Near midnight, on a sparsely populated street, a car pulled over to the side of the road. A resentful-looking teenager stepped out of the vehicle, hauling a suitcase that came up to his waist.
The teenager slumped down on the roadside and made a face at the departing car.
The teenager was named Bai Yexiu. He had messy, slightly curly black hair and amber cat-like eyes. Though his features still retained a trace of childishness, a wicked aura radiated from them. Slender and handsome, he looked as if he had just stepped out of a manga.
Meanwhile, Gin received three emails simultaneously: one anonymous, and two others signed by Rum and Cointreau respectively.
"Go to Beika Town and pick up Cointreau."
At that moment, Bai Yexiu looked around the unfamiliar street and cursed Rum once again.
Bai Yexiu had previously been stationed overseas, but due to a sudden incident, That Boss had ordered Rum to bring him to the Organization's main base in Japan for his own safety. However, this was Bai Yexiu's first time in Japan, and Rum had dumped him on some unknown street under the pretext of having an urgent matter to attend to.
Now, he was homeless, with a flat wallet, and forced to use his last remaining balance to ask Gin for help.
As for why Bai Yexiu's wallet was so flat—Bai Yexiu was exceptionally capable (though he loved to slack off), and as a semi-model worker overseas, he had saved up a fair bit of money. However, because of an undercover agent, his bank account had been frozen by the intelligence agency the rat belonged to, leaving almost no chance of recovering his assets.
Truly, Bai Yexiu had been screwed over miserably by that undercover agent.
Although his account had now been rescued by Bai Yexiu's friend Peinuo, emergency transfers of assets still took time, so currently Bai Yexiu couldn't even afford to top up his phone credit.
At this thought, Bai Yexiu felt a dull ache in his heart. He genuinely never expected his situation to turn out this bad.
Just then, a black Porsche pulled up in front of Bai Yexiu. He instantly sprang to his feet like a coiled spring, shoved his suitcase into the trunk, climbed into the back seat, and put on an obedient expression.
Seeing Bai Yexiu's well-behaved look through the rearview mirror, Gin couldn't help letting out a cold laugh. Don't let Bai Yexiu's less-than-fifteen-year-old, harmless appearance fool you; anyone who truly understood his abilities and what he had done would be utterly shocked. After all, he was the only person in the Organization to earn a codename at the age of six, and he shared a special relationship with That Boss—one even closer than Vermouth's.
Bai Yexiu's transfer to Japan wasn't solely because of the undercover agent incident. Short-handed in Japan, Gin was already run off his feet, and they needed someone sufficiently capable to share the workload here. It just so happened that Bai Yexiu needed to get away from the United States, so he was reassigned here.
Bai Yexiu couldn't help mentally praising Gin's dedication. Long periods of uninterrupted work were more than any normal person could endure. Bai Yexiu knew all too well the hardships of being a model worker, since he was the Organization's semi-model worker himself: back in the United States, every few days he would end up living Gin's lifestyle—when it was busy, it was genuinely frantic; when it was slow, he would be bored out of his mind.
Yet amidst this hectic schedule, Gin had actually managed to carve out time to pick him up. He was practically the picture-perfect "mother figure"!
"Your temporary accommodation has been arranged at a safe house under my name. That Boss has bought an apartment for you, but it's still being renovated."
With that, Gin tossed a set of keys to Bai Yexiu. Bai Yexiu weighed the keys in his hand and slipped them into his pocket.
Now that he had a place to live, all he needed was...
"Gin-chan, look at how dirt poor I am right now—I don't even have phone credit. How about you spot me a little?" Bai Yexiu asked with a flattering smile. Since there was someone right in front of him who could top up his phone, how could he not try to butter him up?
"No way."
Gin refused ruthlessly: "That undercover agent mess was your own negligence. That Boss told you to reflect on it."
With his hopes dashed, Bai Yexiu wore a look of disappointment and stared nonchalantly out the window at the night scenery, wondering who he should hit up for money next.
Because the undercover agent incident genuinely was Bai Yexiu's momentary lapse in judgment. Another reason was that he had been targeted for a long time, and the enemy had made thorough preparations, catching him completely off guard.
Now, the only way to earn back his assets was to keep taking on missions. What made it even more agonizing for Bai Yexiu was that he belonged to the action squad and had zero ties to departments like the research team, meaning he had no way to freeload off other divisions' paychecks.
"I know what you're thinking," Gin chuckled. "Don't slack off on your training just because you're here to take refuge. If you fail a mission because of that, I'll have no choice but to discipline you under orders. Getting no money and a beating on top of that—doesn't sound worth it, does it?"
Bai Yexiu remained silent.
Gin's threat hit home, and he couldn't refute it. Asking That Boss for allowance money was also out of the question; he had only asked for some a week ago, so naturally he didn't have the nerve to ask again. What made it worse was that he hadn't even spent that allowance yet before it got wiped out by someone else, making Bai Yexiu feel even more miserable.
The black Porsche melted into the night. Sitting as quiet as a church mouse, Bai Yexiu gazed at the night scenery outside the window and wept silently in his heart: I really hope there are no more undercover agents...
A few minutes later, the car stopped in front of a very ordinary Japanese-style house. Such houses could be seen everywhere in Japan, making them ideal for safe houses.
Pushing open the front door, the interior decoration was similarly ordinary. The only unusual thing was what Gin had mentioned to him when stepping out of the car: the basement beneath the bedroom floor. Scanning the room, Bai Yexiu pushed aside a full-length mirror and found the entrance to the basement.
The basement was stocked with numerous firearms, weapons, and blades.
Truly living up to the configuration of a "life-imprisonment safe house"!
Bai Yexiu sighed inwardly. Many Organization members kept a wealth of firearms in their safe houses, and safe houses were sometimes used for interrogation and murder, which was why Bai Yexiu affectionately dubbed them "life-imprisonment safe houses."
Smoking a cigarette with a blank expression, Gin received an email from The Boss.
"Tomorrow, notify Cointreau to interrogate the person in this photo. According to reliable intelligence, this person is planning to defect to the FBI tomorrow."
The picture showed a low-level member. Gin smiled; he knew The Boss was giving such a simple task to Bai Yexiu just to let him earn some phone credit money. After all, The Boss would never allow other agents to hand Bai Yexiu such an easy assignment.