Hidden Assassin 182

The prank on Lei Qing that afternoon didn’t leave much of an impression on Jia Ming. The August heat in Jiang Hai was astonishing, even more so in the evening. Sitting on the balcony of his hotel room, Jia Ming flipped through the documents Dongfang Lu had given him. The door was pushed open from behind, and Ling Jing walked in.

Walking onto the balcony, Ling Jing put her arms around Jia Ming’s neck from behind, her laughter echoing through the air. After taking a shower, the young girl felt refreshed and cool. Their bodies pressed close together, feeling surprisingly comfortable in the heat. “Ready to go downstairs?” she asked.

“Hmm, just let me finish this page. Is Sha Sha still taking a shower?”

“No, Sha Sha and I showered together. She went down first, and then I came to find you.”

“That’s not fair, you didn’t even call me…” Jia Ming looked at the documents with a smile, “You’re not very loyal, you lily girls…”

“Humph.” Ling Jing hummed beside his ear like a kitten, “What is this? I don’t understand. It looks like some kind of medical report…” She rummaged through a paper bag, picked out something, flipped it over a few times, and then shook her head, her arms still wrapped around Jia Ming. “I still don’t understand…” She tossed it back into the paper bag.

“Yeah, I don’t really understand either, but… this is considered a top national secret.” Jia Ming replied casually, shaking his head with a smile. “Finding the right buyer, you could probably sell this for a few hundred million.”

“A few… hundred million?” Ling Jing’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Hell money, you idiot.” Seeing Ling Jing’s surprised expression, Jia Ming let out a chuckle and lightly kissed her soft cherry lips. He then grabbed the paper bag and threw it onto the big bed in the room. “It’s useless to us anyway, forget about it. Let’s go eat.”

Jia Ming held her shoulders, and Ling Jing laughed, lightly punching him before taking a few steps back. She pointed at the paper bag on the bed. “Is it okay to leave it like that? What if someone…”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. You wouldn’t even feel bad if we burned the whole thing.”

“But…” Ling Jing bit her lower lip, walked to the door, and then struggled out of Jia Ming’s arms. She ran to the bed. “Secret documents, you need to be more careful, okay? Don’t just throw things around. You never know when you’ll lose them.” She didn’t press him for details about the documents, but instead carefully reorganized the contents of the bag. Then, she opened the closet on one side of the room, pushed the paper bag under a pile of blankets, patted it twice to make sure everything was back in place. “Okay, it shouldn’t be lost now. Let’s go, Sha Sha’s probably waiting for us downstairs.”

The birthday banquet for a bigwig in the underworld was essentially just a gathering of gangsters. 柳正 (Liu Zheng) usually kept his birthday celebrations low-key. This time, he had chosen a large hotel and set up dozens of tables, mainly due to the current situation in Jiang Hai. Three months ago, the Yongsheng Gang was wiped out overnight by 炎黄觉醒 (Yan Huang Jue Xing). 黎永盛 (Li Yongsheng) and his son disappeared without a trace. Although the police had been working hard to maintain order for the past few months, the situation wasn’t exactly peaceful. The police’s pressure had eased slightly, and the underworld reached its peak of chaos.

Vendetta, murder, fights, negotiations, vying for territory… When one-third of Jiang Hai’s territory fell into the hands of the underworld, the remaining gangs saw their chance and began to aggressively expand. Small gangs hoped to grab more territory and engaged in backstabbing. The former members of the Yongsheng Gang, who had been disbanded, were regrouping in groups of three or five, establishing new gangs, electing new bosses, and starting to take back their old territory with ambitious goals. After the delicate balance of the three-way standoff ended, the two remaining major gangs in Jiang Hai, the Shazhu Gang and the Sanqing Gang, seemed to be increasingly at odds. Although they were all trying to swallow the power vacuum left by the Yongsheng Gang, no one was optimistic about the future of the underworld. Without any buffer, the two sides were destined to engage in more brutal slaughter and competition.

For these reasons, this birthday banquet wasn’t going to be simple. If Liu Zheng had his way, Jia Ming, Sha Sha, and Ling Jing would have been better off not coming. The saying that “fierce battles among gangsters don’t harm wives and children” was just a slogan. While Sha Sha’s relationship with Liu Zheng as his daughter wasn’t a secret, it was better to keep it from too many people. But after learning about the situation, Sha Sha had her own ideas. She knew Jia Ming’s abilities, and although there wouldn’t be any murders at this banquet, it would be reassuring to have him there.

As the sun set over the long street, Jia Ming and Ling Jing arrived at the banquet hall downstairs. Sha Sha had been waiting for them for a while by her father’s side. After wishing him a happy birthday, the three went to a table in the corner of the banquet hall. Guests came in waves, and by eight o’clock, the whole banquet hall was packed. Jia Ming’s table was filled with small-time bosses who didn’t have much territory or power. They looked young, but their arrogance was clear. Of course, they dared not act out at Liu Zheng’s birthday party. However, the two beautiful girls, each with her own unique charm, were irresistible. Sha Sha was healthy and vibrant, while Ling Jing was elegant and pure. These gangsters, who were accustomed to being flamboyant and considered themselves good at seducing women, couldn’t help but try to strike up conversations with them.

Liu Zheng was at the main table with a group of bigwigs, boasting and bragging with a mouth full of spit, and occasionally going around to different tables to toast. Whoever saw him approached with respect and deference, giving him a real air of an underworld boss. When Sha Sha was a little girl, the Shazhu Gang wasn’t as prosperous. She had seen similar scenes a few times but never anything this lively. Later, she was always hanging out with Ling Jing and Jia Ming day and night. Before they had a relationship, they were always stuck together. Liu Zheng deliberately kept her away from these things, so she had a more distant view of his gangster image. This time, she finally saw her father’s true colors, how hundreds of people in the whole hall revolved around him, and she couldn’t help but feel a little envious.

“Wow, I wonder if Dad will pass the boss position to me someday…” It was almost nine o’clock, and the atmosphere in the hall was lively. These gangsters were talking loudly, bragging, playing drinking games, and showing off their amazing drinking capacity. Some even took off their shirts to show off their scars, talking about their past glory. Sha Sha, having had a few sips of wine, had a rosy blush on her cheeks and chatted with the two people beside her softly. Jia Ming, who was looking at her across Ling Jing, couldn’t help but smile.

“That’s wishful thinking. Your dad wants you to go to Peking University or Tsinghua University. Study hard for your cram classes. If you tell him you want to be a gangster, he’ll break your legs.”

Ling Jing, sandwiched between them, gave a suggestive smile, her voice lowered. “Break Sha Sha’s legs? Jia Ming will definitely come to her rescue. You’re always fond of Sha Sha’s legs, aren’t you?”

Jia Ming shamelessly nodded. Sha Sha, on the other hand, let out a light hiss and her face reddened even more. She was better at sports than Ling Jing, and her well-trained legs were even more shapely and muscular. They would occasionally compare their legs in bed, and Ling Jing couldn’t help but be a little disappointed, which inevitably led to giggling and teasing, some of which involved pink-hued scenarios that were not for public consumption.

Outside the hotel, the heat hadn’t subsided, and the atmosphere inside the hall was still heated. The hotel didn’t have central air conditioning, and the cooling power of a dozen or so air conditioners seemed unable to effectively control the situation. Of the three, the always-well-behaved Ling Jing naturally couldn’t find any common ground with these gangsters. In Jia Ming’s eyes, these guys, who still brandished their machetes and boasted about how fierce they were, were no more than children playing pretend. Sha Sha herself had a bit of a rebellious streak, but she had been hanging out with the two for a while and had lost much of her interest in mingling with these people. At 9:30, a muffled thunderclap sounded, and it finally started raining outside. The three of them grabbed some fruit and headed out to breathe some fresh air. As they reached the doorway, Jia Ming bumped into a few people coming in. He apologized and quickly stepped aside. One of the bananas in his hand was missing. Several of Liu Zheng’s underlings who were in the banquet hall saw them coming and approached.

The group that had just arrived at the banquet hall consisted of nine people. The middle-aged man at the head was someone Jia Ming recognized. He had already seen this man’s profile when he was researching the underworld situation in Jiang Hai. This was 华为 (Hua Wei), the boss of the Sanqing Gang in Jiang Hai. In terms of current strength, the Sanqing Gang was stronger than the Shazhu Gang. This Hua Wei could be considered the number one person in Jiang Hai’s underworld. It wasn’t surprising that he would come to Liu Zheng’s birthday banquet to show his power, but…

Looking at the backs of these people, Jia Ming sighed helplessly and broke off a banana, following Ling Jing and Sha Sha to the trash can. He casually threw in the banana peel and some gun parts. Hearing the metal clinking together, Sha Sha turned her head in confusion. Seeing Jia Ming’s cheeks bulging from the food, she couldn’t help but laugh. “Don’t you worry about choking yourself, eating so much in one bite?”

Jia Ming chewed a few times and smiled, “I’ll give you half then.” With his mouth full, his voice was a little strange. This corner leading to the hotel lobby wasn’t very crowded. Seeing Jia Ming about to pounce on her to feed her, she blushed and ran away, pulling Ling Jing in front of her.

“That’s disgusting. You can give it to Ling Jing. I don’t want it.”

The three laughed and walked out of the hall. The raindrops fell like a downpour, the streetlights blurred and hazy in the rain. Cars sped along the long street. Lightning flashed, illuminating the sky with blinding white light. The cool wind howled as the three stood under the awning in front of the hotel, breathing in the fresh air. Sha Sha stretched out her arms and exclaimed, “Feels so good!” A young girl with an umbrella ran out of the hotel, passed by them, looked at them with a puzzled expression. She seemed to recognize them and stopped in her tracks, turning back.

“Uh, we’ve met before, you’re… Jia Ming, right? And you, you’re… Sha, right?”

The girl looked to be about eighteen or nineteen years old. Although she was older than the three, she still had a bit of a childish air about her. Jia Ming smiled faintly, “Heh, my name is Gu Jia Ming.” Sha Sha was a little confused about the “Sha.” “We… met before?”

“Of course we did, Gu Jia Ming! That’s your name!” The girl exclaimed, her face radiating the excitement of meeting a long-lost friend. “You guys don’t remember me? My name is Mu Zhenzhen, my sister’s name is Mu Qingqing. That time… hmm, in 1995, when something happened to you guys, I pretended to be a police officer and gave a statement for you, remember? Remember? You even helped me catch a thief later!”

With Jia Ming’s memory, he still remembered the girl, her facial features hadn’t changed much. Sha Sha also had a vague recollection of the false statement. The girl laughed excitedly. “Hehe, that was the first time I ever gave a statement for someone, so it’s deeply engraved in my memory. Even though my sister exposed me later… I saw you guys and thought you looked familiar. You three were together back then, and you’ve all grown so tall. Uh, don’t you guys have umbrellas?”

She turned her head and looked at the banquet hall on the other side. “Let me go buy you some umbrellas. Hmm, it’s not safe here… ”

“Not safe? What’s wrong?” Sha Sha asked with wide eyes.

Mu Zhenzhen hesitated for a moment, then whispered mysteriously, “I’ll tell you guys, see that lively banquet inside? It’s the birthday of an underworld boss. I’ve heard that there’s been a lot of trouble in the city lately. There might be a fight tonight. You three are just kids, you should go home early… See that van over there? My sister and the others are in it. I just got out of the police academy for summer break, so I came to take a look.” Speaking of the police academy, Mu Zhenzhen had a smug look on her face, as if to say, “I’m a police officer now! Can you believe it?” Jia Ming secretly cursed, “Idiot, you’re a killer’s dream come true…”

“Okay, I get it. Wait for me a minute, I’ll go get some umbrellas for you guys. Wait here.”

“But… will there really be a fight?” Sha Sha asked anxiously. Ling Jing said at the same time, “Thank you, but we just came out for a breath of fresh air…”

“Uh, there should be a fight. That… ah? You guys… are… from inside?” Mu Zhenzhen’s expression froze halfway through, her awkwardness was like the legendary Ab.

“Yeah, that… Liu Zheng is my dad. It’s his birthday today.” Sha Sha said awkwardly. The awkwardness escalated, Mu Zhenzhen saw the daughter of a big boss. Sha Sha didn’t pay much attention, but she was anxious, asking, “There’s police watching, they won’t fight, right?”

“Uh, heh… hehehehehe…”

Lightning flashed across the sky, and a broken, silly laugh echoed in the wind and rain…

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