Chapter 198: Chapter 198: Setting the tone
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"Hey, Nami!" Kate waved as Nami walked in the hallway.
"Oh, hey, Kate. What are you doing here?"
Nami jumped in surprise as she was completely caught off guard by Kate being in the house.
"Just waiting for Xiaoyun to change into his clothes."
Nami was even more surprised by Kate's statement as the last time she saw Xiaoyun was still in bed, unable to move.
"What do you mean Xiaoyun is in there? He is fully healed now?" Nami curiously asked.
"Yeah, Tianci and I just carried him back home. He still has to attend a meeting later," Kate replied.
"Meeting with Renqin," Tianci added.
As the three talk about some trivial things, Nami suddenly realizes something.
"Wait, Kate, are you bodyguard for Xiaoyun?"
"Yeah, what's wrong?" Kate looks confused by Nami's shocked face.
Nami quickly changed back to normal as her head started racing with thoughts.
"Oh, it's nothing. I just didn't expect you to be a bodyguard for someone. It just feels a bit surprised that's the job you picked." Nami explained her thoughts.
"Well, it's somewhat related to my old jobs. I don't really have any other useful skills." Kate awkwardly scratched her head.
"Oh, right. I guess translators find jobs pretty hard." Nami nodded in agreement.
As the conversation continued between Kate and Nami, with occasional input from Tianci, Kate decided to ask the question that had been on her mind the whole time during the conversation.
"Um, Nami, I'm sorry for asking, but are you pregnant?"
Nami blushed as she shyly looked away from Kate.
"Y-Yes... I had been pregnant for four months now." Nami quietly responded.
After hearing Nami admitting it, Kate immediately started having a highly negative view of Xiaoyun.
"Isn't this a little too early? You still have so much to live for." Kate advised as she started feeling disgusted by Xiaoyun's action.
"No, I ask him to do it. It's not his fault. I was the one that wanted a baby..." Nami quickly tried to clear the confusion, but Kate didn't believe it.
"There is no way you can consent to this. You're way too young, and he should know better... Ugh, why would you all allow him to do this?"
Kate voiced her disdain even more as she remembered the other three wives he had, with all three of them already given birth.
"He's only a year older than me. I don't see why I can't consent myself to him. We both are fine with it." Nami started to notice Kate's attitude towards Xiaoyun and decided to defend her decision.
"Still, he should have refused it for your sake." Kate looked down towards Nami, where she barely reached two-thirds of her height.
As the conversation started to get more heated, Tianci was awkwardly stuck between the two as one side was her new co-worker, and the other was her own boss's wife.
She felt both sides had valid points that she agreed with, making it even harder for her to attempt to calm the two down. Slowly, Tianci began praying in her head for someone to end the conversation.
Just as Nami was about to argue back again, Tianci's prayer was answered as Xiaoyun finally left the room.
"Okay, I'm ready to go," Xiaoyun commented as he opened the door.
"Oh hey, Nami." Xiaoyun casually waved as he acted as if he hadn't heard the conversation between the two.
"Hey, babe!" Nami excitedly ran over to Xiaoyun and hugged him.
As Kate watched the two being happily together, her newfound disdain toward Xiaoyun dropped down a little.
After the two separated, Xiaoyun looked back at the two.
"Tell Leyan that I'll be back for dinner, okay? I still have a meeting to go."
"Okay." Nami nodded and walked back to her room.
As the three walk to the stairs in silence, the same challenge from earlier appears.
This time, Tianci didn't face any opposition from Kate as she carried Xiaoyun down the stairs.
Xiaoyun noticed the awkward atmosphere between him and Kate, but there wasn't much for him to do or say.
An awkward thirty-minute walk later.
As Xiaoyun arrived at Renqin's Foreign intelligence department with his two bodyguards, he was able to walk right in after showing the ID badge that Yuqi gave him.
After stopping in front of Renqin's office, Xiaoyun signaled to the two to stay outside, much to their dismay.
"If I can't trust Renqin, nowhere in the town is safe." Xiaoyun reminded the two before going in.
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"Boss, you are fully recovered?" Renqin stood up in shock as Xiaoyun walked inside the room.
Xiaoyun didn't say anything except signal Renqin to sit back down.
As the two looked at each other seated, Renqin couldn't handle the pressure and spoke up first.
"Boss. I'm sorry. I failed your trust, and I shouldn't be here."
Xiaoyun finally spoke up as he sat back up from the seat.
"Says who? I never said you are fired."
Seeing Xiaoyun's refusal to let him go, Renqin still couldn't make himself stay.
"But boss I——"
"You want to say you caused me to be injured, right? But do I look like I'm injured?"
Renqin took a closer look at Xiaoyun for a second and couldn't find anything different at all from the last time he had seen him.
"No, boss," Renqin replied as he looked toward the ground, afraid of looking back at Xiaoyun's eyes.
"So what's the matter? Just because you made a single error doesn't mean a person should be fired."
Xiaoyun got up from his seat and pushed the chair back to its place.
"Everyone deserves a chance of redemption... I don't see why you should be excluded."
Xiaoyun quietly puts the mail onto the desk as he turns his attention to the detailed map on the right.
"Look at the achievement you have made. You listed almost every possible faction nearby. Look at all the info you have gathered...
Do you really want to be a bus driver for the rest of your life? All the hard work just for nothing?"
As Xiaoyun turned toward the door and got ready to leave, Renqin finally looked back up at Xiaoyun.
"Thank you, boss... I promise it won't happen again."
"You shouldn't thank me. You should thank the person in that letter."
Xiaoyun finally left the room as Renqin sat in his seat with a much more cleared mind.
Renqin picked up the letter again and opened it. Inside was the letter he had already seen and the resignation letter he wrote a few days ago.
Thinking back to the time he had worked with the agent and realizing a family would never see their dad again because of him, tears began to drop down from Renqin's eyes.
"Boss is right. I have to do better than this... I can't let the sacrifice be in vain."
Renqin wiped his tears away and threw the resignation letter in the trashcan, leaving the mail with only an intel letter from the agent.
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"You sound so different in there," Tianci commented as the three walked out of the foreign intelligence department.
"You heard the whole thing?" Xiaoyun questioned.
Tianci realized she had just admitted to eavesdropping on her boss, so she shyly looked to the side rather than answering Xiaoyun's question.
"I don't mind it, you know. You two are going to listen to a lot of sensitive information anyway... I hope you guys know what you are signed up for."
As Xiaoyun said that, he looked towards Kate, who had been silent the whole time.
"What? I know what I sign up for."
"I hope so."
Xiaoyun looked back toward the road ahead as they began to walk towards the administrative building.
After arriving in front of the administrative building, the three walked right inside.
As they walked in, all the office workers were confused as they had already seen a replica of Xiaoyun walking inside the office along with Yuqi.
Xiaoyun knocked on Yuqi's door, but no one responded.
"Mrs.Yuqi is having a meeting in the meeting room." An office worker walking past commented.
Xiaoyun thanked the office worker, and the three started walking towards the meeting room.
Immediately, the entire office block began talking to each other about the confusion of the mayor in the morning and the mayor who had just walked in.
But Xiaoyun wouldn't be able to hear any of that as he stood in front of the meeting room.
"You two wait out here, I'll go inside."
Xiaoyun knocked on the door as the two stood to the side.
After a short moment, the door was opened.
"Um, Mr.Mayor?" The office worker who opened the door looked confused toward Xiaoyun.
"Can I go in first?" Xiaoyun asked.
The office worker immediately moved to the side to let Xiaoyun in.
As Xiaoyun walked inside the office, everyone in the meeting was dumbfounded as a replica of Xiaoyun was standing right next to Yuqi, albeit it was wearing a suit rather than a military uniform.
"Babe?" Yuqi and Yueyue both spoke up at the same time.
All the civilian workers looked confused as they realized that Xiaoyun's replica sounded completely different from the mayor they knew of.
"Hello, everyone. I assume you are surprised to see me. You might be wondering who that person is that is standing next to Yuqi..."
Xiaoyun paused for a second to let all their attention turn towards Yueyue.