Chapter 117: A Battlefield (Revised)
The meal was a pleasant one for both host and guests.
Xie Xun drank a lot of wine, not because he was a heavy drinker, but because the host was so hospitable that he couldn't refuse.
He Changyi sat to the side and, seeing that Xie Xun's glass was empty, eagerly reached out to refill it. She even told him not to sip it, but to swallow it in one gulp, as if swallowing a ball of fire, a burning, self-destructive pleasure from his throat to his stomach.
Xie Xun is not good at drinking and has a mild alcohol allergy; his face turns red after drinking. He usually tries to avoid drinking, but this time, he couldn't.
After the opening drink, Xie Xun's face was red, his peach blossom eyes seemed to be filled with water, and he was dizzy. He propped his head up with one hand and stubbornly tilted his head to look at people. He didn't look like a fox, but more like a mutt.
When He Changyi offered a toast, he happily clinked glasses with him and downed the entire vodka in the shot glass in one gulp.
When Xie Xun saw two burly Russian men drinking from the same cup at the next table, he was initially surprised and his eyes widened. Then, his eyes lit up, and he cleared his throat and asked Ms. Tajiyana and Manager Roman, who were accompanying him, in Ethnic language what this custom was.
After drinking, his Emei dialect wasn't as fluent as usual; he spoke slowly and deliberately, with an overly serious and persistent air about him.
Manager Roman was drinking walnut soup when he heard this and choked loudly. After realizing what had happened, he almost buried his head in the soup in shame.
It was Ms. Tatyana who managed to keep things in order, explaining to the distinguished guest with a smile: "In Oros, the best brothers drink with their arms clasped together, signifying that our fates are now intertwined. You can rest assured that you can entrust your back to me."
Xie Xun let out a long "Oh," and then silently looked at He Changyi.
While complaining to Geng Zhi, Zheng Xiaowei kept an eye on everything around him and immediately noticed this scene. He was so excited that he forgot to complain and started to knee Geng Zhi under the table.
Geng Zhi moved his leg away and said with dissatisfaction, "If you're going to sit, sit properly. Why are you touching me? Do you have thorns on your chair?"
Zheng Xiaowei: ...
He glared at Geng Zhi with exasperation, and whispered, "Look!"
What are you looking at?
Geng Zhi was still confused, while on the other side, Ms. Tajiyana had already looked happily at the two bosses at the head of the table, and even Manager Roman lifted his face off the plate, cautiously revealing his eyes.
He Changyi stood up readily, holding his cup, and said to Xie Xun, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Shall we have one too, following the Roman custom? From now on, we'll be comrades in arms, and all past grievances will be wiped clean."
Xie Xun stood up swiftly and reservedly, even staggering slightly from the sudden movement, causing the chair to scrape against the floor with a loud screech, drawing the attention of everyone in the restaurant.
He seemed oblivious, his hand holding the wine glass was extremely steady, showing no signs of being drunk.
Geng Zhi reacted a beat too late, grabbing Zheng Xiaowei's arm and shaking it frantically, stammering, "Ah, ah! This, this!"
Zheng Xiaowei smugly shook off his hand and said with disdain, "Tch, blockhead."
Ms. Tagyan covered her mouth discreetly with her hand, while Manager Roman looked around in confusion before finally picking up his spoon and continuing to drink his soup.
He Changyi raised an eyebrow and asked, "Shall we have one?"
Mingming was incredibly excited and had already gotten into position to drink the nuptial wine, but Xie Xun still had to feign concern and say, "Ah, isn't this a bit inappropriate?"
He Changyi made a move to withdraw her hand, but Xie Xun had already swiftly reached out and skillfully tied their arms into a knot.
He Changyi glanced at the two people's arms intertwined, then at Xie Xun who was standing right next to her.
A thin blush rose on Xiaobai's face. When she smiled, her eyes curved, her lips were red, and her teeth were white. Recently, her fur had become glossy and smooth, making her an exceptionally beautiful little fox.
The little fox was looking at her with a smug and smug expression. Under the influence of alcohol, he lost his usual self-control, and his shameful little thoughts were exposed, but he was oblivious to it, thinking he had hidden them very well.
His overly unrestrained and direct gaze made the answer obvious, yet he still tried to cover it up.
It's like a fox spirit disguised as a scholar, bowing and making a show of respect to a human lady, unaware that a large, fluffy tail is swaying behind her.
He Changyi couldn't help but chuckle, raising an eyebrow as she said, "Alright, for the sake of friendship."
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, she simply raised her hand to pour the wine into her mouth, but Xie Xun stopped her.
“No,” he said clearly, “not for friendship.”
His eyes were practically popping out of their sockets!
Zheng Xiaowei excitedly pinched Geng Zhi's thigh under the table and said in a low voice, "See? See? I told you so!"
Ms. Tagyan's face was beaming with delight. Manager Roman, belatedly realizing the atmosphere seemed a bit off, asked in a low voice, spoon in his mouth, "W-what's wrong... Could it be... could something have happened...?"
Ms. Tagyan patted him on the back kindly and said sympathetically, “Nothing happened, Manager Roman, please continue with your soup.”
The two people at the head of the table maintained their intertwined arms and looked at each other.
He Changyi asked with a half-smile, "Are you saying there's no friendship between us?"
As Xie Xun's intoxication intensified, his peach blossom eyes became increasingly shimmering, and he briefly lost his ability to speak, forgetting his words as he opened his mouth. He could only struggle to think of what he wanted to say.
He Changyi found it amusing, rarely seeing this shrewd guy show this side of himself, so he didn't urge him and patiently waited for him to reconnect his nerves.
After a long while, Xie Xun finally realized, "I remember now!"
He said with utmost seriousness, "For you."
He Changyi didn't react much after hearing this, she just nodded and said, "I know."
Xie Xun, however, insisted on being stubborn at this moment, saying defiantly, "No, you don't know!"
He suddenly stopped, lowered his eyes, and shook his head self-deprecatingly.
"No, you know, you never cared."
Sometimes he would rather she didn't know.
Because if she knew, it would be the cruelest answer in the world.
She can be soft-hearted towards strangers, but she's the most ruthless towards him.
This must be his retribution.
Xie Xun's alcohol-induced haze was suddenly jolted awake as if he had been plunged into ice water, and he coldly thought that Xie Xun was just a clown.
They tirelessly bring shame upon themselves, yet shamelessly revel in it.
Even though it was a warm, spring-like indoor space, it felt as if I were standing naked in the Arctic.
Xie Xun, feeling bored, tried to pull his hand away, ending the ill-intentioned but half-finished toast.
However, the other person simply and decisively downed the drink in one gulp.
“I’ve always known that.” He Changyi’s tone was as if she were talking about a self-evident, universal truth.
She even gave Xie Xun a smile, a smile completely different from before, more genuine and gentler.
"I care."
Xie Xun was stunned for a moment, and the next second, a huge wave of ecstasy swept over him, like adding a catalyst to alcohol, instantly destroying all his reason.
"You know? You care? Do you really know? Do you really care?"
He kept asking questions, as if seeking something from the answers, such as some motivation to continue his pursuit.
The moon, the cold moon, finally cast a haughty yet merciful glance at him.
He Changyi didn't answer, but simply showed him the empty bottom of his cup.
Xie Xun instantly understood and hurriedly tried to finish the toast, but he was so clumsy that he almost choked on it.
For the rest of the time, Xie Xun drank whatever amount of alcohol He Changyi poured for him. He even took a vodka bottle and a beer mug, chugging down the liquor for himself.
As Xie Xun slumped onto the table, Zheng Xiaowei sighed contentedly and whispered, "See, I knew it..."
Geng Zhi's mind finally came back to normal. He sat in the chair for a long time, stunned, and then suddenly jumped up and forcefully slapped away Zheng Xiaowei's hand that was pinching his thigh.
"No wonder it hurt so much, it turns out you were pinching me! You're such a mean person!"
Zheng Xiaowei blew on his reddened hand, feeling both angry and aggrieved: "What's wrong with you! I was just reminding you!"
Geng Zhi retorted, "Do you need to remind me? Everyone at this table with eyes can see it!"
The two were arguing fiercely when suddenly a voice speaking Chinese interrupted: "What are you talking about?"
Geng Zhi and Zheng Xiaowei fell silent at the same time, while He Changyi squinted at the two younger ones and said with a half-smile:
"If you see anything fun, don't just keep it to yourself, tell everyone about it."
Zheng Xiaowei gave a fawning smile: "N-nothing..."
As he spoke, he frantically stomped on Geng Zhi under the table.
"I didn't see anything, I didn't see anything at all, right?"
In this emergency, Geng Zhi suddenly had a flash of inspiration and cleverly said, "We really didn't see you and Boss Xie drinking from the same cup!"
In despair, Zheng Xiaowei buried his head in his crotch.
...Damn it, there's definitely something wrong with the feng shui of the Zheng family's ancestral graves!
Xie Xun drank until he blacked out, and the next day he got out of bed with a splitting headache.
He still had some sense of reason left in his mind, and knowing that He Changyi would definitely make the arrangements, he left the bedroom with peace of mind and looked around for water to drink.
It was not yet seven o'clock, and the sky was still dark. Most people were still resting in their rooms, and the house was extremely quiet.
Xie Xun had been to this apartment before and knew its layout. After a quick familiarization, he went to the kitchen, rummaged through the refrigerator and found a large bucket of chilled milk, a few slices of unfinished black bread, raw eggs, tomatoes, and unopened bacon.
After thinking for a moment, he started frying eggs, added a few strips of bacon, sliced tomatoes, squeezed mayonnaise onto bread slices, and finally assembled the dish, placing it on the prettiest porcelain plate he could find.
With a milk in one hand and a sandwich in the other, Xie Xun recalled the last memories of yesterday and, with a slightly tipsy joy, whistled softly as he arrived outside He Changyi's suite.
The door to the study on the first floor was closed, and the door to the bedroom on the second floor was also closed.
Xie Xun entered the study, stood at the bedroom door, hesitated for a moment, then freed one hand to politely knock on the door.
"Ms. He, would you like breakfast service?"
The bedroom door was opened from the inside, but it wasn't He Changyi who opened it. Xie Xun's smiling expression froze on his face.
"She doesn't need it."
The black-haired, gray-eyed Russian man, shirtless, coldly looked down at him, while He Changyi's sleepy voice came from behind him.
Who is it?
Xie Xun was now completely sober.
"...It's you."
Xie Xun remembered that he had met this Russian before, but he looked three sizes bigger back then, though his hostility remained the same.
The old Russian said dismissively, "A spying thief."
Xie Xun was furious, but he forced himself to suppress his anger and said through gritted teeth with a smile, "You seem to know me quite well—but do you really know Changyi?"
The other person's gaze fell on the sandwiches on the plate, then looked up at Xie Xun and gave a sudden laugh.
"I know exactly what she likes to eat for breakfast."
Xie Xun almost lost his composure, wishing he could slam the sandwich and milk onto this damned Russian's head!
He used almost all his self-control to smile and say, as if nothing had happened:
"Really? It's just breakfast. I'll find out what she wants for dinner from now on."
The old Russian stopped laughing, his gray eyes staring at Xie Xun like a wolf.
...It seems he also really wants to smear the sandwich and milk on Xie Xun's face.
What are you talking about?
He Changyi carried the ointment and gauze to the door, so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open. He casually handed the things to Alexei and instructed, "The wound is almost scabbed over. Come back to me the day after tomorrow morning to change the dressing."
Then she looked at Xie Xun and asked in confusion, "Are you sober now? Aren't you sleepy?"
Xie Xun's expression changed as quickly as turning the pages of a book. With a bright and sunny smile, he raised the plate and cup in his hand and said in Chinese, "I've come to bring you breakfast."
Then he looked at Alexei and said insincerely, "However, I only prepared enough for one person, this one—"
Xie Xun emphasized, "It seems the injured gentleman will have to eat rye bread and pickles, but that should suit his taste better."
However, the injured man snatched the plate away so quickly that Xie Xun could barely react.
"This isn't nutritious. You need to eat something to help you sober up, not this stuff that will only upset your stomach."
...He was also using Chinese!
Xie Xun stared in surprise, his eyes widening. Alexei gave him a provocative smile, and Xie Xun's face darkened. He looked less like the smiling little fox and more like a wild beast with explosive aggression.
At this moment, the small space at the bedroom doorway was filled with the smell of gunpowder; a single match could ignite a massive explosion.
But the person holding the match poured cold water on him without any politeness.
"This is so annoying, get out of here!"
He Changyi kicked one of them, and before closing the door, he snatched the breakfast back from Alexei's hands.
She was so sleepy she had a headache. If she hadn't come back too late last night and missed changing Alexei's dressing, she wouldn't have gotten up so early to do manual labor. Her head was still spinning.
With a loud bang, the bedroom door slammed shut.
Alexei and Xie Xun stood in front of the door, looking at each other with mutual disgust, then turned and left.
—What bad luck to run into a Russian/speeping tom first thing in the morning!
However, the bad luck of the day had only just begun.
Xie Xun was sitting in the living room enjoying tea when Alexei took a bottle of beer, sat down opposite him with an air of nonchalance, and pried open the bottle cap with one hand. The flying cap landed squarely in his teacup.
Xie Xun paused in his tea-drinking motion, and Alexei said, somewhat insincerely, "Sorry, but your cup is too big."
Xie Xun nearly crushed the poor porcelain cup in his hand.
He raised his hand and poured the tea in his cup into the ice bucket next to him. The metal cap made a crisp sound as it hit the ice. Alexei, who was about to put ice into his beer glass, paused when he saw this.
Xie Xun glanced at Alexei and said with a forced smile, "Sorry, I thought it was a trash can."
Alexei slowly put down his beer glass.
Geng Zhi was in a hurry to cross the living room to go to work when Zheng Xiaowei quickly grabbed him.
"Are you out of your mind?!"
Geng Zhi, confused, asked, "What's wrong now? I'm in a hurry to get to the store!"
Zheng Xiaowei was furious at his son's lack of ambition, yet he still hoped the son would put in a good word for him with the boss. So he patiently explained, "Don't you see the situation? You need to stay away now. Whoever gets close will suffer!"
Geng Zhi peeked into the living room, then quickly pulled his head back, looking distressed, and said, "What should I do? I have to go to work..."
Zheng Xiaowei offered him some helpful suggestions: "Why don't you climb out the window?"
Geng Zhi: "...Ah, the window?"
He actually turned around to look for a suitable window, only to see several bodyguards orderly lining up to climb through the window, one after another sliding down the exterior drainpipe to the first floor.
"Brother Jie, what are you guys doing? Why aren't you using the main entrance?"
Just as Xie Xuejun was about to climb out the window, he saw that it was his younger brother and said warmly, "You also want to go out, right? Come on, you go first!"
He then turned and shouted down, "Hey, listen up, keep counting people!"
Geng Zhi was in a daze when Xie Xuejun lifted him up by the bottom and sent him out of the window. When he looked down at the ground in the distance, he felt dizzy and frantically grabbed the drainpipe and jumped to the ground. In the end, Yang Jianshe caught him from below.
"Brother Yang, why are you climbing out the window too?"
Yang Jianshe scratched the back of his head, looking confused, and said, "I don't know, everyone was climbing out the window, so I just followed suit..."
Meanwhile, the bodyguards from Emei were patting their chests, still shaken.
"This is too dangerous! It's even more dangerous than when we were trapped in the trenches back then!"
"I really can't imagine what kind of warrior would dare to cross the living room; that's practically like crossing the front lines of an artillery duel!"
Nikolai, who was left behind, wearing wired headphones, shuffled out of his room. When he saw the two people in the living room, he muttered something expressionlessly:
"Another one..."
Xie Xun keenly caught the Emei language, turned his head and saw that the speaker was an excessively young Russian with a delicate face and green eyes, and his face showed undisguised hostility when he looked at him.
Alarm bells rang in Xie Xun's mind.
...Another one!
...How many are there?!
Later that evening, He Changyi dressed smartly, wearing a coat and boots, and walked briskly through the living room while turning her head to put on an earring.
Just as she was about to walk out the door, she suddenly stopped and turned to look at the two men silently facing each other in the living room.
"Fine, at least leave me one alive, no matter what."
He Changyi shrugged and said casually, "I have to give the police an explanation. I can't keep throwing bodies into the river."
Alexei, Xie Xun: ...
He Changyi was busy solving the cash flow problem, and now she finally had enough cash. Her companies, which had been suffering from a drought, were all eagerly waiting for this money to save them. She needed to discuss with Ms. Taji Yangna how to allocate the funds to maximize profits.
With the sound of the door closing, the apartment fell silent once more.
Alexei glanced at Xie Xun, who was tense all over, stood up, and suddenly let out a sneer.
"Don't worry, you'll live to see her come back."
Xie Xun also stood up and, not to be outdone, spoke to Alexei in Ethnic language:
"You can rest assured, I would never harm a wounded soldier; it's dishonorable."
Alexei's face darkened, while Xie Xun still wore a smile, though there was no hint of amusement in his eyes.
It was as if a blood-soaked storm had suddenly swept through the living room!
Zheng Xiaowei trembled in the corner.
...Help! He also wants to climb through the window to get to work!
Nikolai, who had walked over at some point, curiously poked Zheng Xiaowei. If he had wanted to, this kid would have been dead a hundred times over.
"Where did you come from, you little mouse?"
Zheng Xiaowei froze, too terrified to move, like a mouse being stalked by a snake. If he had ever been on a battlefield, he would know that this chilling aura was called killing intent.
Nikolai nudged Zheng Xiaowei again, walked around to face him, and looked him over carefully.
"Oh, another Chinese guy," he said expressionlessly. "Be glad you're not competitive in looks."
Zheng Xiaowei looked like he was about to cry.
Help!
While waiting for He Changyi to come home from get off work, Xie Xun wanted to show off his skills and cook a Chinese meal for her, but he didn't control the power of the induction cooker properly. Black smoke from the pot billowed out of the kitchen window, attracting three fire trucks.
Xie Xun frantically explained to the suspicious firefighters that he was really just cooking, not burning down the kitchen, and certainly not making biological weapons or explosives!
Not far behind him, Alexei laughed sarcastically.
"Don't worry, he won't burn the house down."
Alexei told the firefighters, "I'll cremate him before he actually burns down the house."
The firefighter asked hesitantly, "...You must be joking, right?"
Alexei said, "No, I'm very serious."
Firefighter: ...
As the firefighters finished their shift and left, they grumbled, "Next time they should transfer emergency calls to the mental hospital!"
Xie Xun's smile vanished, and he turned to Alexei, saying, "I won't thank you."
Alexei said expressionlessly, "I don't need your thanks; that would be the most disgusting thing I've ever heard."
It was as if invisible swords and spears appeared in the air, each strike aimed at a vital point, each blow to the throat.
The two disliked each other and turned away.
Before leaving, Xie Xun instructed Zheng Xiaowei to clean up the mess in the kitchen and restore everything to its original state before He Changyi returned.
Zheng Xiaowei, looking rather distressed, carried a rag and bucket, cleaning from the stove to the ceiling. To dissipate the smoke, the kitchen window was wide open, and the temperature quickly dropped to the same level as outside.
The damp cloth was icy cold, and the suffering of serf Zheng Xiaowei was endless.
Can you cook?
The sudden voices behind him startled Zheng Xiaowei, causing the hairs on his back to stand on end and his whole body to stiffen.
Nikolai quietly walked around to him and said matter-of-factly, "I'm hungry, cook me a meal."
Zheng Xiaowei: ...Waaah, what a miserable life! He doesn't want to get rich anymore. He'd rather go back to China and fight Factory Director Zheng with a sickle!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com