Chapter 150: Are You Letting Us Leave or Not?

"What is wrong with me?" Xiao Ma asked.

Olivia took out her phone, tapped on it a few times to pull up a photograph, and handed it over. "See for yourself."

Xiao Ma was dumbfounded at a glance. This was from that night in the Haizhou water town, the exact moment he was forcibly bundled onto the helicopter by Julia. Why did she have this photo?

At the time, the bodyguards from the Dignitary Protection Bureau had been terribly embarrassed and intended to snap a picture, but Theresa had confiscated both of their phones and thrown them into the lake. Yet, somehow, one of them had slipped through the net; one bodyguard had secretly backed it up on a secondary phone.

Naturally, it had been transmitted back to the Dignitary Protection Bureau headquarters in London. And the head of the Dignitary Protection Bureau was none other than Olivia.

Xiao Ma offered no response, plunging the atmosphere into a brief silence as nearly all eyes gravitated toward them. This horse race had long since concluded, and each race was followed by a thirty-minute intermission, a convenient window for everyone to swap gossip.

With a high-ranking dignitary involved, Olivia found it inconvenient to make a public spectacle of the matter. Instead, she leaned in closer, adopting a somewhat "intimate" posture to whisper in Xiao Ma's ear: "With this photo, might I interpret it this way: you abducted the Home Secretary Julia, violated the dignitary protection regulations, and placed the Home Secretary in mortal peril. Earlier, there was nothing to be done about it, but now that you are on British soil, do you suppose I have the right to invite you in for a cup of tea?"

This was undoubtedly a case of insufficient evidence, but with this premise, she could indeed haul someone in for questioning. It wasn't entirely untrue.

Olivia immediately followed up with: "I don't actually wish to do that. So, who on earth are you, what is your entanglement with her, and what happened that night? Don't you intend to explain it to me?"

Xiao Ma pondered for a moment before leaning in to whisper in her ear: "I am merely a bit neurotic, but do not mistake me for a fool. You yourself said she is a dignitary; would you call this prying into confidential state affairs? Do you really think I would tell you so easily?"

"You—" A flash of anger crossed Olivia's face.

Xiao Ma continued, "A single photograph proves nothing. If you truly had the confidence and were genuinely enforcing the law, you would have gone and questioned her directly, wouldn't you? The fact that you didn't means you didn't dare; you lacked both the grounds and the confidence. By the way, if my deduction is erroneous, please point it out."

Olivia was momentarily lost for words. Utterly helpless, she realized her entire psychological defense had been completely dismantled by Xiao Ma’s reckless, unorthodox strikes.

It was precisely because she didn't dare question Julia that she had turned her attention to this seemingly gullible rookie. Initially, the kid looked handsome and bewitching. Moreover, Julia was unmarried and at an age where she most needed physical fulfillment. Olivia had assumed she had simply picked up a pretty boy for some casual fun. If that were the case, she could easily intimidate this male gigolo.

However, since this kid could articulate such arguments, Olivia naturally no longer viewed him as a mere male gigolo. He had to be one of Julia's people, someone privy to some of Julia's affairs. This transformed the situation into a complex issue, one that went far beyond personal indiscretions.

Of course, she could order him dragged away right now. But Olivia would then face another dilemma: what good would it do? As long as he wasn't a gigolo but one of Julia's people, arresting him would not only be useless, but it would also be tantamount to going to war with the Home Office.

From the Home Secretary's perspective, Olivia knew she would readily interpret this move as a declaration of war.

"Are you going to arrest me or not? Has the Commander-in-Chief not made up her mind yet?" Xiao Ma asked.

After a kaleidoscope of expressions crossed her face, Olivia ultimately did nothing. She simply retrieved her phone, leaned in to whisper, "I don't know who you are, nor do I know what business you have with her. In any case, you've got guts, attaching yourself to the upper echelons. Fine, let's pretend I never said anything just now."

Many in the VIP viewing gallery knew who this middle-aged woman was, and even more knew just how formidable she was.

They had been waiting for her to throw a tantrum and watch a crowd of people crash and burn, yet that spectacle never materialized. Instead, they saw her whispering intimately with a Chinese youth, causing a sudden uproar as everyone frantically guessed who the hell this guy was.

Good grief, could he perhaps be one of Olivia's kept men?

That didn't seem right either. Olivia was no idiot; she was a married woman. While she might indeed have lovers on the side, she shouldn't be foolish enough to openly flirt with a kept man in public at the Royal Ascot.

Thus, their seemingly intimate interaction actually proved the exact opposite: he was not a lover, but someone tangled up in shady dealings with a high-ranking official.

Li Xiaoli and Mason felt a chilling sensation in the pits of their stomachs. At this moment, they truly had zero temper left. Judging by this display, Xiao Ma and Olivia might not be friends, but the fact that they could engage in such tit-for-tat "shadow warfare" was enough to demonstrate Xiao Ma's extraordinary capability.

At the very least, this country bumpkin had the nerve to go toe-to-toe with Olivia.

Uncle Hua was immensely astonished, realizing that this young man was undoubtedly a complex figure. He leaned close to Li Xiaoli and muttered, "Miss, I have a bad feeling about this. You had several conflicts with him earlier; we need to find a way to patch things up. I have a hunch he will turn out to be even more troublesome than Commander Olivia."

Yet Li Xiaoli remained somewhat unreconciled and unconvinced, muttering under her breath, "Is he really that god-like?"

With the cunning air of a seasoned fox, Uncle Hua replied, "You've already witnessed Olivia's temper. But pay attention: it's obvious she holds a grudge against this fellow, yet she has consistently suppressed it without lashing out. Ask yourself, whenever she deals with the Li family, she gives us the cold shoulder over the slightest disagreement. So when she swallows her insults like this and engages in verbal sparring with a young man, it means real trouble has arrived."

These words left both Mason and Li Xiaoli feeling thoroughly sour, yet they were utterly speechless. They could only stare in a daze as Xiao Ma continued his "verbal sparring" and shadow warfare with Olivia.

From another angle, Feng Chenchen and Zeng Xiaoxian had no idea who Olivia was, assuming she was merely a middle-aged woman in heat, and simply continued discussing the recent horse race.

Keira Knightley, however, was utterly astonished. Watching from afar, she discovered that young Master Ma was actually whispering intimately with the number one figure of Scotland Yard. What on earth was going on?

"Who on earth is he?" Keira grew increasingly curious about Xiao Ma, edging closer to ask.

"A big shot, obviously." Zeng Xiaoxian and Feng Chenchen couldn't really explain it either, so they gave a vague reply.

A short while later, seeing that Xiao Ma was still being "intimate" with that middle-aged woman, Zeng Xiaoxian and Feng Chenchen expressed their profound dissatisfaction in unison: "Who the hell is that woman?"

"Good grief, she is the number one figure at police headquarters, Commander Olivia," Keira said with a speechless expression, feeling that the other two women were truly clueless.

"Ah?"

This time, it was Zeng Xiaoxian and Feng Chenchen's turn to drop their jaws in a half-open gape. They knew young Master Ma was formidable, but they never imagined he could charm his way through circles like this...

Over on the other side, Olivia had still not decided how to conclude this shadow war. Her state of mind was bizarre; she felt Xiao Ma was a fat sheep—she couldn't arrest him, yet she didn't want to let him go so easily either. She wanted to keep entangling with him, learn more about him, and figure out who he was.

"Are you going to let me leave or not?"

Constantly being pestered like this was no solution, so young Master Ma grew irritated and raised his voice openly, abandoning the whispers.

Olivia narrowed her eyes but remained silent.

Li Xiaoli, Mason, and the others were once again dumbfounded, their mouths half-open. *Holy crap, this guy actually dared to chew her out like that, and she isn't even reacting?*

A short while later, Olivia's assistant hurried over and said, "We've received word from the Rapid Response Unit. Her Excellency is about to arrive. By helicopter."

At this, Olivia couldn't help but frown deeply. She didn't want to see Julia, but she also knew she absolutely could not let Julia catch her here pestering one of her people. That would only breed further complications, turning London—already a complete mess resembling a pigsty—into an even greater shambles.

"These people are truly exasperating; Britain is being ruined by the likes of them," Olivia muttered under her breath in complaint.

Her assistant awkwardly remarked, "It's best not to say things like that on an occasion like this."

Olivia retorted, "As if I'm wrong! We have so many generals, and all they do is seize power, devour budgets, and accomplish nothing. Do you have any idea how many generals belong to the Victoria family?"

The assistant was supremely awkward. "I know, but precisely because of that, you shouldn't say it."

"Fine, I know talking about it is useless anyway." Olivia glared at Xiao Ma once more, racking her brain for some polite parting words to "release" him.

However, she didn't even need to speak. Xiao Ma had also vaguely caught wind of the phrase "Julia is coming," and he bolted away in a flash of smoke.

It might not have been the will of this physical body, but rather Xiao Ma's own will.

In short, Xiao Ma was dodging people from the family. Julia wasn't a member of the family, but she held immense weight and understood the Great Demon King better than anyone.

Staying with her for too long was an absolute recipe for disaster; sooner or later, his disguise would crumble.

Moreover, as a woman, she was far too charming. Remembering the eight rounds they had shared last time made things exceptionally awkward. He truly didn't have the face to run into her again just like that.

If she caught him again, while she might not instantly see through his disguise, what if he failed to control his lower body once more? Who knew what kind of chaotic nonsense might ensue? Even without any complications, he couldn't afford to recklessly squander his physical stamina indefinitely.

Xiao Ma wanted to make things last, slowly drifting along and waiting out the apocalypse in idle comfort. He had no desire to burn through his "overdrawn credit line" and work himself to death the way he used to.

Anyone else could manage to exercise restraint; for instance, when dealing with Feng Chenchen or Zhen Yuqi, he could barely hold himself back. But in front of Julia, strangely enough, self-control completely vanished—he simply couldn't resist.

Young Master Ma just bolted away like a puff of smoke. Aside from leaving Olivia with her mouth half-open in shock, it also left Li Xiaoli and the others completely bewildered, entirely clueless as to what kind of act was being put on.

Olivia was the first to snap back to her senses. The Home Secretary was about to arrive, and she needed to go and greet her. She glared at Li Xiaoli and her group one last time, too preoccupied to nurse grudges right now, and walked away without a word.

It wasn't that Olivia didn't hold grudges; it was simply that putting the Li family in their place didn't require her to throw a public tantrum like a shrew. A slight readjustment in police operational guidelines would immediately hike the operating costs of the Li family's enterprises by thirty percent.

With Olivia's departure, Li Xiaoli remained utterly baffled by this bizarre conclusion, having no earthly idea how to proceed.

Uncle Hua stepped closer and lowered his voice. "Miss, let's go."

"We're leaving just like this?" Li Xiaoli frowned slightly.

Uncle Hua said, "Staying here serves no purpose; we can think it over slowly back at the hotel. Otherwise, if we stay and happen to cross paths with Commander Olivia again, rekindling her hostility, things will get very ugly."

"But we agreed to wait for Deputy Commander Oliver here," Li Xiaoli hesitated.

Uncle Hua sighed. "Waiting for him won't do much good now. We'll have to think of another way."

"True enough, let's go then. Cancel the later arrangements; I want to return to the hotel to rest." Li Xiaoli looked thoroughly battered, her emotions in a deeply peculiar state...