Long Bing left Xia Lei and Tang Yuyan’s room and Tang Yuyan even locked the door after closing it. Xia Lei was puzzled by her locking the door and also strangely nervous. He did not say anything, however. He knew that he would not get an answer if he asked and could even have an explosion go off in his face if he did.
Tang Yuyan turned back to him and took off her jacket. She was wearing a white cotton T-shirt.
“You…” Xia Lei wanted to say something but he faltered and couldn’t speak.
Tang Yuyan on the other hand was acting all natural and she quite efficiently got ready for bed.
Xia Lei didn’t know where to direct his eyes.
“You sure are a pervert. What are you looking at? What haven’t you seen already in Moscow?” Tang Yuyan rolled her eyes at Xia Lei. She acted naturally and was not the least bit shy, much less embarrassed.
“Hrrmm.” Xia Lei gave a dry cough and tried to defend himself. “Can you blame me for looking when you stripped like that? And that time in Moscow was an accident. I didn’t do it on purpose; the zipper was of low quality.”
Tang Yuyan turned her mouth downwards. “I want to go to sleep – are you going to stop me from taking my clothes off? Don’t forget that we are husband and wife now. Husbands and wives sleep on a bed together. Don’t tell me they still wear trousers and jackets in bed.”
Xia Lei groaned internally at this headache. “That’s… I’d better sleep on the sofa. You sleep on the bed.”
“You’re not sleeping with me?” Disappointment flashed in Tang Yuyan’s eyes.
“How can I do that? You sleep on the bed, I sleep on the sofa,” said Xia Lei.
Tang Yuyan’s lips moved a little but she said nothing. Xia Lei and Shentu Tianyin were engaged and she was a little bitter about that. She did have some intention to seduce Xia Lei and make him cheat on Shentu Tianyin but she had already gone this far and Xia Lei was still resisting, not refusing to budge. She was a proud woman too and she could not take the next step.
Xia Lei really did lie on the sofa. He then looked at the old drawings again. He had already memorised every detail of the drawings but he still put on an act, looking at it to distract himself.
Tang Yuyan climbed onto the bed and under the covers. “Do you love her?”
Xia Lei knew she meant Shentu Tianyin. “I do. Why would I propose to her if I don’t love her? We met two years ago, went through some ups and downs, and now we’re together. We treasure our feelings for each other,” said Xia Lei.
A bitter smile appeared in the corners of Tang Yuyan’s mouth. “I can tell. I would actually kick you off the bed if you’d agreed to sleep with me.”
Would she have done that? Xia Lei did not know the real answer to that.
Their conversation stopped again and the room filled with awkwardness and silence.
Xia Lei’s gaze went to the lampshade on the bedside table – there was a small shadow in the light which came from the lamp. His left eye twitched and a miniature listening device inside the lampshade appeared in his vision.
Xia Lei was filled with anxiousness. He stood and went towards the bed.
“You…” Tang Yuyan grew nervous and her face flushed red. She had not expected Xia Lei to change his mind so suddenly and come towards her.
Xia Lei gave her a gesture to shush, and came to the bedside.
“D, Don’t do anything hasty. I’m not that sort of easy woman. If you want to, to do anything lewd, you…. You have to take responsibility!” Tang Yuyan grew increasingly nervous.
Xia Lei suddenly reached out and covered Tang Yuyan’s mouth.
Tang Yuyan froze, then reacted. She threw off the bedcovers in one move, revealing her beautiful body clad only in underwear. One slender hand reached out like a wild bolt of lightning to grab hold of Xia Lei’s belt.
“What are you doing?” Xia Lei said in a low voice.
“Mmf?” Tang Yuyan’s mouth was still covered by Xia Lei’s hand and she could not speak.
Xia Lei then reached out and took out the hidden miniature listening device from the lampshade, then held it up before Tang Yuyan’s eyes.
Tang Yuyan stared blankly at it as she loosened her grip on his belt, then let her hand fall away.
Xia Lei looked a little more closely at the listening device; he found it familiar.
Tang Yuyan suddenly grabbed the listening device and screamed into it, “Long Bing, you bitch! How dare you install a listening device next to my bed! You want to die? Get over here! Fight me!”
The listening device was not a speaker and Long Bing’s voice could not be transmitted over it but she did not react to Tang Yuyan’s anger. She was also definitely not going to come over to fight with Tang Yuyan.
Xia Lei was also at a loss for words. Long Bing actually installed a listening device in his and Tang Yuyan’s room! Why would she do something like this? What did she hope to hear?
“Damn it, I’m going to settle the score with her!” Tang Yuyan said as she made to get off the bed.
Xia Lei pressed down on her shoulders. “Calm down. You want to expose us all?”
These words were like a splash of cold water in Tang Yuyan’s face and she came to her senses immediately.
Xia Lei saw her calm down and he slowly let go of her shoulders.
Tang Yuyan buried herself in the bedcovers and covered every inch of herself up. She’d gone so far as to pull at Xia Lei’s belt earlier and this happened! How could she feel any more embarrassed! She wished for nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow her.
Xia Lei said slowly, “It’s nothing, actually. I think she was just playing a prank on us and testing if we’ll make any mistakes… Hush, now. I’m going to sleep.”
Tang Yuyan stayed with the covers over her head.
In the next room, Long Bing lay laughing soundlessly on her bed. “D, Don’t do anything hasty. I’m not that sort of easy woman. If you want to, to do anything lewd, you…. You have to take responsibility! Hahaha!”
It was surprising that she had this side to her, and it was hard for anyone to imagine her doing this.
But one thing was for sure – Tang Yuyan would have done the same if Long Bing shared a room with Xia Lei.
Early the next morning, Xia Lei and Tang Yuyan went out of their room and Long Bing came out of hers. Tang Yuyan glared fiercely at Long Bing but Long Bing pretended like she knew nothing and smiled as she greeted them. “Sister, Cousin-in-law, good morning.”
Tang Yuyan kept glaring at Long Bing, her eyes alight with fire.
“Let’s get a bite to eat,” said Xia Lei quickly.
“Nn.” Long Bing flashed a pouch in her hand at them and spoke in a low voice when she got to Xia Lei and Tang Yuyan’s side. “I got the item last night. We can go take a look around The Church of the Holy Sepulchre after breakfast.”
Xia Lei gave a slight nod. He knew that the item Long Bing was talking about was the Ming dynasty compass.
“Humph!” Tang Yuyan’s foot descended on the back of Long Bing’s leg. “You deserve this.”
Long Bing just wrinkled her brows and made no other reaction. She said quietly, “I actually did it for your own good. I don’t want you two to make any mistakes. You guys have passed the test. Very good.”
“Go die.” Tang Yuyan wanted to kick her again, and harder.
Xia Lei hurriedly inserted himself between the two women, using his body to separate them, then took Tang Yuyan’s and Long Bing’s hands. “Come, come. Let’s go eat.”
The three of them walked out of the hotel and to a small breakfast restaurant for breakfast. They then went in the direction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre afterwards.
Qin Changqing and the treasure-seeking group did not follow. Long Bing had given them instructions to wait in the hotel.
Xia Lei was worried that Tang Yuyan and Long Bing would continue their spat on their way there and make things worse but he’d been worried for nothing. Long Bing and Tang Yuyan soon went back to communicating normally and even laughed once in a while. What had happened last night did not affect their relationship at all, since the two women were able to hand their lives to each other on the battlefield. What was the little prank from last night compared to this?
The three of them came to the centre of the Old City in half an hour. They could see the world-famous Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Jewish Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount all at once. This area of one square kilometre was the most sacred of three major religions in the world and was a historical miracle. All the stories of what happened on this land could not be finished in telling if one went on for a thousand days and nights.
Long Bing opened her pouch to look at the compass inside when they got close. “Confirmed. It points here.”
“Let’s go in and take a look,” said Tang Yuyan.
Xia Lei thought for a bit and said, “No rush. Let’s walk around before we go in. We’ll be seeing the same thing Dr Qin and the rest have already seen if we go in now, and I’m sure they’ve taken more than one look around.”
Tang Yuyan and Long Bing exchanged glances, then nodded in agreement.
Xia Lei led the two women on a walk around the streets surrounding the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As he walked, his left eye was at work like an X-ray camera, recording all the structures and internal structures of the buildings near the church. This entire area was like a 3D drawing to his eyes and no place could hide its contents from him!
This was hugely energy-draining, of course. Xia Lei was exhausted after walking one round around the church. However, he was just physically exhausted and did not experience hallucinations.
Tang Yuyan and Long Bing were right by his side but they had no idea what he was doing. The female chiefs of Bureau 101 were observant too but they could only observe the overall terrain, and the pedestrians on the street.
Back at the main gates of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Xia Lei closed his eyes. His brain rendered all the images he had recorded with his X-ray vision into a model. It was a true 3D architectural map, and not of just one building but all the buildings around the church!
“What are you doing?” Tang Yuyan looked curiously at Xia Lei.
Her voice scattered the 3D map Xia Lei had in his head. He opened his eyes. “Nothing. Let’s go in and take a look.” He thought to himself, ‘I’ll go into the church and get the structure recorded in my X-ray vision. I can then make a complete 3D map of the place in my head. I should be able to find the hidden treasure then, right?’
