“Jeez, you’re finally here.” As soon as Xia Lei arrived at the laboratory, he was immediately brought deeper into the room by the long impatient Fan Yiming.
“Grandpa, what’s the matter?” asked Xia Lei.
Fan Yiming scanned his employees in the lab carefully. There was a slight twitch to his lips but the older man said nothing. He then pulled Xia Lei by the hand into another room.
Xia Lei found the entire thing suspicious. He attempted to probe. “Grandpa, what is going on?”
“You call me Grandpa now and Fan Fan told me I’m about to be a great grandfather soon. Is that true?” Fan Yiming stared intently into Xia Lei’s eyes.
Xia Lei felt a little awkward under his intense stare. “Yes, Grandpa. Fan Fan is pregnant.”
“So that means we’re a family now, right?” Fan Yiming pressed on.
Xia Lei nodded. “Of course, we’re a family.” Suddenly, he finally understood why Fan Yiming had requested his presence and even ensured that their conversation was private.
As expected, the older man was beating around the bush. Fan Yiming had finally brought the conversation to the real topic. “Tell me, how did you solve Alloy X’s stability issue?”
“Come on, tell me,” urged Fan Yiming, patience long gone.
Xia Lei answered, “Grandpa, it’s not that I don’t wish to tell you but it is not time.”
“Not time?” Fan Yiming scowled. “When are you planning to tell me then? Noon? Or after office hours?”
Suddenly, Xia Lei caught light footsteps echoing about in the hallway.
His head quickly snapped to the direction of the door, left eye twitching slightly to activate his X-ray vision. Xia Lei quickly saw a woman who was carrying a large box that contained a lot of glassware. Her steps were careful, afraid that the heavy box might slip from her grip onto the ground.
She passed the door, never once pausing, and headed to the end of the corridor.
Xia Lei turned his head away. The spy issue had him extremely paranoid these days. Any minor sign of suspicion was enough to have him on edge.
“Hey, when can you tell me about it?” Fan Yiming was not the least bit interested in what Xia Lei was observing earlier.
Xia Lei looked at him. “Grandpa, how about this? I’ll tell you about it on Fan Fan and I’s wedding day. How about we treat it as my betrothal gift?”
“You’re just afraid there’ll be an information leak, right?” Fan Yiming was evidently upset.
Xia Lei sighed. “Grandpa, we’re family. Why would I not trust you? It’s just…” Fan Yiming had possessed not a faint bit of anti-spy capability, so Xia Lei had no plans on having the older man alerted about the presence of a spy lurking around in the Thunder Horse Organization.
“Stop calling me Grandpa. My granddaughter shall not marry you. I will not approve of this,” threatened Fan Yiming, studying Xia Lei’s response silently.
Xia Lei just merely smiled at him. “That’s enough, Grandpa. I’ll let you get back to work, I need to go check on the garage.”
“Hey! You better think this through! I’m not letting Fan Fan marry you, for real!” The Fan Yiming at this moment was just like a spoilt child. This was the first time he had used his beloved granddaughter against Xia Lei.
Xia Lei paused and spared him a glance. “Grandpa, how about I tell Fan Fan about what you said earlier?”
“Huh?” Fan Yiming’s expression immediately slipped into a panic. He quickly waved his hands. “Ah, no, no. Uh...I was just joking around.”
“I was just joking too. It’s decided then. Grandpa, on the day of the wedding, I’ll give the secret to you in exchange for your granddaughter’s hand,” said Xia Lei.
“This better not be a lie.”
“When had I ever lied to you?”
“You tricked my granddaughter away, yet you have the audacity to feign innocence? You damned bastard, you’re not genuine at all.” Fan Yiming grumbled angrily.
Xia Lei decided to not continue the banter and left the room.
“Director Xia.” In the material science lab, Li Youdun greeted Xia Lei.
The man returned a nod. “What have you been doing these past two days?”
Li Youdun answered, “Now that the Alloy X is done with, all experiments have ceased. I’m currently doing some preparation work for the production line. Director Xia, you wish to obtain the most advanced garage in the country which requires me to submit a plan to you before the machinery comes.”
A smile appeared on Xia Lei’s face. “True, planning is definitely needed. Oh right, try to refer to international examples and past studies. Our country’s material science sector is, unfortunately, a little behind others. You should really give it a read and try to extract the good parts of it.”
“Got it. Director Xia, I won’t let you down. I’ll definitely give you a good plan.” Pausing briefly, Li Youdun spoke, “But… I don’t know the exact details of the technical aspects, so the plan might not be able to include complete production.”
Xia Lei’s gaze landed on Li Youdun’s chest, letting his left eye pierced through the cavity to peek into his heart.
The scientist’s pulse rate was normal, not showing any signs of picking up.
To observe one’s pulse rate as a lie detection method was something Xia Lei had learned a long time ago. Liang Siyao’s words of caution the other day had influenced Xia Lei greatly. The woman was once an excellent CIA spy and it was only natural for her to know how the world of spies operated. She had reminded him to suspect everyone, including her. With him suspecting his own lover, how could Li Youdun escape the radar?
“Director Xia?” Li Youdun piped.
Xia Lei snapped out of it. “Ah, it’s nothing. You can continue doing what you can at the moment. I’ll complete the rest for you.”
“Alright.” Li Youdun flashed him a warm smile. “I’ll look forward to the day the secret can be revealed. Director Xia, as a fellow Chinese, I’m honoured to be able to work for you and be involved in the Alloy X research.”
Xia Lei gave him a pat on the shoulder. “Do your best. We’ll change this era for sure.”
“Yeah!” Li Youdun’s nod was ecstatic.
Xia Lei left the material science laboratory but did not head into the garage. Instead, he left the Thunder Horse premise to venture towards the unfinished church beside the Peace Mansion.
Construction workers bustled around the site alongside unfamiliar faces. There were Caucasians, Blacks and some other races. Their coexistence made the place feel diversified and international.
They were all Catholic worshippers, fanatics even. These people were summoned here from all corners of the globe by the Russo and Grey sisters. Giovanna, Rosa, Stella, and Theresa’s goal was to build an armed force specifically for Xia Lei. These extremely loyal worshippers would be the base of this team.
Xia Lei studied each stranger with great attention. He thought darkly to himself, “Could the spy be one of them?”
He couldn’t deny that he was getting unbelievably paranoid all because of Liang Siyao’s words. He suspected everyone he came across as the spy.
The Grey and Russo sisters noticed Xia Lei’s presence and approached him.
Four female knights, two pairs of twins, blonde hair, and blue eyes along with nice tits and full behind. They were alluring and incredibly attractive. The way they strutted over was far from the impression of a religious nun or proud knights for a matter fact. All others could think of was unspeakable thoughts.
“Xia, it’s rare to see you here. What are you doing here?” The curve of Giovanna’s lips was beautiful, the woman was conversing in Italian.
The four female knights were still in the process of learning Chinese. However, Chinese was one of the hardest languages to master in the world. Their level of mastery was not sufficient to hold a normal conversation.
Xia Lei replied, “I’m here to check on the church’s progress.”
“It’ll take another three months to complete,” said Theresa.
Xia Lei turned around and studied the huge church that covered at least fifty acres of land, a wry smile playing on the edges of his lip. “Are you building Spain’s Sagrada Familia?”
“Ah, no way. It’s impossible to build a church of that scale. The church here is our own Holy Thunder Church,” responded Stella.
“Holy Thunder Church?” This was the first time Xia Lei had ever heard of a name like that.
Stella gave him an affirmative nod. “That’s right, Holy Thunder Church is its name. We used your name* for the church.”
[Note: Thunder = Lei]
Xia Lei gasped. “Is that appropriate? I’m not even Catholic, to begin with. How could you name this church after me?”
Giovanna assured him. “Religion should not be confined to believers and non-believers. We believe that you’re God’s chosen one and you have your mission.”
“My mission.” Xia Lei failed to suppress a laugh. “What mission has God given me?”
Giovanna said, “We don’t know for now, but one day it’ll occur to you and we’re preparing ourselves for the destined date. We are your knights. We will protect you and heed your orders.”
“Are you the four horsemen of the apocalypse?” Xia Lei teased.
Theresa’s lips turned into a frown. “Xia, please don’t joke about that. The four horsemen of the apocalypse are deities of the world’s end. Their appearance would mean mankind had reached the end of their cycle and that the world is nearing its end.”
Xia Lei shifted his posture. “Okay. Other than checking on the church, I’m also here to tell you something else…” There was a brief pause before he continued, “I’ve been using your identities to open up an account in an American financial securities company. So I have been dwelling into shares in the American stock market. If you’re uncomfortable with this, I’m more than happy to cancel the accounts.”
The four female knights shook their heads in unison.
Xia Lei tried to clarify their thoughts. “Are you uncomfortable with it?”
Giovanna said, “You own every inch of our being. You’re free to use us whenever.”
Those words were crazy suggestive.
It flustered Xia Lei a lot. “Alright then. That’s all from me. You can return to your work, I’ll be heading back now.”
Giovanna insisted, “Xia, please know that our words are genuine.”
Xia Lei nodded. He looked like he understood what Giovanna was trying to say but in all honesty, he did not understand her intentions at all. The minds of the opposite sex worked differently. When females spoke words like this, men would take it as a hint when it really was not. When men brushed off their words, those words would turn out to be an actual hint.
“Look at everyone here, they’re all faithful worshippers of God. If there’s anything you need help with, they’ll assist you without hesitation,” said Rosa.
Xia Lei nodded his head again. This time, he had completely understood Rosa’s message.
“I guess that’s all for today.” Giovanna came closer and hugged Xia Lei, then she planted a kiss on each of his cheeks.
Following that, Rosa, Stella, and Theresa repeated the action. Xia Lei instinctively glanced at the direction of the office block, fearing that Liang Siyao would see this in action. Hormones were wild during pregnancy and Xia Lei had no intention of getting caught up in Liang Siyao’s fury of jealousy despite the seemingly intimate gesture being nothing but a Western norm.
Leaving the construction site, Xia Lei returned to the Peace Mansion. But before the man could take another few more steps, he froze. A silver Rolls-Royce Phantom was zooming over to his property from Bailu Town.
To complicate things further, Bo Mingmei wasn’t the one steering the wheel. It was Shentu Tianyin.
Xia Lei could feel his heart sink. “What is it this time?”