Hidden Assassin 129

The streetlights flickered on. The car slipped through a gap between two vehicles ahead, smoothly heading towards the next intersection. Dongfang Wan and the two other girls frantically looked back. Three motorcycles sped past from behind. The people on the back seats seemed to be looking around at the vehicles on the road.

“Should we call the police?” Jia Ming turned his head and asked as they passed a police checkpoint.

“Um… hehe, no need…” Dongfang Wan turned back awkwardly, adding, “They have connections with the police too. It’ll be a lot of trouble if we call them. It’s better to just run away…”

“Oh, where are you guys going then?”

“Uh, anywhere is fine. Thank you, Suyan Sister.”

When dealing with outsiders, Dongfang Wan was quite well-behaved and polite, but her constant tendency to cause trouble was truly beyond reproach. It was unknown who they had angered this time, and Jia Ming had no interest in finding out. He nodded, steered the car into a side road with sparse traffic. When the motorcycles disappeared from view, Dongfang Wan finally patted her chest, turned back and asked, “Suyan Sister, are you and Ya Han Teacher classmates?”

“Not really.”

“Then… let me guess. You are also an overseas Chinese? I heard Ya Han Teacher studied at Cambridge. Even if you weren’t a Cambridge student, you must have known Ya Han Teacher there, right?”

“Yes, how did you know?”

Naturally, it wasn’t true, but it was the background Jia Ming had planned when he mentioned being friends with Ya Han. Now that she had guessed correctly, he couldn’t help but ask. Dongfang Wan smiled smugly, “It’s the aura, Suyan Sister. Your aura is different from domestic girls. You seem more independent, more… um, more powerful. Ya Han Teacher also has that aura, you know. Many people were afraid of Ya Han Teacher in school.”

“Oh, really?” He replied casually, thinking to himself that rich kids’ flattery skills had indeed been trained. He glanced in the rearview mirror. The three motorcycles had already caught up from behind. Jia Ming steered the car into another side road, a plan forming in his mind.

From his memory, these motorcycles were already behind them before Dongfang Wan and the others got in the car. It was clear they had seen Dongfang Wan, and the reason they were pretending to be searching for something was to… attack in a secluded spot?

Ugh, Dongfang Wan, you talk about Ya Han so highly, but do you know she’s just a clingy little girl in private? She has a lot of sympathy but is lazy to the core. If this old car wasn’t so poorly maintained, I could use it to lose those motorcycles right now… The resentment was endless.

“…But the thing I admire most about Ya Han Teacher is that she was able to become friends with someone as difficult to get along with as Gu Jia Ming. However, I guess she must be quite troubled by his personality too…”

“Gu Jia Ming?” Jia Ming was slightly taken aback when he heard his own name mentioned.

“Yes.” Dongfang Wan shrugged, “Even though they pretended not to be that close in school, I knew all along that they were good friends. I guess Ya Han Teacher was trying to correct Gu Jia Ming’s aloof personality by being friends with him. You don’t know him, Suyan Sister?”

“Ha, I just arrived in Jiang Hai City not long ago, I don’t know Ya Han’s friends that well.”

“Well, Gu Jia Ming… how should I put it…” Dongfang Wan leaned back in the car seat, her eyes looking at the car ceiling, a tinge of melancholy in her voice. “He was a classmate of ours. To be honest, he was actually a very impressive boy. He’s good at basketball, great with computers. My cousin opened a web company and said he’s a rare computer genius. He can also compose music and sing, and the songs he composes are so good that even professional musicians are humbled. And once, he managed to scare off two Italian Neapolitan Mastiffs just with his eyes. It was so scary, I thought I was going to be bitten to death. Thinking about it now, it seems like a dream…”

After the slightly sentimental tone, a look of indignation appeared on Dongfang Wan’s pretty face: “But his personality is really awful. He never fits in. We’ve been in the same class for a year, and he talks to other classmates like strangers. So he doesn’t have many friends. He’s good at basketball, so the school basketball team wanted him to join once. But he kept refusing. You guess what he said? He said his time is precious, and he’d be willing to help others play basketball, but they’d have to pay him by the hour. He pissed everyone off. I also tried to change his antisocial personality, but… I failed. I couldn’t do anything about him…”

“Oh.” Jia Ming shrugged disdainfully. “Sounds like a pretty nasty guy. Just let him fend for himself, wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, if he keeps this personality, no matter how good he is at something, he will definitely suffer one day. Society is not as simple as school. Even the most talented people can be ostracized without a future if they don’t know how to deal with people. Hopefully, he’ll change by then. Anyway, he’s very smart and can learn anything quickly.” She gave a faint smile, “Haha, am I meddling too much? I’m actually just hoping to do my best as class monitor.”

“No, you are excellent. That guy is beyond hope. I think the best thing you can do is stay far away from him.” My personality is aloof, I’m a freak, please stay far away from me…

“Hmm.” She nodded, “But I think the reason he’s like this is because no one ever cared about him when he was younger. He’s actually quite good to his friends. He has two childhood friends, both excellent girls in school. Every time they were harassed by boys, he would pretend to be their boyfriend and come to their rescue, even if it meant offending anyone…”

“Huh? Pretend? I heard Gu Jia Ming is really Ye Lingjing’s boyfriend.” One of the girls in the back seat said, reacting to Dongfang Wan’s words.

“But I heard he’s with Liu Huai Sha… He’s just ordinary friends with Ye Lingjing, like a brother and sister…” another girl said.

“Humph, he can’t be dating two girls who are good friends.” Dongfang Wan glanced back at the two girls, quite proud of the inside scoop she had revealed.

“Actually, according to my deduction, he’s not the boyfriend of either one of them. They’ve been childhood friends, like sisters, so Ye Lingjing and Liu Huai Sha would ask him for help whenever they were harassed by boys. Remember that time he played basketball? He intentionally teased Dai Zhiqiang, which was so different from his usual behavior. It’s because Dai Zhiqiang liked Liu Huai Sha. And that Christmas party… I told you guys, he was very impressive at the party, because my brother was hitting on Ye Lingjing, but he ended up losing all face…”

“So… are he and Ye Lingjing and Liu Huai Sha just ordinary friends?”

“Of course not! I told you they grew up together. They’re like siblings. He’s always taken care of his two sisters. But he wouldn’t have feelings for them. It’s like how my brother is so amazing, but I don’t have feelings for him. Boyfriend and girlfriend, those are all just illusions they created. I saw the evidence, but it’s not confirmed yet, so I can’t talk about it.”

Evidence… Jia Ming smiled wryly in his heart. He didn’t know what kind of information Dongfang Wan had pieced together this time. The school life he had been looking forward to experiencing was not like this. If he were to use his killer instincts, Dongfang Wan would definitely not survive the night.

Killing isn’t the solution to everything. These trivial matters are also part of life. He had promised Lingjing and Sha Sha that his killer skills could not be used carelessly. He took a deep breath, pulled the lever, and said softly, “Hold on!”

The car turned another corner and accelerated sharply.

The sun had completely set by now, and the city was bathed in the glow of streetlights and neon lights. It was an old, grid-like urban neighborhood. The road was only wide enough for two cars to pass side by side, lined with small shops, various restaurants, and small boutique clothing stores selling clothes. The three motorcycles followed slowly to the intersection, only to see the car speeding into another side road and disappearing in the blink of an eye. They immediately sped up and chased after it.

“Wh-what’s going on?”

The sudden acceleration of the car caused Dongfang Wan to fall back onto the seat. The two girls in the back were also thrown about. They quickly buckled their seatbelts, looked back for a while, and finally noticed that the three motorcycles had been following them all along.

With extreme skill, the car turned corners, shifted gears, and zipped through one street after another. It was a spring night, and there were some people walking on the streets after dinner. Each time the car swerved sharply or slammed on the brakes, the three girls would be scared and scream. However, while they were experiencing tension and excitement, the car had been used for too long and Ya Han hadn’t maintained it. It wasn’t possible for the car to reach high speeds. As they sped along, the three motorcycles were gradually catching up. The three people on the back seats of the motorcycles were all armed. Two of them were carrying bats, and one was wielding an iron chain. It was like a deadly chase from a gangster movie.

Seeing the motorcycles getting closer and closer, Dongfang Wan gritted her teeth: “Su-Suyan Sister, you… you should just stop. We’ll give them the stuff back. They won’t do anything. Don’t worry…”

Jia Ming, of course, didn’t have any worries like that. Although Ya Han’s car was a wreck, they were on motorcycles. He could easily run them over with his driving skills. However, the car was Ya Han’s after all. There was no need to make a big scene. It would also be a hassle to repair any scratches or damage. Thinking this, he gradually slowed down. The three motorcycles came up alongside. The one with the bat shouted, “Stop! Stop now!”

One motorcycle pulled up. The person on the back with the iron chain swung it violently. With a loud “bang”, the chain scraped a long line on the back of the car, almost shattering the rear windshield. The two girls screamed in fear.

He slammed on the brakes, and the car came to a stop. The three motorcycles surrounded them. Dongfang Wan spoke to them, “We’ll give you the stuff back. Don’t get out of hand! Suyan Sister, just stay in the car. It’ll be fine. Thank you.”

As she said this, she gritted her teeth and pushed the car door open. The door hadn’t even closed yet when she suddenly saw the driver’s side door open as well. Jian Suyan stepped out from that side, her brow slightly furrowed, her expression cold. She walked to the back of the car to look at the scratch made by the chain.

“Suyan Sister…” She wanted to call her back into the car, but before she could finish, another person had already stepped in front of Jian Suyan. “Things haven’t been cleared up yet. Are you trying to leave… Miss Dongfang, give us the stuff first.”

“Humph, you’ll get the stuff. Uncle Si actually does these things. Do you think the family won’t investigate without this evidence?” Dongfang Wan took a disc from her pocket and handed it to one of the men on the motorcycle with a bat, “You’re doing his dirty work. If this is exposed, you won’t get anything either.”

“Hehe, Miss Dongfang, we’re just taking Uncle Si’s money to do his bidding. We don’t care about anything else. Even though Lao Hei doesn’t understand computers, he knows this kind of disc can’t be judged by its appearance. It’s easy to make a fake one and fool people. So, for now, please go with us, Miss Dongfang, and your friends. As soon as you prove you gave us the real one, I’ll let Miss Dongfang and your friends go home immediately. How about that?”

“You…”

“Miss Dongfang, get in the car. But this time, we’ll be driving.” He pointed at the man blocking Jia Ming, “Xiao Wu, you drive. Miss, you’ll have to ride the motorcycle. Okay? If no one has any objections, we’re leaving.”

Although it was phrased as a question, he clearly didn’t think anyone would object. The man nicknamed Xiao Wu smiled and was about to pass Jia Ming, but his wrist was gently grabbed by Jia Ming. “No, I don’t think we can leave right now. I don’t have time to go with you.”

“Huh? Miss, what are you trying to do?”

Being held by a seemingly delicate and beautiful lady, anyone would be happy to be touched. Xiao Wu smiled. Seeing the beauty smiling softly, he pointed to the scratch caused by the chain. “You damaged my friend’s car. Just like you said, things haven’t been cleared up yet. No one can leave until that happens… ”

Her smile was gentle and serene as she calmly stated her demand, “Pay for it.”

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