Xia Lei left the banquet before it ended. He headed to the room marked on the key he was given and entered it.
It wasn’t the presidential suite like Xia Lei had expected. Instead, it was a standard room equipped with a bed, a desk, a television, and a bathroom. In the room, there was a slender figure standing near to the windows exuding a sense of loneliness. It was Shentu Tianyin.
Upon hearing the sound of the door closing, Shentu Tianyin turned around to face Xia Lei. A pendant was glittering brightly around her fine neck. It was her wedding gift from Xia Lei. It was the ‘sacred heart’ owned by the last princess from the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Sibylla.
She was not wearing the pendant when she came to the banquet, but she was wearing it now.
The pendant brought back memories of Xia Lei.
They were standing there and watching each other, quietly.
The silence was deafening.
Xia Lei shrugged his shoulder and broke off the awkward silence. “Why aren’t you saying anything after asking me to meet?”
“Congratulations on your recent achievement,” said Shentu Tianyin gently and softly.
Upon hearing this, Xia Lei laughed. “I’m only skilled in producing weapons. Unlike you, who knows a little bit of everything.”
Shentu Tianyin laughed. “That’s not entirely true. You’re still superior to me in business. Before our divorce, your a.s.sets were a ratio of one to ten of mine. But now you are sitting at six hundred billion. I inherited my money but you earned it from scratch.”
“Six hundred billion? Do I have that much money?” Xia Lei was surprised. He has not counted his current a.s.sets, but he knew where this figure had come from. It was because the country has exempted him from paying two hundred billion in loans. Besides, the deal with French had doubled his a.s.sets.
“Don’t you pay attention to your a.s.sets?” Shentu Tianyin was also surprised. “Then why do you make so much money?”
“I want to develop Thunder Horse Organization into a company like Lockheed Martin Corp in our country.” Xia Lei paused for a while before he added, “This is the only dream I have right now, I’ve to make it work.”
“You have changed.” Shentu Tianyin walked toward Xia Lei. “You are not the Xia Lei I used to know.”
“People change,” said Xia Lei.
Shentu Tianyin fell into Xia Lei’s arms. Her bosom hit his body, followed by her hands and her lower abdomen. She pressed her cheek against his and whispered, “I’m sorry. I owe you an apology. Could you forgive me?”
Her body, her fragrance, everything about her was so beautiful.
However, he did not feel anything for her. The only feeling he had was a touch of sadness. He was silent for a while before he said, “I forgave you a long time ago.”
Her eyes glimmering with love and hopes upon hearing Xia Lei. “You…are willing to give me a chance?”
Xia Wei was stunned for a while before he replied, “That depends on what it is.”
Shentu Tianyin hesitated before she finally mustered up the courage to say, “Let’s remarry.”
“What?” Xia Lei was shocked.
“I’ve been thinking about it for a long time. After we got a divorce, I suffered every single day. I was not happy. Whenever I got home, I hoped that you were waiting for me. I couldn’t sleep well without you. Xia Lei, let’s go back to how things were. I’m serious.”
“I…”
“I can see it in your eyes. You still love me. I have thought about it thoroughly. I don’t need my career, the only thing I need is you. Let’s remarry!” Her eyes were filled with glimmers of hope.
Xia Lei shook his head.
“You…Why?” Shentu Tianyin teared up. “Is it because of Tang Yuyan?”
Xia Lei smiled wryly. “No, it’s because of me. I don’t want to marry anyone.”
Shentu Tianyin was stunned.
“I went through two failed relations.h.i.+ps, with Liang Siyao and with you. I don’t want to go through it the third time.”
“Do you think I’ll hurt you again?” Shentu Tianyin was about to burst into tears. Her face was overwhelmed with remorse.
“No, I trust you. I know you won’t hurt me again.”
“Then why?”
“Didn"t you say I had changed? Well, I"ll tell you what. I did change. I got worse. I had that kind of relations.h.i.+p with both of my chief engineers, Sylvia and Annina from Germany. We sleep together most of the time.”
Upon hearing this, Shentu Tianyin’s hand fell silently from Xia Lei’s waist and shortly after.
“Besides Sylvia and Annina, I also had s.e.x with Liang Siyao recently. During my stay in France, I even slept with Colonel Jacqueline Eva from France’s Directorate-General Security, chief a.s.sistant of CEO from Lockheed Martin, Hattori Mei. Besides, I also slept with…”
“Enough!” Shentu Tianyin couldn’t control her tears which were streaming down her face.
“I’m not the same man I used to be,” Xia Lei said with a wry smile. “I don’t deserve you anymore. Please don’t bear any psychological burden as everything I did for was out of my discretion and I’ve never blamed you. Although we’ve divorced, we can still be good friends.”
“Good friends? You want to stay friends with me?” Shentu Tianyin sobbed as she said, “You told me all this just to tell me you wanted to be my friend?”
“I don’t want to lie to you,” said Xia Lei.
“Lie to me!” shouted Shentu Tianyin. “Why don’t you lie to me? I’d rather you lie to me!”
“I’m sorry.” Xia Lei sighed and turned around to leave.
Shentu Tianyin grabbed the pendant around her neck. She wanted to rip it off and throw it at Xia Lei. However, she stopped when she recalled something.
The pendant was the wedding present from Xia Lei. It was her last connection to him and the memories they shared. How could she return it?
Xia Lei left the room. As he heard the door closed behind him, it was as if a huge burden was lifted off his chest.
This was the first time he told a woman of his messy exploits. By taking this step, he felt he was one step closer to the life he wanted. The world was so big, and he had so many confidantes, so why should he get married?
He wanted to live a free and easy life, a life without restrictions!
The banquet had just ended when he got back to the hotel restaurant.
“Where did you go?” Tang Yuyan walked towards him.
Xia Lei smiled. “I went to meet Shentu Tianyin.”
The corner of Tang Yuyan’s mouth turned up to form a wry smile. “Why can’t she just give up on you?”
“She wants to restore our marital status.”
Tang Yuyan got nervous. “Then what did you say?”
“I told her I don’t want to get married. I also told her that I’m dating a few women at the same time,” said Xia Lei. He also took this opportunity to break it to Tang Yuyan.
The look of nervousness turned into a smile. “Don’t you scare me off using this tactic, I’m not Shentu Tianyin, I don’t care! I’d even support you if you want to pursue an adult career in j.a.pan!”
“…”
Tang Yuyan knew of Xia Lei’s relations.h.i.+p with Long Bing and Jiang Ruyi. Despite all this, she still came and did not care.
The view of the life of a woman that survived amid halls of bullets was indeed different from a woman who always plans her strategy in the office.
After they left the hotel, Tang Yuyan talked to Xia Lei for a few minutes before she left with a car.
Xia Changhe got on to Xia Lei’s car. Xia Lei started the car and headed towards Bailu Town.
“Dad, how’s your trip?” Xia Lei broke the silence.
“Son, just ask me. Why must you beat around the bush?” Xia Changhe smiled as he said.
“Alright, did you promise the Tang family anything?”
“You mean the matter between you and Tang Yuyan?”
“Yes.”
“I promised them,” said Xia Changhe.
“What?” This answer got Xia Lei anxious. “What era are we in? I should be the one who decides. How could you promise them on my behalf?”
Xia Changhe replied calmly, “I have promised them but the decision is still yours.”
Xia Lei was stunned. “Dad, what do you mean?”
“I know what Tang family wants,” said Xia Changhe. “I knew when Tang Yunhai invited me over to Shu Di. I couldn’t reject the offer, so I went. During my stay in Shu Di, they treated me well. How could I reject their offer?”
“So, you promised them? You’re too easy.” Xia Lei was unsatisfied with the explanation.
Xia Changhe laughed. “Didn’t I mention this earlier? I promised them, but you have not. I promised whatever they said, but the final decision rests in your hands. I went for the cla.s.sic good guy bad guy play so we wouldn’t offend them. Let’s a.s.sume that I rejected them face-to-face, then we’ll get on Tang Yunhai’s bad side. You can’t afford more enemies.”
Xia Lei gave a thumbs up to Xia Changhe.
“This is a small matter, let’s talk about something else,” said Xia Changhe. “I heard from Yelena that you met with people from Knights Hospitaller. Let’s talk about it.”
Xia Lei summarised the deal of him with the Knights Hospitaller to Xia Changhe. “That’s about it. Dark Mona has hunted you for so many years and now they have killed four of us, we should get revenge. It’s inconvenient for me to hire people from the World of Darkness, but it’s easy for me to deal with the Knights Hospitaller. I pay, I provide them with weapons, then they fight for me.”
“In the fight between the snipe and the clam, the fisherman has the best of it.” Xia Changhe smiled. “Good job.”
“Dad, you were from the FA organisation. Do you think the Knights Hospitaller can destroy them?”
“Although I was a member of the FA organisation, I don’t know much about them. When I was still in that organisation, I was training in Siberia and executing all kinds of tasks all around the world. After returning to China, I no longer know the person-in-charge and the whereabouts of the headquarters of the FA organisation. The FA organisation is a mysterious one. Although you could utilise Knights Hospitaller to help you in battling them, the result is unforeseeable.”
“I can accept any possible outcome from this battle, my target is actually the Knight Hospitaller.”
Xia Changhe looked surprised. “What’s this all about?”
Xia Lei took out a gold card from his pocket. “When they are about to end, I’ll head to Malta.”
This gold card is a traffic permit. It was a copy of Arthur’s card.
“What do you want to do in Malta?”
“I suspect that the Knights Hospitaller has a protective suit. This suit will be the key to the secret of AE and Ancient Alloy,” said Xia Lei.
Xia Changhe was silent in thought before speaking up again. “Alright, I’ll a.s.sign you with new helpers as soon as possible.”