Chapter 135 - Lukass Death (1/2)

Xia Lei walked out of the shed an hour and a half later. He had memorised all the mechanical structures, electrical integrated circuits, CNC and so on. There were virtual things he couldn’t see but he knew the principles of how they worked. With knowledge of all of these, he was fully capable of producing a lathe that would be the most advanced in the world when he went back to China!

Back in the living room, Xia Lei saw two unfamiliar people. They wore black silicone masks which made them look like black people but Xia Lei could see from the colour of their eyes that they were of the same race as he was.

“Done?” asked Long Bing.

“Done,” said Xia Lei.

Long Bing glanced at the watch on her wrist and said, “There isn’t much time left. Go back to your seat.”

Xia Lei walked to the dining table and sat at his original place. He looked at Annina all sprawled on the table and felt a twinge of guilt.

He knew Annina’s feelings for him; she liked him, really and truly, sincerely liked him with no material desires attached. She had not given up either after finding out he had a wife. Her feelings for him were real but he had deceived her and there was not even a chance for him to apologise. He would die in front of her once she woke up. Her doubts would never be resolved and the hurt she would feel were all unfair to her.

Xia Lei looked silently at Annina’s face and thought to himself, ‘I’m sorry I lied to you. It was not on purpose. There were just some things beyond my control… I don’t know if we will have a chance to meet again in the future but if we do, I will repay you. Take care, Annina.”

At that moment, Josef and Annina stirred.

Long Bing gave her masked colleagues a look and left the room.

The masked men took out handguns and hid themselves at both ends of the dining area, waiting for Annina and Josef to be completely awake.

Xia Lei lay on the table as well to create the image of regaining consciousness with Annina and Josef.

“What happened?” The first to wake was Josef. He opened his eyes blearily to see Xia Lei and Annina lying on the table.

Annina opened her eyes too and shook her head as if to clear it of sleepiness and rouse herself.

“Were we drunk, Annina?” wondered Josef.

Xia Lei opened his eyes and rubbed them, then said, “Josef, is there something wrong with your wine? We got drunk with just two bottles.”

Josef seemed to suddenly remember something and his expression grew anxious. “You guys stay here. I’ll go to the shed and take a look.”

“We’re going home.” Annina stood. “Let’s go, Lukas.”

Xia Lei grinned at Annina. He wanted to leave Annina with a smiling face but his smile was full of sadness.

His smile seemed to have touched her heart in some way; she grabbed his hand intimately, right in front of Josef.

Josef’s expression turned ugly.

At that moment, a stun grenade suddenly flew into the living room and landed on the floor with a boom. Blinding light and a deafening explosion sent the three of them to the floor. Xia Lei held Annina tight the instant they fell, subconsciously protecting her body.

Two silicone-mask-wearing gunmen burst into the living room. Xia Lei was dragged off Annina as one of them pointed at him with a gun and shouted, “It’s him! He killed our boss, Navas! Kill him!”

“Fucker! Kill him!” The masked men sang the same tune. Both of them fired at Xia Lei.

Bang, bang, bang, bang!

Flames shot from gun muzzles and bullet shells clinked on the floor.

Xia Lei collapsed with a scream but the two masked men continued shooting crazily at his fallen body.

They were just bullet shells, however, and no bullets. There was not a scratch on Xia Lei.

Annina shook her head hard but was still unable to see the situation clearly. Her ears were ringing from the grenade and the deafening gunshots could not stimulate her already-numbed eardrums. She was very aware, however, that those two black men were shooting at Lukas.

“Lukas!” She screamed with all her might, trying to wake him up. She hoped desperately for a miracle to occur and for Lukas to get up from where he had fallen and beat up the gunmen. Sadly, a miracle like that happened only in her imagination and there was no chance of it happening in real life.

Josef struggled to his feet but before he could stand steadily, the butt of a gun hit him on his head and he fell to the floor in a faint with a grunt.

Annina heard the rumble of conversation between the two black men and saw them walk towards her in her fuzzy vision. A thought suddenly came to her, ‘Will they kill me? Lukas, please wake up. Please save me…’