Shark in the Fish Tank

Shi Junyi set down his magazine and wineglass, then strode over on long legs and stopped in front of Jiang Qiao, looking down at him.

Ever since encountering Jiang Qiao that night, Shi Junyi had sent people to trace the motorcycle's license plate, following Jiang Qiao from school to the boxing arena and keeping an eye on him for nearly half a month.

Three days ago, after Shi Xiao'an returned from the Jiang Family's boxing arena, he had specifically sought Shi Junyi out for a heart-to-heart.

As expected, he had eventually brought up Jiang Qiao.

"What do you want?" he asked.

Jiang Qiao surveyed the surroundings. There were no other buildings nearby outside the window, and the enormous room was entirely white.

The floor was not tiled, but made of transparent tempered glass. Beneath the glass was a massive fish tank whose depth could not be discerned.

At that moment, a shark slowly swam beneath Jiang Qiao's feet.

Jiang Qiao watched the shark pass beneath him, then tilted his head up at Shi Junyi. "You kidnapped me, brother. Shouldn't that mean you're the one with an agenda?"

Shi Junyi looked at Jiang Qiao's innocent face and patted his head. "Do you want to attend a banquet?"

Jiang Qiao asked, "As your male companion?"

Shi Junyi shook his head. "No. As a male bodyguard."

Jiang Qiao said, "You have female bodyguards too?"

Shi Junyi said, "If you want to dress as a woman, that can be arranged."

"If you let me attend as your female companion, I'll dress as a woman." Jiang Qiao curled his lips.

Shi Junyi looked at Jiang Qiao's smoothly muscled arms beneath his short sleeves, the prominent Adam's apple on his slender, beautiful neck, and the contours of his face, which lacked even the slightest feminine trait.

Then he said, "Forget it. I don't want reports spreading first thing tomorrow morning that I brought a shemale to a cocktail party."

Jiang Qiao was not angry. He looked up at Shi Junyi. "Brother, do you think I'm not good-looking enough?"

After saying that, he lowered his eyes again.

"True enough. The people who can appear in public as your partner must be young masters and ladies from prestigious families, or famous celebrities and models, right?"

He looked half dejected and half self-mocking, making people instinctively want to deny his words.

Shi Junyi crouched halfway down, wrapped both arms around Jiang Qiao's waist, and personally began untying the rope around his wrists.

His hand touched Jiang Qiao's warm wrist, and he heard Jiang Qiao say:

What celebrity could compare to me? If you dare say I'm not good-looking, I'll make sure to wash your damn eyes out today.

Shi Junyi raised a brow, released the half-untied rope, and said to the two bodyguards behind Jiang Qiao, "Take him to clear his head. Change his clothes."

With that, he gave a quiet laugh and turned to leave.

It was only when the two bodyguards lifted a section of tempered glass from the floor and pressed Jiang Qiao's head into the water that he understood what Shi Junyi meant by "clear his head."

Holding his breath, he watched the shark swim toward him and broke free of the rope Shi Junyi had half untied in two quick motions.

His waist and legs exerted force at the same time as he forcibly straightened up, hooking one of the bodyguards around the neck with a side kick.

Facing the shark swimming toward them with its bloody maw wide open, he shoved the man into the fish tank.

Then, one second before the shark could bite the man's head off, Jiang Qiao reached out and yanked him back up. At the same time, he pressed down hard with his toes, hooked the lifted tempered glass panel, and forced it shut.

The glass locked automatically.

Its meal had escaped from its jaws, and the furious shark slammed into the glass several times with loud bangs, sending violent tremors through the floor.

The two bodyguards, one standing and one sitting, stared warily at Jiang Qiao with complicated expressions.

Especially the one sitting on the ground. Water still dripped from his hair, and his heart, which had pounded wildly after brushing past death, refused to settle down.

Jiang Qiao's hair was wet too. He crouched down, knocked on the glass, then looked up at the two bodyguards excitedly. "Fucking beautiful. What kind of fish is this?"

Chen Sheng helped Chris, who was sitting on the floor, to his feet. "A bull shark."

Jiang Qiao stood and extended a hand to Chen Sheng and Chris respectively, smiling. "Jiang Qiao."

His smile was sincere, as though he did not mind what had just happened in the slightest.

"Chen Sheng."

"Chris."

The two exchanged a glance before extending their hands to Jiang Qiao as well.

The instant Jiang Qiao clasped their hands, he suddenly exerted force and dislocated Chen Sheng's wrist. Then he clapped his hands in satisfaction. "Now that's fair."

At that moment, Shi Junyi was holding a meeting upstairs. The chief executive of the finance department was reporting this quarter's financial status in front of a computer.

The huge piles of long strings of numbers were enough to make anyone's head spin.

Shi Junyi sat at the head of the conference table. Watching the scene through the surveillance feed, he laughed at an entirely inappropriate moment.

The finance director stopped. Looking at the rising profits across the board and the stocks of every company under the group glowing red, he had no idea what he had done wrong.

He looked at Shi Junyi nervously and attempted to ask, "Young Master..."

Without even raising his head, Shi Junyi waved for him to continue.

Chen Sheng reset his wrist and took Jiang Qiao down to the third basement level by elevator.

This was the living and rest area for the Shi family's bodyguards when they were off assignment.

There were saunas, massage rooms, therapy rooms, a cinema, a gym, billiards rooms, and every other kind of recreational facility one could want.

The only flaw was that there was no signal here.

"Before an assignment, you'll be searched as a matter of routine. During the assignment, you'll be provided with dedicated communication equipment."

"Contact with the outside world is prohibited while working, but you'll have one chance to call your family every other day. Use that."

As Chen Sheng spoke, he pointed to an old-fashioned rotary telephone in the corner of the lobby.

Six surveillance cameras with audio recording capabilities were positioned around the phone from every angle.

"Two-day weekends? Six days on, one day off?" Jiang Qiao asked.

Chris snorted. "Who do you think you are?"

Jiang Qiao smiled. "We'll be colleagues from now on. Don't be so petty."

Chris gave a cold snort and did not respond.

Chen Sheng said, "Each work cycle lasts six months. There won't be assignments every day, and even if there are, you might not be assigned to them."

"As long as no one needs you, you can rest here indefinitely."

Jiang Qiao curled his lip. "So that means I can't contact the outside world for at least six months?"

Chen Sheng answered expressionlessly, "Correct."

But Jiang Qiao still had homework. He needed to email it to his teacher every week.

Jiang Qiao wondered whether he could discuss it with Shi Junyi and ask for some leniency, allowing him to submit his homework while under surveillance.

No matter how uneducated he had been in his previous life, he was at least a college student in this one.

If he could not graduate successfully, Jiang Zhenhai would very likely skin him alive.

Jiang Qiao had long been prepared to come to the Shi family as a bodyguard. Now that he had the chance, he naturally would not let it pass. This concerned the romantic prospects of the rest of his life.

Even though Shi Junyi had just made him "clear his head" quite thoroughly today, Jiang Qiao did not care. A man needed to have that kind of flavor, and he would find an opportunity to "repay" Shi Junyi too.

Chen Sheng arranged a room for Jiang Qiao. Their builds were similar, so Chen Sheng also found Jiang Qiao a spare set of his own clothes.

A three-piece black suit and a pair of brand-new black leather shoes.

The suit vest was highly resilient. Jiang Qiao did not know what material it was made of. It probably could not stop bullets, but it should offer some protection against knives and the like.

There was a mechanism on the side of the shoes. Pressing hard on the heel would pop out a blade the length of a pinky finger.

"If nothing unexpected happens tonight, a new set will be custom-made for you tomorrow."

Jiang Qiao gave an acknowledging sound, took the clothes, and entered the room Chen Sheng had arranged for him.