Futile Devices Scans

Xue Bao Tian forcefully shoved aside the dead-asleep man sprawled on top of him, untangled the necktie wrapped around his own neck, and cursed, “Fuck.”

He rummaged around the bedside for cigarettes. The flare of the lighter illuminated his lowered brows and eyes. The lips holding the cigarette were red and slightly swollen, the corners of his eyes damp. In the slowly spreading smoke, he looked fragile and broken.

The aftereffects of Life of Drunken Dreams were truly terrifying. Halfway through the second round, Yan Ye had actually fallen asleep. His powerful movements gradually slowed, the low sounds by Xue Bao Tian’s ear faded, and just when Xue Bao Tian thought the bastard had finally decided to behave like a human being, he realized the man had simply passed out.

Everything was still there, still arrogantly standing at attention, twitching from time to time and making Xue Bao Tian curse. Even asleep, Yan Ye wasn’t as gentle as he usually appeared. Drunk unconsciousness had done nothing to loosen his grip. Like a beast, he held his prey tightly in his arms and was even still clamped onto the flesh of Xue Bao Tian’s shoulder, teeth locked like a wild dog refusing to let go.

Switching the cigarette to his left hand, Xue Bao Tian wiped at the dampness on his left shoulder with his right. Beneath his fingertips, he could still feel rows of teeth marks. Irritated beyond measure, he lifted his leg and kicked Yan Ye again.

After taking two or three drags, Xue Bao Tian suddenly remembered that while pinning him down earlier, Yan Ye had seemed to be fiddling with his phone for a while.

While tugging at the necktie, he muttered, “Why wasn’t what came up in the search results the same thing?”

Fuck!

Xue Bao Tian wished he could slap himself. Why had he even brought that up with the idiot? He had dug his own pit and jumped straight into it.

Earlier, his mind had been muddled, and he didn’t know whether Yan Ye had placed an order or not. He had only taught the man online shopping a few days ago. Yan Ye had never seemed particularly enthusiastic about buying things before, yet when it came to this kind of stuff, he apparently couldn’t wait a single second.

Pulling over the deeply asleep man’s hand, he unlocked the phone with Yan Ye’s fingerprint and opened the shopping app to check the purchase history. The screen was packed from top to bottom with custom-made items, enough to make Xue Bao Tian shudder. Scrolling through them one by one, he muttered under his breath, “What the fuck is all this?”

Accompanied by a string of equally custom-made curses, he canceled the orders one after another. The narrow glow of the phone screen reflected the malicious expression on his face.

“I’ll buy you a doll. Then you can do whatever the hell you want with it. Stay the fuck away from me.”

As he exited the app, he noticed an alarm reminder on the phone. Suddenly, he remembered Yan Ye mentioning that he had a mission tomorrow.

Letting out a snort of laughter, Xue Bao Tian reached over and turned off the alarm.

Throwing the phone aside, he found himself too hungry to sleep. That bastard Yan Ye had never let him get dinner in the end, and after being tossed around relentlessly, Xue Bao Tian felt as though his stomach was as empty as a broke loser’s wallet—there wasn’t even anything left to turn over.

Rolling out of bed, he switched on the wall lamp and went into the sitting room in search of food. Five-star hotels were always thoughtful; fruit and pastries were standard amenities.

Carrying a plate of pastries back to the sofa, he stuffed one into his mouth and chewed lazily. His gaze wandered aimlessly around the room, drifting over a decorative painting, then across the sofa. Just as his eyes were about to move on, they paused, then slowly returned to settle on a note lying in the corner of the couch.

The pale yellow sticky note lay there quietly.

Written on it were the three characters:

Xue Bao Tian.

“If two people have dated, it’s impossible not to know how to write the other person’s name.”

Xue Bao Tian suddenly remembered saying those words a few hours earlier.

And along with them, Yan Ye’s reply:

“Two Hundred, I know how to write your name.”

The movement of his jaw stopped.

He reached for the note, then withdrew his hand halfway. Rubbing his fingertips together, he brushed away the pastry crumbs stuck to them.

Pinching the note between two fingers, Xue Bao Tian stared at the three characters for a long time, as though he had never seen them before.

In the end, however, he raised his hand and slapped himself across the face.

The scolding that followed had nothing to do with what came before.

“What the fuck are you thinking? Seriously losing your damn mind.”

With a squeeze of his fingers, the sticky note was crumpled into a ball and, with a flick of his wrist, tossed neatly into the trash can.

When Yan Ye opened his eyes, Xue Bao Tian glanced at the clock.

9:10.

He took a sip of coffee and waited with malicious anticipation, eager to watch Yan Ye make a fool of himself.

The aftereffects of the hangover weren’t very obvious on Yan Ye. Aside from sleeping a little longer, both his complexion and overall condition looked perfectly fine. Xue Bao Tian found it hard to understand. This drink had once left him drunk for two entire days, so drunk that he forgot everything and felt miserable enough to wish for death. Then again, Yan Ye was only in his early twenties, right in the prime of youthful vitality. Thinking of the man’s terrifying stamina and endurance, Xue Bao Tian’s face darkened as he silently cursed.

“Little beast.”

Supporting himself with both arms behind him, Yan Ye sat halfway up in bed. The movement only emphasized his broad shoulders and powerful chest, making him look annoyingly attractive. Bathed in bright sunlight, he looked at Xue Bao Tian and smiled gently.

“Morning, Two Hundred.”

Faced with that smile, Xue Bao Tian curled his lips into a drawn-out smile of his own.

“Morning.”

Inside, however, he was thinking:

Just wait. I’m looking forward to watching you cry.

While reaching out to pull Xue Bao Tian into an embrace, Yan Ye glanced at his phone and said calmly, “It’s already after nine. You must be hungry. I’ll take a shower, then we’ll go eat.”

Xue Bao Tian frowned.

“Didn’t you have a mission today?”

Yan Ye climbed out of bed completely naked, making Xue Bao Tian choke on his coffee.

After slipping on a bathrobe, Yan Ye walked over and patted his back.

“The moment I saw you bringing out the alcohol last night, I knew you were planning to get back at me. I figured Master Xue wouldn’t have enough fun otherwise, so I had Zhou Yi Ming cover today’s mission for me.”

“Fuck,” Xue Bao Tian swore. “Then why the hell did you set an alarm?”

“Alarm?” Yan Ye blinked. “Oh. I work out every morning. Did you forget?”

He had forgotten.

Suppressing a twitch at the corner of his mouth, Xue Bao Tian slammed his coffee cup down.

If he had known, he would have set an entire row of alarms. The bastard had actually slept until he woke up naturally. He should have gouged his eyeballs out in the middle of the night and forced the illiterate fool to get up and memorize Three Hundred Tang Poems.

After Yan Ye finished showering, the two of them headed to the restaurant. While waiting for the elevator, Xue Bao Tian kept a straight face, expressionlessly staring at the polished elevator doors. Their reflections were slightly stretched and distorted in the mirrored surface. He watched the slightly fatter reflection of Yan Ye check a newly arrived message. The man’s expression immediately grew serious.

“Two Hundred.”

He looked at Xue Bao Tian.

“Someone spotted Wei Hua near the border.”

The muscles around Xue Bao Tian’s eyes tightened.

His hands slowly clenched into fists.

⸻

Yan Ye drove on the return trip.

While pressing harder on the accelerator, he laid out a plan.

“We’ll head back, pack a few things, then immediately fly to Yunnan. The people I know over there have been tracking Wei Hua the entire time. Don’t worry. He won’t get away.”

After a pause, Yan Ye frowned.

“Still… it’s been so long. Why is Wei Hua still in the country? Why hasn’t he slipped across the border already?”

Xue Bao Tian remained silent.

An unlit cigarette hung from his lips as he stared out the window.

Yan Ye glanced at him, switched to steering with one hand, and used the other to hold the cold fingers resting on Xue Bao Tian’s thigh.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go with you. I’ll definitely help you bring him back.”

Xue Bao Tian pulled the cigarette from his mouth and looked back at him.

“You can’t go with me.”

The car noticeably accelerated before gradually settling back into a steady pace.

“Why?” Yan Ye asked.

“Because it’s the end of the year. Files are piling up on your desk at Yanyue Security. I took a quick look over the past two days. There are problems with both this year’s financial report and next year’s budget. Especially the financial report. There are a lot of unreasonable expenditures, and the expense details aren’t clear. There’s probably a lot of padding in those numbers.”

He continued:

“Has Sheng Yu been pushing you to sign those documents? I think he’s trying to get everything finalized as quickly as possible before something goes wrong. Yan Ye, what you should be doing right now is hiring a professional firm to re-audit those accounts and use that to uncover their leverage points.”

Yan Ye was silent for a moment.

“Sheng Yu has been pressuring me nonstop lately. Yesterday he even came up with a bunch of excuses to force the issue and push me to sign. Two Hundred, when we get back, I’m just going to sign them. There’ll be opportunities later to uncover evidence against them, but if Wei Hua escapes, finding him again will be much harder.”

“Are you fucking stupid?”

Xue Bao Tian immediately exploded.

“You’re the company’s legal representative. Do you think you can just sign anything? If there’s something hidden in those financial reports, the responsibility falls on you. You’ll be legally liable!”

He shoved the cigarette back between his lips. Unable to hold back any longer, he flicked on the lighter and lit it. Cracking the window open slightly, he asked,

“When did you become the company’s legal representative? Didn’t your stepmother fight you for that position?”

Yan Ye shook his head.

“After my father died, my stepmother and Sheng Yu immediately changed the company registration and put my name down as the legal representative.”

Xue Bao Tian let out a cold snort.

“Those two are definitely up to something. I’ll contact a professional auditing firm for you later. Over the next few days, you stay with them and go through those financial reports. You can learn a few things while you’re at it.”

“What about Wei Hua?” Yan Ye asked.

“I’ll go to Yunnan myself. Didn’t you say you have contacts there? Put me in touch with a few capable people. I’ll hire them to help me catch Wei Hua.”

The car fell silent.

The foot on the accelerator gradually eased up.

Outside, the gray-black sky hung low over the earth, and tiny ice crystals began striking the windshield.

It was snowing again.

Fucking snowing again.

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