The Dead Sea Heart Rock, which had shrouded the entire open field, fell to the ground like an ebbing tide, flowing across the ground like a stream of black water.
Lu Yan’s legs weren’t quite steady yet; he stumbled toward them, looking around. Gagantel had already vanished, leaving no trace behind except for the bloodstained ground.
Bi Lanxing followed and only relaxed when he saw Bai Chunian standing there as if nothing had happened.
“Did he get away?” Lu Yan furrowed his brow, eyeing Bai Chunnian with a touch of unfamiliarity. His combat uniform was soaked in blood, dripping wet.
“I killed him.”
“Killed him???” Lu Yan’s eyes widened; it took him a full ten seconds to process the news.
“So, calling me ‘bro’ doesn’t mean I’m taking advantage of you, right?”
Lu Yan held back for a moment, then gave up and snapped, “Fine, call me ‘bro.’ What are you so smug about? ‘Brother, brother, brother, bro’—are you satisfied now? I’ll give you that because you look old!”
Bai Chunian kept his hands in his pockets, savoring the title. It felt good.
He then said, “You ran pretty fast… so it must not be anything serious. Alright, hand me the bomb. I’ll go plant it. You two wait for me outside. Hurry up—it’s already dark. We need to get this done before morning.” Bai Chunian held out his hands, gesturing for Lu Yan to hand him the bomb case.
In truth, Bai Chunian merely intended to let Lu Yan and Lan Xing get a taste of real combat. Since Gagantel had appeared, there was no need for them to risk a head-on confrontation with an A3-class test subject to complete the mission—not that they could have succeeded anyway. Bai Chunian never expected them to succeed; tasks involving infiltrating the factory’s core to plant explosives were typically handled by veteran agents from the Special Operations Unit.
“All set.” Lu Yan lifted his face.
“Hm?” Bai Chunian raised his eyelids. “The core warehouse, the mononene preparation room—all set?”
“Yeah.”
Bai Chunian gave Lu Yan’s soft hair a firm rub. “Not bad.”
Lu Yan tried to maintain a composed and modest expression, but the smugness in his eyes gave him away.
Bi Lanxing leaned close to Bai Chunian and asked in a low voice, “Gagantel… taken care of?”
“The star test subject from Institute 109… better off without him. Since Gagantel is here, the institute must have received word that the factory might be under attack. The other test subjects are likely on their way too. We need to act first.”
“Can he still walk?” Bai Chunian asked.
Bi Lanxing nodded. Given his character, even if he couldn’t walk, he would silently grit his teeth and keep up with the main force; he had never held anyone back.
“Lan Bo, take some men and follow me up.” Bai Chunian suddenly crouched down, placed his hand on the back of Bi Lanxing’s belt, gave a gentle lift, and hoisted Bi Lanxing onto his shoulder, leading the way up to the condensation tower at the highest point of the factory. Holding him with one hand and using his other to assist his legs as he climbed, Bai Chunian’s innate white lion climbing ability allowed him to ascend at a rapid pace.
Bi Lanxing was at a loss for words: “Brother Chu, I don’t need you to carry me. I can walk.”
Bai Chunian laughed: “It’d be faster if Lan Bo and I each carried one. I can only carry you—if I carried a rabbit, my wife would definitely give me a hard time. Alphas are heavy and stiff; do you think I want to carry you?”
“Don’t be so polite. You’re the deputy squad leader, aren’t you? You’ve got plenty of authority. Isn’t it my duty as the squad leader to help you carry this?” ” Bai Chunian’s words carried a hint of sarcasm. This young Alpha wasn’t shy about taking risks—he’d even dared to get shot. If Bai Chunian and Lan Bo hadn’t arrived quickly this time, it would have been all too easy for those two inexperienced agent trainees to be crushed to death by an A3-class special operations weapon. Bai Chunian wouldn’t have had the face to go back and report for duty.
Bi Lanxing was carried upside down, silently reflecting on his impulsiveness.
“Being a spy relies on your brain, not on so-called courage or fearlessness. Especially you, as the deputy team leader, your job is to assess and adjust the team’s tactics, not to charge in alongside them. Lu Yan isn’t exactly the brightest bulb in the box—you know that as well as I do.”
“I know he can pull it off, so I let him go,” Bi Lanxing said stubbornly. “We’re a team, Brother Chu. You have to trust him… and trust me, too.”
He was usually humble and rarely defied his teachers or superiors.
Bai Chunian let go. Bi Lanxing extended tendrils from his fingertips to wrap around the ladder on the outside of the condensation tower, climbing upward side by side with Bai Chunian. He had injuries on his body and hands, but this did not affect his speed.
Bai Chunian shifted his gaze to Bi Lanxing’s face beside him. He recalled that Bi Lanxing was eighteen this year; his features were now more defined and mature than when they first met. The traces of growth on both him and Lu Yan would remain on their faces and bodies, inexplicably stirring a distant longing within Bai Chunian. He, too, wanted Lan Bo to watch him change gradually—from his appearance to his character.
Unfortunately, something so simple for humans was beyond his reach.
Lu Yan stayed by Lan Bo’s side. Lan Bo didn’t even ask if he could keep up; he simply picked him up and began climbing toward the Cold Condensation Tower, relying on electromagnetic levitation to ascend effortlessly.
The ascent was so rapid that Lu Yan could only cling tightly to Lan Bo’s neck, burying his head in the crook of his neck and closing his eyes to shield himself from the wind.
Lan Bo twirled the ball of rabbit fur that Lu Yan had tucked out of his pants between his fingertips. He discovered that the rabbit’s tail could actually stretch out quite long—it wasn’t a ball at all, but a strand coiled into a ball.
Cute. Even though he could have countless fluffy creatures on land, he chose to fall for Little White. Lan Bo felt like a truly great king—and a great king must surely be faithful in love.
Lu Yan buried his face in the crook of Lan Bo’s neck and grumbled, “ “Bai Chunian could go on for a year about me calling you ‘bro.’ It’s so annoying! Is killing a Gagantel really that impressive?”
Lan Bo replied softly, “Gagantel No. 436, an A3-class special operations test subject and one of the institute’s top assets. It really was impressive.”
Lu Yan: “……”
Lan Bo: “Messenger test subjects get stronger when they acquire a host, but Xiao Bai doesn’t—it only weakens him. Even so, he was able to defeat an A3 test subject.”
Lu Yan: “……”
Lan Bo: “He took down Gagantel in just ten minutes. Neither Eris nor Black Panther could do that.”
Lu Yan: “……”
Lan Bo: “His eyes are beautiful.”
Lu Yan: “The trainees at our Aphid Island Special Training Base have a group chat dedicated to praising Bai Chunian. Do you want to be the group admin?”
Lan Bo: “.”
Climbing to the very top of the condensation tower, Bai Chunian lay down and reached out to Lan Bo.
Lan Bo handed him a 16x magnification hydrosteel scope.
As night fell, Bai Chunian closed one eye and silently gazed toward the Lingti Clan. He opened his communicator and whispered, “Brother Han, Xiao Xun, give me your coordinates.”
On the outskirts of Aphid City.
Two business owners who had known Lu Shangjin since their youth often met at the winery to relax, sip red wine, and chat.
Bi Ruijing lit a cigar, closed his eyes, savored it for a long moment, then slowly exhaled the smoke.
Xia Pingtian teased, “How long has it been since you last smoked one?”
“My wife won’t let me. Even a hint of smoke on my breath sets her off for ages. Tell your brother not to date someone ten years younger than him—they’ll wear you down to the bone.” ” Bi Ruijing laughed as he tapped the ash off his cigar and rubbed his wedding ring on his ring finger to keep the ash from blackening it. “By the way, that trick of yours really worked. As soon as I sent Lan Xing to the special training base, the kid’s whole demeanor changed. He used to seem uninterested in everything—he just needed a little excitement. We had so much excitement when we were young. Remember when Lu Shangjin was chasing Yan Yi? That whole mess dragged us all into the chaos. I still remember it.”
Xia Ping Tian curved his lips into a smile. “Hey, you should count yourself lucky… My Cai Bing isn’t that bad—he’s buried in the lab and the chemistry room every day. Getting a nice word out of him is harder than climbing Mount Everest, but he’s incredibly good to his students.”
“Oh, Brother Lu’s here. Hey, looks like he brought an omega with him.” Xia Ping Tian squinted through the floor-to-ceiling window at the car parked outside the winery for a long moment. “It’s not Yan Yi. It’s a young one—I’ve never seen him before.”
The omega Lu Shangjin had brought respectfully opened the door for him before following him inside; he seemed well-mannered.
Xia Ping Tian, who had been chatting and laughing with someone by the window while holding a wine glass, had been waiting quite a while for this new face: “ “Oh my, it’s been a few days and my Brother Lu’s status at home has risen—now he’s even changed the person he brings out with him. Tsk tsk, that little frame of his—could it even withstand a kick from Yan Yi?”
Bi Ruijing leaned against the window: “Now that’s a funny thing to say. He couldn’t even catch Yan Yi’s own kick.”
Lu Shangjin couldn’t be bothered with their idle chatter. He turned and gave a nod toward the omega behind him: “Call them over.”
Du Mo hurriedly bowed: “Mr. Bi, Mr. Xia.”
Lu Shangjin sank into the sofa and crossed his legs: “Let me tell you a funny story.”
The two men were bored out of their minds and leaned in to listen.
“Take a look at this contract.” Lu Shangjin snatched two stacks of papers from Du Mo’s hands and placed them on the table. “Check out the deal my ‘good son’ negotiated.”
Bi Ruijing picked up one and glanced through it, then burst out laughing. “Did Little White pull this off, or was it Lu Yan?”
Xia Ping Tian held onto the back of the sofa, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
Lu Shangjin laughed in exasperation: “Not even Tu Qiu could pull this off—it’s definitely Xiao Bai’s doing. For over 8 billion yuan worth of Nu nutritional supplements, he walked in and offered 800 million. While others haggle over the last few cents, he just wiped out a whole zero.”
“Hahahaha, damn, he sure knows how to haggle.”
“Don’t interrupt—I’m not done yet. He locked in a deal for 60,000 vials of the infection serum with a 20% commission, and then… he breached the contract and backed out.”
Bi Ruijing thought for a moment: “The monolenin you asked me to look into is the raw material for this serum, right? 60,000 vials of infection serum—that must have wiped out the entire institute’s stockpile of monolenin… He just walked away from the whole order. Sure, they won’t get the deposit back, but infection serums are hard to sell anyway—demand is low. With the lab sitting on such a massive stockpile that won’t move, and not enough cash flow to recover… what a loss… I told you, Xiaobai, you’ve got your father’s flair.”
“My reputation? It doesn’t end there. He found a shell company and bought back those infected agents at half price.” Lu Shangjin raised an eyebrow. “Did I teach him to be a business thug? I, Lu Shangjin, may not be a philanthropist, but I’ve never deliberately toyed with my competitors in business. That move has completely ruined my reputation. With these two fine sons, I can’t see any future for the Lu Group at all.”
After a long moment, Xia Ping Tian finally caught his breath from laughing. Having navigated the business world for years, he could see right through such childish tricks. It wasn’t that the research institute had been careless; rather, with the Lu Group’s name backing it, Lu Shangjin had long held sway over the International Business Association, and his name was synonymous with credibility.
“That was quite a feast. But… even with your name backing it, how was such a contract riddled with loopholes ever negotiated? If Xiao Bai really has that kind of skill, he’s quite a talent.”
“That’s right, Xiao Bai is the one who came up with the dirty trick. That’s where our Xiao Bai’s cleverness lies—coming up with a rotten idea and then getting others to carry it out.” ” Lu Shangjin raised a finger toward Du Mo, who stood to the side with his head bowed, too afraid to speak. “He’s the one who actually carried it out—that’s the real talent.”
Du Mo, hearing his name mentioned, quickly waved his hands. “No, no. It’s my honor to have been able to contribute in a small way.”
Bi Ruijing lit a fresh cigarette, took a drag, and eyed him. “Kid, what does your family do?”
Du Mo recognized all three men sitting in the room; he often saw them in international business magazines, business news, and online headlines. Surrounded by three business tycoons, Du Mo felt like a lamb dropped into a den of wolves. He could only answer whatever he was asked, so he replied truthfully, “My grandfather used to work on Wall Street, and so did my father. Now I’m the only one left in the family.”
Bi Ruijing gave him a look that was both sympathetic and inquiring.
“Cocaine overdose.” Du Mo silently clenched his pants, cold sweat continuously seeping into his palms. “I started working at the International Prison when I was sixteen. I’m twenty-four this year.”
After asking just a few basic questions, Bi Ruijing offered a few kind, reassuring words and called the butler to take Du Mo out to the vineyard for some fresh air.
After Du Mo left, the two discussed Lu Shangjin’s plans.
Lu Shangjin swirled his wine glass casually to aerate it. “A kid’s one little prank won’t shake anything up. Just consider it a warm-up for Xiao Bai. Though it is a bit ridiculous… but Yan Yi should be quite pleased. He’s happy whenever the Research Institute hits a snag, so this time, it’s not a loss.”
“So, this Du Mo…”
“The kid’s in a precarious enough situation—he can’t survive without my help. He’s a smart one, though. We can give him a try for now; the Phantom World Gate is short-handed anyway. If he shows any disloyalty, we’ll just wipe him out. It’s not worth worrying about. Let’s drink.”