The driver in front was no longer fazed by his employer's sudden displays of affection. Rather than the displays, he was more surprised that Feng Xinya was able to express any emotion aside from his usual cold and stoicism at all.

But it wasn't his place to feel any sort of feeling towards the changes. Really, he was just amused at how handsome the two men in the backseat were, especially paired together.

Before long, they had finally returned to Xinya's estate and the driver dropped them off right at the entrance, then proceeded to park the car in Xinya's garage to take his own back home. It was evening and time for dinner.

When they entered the mansion through the front doors, they tacitly walked up to their respective rooms to change out of their formal attire into something more comfortable and easier to move around in. Then, they both went back downstairs to cook up something simple for dinner.

Actually, the Xue couple had offered them to stay for dinner but how could Xinya or Yang possibly want to stay for even a single second longer?

Thus, they left and wordlessly decided to fix up their own meal for the evening.

With the recipe online, Feng Xinya and Xue Yang cooked up some seafood stir fry, an accompanying soup, and fresh, hot steamed white rice.

Like always, their dinner was eaten at the dinner table in comfortable silence with both occasionally peeling prawn shells and offering food for the other.

After dinner, Feng Xinya helped clean the table while Xue Yang washed the dishes as always. As he did so, Feng Xinya stood leaning against the counter with his legs crossed and suddenly opened his mouth,

"It'll be noisy for the next few days."

Xue Yang's hands scrubbing the porcelain bowl paused slightly before continuing its rhythmic movement, "Mm."

He kind of guessed it when he was confronted by his younger brother. Even though the latter couldn't see him behind the safety of Feng Xinya's back, he saw Xue Bai's every feature clearly. His twelve-year-old brother wasn't the only one with an eidetic memory. The only reason he took as long as he did to flip through the files at the Xue manor was because he didn't want to speak to his parents.

Though, Xinya had already noticed back in B country that Yang had a superior memory than others, including his brother's.

One could say that the Xue family comprised of prodigies and geniuses, with Xue Yang and Xue Bai' s existences alone.

However, it didn't take a genius to know that while his aunt held blatant malice towards Xue Yang's branch of the family, the mistress and her son would also feel similar feelings of ill-will towards him due to the threat he posed to their position even if he had no desire to contend against them.

Even more so, since they were the pawns of Qiu Se, the aunt, it was undeniable that she had been planting the seeds of hatred within the mistress and the son's hearts from the very beginning. Even if Xue Yang were to tell them that he didn't desire the Xue family, they would not believe him and would even be convinced that he would come back to take the Xue family away from their hands in the future.

Even though Feng Xinya had successfully kept Yang's appearance from being directly revealed to the Xue mistress and son, his little kitten's platinum hair was too distinguishable. And, even if they weren't sure of Xue Yang's presence by his side, the paranoid trio would still make sure to check up on Feng Xinya--whether it be to kill him to rid of a threat or to poach him to their side as a powerful ally.

The aunt could be said to have been taken care of by the special ops and Xue family. So, Feng Xinya completely disregarded her.

But she hadn't been taken care of yet, as it would probably happen in the next few weeks or so. Therefore, the mistress could still use the aunt and Qiu family's resources to dig up information on him, the soldier who visited the Xue mansion that day.

Unfortunately for them, they couldn't find much aside from his address which he had his team's hacker deliberately leave for them. Even though he didn't like inviting trouble to his doorstep, he already knew it was unavoidable. With this mindset, it was better to get rid of their enemies faster.

That was the reason he was expecting unwelcomed visitors soon. And, as one of the involved parties, Xue Yang deserved to know ahead of time what to expect.

Finally, Xue Yang had finished washing the dishes with Feng Xinya helping to dry them before placing them back into their respective spots in the cupboards.

As Feng Xinya closed the cupboard door, Xue Yang quietly spoke up with his pale jade green eyes full of determination as he stared straight into Xinya's own golden orbs,

"Can you teach me how to shoot?"

(dirty author: *wink wonk*)

Calmly shutting the door, Feng Xinya turned his gaze towards the youth before him only half believing in the boy's capability to shoot another living person, especially with his soft and gentle temperament.

But he didn't have to question Yang's reasoning. It was very obvious that he didn't want to be "useless." It was always better to be able to rely on oneself rather than wholeheartedly depend on someone else.

Thus, he didn't deny his request and simply wordlessly led Yang to the underground floor, where the gym and his hidden armory was.

The large room was hidden behind the mirror wall. It resembled a shooting range or gun club, with electricity powered targets and an expansive field in between ranging from 30m to 90m. That was how grand the room hidden behind the mirrors of the gym on the basement floor of Feng Xinya's mansion was.

A long rack that extended from one side of the room to the other width-wise held Feng Xinya's wide collection of guns, from large and heavyweight rifles to small basic handguns. In total, there were over two hundred different types of guns. More than three-fourths of them were more than likely illegal. However, Feng Xinya was a special force soldier, so it was probably deemed okay for him to have so many guns.

Moreover, with the original's likeness to a robot with a one-hundred percent clear rate for his missions, he was undoubtedly one of the team's best men, if not the best. That was why his superiors never got on his case for being as curt and borderline disrespectful as he was, as he behaved as such towards everyone.

Back to the present, there was a computer and scanner at a discreet corner of the room for those occasions when he'd receive information from or want to send information to his superiors while he was practicing. He had brought up the files regarding the Xue family secret along with him.

He left Xue Yang to pick out any gun he was interested in before heading to the computer to fax in the files.

When he returned, the youth was standing in front of a rack of smaller handguns. He seemed unsure if he was allowed to simply take one off, otherwise an alarm could go off?

Facts told that he was just being silly as Xinya picked up a matte-black, standard M17 with a seventeen-round magazine capacity. The original Xinya had multiple of this type of gun as it was the accepted firearm of A Country's military. As a P320 pistol, there were many variations and Xinya just so happened to have all of them, but the M17 model was the standard so he had more of it in the armory.

He knew that Yang was completely clueless as to the different types of guns in the room, and that the boy only stopped in front of this particular rack because of two reasons.

The first was because the M17 was the gun that Feng Xinya had pulled out that day when he had a shoot-off against the male lead all those months ago. Second, was the fact that the smaller guns had a higher chance of weighing less than their larger counterparts and Xue Yang definitely needed to train his arm muscles before messing with such heavyweights.

After assembling the firearm and filling it with ammunition, Xinya curtly handed the gun to Xue Yang before pulling out another identical gun and assembling it.

Then, he promptly took Yang's free hand and pulled him to the shooting range, powering on the targets by flicking all of the switches on the way.

Xue Yang quietly inspected the gun in his hand, committing every new detail he'd failed to catch that day all those months ago to memory. If Xinya would allow him to, he would like to disassemble and assemble the gun on his own later. When Xinya had assembled the guns earlier, he'd watched and recorded everything in his mind.

"M17. Standard military firearm," Feng Xinya patiently explained as they neared one of the lanes.

Yang blinked and nodded to show that he understood. Xinya didn't fail to notice the thirst for more knowledge regarding the many types of guns in the armory that Yang had glowing in his beautiful green eyes earlier. He inwardly resolved to give the boy a manual of all of the guns he had later for him to study.

"You get seventeen shots per magazine," Xinya explained, and without even looking at the moving target in front of them at about 50m, he shot all seventeen rounds perfectly through the middle in less than two minutes. Instead, he was watching how Xue Yang intently followed the muscles in his arm, his posture when he held the gun, and the recoil after each shot.

If he was not slowing down his speed for Yang to observe every movement as he pressed down on the trigger and aimed the gun to shoot, then he would have taken less time to empty out the first magazine.

After Feng Xinya reloaded his magazine, he stepped back to let Yang try.

Neither of them were expecting the youth to be a perfect marksman right off the bat. In fact, the only reason Feng Xinya was able to shoot so well was because of his war background in his original world accompanied by the original's memories and instincts.

While Xue Yang could memorize the form and theory perfectly, shooting a gun was more than that. For example, while Feng Xinya made it seem as if there was almost no recoil due to his strength and control, there was in fact more than what he had let on.

Though, on normal days for Xinya there really would have been no recoil but for the sake of teaching Xue Yang he had to make it known that shooting a gun was not as simple as pulling the trigger.

Sure enough, even though the model of the gun made it so that the recoil after shooting was minimal, when Xue Yang pulled the trigger his arm still flew back slightly and his bullet completely missed the target that was now static. However, because it was his first time shooting, he could get a feel for it and gradually get used to it.

On his third try, he was able to hit the target, even if it was at the edge--a far-cry from Xinya's perfection. But he wasn't discouraged since he was happy enough to have been able to hit the target at all.

Furthermore, Xinya was not stingy with his praise as he briefly glanced at the hole in the target before his deep and charming voice sounded out beside Yang's ear, "Not bad."

His golden eyes unconsciously softened when he saw Yang's obviously cheerful and even more determined expression as the youth prepared to shoot again.

If his posture was even slightly wrong, Feng Xinya would silently and gently correct it by adjusting his arms, waist, shoulders, head, or fingers. However, with Xue Yang's natural talent at memorization and application of his knowledge, those times were minimal at best.

By the last round, Xue Yang was able to hit the second ring from the middle at a consistent rate of two out of three tries.

It would take continuous practice and stamina to eventually hit the target, so Feng Xinya simply left Xue Yang to his own devices as he himself practiced alongside him except with faster and more radical targets. He also changed his choice of firearms often to accustom himself to the different types of guns in his armory. After all, while he had some basic knowledge of shooting, Xinya had primarily used his sword and almost never touched guns as a result.

When they had enough practice, they both decided to retire for the day and take showers to rid themselves of the smell of gunpowder and the sweat and grime of the day in general.

Afterwards, like the previous night, Xue Yang had wandered into Feng Xinya's room to sleep.

He seemed as if he wanted to tell him something, but in the end the boy bit his bottom lip and kept it to himself.

Feng Xinya didn't push him, as if he wanted to tell him, he would eventually. So, he wrapped his strong arms around Yang's fragrant and small body in an embrace as they both fell asleep.