Shentu Tianyin and Xia Lei kissed each other goodbye the next morning. Fu Mingmei drove Shentu Tianyin to the Vientaine Group building in the Rolls Royce Phantom, and Xia Lei drove to Thunder Horse Military Factory himself.

The workday had begun by the time he got to Thunder Horse Military Factory, but Annina’s office was empty. He then went to the villa and he pushed the door of Annina’s room open to find that she was still snoozing in her bed.

Annina had always had a strong work ethic, and was never late to work. She was always the first person in the office or in the workshops, but today, she was still lazing about in her bed even though the workday had begun. Having something like this happen showed that she was troubled by the German Embassy’s conditions, and that it affected her so much that she was in no mood to go to work. She was already contemplating when to leave China and return to Germany.

‘I need to take care of her problem, or the German government is going to take advantage of this’ thought Xia Lei to himself. He was in anguish. He trusted that Annina would not willingly betray him, but she was just an ordinary woman after all. There was no way she was going to be able to go up against the German government and German special agents.

What he could confirm was that the Germans would be able to decipher the secrets of the XL2500 sniper rifle and the Gust assault rifle soon after Annina returned to Germany. The Germans also had the reputation of being the world’s top manufacturers. It would be no problem at all for the Germans to reproduce the XL2500 and Gust.

It now looked like the Germans not only knew about Annina being hidden in his military factory, but that she had been involved in the design plans for the highly-regarded XL2500 and the Gust rifles. This had to be the case, because the Germans would not give such conditions otherwise.

Annina seemed to sense that was another person in the room, and she opened her eyes to see Xia Lei. A faint smile appeared in the corners of her lips. “When did you come, Lukas?”

Xia Lei gave her a smile and sat at her bedside, looking at her. “I just came in. I saw that you were sleeping, and I didn’t want to disturb you.”

“I’ve been awake for a while. I just didn’t want to get up. Oh, right, I want to take the day off today. Can I?” said Annina.

“Of course. You’ve worked hard, from the time we worked on the XL2500 to now. You’ve worked hard for so long. You should have given yourself a holiday long ago. Have a good rest,” said Xia Lei.

Annina sighed. “So what if I have a holiday? I can’t go out, and I have no one to hang out with. I’m all alone. Lukas, I miss the times when we were in Germany. We worked together, then went to my place and grilled food, and drank beer. We rode on my motorcycle on the roads, and bypassed all those cars driven by stupid people. Don’t you miss those times?”

“I miss those times too. Those are precious memories,” said Xia Lei. Inside, however, he sighed, ‘Ay, it looks like she’s already decided to return to Germany. What can I do to make her stay?’

“Lukas. I was thinking about it for a long time last night. I want to return to Germany.”

“You really want to leave?”

“Yes. I want to return to Germany. I am German. My home is there, and my family and friends are there.”

“Won’t… Won’t you think about it some more?”

“I’ve already thought it through. Lukas, I like you. I thought you were my angel, back in Germany. I am willing to do anything for you, and this is also the reason why I’m staying in China. But another woman has taken you from my side. I cannot keep you by my side any longer. You’ve become someone else’s angel. What’s the meaning in me staying here?”

This was a rather obvious hint.

This hint also gave Xia Lei a lead on how to solve his problem, but he hesitated. He had a headache. He already had three women, and he was with all of them for one reason or another. And amongst his women, Shentu Tianyin was unaware of the other two, Jiang Ruyi did not know about Long Bing, but Long Bing knew about Shentu Tianyin and Jiang Ruyi. This current situation was complicated enough. If he added Annina to the mix, he would have four women, and he would still need four days if he had one woman a day. How was he going to do all that?

Right at that moment, Annina suddenly threw her blanket off herself and climbed out of bed.

She had not a stitch of clothing on her, and her generous curves were bare for Xia Lei to see. Her snow-white skin, flowing golden hair, and golden carpet… her sexiness was totally different from the sexiness of Eastern women.

And in that instant, Xia Lei finally made a decision against his better judgement. He pulled Annina into his embrace…

Men had to put their careers first, and a lot of men rose early and went to bed late, working hard at their jobs. In Xia Lei’s case, he worked hard too, but this was part of his character. All men were different, and their lives they led were different too.

Half an hour later, Annina and Xia Lei walked out of the villa.

Annina had been listless and troubled half an hour ago, but she was upbeat and happy now. She gave one the impression of a flower which had been in need of water, on the verge of withering, and this flower had suddenly received some moisture. It had gotten a new lease of life, and become even more beautiful and charming.

“Since your embassy has sent a letter to you, they must have investigated all they could. They might have gotten their hands on related evidence too. Neither you nor I can avoid this. We need to face this head-on,” said Xia Lei to Annina as they walked.

“Head-on? How are we going to solve this?” said Annina. “They want me to return to Germany, but I don’t feel like going back now.”

Her change in attitude was quite complete. Xia Lei’s hard work had paid off, and his sweat had not been wasted.

“I’ll make a phone call first, and get the opinion of the higher-ups,” said Xia Lei.

“I’ll listen to whatever you say, Lukas. I won’t be going back,” said Annina.

Xia Lei smiled, then took out his phone to call Ling Han. He gave Ling Han a simple summary of the situation over the phone.

“This is a troublesome matter. Do you know who leaked this secret?” asked Ling Han.

“I’ve only just found out about this too. I don’t know who leaked this yet, but whoever it is, he must be targeting Thunder Horse Military Factory. You know what Annina means to Thunder Horse Military Factory. How should we handle this matter?”

The German Embassy had sent a letter, and stated their conditions, and they were representative of the German government. In this situation, Xia Lei had to get the higher-ups to weigh in on the matter if he wanted to negotiate with the German Embassy, and get all the relevant permissions.

Ling Han was silent for a bit before he said, “The other party has only sent a letter so far. This is probably a sort of probe. I believe that they will also send a person over to talk face-to-face with Annina. Do not refuse that. Interact with the person they send, and try to find out their motives. It’ll be even better if you can find out who leaked the information. You get what I mean?”

“Yes, I understand.” Xia Lei understood that he had basically been given permission to negotiate.

“Good. Give me a call at any time when there is progress. Remember — you are not doing this alone. Our government is behind you.”

“Okay, Brother Ling. I’m hanging up.”

“Goodbye.”

After ending the call with Ling Han, Xia Lei walked towards the office building with Annina. He nagged her about what she should be careful about as they walked. Annina nodded a lot, and looked like she was taking in all his advice.

They had only just entered the office building when Lu Sheng walked towards them, and called out from a distance, “Director Xia! There are two people at the gates. They say that they’re from the German Embassy. I looked at their identification documents but I don’t know whether they are real or fake. How should this be handled?”

Xia Lei glanced over and saw a Mercedes-Benz sedan parked outside the gates. “Get them to come to my office.”

“Yes, I’ll let them in right away.” Lu Sheng walked towards the gates.

The people from the German Embassy had come, just as Ling Han said.

“Come, Annina. Let’s go to my office,” said Xia Lei.

Annina drew close to Xia Lei, and she looked nervous. “What do we do, Lukas? They’ve come here. I’m so nervous.”

“No need to be nervous. I’ll solve the problem,” consoled Xia Lei.

“I don’t want to leave your side. I don’t want to go back with them.”

Xia Lei gave a laugh. “You were saying you wanted to go back earlier, so why don’t you want to go back now?”

Annina quirked her lips and said in discontent, “It’s all because of you. Don’t you know how much I love you? I am in China because of you. What’s the meaning in me staying if you don’t want me anymore? We’ve already solved the problem we had between us, so of course I want to stay. Don’t forget that you still owe me a dream, so don’t you dare think of shaking me off.”

Xia Lei swung his arm and slapped her round, full buttocks.

There was a loud smack, and Annina exclaimed coyly, “Why did you spank me?”

Xia Lei laughed, and said, “You said that I am your angel. Does an angel need a reason to hit you?”

Annina glared at Xia Lei, but her eyes were seductively flirtatious, and gentle.