The sun rose in the east with a breathtaking display of radiant colours.
Xia Lei stood at the window of his office watching the sunrise. His mind was occupied by the development of the Thunder Horse Military Factory, the research of the new materials, the FA organizations potential revenge, unusual actions from the Hattori family and the Alloy X Project. These things washed over him like a tsunami. It was only a matter of time before he drowned.
The workers were trickling out from their dormitory to head towards the workshop.
The Sweeper had begun its mass production. All staff under the Thunder Horse Organization were very busy preparing the first batch of stock before they received their first order.
Sylvia and Annina came in through the gate of the factory. Instead of heading towards the administrative building, they went straight to the chariot workshop. Since the Sweeper was already well on its way to mass production, they did not need to focus their attention there any longer. Thus, Sylvia and Annina decided to focus on other technologies. They had shifted their attention towards the first production of the tank by the organization. At the same time, they needed to plan for the space launch system. It was essential to have a perfect product structure to develop the organization into something like Rheinmetall AG and Lockheed Martin Corp.
As Sylvia and Annina passed by the building, they looked up into Xia Lei’s office. However, they didn’t find Xia Lei who stood at the window due to their viewing angles. So they did not stop and decided to head straight toward the workshop.
Xia Lei watched the two German workaholics as they left while thinking, “They’re putting so much effort into the organization. I must work harder to find a way to integrate AI technology into the Thunder Horse Organization's production system.”
As he thought about it, four women came into sight. It was the Grey and Russo sisters. Xia Lei couldn’t help but frown when he caught sight of them. “What are they doing here? Have they gotten in touch with the Knights Hospitaller headquarters?”
The Grey sisters were both clad in black office uniforms, showing their curvy bodies and long legs. Both of them had blond hair and deep blue eyes exuding a very seductive vibe. On the other hand, the Russo sisters were wearing white office uniforms. They were well-shaped with curvy bodies and long, slender legs. Their butts were bouncing while walking, which was sexy as hell.
They were heading towards the office. A lot of staff was peeking at them, some even whistled. Despite these actions, four of them didn’t bother to spare them a glance.
“They changed their style? What’s going on?” Xia Lei couldn’t help but smile wryly upon seeing them. He spent three million dollars to save them but they didn’t appreciate it. It was hard not to be salty.
“Director Xia, I’ve made you a cup of oolong tea,” said Qing Caiyue while placing the tea on the table.
“Alright, thank you.” Xia Lei turned around to face Qing Caiyue. “Please make four more cups for me. With the cheapest tea.”
“Those four nasty people again?” asked Qing Caiyue.
Xia Lei smiled. “Yes, that’s them. Now, go ahead.”
Just as Qing Caiyue finished brewing the tea, the Grey and Russo sisters barged into the office. Xia Lei sent Qing Caiyue away by asking her to check on the workshop before he greeted the four ladies. “Morning, ladies. I’ve asked my secretary to make you guys the best tea.”
“We’re not tea people,” said Giovanna.
Xia Lei waved his hands. “Alright then, what can I do for you?”
Giovanna took out a new laptop from her bag and lifted the screen.
Rosa closed the door of the office.
Upon seeing the door closed, Giovanna started the laptop. A video interface popped out on the screen.
In the video, there was a bald old man sitting by the office table. Behind him was a wall, which hung four paintings, which turned out to be the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. One of the paintings depicted a horseman who carried a sword and rode a red horse, which represented war. He was wearing a suit of silver armour and holding a huge sword in a dignified manner.
Xia Lei fixed his gaze on the Horseman that rode the red horse. He was attracted by the silver armour on the Horseman. That was a century style armour equipped with a helm, a pauldron, a breastplate, a plackart, a tasset, a cuisse, a poleyn, a greave and a sabaton, covering its user from head to toe. The helm was equipped with a face shield that resembled a welder's shield. If the shield was put down, the Horseman on the red horse would become a real Mighty Knight.
The armour of the other three Horsemen was different. Their armour was made of cloth and leather. Although they looked imposing, the style was more casual and it was more like an armour depicted from imagination. Xia Lei was exhilarated by the discovery. He thought, “Among four Horsemen, three of them were wearing casual armour probably an assumption by the painter. The one on the red horse is the only one who’s wearing a full-fledged armour with complicated structure and special designs. Could it have been drawn by the painter with a reference to the real thing? If that’s the case, is that the armour I am after?”
He had the chance to look at the appearance of the armour before entering the palace, which was undoubtedly a bonus for him.
“Well…” The old man in the video cleared his throat and continued. “Mister Xia, nice to meet you. I’m the leader of Knights Hospitaller, Walton.”
“Oh, Mister Walton. It's an honour to have this video call with you.” Xia Lei was being polite, but he thought to himself, “The real leader of Knights Hospitaller, Angelo didn’t show up. Instead, he sent a powerless spiritual leader to talk to me. Do they really believe that I know nothing?”
The Grey and Russo sisters, who were standing behind Xia Lei, bowed to Walton.
Walton replied with a nod and asked, “Mister Xia, are you satisfied with the operation in Siberia?”
Xia Lei kept silenced for a while before he spoke. “Although the results were satisfying, the truth is I’m not satisfied.”
“Why?”
“I paid you fifty million dollars and provided you with a lot of weaponry for you to execute the operation. I ended up doing most of the work myself. I lost six allies and I nearly lost my life during the battle with Dark Mona. How would I be satisfied?”
“Hahaha, you should be content,” said Walton. “The result is more important than the process, just focus on that.”
Xia Lei replied calmly, “I didn’t pay that much just to take out Dark Mona. You’ll have to find out and tell me the whereabouts of FA’s headquarters and destroy it.”
“Mister Xia, it isn’t easy. It took so much effort to destroy the training base of the FA, it would be much difficult to destroy the headquarters. Can you just…”
Xia Lei interrupted Walton. “I don’t care about the process. The result is more important than the process. Isn’t that what you just told me?”
Walton frowned upon hearing this. He wasn’t happy with how Xia Lei used his words against him but he couldn’t refute it either. Fifty million dollars and advanced weaponry from Thunder Horse Organizations, many mercenaries and the armed groups would have been tempted by this offer.
“Mister Walton, if you don’t want to pay the price or intend to shift the loss to me, it will be very difficult for you to achieve your goals. We have a prior agreement and the agreement will not be changed.” Xia Lei paused for a while before he continued, “You’re not trying to convince me in modifying the agreement in this video call, right?”
Walton initially had that intention in mind but immediately dismissed it when he saw how strong Xia Lei’s reactions were. “No, no, no, Mister Xia, I'm on this video call with you to tell you two things.”
“Please go ahead.”
“Firstly, Arthur’s whereabouts are unknown and we do not know whether he’s dead or alive. Thus, we decided to replace him with Giovanna. She’ll stay in China and act as the liaison between you and us. Please take good care of them.”
“No problem.” Xia Lei turned around to take a glance at the four women.
Four women held their heads up and pretended not to look at him.
“Another thing is although we’ve successfully destroyed FA’s training base, we haven’t found the headquarters. Our members from the information system are already working on this. We’ll get back to you through Giovanna once we have the results. It would take around a month and in the meantime, keep our relic safe. Don’t use it for experiments.”
“I won’t.” The previous experiment appeared in Xia Lei’s mind. He had cut a small piece of silver metal. Would that small piece affect the performance of the protective suit?
“That’s it. Goodbye, Mister Xia.”
“Goodbye, Mister Walton.”
As Walton disappeared from the interface, Giovanna approached to shut down her MackBook and talked to Xia Lei. “Mister Xia, do you understand now?”
Xia Lei smiled. “I understand. His first purpose was to convince me to make concessions, but clearly, I wasn’t that easy to deal with. Thus, he decided against it. His second purpose was to tell me that you’ve been promoted and you’ve replaced Arthur as the Commander. I’m not sure how much power you hold, but you look happy. Another thing is he wants to warn me to not touch the relic and that I’ll be under your surveillance from now. Am I right?”
Giovanna was stunned. She didn’t expect that Xia Lei had analysed the situation thoroughly and explained it to them. Thus, she averted his gaze.
Xia Lei continued calmly, “There’s something I like to talk to you about too.”
“What is it?” asked Giovanna.
“I paid three million dollars to save you from the mercenaries and the armed personnel in Siberia. They wanted to rape and murder you. My condition of saving you all is to be my knight. However, you’re clearly not acting it right now. When are you going to pay me back?” said Xia Lei.
The four women looked at each other.
“Oh, I left my clothes in your washing machine, I need to head back to get it out.” Giovanna took her MackBook and left.
“I’m going back to hang the laundry,” said Rosa.
Although Stella and Theresa didn’t say anything regarding their laundry, they left before Giovanna and Rosa did.
As soon as the four women left, Xia Lei pulled out his satellite phone.
“Where is she now?”
“She just arrived in New Delhi. She seems nervous because she’s unfamiliar with her surroundings.” Anjum Khan responded.
“Watch her closely. Don’t lose her.”
“Boss, don’t worry. This is my turf. I've got my men involved. I'm not going to lose her.”
“Alright, keep in touch.”
“She’s in a cab now. The driver is one of my men. I have to follow her.” Anjum Khan hung up the phone.
Where is she going?
Xia Lei was getting more and more curious as the situation progressed.