I was hoping you could tell me

A comfortable silence followed after that, and Ying Yue stared out of the window at the city lights. They looked like a constellation of stars at a distance, occasionally flickering, but never dying out.

A thought crossed her mind and she whipped her head at Xi Shenghui, who was focused on the road before him like it was the only thing that mattered. "Did anyone follow me to Majestic Gardens earlier?"

"I did."

"You did?" Ying Yue's cheeks reddened. If Xi Shenghui followed her there, then he most likely saw them kiss on the street. Only, it wasn't just a peck on the lips, it was a really, really, really long kiss. Embarrassment engulfed her even as she tried to act nonchalant about it.

"The security was tight so I had to wait outside the gate."

"Oh." The worry on her face eased and she flashed him a smile.

Xi Shenghui clenched his teeth. Although it was true that security was tight, he left his car outside and managed to sneak in to Majestic Gardens. Big Boss may trust Fei Huangjin to keep Ying Yue safe when the two of them were together, but he didn't.

He saw their exchange out on the street. And when that man put his mouth over hers, he had clenched his fists and looked away. He didn't quite understand why, but he disliked that Fei Huangjin. Ying Yue deserved a second chance at a normal life, but Fei Huangjin was just going to suck her back in to the underworld.

Ying Yue tinkered with the car stereo, turning on the radio and upping the volume to some girly pop song. She sang along and waved her body to the music, holding up a makeshift mic using her phone and occasionally popping her head to the side like she was staging her own concert.

Xi Shenghui couldn't help but smile. For once, the ride to Juyan wasn't silent in his car.

***

"Tell me what this means." Ying Yue slapped a piece of paper on Mo Yiling's desk.

The man glanced at the woman who just barged in his office, ordering him around like she was some kind of goddess, and returned to his work on the computer. "Hello to you, too, shadow fox. Do you want me to schedule you for a refresher course on etiquette training?"

She shuddered at the memory of etiquette training. That French teacher Juyan had hired to give etiquette classes was scary. Unfortunately, Big Boss believed that blending into any kind of environment was important, so the class was required for spy agents.

Ying Yue rolled her eyes at the genius who was typing at two keyboards at once. She propped herself over his desk, leaning her face on one arm as she tried her best to put on a puppy dog look. "Good evening, Mr. Mo. I apologize for the intrusion. May I request for your help on a personal matter?"

He glanced at her briefly. "Don't try to act cute. It's ugly."

"Hey!" Ying Yue wanted to smack his head. If Mo Yiling was going to keep up with that arrogant attitude, he was going to die old and single. It was no wonder he didn't date.

He snorted, stretching his neck before picking up the piece of paper she put on his desk. The short scribble written on it offered no explanation to what he was supposed to do, and his narrowed eyes flew to Ying Yue. "What's this?"

"I was hoping you could tell me." She grinned. "It's a clue to my brother's stash."

"Where did you get this?" He asked.

"That's not important. Can you figure out what it means?" Her hopeful eyes widened. If pleading him wasn't gonna work, maybe flattering him would. Mo Yiling's ego was as big as his brain. "You're the smartest person I know. This won't be that difficult, right?"

He gave her a blank look. "I'm a genius, not a genie who can guess everything correctly." Did she even realize what she was asking him to do? M-8927 could mean a lot of things. "You're the one who knows your brother best, which means that you're the one most likely to figure this one out. This could be an address, a password, a flight number, a code name, a tracking number. Hell, it could even be just some random label on a box. Doesn't M-8927 ring any bell to you?"