Hidden Assassin 226

She had been abandoned.

Realizing this, she was filled with sadness. She couldn’t vent her anger, and tears welled up in her eyes. Not knowing where to go, she walked to the stairwell, only to discover activity below. She cautiously peeked her head out. The television in the living room was on, the volume turned down low. Her mother, dressed in a nightgown, was sitting on the couch, holding a glass of red wine and watching television. Her gown was hiked up, revealing her long legs… She was too cunning, that’s how she seduced Jia Ming.

She hid there for a while, but Jia Ming never came out. It seemed like her mother wasn’t waiting for anyone either. The television was playing the same recording over and over, seemingly the news from two in the morning. Her mother had recorded it and was replaying it repeatedly. It was a blurry video surveillance recording. The scene showed a car accident, an explosion, and snow falling… Oh, it was snowing outside. She was too excited when she jumped from the balcony earlier that she hadn’t even noticed the snowflakes falling all over.

She quietly listened to the television. The newscaster said, “Tonight, at two in the morning, a vicious murder occurred in the fifth district of Manhattan. Here are the video surveillance images we obtained. As you can see…” The scene showed a woman dressed in white walking through the area of the car accident. Though blurry, it was vaguely visible how with each raise of her hand, the person on the ground writhed in pain as blood splattered. People scattered in fear, some near, some far.

It looked like a new blockbuster movie. Heidi had been in New York for a long time, but she had never seen a murder case so calm and arrogant. But speaking of which, the snowy scene seemed similar to today. She watched for a while. Jia Ming didn’t come out, but her mother, holding the glass of wine, sat down on the rug in front of the television. She seemed to be carefully examining the images on the screen. After a moment, she used the remote to rewind the recording. Heidi tiptoed over. “What is that…”

“Ah!” Startled by the sudden sound, Marilyn jumped, but after a moment, she patted her chest and pinched Heidi’s neck in retaliation. Heidi giggled as she shrank her neck, her face leaning towards the TV screen. “What is this?”

Marilyn didn’t answer her daughter’s question. She raised her hand and switched the recording back to normal playback. Heidi wasn’t really interested, but she pouted. “Mommy, where did Jia Ming go?”

“Jia Ming?” Marilyn looked confused. “Isn’t he in his room sleeping?”

“No way, he’s gone.” Because her mother wasn’t with Jia Ming, her small resentment subsided. She just pouted and said, “He does this in China too, and now in New York. He always disappears like that. Mommy, will he come back again?”

“He probably has something to do. Jia Ming is very busy, you need to understand him.” Marilyn smiled and hugged her daughter, but one hand subconsciously pulled down the hem of her nightgown. “He used to have a lot of things to do in Jiang Hai, didn’t he?”

“Yes, so he disappears every morning after he wakes up, and he only comes back briefly at night. He used to… um, he used to…” As she spoke, Heidi tilted her head, seemingly thinking of something. At that moment, faint footsteps sounded from upstairs. Both mother and daughter turned their heads, and there was Jia Ming, dressed in pajamas. Seeing both of them sitting by the TV downstairs, he was startled. He scratched his hair. “Er, you guys are up so early watching TV… This isn’t a good habit.”

“Where are you going?” Marilyn stood up, smiling, and put down the wine glass, walking towards Jia Ming. “He must have been unable to sleep because you came today. Heidi was just saying that you weren’t in your room.”

“How is that possible… oh, I just went to the bathroom.” Jia Ming nodded and was about to speak, but his attention was already drawn to the TV screen. Marilyn turned her head and saw Heidi holding the remote, replaying the news she had recorded earlier.

Snowflakes, blood, and white clothing.

This time, she could see more clearly and hear the newscasters clearly. As she watched, Heidi turned her head to look at Jia Ming. “Jia Ming, you just… you went out dressed as a girl?” Compared to the gruesome murder, Heidi’s question seemed to focus on the act of dressing as a girl. Marilyn opened her mouth, looked at Jia Ming, then back at her daughter. She seemed to want to refute this assumption. But she had clearly been making the same deduction as her daughter. In the gunfight they had experienced in Jiang Hai City, Jia Ming’s calmness and strength had left a deep impression on them. Considering Jia Ming’s “going out” incident, the first thing they thought of was that only Jia Ming could do something like this.

“Oh…” Jia Ming didn’t answer, but just sat down next to Heidi and watched the news together. Marilyn followed, curled her sexy long legs, and knelt beside them. She occasionally looked at Jia Ming.

The two of them slept together last night. Jia Ming naturally wouldn’t just use his fingers to satisfy her. After they finished, he secretly left. Although Marilyn was tired, she couldn’t sleep and sat in the living room. In Jiang Hai City, she followed Jia Ming’s arrangements. But in New York, it was different. Jia Ming went out to handle matters, and it must not be simple. She was worried, but she couldn’t ask her family to investigate through underworld connections to find out what was going on. So she could only wait nervously in front of the television and watch the news. To her surprise, around three in the morning, the news about the terrifying incident that happened at dawn appeared on television.

Although the image was blurry, the murderous woman and Jia Ming’s current demeanor were completely different. But she naturally thought of Jia Ming first. Because on that summer night three years ago, the boy who had brought about countless deaths with his own strength was somewhat similar to the woman in the image.

She didn’t want her daughter to be involved in these matters, but since she had already seen it, there was no point in saying anything now. If it was about killing, she was also a participant in the night three years ago. Although she tried her best to protect her daughter over the years and didn’t want her to be contaminated by too many bad things, being in this kind of family, many things were unavoidable.

The three of them watched the news in front of the television. Mother and daughter both stared intently at Jia Ming. He nodded and smiled. “Yes, she’s very powerful, right? Her name is Jian Suyan. She’s my teacher.”

A teacher… Mother and daughter exchanged glances, their doubts dispelled. Heidi nodded. “She’s called… Jian Suyan? Wow, she’s amazing! Can I meet her?”

“Don’t worship these bad things. No one likes violent women like that. You won’t be able to get married in the future.” Reaching out to tap Heidi’s head, Jia Ming laughed. “Besides, she can’t come here. Last time in Jiang Hai, I took you and your mother away. Your Uncle Joseph went to school to find me. He missed me, but she beat him up. She has a very bad temper. Even though she already beat someone up last time, if Uncle Joseph is disrespectful to her this time, she’ll definitely kill him. There’s no doubt about it. She doesn’t like arguing with people. You saw it in the news.”

“Then I’ll go see her. Anywhere is fine, just have her teach me Chinese Kung Fu.”

“Don’t learn those things. It’s enough for you to sing and dance. Last time I gave you so many songs to practice, are you going to disappoint my expectations?”

“Don’t hit my head.” Holding her forehead, which had been tapped several times, Heidi said, “I have the right to choose what I like.”

“In China, kids… this kind of messed up power. The expectations of elders are the most important.”

“But this is America.”

“But I am Chinese, do you have any objections to my expectations? Hmm?”

“I… ah, it hurts…”

“If you have any objections, you can raise them. How would I know if you don’t raise them? I love it when people give me feedback…”

“You’re not much older than me… ah–”

“Do you still have any objections? Any objections? You raise them, raise them…”

“Help!”

Outside the window, snowflakes were falling like goose feathers. In the warm room, laughter and commotion filled the air. Marilyn watched her daughter, who was being chased and dodging, and couldn’t help but smile. After the two of them played for a while, it was already around 4:30 in the morning. Heidi lay on the couch, covering her head with a pillow, resignedly sticking her butt up in the air for Jia Ming to do with as he pleased. She giggled. Jia Ming looked at the time. “Alright, it’s already 4:30. You guys go to sleep, I’m going to change clothes and go for a run later. Get some exercise, and get familiar with the surroundings. By the way, are there any places in this manor that I can’t go near?”

With his abilities, how could there be any places he couldn’t go near? This question was just a courtesy. Marilyn smiled and shook her head. When Heidi heard about going for a run, she became excited. She rolled over. “I can’t sleep. I’ll take you out for a run. It’s snowing outside today. Ouch!”

She raised her face, then received another tap on the forehead. She was about to put on the ostrich posture again, but then she heard Jia Ming snap his fingers. “Then let’s go upstairs to change clothes. Marilyn, what about you? You haven’t slept all night, you should rest too.”

“I’ll lie down for a while, then get breakfast ready for when you come back.”

“Hmm.”

Nodding, Heidi rushed ahead and ran upstairs. Jia Ming and Marilyn followed behind. “Jia Ming, hurry up!” Leaving this sentence behind, the little girl entered her room first and slammed the door shut. As Jia Ming opened the door to his guest room, Marilyn smiled and slipped in. “What’s wrong?” When the two of them were alone together, it was inevitably about intimate matters. But now was clearly not a good time for intimacy. Marilyn didn’t speak, but smiled at him. Then she took his right hand and guided it into the space between her legs. When it reached the desired area without any obstacles, Jia Ming couldn’t help but laugh.

“Downstairs just now, I was worried Heidi would see.” She spoke softly as she walked towards the messy bed. Jia Ming followed. He lifted the blanket, found the lace underwear he had pulled down, and Marilyn put it on. While she was putting on her underwear, he took off his pajamas and started to put on his ordinary-looking down jacket. After a while, Heidi’s voice sounded outside.

“I’m done… Come out, come out, come out…”

With a beautiful rhythm, the little girl called excitedly from outside, like a recording machine…

********************************************

She woke up a bit early. When she opened her eyes, the sun had not yet risen. She vaguely remembered not sleeping well last night, hearing some commotion. She rubbed her eyes and pulled open the curtain of her hospital room. She realized that it was snowing outside.

This was the darkest time before dawn. She pushed open the door to her ward and walked out. She realized that the corridor, which should have been quiet and silent, was now filled with people. The young man called “Mantou,” with a pleasant face, was talking excitedly to a few others. Her stepmother, who usually liked to sleep in, was also dressed neatly and mixed in with the crowd. Seeing her come out, she immediately ran over.

“Yahan, why did you get up so early? Did I wake you up?”

“Hmm, what’s going on?”

“Big event, big event… Yahan, look down there.”

Her stepmother, who always loved gossip, was unusually excited. She looked down from the floor-to-ceiling glass window. The road below was only half open to traffic, the other half blocked by police. It seemed like a car had exploded and was left there. Reporters with cameras and microphones surrounded the area in three layers, making a tight circle. Thankfully, there were also a lot of police officers, guarding the area firmly. In the air, two helicopters circled.

“What happened? A car accident?”

“Are you kidding me, Yahan? When have you ever seen a car accident with this much influence? It’s a murder case.” Her stepmother excitedly nodded. “About two o’clock… there were four people in the car, all big, strong men. We thought they must have been doing something bad, like drug trafficking… Then a girl walked over, wearing a white coat. Snow was falling all over the place… She planted a bomb directly on the car, then pulled out two…”

She gestured with her hands, representing “big, thick, and long.” “Two guns like this, wow. It was like a future warrior. She aimed at the people in the car and started firing wildly. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da… One of them reacted quickly. He saw what was going on and ran out with a gun, but it was too late. He was shot and flown away. His whole body was riddled with holes. One of them wanted to smash the woman open with the car door, but she just kicked it. Even the car’s windshield shattered… Then two people were shot dead in the car. Finally, the one who ran out, but he couldn’t get far. The woman was holding a gun, and she just slowly walked behind him, watching him. Occasionally she would raise her hand and shoot, and the man kept running. Then another shot. He crawled, and then another shot. Until the man was reduced to a bloody mess… There were two American policemen hiding behind the police car, they didn’t even dare to stick their heads out. So exciting, so exciting, it’s like an American movie…”

After adding her own embellishments to the story with an excited expression, Yahan frowned and looked at the crime scene below. “New York’s security is so bad.”

“Yeah, yeah. The security in New York is really bad. This kind of gun battle can actually happen. The police have no way to stop it. We have to take all the bodyguards with us when we go out today… By the way, the girl who killed the people was Chinese. She is really amazing. She’s a credit to our country…”

A gun battle happened, which means New York’s security is bad, and since a Chinese person did it, it is a credit to our country. Never mind the logic, but as soon as she heard that, Yahan turned her head sharply. “Chinese!?”

“Yeah, they say she’s a very beautiful Chinese woman. She looks like she’s in her 20s. She killed the people with the utmost composure, and then left before the police arrived. No one could catch her. She’s beautiful and has a good temperament. She’s really amazing…”

The city below continued its noisy life. Snowflakes continued to fall, the sun was about to rise, and in the corridor, her stepmother continued to talk about the incident with an excited tone. By her side, Yahan seemed to be lost in thought, her eyes hazy as she stared down at the scene below.

The most high-profile and composed murder, the most elegant demeanor, the combination of cruelty and grace… She imagined what had happened below just now. Could… could she be the person she was thinking of? But how is that possible? What is he doing here?

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter