Hidden Assassin 272

“Hey, hey, Lingjing, calm down, there’s a car coming…”

The red light at the crosswalk was still on, cars passed by, Lingjing tugged at Jia Ming’s hand and quickly walked towards the opposite side, leaving Cui Guohua holding a stack of Jianlibao (a popular Chinese energy drink) standing there, helplessly laughing.

Lingjing usually had a gentle and easygoing personality, but she could be incredibly stubborn when it came to certain things. Jia Ming didn’t tell her or Sasha much about the dark world, but he occasionally mentioned it, once even telling a story about Cui Guohua’s name in Yan Huang Jue Xing (literally “Yan Huang Awakening”, a fictional organization in the novel). Jia Ming said he didn’t want to get too involved with these people, and she remembered it, which is why she turned around and left immediately upon hearing the name. Once they crossed the street, she even felt a little resentful towards Jia Ming’s previous attitude.

“You knew who he was all along, why didn’t you tell me! I even talked to him so much…”

“Uh, well… hehe, it’s not necessary to be so tense.” Jia Ming smiled. “He’s essentially a good person, and you like that wedding dress…”

“I haven’t liked it to the extent that I like you!” She glared at him slightly, her gaze swept across the street before pulling Jia Ming and turning around to walk quickly. Keeping up with Lingjing’s pace, Jia Ming waved back with a middle finger.

“Hey, Lingjing, are you saying you don’t like the wedding dress to the extent that you like me?”

“Go away, I’m still angry.”

“Answer first, then get angry.”

“Heh… if you keep being so smooth-talking, I’ll really get angry…” It’s not because I like you that I like the wedding dress, she whispered to herself, her expression feigning slight annoyance in the light rain.

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

When they met Sasha at their agreed-upon bus stop, the light rain had already stopped. Sasha said that her uncle came over to their house. Though only a cousin to her father, they were closer than brothers. This person had just returned from abroad, and her father seemed to want to arrange for him to work for the gang.

“I don’t like him very much, but I have to call him uncle.” Patting the water off her ponytail, Sasha gave this new family member a lukewarm evaluation, and then talked about seeing Huang Haobing when she left home.

“Did he go to play at your classmate’s house?”

“I don’t remember him having friends over there.” Sasha shook her head. “And at this time, he wouldn’t have the mood to play, he looked incredibly depressed, we’re not that close. I didn’t even say hello to him.”

They only talked about Huang Haobing for a few sentences, not taking it too seriously. They took the bus to school, bought some things at a nearby supermarket, and in front of the vegetable display, Sasha picked out an old pumpkin: “Let’s go home and make pumpkin cakes.”

“Do you know how to make them?” Jia Ming laughed from the side.

“I’ll learn from Lingjing.”

“What?” Hearing her name, Lingjing, who was picking fresh fish at the other end of the display, pushed her cart closer. Sasha smiled: “Jia Ming said we’re eating pumpkin cake today.” Jia Ming shrugged with a smile. Lingjing looked at the two of them and smiled: “Put it down, don’t pick such a bad one.”

Caught in her trickery, Sasha stuck out her tongue. Watching Lingjing pick out a pumpkin, she asked: “Should we call Ya Han Jie (Sister Ya Han) and Xun over to eat later?”

“No need, we’ll deliver it to the school later.”

Life itself is actually bland and trivial. Once you reach a level of intimacy where everything is familiar, love and passion gradually fade. Occasionally, they’d squeeze into a movie theater to catch a new release, or find a nice restaurant for the three of them to have a meal. A few times, Lingjing or Sasha got a sudden urge to have a candlelit dinner at home, but they ended up feeling it was too inconvenient to use candles. They laughed and turned on the lights to eat, for these three who were already deeply close, they didn’t need such deliberate romantic gestures anymore. What remained was a sense of family.

Going shopping together, returning home together, eating together, going for a walk together, talking about their parents, their school life, passing by colorful neon signs and cozy streetlights, car lights weaving through the night roads. Occasionally, they went for a walk by the sea, watching the sunset, sitting on the refreshing sea breeze-swept embankment, Sasha loved teasing the little dog on a leash held by passing tourists with apple cores. As the aroma of food wafted out, Jia Ming and Lingjing were busy in the kitchen, Sasha ran back and forth cleaning the table, setting up bowls and chopsticks, the sound of midday news music came from the television. At night, the orange glow of the lamp lit up the room, Lingjing sat on the bed in her pajamas reading a book, the television sound in the living room was turned down to a low murmur, Jia Ming was changing the fire in the coal stove in the kitchen, Sasha, having finished showering, came out of the bathroom, sometimes wearing pajamas, sometimes running into the bedroom naked, rubbing her body, laughing as she burrowed into Lingjing’s bed.

Occasionally, when they went out at night, they’d turn back to see the light and shadows coming from the window above the game room. That’s life.

So, after buying their things and going home, it was around three in the afternoon. Lingjing handled the pumpkin, preparing the ingredients for the pumpkin cake, Jia Ming and Sasha cleaned and tidied up the room that had been empty for over a day. They ate dinner early, took a shower, and the three of them left for school, each going to their own destination.

It was rumored that there would be city officials coming to inspect recently, Lingjing was dragged to make a blackboard newspaper, Sasha was popular with the girls and was often called to practice with the volleyball team. Only Jia Ming had nothing to do. He took the pumpkin cake to the classroom, where not many people had arrived yet. Xun sat quietly reading a book in the back of the classroom, wearing a new white-bottomed black-edged casual outfit, sitting quietly like a graceful crane in an ink painting.

Just as he was about to go in, a guy ran up from the side and pulled on his clothes: “Hi, Jia Ming classmate, I’m Fang Erjie from the next class, nice to meet you.”

“Uh… nice to meet you. What’s up?”

“Uh, hehe…” The guy who looked quite good-looking smiled awkwardly. “It’s like this, I have a letter, I want to give it to Xun classmate, but she always refuses to take letters from others, hehe, you know, actually I…”

“Oh, I’ll give it to her for you.”

“Thanks then.” Fang Erjie gratefully handed over the letter, though letters given through Jia Ming usually didn’t get any response, but at least the beautiful girl would accept it. It was good to try his luck. Just as Jia Ming was about to go in, he mysteriously said: “Hey, Jia Ming classmate, recently… well, be careful…”

“What?”

“It’s like this, I heard Lu Fang seems to be planning to cause trouble for you, anyway… be careful.”

As a gift for helping deliver a love letter, Fang Erjie’s words were sincere. Jia Ming nodded. Lu Fang? Of course he knew him. Two years ago, when they were just freshmen, Lu Jianchuan kicked a soccer ball that hit Lingjing’s head, resulting in him breaking his finger and fracturing his sternum. Later, Han Gangcheng wanted to fight him one-on-one, and Lu Fang was the one who instigated it. Back then, Lu Jianchuan and Han Gangcheng were already in their senior year, and had already gone to university by now. But Lu Fang now…

Two years ago, he didn’t come looking for trouble again, probably because of Wan’s influence. And Jia Ming himself had the Huang family’s background. Now that the Huang family had collapsed, there had been more than one incident of people who used the Huang family’s name to act arrogantly being retaliated against in the past month. It was indeed possible for Lu Fang to come looking for trouble now.

Shaking his head with a smile, he walked into the classroom: “Here, pumpkin cake, Lingjing made it, she told me to bring it to you. And there’s a letter from an admirer for you.”

“Thank you.” Xun casually threw the letter into her desk, stood up from her seat, and sat back down when Jia Ming came in.

Although they were considered teacher and student, they usually didn’t have much to say in the classroom. Only during class, Jia Ming’s pencil case and backpack would often become the objects of this Japanese girl’s search. She had a severe case of amnesia when it came to these things, always misplacing them. It was still some time before evening self-study, the sky outside was approaching dusk, the lights in the classroom were turned on, Jia Ming leaned against the window as usual to watch the scenery outside on the playground, Xun quietly read a book, after a while, the Japanese girl opened the plastic bag holding the pumpkin cake, first offering some to Jia Ming: “Gu Jun, would you like some?”

“I’ve already eaten some at home…” Though he said that, Jia Ming still took a piece and put it in his mouth to chew. A hint of a faint smile appeared on the girl’s face, then she nodded, taking a bite herself: “I’ll start eating.” She took a small bite and continued reading.

As the sky gradually darkened, lights came on on the playground, and the classroom became noisy. At some point, the girl beside him suddenly asked: “Gu Jun, do you understand love?” Jia Ming looked at her strangely, and after a few seconds, not getting an answer, Xun nodded: “Sorry…”

“Love… I don’t really understand it either…” After a moment, Jia Ming still spoke up. “I guess I know a little bit, but I can’t sum it up for you to understand, um… you can ask Sasha and Lingjing about the theory, they like to read romance novels. All I know is, if you have feelings for someone, you’ll be willing to do things for them that you’d normally be too lazy to do. This should include things like family affection and friendship. But if you’re not willing, you definitely don’t have feelings for that person.”

“Is it love between Gu Jun… and Lingjing and Sasha?”

“Half, maybe even less, hehe, they were still a little young when we were together…”

“Then…” She hesitated for a moment. “What about Zhang Lao Shi (Teacher Zhang)?”

“Half, there should be more love than with Lingjing and Sasha.” Jia Ming smiled. “But that doesn’t mean I’m closer to her than to Lingjing and Sasha… Why are you suddenly asking this?”

“I…” Xun thought for a while, her porcelain-white face had no extra expression, but she obviously didn’t know how to answer.

“I heard Sasha say there seems to be rumors going around about you and a senior named Nie Wenchao, is it because of that?”

“Rumors?” Xun turned her head, her eyes filled with confusion.

“Uh, Sasha told me the other day that after you finish your morning exercise and run down from the back of the school, you sit on the bench by the playground for half an hour, Nie Wenchao also sits there and talks to you for half an hour, many people have seen it, so everyone thinks you two are dating. Hehe, Sasha said that Nie Wenchao is quite handsome, he likes to wear white clothes, looks very much like Jet Li.”

“We, hehe…” Jia Ming laughed. “Probably because our image is so mismatched, well, talking about yourself, was Nie Wenchao your first target?”

“Because Gu Jun said you should look at other people more, so every morning after I finish practicing, I sit by the playground for a while… that day when I came down, there was a book on the long bench, I picked it up and flipped through it, later the owner of the book came looking for it, it should be that person, is his name Nie Wenchao?” Xun rarely used Chinese, her pronunciation was a bit awkward, but Jia Ming had been giving her extra Chinese lessons recently, and she no longer had a Japanese accent. But in front of Jia Ming, she still spoke slowly, word by word, probably because Jia Ming had scolded her for her mistakes a while back. She thought for a while and continued.

“He’s not strong, I should be able to knock him down with one punch, not like Jet Li… After that day, he’s been talking to me every morning, Gu Jun said to look and listen more, so I listened to him, but… there’s nothing interesting about him. This classmate, he’s from a wealthy family, he likes reading, music, quiet things, he likes to go to classical film stores to buy expensive things, he particularly likes things related to art that are expensive, he likes people to say he has taste, but he’ll try to stick to mid-range consumption in other areas, because he also likes people to say he’s frugal. He has many weaknesses, vanity, ostentation, strong but fragile self-esteem, raised on praise from adults, has a sense of superiority… These are the things I’ve observed.”

“Wow wow…” Jia Ming finished the pumpkin cake in his hand, regretfully shrugged. “Another pitiful unrequited lover, but then again, unrequited love is actually a normal thing, well, with your temperament, it’s true that you don’t need to speak, just listen to make people misunderstand that you’re in love. If you want to intensify it a little bit, you can show some subtle movements, for example… gently adjusting a stray strand of hair, looking at him unintentionally for three seconds, it’s best to… gently smile, but make sure it’s aimed at him, it must be casual, give him your side profile…”

“I…” Xun hesitated, and said softly, “I don’t really know how to smile…”

“Practice slowly, you may not have noticed, you’ve smiled in front of familiar people, Lingjing, Sasha, me. However, this more genuine smile, you have to restrain yourself, it’s okay to keep this cold attitude in front of others, this is already your public image. But when you face your enemy, you must be able to turn everything about yourself into an illusion. Don’t worry, you’re not an adult yet, we still have a few years…”

“Yes.”

This kind of conversation, in the end, circled back to the training of killing and deception. Xun nodded in agreement, then opened the plastic bag to pass it to him, Jia Ming lay down on the table and started to eat the second piece of pumpkin cake, continuing to watch the crowd on the playground. A while later, Xun seemed to have remembered something, her eyes fixed on the book, she was stunned.

“Actually, I don’t have any feelings for my father…”

“Hmm?”

“But I do for my family, I don’t know why…” She spoke softly, as if this thought troubled her. At this moment, several figures appeared at the door of the classroom: “Is Gu Jia Ming here?”

The leader’s eyes saw Jia Ming, he seemed a little afraid when he saw Xun next to him, but a group of people still walked in: “Gu Jia Ming, let’s talk outside.” It was Lu Fang.

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter