Jingdu, Tang Yu-Yan’s home.
“Wooow, what a soft bed!” Szlamy rolled about on the soft bed in the bedroom. Her s.e.xy figure, tattered skirt and rolling youthfulness came rus.h.i.+ng at Xia Lei and he forgot to blink.
Xia Lei wasn’t sure if he wouldn’t throw himself on Szlamy if Dayetia was not next to him, and even if he did manage to resist, there was no need to predict the result if Szlamy were to take the initiative.
“You two can rest here. We’ll talk again tomorrow,” said Xia Lei.
Szlamy bounced up from the bed before Dayetia could respond. “Xia, why aren’t you giving our Chieftain a room? How can she sleep in the same room as me? This is not appropriate for her status.” She blinked her large eyes at Xia Lei after speaking, as if trying to signal something.
Xia Lei smiled wryly and shrugged, then glanced at Dayetia.
Dayetia looked at Szlamy. “I asked Xia to arrange it this way. Don’t you want to sleep with me, Szlamy?”
Szlamy was speechless.
She was blinking at Xia Lei to hint that she wanted to be with him, thinking that he had mistakenly put Dayetia in her room. She had no expected Dayetia to make this sort of arrangement with Xia Lei. Her potential fun was ruined.
This was actually not the first time. For the past two weeks, Dayetia had played the interloper and stopped Szlamy and Xia Lei from getting to that step in their relations.h.i.+p.
Xia Lei and Szlamy’s uncertain relations.h.i.+p was also due to the compa.s.s, and he was actually relieved that Dayetia kept interrupting.
After Xia Lei left, Szlamy complained, “Chieftain, what’s the meaning of this? Didn’t you give Xia to me? I want to sleep with him! Why are you sleeping with me instead?”
Dayetia had a stern expression on her face as she said, “You’re still young and there are many things you don’t understand. I’m doing this to protect you, and our tribe.”
“Protect me… and our tribe?” Szlamy pouted. “Chieftain, isn’t it just sleeping together? I’m not going to lose a chunk of flesh by sleeping with Xia, and it’s not as if a goat is going to die in our tribe, is it?”
Dayetia abruptly slapped Szlamy upside the head.
Szlamy rubbed the back of her head and said gloomily, “Chieftain! I’m not that smart to begin with - are you trying to make me more stupid with all this. .h.i.tting?”
Dayetia glared at Szlamy, then drew close to her ear and said seriously, “You silly girl. You won’t be smart even if I don’t hit you. I’ve thought about it these past few days - you cannot be with him.”
“Why?”
“Didn’t you wonder why the American helicopters appeared at our tribe? And why we were pursued? Xia is a Chinese special agent and the Americans want to capture him. You will drag our tribe into this if you’re with him. There is no way we can go up against the Americans. If we fight them because of Xia, we will be annihilated.”
“So why did we come with him to China?”
“For the sword of Attila. We must retrieve our ancestors’ sacred relic. And the hydropower station. It will help improve our tribe. We cannot do these without Xia,” said Dayetia.
“Isn’t this using him?” asked Szlamy.
“I can sacrifice anything and do anything for the tribe.” Dayetia was firm; this was the belief she had adhered to all her life.
“But… I was intimate with him on our way here. You didn’t object to that - Why?”
“You idiot. This is the outside world, not our tribe. The outside world is a man’s world, and you must understand a man’s way of thinking. Men will value what they cannot have so if you just give it to him and satisfy his l.u.s.t, he won’t value you. If he really likes you, you can use this to gain more benefits for our tribe,” said Dayetia.
Szlamy was silent. She suddenly felt like she did not understand her Chieftain at all. The usual elder-sister-like Chieftain now felt like a stranger.
What caused Dayetia to change her stance was Xia Lei himself. She had first thought that he was an agent who had come to the tribe to rescue his people, but she discovered that he was not just a simple agent through their interactions. He had a special and high rank in China. If it weren’t so, then why would the Americans waste so much of their resources to go after him? He was too important for her to give to Szlamy as a regular man-slave.
More importantly, Dayetia had also discovered Xia Lei’s other ident.i.ty of ‘businessman’ on their way to China. Her appet.i.te grew for more than a small hydropower station when she learnt that Xia Lei had a military factory in China - she wanted more!
All for the tribe.
A plan only she knew formed in Dayetia’s head the more she learnt about Xia Lei...
Long Bing and Xia Lei sat on sofas opposite each other to talk in the living room.
“You didn’t rescue anyone but brought two beautiful Hun women back with you. I’m waiting for an explanation.” Long Bing was expressionless and her tone flat, as if she were saying something like the price of eggs had gone up by five cents.
Xia Lei recounted the series of events where he and Tang Yu-Yan had entered Peshawar, the ambush in Afghanistan, being captured in the White Hun Tribe, and the deal he had made…
The only thing he’d left out was the part about his father, Xia Chang-He and Yelena.
Xia Lei talked for over ten minutes and Long Bing looked him straight in the eyes when she was done listening. “How did you know that the sword of Attila is in Ahn Geungan’s hands? I don’t even know about that. This is a very important piece of information. If we’d known about this first we wouldn’t have sent you and Tang Yu-Yan to Afghanistan to rescue those experts. We would get that sword and trade with the White Hun Tribe.”
Xia Lei had his answer prepared. “The information didn’t pop up on its own; I stumbled upon it coincidentally. Ahn Geungan’s son, Ahn Suhyeong is one of Shentu Tian-Yin’s suitors. He told her a lot about his family. The sword of Attila is the piece that his father is most proud of in his collection and he invited Shentu Tian-Yin to admire it. You know my relations.h.i.+p with Shentu Tian-Yin. I just so happened to overhear their conversation and didn’t really take note of it at that time. Later, our second guide in Afghanistan and one of the respected leaders of the White Rock Tribe, Kabir, told me about some of the White Hun Tribe’s history and he mentioned the sword of Attila. I immediately remembered that the sword was in Ahn Geungan’s possession and I used this piece of information to strike this deal with Dayetia in the end.”
Coincidentally overhearing Ahn Suhyeong bragging to Shentu Tian-Yin about having Attila the Hun’s sword, then claiming to have heard things from a dead Kabir - even if it was Long Bing, there was no way she could dig the truth out of Kabir’s corpse, was there?
“This really is a coincidence,” said Long Bing with a sigh.
“What else? How did you think I got this information? From the CIA?” said Xia Lei.
Long Bing looked away from Xia Lei’s anger-laden gaze and said, “You know I don’t mean that. I just want to be clear about what happened. I have to report to Boss s.h.i.+ too.”
Xia Lei exhaled. His father had information that even Bureau 101 did not have. He did not know if he should feel proud or troubled by this.
“I have the compa.s.s but I can’t hand it to you yet,” said Xia Lei.
“Why?” Long Bing looked at Xia Lei again.
“Other than the deal I made to rescue the hostages, I also made a deal with the White Hun Tribe chieftain, Dayetia. I will build a small hydropower station for the White Hun Tribe in return for a day of treasure-seeking in their ruins. I need the compa.s.s to point to the right place and finished the excavation. I cannot do this without the compa.s.s,” said Xia Lei.
“No problem, but what is excavated must go to the country,” said Long Bing.
“Of course I’ll hand it over to the state,” said Xia Lei, “So I will give Bureau 101 a bill, plus the 500,000 USD I paid to Kabir. I hope the higher-ups transfer the money to me.”
“Haha…”
“Why are you laughing?”
“It’s easily over a million US dollars, and building a hydropower station on top of that? You’ve solved the problem but your way of doing it is just too extravagant. There is a limit to Bureau 101’s budget. This amount of money is going to cause headaches for Boss s.h.i.+ too. I don’t know if he will approve this so you should first pay for it all in advance,” said Long Bing.
Xia Lei laughed dryly. “Am I your consultant or your sponsor? I can’t figure it out. Let me tell you - Even if Bureau 101 is unable to pay me back, it should still compensate through other channels, like a big purchase order for my company or something like that.”
Getting a department like Bureau 101 to cough up an amount like this was troublesome indeed but it was no problem to earn this money back through other means like purchase orders.
“You’re becoming more and more like a businessman. All right. It should be no problem. I’ll talk with Boss s.h.i.+.” Long Bing got up. “I have to go back to Bureau 101. I’ve already arranged for men to protect these two women. You don’t have to accompany them. You can go check on your military factory and develop some plans. Be quick - it’s best if you have an action plan ready for me tomorrow.”
“Okay. I’ve been away for over a month. I should go take a look at it,” said Xia Lei.
Long Bing left and Xia Lei knocked on the door to Dayetia and Szlamy’s room. The two White Hun women had taken showers and put on Tang Yu-Yan’s nightwear. One was tall and cool beyond compare while the other was childlike with H-cup b.r.e.a.s.t.s, a combination of angel and devil. She was very tempting.
“Xia, are you bringing me to buy clothes?” said Szlamy happily. Her plan was to have Xia Lei take her out shopping, just the two of them, then she would…
Xia Lei took out a card from his wallet and gave it to Dayetia. “This card has 100,000 on it. You can buy whatever you want with it. The pa.s.scode is six zeros.”
“You’re going to let us walk the streets alone?” Dayetia wrinkled her brows.
“I have other things to take care of. You don’t have to worry. We will send people to protect you. Trust me - this is China. No one would dare ambush us here.” Xia Lei didn’t explain further; he went off.
Szlamy’s eyes were full of disappointment.
“Come, Szlamy. We shall go out. We have lots to buy.” A cold smile appeared in the corners of Dayetia’s lips.
“Will you buy me clothes?”
“Of course. I’ll give you 500 for clothes.”
Szlamy was speechless.