Hidden Assassin 262

It was nearly dawn, the deepest part of the night, when he woke up from his bed.

Light from the buildings across the street faintly seeped through the gaps in the curtains. He didn’t know if the snow was still falling. Next to him was the warmth of a naked woman’s skin, her sleeping silhouette vaguely visible in the darkness.

He got out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash up, giving his clothes a quick rinse. He turned off the light in the bathroom and walked out of the room. The hallway was dimly lit, creating a sense of night and sleep. As he went down the stairs, he ran into the plump owner of the inn.

“Up so early? You’re really energetic, young man.”

“Yeah, going out for some exercise.”

“That’s a good habit. You’ll meet lots of people… By the way, what time will you be back? I’ll prepare breakfast for you and your sister. What would you like?”

“Hmm, milk, ham and egg sandwiches, cream cake… whatever you have…”

“They’re all pretty high in fat. Will Miss Zhang like them?”

“She’s not picky and doesn’t gain weight no matter what she eats. Besides, she needs the nutrition right now.”

“What an enviable girl…”

After a short exchange, Jia Ming smiled and went out, leaving the inn owner with her envious words. The streetlights were still on, but the wind and snow had significantly weakened, looking like they were about to stop. A refreshing coldness washed over him. He took a deep breath of the morning air and gently rubbed the vein next to his temple.

Ever since he encountered his first ability user after his rebirth, causing a headache, the pain had been returning with increasing frequency. After being tested by Dongfang Ruo, the occasional pain became more prominent. So far, this occasional headache had not been a significant issue, but it would appear at the peak of his physical state, usually in the morning. It had gone from a fleeting sensation to lasting a second, then two, and now lasted for over ten seconds before fading away.

Though he had some knowledge of medicine, focusing mainly on surgery, he understood basic brain disorders. This pain felt like a mild reaction to excessive brain use in ordinary people, not painful, not very uncomfortable. It often made him more alert. However, if it continued to develop at this pace, it might eventually become a problem. And with the appearance of this pain, subtle changes seemed to be happening in his body.

Before his rebirth, he had been forty years old. Years of wear and tear had taken their toll on his body. Since his rebirth, he had trained for a few years. He hadn’t taken any detours, using the most efficient training methods possible. His youthful body hadn’t reached its peak potential in terms of pure physical destruction due to limitations in height and weight, but in terms of flexibility and agility, he had already reached, even surpassed, the peak of his pre-rebirth condition. In the eyes of those who researched the Pei Luo Jia’s abilities, such a state was practically the limit for ordinary humans. However, over the past year, as the headache began to draw his attention, he realized that his physical abilities were going beyond the limits, exceeding them further.

Human perception is quite subtle, and our self-assessments are often inflated due to a lack of experience. Perhaps it was the overwhelming advantage he had over enemies like Pei Luo Jia in recent days that had made him arrogant, but regardless, the feeling was there, and the possibility existed. He had been thinking about it for days. The battle in Jiang Hai, the battle in America, despite his overwhelming advantage because he knew his enemies so well, he had also noticed a sense of ease beyond his expectations. Each time he struck, fired a shot, his enemies’ possible dodges were reflected in his mind more clearly. His reflex response to danger was more precise and faster.

Breaking through the limits was certainly a joyous thing, but the strange headache brought a touch of anxiety. If he was indeed surpassing the physical limitations of ordinary humans, did that mean he was becoming an ability user? After all, Phoenix could bring him back to life, so becoming an ability user wasn’t impossible. But what exactly was this ability? Was it a further enhancement of the physical body, or the ultimate ability, as legends had it, that manipulated everything through the intangible threads of cause and effect — luck?

He couldn’t clearly sense his body evolving. The possibility… less than ten percent, but it existed…

He ran slowly forward, thinking about his body. Perhaps because of the many retired soldiers in the town, even on such a snowy morning, he could see quite a few people doing their morning exercises in the street. He ran for a while before he met a black youth named Mike who was running towards him. They exchanged greetings. Mike smiled and said he was going to see Ya Han. Jia Ming replied with a perfunctory nod, thinking to himself that Mike should worry less about flirting and more about being beaten to death in a duel this afternoon. He didn’t feel any jealousy, only a little pity for the guy. After all, the girl he’d taken a liking to hadn’t even been with him for half a day when he’d stripped her naked and had his way. That feeling was still quite subtle when he thought about it.

He parted ways with Mike and continued jogging forward. Two streetlights seemed to have gone out. A big hole appeared on the darkened side of the road. He nearly fell in. After stepping over it, he saw a man crawling out of the sewer: “Ha, emergency repairs. Be careful.”

A girl in a thick fur coat was running past. She said, “Uncle Jerry, put up a warning sign.”

“I know, it’s in my truck.”

The middle-aged repairman said, turning to grab something from the van parked a short distance away. He rounded the corner ahead, and a young man slammed his feet onto the thick snow with a loud thud. This guy looked fit. He was standing next to the man named Gamore yesterday when he challenged Mike to a duel. Now he was wearing thin clothes, a rope tied around his waist, pulling a large car tire as he repeatedly leaped forward. This kind of weighted long jump was indeed a method used to train physical fitness in special forces.

Jia Ming glanced twice. The man looked up as if he recognized the Chinese tourist he’d seen the day before. However, because Jia Ming was Mike’s friend, the man looked at the young man jogging slowly, his eyes clearly filled with disdain. He kicked off with both legs, propelling his body and the car tire forward. A clear whooshing sound of wind cutting through the air came from above. At the same time, he stretched out his hand, giving a heavy thumbs-down gesture.

This blatant act of contempt caused Jia Ming to look back at him with a dull gaze. The man looked back at him with a challenging expression. Growing up in this town, he was so familiar with the roads that he could probably navigate them blindfolded. Without hesitation, he turned ninety degrees at the corner, leaped, and with a swipe of his hand, brushed past the arrogant and disdainful eyes of the man near the fence of the villa. The tire pulled a large plume of snow as it…

Thud.

“Ah!”

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

Carrying the breakfast into the hotel room, he saw that the sky outside had brightened considerably. The curtains were open, revealing the bright and refreshing street after the snowfall. The woman was wearing a white bathrobe, half-lying in bed. She looked delicate and languid, her thighs and upper body covered by the duvet, revealing her white legs and slender feet at the end of the bed. She wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses that he didn’t know where she found. She was reading a novel she had bought the night before along with the videotapes.

—

She closed the book and took off the glasses when she saw him come in. She looked at him quietly.

“The innkeeper said you left at five. I thought you were going to leave me here alone.”

“Heh, I ran into something during my morning workout. Someone fell into the sewer… You should have eaten first. The innkeeper said you went downstairs but refused to eat breakfast and came back up. Are you hungry?”

“Waiting for you.” She smiled and stretched out her ivory-like, slender neck. She sat up. “My stomach is empty. It’s all your fault.”

“Let me feel it.”

“Go ahead.”

Jia Ming was just joking, but when Ya Han pulled the blanket up a little, the action became natural. He put his hand into the blanket and then into the bathrobe. Ya Han bent slightly, giggling: “A little higher.” Then she reached out to take the tray.

Whether measured by the standards of a patient or an ordinary person, Ya Han’s health and fitness level were above average. Jia Ming kept his hand there for a while. She smiled and said, “How is it?” A blush appeared on her cheeks.

“Pretty good. All the fat is gone.”

“I told you, it was because I used to hiccup a lot when I was little. I wanted to show you back then, but you were afraid to look.”

“Sooner or later is the same. I’ll take a good look after you finish eating.”

“As if.” She was a young girl who had only recently experienced such things, and although she was completely devoted to Jia Ming, she couldn’t take too much teasing. Her face flushed red, and she smiled: “Who fell into the sewer?”

He divided the breakfast into two portions, big and small. They sat on the bed, eating their breakfast and drinking milk. Jia Ming told her about the idiot who first belittled him, then fell into the sewer, and a bunch of people came to help, sending him to the town hospital for emergency treatment. Ya Han laughed uncontrollably, almost spilling her milk on the bed.

After they finished breakfast, they turned on the TV and found a show to watch. Jia Ming went downstairs to put away the dishes and came back up to ask her, “Do you want to go into town this morning?”

“Hmm… no.” Ya Han shook her head. “I’m tired…”

Her eyes rolled around. Jia Ming looked at her: “Still hurting?”

Ya Han glared at him, her face flushed: “That… I used hot water this morning… Well, it’s not painful anymore, just a little sore… What are you laughing at, it’s all your fault.” Seeing Jia Ming’s mischievous attempt to suppress his laughter, she became bolder, and her voice grew louder. “Anyway… Well, I just don’t have any energy or spirit. I really want to just lie in bed all day…”

Jia Ming frowned: “Your kidney disease…”

“That wouldn’t make me feel like this.” Ya Han said loudly, “The doctor said it was fine, as long as it wasn’t too… too intense. My illness is completely cured…”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t saying anything was wrong.” He smiled and pressed her shoulder, saying, “Your illness has only been cured for a short time, and your body is still weak. That kind of thing would make anyone tired, you’re just reacting a little stronger… Well, you have to control yourself in the future, haha…” He couldn’t help but laugh again. Ya Han angrily punched him twice, kicked him once, and he jumped back, laughing.

“Stop messing around, just stay in bed and rest this morning, it should be fine.”

“Actually, I’m not that tired, it’s just that I feel lazier than usual. I feel like staying in bed…” Ya Han shrugged. “I’ll just read a book here… Where are you going this morning?”

“I’m not going anywhere either. I’m staying here with you, anyway.”

Hearing him say that, Ya Han smiled warmly. She didn’t say anything, but her lips were full of deep satisfaction. She shifted her body to the side and pulled the blanket towards her, implying that Jia Ming should get into bed with her. Jia Ming stood there, shrugged, and smiled: “You want to get back in? We’re not sleeping, you want to be unable to get out of bed tomorrow? We’re probably leaving after today, at most tomorrow. I’m going to wash the clothes I changed into yesterday and dry them, so they’ll be easier to pack… heh, it’s good enough to be in the room with you, you little flirt…”

This time, Ya Han didn’t say anything in reply, but suddenly sat up in bed: “Ah… that… I’ll do it, I…”

“Don’t bother, just lie down and sleep!” Jia Ming smiled as he pulled the blanket over her, then went into the bathroom. Moments later, he could be heard humming happily. Ya Han put on her glasses and opened her book, unconsciously smiling and shedding tears. She took off her glasses, wiped them off, and after a few minutes, smiled and cried again. The tears fell on her glasses and the pages of the book. She wiped them off with a towel. After about half an hour, Jia Ming had finished washing and drying their clothes, and came over to get some snacks. She wiped her glasses clean and quickly put them back on.

The TV volume was turned down to the lowest setting. Ya Han lay in bed flipping through the pages of her book. Jia Ming sat in a chair, munching on melon seeds and looking out the window. After a while, Ya Han looked up: “Hey, tune to your favorite channel and turn up the sound a little.”

“Won’t it bother you?” Jia Ming turned his head.

“It’s fine.”

“Oh.” He shrugged, went over to turn up the volume, and chose an animated film to play. Then he turned back and looked at Ya Han for a long time: “Those glasses are pretty. Where did you find them? I didn’t see you carrying anything…”

“I asked the innkeeper for them this morning when I said I wanted to read.” Ya Han took off her glasses and examined them. She then rolled her eyes. “Old intellectuals from twenty years ago used those old reading glasses… You making fun of me?”

“No, I really think you look really good in them. Yeah, they have an intellectual beauty, a bit serious, makes you want to… heh… never mind, I’m watching TV…”

“Tsk!”

In the room, the sound of the television, the turning of pages, and the voices of the two could be heard from time to time. Outside, the snow was gradually stopping. The morning hours passed peacefully and warmly in this tranquil atmosphere… .

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