"Could you please help us flag a taxi?" Li Chonglou glanced at Ye Niao, suspecting nothing.
He was currently holding Bai Jing, whose shoulder bone was fractured, and couldn't hail a cab himself.
This girl was so enthusiastic, saving him the trouble.
"Just a moment."
Ye Niao turned around, a triumphant glint in her eyes, and waved down a taxi.
Putting on an exceedingly enthusiastic act, she opened the door for them. As Li Chonglou, carrying Bai Jing, settled into the back seat, she casually slid into the front passenger seat.
"What are you doing?" Li Chonglou asked, noticing her follow them.
"Don't misunderstand. I saw this elder sister was injured, and your accents aren't local. It might be helpful to assist when we get to the hospital," Ye Niao offered with a harmless smile, her excuse flawlessly crafted.
In an instant, she solidified her persona as a helpful stranger.
In reality, her initial intention was to kill.
However, after following Bai Jing to the scene and hiding behind a tree, she witnessed Bai Jing being nearly beaten to death and immediately changed her mind.
Although she hadn't seen Li Chonglou's fight with Song Yi, she could infer that surviving under such a powerful opponent, and even fighting him, meant Li Chonglou was by no means weak.
He was likely even stronger than her.
Making a rash move would not only alert him but also potentially put her in danger.
Thus, she resorted to this act of enthusiastic assistance.
What appeared to be a chance encounter with kindness was, in fact, meticulously planned.
Li Chonglou's attention was entirely focused on the injured Bai Jing, leaving him no room to think, which allowed her to tag along.
Soon, they arrived at Zhonghai Orthopedic Hospital.
Ye Niao led the way, and Li Chonglou, carrying Bai Jing to the emergency room, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"Now that we're at the hospital, I should be going," Ye Niao suggested at the opportune moment.
"I'll thank you on behalf of my friend. I don't even know your name." Li Chonglou harbored no suspicion.
After all, even in this indifferent world, there were still people willing to help.
He always treated such individuals with respect and never harbored malicious thoughts.
"Ye Niao. Niao with the grass radical. I'm also visiting Zhonghai. Perhaps we'll meet again," Ye Niao waved and departed gracefully.
A look of relief flickered across Li Chonglou's face.
Perhaps they wouldn't have the chance to meet again, but such was life; a thousand years in a glance was the norm.
As Song Yi had said, Bai Jing's injury was not serious, merely a fractured shoulder bone. Even with Bai Jing's constitution being stronger than average, she would need a good period of rest.
From a short month to three months at most.
The saying about bones needing a hundred days to heal was not without reason.
This meant the mission was essentially out of her reach.
Lying in the hospital bed, Bai Jing guiltily instructed, "Li Chonglou, I've failed the organization's trust. You must complete the mission!"
"Don't worry. If not for you, then for the cultural relics lost abroad," Li Chonglou's voice was firm. "Get some rest."
Internally, he felt a sense of liberation.
Truth be told, he hadn't wanted Bai Jing involved from the beginning.
It was less about assistance and more about surveillance.
It had made him feel restricted, and he even had to pretend to be her boyfriend. Now, with Bai Jing out of the picture, he could act freely.
Tong Zhaolin had established preliminary trust. The next step was to find an opportunity to approach Xingzhi Group and infiltrate it.
This was not a short process; the duration would depend on individual capability.
After spending some time at the hospital, Li Chonglou returned to his hotel.
He first called Tong Zhaolin, explained the situation, and frankly admitted that he had offended the Fan family and was retaliated against.
His girlfriend, he claimed, had fractured her shoulder bone as a result and was hospitalized.
Tong Zhaolin had already anticipated that the Fan family would cause trouble for Li Chonglou, so he wasn't surprised.
Upon hearing this, he offered some comfort: "Brother, don't worry, I'll handle the Fan family. As for your lady, there are plenty of fish in the sea. With your woman hospitalized, you'll have more freedom."
His words were clearly laden with innuendo and sounded rather smug.
Li Chonglou pretended not to understand and hung up the phone.
He then began studying the mysteries of the meteorite base, experimenting with his blood several times. The results were the same as before, transforming into the character '水' (shuǐ, water).
He understood the character but was utterly perplexed.
There was too much water on Earth; who knew which body of water Shi Boqiong was in.
What was the difference between that and having no clues?
For the first time in many years, Li Chonglou felt a deep sense of powerlessness regarding this matter.
...
Just as he was racking his brain, there was a knock on the room door.
It was a room service attendant.
Li Chonglou, too lazy to go out and eat alone, had ordered room service. He got up to open the door, and as he took the food, he heard a surprised exclamation: "It's you?"
Looking up, he saw that the door to room 3007, directly opposite, had also opened. Ye Niao, dressed in a champagne-gold silk pajama and with her hair down, stood at the doorway.
Her face feigned surprise, her eyes wide, exuding an innocent charm.
"What a coincidence," Li Chonglou nodded in greeting.
He had encountered even stranger coincidences, so he wasn't particularly shocked. Perhaps it was just a chance meeting.
There was indeed an invisible force that connected people, causing them to meet or never cross paths.
Thinking of this, Li Chonglou recalled a class he attended at the invitation of a friend who studied Western astrology in his past life.
Twelve people were divided into four groups, with three people in each group.
Each group held a small card inscribed with an emotion.
Happiness, anger, rage, or sorrow.
All three people in a group shared the same emotion.
His friend asked the twelve people to imagine their current state based on the emotion written on their cards.
Then, blindfolded, they were to collide within a six-square-meter circle.
The final result surprised everyone: the three people holding the same emotion were drawn to each other, while they never touched anyone holding a different emotion.
Considering the confined space and the twelve people, even random flailing would easily result in contact with others.
Yet, the outcome was strangely consistent.
He was one of them that time.
From then on, he believed in fate.
"Is that sister alright?" Ye Niao, also having collected her meal, approached the doorway.
Li Chonglou had intended to close the door, but seeing Ye Niao blocking it, he couldn't very well ask her to leave.
After all, she had been so helpful not too long ago.
Just a friendly, helpful young girl. Li Chonglou wasn't one to be overly cautious.
Since he couldn't politely dismiss her, he generously invited, "She's fine, staying at the hospital. Would you like to join me for dinner?"
"Okay, I'm feeling rather bored all by myself," Ye Niao walked into the room without hesitation.
Immediately, a gasp of exclamation rang out: "Wow, this room is so big! It's too luxurious! Compared to this, my room is like a pigeon coop."
"I envy you guys, being able to stay in such a nice room while traveling. It must be expensive, right?"
At this moment, Ye Niao acted like an unsophisticated child, full of curiosity and awe.
It had to be said, her performance was flawless; even Li Chonglou couldn't detect the slightest flaw.
Of course, this was largely due to his not having any negative thoughts about her.
"It's alright, it's company expenses," Li Chonglou replied indifferently. "We're here on a business trip."
"Your company's benefits are too good," Ye Niao said, seeing that Li Chonglou wasn't keen on elaborating. She then tactfully changed the subject: "Big brother, your accent sounds like you're from Huizhou?"
As she spoke, she skillfully arranged the dishes, acting as if she were in her own home, and handed Li Chonglou chopsticks.
All her movements were fluid, without any trace of reserve or unfamiliarity.
It was as if they were friends who hadn't seen each other for years, naturally evoking a sense of familiarity.
She was like a neighbor's little sister.
"This girl has really high emotional intelligence," Li Chonglou praised her inwardly.
It was rare for someone to make him feel comfortable and unresisted upon first meeting.
Ye Niao's ability to do so wasn't luck but rather her exceptional emotional intelligence.
This feeling even had a slight "downward compatibility" aspect.
Li Chonglou's emotional intelligence had never been high, which sometimes made him sound arrogant, other times cold, and at times, very confrontational.
Clearly, he was far inferior to Ye Niao.
Hence, the feeling of comfort.
They chatted while eating, discussing trivial matters.
After finishing, Ye Niao helped clean up the trash with efficient movements.
Then, she sat on the sofa and opened her phone, showing no intention of leaving.
Seeing Li Chonglou looking at her, she smiled brightly: "Can I stay here for a while? The TVs here are bigger than the one in my room. You do your thing and don't mind me."
"Feel free," Li Chonglou nodded and then retreated into his room, locking the door behind him.
He had many things to do, not only researching the base but also planning the transaction.
The batch of bronzes would arrive in Zhonghai the next day, and he certainly couldn't hand them over to Tong Zhaolin just like that.
Once they were sold abroad, it would be difficult to retrieve them.
Since monitoring devices couldn't be installed, he had to find a way to control their flow and risks.
Li Chonglou had no experience in this regard, as he had never sold cultural relics to foreigners.
In his previous life, he had only interacted with Zeng Qiang, a smuggler of cultural relics.
He had to learn on the fly.
He used his phone to browse various online resources related to the smuggling of cultural relics.
Meanwhile.
Ye Niao, who was in the living room, turned up the TV volume loud enough to mask her movements. The bright, innocent smile on her face disappeared.
It was replaced by ruthlessness and coldness.
Creeping along the wall to the door, she pressed her ear against it to listen for a moment. Then, she took out a miniature listening device and attached it to the underside of the tea tray on the coffee table, hooking it inward.
It would be difficult to discover unless one meticulously felt around.
She then observed Li Chonglou's usual habits of eating and drinking. Seeing that the tea provided by the hotel was still intact and unopened, a hint of disappointment flashed in her eyes.
The simplest method of assassination was poisoning.
If Li Chonglou had a habit of drinking tea, he would have easily fallen victim.
Unfortunately, this guy didn't touch tea.
He hadn't even touched the complimentary bottled water.
It seemed poisoning wasn't a wise choice; she needed to find another way.
Ye Niao sat back on the sofa, her expression slightly troubled, her eyes flickering.
Suddenly, her gaze fixed on the shoes Li Chonglou had left by the door.
A glint of triumph flashed in her eyes. She stood up and walked to the door, subtly drawing a short needle from the cuff of her sleeve.
She then took out a bottle of transparent liquid from her person, unscrewed the cap, and carefully dipped the tip of the needle into it. Then, she meticulously tried to pierce through the shoe insole and embed the needle in the heel.
Just then.
With a *click*, the room door opened.
Li Chonglou emerged, frowning as he saw her standing by his shoes. "What are you doing?"