vent

After signing the classified document handover form with Trott, Steve ordered an internal car through the system, took the keys, and went down to the garage. Although he had almost never done this kind of errand, as an agent of this rank, he was still clear about the requirements for transferring classified documents.

A dedicated car and personnel were provided, and documents were kept under constant supervision.

Steve drove to the villa's entrance at the address given by his secretary. To facilitate calling people for meetings and delivering documents, Chen Chao's home security was directly connected to the Special Security system, allowing access to registered vehicles and personnel of a certain rank or higher.

Steve verified his identity and opened the door to the villa. He found it amazing that he was holding Tean's identification card but had opened the door to Chen Chao's private residence.

He pushed open the door and went inside, only to find himself in complete darkness. In the darkness, he heard Chen Chao's voice.

"Trott? Wait a moment." Chen Chao thought it was his secretary who had come.

The darkness provided Chen Chao with reassuring cover. He took a deep breath and slowly composed himself. He pulled his arms back from the sofa back, rested his elbows on his thighs, and propped his head up for a while to catch his breath.

After about ten seconds, when he was sure he had perfectly put away all his fatigue, he straightened up and snapped his fingers in the air.

The living room lights came on.

"Trott, are you here to deliver some documents?" Chen Chao turned to look at the door, his voice steady and clear, showing no sign of fatigue.

But the perfect expression on his face cracked the moment he saw Steve. He frowned slightly and asked, without batting an eye, "What, it's you?"

“Trott’s kid just got into a car accident, so he asked me, a nobody, to deliver the documents,” Steve replied.

"What?" Chen Chao was slightly surprised. He immediately took out his phone and made a call, saying to the person on the other end, "Check it out and confirm if it really was an accident."

Steve waited for Chen Chao to hang up the phone before handing over the documents. Chen Chao checked the seal on the documents, signed the receipt on the cover, tore it off, and handed it back to Steve.

Steve took the receipt and put it in his pocket, but stood there without moving.

"What? Is there something else?" Chen Chao asked curiously.

"Boss, you must be tired. Is there anything I can help you with?"

Steve wasn't Trot; he was a professionally trained agent with exceptional night vision. The faint natural light indoors was enough for him to see Chen Chao's state in the darkness.

Exhaustion, an exhaustion that overflowed from his body. He had never seen his boss in this state before. His boss, Chen Chao, was always energetic, perfect, and meticulous in front of others.

Just now, he saw Chen Chao take a deep breath in the darkness, forcing himself to suppress his profound exhaustion, and then turn on the light.

Under the lights, Chen Chao was as flawless as ever.

This scene inexplicably made Steve feel sorry for her.

Steve's words made Chen Chao pause for a second as he opened the documents.

He saw it; that was Chen Chao's first reaction. Steve saw the moment he least wanted anyone to see—his imperfections.

An inexplicable sense of irritation rose within him, and the feeling of things slipping out of his control made him extremely uncomfortable.

"I'm fine, you can go back now."

Chen Chao picked up the documents and headed upstairs, clearly indicating that he wanted to see the guest off.

"Boss, don't you have any servants in this house?" Steve wasn't planning to leave.

“I don’t like having people at home. The housekeeper will only come to clean at a fixed time every day,” Chen Chao replied, barely suppressing his anger. He hadn’t slept more than five hours in the past three days, and his muddled mind had little self-control left.

"Then how will you eat?" Steve persisted, seemingly oblivious to the suppressed emotions of the person in front of him.

“Don’t worry about it. Now, get out of here. That’s an order.” Chen Chao said to Steve from the top of the stairs, his voice barely concealing his anger.

“Boss, I’m on vacation now and refuse to carry out your orders,” Steve replied defiantly.

Steve's attitude and smug expression eroded Chen Chao's last shred of self-control. While the Special Security Service wasn't as rigid as the military, it still maintained discipline. Whether or not someone was on leave, orders were paramount; Chen Chao had never been openly disobeyed in all his years with the Special Security Service.

In an instant, his weary mind snapped, and a surge of anger overwhelmed him. An emotion he had never felt before took control of his body. He strode down the stairs and punched Steve.

He hit him, and Steve didn't dodge.

The sensation of skin impacting the fist is very unique; it's soft and warm, unlike a punching bag.

The unfamiliar touch brought Chen Chao back to his senses. He stopped moving, frowned, and looked at himself with self-reproach.

Why didn't you dodge?

"You're my boss, I won't back down." Steve casually wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, speaking as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

In an instant, all the anger and violence in Chen Chao's heart were dispelled by those words. He knew Steve's strength; if Steve wanted to, he wouldn't even be able to touch a hem of Steve's clothes. Although he had received basic combat training, he was still far inferior to a professional special agent.

"You acknowledge me as your boss but don't obey orders. What exactly do you want?" Chen Chao said helplessly, his fingers unconsciously touching Steve's cheek. He hadn't held back in his punch just now, and Steve's face was already a little swollen.

“I didn’t disobey orders. I just wanted the boss to vent his stress and anger, and not suppress himself.”

Was he deliberately trying to provoke him? Chen Chao was stunned.

"I can't lose control of my emotions at work. Don't do that again next time." Chen Chao said as he turned and went to the kitchen to get some ice, wrapped it into an ice pack, and handed it to Steve to apply to his face.

Steve took the ice pack and placed it on his face, his tone still relaxed: "Boss, you can lose control over me, you can vent your emotions on me. It's okay, it's never comfortable to bottle it up, and it's not good for your health."

Agents are all trained in psychology, and Steve knows how difficult it is to maintain a perfect image in front of others. People aren't machines; accumulated pressure always needs an outlet, and he's willing to be that outlet for his boss.

"You..." Chen Chao was left speechless, both amused and exasperated by Steve's words.

He really wanted to say, "Do you know what I worry about every day? Do you know how much pressure I'm under? Who do you think you are, to think you can handle my uncontrollable emotions?"

But when he saw the firm and confident light in Steve's eyes, he felt that he probably couldn't refute anything.

Steve's fighting skills are enough to protect himself in his rage, and his top-notch agent mind is certainly able to judge when to pull him back.

Steve has the ability.

But Steve was, after all, his subordinate, his responsibility, not his slave, and shouldn't have to bear his pressure for nothing. As a superior, he had to have the necessary self-control.

Chen Chao has always been strict with himself.

"If you want to stay, then stay for a while. I'll go upstairs and deal with the documents first." Chen Chao didn't want to argue with Steve anymore. Since this document was urgently sent to him, there must be relevant personnel waiting for a response, and it couldn't be delayed any longer.

"Okay." Steve grinned and didn't press the matter further.

Chen Chao took the documents and went upstairs. He felt much better after being bothered by Steve's unreasonable behavior. His stress had dissipated and even his mind had become clearer.

It's really inappropriate that I was favored by my subordinates.

Chen Chao shook his head inwardly, sat down in the study, and opened the document.

The document was indeed about the matter in the south that he had been closely following these past two days. The latest development is that they've lost another agent, and the one who lost was Steve's colleague.

Chen Chao rubbed his temples, signed the document, and then used his work computer to send a few instructions to specific personnel, which was considered a temporary solution.

About twenty minutes after finishing all that, Chen Chao stretched and prepared to wash up and rest. He was exhausted from the past two days and desperately needed sleep.

But when he walked out of the study, passed the stairwell, and saw Steve still sitting on the sofa in the living room, he suddenly felt a headache coming on.

Why are you still here?

"Boss, are you hungry? I saw you had some instant food in your fridge, so I heated it up a bit."

"You're a secret agent, not a babysitter," Chen Chao reminded Steve helplessly of his identity.

Tean spent a lot of money to take care of you, not so you could cook!

“But I’m on vacation and I’m so bored,” Steve replied innocently.

"Are you just messing with me because you're bored?" Chen Chao sighed helplessly.

"I'm not hungry, I need to rest now, please leave."

"Okay, boss, you go to sleep. I'll leave after I finish eating," Steve replied matter-of-factly.

For a moment, Chen Chao wondered whose house this was. Why did Steve seem more like the owner of this place than he did? But he really didn't have the energy to argue with Steve anymore, so he waved his hand and went back to his bedroom to wash up and rest.

After Steve finished his meal at the restaurant and put the trash in the bin, he heard that there was no more noise upstairs, so he used his top agent skills to sneak up to the second floor.

The second floor has three rooms: a study, a bedroom, and a gym. The study and bedroom each have separate access control, and not the kind of special security system used for the main entrance. It seems that Chen Chao has basically designated the first floor as a public reception area, where anyone with a certain level of special security can enter, while the study and bedroom are his private domain, with separate private access control.

Steve checked every place he could get into, and only left after confirming there were no security vulnerabilities.

He was really worried about Chen Chao living alone in such a tired state, and he was afraid that if something happened, there would be no one to take care of him.

He thought it would be best to find an opportunity to persuade his boss to bring in a personal bodyguard.

The Special Agents Unit has three deputy ministers. Orphaned agents trained under their direct command are assigned to one of these deputy ministers upon leaving the unit. Unless there are special reasons, the assignment generally remains unchanged. Steve was assigned to the Chen Dynasty from the moment he left the unit.

At that time, Chen Chao was serving as deputy minister for the first time, and Steve was also going on his first solo mission. Chen Chao was not as perfect and serious as he is now, while Steve was as carefree and unrestrained as ever.

So that year, Steve didn't call Chen Chao "Minister," but instead extended his hand to Chen Chao and said, "Boss, I'll be following you from now on. Please take care of me."

The newly appointed Chen Chao was a little nervous about his first agent and forgot to correct the overly casual way of addressing him. And then, he just got used to it.

So Steve became the only person in the Special Agents organization to call him "boss." After that, all the agents he recruited would address him formally as "minister," not "boss."

Perhaps it was because of this that a subtle, almost imperceptible affection, transcending that between a superior and subordinate, lingered between Chen Chao and Steve from the very beginning.