Wanting to Hold Hands

At five in the morning, Li Lin, woken by Xia Mi's phone call, yawned as he took the elevator down to the hotel's underground garage.

This five-star hotel was temporary lodging arranged by the Executive Department for its agents. Having all the operation teams sleep here for one night cost over a hundred thousand dollars.

Fortunately, Kassel School was never short on money.

Especially now that the most troublesome part of the mission had been resolved. Starting tomorrow, the various operation teams could begin withdrawing from Los Angeles one after another.

The elevator doors had barely opened when Li Lin saw Xia Mi standing beside an armored vehicle with a mischievous grin.

"You're not sleepy at all, are you?"

Faced with Li Lin's resentful words, Xia Mi smiled even more happily. "Of course I'm sleepy. I didn't sleep at all, you know. I specifically called to wake you up!"

As she spoke, Xia Mi brought out the hands she had kept hidden behind her back, along with a "course completion certificate" personally signed by Professor Schneider, which she held up in front of Li Lin.

"Take it. I specifically waited until the professor had time to grade our assignments!"

Li Lin looked at the ornate "Von Schneider" signature beneath the certificate, as well as the grade of "A+." His middle-school exam instincts kicked in, and he blurted out, "What did you get?"

Xia Mi pouted, then took out her own completion certificate. Sure enough, it only had a "P" written on it—the abbreviation for "Pass," meaning she had barely passed the course.

Just then, Team Leader Declan approached with Caesar and Aki Shigede. According to Xia Mi, they had all stayed up through the night observing and learning from the Executive Department's cleanup work.

At that moment, Declan handed Aki Shigede a set of car keys and reluctantly announced to the group of college students.

"Temporary agents, your War Practice Class is ending early! The CC1000 Express will only be running until noon today, so don't oversleep if you want to get back to school early."

He still had work to do, so after reminding them of a few safety precautions, he hurried away.

Caesar, leaning on his crutch, had long noticed Li Lin and Xia Mi sharing their course grades. He immediately came over, beaming with pride.

"You two, do you know what grade I got?"

"Oh, isn't it just an 'A'?... Stop, stop. I already heard you tell that story ten times in the car—how you charged alone into the 18th Street Gang's hideout, endured the concentrated firepower of an entire battalion, captured the gang leader alive, and escaped unscathed."

Xia Mi covered her ears with her fingers and darted behind Li Lin.

Caesar laughed heartily and made his way toward the car on his crutch. He was still savoring the exhilaration of defying his family's arrangements and earning an excellent grade through his own efforts.

Aki Shigede waved at Li Lin and Xia Mi. "Caesar has several gunshot wounds. He and I are planning to return to school now. Are you two going to stay in Los Angeles for a few more days of fun?"

"We're going straight back to school. I have Dragon Family Genealogy at eight tomorrow morning. If I take too much leave, I probably won't get enough credits by the end of the term."

After all, the War Practice Class was over. Every additional day they remained in Los Angeles meant Li Lin would have to miss six major courses.

Thinking that, Li Lin's resentment only deepened. His wonderful, free, leisurely college life had actually been ruined by Xia Mi's class schedule.

Xia Mi understood Li Lin's thoughts perfectly. Smiling sweetly, she pushed her childhood friend into the back seat, then picked up a latte still floating with ice cubes from the cup holder beside her and held it out to Li Lin with both hands.

"Okay, okay. The Executive Department's rising star will be laughed at if he keeps looking so gloomy! Here, take it. I stood in line for an hour to buy this coffee for you. There were so many people nearby heading to work..."

Li Lin instinctively lowered his head and accepted the beautifully packaged coffee from Xia Mi's hands.

He looked at Xia Mi standing outside the car door and noticed the smiling face hidden behind the plastic cup, stripped of all its cunning and playfulness. The girl seemed to be waiting for his praise, her eyes full of anticipation and tenderness.

Although he had been fighting Dead Servants just yesterday, perhaps precisely because of that, Li Lin could more subtly appreciate the beauty behind the textbook's brief mention of "husband and wife treating each other with respect."

Youth was so short, blades so bright, yet on this morning in Los Angeles, while the smell of blood still lingered, there was a girl willing to stay up all night to collect his grades and stand in line for a cup of coffee.

All the absurd complaints in his heart suddenly vanished like smoke.

Li Lin reached out and pulled Xia Mi into the back seat, then closed the car door for her himself.

With laughter in her eyes, the girl leaned closer to the boy, whose expression was somewhat hesitant and awkward.

Her fox tail had shown itself now. She even deliberately put on a little "my scheme succeeded" expression, but she was only so cute that it was hard to look away.

Unfortunately, Li Lin did not take the bait. He simply drank his coffee as usual.

Xia Mi could only turn boredly to look out the window.

Aki Shigede had already driven the car out of the hotel garage. The dark sky beyond the window looked like freshly applied colored glaze, thin morning light seeping through its deep, near-inky blue. Gray building clusters stood at the end of their view, and only the occasional vehicle could be seen on the streets.

The cabin was so quiet that only the engine's low hum could be heard.

After finishing his coffee, Li Lin took out his phone and intensely searched his own name on the Night Watchers Forum.

He had drawn plenty of attention during this mission. Many Executive Department agents still liked browsing the forum even after graduation, so videos of him fighting Dead Servants before the apartment ruins were probably already everywhere on it.

Sure enough, the first thing he saw upon entering the forum was several featured posts pinned by Fingel.

"'A Chosen Dragon Slayer Emerges Among the Freshmen! Is Headmaster Angers's Position in Danger?!'... What the hell kind of headline is this, you bastard? Do you want the headmaster to invite me for tea after I get back to school?"

Li Lin picked up his phone, intending to join Xia Mi in condemning Fingel's complete lack of journalistic ethics, but the moment he turned his head, he found that Xia Mi had already fallen asleep against the car window.

When this girl slept, she always possessed an ethereal, otherworldly air, like an elf forgotten by the world, or a living oil painting. Everyone feared accidentally waking her, as though even the slightest noise would profane such beauty.

Li Lin noticed Xia Mi's small hand resting beside the hem of her skirt. He had never thought this girl's hand looked so lovely before—small and delicate, skin white as snow, without the slightest flaw. It was practically a work of art. Damn Dragon Race bloodline—how could it make a girl so perfect in every possible way?

No wonder the ancients always liked writing things like "wrists as white as frost and snow," "fingers like trimmed spring onions," and "jade-like slender fingers stirring the little curtain hook"...

Li Lin thought, I'm only touching it. Xia Mi definitely won't say anything.

What if I awaken the Killer Queen from the comics?

So he tentatively placed his hand over Xia Mi's palm, completely failing to notice the slight upward curl at the girl's lips.