More than half an hour later, the three left the bathroom and returned to the luxury suite together. Matsushima Kui and Shinohara Mirai shared a room, while Li Yan stayed in another. Li Yan slept comfortably, but the two girls from Beihai Country chatted until late.

...

Before heading to the hot springs, Li Yan had already sent a message to Zhang Yurong, informing her that he wouldn't be returning that night as he was executing her mission, accompanying the two guests from Beihai Country for a night out in G City.

As for the authenticity of this message, Zhang Yurong couldn't be sure. She discussed with Yue Yao, suspecting that he might be using work as an excuse to hang out with young girls, possibly going to meet Yu Xiaodi. Despite Yue Yao's persuasion, she couldn't help but call the hotel's presidential suite, only to learn that the two female bodyguards and the interpreter were there, yet Matsushima Kui and Shinohara Mirai had left with Li Yan and hadn't been heard from since.

Although Zhang Yurong was a bit worried whether Li Yan might have sparks fly with the two Beihai Country girls, she was quite relieved that Li Yan hadn't lied about his reason for staying out, secretly wondering why she cared about his excuse now when it wasn't the first time he stayed out overnight.

In the morning, Li Yan woke up feeling refreshed by the phone call. Seeing it was Yue Yao, he quickly answered.

Yue Yao wasn't asking on behalf of Zhang Yurong about why he didn't return last night but instead said casually, "I'll send you some information later. Take a look when you receive it, and contact me if there's a problem."

Upon hearing this, Li Yan already understood what information she was going to send. "Understood, I'll take a look once I receive it."

There were no further pleasantries, just business talk. After hanging up the phone, he quickly received a text message, encrypted in a way only they could understand.

After carefully reading the message, Li Yan pieced together the true meaning Yue Yao wanted to convey. The result surprised him a bit — the execution organization planning the social banquet targeting wealthy children in S City last Sunday turned out to be a terrorist organization, with its base in G City!

Li Yan wasn't particularly interested in attacking a terrorist organization, as long as it didn't involve his people, his interests, or "their" interests; he wouldn't interfere. The task of maintaining world peace should be left to the United Nations.

Of course, he also believed that Queen wouldn't send him information without analysis and confirmation. At least in some respect, this organization might be just a discarded pawn.

Even so, he had to do a little recon! Some people finance behind the scenes, some people execute the plans, for those directly pulling him into the venture, even if they had become discarded pawns, they had to pay the price as a warning to others.

Queen's second message, still disguised, detailed the approximate address of the organization she had found in G City. Perhaps she wanted to wait for Li Yan to return to discuss it in person, but knowing he was in G City, she sent it over first.

After memorizing the contents of the two messages, Li Yan cleared them along with all the recent messages he had received. After washing up, he knocked on the other room's door; both of them hadn't gotten up, Matsushima Kui squinted at him to open the door.

"Li...Yan, what's the matter..." They weren't wearing pajamas, just the bathrobes provided by the hotel.

Seeing her still wanting to sleep, Li Yan glanced inside; Shinohara Mirai was still sound asleep on the bed.

"I was wondering if you want to head back?"

"Back? It's too early, let's sleep a bit more..."

Yesterday, they walked a lot, and after relaxing in the hot springs, they were mentally excited when they returned to the room, chatting about ideals, life, their trip to Yun Country, and a certain Yun Country man... They talked late into the night before falling asleep. Asking them to get up and return to S City now was indeed a bit demanding.

"I don't mind, but what about you two? Does Mirai have anything scheduled?"

Matsushima Kui hurriedly shook her head, "No, Mirai doesn't, she's here for work..."

"Then you guys continue sleeping, sleep until you're satisfied. I have to head out; don't leave until I'm back," Li Yan instructed.

Hearing this, Matsushima Kui was a bit startled, "Li Yan, you're not going to leave us, right?"

"No, but I'm wide awake now and can't keep sleeping with you guys. I'll head out to explore a bit; I'll be back later."

Now reassured by Li Yan's promise, Matsushima Kui felt relieved. She was indeed still tired, politely bowed slightly, then closed the door and returned to bed.

...

That was exactly what Li Yan aimed for. After settling them, he immediately left the hotel, rented a taxi outside, and asked the driver to take him to the address.

Listening to the driver's introduction along the way, it was a neighborhood in G City's old town, where proper planning and management couldn't be carried out, a place mixed with all sorts of people. The driver kindly reminded him to be careful with his wallet and other belongings if he was visiting friends there.

The hot spring hotel was outside G City, and it took dozens of minutes to reach the old town. The driver took him to the approximate location, but finding the exact spot was up to Li Yan to do on foot.

After paying, Li Yan casually lit a cigarette and strolled around slowly to observe the area. This neighborhood seemed ready for redevelopment, but due to the complex environment, comprehensive planning hadn't been completed, so it remained such. Clearly, no locals from G City lived here anymore, not just out-of-town workers renting places. Just by wandering casually for a while, he saw that among the shops and pedestrians, there were many ethnic minority friends from the Western Regions, some Borola people, East Continent people... As the driver said, a mix of dragons and snakes!

Li Yan didn't expect there to be such an interesting neighborhood here, so he continued to leisurely stroll around. Because it was still early, the area appeared quite deserted, with mostly food stalls, butcher stands, and vegetable stalls open.

Li Yan bought some breakfast snacks, carrying and slowly eating as he walked, until he saw a building. The building was only seven stories tall, and from its exterior, it appeared to have been built some time ago. Several faded and damaged large characters indicated that many years ago, it had once been glorious around here. Upon close inspection, the characters read "Hongfu Mansion," not the standard "厦" used now, but the one with an extra stroke "廈."

This is the place he was looking for.

He found the entrance to this Hongfu Building, which had no elevator, requiring him to climb the stairs himself. Li Yan continued eating breakfast while climbing the stairs, occasionally encountering people in the dim, foul-smelling stairwell and hallway who gave him suspicious or greedy looks, easily recognizing that he wasn't a resident here.

Li Yan reached the fifth floor.

Along the fifth-floor hallway, he began inspecting the rooms one by one. Finally, he stopped in front of a room. The door of this room displayed an old room number that brought a smile to Li Yan's face: "526." It reminded him of someone, Guan Ziyi's subordinate, who helped collect information, known as "526 1941."

He knocked on the door and stood aside.

After a moment, the door opened. It seemed someone looked through the peephole for a while but didn't see anyone, eventually daring to open the door. However, since this was their gathering place, the person inside was cautious but not overly so.

The door wasn't fully opened; someone peeked from inside. This was an East Continent person, whose head barely appeared when a fist struck and knocked him out cold!

The door was pushed open a bit more, and Li Yan bent down, supporting the unconscious East Continent man as he walked inside.

"Who is it?" called a voice inside with a Borola-accented international language.

Li Yan was already inside, nudging the door shut with his foot, pushing the unconscious East Continent person toward the one who had asked the question.

The individual just realizing their partner was acting strange was now pinned down, and Li Yan swiftly approached, delivering a chop that knocked them out before they could react.

This wasn't a residence but more like an office room, containing only these two people, both now incapacitated by Li Yan. He tossed them onto the ground and quickly surveyed the room.

The place was sparsely furnished, lacking surveillance cameras, with just some furniture and a desk with two old desktop computers. Both computers were on, presumably used by the two people just now.

He went over for a detailed check: one computer displayed a news webpage and instant messaging software, while the other monitored the stock market.

Li Yan swiftly checked the computers, then sent both their IP addresses to Queen, asking her to immediately forward them to "526 1941." When it comes to finding traces and clues on computers, "526 1941" was more professional, and Li Yan did not have much time to spare.

Afterward, he roughly searched through the desk drawers; they contained mostly ordinary things without any practical significance. A further search of the room yielded no secret documents either. Looking at the two East Continent men on the floor, likely Borola people, Borola individuals were very confident in computers and software, so if there were any important materials, they would likely be in these two inconspicuous old computers.

Having completed his check, Li Yan began to search the bodies, unceremoniously taking their wallets and phones. There was nothing else useful or valuable.

A personal visit verified the information for him; this place wasn't where the people he was looking for were. As disposable pawns, stand-ins for death, they were merely insignificant. While coming here, Li Yan considered that even disposable pawns couldn't be let off, akin to killing a chicken to warn the monkeys. But if it's merely an unremarkable ant, killing it holds no warning meaning.

Thus, he took their phones and wallets to make it seem as though the motive was money, to avoid further suspicion.

With everything settled, Li Yan opened the door, left room 526, and calmly descended the staircase, leaving Hongfu Mansion.

Perhaps average taxi drivers aren't inclined to pick up customers around here, just as when he arrived earlier, requiring a bit of walking away to get a cab.

Not hurriedly leaving, Li Yan had just walked a short distance from Hongfu Mansion when two people followed behind him. This was entirely within his attention, but he neither turned back nor stopped. After walking a few hundred meters, the two behind him quickly caught up.

"Hey! Wait up!"

Uttering a low shout, both quickly ran over and blocked Li Yan's path front and back.

Li Yan looked at the two individuals. "What's the matter?"

"We saw you!" said one, with ruby lips and white teeth, surprisingly speaking in a Yun Country language—not entirely standard but certainly much more so than Matsushima Kui's.

"I saw you too; you're blocking my way, anyone with eyes should see me," Li Yan said calmly.

"We saw you enter Hongfu!"

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