Chapter 24: A Blood-Tingling Situation
Her answer was swift and simple, and it took a moment for it to register. When it did, everyone"s faces paled and began panicking. A few of the younger crime bosses dropped their careful poise and lofty demeanor and went running for the entrance. A couple of the older men looked at one another before catching up to Qi Mo at a brisk pace, seeming to have instantly decided that the Qi overlord would have some kind of solution, given his power.
"The door won"t open! It"s stuck!" Everyone who had run ahead had lost all their cool and were yelling hysterically.
At this point, Yellow Falcon suddenly pulled out a gun from who knew where and said, "I"ll shoot it."
The other bosses didn"t even have time to register the fact that he had somehow gotten the weapon past the multiple layers of security everyone had had to go through prior to entering the conference. Instead, they met his decision with a series of protests.
"You can"t!"
"This is a controlled lock. If you try to force it open, it"ll end up being completely impossible to open."
They had chosen this particular hotel to hold their business conference for its extensive security precautions and high-quality equipment. Yet ironically, the aforementioned technology was the very reason they were all trapped like animals right now. Furthermore, everyone had been required to cut off communication with their people on the outside in order to prevent anyone from conspiring an attack.
They were, in short, completely isolated.
Qi Mo scowled and moved forward. "Out of the way," he grunted, shoving people out of the jammed doorway.
Li Xin felt herself being pushed to the door, and she wasted no time. She reached down to fiddle with the lock, clicking it open in a few short seconds. No one complained when Qi Mo walked through the door, taking her with him; once they were through, the rest followed in a stream.
Li Xin had never been more aware of time — ticking and ticking, each second slipping away and bringing her closer to death. She had always been sensitive to the pa.s.sing of time; as a thief, it was her prerogative to remain aware of it, and she had always been able to get away with things no matter how little time was allotted to her. This time was different though. She had never come as close to death as this, especially when she had had a chance to get away.
And now, she was stuck with the consequences of her decision. If they didn"t get out soon, she"d be dead and most likely sent to h.e.l.l. Honestly, she should never have come back to warn them. She could"ve just returned her debt in another life.
Sweat pooled in the palms of her hands and her heart pounded in her ears to the rhythm of an invisible clock. Her fingers began to quiver as they approached the last locked door. She bent down to pick the lock, but paused suddenly, her hands frozen in midair.
"Stay calm." Qi Mo"s voice came to her from the side, and then she felt a pair of hands circle themselves tightly around her own wrists.
She looked up at his face, which was as expressionless as ever. There was still no trace of panic or fear in his features, and his eyes held the same stern, murderous look — which somehow seemed to subdue her rising panic and make her regain her senses.
Again, the door opened easily with a click that was the most pleasant thing Li Xin had ever heard. Before she could register what had happened, she felt herself being pushed and shoved from side to side as people began streaming out the door from behind her in a frenzied scramble.
The look in Qi Mo"s eyes darkened. He reached out to grab her by the waist and ran out the door, Red Falcon and Yellow Falcon following close on his heels.
They had barely set foot outside when an earth-shattering explosion sounded from deep within the hotel. A second later, red-hot flames burst out the hotel"s main entrance, the torrid hot heat melting all the decor and turning everything to gray ash. Gla.s.s shards flew through the air and rained down; huge clouds of dust congested the scene.
Standing in Qi Mo"s arms, Li Xin felt the thunderous explosion more than heard it. She felt herself burying her head into his broad, muscular chest.
In the midst of the post-explosion chaos, the Qi Clan had promptly sent a car over for Qi Mo. He made his way to the vehicle and got in the back with Li Xin still beside him. "Drive," he ordered. The driver obliged, and they sped away from the scene.
Red Falcon and Black Falcon stayed behind to deal with the mess that had occurred. There were people they had to get rid of; no one messed with the Qi Clan like that and got away with their lives.
Li Xin gradually regained her composure as they drove on. She was still mostly in Qi Mo"s arms and felt sudden irritation at what had just happened. It was absolute insanity. She"d almost died. She could do without such thrills in the future; it had only been one day since she"d become a Qi Clan servant, and she"d nearly died twice. If things kept going at this rate, she probably only had about ten years left to her life.
"So… are we even now?" She asked, looking at him with a forced smile.
Qi Mo stared down at the woman who had just been scared speechless a few moments ago. She appeared to have returned to her provocative self. "What do you want?" He asked.
She let out a laugh. "All I did was steal a tiny jade from you. I feel like saving your life is enough to pay for that. Can we call it even?" Li Xin suggested. "From now on, we go our separate ways."
He observed her beaming face for a few beats before responding, "As a servant, saving your master"s life is part of your job description."
"Part of my job? Are you kidding me?" She glared daggers at him.
He stared at her, his face revealing none of his current thoughts, all of which centered around the fact that no one had dared glare at him so impetuously since he became the overlord. This woman certainly had a temper. "I haven"t taken into account the fact that you tried to run away earlier," he said evenly. "You should know your place."
Li Xin cursed herself silently. She"d given herself away by finding out about the explosives in the first place, since that wouldn"t have happened if she hadn"t been trying to run away. f.u.c.k. Clearly, Qi Mo was not an easy man to fool. If she had known, she wouldn"t have gone back save him. She should"ve just let him die instead of nearly dying herself to get him and the others out. It appeared that she never learned… as if she"d lost all sense of self-preservation. Next time, there was no way she was helping him, even if the sky split open.
"If you"re able to get away, then you better hope you never get caught. Otherwise, you"ll regret having been born," Qi Mo said as if he heard her internal monologue. She would learn the price of running away. Unfortunately, she had failed this time.
His face was characteristically stoic, but Li Xin felt the threat behind his calmly uttered words. He had seen her trying to escape from the conference room, but hadn"t bothered stopping her. It was terrifying if she thought about the fact that he would have let her run because he was confident he"d be able to capture her again and that he would then have a reason to kill her.
She ground her teeth silently. This Qi Mo character was the actual devil, and to think she had a.s.sumed he wasn"t as terrible as the rumors claimed. He was worse, actually. She had erroneously a.s.sumed that he had ignored her escape attempt out of mercy, but actually he had been looking forward to watching her escape, get caught again, and inevitably punished. How s.a.d.i.s.tic.
After Li Xin carefully considered her situation again, she decided to throw all caution to the wind and just fall asleep, still in Qi Mo"s arms. She needed to rest properly before coming up with a more solid plan for the future. She had been part of a thieving organization for decades and survived. She refused to believe that she wouldn"t be able to get away from the Qi Clan.
Her sudden transition into slumber when she had been seething with anger not five minutes ago made Qi Mo raised his eyebrows uncharacteristically. Good, she was smart. He liked smart people… only people with brains had a right to stay by his side to serve him.