The next place Lin Xiang led her to was a room further into the inner yard. One had to cross the yard from the main building to reach it. Li Caiyi took her time admiring the place until Lin Xiang stopped his track.
"We're here. This is the training room."
Li Caiyi followed his line of sight and saw a room with a wooden door, just like any other room in this building. However, unlike the other room she saw, there was no name plate for this place.
"Your boyfriend should be inside now. Did you have your tools? Are you ready?"
Li Caiyi nodded while raising an empty bucket and mop in her hand. She took it with her as a double cover from the staff room earlier. This way, no one would find it suspicious if she had been there for a long time.
"I will enter with you, but starting from this point, we are not acquaintances, but subordinate and superior, do you get me? I will be there to back you up if necessary, but try not to get yourself in trouble."
"I hear you loud and clear!"
Lin Xiang nodded, and a mischievous smirk appeared on his face. "I wonder if that boy will notice that his little girlfriend had sneaked into a wolf-den just for him?"
Before Li Caiyi could question him, he had opened the door and caused pairs of eyes to shift at them. Li Caiyi shrunk her neck under the blatant stare at them.
"Have you guys worked hard today? Let me see how your progress is."
Lin Xiang put both hands behind his back and stared at them sternly. Gone was the friendly uncle, and what Li Caiyis saw in front of her was the man of authority. His eyes narrowed down like he wouldn't hesitate to beat up anyone who irked him.
"Senior Lin, you have come!"
"We have been waiting for you."
"Please give us some guidance today, too."
Contrary to her expectation, his subordinate didn't look terrified of him but rather respected him? Lin Xiang subtly glanced at her, and Li Caiyi immediately nodded her head, receiving his sign.
"I'd better not see even one of you slacking in my presence. I will observe each one of you. Those who don't train seriously will be disciplined!"
"Yes, Senior Lin!"
While Lin Xiang distracted almost every attention of the people in the room, Li Caiyi sneaked into the room while keeping her head down. As expected, no one paid any attention to her.
Looking around carefully, there were few other people with the same outfit as her, busily wiping the window, organizing the equipment, or simply mopping the floor. She was worried initially, but now she felt more confident this plan would work well.
This training room was really huge with a high ceiling. A few boxing rings lined up in the middle of the room, and some matches were currently on hold.
Across the room, there was a lot of gym equipment where those men worked out to form those bulk bodies. On the other side of the room was a separate space with wooden dolls used as practice partners.
Everything about these was straight out of martial arts movies, with many modern touches, of course.
Li Caiyi found an inconspicuous spot on the corner and pretended to mop the floor while searching for Dai Zhiqiang. To her dismay, she couldn't find him anywhere. This place was full of men and reeked of sweats, but there was no sign of her boyfriend anywhere.
"Strange, where did he go?" Li Caiyi muttered to herself.
In the next second, she heard the sound of the door opening behind her. She flinched in surprise and subconsciously looked down again to hide her face.
"You are in the way."
Upon hearing the familiar voice, Li Caiyi could feel her heart skip a beat. She glanced at the feet of the person in front of her, and there was no mistaking it.
It was Dai Zhiqiang's.
"Next time, don't stand right in front of the door. It's dangerous."
Dai Zhiqiang only said those words before walking around her and leaving. Li Caiyi counted to ten in her heart before she felt safe enough to raise her head.
What she thought as an empty corner at first turned out to be the corner where the bathrooms were. She was too busy with her own thoughts and didn't notice that.
Li Caiyi glanced at Dai Zhiqiang's figure from a distance. Like almost every man in the room, he wore sports pants and shoes, with his upper body bare for everyone to see. Compared to other bulky men, he seemed pretty scrawny, although he also had some muscle in reality.
"So cool," Li Caiyi sighed in a trance, looking at his boyfriend standing in the middle of the ring with an imposing demeanor, even to men older than him.
Thank goodness she didn't take a chance by raising her head earlier. If she found out immediately, she probably wouldn't have a chance to see a delicious view like this.
"Ahem, get a hold of yourself, Li Caiyi. You didn't come here to play."
Scolding herself for getting distracted, she re-focused her attention elsewhere. From what she saw, it seemed like Dai Zhiqiang had considerable respect within this group of people.
Usually, the youngster would ask for guidance from the older one, but with Dai Zhiqiang, it was the opposite. It didn't look like there was any other person who was younger than him too.
Based on how Lin Xiang thought highly of Dai Zhiqiang, she assumed that he had a particular position in this place, making even a gangster-looking Lin Xiang look up to him. Still, she didn't expect it to such an extent.
Li Caiyi felt even more curious. She decided to take a step further by scooting closer to the ring where Dai Zhiqiang currently sparring with one person. Of course, by pretending to mop the floor.
She was restless when a man who was older with a much bigger body than Dai Zhiqiang attacked him with a scary look on his face. However, Dai Zhiqiang looked indifferent and calmly evaded all the attacks. Then, with a sharp movement, he ducked and tripped the opponent's leg when he showed an opening and landed a punch on his chin.
His opponent fell to the ground while holding his bleeding nose. All while glaring at Dai Zhiqiang.
Li Caiyi dreaded imagining what would happen next, but unlike her assumption, the defeated man stood up and exchanged a firm handshake with Dai Zhiqiang before slowly going down the ring.
"Who's next?"
Dai Zhiqiang's low voice reverberated in the silent room. Everyone who was eager to watch the match before averted their eyes and clearly didn't want to get picked as his new opponent.
"If there is no other volunteer, that was the end of today's practice."
Everyone dispersed one by one after he said that. Li Caiyi could sense that there was a slight difference in how these people treated Dai Zhiqiang and Lin Xiang, but she was more concerned about whether Dai Zhiqiang was hurt or not.
Li Caiyi watched how he walked towards the corner of the bench where he put his stuff. He gulped a mouthful of water greedily; some spilt from the corner of his mouth down to his neck, passing through his bobbing Adam's apple.
Then, he wore his t-shirt before retrieving his bag and walking straight toward the door. The other was crowded in front of the shower room, but he left without looking back.
"Wait, where is he going?"
Li Caiyi was about to chase after him when someone stopped her by the shoulder.
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