This Spy Can’t Make It

He walked into the living room upon entering the house and there were two guests chatting on the sofa. There was a wooden staircase on the left and a corridor with some rooms on the right. Xia Lei had lost sight of Josef and Annina after being delayed by the three biker guys.

Xia Lei’s left eye twitched and the rooms to the right were laid bare. Josef and Annina were not in any of them.

He then went up to the second floor and quickly found them in a room. It was Josef’s bedroom and he had just laid Annina on the bed.

Josef stroked Annina’s cheek, his eyes full of tenderness, “I’ve liked you since we were children, Annina. Don’t you know my feelings for you?”

“Don’t, don’t touch me.” Annina’s words were slurred.

“Wait here. I’ll send the guests away and come accompany you afterwards. You are mine tonight,” said Josef.

Annina’s eyes closed; she had too much to drink. She was not conscious of whose bed she lay in, who was next to her nor what that person said.

“You’re so beautiful.” Josef kissed Annina on her forehead before he turned and walked to the door.

Xia Lei quickly moved away from the door and hid in a room next to the bedroom. It was Josef’s study and work-room. The sound of a door opening could be heard just as Xia Lei hid in the study, followed by Josef’s footsteps - he had gone downstairs.

Xia Lei had been worried that Josef would put his dirty paws on Annina immediately but he hadn’t. It made sense if he thought about it - there was still a large group of guests outside so Josef wouldn’t ignore all of them even if he was lusting after Annina, would he? Annina was drunk and lying on his bed so he could play with her however he wanted after the guests went away - this must be what he intended.

There was no need to do anything for Annina for the moment, so Xia Lei looked around the study. There were two large bookshelves in the study with over two hundred books on them. He scanned the spines and found that a large portion of them were to do with electrical engineering and machining.

Xia Lei’s gaze moved to Josef’s desk which had some drawings and drafts on it.

He walked to the desk and flipped through the drawings and drafts. The drawings were of something related to electrical engineering, not the design plans of that intelligent lathe. The drafts, on the other hand, had some calculations and sketches and so on which were related to it.

These electrical engineering drawings and drafts were of great value to Xia Lei and he quickly scanned through everything on the desk. If it were Long Bing, she would only be able to use her mobile phone or a mini camera to take pictures but he did not need those. He only needed to use his left eye to look at everything once and all the information would be saved like photographs in his left eye. He just needed to recall them for it all to be displayed in his head.

Xia Lei took five minutes to look at everything on the table. He used his X-ray vision on the entire study afterwards to look for hidden secrets but he did not find any hidden safe, document envelopes or anything of the like.

‘A large intelligent lathe means that Josef would surely need dozens of drawings. Where would he hide them?’ As he thought about it, Xia Lei’s eyes went to the window and the tin-roofed shed entered his field of vision again. A smile hovered on his lips. ‘He needs his drawings to construct that intelligent lathe so he won’t put them somewhere too far off or it will be inconvenient for him. I have to get into his shed. Tonight.’

His decision made, Xia Lei exited the study and went to Josef’s bedroom.

Annina lay on the bed, mumbling drunkenly to herself, “I knew it was you… Hee hee…”

Xia Lei smiled wryly and shook his head. He gathered Annina in his arms and walked towards the bathroom.

Annina was quiet but she started misbehaving after two steps. She wrapped her arms around Xia Lei’s neck and suddenly kissed him on the cheek and said in a slurred voice, “You and me, let’s…”

Her words lacked a key word but Xia Lei knew what she meant.

Western women were very open indeed; she could express such a thing so easily.

Xia Lei ignored her and walked into the bathroom.

Annina, on the other hand, did not stop her advances. She kissed Xia Lei’s ear and one of the arms around his neck slipped down so she could feel him up with her hand.

“Quiet down, I’m going to help sober you up.” Xia Lei tolerated the harassment and turned on the tap in the sink.

The sink quickly filled with water. Xia Lei couldn’t wait to get Annina off of himself and when she bothered him again, he suddenly pressed her into the sink by her neck.

“Guleurggh…” Annina was choked by the water.

Xia Lei let go.

Annina raised her head from the sink, still bleary.

Xia Lei suddenly used his right hand to poke her chest with his middle and index fingers, and pulled his fingers upwards after they’d sunk a little into her flesh.

“Wurgh…” Annina vomited. What came out was mostly the alcohol she had consumed and some barbecued meat. Once all these were vomited, she relaxed and was much more sober and alert.

Annina stared blankly at Xia Lei, not understanding what had happened.

“This is Josef’s room. You’re drunk so I only did that to wake you up. I’ll wait for you downstairs.” Xia Lei turned and left after he was done speaking.

“Lukas…” Annina called. Xia Lei did not look back. She looked at herself in the mirror and paused for a beat before exclaiming. “Yikes, I’m hideous!”

Xia Lei zoomed downstairs and ran into Josef heading inside just as he walked out of the living room.

Josef looked suspiciously at Xia Lei at their encounter. “Where have you been, Lukas?”

“I went to the bathroom. German barbecue is too oily and I’m not used to it. Excuse me,” said Xia Lei.

“The party’s over. You can leave,” said Josef.

Xia Lei nodded, “Thanks for your hospitality.”

Josef was done speaking with him and walked towards the staircase with large strides. He had said his goodbyes and announced the end of the party while Xia Lei looked at the drawings and drafts and helped Annina get sober. Josef was eager to become one with Annina and could not be bothered to waste more words on Xia Lei.

Xia Lei walked to the front garden and saw guests leaving; those who lived nearby walked and those who lived further away drove. The last to leave were Hans and those three biker boys.

Before Hans left, he looked straight at Xia Lei with a small smile of schadenfreude on his lips, got on his motorcycle and left with his buddies.

Xia Lei walked at a snail’s pace, worrying over a problem. Should he go back to Josef’s house and take Annina away if she did not come out herself?

He smiled wryly and thought, ‘Boss Shi made me a consultant for Bureau 101 and Long Bing put in effort to train me to become a good spy and special agent but I cannot be who they want me to be. My character is not suited for spy work or special agent duties at all. How troublesome.’

One of the most basic requirements of qualified spy or special agent is to achieve the goal no matter what. Take the current situation for example - a qualified agent would definitely not expend extra effort go to help Annina. Conversely, it would be a good opportunity to further the goal of gaining information since Josef would be busy with Annina and that meant that it was the best chance for Xia Lei to enter the tin-roofed shed.

From the standpoint of completing the mission, him doing so would be a mistake. However, from a moral standpoint, Annina treated him as a friend, trusted him very much, was good to him and took care of him - how could he stand aside and let something so disgusting happen to her when she was so nice to him? He would be completely heartless if he let that happen.

‘Forget it. I’m not cut out to be a spy or a special agent anyway. I have my own conscience and I want to be able to sleep well at night.’ Xia Lei straightened himself out.

At that moment, Annina’s voice came from behind him.

“Josef, this is too sudden. Give me some time to think.” Annina walked out the door. She had become sober after vomiting.

Josef came chasing out, a look of discontent on his face, “Annina, don’t you know my feelings for you?”

Annina frowned, “It’s late. I have to go home.”

Josef spotted Xia Lei standing in the front garden and suddenly said, “Is it because of him?”

Annina paused, then shook her head, “Josef, how can I make you understand? This has nothing to do with Lukas. It’s my own problem. We grew up together; I know you too well. I… have no romantic feelings for you. Don’t you understand?”

Boys and girls who grew up together rarely became lovers because they knew each other too well. Xia Lei could relate to this because Jiang Ru-Yi and himself was one such example. He was too familiar with her and there was no heart-thumping feeling of love, so how could they become lovers?

“Fine, go home. I’ll wait for you.” Josef shrugged helplessly.

“Good night, Josef.” Annina bid him good night and walked towards Xia Lei.

“Good night, Mr Josef. Thanks for dinner,” called Xia Lei.

“Yeah.” Josef gave a disinterested reply.

“Let’s go,” said Annina to Xia Lei, then she lowered her voice, “How could you dunk my head in the sink? I’m going to get you back for that.”

Xia Lei stared dumbly at her.

Annina smiled, “I’m kidding. Thank you. I know what Josef wanted to do.”

Xia Lei smiled back, “Let’s go. Don’t bring up what has passed.”

As the two of them walked shoulder-to-shoulder along the little path, however, some motorcycles suddenly charged from the road behind them.

Xia Lei turned to look and grabbed Annina by the waist, pulling her down to the ground.