CHAPTER 42 ♦ BLUSHING

Xu Tian Xian swallowed as he looked at Qin Ke Xuan “exerting violence”. Poking that entire length of needle down was no honestly different from receiving an injection so he didn’t know why that spy made it out to look as though he got bitten by a shark with his sweat beading continuously and expression all contorting. If it hadn’t been the fact that he was being bound by rope and his mouth was stuffed with cloth, Xu Tian Xian figured he would have ended his life on his own.

His cold sweat running, Xu Tian Xian secretly peeked at this soldier that was said to only have joined the RS for two days before she was moved and transferred again and landed in their MI6 as the newcomer Xu Le Le. No matter how he looked at her merciless ways despite her young age, she seemed to be like the people rumoured to have been taken in and nurtured by organisations into a killing machine since young. However, the chances of that were pretty low as all the people entering MI6 must come from a clean family background… Maybe it was just her natural S* attribute that came with her personality…

* S = sadist Z L T

Qin Ke Xuan extracted the needle from the acupuncture point on smiley guy’s abdomen and pulled out the cloth in his mouth, asking blandly: “Have you remembered where you’ve hidden the classified information?” 

“Pant… uh… I, I really don’t kn….” Z L T

Before he could even finish, Qin Ke Xuan once again stuffed the cloth back into his mouth and stuck the needle in her hand in. The pain this time was so great it had the smiley guy curling up, wanting to roll around in agony. However, with Qin Ke Xuan’s foot stepping on him, he was unable to move, and so, he convulsed and fainted.

“How useless.” Qin Ke Xuan tried kicking him but he didn’t wake up. Turning, she said to the dumbfounded Xu Tian Xian:  “Get a pail of water and splash him awake.”

Xu Tia Xian went to get water. As he did so, he mumbled to himself non-stop. She was definitely an S!

After repeatedly torturing the smiley guy, he finally gave in after the cloth was pulled from his mouth. “I’ll… I’ll say…”

Upon finding the classified information they had stolen and “checking” multiple times they had no other copies of it, Qin Ke Xuan ruthlessly chopped at him. After he fainted, she returned to her room to slip on her shoes, ready to leave. Meanwhile, Xu Tian Xian shredded the two spies of their clothes and threw them on the same bed, setting them in an overlapping position before holding in his disgust and snapping pictures of them with his miniature camera. Only after that did the two of them leave the rooms and hurried into their vehicle.

“Tonight’s mission was a success, good work everyone! You guys hungry? My treat!” Xu Tian Xian handed Xu Mei Li a button he had taken from the smiley guy’s shirt that had the copy of their classified information for her to safe keep. Of course, he’d pulled off all the other buttons on his shirt, and on the other guy’s shirt just in case they kept copies. Upon analysing them, they indeed found that there was something on the buttons taken from the other guy’s shirt.

Qin Ke Xuan didn’t go with them to celebrate. Rather, she switched back into her camouflage uniform and left under the mournful gazes of the masses.

Meanwhile, in the hotel, the two spies woke up. They were first shocked off their socks by how the both of them were naked with their limbs intertwined. After looking at the words Xu Tian Xian left behind, they clenched their teeth and went to change into their clothes. However, they once again found out that those people had actually, very shamelessly, pulled off every single button on every single shirt they had. Upon seeing even the copies the cold guy had were gone, the two of them were so angry they wanted to kill someone! Slamming into Qin Ke Xuan’s room, the room was, as expected, cleared of people. When they found Qin Ke Xuan’s identity from the hotel’s counter and searched it up, they found out that her information had given a “this person does not exist” result!

It was already very late when she returned to the RS warehouse; the entire base was dead silent. All the soldiers that had no sentry duties were all cuddled in their beds, sound asleep. The door of the warehouse was locked and all the people from the RS were still engaged in the surprise attack test. Looked like there was no need for her to return to this base here. Without anyone in the warehouse, there was, naturally, no one to help her unlock the door. She didn’t want to break in, and so she leapt onto the roof of the warehouse, lying down with her hand under her neck and looked at the moon hanging high in the sky, sinking into deep thoughts.

Before dawn even broke the next day, the training broadcast sounded. Qin Ke Xuan leapt off the rood, walked over to where the soldiers gathered and randomly pulled one of them out. “Open the RS warehouse.” She needed to change for school but all her uniform and things were inside.

“Hah? Why would I have the key?” The soldier that had been dragged out was shocked.

“Who has the key!”

“The RS people! Let go! There’s punishment for gathering late!” The soldier shrugged her grip off and ran off in haste.

Qin Ke Xuan thought for a bit but finally settled on not breaking in. She still had another set of uniform back in the Qin house she didn’t bring along.

When she returned to the Qin house, the sun was long out. The people that had already woken up upon seeing a figure in camouflage uniform, military boots and helmet suddenly barging in were struck dumb. Qin Peng Cheng was the first to recognise his sister. Immediately, his eyes sparkled like stars as he dashed over to hug Qin Ke Xuan, making an uproar: “Woah! It’s jie jie! Jie jie looks so handsome and dashing! So dashing!”

The figure of Qin Ke Xuan in military uniform clicked with Qin Shu Hua’s memories of his daughter that was in the military being an SFRS soldier or something. “Ah, it’s Xuan Xuan! Why’re you suddenly back? Have you eaten? Your Jiang ah yi* just prepared breakfast, sit down and eat with us.”

* 阿姨 = ah yi; aunt/auntie, one may also refer to stepmothers as ah yi to differentiate between one’s biological mother from one’s stepmother.

Qin Ke Xuan nodded and softly pushed aside the Qin Peng Cheng glued onto her. She stuffed a piece of bread in her mouth before going to her room. She wasn’t in a rush to change into her uniform, rather, she leapt over to Yin Xu Dong’s side, kicking the sound asleep Yin Xu Dong awake.

“What’re you doing! It hurts!” Yin Xu Dong sat up, howling indignantly. Coming back home on weekends to sleep was already hard enough a chance to come by, now he wasn’t even allowed to sleep a little bit longer?

“This is how you follow my training regime?” Qin Ke Xuan stared at him coldly. It seemed like she wasn’t strict enough with him. 

“Xuan Xuan?! You’re back? You look so smart in this… you’re finally back! Do you know how many I called you? Why didn’t you pick up your calls?” Yin Xu Dong flipped off his covers and jumped off his bed in excitement.

She hadn’t touched her phone she’d thrown aside in the warehouse ever since the surprise attack test began. “Wear some clothes first.”

His upper body unclothed, Yin Xu Dong only had a pair of shorts on. After being reminded by Qin Ke Xuan, he hastily grabbed a shirt and slipped it on. “Xuan Xuan, Lu Wan Ran complained to the school about us beating her up.”

“And then?”

“And then, haha, I found some people to “show her some stuff”. I didn’t expect there to be so many pretty guys that’s been played by her, and so, I rounded them all up and we denounced her! What was really shocking was that the girls that were enraged after seeing there were so many handsome guys that had been tricked. Tsk tsk, it sure is scary when girls get angry. They were so close to egging her! And so, she escaped pathetically and we were victorious.”

“So nothing happened?” Z L T

“Enh!” 

Qin Ke Xuan looking at his blinking bright eyes that shone, as though anticipating her praise couldn’t help but say: “Don’t forget you were also a part of the guys that’s been hoodwinked by her.”

“…” 

“So that’s the thing you wanted to tell me when you called?” Z L T

“Just wanted to chat with you.” Z L T

“Don’t call me if it’s nothing serious in the future.” Phones must be switched off during training, so she wouldn’t be able to pick up her phone even if he called.

Yin Xu Dong, comforting his wounded soul, went to wash up. Upon looking at the pimple-filled face in the mirror, he was beyond caught in his own quandary. Was Xuan Xuan also disliking him now?

Yin Xu Dong came out from his house and stood at the entrance of the Qin house waiting for Qin Ke Xuan to go to school together. He waited for a long time, but the person that had appeared was not Qin Ke Xuan. “Where’s Xuan Xuan?”

“Aye? She left long ago.” Jiang Hui Lin replied in surprise.

Yin Xu Dong howled in anguish mentally. As expected, she’s starting to dislike him!

What he’s not thought of was that Qin Ke Xuan had never gone to school with him before.

When Qin Ke Xuan entered the classroom, she was immediately surrounded by the girls in their class.

“Qin Ke Xuan, did you really beat up Lu Wan Ran?”

“How gratifying! That shameless hag, to actually dare make a move at XX senior, she deserves to be trashed!”

“Exactly! Even my XX was poisoned by her venom! I really want to slap her a few times too!

“Then do it!” Z L T

“…”

The bunch of girls chirped away noisily, making a huge ruckus. Sitting in her seat, she picked up her textbook and started reading away as though there was no one around. Even though she’d officially joined the MI6, Xu Division Chief had said that the requirement in MI6 was stricter than that of the SF. Hence, she must ensure her cultural understanding and knowledge was able to reach their required standard within this short period of time or else there could be a possibility where she would be kicked off the MI6.

Everyone, upon seeing her reading her textbook ignoring everyone, left awkwardly. Luo Sheng Hui however, ran up to her, exclaiming exaggeratedly: “Wow! Reading your textbook again! How hardworking!” Following which, his tone became mocking. “No matter how much you study, nothing will go in anyway with your current results!” The students that had entered this class either had some pretty influential background or some strong financial backing, so everyone came to school with the thought of playing around in mind. Hence Qin Ke Xuan with her diligent hardworkingness, on the other hand, was an exotic species amidst them.

“You’re very noisy.” Why was this person running over to bother her all the time. She seriously wanted to press his throat acupuncture, but she was concerned about revealing her abilities hence she reined in her impulse.

“Puu!” The several guys beside Luo Sheng Hui burst into laughter.

“What are you laughing about! What’s so funny!” Embarrassed, Luo Sheng Hui slammed the table, glared at the Qin Ke Xuan that always made cutting remarks of him and returned to his seat. 

“Bro, even if you didn’t manage to get into a relationship, at least there’s still friendship! How can you glare at her!” One of his friends urged him.

“Exactly exactly, that’s not how to chase girls. How can you just leave after one biting reply?”

“It’s always been girls chasing you hah. It’s time you do some homework on how to chase girls.”

Qin Ke Xuan’s brows knitting, she picked up a few textbooks and left the classroom.

“Sigh~” Z L T

“Sigh~” Z L T

“Sigh~” Z L T

… Z L T

“If you make a sound more, I’ll press your muting acupuncture and you won’t be able to speak for the next three days.”

“Aye?!” The Yin Xu Dong seated at the corner of the wall didn’t expect there to be someone above on the wall. And that someone happened to be the source of his sighs. Raising his head, he looked at the Qin Ke Xuan that fell from the sky, stuttering: “Xuan Xuan, how come you’re here?”

“What are you doing?” Qin Ke Xuan asked instead of replying.

“Aye? No, nothing hehe, not doing anything at all!”

Not believing him, Qin Ke Xuan looked at him with suspicion. “Then what are you sighing for?”

“I, I… freak it! I’m just going to ask you straight out!” Yin Xu Dong puffed his courage. It’s definitely better asking her instead of being glum on his own.

“Ask.” 

“You… do you think I’m… ugly?” YinXu Dong looked at Qin Ke Xuan carefully, taking in even the slightest shift in her expression.

“…” Qin Ke Xuan turned to look into the distant coldly, saying blandly: “Yes.”

Yin Xu Dong took a huge blow. Even though he had expected this answer, after all, anyone with a normal aesthetic standard would find his face, currently filled with pimples, ugly. However, hearing Qin Ke Xuan admitting it personally still had him feeling a little hard to accept…

“You’d never looked good to begin with so why bother yourself with such meaningless things.”

“Aye?” Yin Xu Dong raised his head in shock to look at the Qin Ke Xuan still staring into the distant. Was her aesthetics standard normal at all? It wasn’t that he was being narcissistic but he, in his original appearance, was publicly acknowledged handsome guy.

Delving into his own dilemma, he looked at Qin Ke Xuan. After silence pooled for a long time between the two of them, he broke the strange atmosphere. “Xuan Xuan, are you very warm? Your face is red. Wow, even your neck is red! Don’t stand there under the sun anymore, come sit beside me, there’s shade here.”