Hidden Assassin 230

Straight through the corridor ahead, turning at the next junction, walking along, Jia Ming flipped his down jacket over, looking at the image on his watch. As he approached the fork ahead, he leaned against the wall beside him, using his hands and feet to brace himself against both sides of the passageway. His whole body pressed against the ceiling, and the down jacket, now flipped over, looked somewhat similar in color to the ceiling.

A cleaning lady pushing a vacuum cleaner appeared at the junction ahead, turned a corner, and walked towards the bend, slowly passing directly beneath Jia Ming.

Gazing down at the person passing by, a hint of sharpness emerged silently from his sleeve, a cold killing intent gathering, concentrated.

After a few seconds, the cleaning lady passed the spot where he was. A few seconds later, she seemed to sense something and looked back. There was no suspicious figure in the long corridor. Shaking her head, she pushed the vacuum cleaner forward.

Jia Ming had already entered the next bend, the dagger quietly retracted. The image on the watch continued to play before his eyes. Approaching the next turn, his right fist swung out directly.

A man standing at least six feet tall with a muscular build walked into the frame perfectly, appearing in the narrow field of vision at this moment as if he had suddenly walked into the frame, facing Jia Ming’s casual punch.

There was no sound. The man’s face didn’t even have time to show confusion or surprise. Immense force concentrated on the tip of his middle finger, erupting on the vulnerable Adam’s apple. In that instant, he seemed to hear the sound of his entire cervical spine shifting. The next moment, consciousness disappeared.

In a brief instant, everything seemed smooth and natural, as if everything was supposed to happen that way. A casual punch was thrown, but his steps didn’t falter for a moment because of it. He continued straight ahead.

Their bodies crossed. Jia Ming casually grabbed the man’s head.

A short, eerie “crack” echoed through the air. Something snapped abruptly. Two figures brushed past each other, separating naturally. Jia Ming turned into the next corridor, the man’s body spun twice, his entire head twisted unnaturally towards the back of his body—a movement that was impossible for a normal person to make.

With a casual backhand swing, Jia Ming grabbed the collar of the man who was about to fall to the ground. Then, the soft sound of his heels rubbing against the carpet echoed in the beautifully decorated corridor…

…

…

He opened an empty door and tossed the body inside. After passing another junction further ahead, he opened a seemingly ordinary door that blended into the surroundings and walked in. The moment the door lock clicked shut, the group of people who had just entered the entertainment venue turned into this corridor.

“Jane, you and Mr. Ross go get what we discussed… You guys wait outside…”

Holding a cigar, the leading middle-aged man in casual clothes dismissed the couple next to him. The remaining two nodded, standing on either side of the door. They took out their keys, opened the door, and the inside looked like a normal office. He walked in and closed the door behind him.

Click…

With a soft sound, the wooden door separated the two worlds. On the outside, the two men’s right hands reached inside their open overcoats, ready to deal with any unexpected event. On the inside of the door, the cigar dropped to the ground, blood spraying out wildly.

Behind the man, a hand pressed firmly against his nose and mouth. The other hand, wielding a blade, ripped open his throat and then stabbed wildly into every part of his body. In the midst of slight struggles and twitches, he let out an inaudible groan. In the warm room, scarlet blood sprayed from the body, landed on the ground, soaked into the carpet, gradually disappearing into this unnoticed corner of the world.

A few minutes later, the sound of the lock turning echoed from the corridor. The two bodyguards breathed a sigh of relief, turned around, and smiled at the person coming out…

…

…

Everything was as usual. Coming out of the corridor leading to the bathroom, entering the entertainment venue’s lobby, Jia Ming wiped his freshly washed hands with a tissue, then pinched his nose and snorted hard. When he removed the tissue, his nose was red, making the expression on his otherwise ordinary face seem more honest and good-natured.

Not far away, Heidi, sitting at a table, stood up and waved. Jia Ming smiled and walked over, but noticed a few men approaching the table where Heidi and her mother were sitting. Leading them was the red-haired woman named Jane from the Gambino family, who he had had a conflict with earlier. She had red hair, leather clothes, a sexy and flamboyant appearance, and her gaze was clearly fixed on the mother and daughter at the table, then she looked over at Jia Ming, giving him a seductive smile.

He rubbed his nose helplessly and pretended not to see anything as he walked over.

Heidi immediately protested: “Why did it take you so long? The pizza is cold.”

“Personal privacy.” He patted her head, which naturally drew a pout of protest from the girl. Seeing Marylin looking at him questioningly, he finally laughed: “My watch accidentally fell into the toilet. I reached in to get it, fumbled around for a while, and my hand got stuck. Then it took a long time to get it out… Well, the pizza is delicious.” He extended his seemingly damp right hand, picked up a piece of the cold pizza and threw it into his mouth. Heidi and Marylin’s faces both showed expressions of horror.

—”Disgusting…”

After saying that, Marylin’s face showed a wary smile, and she stood up.

“Hi, what a coincidence, we meet again, Marylin, Heidi, and this… Chinese boy.”

“I used to have a very ugly cat. Her name was Jane too.” Chewing the pizza, Jia Ming said with a smile.

“What?”

“Then she fell out of a tree and died.”

As if talking to himself, ignoring the redhead, Jia Ming shrugged regretfully. The few people in front of him were stunned for a moment, and one of the men reached into his clothes. Through the slightly open corner of his jacket, the handle of a pistol was visible. His gaze was fixed on Jia Ming. The red-haired woman smiled and turned to Marylin: “Let me guess, are all your friends so rude? Or are they all so stupid, unable to understand the situation?”

Since Marylin started managing the family business, there had been many men who had shown interest in her in the business world. Some were attracted to her beauty, some to her background, and some to her family’s wealth. The reason why the Gambino family’s Smith had also been entangled with her was probably because of Joseph’s infatuation with Marylin. He wanted to get Marylin into his hands to strike at Joseph, but the result was that Marylin simply brushed him aside. However, when she brought up the matter now, Jane’s expression became noticeably unnatural. It was unclear what kind of disagreements she and Smith had behind the scenes, but now that she was clearly in the upper hand, she had no reason to be angry. Adjusting her emotions, she smiled faintly:

“Tang Jingyao played you, Joseph wanted to play you, Smith just wanted to play you to make Joseph look bad. What do I have to lose? But hey, since you’re so direct, I want to ask the three of you to come with me… Chinese boy, I told you I remembered you. It was this morning, do you remember?”

Jia Ming looked up: “Kidnapping?”

The woman raised an eyebrow: “That’s right.”

“I’ll fight back hard.”

“Go ahead and fight back, it’s fine.”

“I know.” Jia Ming nodded and said to himself, “The more I fight back, the more excited you get.”

“So…”

Hearing Jia Ming say those words, the people around them were already on their guard, but no one expected things to happen so suddenly. With the echoing “boom,” the entire building shook, all the game machines went black, the fluorescent lights on the ceiling flickered wildly, and countless fire sprinklers rained down on the entire lobby.

“Explosion…”

“Fire…”

From the initial shock, people came to their senses, some shouting in panic, and those near the doors were already rushing out madly. In the rest area, the four men behind the red-haired woman had almost drawn their guns, crowding around the leader. The spray of water disrupted their vision, and for a moment, they thought they had been attacked by the Salieri family in a premeditated move. However, in such a chaotic scene, they dared not fire their guns recklessly and injure too many innocent people. Only after a few seconds did they realize that the building had indeed suffered an accident.

Amidst the chaotic shouting and running, Jia Ming and his mother and daughter Marylin, holding up a tablecloth, squeezed towards the door. The water from the ceiling continued to pour down, the crowd was panicked and chaotic, and Heidi was protected in the middle to prevent her from being pushed or trampled in the chaos, so she walked a little slower. After a while, Jia Ming scooped Heidi up in his arms, hid under the tablecloth, and Marylin shouted loudly: “What happened?”

“I don’t know, terrorist attack, Middle East, Al-Qaeda, Saddam…”

“How could this happen…”

“New York… You’ll get used to it…”

Mixing with the crowd, they evacuated towards the door. It took several minutes before they finally got out. In the distance, the sirens of police cars were getting louder and louder. In the crowd, they could still see the few Gambino family members. The red-haired woman looked around in the crowd, finally catching sight of them. However, the police had already arrived, and they dared not do anything blatantly. After a while, the two groups, surrounded by crowds, disappeared from each other’s sight.

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