Chapter 45: Tip of the Knife

Hongqi loudly cleared his throat when he noticed that his little wife was in trance and seems to be thinking the right words on how to slip away from his questions.

"Look at her… her face says it all that she's deducing an alibi and some lies right now. Her beautiful face is so honest and expressive when she's under scrutiny yet her secrets were tightly hidden." Hongqi secretly muttered to himself while he bore a frown on Xiulan's face.

Xiulan got the gist from Hongqi's cough. She slightly panicked. "Annoy him to death so he could divorce me or just be a good girl for now since I have a lot of things to do? It's not 100% sure he will file a divorce if I act too rationally. What to do?" She continued complicating herself. This was the perfect opportunity but the output of this wrecked situation was too much for her to take care of.

"Damn, let's throw away the bad ideas for now. I don't want to create unnecessary problems that will cause me a lot of burden in the next following days. I have a lot of stuff to do in my company. Let's just give him a good white lie. Yeah. That's right, that's right." Xiulan tried to convince herself. Additional rational problems and planning how to destroy her image to get a divorce are not a very bright ideas right now. She has a lot of pending work.

"Hongqi…" Xiulan faked a sigh. She was trying to slow her actions and wordings for a bit since she's buying time on what kind of white lie she will say.

"You see… my alma mater commissioned me to do a lot of IT work during my university days. Until it became serious and risky, life threatening I mean. It wasn't my intention not to reveal it to you. It was an utmost secret between me and my alma mater, very confidential." Xiulan confidently started. When she noticed Hongqi was listening, she immediately drank some wine again. "This will be a long night. I need more boost." Xiulan secretly muttered while she pours more wine.

Hongqi didn't say anything and only gestured to Xiulan that she should continue and he was listening.

"My dad didn't reveal this to you either since he thought it might not be that important and this information will not help anyone to be honest. In my family, only my dad knows about this secret of mine. Though my mother and sisters already have an idea that my father has been exploiting my skills to the government and alma mater but they didn't have any idea how risky it was." Xiulan added more details and of course drank another glass of wine. She was really tense right now. She never shared this information to anyone who is not involved in her missions. This was rather hard for her. She must be careful not to reveal anything confidential.

"Stop drinking, you'll get drunk." Hongqi reprimanded Xiulan. He noticed that she kept drinking a glass of wine each time she finish saying lengthy reasons. It was not just a regular sip but gulping a full glass. If she's drunk, she might slur her words and it will just be in vain. He was about to get the wine bottle from her but she shooed away his hands.

"No, I need this." Xiulan blocked his hands and pouted. Hongqi glared at her but Xiulan shrugged it off.

"Anyway, as I was saying…. I do a lot of hacking and IT work for them. I work remotely. The terrorist mission was the only time that I had to work close to the enemy. It was scary actually…" Xiulan paused and remembered how she fell from the third floor to the ground floor and was in a hospital arrest for a month, she almost died for goodness sake. Add that Hongqi was hospitalized as well and she saw the whole thing too while he got beaten up and almost kidnapped, such bad memories.

Hongqi notice the sudden pause and the bitter expression on Xiulan's face. "It looks like she remembered something she dreaded." He secretly guessed while reading Xiulan's facial expression.

Xiulan sighed quite heavily this time. She hates remembering those parts of her memories.

"Yeah… really scary… But there are fun times as well. I honed my skills quite nicely while they give me missions. I take them so I could be helpful to my alma mater and to my father. To be honest, I'm just doing it out of goodwill." Xiulan nonchalantly stated and tried to avoid thinking of bad stuff. She purses her lips while she thinks deeply of what to add in her story. Though all the things she said were the truth.

"Did you ever kill someone while you're on a mission? Who are you usually with when you're on a mission? Do they always you give you missions? You are married now so you shouldn't take them anymore." Again, Hongqi fired multiple questions in one breathe. He was so curious that he can't help but ask more and more.

"Of course not! Why would I do that?!" Xiulan immediately defended herself. "I can't even slice a live fish and a chicken. How can I even kill a human?" She glared at Hongqi for accusing her with a baloney indictment.

"Alright. You didn't kill anyone." Hongqi was relieved that this little wife was still sane. He might have overreacted and accused her offensively.

Xiulan cleared her throat again. She was slightly annoyed by his accusations. Gosh, she wanted to hit him.

She was about to speak again but the next question were too confidential to answer with honesty. She must think quickly on a white lie.

Her attention went back to the wine bottle. She quickly grabbed it and poured more in her glass. She was not good in lying, so a boost of liquor could make her lie a little bit.

But drunkards usually are more honest when they are drunk rather than when they are sober…

Hongqi was taken aback by Xiulan's hasty actions. "Seriously, this woman." He can't help but stare at her while she thirstily gulped the wine glass in full speed.

"Ah~" she refreshes herself. Quickly, she tried to think of a white lie as an answer.

"The the… the government usually assign someone to me as my partner. Of course since they are my client, they will partner me with someone who is competent. Also as a frail and small woman, I need protection." Xiulan managed to create a very good white lie in such speed. She wanted to pat her back.

To be honest, the government never gave her any partners to work with. She will look for people who can help her and fortunately Dejiang was always there to help. The government and her alma mater would only give her authority in power when a situation is gravely urgent.

"Hmmm…" Hongqi nodded. He was convinced on Xiulan's alibis. She has a point.

"When it comes to missions, there's really no schedule. Sometimes in a year they don't give any. Sometimes in a year I'll work on ten missions as long as I have extra time. This year, they said the terrorist mission was the last mission for this year since… since I have a… a traditional Chinese wedding to attend to and a ho—honeymoon..." Xiulan almost murmured her last sentence. She kind of regretted that she relieves the topic about the honeymoon. Do they really need one?

Hongqi's attention suddenly change to the wedding and honeymoon. He almost forgot about it. Good thing she mentioned it. Since all the doubts and suspicion in his heart are cleared, he can now focus on the next issue.

He fully trusts Xiulan. He thinks she will not harm him since her family's reputation will be at stake if she does something suspicious and troublesome.

Actually, her having this secret side really surprised him. He was confused and angry at first but he was proud of her. More reasons to respect her. He thought she was just a meek and timid woman but actually full of incredible secrets. At least he knew he married a gem.

He felt bad that he had a bad judgement over her credibility before.

"Now that you mentioned those two. We can plan it together with our families. The award shows are finished and most of my artists are busy in dramas and movies so I really don't need to monitor their music career for awhile." Hongqi suggested and gestured to the waiter to bring the food. He forgot that they haven't eaten anything yet.

"Ah… alright." Xiulan meekly responded. "I'll try to make time. But… can we move it next year instead?" Xiulan tried to delay it. How many times she will say this that she has a lot of pending work in her company?

"Next year is fine but it's not good for your reputation. Have you heard of what they say about Mrs. Xing? She's not being treasured by the Xing family due to the long delay of this traditional wedding. I don't want to hear that nonsense gossip anymore since it's not true. You are fully being treasured and I care about you a lot." Hongqi irritably explained. Oh how he hates that particular gossip. He's fully aware of that damn gossip.

"Cursed daughter? End up in a divorce or a widow? I will break that curse." Hongqi secretly muttered. He was determined that all of the people who spread such wretched gossip will eat the words they said for dinner.

Again, Xiulan felt troubled. Looks like another long delay on her pile of work will happen again. She didn't even hear the sweet concern in Hongqi's tone due to her heavy thinking. Right now, all she could think of are her pending piles of documents and projects to finish. She wanted to curse everyone.

"Alright, I understand." She gloomily answered.

She can't refute anymore. If this traditional wedding will get delayed again then it'll be very troublesome. Her parents will create a huge fuss over it. She's 100% sure about that. She also wants the damn socialites to shut up too.

Hongqi slightly hooked a smile when he saw her gloomy expression. "What so bad about getting married again? She'll be marrying me twice. That's far enough to be the next best thing in the world. Especially this is a traditional wedding. Most of the women coveted this." Hongqi proudly bragged to himself.

"Drats! Looks like my ride to divorce will be bumpy and long. This will be very hard. What a headache!" She silently grumbled and frowned.

Those two seem to have a wide difference of opinion when it comes to their second wedding.

A group of waiters suddenly came in with their scrumptious meal that Hongqi ordered. It was a delicious dish of her favorites. Xiulan was utterly surprised to see her favorite dishes in front of her.

"How did you know?" She can't help but utter this question. Did her mother sell her off to the devil? She's not aware that her mother is now in Hongqi's side. Only her mother knew about her favorites.

Hongqi glances at Xiulan's surprised expression and question. "It's not that hard to know." He nonchalantly responded.

"Huh? So how this happened?" Xiulan pointed at the food in front of them.

"I asked your mother." He calmly replied but gave a slight frown. He kind of wondered why she asked that way. Was it really surprising to know her favorite dishes?

He started picking food for himself and also picked some meat for her and put it on her plate. "Try this; it's one of their best sellers." Hongqi charmingly whispered while he seriously picks the best meat parts for her.

"Mom! How could you?! I must interrogate mother when I have a chance. How could she sell off information about me?" Xiulan bitterly grumbled to herself.

Xiulan gave a suspicious glance at Hongqi. Awhile ago he was scary to the point that she got cold sweats and creeping anxiety. Now he looks so calm and eerily content. He even picked some food for her and put it on her plate.

"He is sure quick to convince… very suspicious. He was firing a lot of questions earlier and now he's contently eating his food quite deliciously. Damn weirdo." Xiulan secretly muttered and accused him for being a weirdo. It's just a small revenge on him for causing too much anxiety for the past four hours. She thought she won't be able to come up with a good lie. Thank heavens this is over.