you this. I don’t care who ordered you, nor do I care who you’re working for, I just want to remind you of one thing. If you don’t treat me with respect, Thunder Horse Military Factory will not give you food or housing from today on. You guys will have to settle that yourselves. Oh right, Thunder Horse Military Factory’s bathrooms also won’t be accessible by you, so you’ll also have to settle that yourselves.”

Wu Xiaoguo was frozen in shock.

“Your responsibility is to defend the ancient alloy and that’s all your scope of authority is limited to. Do you understand what I mean? You’d best not interfere with anything else apart from that. If you go against what I said, I’ll immediately make a report to the higher-ups for you guys to be replaced.” Xia Lei’s voice was stern.

“No, no, no, I understand.” Wu Xiaoguo immediately complied. “I don’t know what my men did to make Mr Xia misunderstand, but I guarantee that this won’t happen again.”

Xia Lei smiled faintly. “Then that’s settled, Colonel Wu.”

“Settled indeed.” Wu Xiaoguo said, “Oh right, Mr Xia, when will the villa be restored?”

Xia Lei glanced at the ruined laboratory and said, “I’m not planning on fixing it. Just let it stay like this.”

“Just let it stay like this?” Wu Xiaoguo seemed very surprised.

Xia Lei looked at Wu Xiaoguo. “Can’t I do that?”

Wu Xiaoguo shrugged. “Your house, your rules. All right, let’s start doing our own work.”

Xia Lei entered Fan Fan’s laboratory, straight through the ruined wall.

His aim in not repairing the laboratory was simple. He wanted anyone who entered to be able to see its existence at a glance and his determination — if I want to explode my things, I will!

The laboratory was in a mess. All kinds of research equipment were blasted to pieces and all of the leftover data and samples had been destroyed.

Xia Lei’s mood felt lighter as he looked at the mess.

Blowing up the laboratory, falling out with Bureau ZN, becoming hostile with Yu Shanhe, all of this sent a powerful and unyielding message — I, Xia Lei, am not someone who you can tamper with as you like! If you guys want the advanced tech, then don’t touch me. If you want to use me for your goal, then you won’t get anything!

He had to remind them that they couldn’t always get everything they wanted and that they had to pay the price for moving against him.

This was a turning point. Now that he had stepped into this pit, the resistance inside China will temporarily fade away and he could shift his energy to the international marketplace. There was also the Alloy X project.

Footsteps sounded behind him, a sound fairly specific to the rapping of high heeled shoes.

Xia Lei turned his head to see Fan Fan.

Their eyes met. Xia Lei was calm, but Fan Fan seemed a little embarrassed.

“Um... Mr Xia.” Fan Fan started to say something, but hesitated.

Xia Lei just nodded.

Fan Fan adjusted her spectacles. “All right, I’m sorry.”

Xia Lei just nodded again.

Fan Fan shrugged. “Hey, don’t you want to curse at me? You can even slap me. I won’t mind. I’m serious.”

Xia Lei then said, “Is that necessary? What’s the point in cursing you and slapping you?”

“Then can we still...” Fan Fan peeked at Xia Lei. She had not finished speaking but she was already watching for Xia Lei’s reaction.

Although she didn’t finish, Xia Lei knew what she wanted to say. She wanted to ask if they could return to what they were like before. He smiled. “Do you want to continue studying me?”

“You know I’m not talking about that,” said Fan Fan.

Xia Lei changed the topic. “I know you and Ling Han have a competitive relationship. I can help you get more capital than him and seize the position of Bureau Chief. But my prerequisite is that you must not leak my secret. Furthermore, you can’t use me in your schemes.”

Fan Fan smiled bitterly. “I already nodded and agreed to all of this yesterday. I’m talking about...”

They’d come back to this topic again.

Xia Lei stared straight at Fan Fan, but he couldn’t see if she was being serious or faking it. He didn’t know if she still had some sort of goal, such as continuing to study him, or if she still wanted his ‘Super Little Lei Lei” or something like that. Right now, she seemed like a cultured beauty, just like a university teacher. However, she was in fact a deeply undercover, mysterious, and powerful figure.

“All right, maybe I was too anxious.” Fan Fan smiled awkwardly. “I’ll give you some time, and also give myself some time.”

Xia Lei nodded again.

Fan Fan continued, “Furthermore, I want to make something clear. I deceived you, but you also deceived me. Admit it, you also had a goal when you approached me. I knew you were deceiving me, but I still let you do so. The time I spent with you was the happiest period in my life, and I don’t regret it in the slightest. So please don’t build a wall in your heart against me because I deceived you. Honestly, only three people know your secret. Me, you, and my assistant Su Xiao. There are absolutely no problems with her loyalty so you don’t have to worry.”

“Are you saying we’re even then?” Xia Lei smiled flatly. “Fine then, we’re even.”

“Then let’s shake hands.” Fan Fan extended a hand towards Xia Lei.

Xia Lei grasped her hand and in that moment, he could clearly feel how sensitive her palm was. The reaction was impossible to fake.

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“Stop observing me. My special constitution is very real indeed. I didn’t lie to you about that.” Fan Fan rolled her eyes at Xia Lei. “It’s not like you haven’t done it with me before and don’t know what my body is like.”

Xia Lei smiled a little awkwardly.

“All right.” Fan Fan withdrew her hand. “I brought you a present today.”

“What present did you bring?”

“I brought you China Construction Bank’s boss. He’s in your office right now and you can chat with him whenever you have time. He can lend you 20,100,000,000,” said Fan Fan.

Xia Lei was speechless.