There were three people in the cabin, one unconscious, two awake. The heavy atmosphere in the cabin turned awkward and uncertain.
“Uh…” Xia Lei forced himself to break the silence. “About earlier, I’m sorry, I… I didn’t control myself. I’m sorry.”
In actual fact, it was Long Bing who had not controlled herself. Xia Lei was smart to apologise. Women were very conscious about being forward, and him claiming to have initiated it made it less embarrassing for Long Bing.
However, Long Bing did not let up. She glared at him. “You putting it like that seems like you’re telling me it’s a mistake, and that you’d never make the same mistake again.”
“I…” Xia Lei wanted to say ‘yes’ but he swallowed it when he saw the hurt in Long Bing’s eyes.
As Xia Lei scrambled for words to say to calm Long Bing down, she suddenly drew close and hugged him recklessly.
“Long Bing, we… Hnng!”
Long Bing had always been a woman of fewer words and more action. She was not like Jiang Ruyi, and didn’t need tears to move Xia Lei. She just needed action. There was no need to waste words with Xia Lei.
Xia Lei’s sense of reason was under assault again, and he did his best to resist.
Long Bing drew close again.
“Stay back!” Xia Lei put both hands up to stop her and smiled wryly. “What the heck are you doing?”
Long Bing did not withdraw, and she ignored his hands. She stepped forward, and her body touched Xia Lei’s upturned hands.
Xia Lei was panicking. He back away, but only managed to move two steps before he hit the door.
Long Bing was not letting him off. She put more pressure on his hands.
They looked like they were in some sort of twisted fantasy martial arts movie, where combatants competed with their internal energies with their palms pressed together. Long Bing was winning, and she wasn’t even using her hands, but her breasts.
Long Bing’s nose touched Xia Lei’s and she said firmly, “Remember this. You’re the first man to have slept with me, and the only one. You owe me, so don’t try to shake me off.” After a pause, she added, “Don’t even think about it.”
Xia Lei couldn’t even begin to measure his headache.
Now that he thought about the time they had lived together in Germany, it had been a mission on the surface but she had not thought that way. He would have asked to act as siblings rather than a married couple if he’d known.
Long Bing released Xia Lei at last. She had been domineering, but a rare blush of embarrassment spread across her cheeks after that display of dominance was done.
Xia Lei sighed. “This isn’t fair to you. I’m married. I can’t give you want you want, really.”
Long Bing’s gaze grew icy. “How do you know what I want? Don’t say you don’t like me. I can tell that you do. You talk about Shentu Tianyin because you’re thinking for her feelings, but have you considered my feelings? Even if Shentu Tianyin knows of my existence one day, I’ll just settle her for you if she makes trouble. She can come to me too, if she wants to rot in prison.”
Xia Lei was speechless.
He already regretted telling Long Bing about Shentu Tianyin and Gu Kewen. It had now become a card in Long Bing’s hand. He half-suspected that this very recent chain of events was because Long Bing had come to know about this.
He thought of his father, Xia Changhe, for some reason at this conjecture. A voice mused in his head, ‘I wonder if Dad knows about the mess that is my love-life. What would he think about it? Never mind, he isn’t much better. I wonder if it’s inherited…’
Long Bing punched him lightly. “Speak. What do you mean by this silence?”
Xia Lei laughed flatly. “Is what I say important? You do what you want anyway, and I can’t stop you. I went along with you earlier when you messed with me.”
A faint smile appeared in the corners of Long Bing’s mouth, and her voice grew small too. “It was deliberate. I couldn’t help wanting to… But this place is so dirty. I don’t want my precious first time to be in a place like this.”
So that was why. Xia Lei let out a quiet breath of relief and thought, ‘Maybe it was just an impulse on her part. She’ll change her mind, maybe, after she calms down and the impulse passes.’
Long Bing looked at Xia Lei with expectant eyes. She stopped talking, then shut her eyes, waiting for something.
Xia Lei was an experienced man by now, and he could tell that Long Bing was waiting for him to kiss her. He hesitated. He wanted to kiss her, but he could not bring himself to take that step. When he tried, Shentu Tianyin’s face hovered before him, angry, pressuring.
The motor of the fishing boat was suddenly silent, and the boat stopped. Only the waves pushed the boat forward, rocking it.
Footsteps came from outside. It was not one person, but several, coming from both sides.
Long Bing’s eyes flew open. She was one of the elite agents of Bureau 101, and was able to stay alert, even in a lusty condition. She went into battle mode instantly.
Long Bing had only heard the footsteps, but Xia Lei had seen what was going on outside.
Six Japanese men were approaching the cabin with guns in their hands. The man leading the group on the left was Takeshita Nobu.
Xia Lei stopped using his X-ray vision, and took out a hunting knife he had hidden at his waist.
The sight of the knife confirmed what Long Bing suspected. She bent and took out a hunting knife from her boot.
They had not brought guns because they were entering a Russian military area and also borrowing their plane. They had explicitly stated that no weapons were allowed during all these processes when the planning had been carried out. It now looked like this request of theirs had resulted in this problem.
Knife against gun. Long Bing was an experienced fighter but she could not help being nervous still.
Xia Lei took her hand gently and said in her ear, “Six people. Three on the left, three on the right. Move back. Stand behind me. I’ll get the first one and you take his gun.”
Long Bing paused, and a warmth spread in her heart.
How much a man cared for a woman was apparent in times of danger. Xia Lei stood in front of her without hesitation in Israel, taking on the most danger for himself. He also turned the tide in their situation, even under the pressure of gunfire. He brought warmth and security to Long Bing. How could she not love a man like this?
Xia Lei had already pushed Long Bing behind himself without waiting for her to decide. He stuck to the wooden wall beside the door, waiting for it to be opened.
The metal lock was opened, and a sailor burst through, dashing forward before the door was fully open.
Xia Lei reached out abruptly and grabbed the sailor’s right hand, stabbing his hunting knife violently into the man’s heart as he did so.
The first sailor to some into the cabin died in a second, but his body blocked the doorway, getting in the way of the sailors behind him
Long Bing took the gun from the man’s hand and a gunshot rang out a second later. A bullet grazed past Xia Lei’s cheek and buried itself violently in the second sailor’s brain. Blood spurted, and the sailor fell face-up outside the cabin.
Only two or three seconds had passed, and they had killed two people.
Xia Lei and Long Bing worked perfectly in sync with each other!
Shentu Tianyin was a perfect match with Xia Lei, a Mandarin duck pair in everyday life and in their careers. However, in Xia Lei’s other identity as a bullet-dodging agent, he and Long Bing were perfect for each other. Long Bing and Xia Lei were a killer pair!
