Before they realized it, Lunar New Year had reached its end. It would be a year before it came around again.
Despite that, time was a fleeting concept. Any time passed would not return.
Morning came and the sun rose from the east, painting the horizon a brilliant orange. Standing before the tall windows of his office, Xia Lei watched the sunrise. He could feel the strong bustling energy radiating off it. But even if the Sun was the centre of the solar system, it would eventually die someday.
Xia Lei averted his gaze elsewhere. Under the skies stood a majestic church built in a style akin to the Sagrada Familia. Standing before its entrance was Long Bing and the four female knights, seemingly engrossed in their conversation. Alongside the five women were worshippers from every corner of the globe. This was the formation of Thunder Horse Organization’s very own armed force.
In the tranquil front yard of the Peace Mansion was Jiang Ruyi, busy knitting baby clothes for her child. She was not like Long Bing and Liang Siyao. She wasn’t someone who could stand alongside him in the heat of battle. Jiang Ruyi was also not someone with a high authority position like Fan Fan. All in all, Jiang Ruyi was just a regular woman. Perhaps it was her ordinary background that helped Xia Lei remain down to earth. He had found that aspect of her very endearing and cute. She was a portal that allowed Xia Lei to reminiscence about a simpler time.
At this moment, a long line of military cargo trucks drove out of the main gate. Each vehicle carried a ZTZ100 main battle tank or the Sweeper infantry fighting vehicle. After these vehicles had entered its mass production phase, the military had begun to replace its tank equipment. In the near future, no country, including the United States, would dare to challenge China into a land war.
This seemed to add to the sentiments of the red rising sun, it was positively radiating with energy.
Footsteps were heard from behind him. It was soft and almost negligible. The person was deliberately hiding their presence as they crept closer. Xia Lei didn’t need to turn around to know that it was Liang Siyao.
Liang Siyao reached her arms over and covered Xia Lei’s eyes. She teased, “Guess who am I?”
“You’re the pig.” Xia Lei breathed a chuckle.
That earned a hit to his biceps. “Jeez. Now that I’m pregnant and a tad bit meatier, you’re starting to call me a pig now. You’re so evil.”
Xia Lei turned around to embrace her. “But it’s true, you’re the pig.”
There was a hint of amusement in Liang Siyao’s eye. Yes, Xia Lei had a point. Liang Siyao was undoubtedly the current pig of the Chinese Zodiac Battle Team. However, her position had lost its meaning because her pregnancy had rendered her unable to join in on their operations.
“The few that went to scout for equipment in Europe, what have they found?” Xia Lei shifted the topic onto official matters.
Liang Siyao sighed. “I read their reports just now. Turns out…” She paused. “The European suppliers are reluctant to sell us equipment, despite offering double the price.”
Xia Lei hummed. “This must have something to do with the Americans. They know that I’m about to mass-produce Alloy X and the drone. That’s why they’re trying to stop us from importing equipment from Europe.”
Liang Siyao reported, “There seems to be no issue with Russia and Ukraine, but the standard of their equipment is no different from ours. In my opinion, how about we opt for a domestic supplier? You could create a design plan for your equipment along with its specifics, then we’ll order parts from domestic suppliers before customizing the machines further. That way we’ll be able to obtain what we desire.”
Xia Lei thought for a moment. “This might bring us a lot more hassle but desperate times call for desperate measures. Give me three days, I’ll get the designs ready.”
“Three days? Isn’t that too fast? How are you going to accomplish something so complicated within that time frame?” Liang Siyao was bewildered.
“Trust me, it will be done.” Xia Lei’s confidence was unwavering.
“Hubby, please don’t wear yourself out. Give yourself time if needed, no one is rushing you. There’s no need to rush.” Liang Siyao’s furrowed brows were overflowing with concern.
Three days to prepare design plans for an entire workshop worth of equipment sounded impossible even with a superbrain. Despite his brain containing all of the data and images he needed, the speed of Xia Lei’s hand could only reach a certain extent. Doing this digitally had sounded as impossible as it was, let alone drawing it out traditionally. At least that was what Liang Siyao had thought.
Albeit so, Xia Lei had his own solution to this.
“Don’t worry, I can pace myself.”
“But… Using three days to design all of it is crazy. There are so many things involved in a material production workshop. How could you possibly do it?” Liang Siyao stared at her man intently, trying to figure out if this was a joke.
Instead, Xia Lei chuckled. “Not only will I be preparing for the material workshop but I’ll also be handing you the plans for the drone equipment. I’ll give them all to you and you can proceed to send them to suitable suppliers in the country. With the Thunder Dragon intelligent lathe, I’m sure we can refine the ordered spare parts into something better.”
Liang Siyao rolled her eyes at Xia Lei. “Hubby, will it kill you to be straightforward? Stop beating around the bush. How on earth are you planning to achieve all of these?”
Xia Lei merely pointed at the laptop on his desk.
Liang Siyao was stunned, but she was a smart woman. It didn’t take long for her to understand what he meant, the knowledge eliciting an evil grin from her. “Oh... You meant stealing, not drawing.”
Xia Lei grinned back. “Hey, don’t say that. I’m just going to copy.”
“Alright, my bad, copy it is. Hubby, let me go make you some tea then watch you copy those plans from aside, yeah?” It was Liang Siyao’s attempt to appease her lover.
Xia Lei replied with a smile. “Sure, no problem.”
Liang Siyao left to make tea while Xia Lei booted his hacking laptop, preparing to launch into action.
If the Americans could assign Li Youdun on a mission to steal Thunder Horse’s intelligent property, Xia Lei was allowed to do the same too. However, the radius of his attack was not confined to America. Applying hacking techniques to places like the CIA and Lockheed Martin was difficult. There was a high chance of them finding out. But for him to attack establishments like specific suppliers or material suppliers was almost too easy.
There was no point justifying the practice with justice or law, it had taken form ever since the existence of human civilization. Who had the right to criticize its existence from the perspective of law and justice?
When Liang Siyao returned with a steaming cup of Tieguanyin, Xia Lei had already started to work. In under five minutes, the man had managed to gain access to the documentation system of a French equipment supplier. It took another few more minutes to extract design plans and duplicated them. Everything was achieved without breaking a sweat.
“Damn, when will I ever be as good as you?” Liang Siyao couldn’t help but express her envy towards Xia Lei’s skills.
Xia Lei replied, “I don’t think you’ve got a shot, but perhaps your son will. You can try to cultivate him into becoming the next best hacker. Wouldn’t that work the same?”
“My father will kill me. He probably has already come up with a training plan to teach the child Wing Chun. I’m just worried that giving birth to a daughter would piss him off,” relented Liang Siyao.
Xia Lei stared at her swollen belly then flashed her a smile. “Don’t worry, it’s a boy.”
Liang Siyao rested her head on top of Xia Lei’s shoulder. “Sure, I believe you. I believe in everything you say.”
Truth to be told, not only that Xia Lei had confirmed that Liang Siyao was pregnant with his son, but he was also aware of the gender of his other children. All he needed to do was use his X-ray vision. In the past, he was unwilling to use it on his pregnant wives because he was afraid that the fetuses would be too weak against any possible adverse effects. However, all his worries were slowly dissipating as his children continued to flourish in their mother’s womb. Albeit so, the man was mindful to exercise restraint. He had only used the vision once to assess their gender.
Out of the four pregnant wives, Liang Siyao and Long Bing were carrying sons while Jiang Ruyi and Fan Fan were carrying daughters. Two boys and two girls, two pairs of dragons and phoenixes. Long Bing and Liang Siyao could be said as the ‘Wu’ while Fan Fan and Long Bing were the ‘Wen’. The ‘Wu’ would birth sons while the ‘Wen’ would birth daughters. This was a wonderful balance.
[Note: There’s a saying in Chinese- 文(wen)武(wu)双全, in which praises the mastery of both polite letters and martial arts. The occupation and nature of Xia Lei’s lovers allow them to be separated into such.]
He continued to entertain Liang Siyao with baby talk as he altered his copied information. The designs he had extracted from the French supplier were lacklustre, there were many things that did not satisfy Xia Lei’s tastes. However, after a little bit of change, the designs were refined and perfected.
Gaining access and extracting may have taken him minutes. But altering it, on the other hand, was incredibly time-consuming. He had used up an entire hour but couldn’t manage to get past a handful of plans. But the man was confident that his designs were going to be the best out of its kind at the end of this process.
Liang Siyao was excited when she first started but she was slowly losing patience and interest after an hour. “Hubby, I’m going to the garage to check on them. Please take breaks, okay? Do not strain yourself.”
Surprisingly, Xia Lei called out to her. “Siyao, I’ve got something to tell you.”
“What is it?” Liang Siyao turned back, curiosity piqued.
There was a beat of silence before Xia Lei mustered up enough courage. “Help me plan for a funeral.”
“What?” Liang Siyao’s eyes shot wide open.
“Yes, you heard that right.” Xia Lei had a straight face on. “Help me plan for a funeral. It doesn’t need to be a large scale event. I just want it to be lively.”
Without warning, a fist made an impact with his skull. Liang Siyao huffed, the rims of her eyes were red and moist. “What the fuck are you saying? Do you hear yourself? I don’t want to hear words like this from you. If you leave us, what would happen to our children? Have you thought about Fan Fan, Ah Bing and Ruyi? What would happen to their children?”
“Silly, let me finish.” Xia Lei tugged on her arm and pressed her down onto his thigh. He inched closer and whispered, “Let me tell what’s going on…”
The tears in Liang Siyao slowly faded away with every revelation Xia Lei split from his lips.
An Operation S tailored by the CIA and America’s top five arms dealers. Li Youdun was the assignee and the end goal of the operation was to have Xia Lei dead. The opposition had channelled heaps of effort into this. How could Xia Lei not be tempted to follow their plan and satisfy them?
“What’s the point of doing this?” After Xia Lei was done, Liang Siyao couldn’t help but question his rationale. “You could’ve ignored them and destroyed their informant base right away.”
Xia Lei explained, “Destroying the CIA’s Jingdu informant base would only spur them into building another. I need to follow through with their plan. I need them to think I’m dead. With me out of the picture, they’ll lower their guard. When that time comes…”
“What are you trying to achieve?”
“I’ll tell when it is right,” said Xia Lei. Truthfully, he had already devised a complete plan but he was reluctant to reveal it. The details of his strategy would only trigger worry among his wives.
“Then when do you plan to…” Liang Siyao still couldn’t mutter the word.
Xia Lei answered, “In about a week after I’m done with appropriate arrangements. By then, I can…”
Liang Siyao’s palm darted over to muffle Xia Lei’s mouth. “You are not allowed to utter that word.”
Xia Lei smiled with his heart filled with warmth.