As the two of them slipped quietly out of Guo Sheng’s office, they suddenly spotted a swarm of bodyguards rushing into the front hall. Qi Junyang hurriedly shoved Zhuang Zhuoyi against the side wall, pressing tightly against him in an intimately suggestive posture.
Here, couples engaged in intimate displays could be seen everywhere, so they naturally failed to attract the attention of the passing bodyguards. Once the alert was lifted, the two of them hurried away from the underground premises of the Red Gate, slowing their pace only upon reaching the second-floor bar area.
Zhuang Zhuoyi originally wanted to walk straight out through the main entrance, but his companion grabbed him tightly and hauled him toward a nearby emergency exit. Highly annoyed, Zhuang Zhuoyi lowered his voice and barked a reprimand: “What are you doing?”
“That way is safe.”
“Rubbish! If we miss the optimal window, none of us will be able to leave. We are taking the front entrance.”
“Discovering trouble in the office means the people down below will instantly contact the guards outside the main gate. Can you outrun radio waves?”
“I am playing the timing difference! Besides,” Zhuang Zhuoyi added with a solemn look, “I am your employer.”
“I have more experience than you.”
Paying zero heed to his employer’s status and authority, Qi Junyang pulled Zhuang Zhuoyi with overwhelming force toward the emergency exit. The latter suddenly grew unhurried, offering a playful, teasing smirk: “I will hand the initiative over to you. Do not disappoint me. If worst comes to worst, I can always rescue you.”
“I simply prefer not to be implicated by you.”
The reticent man was evidently not inept with words, but rather simply averse to uttering superfluous nonsense. He forcefully shoved Zhuang Zhuoyi through the door. The exact microsecond the door slammed shut behind them, heavy locks were already dropping into place on the outer side of the main entrance, clearly intending to trap the prey inside.
Qi Junyang’s brows tightened as he ran the numbers. Following Zhuang Zhuoyi’s plan would indeed have allowed them to slip out through the front entrance, albeit with an excessive degree of risk. Was this fellow courting danger, or did he possess absolute confidence?
Inside the stairwell, Zhuang Zhuoyi detested the probing gaze coming from Qi Junyang, and angrily tried to reason with him, only to be forcefully pinned against the wall by Qi Junyang. The man used a single hand to render him completely immobile. Zhuang Zhuoyi flared up: “Qi Junyang, are you looking for a beating?”
The person being reprimanded acted as though he hadn’t heard Zhuang Zhuoyi’s threat at all, focusing all his attention on listening to the movements outside. After a few seconds, he turned his head back: “Mr. Zhuang, what capital do you possess to compete with me in terms of physical force?”
Ugh… He had no room to refute that. Glaring wide-eyed, Zhuang Zhuoyi muttered under his breath, “Being able to fight makes you amazing, huh?”
“In this kind of situation, yes.” Having said that, he released his grip on Zhuang Zhuoyi and dragged him in a sprint toward a nearby window.
The window was massive, but the frustrating part was that it possessed zero window latches; a gigantic sheet of thick glass was installed seamlessly into the frame. Zhuang Zhuoyi had no desire to shatter the glass, as doing so failed to align with his aesthetic sensibilities. Casting a sidelong glance at his companion, he offered a sarcastic jab: “Expert, what do we do now? Fancy acting as lab rats and getting caught, or were you planning to perform some sort of teleportation sorcery?”
Qi Junyang’s face seemed to have grown an even more severe case of facial paralysis as he tapped the glass: “Bulletproof.”
His facial muscles involuntarily twitched twice. Zhuang Zhuoyi desperately wanted to find someone to ask why a run-down brothel required the installation of bulletproof glass. Ordinary glass was easy enough to smash, but how on earth was one supposed to deal with bulletproof material?
The usually dashing and debonair Young Master Yi leaned back against the wall and sneered, “You figure it out. Since you have experience, this sort of situation should be a walk in the park.” Before his voice even faded, he watched Qi Junyang launch himself sideways into a flying kick. Before he could issue a warning, the bulletproof glass had already been caved open with a gaping breach.
Flying shards of glass sliced across Zhuang Zhuoyi’s fair cheek, but ignoring the sting, he glared viciously at the expressionless Qi Junyang. The latter stated matter-of-factly: “Done.”
Teeth grinding furiously…
“Could I trouble the great hero Qi to give a verbal warning before taking action next time?”
Zhuang Zhuoyi’s malice was dialed up to a full hundred percent, yet Qi Junyang remained utterly deadpan. Upholding the supreme principle of honoring the employer, he took a step back: “You go out first.”
Zhuang Zhuoyi ground his teeth down by a fraction of an inch, squeezed two words of thanks through the gaps between his molars, and vaulted out first.
The narrow escape from the nocturnal infiltration of the Red Gate concluded successfully. Upon returning home, he plunged straight into the bathroom, refusing to emerge until he had scrubbed his skin red.
He spent a full two hours consuming time in the bathroom. Emerging without a sound, he crept up behind Qi Junyang, who was presently engrossed in decrypting data, and watched the dizzying cascades of characters racing across the monitor, unable to restrain himself from asking: “How much longer?”
“Ten minutes.”
Ten minutes later, Zhuang Zhuoyi brewed coffee in the kitchen and prepared some sandwiches and fruit. By the time he returned to the living room, Qi Junyang had already cracked the password. Zhuang Zhuoyi jerked his chin toward the kitchen: “Go pour your own coffee.”
Taking advantage of Qi Junyang’s brief absence, Zhuang Zhuoyi swiftly audited the browsing history. Zero traces, zero anomalies. He cast a suspicious glance back toward the kitchen, pondering whether his own observational attempts were ultimately too shallow. A master of such caution would certainly never expose his flaws easily.
A faint smile touched the corners of his lips as he casually clicked open a folder, revealing a list of profiles detailing the young masters and mademoiselles belonging to the Red Gate.
Just as Zhuang Zhuoyi turned his head back to inspect the roster, the person in the kitchen turned his head as well. A second-level discrepancy in timing made them miss whatever lay between them, a phenomenon whose existence neither party could possibly ascertain. From Qi Junyang’s perspective, Zhuang Zhuoyi’s back appeared suspicious, just like the entirety of tonight’s escapade.
Both individuals harbored their own sharp calculations internally, while maintaining an amicable facade externally. Primarily, Qi Junyang had relapsed into his mute affliction, remaining exceptionally sparing with words. Meanwhile, Zhuang Zhuoyi consistently babbled away as though talking to himself, occasionally soliciting opinions from his companion only to be met with silent treatment.
Around three in the morning, Zhuang Zhuoyi wearily stretched his limbs and announced: “It appears we chased a ghost. There is no trace of Bobby’s data here whatsoever. Was it deleted, or did it never exist in the first place?”
“It was erased.” For a wonder, Qi Junyang finally spoke up.
“Then think about it: why would it be erased?”
“That is your job.”
“You are my assistant.”
“Presently, it appears you resemble my assistant.”
Before Zhuang Zhuoyi could launch his next counter-offensive, Qi Junyang stood up and walked toward his bedroom. This round belonged to Zhuang Zhuoyi’s defeat! Yet refusing to swallow his loss, he barked: “Hey, do you not take a shower before sleeping?”
“I showered today.”
“Go wash up again! Do not step foot on my bed without bathing!”
Qi Junyang stood frozen in place for a moment, staring at the fellow who belatedly realized his phrasing went off the rails and flushed faintly, before asking with utmost earnestness: “Does being your assistant entail fulfilling duties of that nature as well?”
Refusing to concede error and doubling down instead, the other man lounged lazily against the sofa, cupping his chin in one palm with a smile so alluring it was criminal: “And would you be willing? After all, I am paying you a salary of ten thousand.”
“I will pay you ten thousand, and you can sleep by yourself.”
Having dropped that line, the earnest Qi Junyang stepped into his room, leaving Zhuang Zhuoyi stranded alone in the living room feeling thoroughly awkward. Exceedingly awkward.
Just as he was drifting off to sleep, the bedroom door was suddenly kicked open by an external visitor! Qi Junyang sat upright in bed, gazing with a wooden expression at the grinning fellow: “Something the matter?”
Striding into the room with an air of absolute casualness, the intruder flicked a stack of papers alongside a brand-new notebook straight at him: “Copy the operational plans listed on these papers into the notebook in sequential order. I need them first thing tomorrow morning.”
“First thing?”
“First thing! Therefore, if you fail to finish copying them, do not even think about sleeping.”
Qi Junyang mental calculated the workload; completing all of this writing would take until dawn. Raising his head to meet that unmistakably vindictive expression, he snatched the blanket and collapsed back down onto the bed.
The corners of Zhuang Zhuoyi’s mouth twitched: “I said they must all be copied before tomorrow morning.”
“Close the door nicely on your way out.”
“If you do not finish copying them, I will dock half your salary.”
Qi Junyang wrapped himself tighter in the blanket and issued a reminder: “Remember to knock next time.”
If Zhuang Zhuoyi were a feline, every single hair on his body would undoubtedly be bristling at this exact moment! Glaring murderously at Qi Junyang’s back, he turned on his heel and stomped away, making his footsteps echo loudly on the floor!
Time trickled away second by second. Having completed his task right before the break of dawn, Qi Junyang managed only a brief nap before breaking out in a cold sweat. His brows were locked tightly together, his breathing unstable and heavily agitated.
In the dream, a blindingly white body writhed across a rose-red bed. Golden hair clung softly against a slender neck, hands were bound fast to the headboard, and muffled, angry curses sounded indistinctly. He vouloir to flee; even within the dreamscape, he knew he had to escape immediately. Yet his limbs seemed rooted in place as he watched the figure on the bed twist around, its face covered entirely in fresh blood, save for a pair of vividly distinct azure eyes. The figure parted its lips to speak, and a gun barrel suddenly pressed hard against the center of his brow.
The next second, a darkened underground plaza, dense volleys of gunfire, thunderous explosions, three men shouting his name, a sweeping line of stray bullets tearing through the air, causing the heads and chests of two figures to burst open like bloody fireworks. The sole remaining figure reached out a hand toward him.
Qi Junyang bolted upright like a corpse coming to life, gasping heavily for breath.
A blinding, splitting headache accompanied by profuse sweating. Staggering blindly out of bed, he rummaged through his neatly organized belongings to locate tranquilizers and painkillers, swallowing two pills raw without water.
Steadying his erratic breathing and heartbeat with a hand braced against the edge of the desk, he noticed the first faint glimmers of dawn breaking outside. A strand of morning sunlight fell across the tabletop, outlining his long, slender fingers.
The gentle morning light seemed laden with a fragility that would shatter upon the lightest touch; how was one supposed to dispel the gloom lingering in the depths of the soul? When even the tragic realization that grief could go no further than a dead heart had been worn down by past events, leaving behind only inescapable, haunting nightmares, had even the sunlight chosen to abandon him?
Offering a self-deprecating, bitter chuckle, he ultimately resigned himself to taking a shower so he could continue facing his unhinged employer.
The moment he pushed open the door, the melodious strains of music and the rich, savory aroma of food wafted over, leaving him completely rooted to the spot in astonishment. Inspecting his surroundings closely, he noted that the living room speakers were powered on and playing pleasant melodies, while inside the kitchen, Zhuang Zhuoyi, dressed in black lounge trousers, a white shirt, and a deep blue apron, was actively preparing breakfast.
A scene of this nature represented a lifestyle Qi Junyang had never experienced in over two decades: an impeccably neat and clean residence, delightful music, and fragrant meals. If one could mentally edit out the person cooking, this tableau matched his fondest daydream. For a brief moment, his gloomy mood lifted considerably.
Just as he felt a stirring of emotion, Zhuang Zhuoyi shut off the induction cooker, carried out a serving tray, and displayed an expression entirely devoid of the previous night’s anger upon spotting Qi Junyang. He simply offered a faint smile: “Morning.”
“Morning,” Qi Junyang echoed instinctively. Realizing how awkward that felt, he tossed the notebook over as a preemptive defense mechanism before trying to dodge away.
Without even glancing at it, Zhuang Zhuoyi set the notebook aside: “Go grab your bowl and chopsticks from the kitchen. I have prepared your set and placed it in the sterilizer cabinet. The cyan-colored set belongs to you. We need to head over to Haotian Group to see my older brother after we finish eating, so time is tight. Go shower first.”
Qi Junyang pivoted toward the bathroom, only for the person behind him to pipe up once more: “What is our primary task for today?”
“It is written in your notebook.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
Retrieving his cutlery, Qi Junyang had no choice but to reply: “You are going to Haotian Group to meet Liu Tie.”
“And after that?”
“Then we head to the telecommunications bureau to investigate Wen Chen’s call logs.” As he spoke, he stepped out of the kitchen. Catching sight of Zhuang Zhuoyi lounging lazily across the sofa like an indolent cat reading the morning paper, the arched line of his spine traced a pair of gorgeous butterfly shoulder blades that tapered smoothly down into a sunken waistline and rounded into an exceptionally sexy rear.
Regrettably, the person capable of appreciating that sex appeal possessed no remaining zest for life. With neither side harboring hidden agendas, Qi Junyang pulled out a chair independently and prepared to eat breakfast.
Without lifting his eyes from the paper, Zhuang Zhuoyi stated calmly: “There are disinfecting supplies in the bathroom cabinet. Tend to that wound of yours.”
The chopsticks paused mid-air. Qi Junyang remained wooden, yet a flicker of probing curiosity surfaced unintentionally in his gaze. Seated opposite him, Zhuang Zhuoyi maintained that exact same nonchalant attitude: “Your body carries the scent of blood. Go wash it away.”
Qi Junyang paused briefly before rising and heading toward the bathroom. This person runs too deep, he mused darkly. I need to formulate a plan to settle all of this as quickly as possible.