Unexpected

Jiang Qiao lay on the carpet, staring at the ceiling, gasping for breath before breaking into laughter.

Shi Junyi sat up and reached out to press against Jiang Qiao's throat, touching the skin exposed by Jiang Qiao's undone collar as he heard Jiang Qiao say:

He's so sweet.

"Go back to your room." Shi Junyi withdrew his hand and gave Jiang Qiao a kick.

Jiang Qiao grabbed Shi Junyi's calf and looked up at Shi Junyi, who was gazing down at him.

That angle, deadly to ordinary people, did absolutely nothing to diminish the face Jiang Qiao found so captivating.

His hand mischievously slid upward as he grinned and shamelessly wheedled, "Brother, what should I do? You've got me so utterly bewitched that I can't walk."

Shi Junyi did not fall for it. "Then have Chen Sheng and Chris carry you back."

Jiang Qiao sighed, withdrew his hand from Shi Junyi's calf, sat up from the floor, got properly dressed, then walked to the window and lit a cigarette.

He was putting on that playboy act again.

As though it were the post-coital cigarette after a night with a one-night stand.

Yet Shi Junyi said nothing.

He hated seeing Jiang Qiao like that, but he could not help wanting to look a little longer.

Not until Jiang Qiao stubbed out the cigarette in the spotless glass ashtray on the little table by the window.

Shi Junyi still did not say a word.

Although that ashtray was actually a work of art, every edge and groove painstakingly handcrafted by a renowned master in the industry, with considerable collectible value.

After buying it at great expense at an auction in some island nation years ago, he had kept it there ever since.

Forget flicking ash into it or stubbing out cigarettes—even the bowls used for meals might not have been washed more cleanly than it was.

Yet Shi Junyi unexpectedly felt no displeasure.

He even instinctively felt that the ashtray was barely worthy of Jiang Qiao.

After finishing his cigarette, Jiang Qiao stood by the window and said seriously, "Get some sleep. I'm leaving."

With that, without waiting for any response from Shi Junyi, he turned and vanished into the night.

Shi Junyi's schedule was packed the next day. When the alarm woke him, the scent of the roses by his bedside still filled his breath.

It gave him a slight headache.

He rubbed his nose, picked up the bouquet of roses, and casually tossed it onto the coffee table.

When he returned after washing up, he found the maid responsible for cleaning his room holding the bouquet, at a loss.

"Young Master, this..."

Shi Junyi occasionally suffered mild allergic reactions. Cat hair, dog hair, dust, and pollen were all allergens for him.

Though he was not so sensitive that simply touching them would trigger an attack, during seasonal changes he would inevitably sneeze a few times, break out in red rashes, and feel unwell for a couple of days.

He would need to take allergy medication for several days before recovering.

That was why such things had never been allowed in Shi Junyi's room.

"Throw them away." Shi Junyi pinched the bridge of his nose.

The maid acknowledged him and, without asking where the flowers had come from, placed them in the wastebasket.

Having gone a night without water, the beautiful roses were no longer as fresh as they had been the night before. Tossed into the dull gray wastebasket, they looked somewhat pitiful.

Shi Junyi stared silently at the flowers for a moment before suddenly changing his mind. "Find a vase."

The maid froze. "Would you like me to take them to another room?"

"No," Shi Junyi said. "Just bring one."

The maid said nothing more and immediately left. Before long, she returned with a simple yet lovely white porcelain vase.

She also brought a box of allergy medicine and placed it by Shi Junyi's bed.

She had originally intended to do it for him, but seeing the gas mask already on Shi Junyi's face, she silently handed him the vase filled with water.

Then she watched Shi Junyi personally bend down, retrieve the bouquet from the wastebasket, arrange it in the vase, try several different angles, and place it on the little table by the window.

Meanwhile, Jiang Qiao was standing in the shooting range with Shen Guiyi.

"Quickly disassembling and assembling firearms is also extremely important. There is never any shortage of unexpected situations in our line of work. The more you know, the better your odds of staying alive when it matters."

With a cigarette between her lips, Shen Guiyi swiftly reassembled the pistol she had just taken apart, loaded it, chambered a round, then turned and fired at the moving target fifty meters away, hitting the bullseye.

The entire process took only a few dozen seconds.

Jiang Qiao watched in stunned amazement.

"Shen Guiyi!" An angry roar interrupted Shen Guiyi's lesson.

The instructor at the shooting range held a loudspeaker and pointed at the no-smoking sign on the wall, a full meter in diameter. "Smoking is prohibited in the training grounds!"

Shen Guiyi dug at her ear, stubbed out her cigarette, and muttered, "Can you believe it? That no-smoking sign was put up specifically for me alone. What nonsense."

Jiang Qiao agreed. "Indeed. No matter how big the sign is, you still can't see it."

Shen Guiyi tossed the gun to Jiang Qiao. "Practice on your own."

Jiang Qiao possessed talent and sensitivity far beyond ordinary people when it came to anything related to violence or force.

After just one morning, he had developed a deeper understanding of the construction of small firearms. Though he was much slower than Shen Guiyi at disassembling and reassembling them, he could still do so cleanly and efficiently.

His hit rate on moving targets remained low, however. He had a decent feel for it, but lacked experience and had yet to fully master the techniques.

At lunch, Jiang Qiao looked at the braised lion's head meatballs on his plate and asked Shen Guiyi, "How are those lions doing?"

Between huge mouthfuls of food, Shen Guiyi answered indistinctly, "They're doing great—healthy, lively, clean, and hygienic. Want to go see them?"

Jiang Qiao nodded. He liked fluffy things.

After lunch, when he followed Shen Guiyi to a remote corner of the Shi family's back garden, he saw Alice lying on the ground from a distance, with two lion cubs nestled in her embrace.

And someone unexpected—Fu Zhilan.

He wore the Shi family servants' uniform, a white shirt paired with a dark plaid vest that made his already slender waist look even more delicate.

He also had a little apron tied in front of him. He was struggling to hold a large basin of raw meat as he stared at Alice from afar, looking as though he was about to cry.

Jiang Qiao had not expected that this little slut, even without Jiang Qiao's help, could think of another way to enter the Shi family home. He truly was impossible to avoid.

Without pausing, he turned around and headed back the way he had come. At the very least, he could not let Fu Zhilan see him.

His retreat was so smooth that Shen Guiyi did not manage to grab him.

"Where are you going?" Shen Guiyi asked.

"Back to training," Jiang Qiao said.

"Didn't you want to see the lions?" Shen Guiyi asked, baffled.

Jiang Qiao quickened his pace. "Haven't I already seen them?"

Giving up on chasing him, Shen Guiyi rolled up her sleeves and shouted, "Jiang Qiao, are you messing with me?"

Jiang Qiao's scalp went numb. He turned back, raised a finger to Shen Guiyi, and desperately gestured, "Shh! Shh! Keep it down!"

Shen Guiyi did not understand. She pointed at Fu Zhilan in the distance. "Why? There's no one else here! Alice is being fed, and she won't eat you! Why are you afraid of her?"