Hidden Assassin 123

“Hey, I’m saying, why did you intentionally approach that guy Huang Haoyun?” In the bar next to the casino, two girls, carrying the thirty thousand yuan cash check given by the casino manager, were rejecting one after another man who approached them, whispering to each other.

“Please, if we don’t distract him, tomorrow morning Jia Ming’s classmate will be in trouble… I told you to get lost! Are you deaf? Did you come back from Mars?”

The sweet voice instantly almost drowned out the singing amplified through the microphone on stage. The hot but alluring girl stood up. The man beside her who was trying to chat her up turned red and white, and in the sudden silence of the bar, he awkwardly waved his hand. “Uh, sorry, sorry…” He slipped away in a huff.

Yingying sat down, crossed her legs, applied makeup, and put on lipstick: “You see, refusing others needs this kind of forcefulness to have an effect, and it feels great. You said you wanted to come down to vent, right? Next, it’s your turn to try.” As for the person beside her, Ya Han, who was pulling the colorful beads hanging on her chest, she was already laughing so hard she couldn’t breathe.

“You… you… you… please, don’t act so much like it, haha, I’m going to die, my stomach hurts so bad…”

“Even if it hurts, you don’t need to use your head to press on my chest, the plastic water bag will burst.”

“Hehe, I just wanted it to burst, so I could see what kind of eyes those thirsty men who are looking over would have.”

“…”

Drinking, laughing, dancing, going to the small stage to sing, turning away waves of boring men. Occasionally going to the casino to gamble, since they had already taken the casino’s money, of course, it wasn’t good to win all the time. Ya Han bet randomly, and actually lost more often. At about one o’clock in the morning, the two of them went to the restroom. The girl chuckled softly: “If you don’t find it stimulating enough, we can continue winning table after table until they go bankrupt, that’s fine too.”

Ya Han’s eyes widened: “But, haven’t you already taken their money? If we do that again, won’t we get into trouble?”

“Hehe, this kind of thing doesn’t count as trouble, especially since you have the Zhang family’s background, the casino wouldn’t dare to really do anything to us. I’m just worried that you’d get bored of losing money.”

“Where, I’ve won some too.”

“You’ve won less than you lost, wouldn’t you be depressed?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not.” Ya Han smiled, “There’s a chance of winning and a chance of losing, isn’t that the thrill of gambling that people seek? Don’t you think so, Jia Ming?”

“It’s understandable, but hard to imagine.” The girl smiled brightly, “I like the feeling of having everything under my control, losers have no voice. Aaaahhh… why are you pulling my face…”

“Please, don’t smile like that, okay? If you smile a few more times like that, I’ll really start to think of you as a girl. Also, when there’s no one around, can you please stop talking in that beautiful voice? You’re ruining my image of Jia Ming.”

“But I’m a professional…” The girl’s voice trailed off, Jia Ming waved and laughed. This time, it was the boy’s original voice, but combined with his current image, it felt strangely odd. “Okay, I’ll use my own voice when no one’s around, I’m scared of you.”

Ya Han rolled her eyes in annoyance: “Hey, Jia Ming. Can a person really control everything? Like, when you’re in those dangerous situations?”

“At least at that time, life is firmly in your hands. More real than any other time.”

Hearing him say this, Ya Han paused for a moment, then wrapped her arms around Jia Ming’s neck in the hallway, the two girls leaning against each other.

“Jia Ming, you’re actually still a child… I’m sorry, I was being very selfish today, thank you for agreeing to my unreasonable demands, for being so playful with me for so long. Only my mother ever used to play around like this with me…”

As she spoke, Ya Han’s voice suddenly became choked, Jia Ming sighed, patted Ya Han’s shoulder, feeling the curious gazes from those around them. He thought to himself, if you want to get sentimental, you can find another place… After a while, she finally released Jia Ming and wiped her tears. “Sorry, I got a little emotional…”

“It’s okay, we’re sisters, it’s natural.”

Looking at Jia Ming’s female disguise, listening to him speak like this, Ya Han burst out laughing. She then turned towards the women’s restroom, but turned back after entering: “Uh, what are you doing…”

“I need to use the restroom too.”

“But…” Her fingers waved in the air, Ya Han giggled. “Oh, well… you can’t peek.”

“Please…”

Inside the restroom, the lights were bright, seemingly only the last stall was occupied. Ya Han closed the small door, sat on the toilet, and when the sound of water flowed, she couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. Jia Ming was right next to her, hearing every sound she made. When a louder sound of water flowed from next door, the blush on her face deepened. She thought to herself, girls are so disadvantaged, no matter what the situation, they’re the ones who feel shy. On a whim, she knocked on the wall next to her, whispering, “Hey, are you sitting or standing?”

“Of course, I’m… uh, sitting…”

“So perverted.”

Standing in the stall next to her, Jia Ming helplessly rolled his eyes. He could hear a continuous sound of striking matches from the last stall, then the sound of the flush button being pressed, and the door opened. He glanced with his peripheral vision, and it was Xu Yiting, who looked around stealthily. When she probably realized that she didn’t know the people there, she opened the door and came out.

Her body trembled slightly, and she was sniffing softly, looking like a person with the flu. Xu Yiting’s current situation looked much worse than when she had borrowed money from Jia Ming four or five hours ago. He was puzzled in his heart but didn’t show it on his face. He walked to the sink, Xu Yiting took off her glasses, cupped her hands, and splashed cold water on her face continuously. Her body trembled even more violently. At that moment, Ya Han came out from inside.

“Oh, Xu Yiting? You’re here too, your complexion is so bad, what happened? Are you sick? It’s so serious, why didn’t you go to the doctor?”

“Ya… Ya Han teacher, it’s nothing, I… I’m fine…” Suddenly noticing a familiar face, Xu Yiting nervously put on her glasses, but her face was still wet, her vision was blurred, and she fumbled to pull out a tissue from her pocket to wipe her face. A small silver package also fell to the ground. By the time she realized it, Jia Ming had already picked it up. It was a silver tinfoil paper from a cigarette box, and when he opened it, there was some white powder inside.

From Jia Ming’s point of view, the current price of the black market was about two hundred yuan for a small package of number four heroin, and there was less than a quarter left. Obviously, the rest had been used by Xu Yiting’s father.

“I… I’m sorry, big sister… that’s mine, can… can you give it back to me?” The situation suddenly became a bit strange. Xu Yiting sniffed, her voice became extremely timid due to nervousness. Although Ya Han acted childish and ridiculous in front of Jia Ming, she was actually quite experienced. Seeing the white powder, she understood what it was, but still asked, “That… what is that…?” Hoping for an unexpected answer from the more experienced Jia Ming.

Looking at Xu Yiting’s unpleasant face, Jia Ming smiled, wrapped up the thing and put it back in her pocket, and said softly, “Why don’t you just smoke it? How long have you been holding back?”

These words undoubtedly confirmed Ya Han’s understanding. Xu Yiting was stunned for a moment, then tears rolled down her cheeks, “I… I want to quit, but it’s so uncomfortable… I don’t want to be like this, woo…”

Ya Han and Jia Ming exchanged glances, then Ya Han gently hugged Xu Yiting, whispering comfort. Amidst the sobbing, Jia Ming and Ya Han also learned that Xu Yiting was indeed implicated by her father. She had been led astray and got addicted due to a moment of curiosity. Although Jia Ming usually stayed out of other people’s business, at least Ya Han’s compassion had been stirred. Just then, a commotion came from outside.

“Catch him, he’s cheating!”

“Stop him! Don’t let him run away!”

“I didn’t… I didn’t… you’re cheating, cheating!”

The voice of the man protesting was slightly hoarse. Jia Ming’s eyes narrowed. This speaker was clearly Xu Yiting’s father, Xu Changhong. At the same time, Xu Yiting’s crying body also trembled slightly, and she cried out, “It’s my dad.” She rushed out of the door. Jia Ming and Ya Han followed suit.

As they walked out of the restroom door, they saw that the casino was in chaos. Xu Changhong was frantically overturning several gambling tables, his mind was in an extreme state of excitement. But seeing that the casino’s security guards were coming from all directions, and the places he could escape to were getting fewer and fewer, the people in the bar and those who were previously at the casino gathered together to watch the excitement. Having no affection for Xu Yiting’s father, Ya Han didn’t plan to intervene either. Looking at the situation, Ya Han said, “Jia Ming, I… do we have a way to help her?”

“Send her to a rehabilitation center.”

“No, no.” Ya Han quickly objected, “That, I know, if you send her there, the environment is bad and she’ll be bullied and abused. At Xu Yiting’s age, her life is basically over.”

“Hehe, but if you, Ya Han, intervene in your personal capacity and try to cure her addiction, it will be very troublesome. I know some methods, of course, but pitiful people must have their hateful parts. You can’t believe what addicts say, anyone can make themselves seem more pitiful than anyone else. Ya Han, are you sure you want to help her?”

“She… she’s my student, after all.” Ya Han said hesitantly, “And she’s a member of your club, isn’t she? When I sit in the club’s activity room knitting, she’s often sitting quietly beside me reading, although we don’t talk much, but a girl like her, how many mistakes can she have made?”

As the two of them spoke, Xu Changhong, who had nowhere to go, had already been knocked to the ground by a security guard’s baton. Then came a flurry of punches and kicks. Luckily, when Xu Yiting squeezed out of the crowd and threw herself onto the ground, they stopped. The beating wasn’t too severe, and the casino manager who had given Jia Ming and Ya Han money previously told the people to drag Xu Changhong away, then gave instructions to tidy up the scene. At the same time, Xu Yiting was already crying and shouting, “Dad! – Dad! – What’s wrong with you – Dad!”

Xu Changhong had never been ambitious, he forced his wife to remarry and led his daughter into drug addiction, but no matter what, Xu Yiting had been living with her father since childhood, so her cries now were particularly heartbreaking. Ya Han and Jia Ming squeezed into the crowd. A few security guards looked at Xu Changhong who was lying on the ground, then whispered something to the manager, who immediately changed color. Jia Ming read their lips, grabbed Ya Han’s shoulder, “Xu Changhong is dead.”

“Wh… what…”

A dead person was a big deal. Looking at Xu Changhong lying motionless on the ground, this rumor immediately caused a commotion in the crowd. The manager didn’t dare to conceal it. The casino had connections, so he immediately called the police and the hospital’s emergency number, telling everyone that the man not only cheated, but was also a drug addict. He had obviously taken drugs before and now it was sudden death caused by heart failure. On the other hand, he also started to tell the security guards who participated in the beating to leave quickly. However, seeing that several people were secretly trying to leave, Xu Yiting cried and threw herself at them.

“Don’t go! Murderers, don’t go!”

She was a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl, what could she do at this point? As soon as she rushed forward, she was blocked and pushed away by the other security guards. She kept falling to the ground amidst her cries. Although there were some of Huang family’s relatives in the crowd, they were all young people, and none of them wanted to get involved in this mess. He had taken drugs first, then cheated. The security guards hadn’t beaten him for too long. It’s possible he died suddenly now. They weren’t very familiar with him before, and it would be embarrassing to rush forward and claim such a relative now.

As Xu Yiting struggled for a moment, one of the security guards whispered something to the manager, then a few people searched through Xu Yiting’s clothes and took out the package of drugs. They took it and showed it to everyone. In fact, Xu Changhong was beaten up before he died. Naturally, it wasn’t completely due to drug-induced sudden death. The casino was just trying to solidify this matter. They didn’t beat Xu Changhong too severely, and they had connections above. As long as they could prove it was drug-induced sudden death, public opinion wouldn’t spread the rumor that the casino beat a man to death, and the casino wouldn’t be affected too much.

“… Both the father and daughter are drug addicts, first keep this girl under control, and when the police arrive, we’ll deal with it.”

With his words, two security guards grabbed Xu Yiting, who was crying and struggling. The security guards who had participated in the beating had already left through the side door of the casino. Amidst the noisy crowd, a bottle of liquor flew across a distance of more than ten meters and exploded on the forehead of one of the security guards holding Xu Yiting. The security guards were stunned for a moment, the one who was hit staggered a few steps and collapsed to the ground.

“Let her go!” Among the crowd, Ya Han, who felt pity for Xu Yiting’s plight, was in the front. Jia Ming, in his female disguise, followed behind her, spinning a bottle of liquor in his hand. At the same time, dozens of casino security guards had surrounded them. The manager said, “You two ladies, what do you think you’re doing?”

Jia Ming smiled lightly and said softly, “Making a scene.”

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