Chapter 146: Others Have Flaws That Cannot Obscure Their Splendor, While His Splendor Cannot Obscure His Flaws (Part Two)

This attitude was quite literally like punching a pile of cotton.

It seemed that playing a straightforward game with Jiang Huan's direct and forthright nature was useless.

In that case, Jiang Huan had no choice but to use a different approach.

She did not afford Lu Pengchun a single pleasant look. "Please state your purpose. If there is nothing out of the ordinary, I would like to make use of my rare leave to go find my boyfriend."

If Jiang Huan intentionally framing Lu Pengchun's selfish motives as official business could be interpreted as a subtle dig at him for not doing proper work, then this remark was simply beating him at his own game of playing dumb while knowing the truth.

Moreover, this single sentence carried more weight than any of Jiang Huan's previous attitudes or words. Lu Pengchun's face immediately dropped. "You have a boyfriend? You actually have a boyfriend??"

Jiang Huan nodded with absolute certainty. "Of course. I am in my twenties. Is having a boyfriend really that surprising?"

In an instant, the halo of the perfect woman surrounding Jiang Huan shattered quite a bit in Lu Pengchun's eyes.

Yet, the trope of the beautiful savior rescuing the hero—beautified through his own memories and fantasies—made Lu Pengchun unwilling to give up just yet. "Who is your boyfriend? How long have you been dating? How far along are you two?"

Jiang Huan burst into a laugh. "Mr. Lu, what is this? Are you holding a memorial service for my love life? Fine, I'll answer you. My boyfriend and I have been together since the apocalyptic ice age. Later on, we were comrades-in-arms fighting shoulder to shoulder, living through life-and-death situations together. We share each other's secrets, and we trust each other's character. Why don't you tell me how far along we are? Hmm? Scientist Mr. Lu."

Lu Pengchun wore an unfriendly expression, and a female assistant beside him looked at Jiang Huan with equally ill intent.

What was wrong with this person's perspective?

Sitting right in front of her was a great scientist who saved the nation and the people, young and promising. Why on earth could this woman named Jiang Huan respond to Mr. Lu's goodwill with such raw, vulgar words meant to hurt Mr. Lu's heart?

Mr. Lu must be feeling terribly hurt right now, the female assistant thought. She glanced at Lu Pengchun, wishing she could slap Jiang Huan across the face to snap her back to reality.

Unfortunately, the female assistant realized she had no standing whatsoever to slap Jiang Huan.

Besides, this Jiang Huan was a front-line heavy-hitter who could engage in brutal combat with those ugly, sickening sea beasts.

She was a liberal arts major; she had no desire to engage in hand-to-hand combat with someone like that—it would simply be beneath her dignity.

Suppressing her displeasure, Lu Pengchun continued to press for the man's name and other details.

Jiang Huan sneered. "What do you want to do once you know his name? We are just ordinary apocalyptic lovers conscientiously risking our lives against sea beasts on the front lines, never knowing when radiation might taint us and rob us of our future. We just want to stay together within our limited time. Mr. Lu, since I've put it this way, as an apocalyptic savior and an expert who pumps out nation-saving projects every few days, surely you understand what this means."

Her deliberate use of the honorific was timed to perfection. Coupled with the word "expert," it stung Lu Pengchun so sharply that he could no longer keep up the act.

At his core, he was a fickle opportunist and an exquisite egoist. Feeling that he had not received the treatment he deserved abroad, treating him like mere livestock, he made the decision to return to his homeland when a Chinese spy extended an olive branch. Yet, when he thought Jiang Huan would trade him to save her teammates, he had already plotted how to appease William and ensure that the doomed Jiang Huan received her "punishment."

For someone with such deeply flawed character, enduring until this moment was already the absolute limit driven by his own subjective will.

The fake gentlemanly veneer vanished from his face, stripped of the so-called respect and romance he had absorbed overseas. "With my current status, had you not gone on that mission, you wouldn't even be in the same league as me. What on earth are you putting on airs for? It was like this before, and it's like this now that you're here. Who do you think you are, some heavenly fairy?"

"No, I dare not, absolutely never," Jiang Huan replied with a slouch, her attitude making it abundantly clear that she had zero intention of putting on a good performance in front of a man of Lu Pengchun's caliber, nor did she care one bit about his opinion of her.

"Fine, very good! Tell me, what kind of punishment do you think you'll receive if I tell them how you treated an expert like me back then?"

Having stayed overseas for too long, the moment he failed to get what he wanted, he immediately began plotting its destruction.

That savage, cold-blooded self-righteousness deeply ingrained in foreign education was given a textbook manifestation in Lu Pengchun at this very moment.

"What punishment could there possibly be? I've already resisted sea beasts in the harshest environments—beasts that people like you wouldn't even dare to look at twice—while embracing the daily reality of radiation and quietly waiting for death. Do you honestly think there is any environment left that could be called a punishment to me? Mr. Lu, I don't expect you to feel any gratitude toward an ordinary citizen who brought you out of that cage, but as a human being, having a shred of decency and self-respect is surely the bare minimum, isn't it?"

"You! Jiang Huan! You!" Treated this way over and over again by the woman he had set his sights on, Lu Pengchun finally lost all his patience. "Fine! Then you just wait and see what I am capable of! I've looked into you. You still have a younger brother—"

"Bang!" Jiang Huan leaped to her feet, kicking the tabletop directly as she closed in on Lu Pengchun. "You're courting death!"

Her speed was terrifying. In a fraction of a second, her hand had clamped around his neck, and she drew a dagger, pressing it right against his temple.

In that instant, Lu Pengchun was violently reminded of the terror he felt abroad when his fate was held tightly in the palm of another's hand.

This made his legs turn to jelly once more, and he nearly slid straight out of his chair.

The female assistant's shrill scream pierced the heavens. "Ah———— Murder! Jiang Huan is attacking Dr. Lu!"

With that, biting her lower lip heroically, she lunged forward, attempting to smash Jiang Huan in the eyes with her notebook.

Jiang Huan flicked her hand and batted it away. This level of offense was so feeble it was almost laughable.

Yet immediately afterward, the woman actually drew a firearm and fired point-blank at Jiang Huan without hesitation.

With a swift dodge, Jiang Huan evaded the bullet, while the female assistant successfully pulled the nearly asphyxiated Lu Pengchun to safety.

Security guards rushed in from outside, instantly surrounding Jiang Huan.

Instead of panicking, Jiang Huan withdrew her dagger, tapped her communication device, and before anyone could figure out what she was doing, the female assistant shrieked that Jiang Huan was trying to commit murder and that she was the one who had saved Dr. Lu. "She must be a traitor! Absolutely a hired assassin sent from overseas! Hurry up and kill her!"

Crying out, she raised her gun once more, aiming straight at Jiang Huan's head.

Unexpectedly, someone intercepted her, effortlessly stripping the weapon from her grip. "You might have forgotten one of the core directives when we were assigned to protect Dr. Lu."

Frustrated at having missed the chance to shoot the obnoxious Jiang Huan, the assistant lost her composure for a second and glared at the team leader.

The next moment, however, her face drained completely of color. The absolute certainty she had felt just moments earlier—the unwavering conviction that everyone would stand on her side and obey her every word—vanished into thin air.

She remembered. She finally remembered what one of the core directives was.