The Vientiane Group Jingdu Headquarters.
Xia Lei followed Shentu Tianyin to the door of Vientiane Group’s confidential room. Shentu Tianyin made a quick move to enter the passcode and input her thumbprint. With that, the doors were opened.
They entered the space, immediately welcomed by the sight of multiple vaults and document cabinets. The cabinets were bursting at its seams with mountains of documents and relevant agreements.
Vientiane Group had a market value of hundreds of billions and its business scope had covered almost all walks of life. Therefore, it was a must to keep these things well. It was not hard to tell the importance of this room to Shentu Tianyin.
“Why didn’t you station a guard to look after such an important place?” Xia Lei asked.
Shentu Tianyin paced over to a vault and answered, “I did. Usually, there’s two of them stationed at the door. I’m not sure why there’s no one here now. Perhaps we caught them in the middle of a shift rotation.”
Xia Lei frowned. “Tianyin, this is no small matter. This place is important and if someone with ulterior motives gains access to this place, you’ll be in big trouble.”
Shentu Tianyin smiled. “No one would dare to trouble me now.”
“Why?”
Shentu Tianyin replied, “Well, everyone in the industry knows that I’m your ex-wife. With your significant support, who in the right mind would dare to offend me?”
Xia Lei merely smiled and said nothing else. But he believed her words. With his current title in China and irreplaceable importance to the nation’s interest, who would’ve dared to mess with his women? Although Shentu Tianyin was no longer his wife, they had a history. That alone was enough to drive trouble away.
Shentu Tianyin unlocked the vault and retrieved a silver aluminium alloy box from within. She opened the box only to scream. The box plopped onto the ground.
There was nothing inside. The box was empty!
Xia Lei was shocked. “Tianyin, are you sure the rare metal sample was in this box?”
“Yes, I’m sure about that. The geologist that returned from Nigeria had brought the rare metal back in this very box. I don’t know anything about rare metals but I’m aware of its importance. That’s why I chose to store it in the confidential room’s vault. I placed this in myself and I was the one who locked it up. How…? How could it have gone missing?” Shentu Tianyin looked extremely anxious.
“It must have something to do with the four Americans. Bring me to your surveillance room,” instructed Xia Lei.
“Right away!” Shentu Tianyin picked up her pace and led him outside. In between rushed steps, she attempted to explain, “I swear I wasn’t telling lies. I have no idea what happened…”
Xia Lei patted her shoulder. “Calm down. Even if the sample is missing, it’s just a sample. You still have the mine. If there’s a need, you could just have someone bring another piece back.”
Just as his warm palm fell atop her shoulder, Shentu Tianyin’s body twitched ever so slightly. She had no idea how long it had been since Xia Lei had last touched her. Though this was nothing but a light brush, it still sent a small jolt down her body. After all, Xia Lei was the only man other than her father to have touched her body. It had been too long since she had last felt his warmth.
“Uh… Sorry. That was rude of me,” apologized Xia Lei with an awkward expression.
Shentu Tianyin felt faint sadness. “So you’re going to apologize just because of a light touch to my shoulder? You’ve done plenty to me in the past and you’ve never once thought of apologizing.”
If the contact had been from someone else, she would not tolerate it. But if it was Xia Lei, nothing was off-limits. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have requested a child from Xia Lei, let alone hint that she wished to be impregnated naturally.
Xia Lei offered a small sheepish smile.
Exiting the confidential room, Xia Lei followed Shentu Tianyin into the surveillance room. A few security personnel were on their job. As soon as they noticed her presence, they quickly scrambled up and saluted in unison. “Director.”
Shentu Tianyin returned them a light nod and instructed, “Pull out the footage on the four American visitors we received earlier today. Me and my hu... I mean, me and Mister Xia would like to take a look.”
She was close to calling Xia Lei her husband again but was quick to correct herself.
One of the security staff moved to manipulate one of the computers and heeded her request.
On the other end, a security staff whispered quietly to his colleague. “Isn’t that the Thunder Horse Organization Director, Mister Xia Lei? I know he’s our director’s ex-husband but why is he here?”
“Hey, pipe it down. Everyone here knows that the director is still madly in love with her ex-husband. She still leaves out a set of cutleries for him at home during each meal. Our director has never stopped seeing Mister Xia Lei as her own husband.” The other security member answered.
Their conversation was discreet. Normally, no one would be able to pick up on it but Xia Lei’s hearing had amplified their words. It felt as if they were speaking straight into his ears.
“She… She still puts out a set of cutleries for me every meal? What…” Xia Lei was immediately assaulted by a flood of mixed feelings. Involuntarily, their shared past began pouring out from the depths of his memory.
Shentu Tianyin did not catch their whispered gossipings. She stayed rooted beside the security personnel working the computer, eyes glued to the screen. She was focused but also anxious. Now that her sample had vanished out of thin air, she wasn’t too worried about what Xia Lei would think about the situation. However, she was more worried about having Xia Lei’s five wives think that she was a filthy liar. If that was the case, for her to come in contact with Xia Lei in the future would prove to be difficult.
“That’s weird…” The security staff at the computer suddenly spoke. “Director, I have no idea why but the footage of the four American’s arriving is missing. Weirdly, the timestamps for the footage are all normal. Could we have failed to record it?”
“How is that possible?” Shentu Tianyin was shocked. She instinctively turned around to spare Xia Lei a look. When she was met with difficulties in the past, she would’ve showcased the same action on reflex. It was obvious that Xia Lei still had a solid spot in her heart as support worth depending on.
“Let me have a look.” Xia Lei walked over.
The security staff moved away.
Xia Lei went over but did not take a seat. He immediately entered the system script and began tapping his fingers across the keyboard. The speed of his typing was almost like the pitter-patter of rain against the window. His movements were so fast that it was difficult to keep track of his progress.
Shentu Tianyin watched Xia Lei silently. A focused Xia Lei had always been exceptionally attractive to her.
Two minutes later, Xia Lei stopped. “Someone has hacked into your surveillance system. I must say, the other party is a professional.”
“What?” The security staff working the computer earlier was shocked. “How could we not have picked up on that? This surveillance system was custom made by the best cybersecurity professionals in the country. It cost us more than two million.”
Xia Lei did not offer him an explanation. He turned to face Shentu Tianyin. “Let’s talk outside.”
Shentu Tianyin obediently nodded and followed him out of the surveillance room.
The security personnel looked at each other in utter confusion. Frankly speaking, they were not too convinced by Xia Lei’s statement. After all, this was a professional surveillance system tailored by a professional company. There was bound to be traces left behind by an attack, yet they’ve failed to notice any abnormality. But if they were to find out that Xia Lei was the world’s best hacker that had battled the Tenshin system, they would’ve certainly believed him.
Exiting the surveillance room, Xia Lei abruptly stopped in the middle of the corridor.
“What exactly is going on?” Shentu Tianyin was confused and concerned.
Xia Lei studied the surveillance camera in the corridor through the corner of his eye. Without saying anything, he began walking towards the end of the corridor.
Shentu Tianyin was not a trained agent like Liang Siyao and Long Bing. She urgently chased after him. “Why are you not saying anything?”
“You lied to me! There’s no rare metal at all, right?” Xia Lei was positively fuming. “You’ve lied to me and you’re still trying to deceive me now. Do you really think I’m easy to fool?”
“I…” Shentu Tianyin froze, tears bursting out of her rims like a broken dam. She wasn’t expecting Xia Lei to call her out from the surveillance room for a lecture. This was a merciless scratch at her mental scar.
Following that, Xia Lei resumed his journey to the end of the corridor. He walked and continued to scold, “I’m thoroughly disappointed by you! From now on, you and I shall never cross paths! Don’t come looking for me! Forget about my agreement to invest five billion dollars in your business! Goodbye!”
Shentu Tianyin was shell-shocked. She thought to herself, “Since did we speak about a five billion dollar investment? I’ve never asked him for money. Why is he saying something like that?”
Just as she mulled over the thought, Shentu Tianyin immediately picked up on his intention. She quickly caught up and replied, “Hey! How dare you treat me like this! Do you think you’ll be able to walk away after yelling at me?!”
The both of them went back and forth until they reached the stairway.
Xia Lei went into the stairs, only stopping when he confirmed that they had arrived at a surveillance blindspot. He pulled Shentu Tianyin’s arm and shot her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t doing that to anger you. Someone has planted spyware into your company’s surveillance system. Everything you do is now under their careful watch. I don’t know who the other party is at the moment but I’ve made too many enemies over the years. I’m only doing that to protect you.”
“I know but I really felt like crying…” mumbled Shentu Tianyin as her tears continued to flow. Though she was clear that it was merely an act, those words still stung badly.
Xia Lei too felt awful. “You’ve never cried in the past. Why have you become such a crybaby now?”
Shentu Tianyin rubbed her tears away. “It’s all your fault. No matter what you say or do, even if you aren’t by my side, anything about you is able to influence my emotions.”
“Tianyin…” Xia Lei switched the topic. “Listen to me. They’re targeting you now. You’re in great danger now, you need to come with me.”
“Where to?”
Xia Lei thought for a moment. “Come to my house for the time being. You will only be safe in my house.”
“But…” As soon as Shentu Tianyin thought of the five female owners of the Peace Mansion, she was reluctant.
“I know what you’re worried about. Don’t worry, I’ll explain the situation to them.”
Shentu Tianyin hesitated but returned a nod eventually.
“Go prepare yourself. I need to make a call now,” said Xia Lei.
Shentu Tianyin quickly turned to leave.
Xia Lei brought out his satellite phone and dialled for Fan Fan. “Honey, something has happened on my end…”