The Favored Heiress
Chapter 272: Give Me a Hug, I’ve Missed You

Chapter 272: Chapter 272: Give Me a Hug, I’ve Missed You

Hearing the sound, Yun Lih touched his thick eyebrows with a wicked smile and stood up with a single hand slapping the table.

He was nearly one meter ninety tall, and in the small conference room, his stature was even more imposing and robust.

Yun Lih, with a thin smile on his lips, took a few steps to Li Qiao, leaned over the table corner with one hand supporting him, while the other hand rested on the back of her chair, "Really not going to talk to me?"

Li Qiao glanced at his movements and hummed a response.

Yun Lih helplessly pursed his lips and sighed as he pressed his shoulders down and leaned closer to Li Qiao, "Then how about a hug? I’ve missed you."

The next second, a cellphone was pressed against his chest, forcing him to stop the pressing motion.

Yun Lih looked down to see Li Qiao using her phone to prod him with a gun-like gesture, she gave a gentle push and then calmly asked, "How did you find this place?"

Their distance widened, and Yun Lih chuckled without pushing further, kicked the chair beside him out of the way, and half-sat on the table corner, narrowing his eyes, "Looking down on me? Finding you is easy, isn’t it?"

Li Qiao leaned against the chair back, sliding back half a meter, tilting her head slightly to look up at Yun Lih.

She hadn’t been able to find her for over three years, where did that confidence come from?

So, she curled her lips unapologetically exposing him, "Yun Ling told you, right?"

A standard assertive statement.

Yun Lih: "..."

No matter how much time had passed, this brat’s speech was still as disagreeable as ever.

Yun Lih folded his arms across his chest, looking down at Li Qiao from his vantage point.

She still had that indifferent, casual demeanor, with delicate features that could inadvertently captivate anyone’s soul.

Only... she seemed a lot more restrained than she had been three years ago. Even though her eye movements still couldn’t hide her unruliness and flamboyance, there was less recklessness.

Yun Lih subconsciously touched his eyebrows again, a habitual gesture when he was thinking.

After a moment, he leaned over, his fingertips brushed over her head a couple of times, and then swiftly his palm reached out and vigorously ruffled the top of Li Qiao’s head, "Mm, you’re as clever as ever, my little darling."

Praising her was fake; messing up her hair was real.

Yun Lih’s dry palm was very rough, thick with calluses from years of training and holding guns.

And with such a presumptuous action, he quickly turned Li Qiao’s neatly tied bun into a mess.

Stray hairs flew wildly, static electricity forming.

Li Qiao, with a head full of tousled hair, glanced at Colt across the table from the corner of her eye, feeling the urge to give him a shot.

Yun Lih watched her expressionless but scornful gaze and smiled.

At that moment, a lock of hair fell across his forehead from the pompadour on top of his head because of his actions. Coupled with that wicked smile, it added a bit of rakish charm to his appearance.

Yun Lih gazed deeply at Li Qiao and then extended his leg to return to his previous spot.

He picked up the sunglasses and the Colt from the table, fiddled with the cylinder for a moment, and then unexpectedly tossed it, "This is for you."

As his words ended, he watched Li Qiao, attempting to gauge her agility and reflexes.

The silver body of the Colt glinted coldly as it arced through the air.

While he was focused, Li Qiao at the table raised her eyebrows at him and didn’t even lift her head, her gaze still fixed on Yun Lih’s face. Then, she leisurely lifted her hand, and the Colt was caught right out of the air.

A rather defiant gesture.

Yun Lih, satisfied, put on his sunglasses, concealing the mirth in his eyes, "A Colt Walker revolver, do you like it?"

Li Qiao withdrew her gaze from him and fiddled with the cylinder, "It’ll do."

Yun Lih’s smile at the corner of his mouth stiffened, and he stepped forward to snatch it back, "No need to send me off, give it back to daddy."

The Walker revolver he had spent a million US dollars on had become just "good enough" in her mouth?

Little did he know, before Yun Lih’s hand could reach the gun, Li Qiao had already tucked it into her coat pocket, "Thanks."

Yun Lih snorted, and his hand mischievously rubbed over Li Qiao’s head, "That’s more like it."

A moment later, YunLih pulled open the door to the meeting room, and as he stepped out, he almost bumped into Fu Lvting.

His face dark, the menacing glint behind his sunglasses flashed, "Step aside."

This was the true leader of the Mercenary Group.

In front of others, he was solemn and radiated a forbidding aura that made people keep their distance.

Although Fu Lvting did not look directly into Yun Lih’s eyes, even through the sunglasses, he felt a suffocating sensation as if his throat was being grasped.

It was an instinctive reaction to danger.

Before Fu Lvting could speak, he saw Li Qiao walking from behind Yun Lih and she gave him a cold, sidelong glance.

Strangely enough, after that look, the aura around Yun Lih instantly retracted to almost nothing.

"Xiao Li..." Fu Lvting’s tone was tense, his wary gaze flitting over Yun Lih as he covertly searched for traces of that ’lighter’.

At that moment, Li Qiao, holding the lapel of her white coat, moved past Yun Lih’s side and said to Fu Lvting, "Brother Fu, it’s all right now, you can go on with your work."

Fu Lvting turned to look at Li Qiao and was momentarily stupefied.

Why was her hair in such disarray, fluttering in the wind like that—had something bad happened?

Fu Lvting instinctively took a small step forward, concerned, but before he could speak, Yun Lih furrowed his thick eyebrows, smacked his lips, and urged impatiently, "Hurry it up."

Li Qiao, not bothering with him, left him with a "Wait here for me," and brought Fu Lvting back to the lab.

At the research table, Fu Lvting kept glancing at Li Qiao’s head, and in a hushed voice, he asked, "Xiao Li, he didn’t do anything to you, did he?"

Li Qiao shook her head calmly, "No, he’s really an acquaintance, Brother Fu doesn’t need to worry."

"But your hair..." Fu Lvting, at a loss for words, pointed at the top of her head, struggling to get some things out that were stuck in his throat.

Li Qiao blinked, smoothed her hair on the top of her head with both hands, and as she took off her white coat, she explained softly, "It’s okay, the air’s dry, it’s just static electricity."

Fu Lvting felt his intelligence being insulted, the principle of friction and static electricity—did she think he didn’t understand it?

But, Li Qiao didn’t give Fu Lvting a chance to question further, asking for his help to take good care of Jiugong. As she turned after taking off her white coat, she pulled the Colt from her pocket and slipped it into her waistband.

Then, with Fu Lvting staring dumbstruck, she walked shoulder to shoulder with Yun Lih, leaving the research building.

He thought to himself, it might really just be a lighter, after all.

...

Downstairs, Yun Lih, accompanied by Li Qiao, left the security booth, where a sky blue open-top Ferrari was parked on the side road.

Showy and eye-catching.

Li Qiao glanced at the car with disdain, while Yun Lih had already walked to the passenger side and was holding the door open for her, "What do you think of this car? The rare lake blue limited edition?"

Not much.

Li Qiao pursed her lips without answering, as Yun Lih didn’t care.

After they both got into the car, he started the engine but didn’t drive off, resting one hand on the steering wheel as he turned to look at Li Qiao, "That kid earlier, does he have ideas about you?"