Trafford's Trading Club

When Jessica woke up, she found herself in a rather dark room with both of her hands strapped to the chair and her mouth wrapped around with a cloth.

Regardless of being frightened, this policewoman did not panicked. She was trying to think of how to escape from the danger.

At this moment, she heard the sound of fighting coming from outside, even followed by the sound of few gunshots. --- Some people were probably having a gunfight outside.

Jessica didn’t know how long she had lost her consciousness here…Perhaps the headquarters had discovered this and came to rescue her?

While thinking in silence, the door opened. Facing against the light, Jessica saw the criminal who took her to this place.

Ye Yan!

He blew a few whistles and looked at Jessica from up to down. Suddenly, a knife was spun between his fingertips like a flying and dancing butterfly before cutting towards Jessica quickly.

She didn’t sense the pain of a knife cutting through her flesh. Instead, the ropes that were tied tightly around her body were cut off. Jessica was startled. When the ropes unravelled, she swiftly grabbed the knife from Ye Yan and brandished it back.

Ye Yan made a quick step backwards. Jessica continued to launch attacks.

Ye Yan raised both of his hands suddenly, ”Wait, wait, everything’s OK. If you don’t believe me, I can give you the gun and the knife is in your hand… then, look outside.”

Ye Yan passed Jessica his gun to show his sincerity. Jessica gazed at Ye Yan for a while suspiciously before stretching her hands out for the gun and turning the muzzle to point at him.

Ye Yan held his hands high all the time. He tilted his head now to direct Jessica to look at the situation outside.

”You better not play any tricks,” Jessica said coldly while moving closer to the door little by little.

This place must be a bar transformed from a cellar. At the door, Jessica found some strong men lying on their stomach. ”What happened?”

…

”Sorry, I don’t want to involve you in this but it’s considered to be the remaining work of my previous job.” Ye Yan was seeking for something on the bar counter, ”Well… catch it.”

At this moment, a small bag was thrown at Jessica. Opening it, she found her ID card, wallet, the gun and other stuff.

”I was investigating a case about smuggling of antiques before I was notified to report here. I’ve been told that this case will be passed on to my colleagues. But when I was boarding the flight at the domestic airport, I found the contact person of this group.” Ye Yan shrugged, ”So I just take the opportunity to impersonate their roles. But out of my expectations, you were too hospitable. You’ve worked hard following us.”

”…You mean you had detected me at the airport?” Jessica was shocked.

Ye Yan nodded and stretched out two fingers to point at his own eyes. He said gently, ”Do you know? When one is looking for someone else, his pupils will experience a slight change. Besides that, you’ve shown the flashing moment of joy when you found the target. You wanted to lift the nameplate but you drew it back quickly. This behavior was quite obvious even though there were a lot of people.”

Jessica felt a strong sense of shame. She turned around, seemingly trying to hide something and started to take a look at those people on the floor., ”…I’ve seen this guy on the wanted list, he even dared to hide here!”

Ye Yan laughed while opening a bottle of brandy at the bar counter, ”In Chinese, this is called ‘the more dangerous the place, the more secured it is.’”

Jessica glimpsed at Ye Yan silently, saying without emotion, ”Everything here will be gathered as physical evidence, you’re destroying the evidence.”

Ye Yan smiled, ”I haven’t registered yet. So I’m not officially employed. It means that I didn’t break any of your rules … but it’s better if it’s you who is dealing with the mess because it’s not appropriate for me to do so… Watch out!”

Jessica gaped, a lying hoodlum pretended that he passed out had climbed up secretively. He planned to shoot her from the back!

She couldn’t react in time but Ye Yan climbed over the counter and pushed Jessica away.

Bang---!

At the same time when a gunshot was heard, a cold light flashed across. It was a knife coming from Ye Yan’s hand that stabbed precisely through the hoodlum’s wrist!

The hoodlum made a loud cry and the gun dropped on the floor. Witnessing this, Jessica rushed up immediately and took this opportunity to tackle the hoodlum, striking him until he fainted on the floor.

”Did you get hurt?”

She walked towards Ye Yan quickly and helped him up.

With fingers pressing on his waist, he couldn’t stop the blood from gushing out from his body. Ye Yan’s forehead was covered with beads of sweat, ”I think I should be sent to the hospital… what’s the emergency number?”

…

In the hospital, Jessica came to the sickroom full of anger. Looking at Ye Yan who was staring blankly outside, she interrogated, ”Why did you tell the headquarters that I was the one who rescued you when you were being caught up? This should be your credit!”

”Then you’ll be punished.” Ye Yan didn’t turn his head around, ”You’ve been caught, almost turned into a hostage. It’s a blot and can ruin your future. Besides that, I wasn’t officially employed at that time. So it’s inappropriate to act on my own. There will even be a string of questions on procedure, which is even more troublesome for me. Since it’s not good for both sides, why should I tell the truth on the premise that the criminal has been arrested?”

”But you’re giving a false testimony!”

”I thought you’re flexible. This issue was caused by my own action and it’ll give you a bad record. So there’s no harm for you to be more selfish.” Ye Yan turned around, seemingly wanting to get out of the bed. His hand covered the wound, ”But it’s up to you, you can tell the truth. Well, I may go to the interrogation room after lying in hospital. What bad luck!”

”The wounds on your body haven’t recovered yet. Don’t move.” Jessica said softly, ”What do you want to do? Let me help you.”

”Oh my god, you foreigners are so enthusiastic. Are you going to help me to the washroom? I have the knowledge and experience now. (Laugh)”

Jessica was lost for words. She could only see Ye Yan holding the wall and walking out slowly.

Suddenly, she said, ”Thank you for saving me.”

”You’re welcomed. You can buy me a cup of coffee someday.” Ye Yan turned to her, smiling, ”Let me introduce myself, I’m Ye Yan from China, we are partners from now on.”

…

…

”You said that I can buy anything I want here?”

Jessica chuckled. She initially wanted to come out today to buy some necessities, but while considering something on the way, she came to this weird place unwittingly.

She looked around and sized up everything here including the weird… and spooky boss. Listening to his affirmative tone, Jessica derided, ”Then give me a portion of roasted lamb from Le-Comptoir-du-Vin restaurant. You should at least be able to serve me that. Can you serve me that now… right now.”

She couldn’t believe she was wasting her time here with this spooky guy, Jessica thought she might be too stressed these days.

”Roasted lamb?” The weird Mr. Clown in front of her nodded and flicked his hands over the table, ” Here is your food, customer.”

Jessica opened her mouth slightly.

He got it. The familiar flavor of roasted lamb spread in the air. And she could even feel the warmth from the meat … which proved that it was fresh from the oven.

Even the take-away bag looked familiar. It must have come from some restaurant in her hometown!

Jessica stretched her finger out subconsciously to poke the lamb gently. She stood up furiously and fished out a black gun in a lightning speed, asking nervously, ”What are you?”

She didn’t think that it was her illusion. It was even more unlikely to be a magic trick. Also, the constant mysterious aura and unusual feeling that was sensed here couldn’t calm her nerves down. All these gave her a thought. That is… this was a very dangerous place, very dangerous!

”I’ve told you that I’m the boss of this restaurant.” Luo Qiu asked gently, ”Then…Dear customer, what else can we do for you?”