Out of nowhere, the waiter would definitely not come knocking on the door. At this time, there should be only one person who would come knocking. Because besides the logistics personnel who booked the room, Li Yan had only given the room number to one person. And without permission, the logistics personnel wouldn't tell his situation to anyone including Liu Xi, Shi Jian'en, and Feng Wuqing. Queen can certainly know, but she is far in City S and wouldn't suddenly appear here right now.

Hearing the urgent knocking, Li Yan didn't rush. He went over to put the gun into the weapon box, locked it, secured it, then turned off the surveillance video on the computer, closed the laptop, and only then did he go to open the door.

Sure enough, it was Li Jie standing outside.

Seeing Li Yan, she breathed a sigh of relief, but his leisurely manner made her say irritably, "Why did you make me wait so long? What were you doing in there?"

Li Yan let her in, smiling, "You didn't say you were coming. With such urgent knocking, how would I know who it was? If it were a lady offering business, I'd naturally have to take a look—only pretty ones get let in, and if not satisfied, I would just act proper. If it were room-checking police, I couldn't just let them in casually either..."

He closed the door and went inside, seeing Li Jie throw a backpack aside and then look around the room.

"You weren't really thinking of finding a lady, were you?"

Li Yan sat down on the bed, teasingly looking at her, "You aren't really thinking of staying with me, are you? I'm not moving out, oh!"

Li Jie sat on a stool facing Li Yan, and said calmly, "I've already told you the truth. If you don't want to go, what else can I do? Now, I'm not here to make you move out, but I'm prepared to stay here with you. Didn't you say the small inn's conditions were poor, and invited me to stay here?"

"Hehe... Really?" Li Yan deliberately showed a mischievous smile, then patted the bed, "You see, I'm staying alone, and it's a big bed room, no twin beds, oh!"

This didn't need his reminder. Li Jie saw it upon coming in, but she had already brought her luggage, so naturally, she wouldn't leave easily.

"It doesn't matter, I might just stay one night, I'll just sleep on the floor."

Facing her calm words, Li Yan felt a bit disappointed. If he let her stay here, he couldn't really make her sleep on the floor, could he?

"It's dangerous here, isn't that what you said? Why did you run over here?" Li Yan lit a cigarette, and said slowly, "You're not worried about me, are you?"

"Hmph! Don't think too much of yourself, you know why!"

"I experienced the situation just now together too, and I felt the degree of danger. I was still nervous when I got back, not daring to open the door at random. I think... you'd better stay in your small inn! Perhaps staying with your dad in a small inn is a better choice." Li Yan said half-jokingly.

Li Jie, feeling a bit weary, rubbed her forehead, then decisively took off her wig, ruffling her hair awkwardly, with a bitter smile: "Since we accepted this mission, can we back out now? We can't retreat, and I can't persuade my dad to pull out, so I can only stay by his side. Originally, I wanted to stay nearby, able to give him timely reinforcements. But the situation just now showed that things are more complicated than we imagined..."

Li Yan shrugged, went over, and got her a bottle of mineral water.

"Thank you..."

Li Jie took several gulps of water quite unladylike, let out a breath, and then continued, "This afternoon, they could dispatch five professional gunmen. Their skills are no joke, and tonight, there might be even more people taking action! And they might just be here! So, I have to get as close as possible. I'm not trying to take advantage of you, but there's no room right now."

"Hmph, do I seem like someone who minds you taking advantage?"

"No, which is why I'm here, with my luggage." Li Jie replied bluntly.

Li Yan blew out a puff of smoke, "Then stay. You're not afraid I might do something to you, am I afraid you might do something to me?"

Li Jie let out a light snort, "Afraid of what you might do? Someone here forgot they almost got castrated by me?"

Hearing her words, Li Yan recalled that incident at Yu Xiaodi's house by the swimming pool.

That time, she pointed at him in warning, then disdainfully put away her gun, ready to teach him a lesson barehanded. She attempted an over-the-shoulder throw, planning to toss Li Yan into the swimming pool. Li Yan's moves were always deadly; his instincts had his hands reaching for her throat. If she were a real enemy, her throat would have been crushed. But he couldn't kill her over something trivial, so his hand slid forward, originally intending to grab her by the collar to prevent her from being thrown. Unexpectedly, she was still thrown, because instead of grabbing her collar, he caught her bra, and as she fell into the water, he ended up pulling the bra into his hands.

This made Li Jie go wild again. She grabbed a gun, threatening to castrate him, but ultimately maintained her composure and didn't really use the gun against him. Instead, she leapt up to kick him in the head. In the water, however, she didn't fare as well; her light footwork and swift moves were greatly hindered underwater, resulting in Li Yan pressing her head down and holding her underwater. At that time, his relationship with Li Jie wasn't particularly deep, and he didn't show much pity but had the mindset of taming a wild horse, pressing her down hard into the water, making her swallow quite a bit of it.

Yet, Li Jie was not someone to give up easily, she neither admitted defeat nor begged for mercy. Hitting him was of no use, and finally, she seized his most vulnerable spot, forcing Li Yan to seek a truce. Of course, faced with such a sleazy move, he retaliated in kind... [See Chapters 158, 159 for details]

Hearing Li Jie's words, Li Yan recalled the situation back then. Thinking about it long after the fact, he wasn't furious but found it quite amusing.

Seeing him suddenly silent, Li Jie also recalled the events then, feeling a bit embarrassed. She felt a touch of annoyance; all things considered, she felt she had lost out! But this grievance never had a chance to be settled, thanks to his help afterward.

"What are you looking at? What are you thinking?"

Upon hearing her coquettish reprimand, Li Yan didn't initially laugh—perhaps while reminiscing, he had an unconscious wicked grin on his face without realizing it—and he burst out laughing, "What did I see? What was I thinking? I think you ought to be asking yourself what you were thinking when you asked that! Hmm hmm, I remember you, you touched me down there, and I haven't made you take responsibility yet! Silly girl!"

"You—you!" Li Jie angrily glared at him; his turning the tables and bringing up past events, mentioning her touching him down there and needing to take responsibility, made her feel a mixture of shame and annoyance. Hearing him call her 'silly girl', a term she hadn't heard from him in ages and never liked, only added fuel to the fire!

"What about it? Am I not telling the truth?" Li Yan continued to tease her, calling her 'silly girl' and provoking her anger was a source of amusement for him. However, at this moment, he wasn't teasing her just for fun; he wanted to help alleviate some of her pent-up emotions!

Although as a bodyguard, she had seen some things and encountered gunmen, even fired a gun, Li Yan suspected she had never killed anyone, or perhaps never watched someone die directly in front of her. Like the assassin who tried to kill Nian Yufei last time, in the end, it was that old man who arranged for someone to handle it. Today, seeing five people die in front of her at once—though her strong mental fortitude kept her from reacting overly like an ordinary person—surely left some psychological shadows.

Besides that, there's the mission they're involved in to protect Julian, which was only just beginning—a bloody start— and even bloodier and more terrifying things awaited, from which she couldn't escape, having to get even closer. In such circumstances, how could she, a girl, not feel immense psychological pressure?

For the stress from death and fear, venting or forgetting are possible methods, and provoking her anger is one such method.

The events at the Yu Family's swimming pool were never mentioned again in their subsequent meetings, but bringing it up now made Li Jie both angry and frustrated, with a grievance she couldn't quite voice. It was unseemly for a girl to resort to such a sleazy tactic, though under the circumstances, she had no choice, yet it was still rather embarrassing.

"Give me a cigarette!" Li Jie said resentfully.

Li Yan stopped puffing and extinguished the cigarette. "Alright, I won't smoke either. There's no need for you to feel angry anymore, I won't bring that thing up again. After all, I grabbed you there too; let's call it even..."

"You still talk about it!" That was something that made her even more ashamed and angry; thinking about it already frustrated her, and now with his mention that seemed to have a gloating element, Li Jie prepared to find something to throw at him, but there was nothing around.

"I won't say it, I won't say it again, I won't even call you 'silly girl' anymore, happy now?"

Triggered, Li Jie kicked off her shoes, leaped forward, and pounced on Li Yan who was sitting on the edge of the bed!

Teasing her into anger was a way to lead her into venting through another outlet, so Li Yan naturally didn't resist or dodge, allowing himself to be knocked over onto the bed by her.

"Hey! I said I wouldn't call you 'silly girl' anymore, or mention touching your chest; are you trying to kill me to silence me…"

"Yah—!"

Li Jie let out a yell, not only knocking him onto the bed but also grabbed a pillow and covered his face with it, pressing down with all her strength!

Though she had a decent chest, relatively to her slender and petite frame, she couldn't smother someone like Hai Fu could, but with the pillow added under her chest, it was possible!

At that moment, Li Yan felt a bit sweaty, thinking, if you want to smother me, just press down with your chest directly! I'm not dodging anyway; why add a pillow? Not being able to breathe is one thing, but more importantly... with the pillow in the way, I can't feel anything! Isn't it a waste of such an emotional press?

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