Li Luxian waited for a long time. When Chen Yi didn't come back, he began to grow worried.
Finally, half an hour later, his patience ran thin. Getting up, he decided to see what had taken her so long. However just as he pushed open the main door, the scene before him stunned him.
"Chen Yi, what... are you doing?"
"Oh, you came?" Chen Yi craned her neck back and gave him a nothing-is-wrong-with-anything smile before turning back. "I wonder who is he." Squatting over the porch, before a man who lay unconscious over his stomach, her brows furrowed into a frown. The man's tongue sticking out, he was totally out.
Chen Yi played with a thin stick in her hands that seemed to have been ripped off from a nearby tree. At intervals, she would poke the unconscious man's face with the stick as if trying to rouse him awake.
"What... happened?" Li Luxian had big question marks hovering over his head as he approached Chen Yi.
"You said we were alone. I heard a noise. This man was hiding behind a bush. Once I detected him, he tried to come at me. Goodness, I have fast reflexes else who knew what this man was up to."
Fast reflexes?
"You mean to say... You are the one who knocked him out?" Li Luxain asked with small pauses as if wanting to confirm.
"Who else?" Chen Yi rolled her eyes. "You said there was no one at this place. How came this man was here? Is he a spy from your so-called enemies whom you always warm me from?"
Li Luxian had yet to speak. When Chen Yi turned back to look at him, he was staring at her instead of the suspicious man as if she, not the masked man, was the anomaly here. "First let me confirm this again. You were the one who knocked him out?"
Chen Yi shrugged her shoulders. Being the humble person that she prided herself to be, she merely said. "He just had his guard down, I got lucky."
Got lucky?
Li Luxian pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Why are you acting like this? The matter at hand is to discover which enemy of yours sent him. we can't—"
Before she could finish, Li Luxian leaned in and ripped off the mask from the man's face. Chen Yi looked back and felt this man was somewhat familiar. "Zhang... Yufang? What's he doing here?"
"Are you certain he was trying to attack you?" Li Luxian sounded angry for some reason. And that reason was not some suddenly awaken love for his subordinate.
"Hey, I never said attack. I mean, he did come towards me. And the way he was hiding had been so suspicious. You can't blame a girl for being careful!" Chen Yi rightfully defended herself. "Anyways, what is he even doing here? Didn't you leave him back at home?
"I did." Li Luxian had put on a grimace as he eyed the girl who while just being careful, knocked out a full-grown man. "Most likely Father didn't think it was good to be alone at the cottage."
"Oh, it's like that." Chen Yi stood up. "So where do we put him?"
Li Luxian looked at the muscles of a man he had put in duty to protect his wife and then looked at the same delicate, small wife who blinked at him innocently as if she hadn't just knocked out a man five times her size and his lips twitched. "Just where did you hit him?"
"Ah nowhere, just a small pressure point. He should wake up soon."
They waited.
But he didn't wake up.
"Maybe I put too much of the force." Chen Yi mused before both of them debated whether to leave him here, on the cold wet grass or take him somewhere he won't be eaten by wolves.
Deciding it would be too cruel to just leave him here, both of them got to work. Rolling up their sleeves they supported Zhang Yufan's body who definitely weighed more than 250 pounds and dragged him to the car.
Finally shoving him inside and closing the doors shut, both of them were heaving for breath.
"Damn it, you need to put your people on diet."
"And perhaps you need to stop knocking people off to save us the trouble." Li Luxian retorted.
The following morning, Zhang Yufang had still not woken up. Li Luxian drove back to the Li family residence. Dropping off Zhang Yufang to his brother, they headed back to have the delicious breakfast Li Shanguaan had prepared for them despite being 'sick'.
Before Chen Yi left for work, she was stopped by Li Luxian.
"I need to upgrade your bodyguards' team." He wore a serious expression as if he had deliberated over these issues for countless long hours. "Zhang Yufan alone won't do."
"He had been fine all along. What happened all of sudden?" Chen Yi was very unwilling to let more people be on her tail. Zhang Yufan was quite easy to handle. Just a glare from her side would scare him into obedience. But if more people joined hands... ah, it would be troublesome.
Li Luxian didn't explain emphasizing there was no room for discussion in this matter, leaving her at that.
...
Director Song had been in a very bad mood since the auditions for the 'Dawn of Eternal Bloodlust'. Regarding the leads, he had countless fights with the Producers.
Yuan Qingeng, the enthusiastic assistant by Director Song's side, tried to persuade. "Producer Wang won't give way. Director Song, there is no use in needlessly extending this argument."
"But he doesn't see what I see." Director Song was unwilling. "Attracting sponsors is a matter of time. Once one or two promotional videos went out, people would swarm in. Especially with that girl talent."
"That's not what the Producer Wang is worried about." The assistant sighed. "We received a personal call from Chen Ying. We all know she has some... let's just say links and she is CEO Fu fiancee on top of that. She just needs to say a word or two and no one would dare put his money in the film. In the end, it would be a lost cause."
Chen Ying was someone who had had a fair number of experiences. She used a dual soft and hard approach. At one end, she enticed the team with a promise for investment and at the other end, she let out a subtle threat that if a person of her interest was not chosen, she would not let anyone else invest in the movie.
Director Song sighed in regret.