Bai Xiao truly hadn't expected his prediction to come true so quickly.
He had only said during the day that someone might be watching them, and by nightfall it had already come to pass.
The only difference was that it hadn't come true for Exusiai and Texas—
it had come true for him instead.
After returning from the bar, Bai Xiao handed the statements over to Ch'en. Since it was already late, Ch'en put the evidence away, and the three of them decided they would sort through it properly at another time.
But that same night, after Bai Xiao returned to his rented room and got ready to rest, he heard some strange noises outside the door.
Under normal circumstances, he would have assumed someone was simply passing by.
But his identity was different now.
So he became alert.
And the facts proved that his caution had been justified.
He had only just climbed out of bed when several people smashed the door open and burst inside. The moment they entered, they didn't hesitate for even a second—they charged straight at him.
An ordinary person would have been scared senseless in a situation like that.
Bai Xiao was, in fact, scared senseless.
When had he ever seen something like this before?!
Fortunately, during this period, he had been practicing his Originium Art nonstop. Before the intruders could even reach him, he unleashed Glory Yet Unshone head-on, blasting them flying backward in an instant.
The two men at the front were struck so hard they were split clean in half on the spot.
Looking at the corpses on the floor, soaked in blood, Bai Xiao felt nothing but fear.
The first time he had used that move, he'd only felled a huge tree. Back then, it hadn't seemed like much.
Only now did he understand just how terrifying the attack really was.
Before the others could recover, Bai Xiao shoved his feet into his shoes and ran for his life. He didn't even have time to grab a coat.
More than ten days after arriving in this world, Bai Xiao once again found himself out on the streets in nothing but pajamas.
Lungmen's winter wasn't especially harsh, but winter was still winter. His sleepwear was already soaked through, and he was shivering violently from the cold. Even so, he didn't dare slow down, afraid the men behind him might catch up.
He wanted to call for help, but he had fled in such a hurry that he hadn't even taken his phone.
Now there was only one place left he could go.
The Lungmen Guard Department.
Whoever these attackers were, Uncle Dong might not necessarily be able to protect him. And with no way to contact Ch'en or Hoshiguma, Bai Xiao ran through every possible place he could go—
and the only answer was the Guard Department.
It wasn't as if the Guard Department was guaranteed to be absolutely safe either, but if the enemy could infiltrate even that, then Bai Xiao was done struggling. If they were that powerful already, then what was the point in resisting? If they wanted him that badly, they could just have him.
Fortunately, they clearly didn't have that kind of reach.
When he rushed into the Guard Department, the officer on duty was obviously some young rookie fresh out of training, and the sight of Bai Xiao covered in blood scared her half to death.
She was just about to call the police—
before remembering that she was the police.
And Bai Xiao made only one request.
He wanted to see Ch'en.
Even more unexpectedly, despite how late it was, Ch'en still hadn't gone home. She was still in her office, studying the statements. She had said, "It's late. We'll deal with it tomorrow," but she clearly had no intention of giving herself any actual rest.
And the moment she came downstairs and saw Bai Xiao in that miserable state, all the blood drained from her limbs. It felt as if even her heartbeat had stopped for a second.
The instant she recovered, she shouted at the others:
"Get emergency aid ready! Hurry!"
"No!" Bai Xiao quickly raised a hand. "I'm fine—it's not my blood. Ch'en-sir, can you lend me a private room to talk?"
Ch'en took Bai Xiao straight to her office.
To his surprise, her office was enormous. From the outside, it looked like just an office, but behind one wall was a small resting area, complete with a bedroom and even a bathroom.
So Ch'en really was the sort of complete workaholic who practically lived at the office.
"What happened?" she demanded.
Bai Xiao gave a wry smile. "Say... how about letting me change first.... Actually, forget it. You probably don't have anything here I can wear."
"...Go wash up first. I'll have someone buy you clothes."
In two sentences, Ch'en solved the problem. Bai Xiao immediately went to shower. Being covered in other people's blood really was disgusting.
After confirming that Bai Xiao wasn't injured anywhere, Ch'en finally let out a quiet breath of relief and sat down on the edge of the bed.
Only then did she realize that in just those few minutes, her own back had already been soaked through with cold sweat.
That indescribable terror...
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that the moment she saw Bai Xiao covered in blood, it had felt as though the sky itself had collapsed.
It had been like falling into an icy abyss.
Why was she this shaken over him?
...Probably because they already had a pretty good relationship, right? It was only natural she would care. If Hoshiguma had shown up covered in blood, she would definitely have panicked too.
Ch'en found that perfectly reasonable and comforted herself with the explanation.
She had no idea that Bai Xiao already weighed as much in her heart as a close friend she'd known for years.
Just then, the sound of running water came from the bathroom.
Bai Xiao was showering.
Under the light, his silhouette was cast against the frosted glass. The details weren't visible, but the overall outline was.
Ch'en glanced that way without thinking.
Her face instantly reddened all the way down to her neck, and she forced herself to turn her head away.
That kept her from seeing him—
but the steady shhh-shhh of the water was like a hand plucking at her nerves.
She remembered that night at the dock, when Bai Xiao had gripped her hand tightly, as though trying to pass his body heat into her. She remembered his voice close by her ear, the warmth of his breath brushing her earlobe and dyeing her whole body red.
And now there was only the sound of water.
Ch'en slowly closed her eyes. In her mind, she became the stream itself, her pounding heartbeat the rhythm that accompanied it, sliding down over Bai Xiao's body—from his neck, to his chest, then over the clear lines of his abs, down past his lower abdomen, all the way to the place below that...
"Ch'en-sir? Ch'en-sir?"
"Ah?"
Ch'en reflexively clamped her legs together and opened her eyes.
Bai Xiao was standing right in front of her, bare from the waist up, looking at her in confusion.
"What's wrong with you? I called you several times."
"I... I was thinking! Right, I was thinking about something.... Wait, why aren't you wearing anything?!"
That reaction nearly made Bai Xiao laugh.
"What am I supposed to wear? That pajama set was covered in blood. If I put it back on, wouldn't I have washed for nothing?"
"That's... true..."
By now, Ch'en's mind was in complete disarray. Before she could even retrace what she had just been thinking about, her eyes were already slipping uncontrollably toward Bai Xiao's bare upper body.
His physique was almost exactly what she had imagined—
if anything, even better.
A faint veil of steam still clung to him, carrying the scent of her white-peach body wash. Water droplets beaded across his well-proportioned muscles, making it impossible not to imagine whether those droplets might taste sweet too.
And if she tasted them...
wouldn't she know for sure?
Almost unconsciously, Ch'en licked her lips and realized just how dry her throat had become.
"Ch'en-sir, are you really alright?" Bai Xiao asked, as though he had no idea what was going on, and stepped closer to press a hand to her forehead.
His scent washed over her all at once.
From this distance, Ch'en could even make out the texture of his skin.
"You don't seem feverish..."
"I... I need to use the bathroom! Go outside for a minute!"
"Alright."
Bai Xiao looked baffled, but he still left the resting room and closed the door behind him.
But did Bai Xiao really feel baffled?
Of course not.
He understood perfectly well that someone like Ch'en—raised from childhood in an elite environment, trained under pressure, shaped by discipline—had long since grown accustomed to suppressing her desires. She had suppressed them so thoroughly that she probably believed she didn't even have any.
But how could a person truly have no desires?
Especially not in that department.
What Bai Xiao needed to do now was simple:
crack open even the smallest opening in the prison she used to bind herself.
After that, the desire she'd suppressed for more than ten years could do the rest.
Those dazed eyes of hers just now, the way she had pressed her thighs together—
Bai Xiao had noticed all of it.
If he wasn't mistaken, then now that she'd run into the bathroom, she was probably going to take care of things herself.
Maybe the great Inspector's desires were even stronger than an ordinary person's.
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