The storm had sealed off the roads.
The Maybach sliced through sheets of rain, its interior silent as a moving tomb.
The air conditioning blasted at sixty degrees.
The agarwood incense clinging to Lucien's clothes carried an oppressive atmosphere that invaded Ning's senses relentlessly.
She sat soaked to the bone, clutching that charred urn against her chest, curled into the leather seat. Rainwater dripped steadily from her hem.
*Drip. Drip.*
Staining the hand-woven cashmere carpet with spreading filth.
Lucien's gaze dropped.
His eyes swept over that puddle before fixing on the back of Ning's left hand.
A speck of blood from her recent kill.
Already dried under the AC's assault, turned rust-red.
"Dirty."
The single word fell like a death sentence.
Before Ning could react, an ice-cold hand clamped around her wrist with bone-crushing force.
"Don't move."
Lucien's other hand yanked open the car's mini-fridge, extracting a roll of refrigerated antiseptic wipes.
Rough. Direct.
The frigid fabric wrapped around her fingers with zero tenderness—only pathologically compulsive cleaning.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Until that patch of skin flushed red from friction. Until every trace of blood vanished completely.
"You took my money. Stay clean."
Lucien tossed the soiled wipe into the trash without looking up. "Don't come near me reeking of someone else's blood. It's revolting."
Ning let him manipulate her hand.
On her retinal display, red alerts finally shifted to green.
[Contact effective. S-rank energy input in progress... Life force rising: 1%... 2%...]
*This power bank has a shit personality, but at least the voltage is stable.*
Her heart stopped aching.
As Ning's body relaxed, her fingertips discreetly slid toward the base of the urn in her lap.
The third lotus petal pattern.
There—a raised section.
Using her sleeve as cover, she pressed down with her fingertip.
Nothing budged.
[WARNING: Mercury pressure-sensitive lock detected.]
[Forced breach will trigger self-destruct. Unlock solution: Requires S-rank high-frequency biomagnetic field resonance for 30 seconds.]
*S-rank magnetic field?*
Ning's eye twitched.
*Where the hell am I supposed to find an MRI machine in the middle of nowhere?*
Suddenly, rough texture scraped against her inner wrist.
Lucien hadn't released her.
His thumb traced her wrist bone unconsciously, movements agitated.
Even after cleaning it, he still felt unsettled.
This woman hadn't taken her eyes off that damn box since getting in the car.
He was saving her life.
She was staring at a dead object.
Violent emotions churned in his chest. The lie-induced noise had stopped, but the beast inside was rattling its cage.
*Look at me.*
*Look at ME.*
"Ning."
Lucien lunged forward abruptly.
His shadow swallowed her whole, trapping her between the door and his chest.
The privacy partition rose silently, sealing them in suffocating intimacy.
He gripped her chin, fingertips digging into flesh: "Fifty million bought me a year of you. You've spent the entire ride staring at an urn?"
"Is this piece of junk better looking than me?"
Ning was forced to tilt her head back.
Data exploded across her retinal display:
[High-energy biomagnetic field source detected: Lucien Pei.]
[Rage level: 85%. Field strength: S-rank. Meets unlock conditions.]
*So the key delivers itself.*
Ning smiled.
The coldness in her eyes melted instantly, replaced by seductive allure.
"Of course the boss is best looking."
Her arms coiled around Lucien's neck like serpents as she pressed herself into his embrace.
"Why so fierce?"
Hot breath washed over his throat, her voice soft enough to wring water from: "Just let me lean on you a bit."
Lucien's entire body went rigid.
That familiar, addictive coolness detonated instantly, racing up his spine straight to his skull.
*Damn it.*
*This woman is poison.*
But he couldn't push her away.
His body's instinctive greed made him grip that slender waist tighter instead, wanting to crush her and embed her into his bones and blood.
*Now.*
Ning's eyes cleared with terrifying lucidity.
Under the cover of their embrace, she pressed the lotus pattern on the urn's base directly against Lucien's heart.
Only here.
Where the magnetic field was strongest.
[System, drain him!]
[Received! Bioelectric access initiated... Reverse-engineering magnetic field... Decryption progress 50%... 80%...]
Lucien felt heat spreading through his chest.
Like electrical current drilling into his heart, carrying tingling numbness.
He thought it was her body heat.
His Adam's apple bobbed as he lowered his head, lips nearly brushing her ear.
"Ning..."
**Click.**
An impossibly faint snap.
The mechanism released.
Ning's eyes turned ice-cold.
*Got it.*
The woman who'd been boneless and clinging to him one second shoved him away the next, retreating rapidly against the car door.
Lucien's arms emptied.
Cold air rushed in. The intimacy shattered.
His expression went black as a thundercloud.
*Tease and run?*
"NING!"
Ning had no time for this rabid dog.
Her fingers dove into the opened compartment, extracting a chip the size of a fingernail.
Its edges oxidized black, wrapped in classified red wax.
[Scan complete.]
[Type-7 military-grade black box. Production ceased ten years ago.]
[Content analysis: "SkyEye Surveillance System First-Gen Algorithm Vulnerability Patch (Top Secret)." Encrypted by: Jiang Wan.]
[Note: If I die, this chip becomes ironclad evidence of Pei Corporation money laundering.]
Ning's pupils contracted violently.
*The original owner's fragile mother was Pei Corporation's missing chief architect?*
*This thing in my hand is a nuclear bomb that could obliterate the entire Pei empire.*
She had to hide it immediately.
The instant she moved to pocket it, an ice-cold hand seized the back of her neck.
No transition.
No preamble.
Lucien simply took the chip.
Held it up, examining it by lightning flashing outside the window.
"Type-7."
Every trace of warmth vanished from his voice.
Only bone-chilling calm remained.
He turned his head. Those eyes no longer held any trace of earlier desire—only the cruelty of a predator assessing prey.
"Ning."
"Care to explain why your mother's urn contains the core encryption key stolen from my family ten years ago?"
Only thunder rumbled inside the car.
Killing intent, tangible as a noose, tightened around her throat.
He suspected she was a plant.
In Lucien Pei's world, corporate spies had only one fate.
Cement shoes at the bottom of the harbor.
[WARNING! Target's killing intent spiked to 95%!]
[Survival solutions generating:]
[A. Jump from moving vehicle (99% mortality rate).]
[B. Force-kiss him (Use physical contact to forcibly overload his neural system, reducing killing intent. 50% success rate).]
Ning stared at that deadly chip spinning between Lucien's fingers.
Then at the red-flashing "B" option.
*Fine.*
*To survive, I'll sell whatever I have to.*