The black man who had grabbed Bai Shuang’s phone was so frightened that he urinated himself. Cradling his head, he crawled along the street and begged for mercy.
Bai Shuang thought he was very pitiful now, so she pulled at Zhao Liangze’s clothes and whispered, “Forget it, it’s fine that I got my phone back.”
Zhao Liangze glanced at her before putting away the gun. He was still holding her hand as he said, “…Get in the car.”
He pulled the car door open and practically stuffed Bai Shuang inside. He then closed the door and got into the driver’s seat from the other side.
The Jeep suddenly made a noise and quickly sped away.
After the initial excitement of their encounter, the two of them began to feel embarrassed in the car. Neither of them said a word.
Zhao Liangze drove quickly onto the main road. As he was about to turn to the pier leading back to the island, he suddenly remembered that he could not take Bai Shuang there.
Turning the steering wheel, he drove to the hotel in the center of Cape City.
The hotels on the outskirts of the city are actually more upscale and luxurious, but Zhao Liangze did not plan to stay there since Huo Shaoheng and Gu Nianzhi were also there.
He couldn’t let Bai Shuang know that Huo Shaoheng was also in Cape City.
Huo Shaoheng was on a secret mission, while Bai Shuang was an acquaintance who was very familiar with Huo Shaoheng. This would be considered a leak of intelligence for Zhao Liangze, even if they met and nothing actually happened.
Although his heart was full of excitement when he first saw Bai Shuang again, the years of rigorous training still made his mind as tight as a pulled cord.
Bai Shuang couldn’t help but feel embarrassed when they initially encountered each other. But now that she had composed herself, she felt not only embarrassed but also very angry.
She remained silent and sullen the entire trip. Suddenly, she saw that the road ahead changed before Zhao Liangze turned back again.
“Where are you going?” Bai Shuang couldn’t help but ask.
Zhao Liangze glanced at her and asked, “Where are you staying? Did you come to Cape Town for a trip?”
Bai Shuang curled her lips. “That’s none of your business, let me get out of the car!” she replied.
“I’ll take you back to the hotel.” Zhao Liangze remembered that he had met Bai Shuang in the city just now, so he naturally thought that Bai Shuang should be staying in a hotel in the city center.
Bai Shuang frowned and said, “If you want to send me back to the hotel, please turn around again. I’m not staying here.”
“You’re not staying here?” Zhao Liangze stepped on the brakes in surprise. “Then why did you get out of the taxi in the city center?”
Bai Shuang was taken aback. “Did you see me?”
“…I thought it looked like you…” Zhao Liangze smiled wryly as he said, “I was afraid of calling your name since you were wearing sunglasses. I was worried about being embarrassed if it wasn’t actually you.”
But now he said it as if he was not embarrassed.
Bai Shuang rolled her eyes as she said, “I went to the exhibition center in the city to participate in activities, but I am not staying there. Who could stand living in the city center? Was it fun to listen to gunfights every night?”
She then asked Zhao Liangze again, “Why are you here?”
Zhao Liangze smiled but did not answer Bai Shuang’s question. He merely said, “Where do you live? I will take you there.”
“Just let me out here, I want to participate in the convention.” Bai Shuang didn’t say where she was staying. Seeing that Zhao Liangze didn’t even answer her questions, she felt it was even more pointless and patted the car door, saying, “As for where I am staying, you don’t worry about it.”
Zhao Liangze drove the car to the side of the road while holding the steering wheel with one hand. He put the other hand around to rest on the back of Bai Shuang’s passenger seat, then frowned. “Bai Shuang, let’s talk,” he said.
“What’s there to talk about?!” Bai Shuang turned her head away, refusing to look at him. “My cousin is your girlfriend, but you are here to provoke me again. Do you think that I’m so cheap that I would deliver myself to your door and let you bully me?!”
“Bai Shuang!” Zhao Liangze shouted sternly. “It was my fault before! You don’t need to say that about yourself! I’m the cheap one! I’m cheap! Alright?!”
“What do you mean, ‘alright?!’” Bai Shuang turned her head to look at him angrily. “You are obviously the cheap one!”
When she used to like him, he acted so distantly.
When she was about to let go, he approached her again!
“It was me…” Zhao Liangze pursed his lips before saying, “…Who hurt your cousin.”
“Haha, and now you’re finally realizing that you hurt your girlfriend? Zhao Liangze, you are unbelievable!” Bai Shuang laughed at Zhao Liangze’s words. “Unfortunately, you’re the one who wants to betray her. Don’t ask me to cooperate with you. I won’t be a terrible person with you!”
“Is that all you want to say?!” Zhao Liangze was irritated by Bai Shuang’s words. He let go of the steering wheel to lunge in front of Bai Shuang and grab her shoulder. He angrily said, “Ever since you saw me… With your cousin that day, I never saw her again! I…”
Only then did he recall that he was also on a mission.
It was a major taboo run into an acquaintance while conducting a mission.
He either had to think of a reasonable reason right away, or he had to report it to his superior.
Zhao Liangze looked extremely conflicted for a while.
But in Bai Shuang’s eyes, she felt that Zhao Liangze was still swaying between her and her cousin. She was completely furious.
“Let go of me.” Bai Shuang’s expression darkened. “I will pretend that nothing happened. You don’t have to struggle with it, nor will I play along with you! Scram!”
She pushed Zhao Liangze away, then turned around to find the handle on the car door. She pushed it out, and the door opened.
Breathing a sigh of relief, she quickly got out of the car and immediately hailed a taxi to the exhibition center.
Zhao Liangze couldn’t give her an explanation, but he couldn’t ignore it either. After pondering for a long time, he finally called Huo Shaoheng.
…
“Huo Shao…”
The phone rang for a while before Huo Shaoheng answered the call. “Little Ze? What’s wrong? Is something wrong?”
“Well.” Zhao Liangze gritted his teeth. “On the way back, I saw someone getting their phone stolen, so I went to help and retrieved her mobile phone. But… But… That person turned out to be Bai Shuang.”
As soon as Zhao Liangze said this, Huo Shaoheng understood the situation.
Would Zhao Liangze be so nosy if he had merely seen a random person getting their phone stolen?
He must have only decided to help get the phone back because he had seen that it was Bai Shuang, or at least someone who looked like Bai Shuang.
Huo Shaoheng chuckled twice before saying, “What’s wrong? Isn’t it a good thing to meet old friends in another country? Why do you sound unhappy?”
“…I kissed her,” Zhao Liangze said sullenly. “Then she scolded me, and we separated bitterly.”
Huo Shaoheng felt as though he should be sympathetic towards Zhao Liangze, but the smile couldn’t help but spread uncontrolled across his face. He was wearing a Bluetooth headset while making seafood fried rice for Gu Nianzhi on the induction cooker in the kitchen, and he casually said, “I should scold you. In fact, I should slap you.”
“I didn’t mean that!” Zhao Liangze began to speak incoherently in his frustration. “Actually, what I meant was that she knew that I was leaving for a mission, and then she saw me here…”
Huo Shaoheng’s hand stopped. Putting down the spatula, he walked to the door to look at the vast blue Atlantic Ocean. The thoughts ran quickly in his mind as he said, “Tell me honestly and exactly what you said to her. Don’t miss even a single sentence, do you understand me?!”
“Yes, Chief!”
Zhao Liangze was taken aback and hurriedly recalled the conversation between him and Bai Shuang without missing a single word.
Huo Shaoheng was speechless when Zhao Liangze even talked about the debate between him and Bai Shuang concerning who was cheap.
“…You two are so immature.” Huo Shaoheng turned back calmly to turn off the stove. He put the seafood fried rice out as he made a decision and said to Zhao Liangze, “Then what do you think? You want to choose between two girlfriends? Don’t try dating them both at the same time.”
Zhao Liangze retorted automatically, “Bai Yueran and I are not yet boyfriend and girlfriend.”
“Not yet? I thought you two already decided on it.” Huo Shaoheng took out the steak he had just bought to fry it in the pan with butter.
The sound of sizzling could be heard throughout the kitchen, accompanied by the aroma of butter that permeated into the hall.
Gu Nianzhi went to the room to tidy up and took a shower before changing into a summer T-shirt and hot pants. She walked out of the room with her long legs bared.
She had followed the smell of food to find the kitchen.
“Huo Shao is dinner ready?!” Gu Nianzhi was happy to see a bowl of delicious seafood fried rice on the dining table.
This dining room and kitchen were actually one room, with the kitchen inside and the dining room outside.
Through the large, open French windows, she could even see the white sails speckled on the ocean, the afterglow of the setting sun reflected on the sparkling seawater that jumped like bits of gold under her eyes.
Occasionally, she could even see a dolphin or two jumping high from the bottom of the sea, chasing each other playfully on the water’s surface.
“It’s really beautiful here,” Gu Nianzhi sighed. She was so mesmerized by the sight that even her favorite seafood fried rice was being ignored.
Huo Shaoheng heard the movement and turned around to see that Gu Nianzhi had arrived. His eyes paused on her long, naked legs for a moment.
Zhao Liangze continued to yell over the phone, “…We are not dating yet! Just when I kissed her, you sent me to this island in the middle of nowhere. We didn’t have time to sort anything out!”
Huo Shaoheng retracted his gaze and turned his head to tell Zhao Liangze over the phone, “Little Ze, you have to solve the matter concerning Bai Shuang and Bai Yueran very soon. Real men don’t procrastinate. You better come clean and forget your little tricks, careful not to run into any ethical problems – no one can save you if that happens.”
Zhao Liangze’s heart trembled when he heard Huo Shaoheng say this, so he hurriedly replied, “Huo Shao, I don’t have the guts to do that. I… I… I really like Bai Shuang. I will make sure to tell Bai Yueran after my mission.”
Zhao Liangze froze as soon as he blurted this out.
It turned out that this was what his heart really wanted, and what his true feelings were.
After chasing love for so long, he had never recognized his own heart.
Logically speaking, he knew that Bai Yueran was a better woman for him. But emotionally, he couldn’t help but favor Bai Shuang. He couldn’t control himself.
Huo Shaoheng flipped the steak in the pan and fried it until it was medium rare before saying, “Do you only want to date Bai Shuang by being with her? Or do you intend to marry her?”
Zhao Liangze asked, “…Is there a difference?”
“Of course.” Huo Shaoheng spoke bluntly as he said, “Did you forget what kind of crime Bai Shuang’s father committed? A person like that cannot pass the background check. Do you know the extent of the background check for Big Xiong’s fiancée, Ma Qiqi?”
“To what extent?” Zhao Liangze became nervous and felt out of breath.
How could he ever forget about the background check…?
“It was for four generations past and present, all relatives within five removals,” Huo Shaoheng replied.
Zhao Liangze’s heart sank.
If he decided to be with Bai Shuang and marry her, there was no way that she would ever pass the background check…
Then that meant he had no choice but to be discharged from the military…
He could easily find another job if he were discharged from the military. He could even start his own company rather than look for a job somewhere else.
With his computer skills, he could be very successful no matter what he chose to do.
But he didn’t want to be discharged. He liked his current job very much. He liked it so much that it was truly the most important thing in his life.
If anything conflicted with this job, he would give it all up to keep his position.
But Bai Shuang was now the one who conflicted with his work. She was the first woman he truly loved for the first time in his entire life.
On the one hand, he had the important task of defending his country and its citizens, and on the other hand, was the lover who he wanted to give his heart to. How was he supposed to choose?
