The handsome man was awake while his beauties were fast asleep.

𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

A fully-clothed Xia Lei turned around to watch Annina and Sylvia snore away while snuggled in their blankets. They deserved the rest, as they must have been exhausted slaving away for Thunder Horse’s engine. Recalling last night’s rendezvous, Xia Lei’s heart hummed in contentment. It used to be tough for him to handle the two Germans. He’d be drop-dead exhausted by the end of each session back then. But now things were different. He was a much stronger man.

His powers had evolved, proving his past guess correct but Xia Lei remained speechless at his discovery.

Exiting Sylvia and Annina’s room, he caught sight of his father feeding the koi in the pond. He approached the older man. “Father.”

Xia Change nodded. “Are you heading to the office?”

“Yeah, I managed to get my hands on some AI technology from Japan. Now that I have to remain incognito, I’ll have time to sort things out to see if it could be used on our products,” replied Xia Lei.

“Has it ever crossed your mind that the Americans and Japanese want you dead because of your capabilities? The West and Japan had kept their technologies away from us for years, but you’ve messed up their pacing with all your advancements. If you’re going to continue on this path, you’ll come to face increasingly difficult obstacles with no signs of ceasing. Is this really what you want?”

Xia Lei let out a raspy laugh. “Father, what are you trying to say?”

“You know what I’m talking about.” Xia Changhe continued, “I admit that you had a rough childhood in poverty thanks to me. But look, you’re a billionaire now with money that could last us for generations. Have you really not thought of stopping?”

“Stopping? If my retirement could guarantee peace, I’ll consider it. However, you know that things will not stop there. Even if I washed my hands clean and leave the military industry behind, the Americans will not let me go, the same goes for the FA organization. Stopping now will not bring any benefit nor harmony to me, it’ll only send my efforts down the drain.”

Xia Changhe fell silent.

The younger male continued, “Father, life is short. I don’t care about how much I earn and how long I can live a peaceful life. Our kind has been bullied by the West for centuries. The soil of this nation is soaked with lots of blood, sweat, tears, and humiliation. Nothing has changed. We will face this form of discrimination for years to come. I’m not an extreme patriot but I’d like to contribute something to my country and its people within my capabilities. If I don’t do anything, I’d be wasting my talents, in which I’ll regret when I’m old and feeble.”

Xia Changhe sighed. “I’ve never taught you anything about patriotism, but you grew to be so passionate about our country. Now that you’ve mentioned it, I certainly do feel less daring compared to you when I was young. Perhaps a life of peace has rendered me soft. But your point is taken. I’ll support you no matter what you choose to do.”

“Father, what made you bring this topic up to me? Did something happen?” The younger male was perplexed.

Xia Changhe gave a wobbly smile. “I really can’t hide anything from you, huh? Well, I found out who betrayed you.”

Xia Lei’s heart thumped. “Who was it?”

“It turned out to be Yu Shanhe’s underling, Song Baicheng. Even though Song Baicheng was majorly involved, his actions had definitely received support and approval from his boss or Ling Han.”

“That was what Liang Siyao told me too. But I dared not mention it to him due to the lack of evidence. How did he find out?” wondered Xia Lei in his mind.

“Yu Shanhe is no small fry. Your superiority and success in the military industry would indicate large losses for the others. Naturally, they would not be happy about this. Enemies are everywhere and there are problems plaguing our home. Our family was never influential, to begin with, and you’re the sole pillar of it. You bear an unbelievably heavy burden! That’s why I thought of asking you to leave the industry.”

Xia Lei paused for a while. “Father, how did you learn of it?”

“I have my own ways, son. The tiger had returned last night, so I sent him to that Japanese restaurant and he managed to steal their CCTV footage. He’ll be passing you something when you return to your office. I think you’ll understand after seeing it.”

“Father, what...”

“That’s enough, you should head back to work,” murmured Xia Changhe before he continued to feed the fishes. As soon as the pellets hit the water surface, eager koi fishes came swarming up to swallow it, creating splashes in the process.

Xia Lei’s lip twitched. He was debating saying something but ultimately decided against it. Soon, he left.

“Oh, wait. I almost forgot something.” Xia Changhe spoke from behind, “Tang Yunhai had invited me over to Shu Di for tea. I’m quite excited to travel to Shu Di. It’s the ancient Land of Abundance and it’ll be my first visit there.”

Xia Lei’s footsteps became stiff. He turned around to face his father. “Father, what... will you be doing in Shu Di?”

“Hmm? Didn’t I just mention that I will be there for tea?”

Would Tang Yunhai really invite Xia Changhe over purely for tea?

This meant big trouble. Xia Lei’s smile was bitter. “Father, please promise me something. Just go there for tea and don’t agree to anything else, okay?”

Xia Changhe’s smiled wryly. “What do you mean?”

“Uh, like... marriage for an example.”

“Ah, you mean Tang Yuyan? I actually find her quite decent. She’s intelligent, witty and from a reputable family. Son, you’re not young anymore. It’s about time you settle down and get married. Mind I remind you that I’d like to have grandchildren before I die. Plus, who are you planning to leave your billion-dollar legacy to? It better not go all into charity!” Xia Changhe’s anger intensified with each word, making him aim a handful of fish feed towards his son.

The younger male quickly dodged it with a leap, running away from the scene while he screamed, “Father, I’ve already reminded you. If you do happen to agree to it, the problem will be yours and you’d have to figure it out yourself!”

Clatter! Another handful of fish feed was sent flying towards Xia Lei. “Bastard, are you trying to anger me to death?! You’re my only son! Who else could I find a bride for if not you?”

By then, there was no answer.

The old man sighed. How could a parent not worry about their child’s future? Being an ex-special force didn’t provide him immunity to such parental concerns.

Ring... Ring...

Xia Changhe’s phone rang.

He quickly slid his phone out to answer it. A smile bloomed on his face as soon as he recognized its caller. “Oh, Mister Tang, hello. Yeah, my flight is this afternoon... Yuyan will pick me up? No need for that, I can get myself over. Ah, I see... Alright, alright. I’ll see you soon, bye.”

Xia Lei would remain blissfully unaware of this call.

Meanwhile, Xia Lei had made it to the entrance of Thunder Horse Military Factory. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of E’er Demutu, who was waiting in the security guard booth.

He walked over steadily. “How’s everything at home?”

“Everything’s alright,” answered E’er Demutu as he passed a USB stick to Xia Lei discreetly. He whispered, “This contains the footage I stole from the Japanese restaurant. They had removed the hard memory disk and stored it in a safe. It took me some effort to get these.”

Xia Lei gave the man a slight nod, proceeding to leave him behind.

In his office, Xia Lei opened the video file on the USB.

Song Baicheng was seen seated in a private booth, enjoying the far eastern delicacy he ordered. He was the only person seated.

After a mere minute, Song Baicheng stood up to leave. Oddly, his now-empty plate had an addition of a folded thousand yen Japanese bill.

It wasn’t long after Song Baicheng’s departure that a kimono-clad girl had entered his booth to collect the dirtied dishes. Her eyes widened as soon as she saw the folded thousand yen bill. She carefully picked it up, unfolding it to reveal its neatly-written message. “Tomorrow, West province, Dawang.”

While the message was written in kanji, the word for “Da” was similar to that of its Chinese counterpart.

This unassuming kanji message could pass off as a nonsensical Chinese message, which in turn, possessed perfect meaning if one deciphered it in Japanese.

The girl quickly hid the bill away in her sleeves, abandoning the dirty dishes.

The video ended there.

Xia Lei made sure to create a copy before dialing Liang Siyao’s number on his fixed-line phone. However, the man quickly hung up before the call got through. His first thought was to tell Liang Siyao of the new evidence obtained but as soon as he remembered the influential people involved, he ultimately dropped the thought. Dragging Liang Siyao into this mess would be a bad idea.

Instead, he dialed for Shi Boren’s office. “Boss Shi, it’s me.”

“Ah, kid, I was just about to give you a call,” mentioned Shi Boren. He continued, “Yuyan just came back from the West province and I granted her a week-long holiday. Will you be visiting her?”

“Yeah, I will.” Xia Lei quickly switched the topic. “Boss Shi, I have something very important to tell you.”

“I’m listening.” Shi Boren’s tone was stern.

“I found out who betrayed me and Tang Yuyan.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“Song Baicheng.” Xia Lei revealed his name in a heartbeat.

Slam! Xia Lei could hear Shi Boren slamming his desk furiously. “Bastard! Fucking traitor! I wasn’t expecting it from him! Is there any evidence?”

“Yes, there’s a video that could rectify his crimes,” answered Xia Lei.

“I’ll have Long Bing retrieve it from you,” Shi Boren yelled. “Damn this fella!”

“Boss Shi, this...” Xia Lei hesitated but decided to say it nonetheless, “I fear that this might involve Ling Han and Yu Shanhe.”

The line went silent, save for Shi Boren’s heavy breathing.

“Boss Shi?”

“That is bad news. This will be a big issue. But I guarantee you that no traitor of the country could escape their penalty. You may leave this alone until we capture Song Baicheng,” said Shi Boren.

“Alright.” Xia Lei hung up.

The severity of the matter had doubled with the involvement of Yu Shanhe and Ling Han. The way Boss Shi had handled it was appropriate, attacking their horse before its master to extract the truth, then plan their next step with solid evidence.

While Xia Lei waited for Long Bing’s arrival, he unlocked his safe to retrieve a hard disk he got from Hattori Masao. He connected it to his desktop to create a copy of its contents, saving it to his own hard drive. Then, he started to look through the freshly-copied contents, sinking into his little own world.

A lot of countries had their funds channeled to AI technology research, but only America and Japan have had any breakthroughs. This meant that he could assume that what he had before him was industry standard. Unfortunately, China was severely slow in this field, most of its production line AI was imported. They even had to rely on their suppliers for maintenance.

“If I could integrate Artificial Intelligence onto Thunder Horse’s production line, there will be a promise of increased productivity and we could save some cost. Talent and manpower are difficult to recruit, the AI would definitely solve our human resource issues and we won’t need to worry about the lack of employees that comes with rapid progress.” A thought began to form in Xia Lei’s mind.

He continued to study its contents, while his mind wandered back to that time when he saw those designs in Hattori Masao’s villa. The man had allowed him to breeze through five hundred design plans, each as complex as the ones before. No one would be able to memorize a single piece but Xia Lei did, in fact, remembered all five hundred designs in detail!

After a considerable amount of time, a familiar voice demanded his attention. “Hey, you seem busy.”

Xia Lei lifted his head to see a pretty face. It wasn’t Long Bing, it was Liang Siyao instead. He stared blankly in confusion. Wasn’t Long Bing supposed to come? Why was Liang Siyao here?

“You look handsome when you’re hard at work,” she complimented with a smile.

“Why are you here?” asked Xia Lei. “I thought Boss Shi instructed Long Bing to come in his stead.”

Liang Siyao smiled wryly. “Well, here I am. Don’t you like seeing me here? Then I guess I better leave to have Boss Shi’s favorite Long Bing grace her presence.”

“Hey, quit it.” Xia Lei mustered a polite smile. “I don’t mean it that way, but...”

“But what?”

“What are you going to do after getting the evidence?”

“Boss Shi ordered me to capture Song Baicheng,” answered Liang Siyao.

Without missing a beat, Xia Lei grabbed the USB and stood up. “I’ll come with you."