Chapter 159: I Knew It

Assassins aren't frightening; what's frightening is when you never even suspected someone to be an assassin!

The middle-aged couple had been sitting not far from the group's table from the beginning, whispering quietly and eating ordinary food like the other guests. Their attire was typical of the upper-class families in Hong Kong, nothing out of the ordinary. Their appearance was so nondescript that they could easily blend into a crowd.

Yet, it was precisely these unassuming individuals who were at the deadly core of this sudden shooting!

At the critical moment, everyone held their breath. The two assassins, disguised as a couple, revealed their murderous intent and were about to shoot at Yang Chen and Li Muhua!

"Bang, bang!"

After two consecutive gunshots, chaos erupted once again. Guests fleeing the restaurant didn't even care what had happened; they just knew they had to get out of this terrifying place as quickly as possible!

Li Muhua had closed his eyes, ready to meet his end. Unlike Yang Chen, he didn't have time to run, let alone approach and deal with the two assassins.

However, after the gunshots subsided, Li Muhua was astonished to find that he hadn't suffered any injuries. Huh? Did they miss?

Opening his eyes, Li Muhua's spine chilled at the sight before him. Both assassins, who knows when, had smoke-emitting bullet holes on their foreheads, the bullets piercing through their brows.

The two assassins fell with wide-eyed fury, their guns still in their hands, ready to pull the trigger.

"Phew..."

Standing calmly amidst it all, Jian held a finely crafted Swiss-made pocket pistol that had just been fired. This pistol was only a few centimeters long but packed a powerful punch at close range.

At the critical moment just now, Jian calmly killed the two assassins, saving Li Muhua from the brink of death.

Li Muhua felt his bones weighing as heavy as lead for a moment. He slumped to the ground, feeling like he had circled back from the brink of death once again and was about to collapse.

Mo Qianni, too, was drenched in cold sweat. Seeing that Jian had "saved" Yang Chen, she felt a mix of gratitude and envy. This woman, did she even have the right to be jealous?

"Are you okay?" Yang Chen asked softly, gently stroking Mo Qianni's pale face, which had lost color due to shock.

Mo Qianni felt a sweet warmth in her heart. Even in danger, he was the first to show concern for her, not Jian. This indicated that, at least in his heart, she was not inferior to Jian.

This realization dawned on Mo Qianni. She had been worrying over nothing. If Yang Chen was the kind of man who would look down on her background, how could he repeatedly help her without expecting anything in return? Even a super beauty like Jian, who combined intelligence and beauty, probably wouldn't receive special treatment in his eyes.

She was herself, so why compare herself to others? Mo Qianni felt a surge of confidence once again and smiled brightly, saying, "With you here, I believe everything will be fine."

Yang Chen didn't understand why this woman suddenly became cheerful, but he nodded in reassurance nonetheless.

"What's going on?! Why are there people trying to kill us again?! Didn't Li Mu become... die?!" Landau, relieved that it was a false alarm, jumped up, shouting.

Li Muhua, gasping for breath, eyes burning with anger, said, "It's Xu Zhihong. He won't let our alliance succeed so easily."

"Xu Zhihong?!" Landau cursed angrily. "This is absolutely despicable! It's the most heinous means of competition! What do we do? Wouldn't it be even more dangerous to return to Zhonghai?!"

"No," Mo Qianni regained her composure and immediately analyzed meticulously, "If we return to Zhonghai, Xu Zhihong definitely wouldn't dare to act because, in Hong Kong's special social environment, many times, underworld methods can be suppressed. But think about it, in Zhonghai, the Xu family is just one of the top five families. Any vulnerability they have can be used as leverage by the other major families to suppress them."

"Indeed, in politics and the military, the Xu family is not as powerful as the others. They wouldn't dare to resort to unconventional means to compete with us; it doesn't align with their overall interests," Li Muhua agreed.

Mo Qianni continued, "Even in Hong Kong, the Xu family wouldn't dare to easily hire assassins to attack us. In the days to come, I will ensure that no flies will bother any of you."

At this moment, several of Li Muhua's bodyguards hurriedly ran to his side. After reprimanding them, he instructed, "Immediately mobilize all our elite brothers. If there are any mishaps in the coming days, you will be responsible for it yourselves! Also, contact Mr. Jiang from the Hongxing Group. I need their help to supervise all the underground assassins entering and leaving Hong Kong."

After giving his orders, Li Muhua turned to Jian, who was quietly drinking tea, and bowed, "Thank you, Miss Jian, for saving our lives."

Jian elegantly placed down her teacup, exuding an air of ancient nobility. "There's no need to thank me. I just did the grunt work. It was Yang Chen who truly discovered the assassins and alerted us about their accomplices."

This statement reminded everyone, and they all looked at Yang Chen in puzzlement, wondering how he had so mysteriously detected that the waiter was an assassin and seemed to have a good understanding of their assassination methods.

Yang Chen rubbed his nose. This Jian was truly something; being modest to a fault could cause trouble for oneself. Why give credit to others for everything?

"I just have a good memory. Typically, the waiters in western restaurants stick to one table to ensure proper collection of tips. The waiter earlier was different from the one who served us initially, and he was holding the towel in a manner that was not customary, covering his hand. Well, it's just that I've watched too many detective movies recently, and I've been a little on edge these days, so I paid more attention," Yang Chen casually fabricated an explanation.

In reality, relying on his years of experience, he could sense the difference just from the killer's aura. However, this was also because the assassins hired by Xu Zhihong were of low caliber. A true master wouldn't so easily reveal their killing intent.

Knowing that Yang Chen was not an ordinary person, Li Muhua didn't inquire further, afraid of offending him. After expressing his gratitude with a few words, the matter was glossed over.

In Zhonghai, the continuous autumn rain veiled the entire sky in a misty gray, drenching the earth.

At the East China Technology Building of the Xu family, the door to Xu Zhihong's office was forcefully pushed open.

Holding a cigarette in his mouth and wearing a pair of long leather rain boots, Mao Qiu strode into the spacious office, which was adorned with exquisite cashmere carpets.

Xu Zhihong looked up and down at Maoqiu, "How many times have I told you, knock on the door before entering, and also, if you want to wear those tattered knee-high rain boots, I won't blame you, but can't you take them off before entering my office? Do you know how many thousands of pairs of shoes this carpet could buy?"

Maoqiu grinned, already accustomed to being scolded by his boss, he didn't care at all, "Boss, you're not my secretary anyway, even if I had a secretary, my old Mao wouldn't care. Even if I saw them, it's not a big deal. At worst, we'd work together. What's the point of knocking on the door? It's a waste of time. As for the carpet and all, I don't care about it, I just want the rain boots."

"Hopeless," Xu Zhihong muttered dishearteningly. He was also quite helpless with this subordinate, but when it really mattered, he couldn't do without him. He had to focus on business, "How's it going in Hong Kong?"

"It didn't work out. Some white woman showed up out of nowhere and took care of that couple. Her marksmanship was impressive," Maoqiu sighed.

"White woman," Xu Zhihong pondered for a moment. "Try to investigate who that Western woman is as much as possible. Also, the surveillance on the Twilight Cloud Research Institute must not stop. Don't miss any opportunity to capture Li Guangxun."

Maoqiu nodded, "Understood, boss. Should we send a few more assassins? That kid surnamed Yang seems to have a tough life. He just won't die no matter what we do!"

"No need," Xu Zhihong stood up, walked to the floor-to-ceiling window of tempered glass, and looked out at the steel and concrete jungle shrouded in drizzle. "Hong Kong is the Li family's stronghold. They are the local bigwigs. Hong Xing, Dongxing, the Little Knife Society, they're all their allies. We only have one chance. Any more than that would just be adding to the jokes."

Maoqiu scratched his head indifferently, "So, we're just leaving it at that?"

"Of course, we can't just leave it. It's just that some things, it's enough to do them, they don't necessarily have to succeed to count as a success."

"You're talking in riddles again," Maoqiu muttered, then walked out of the office, forgetting to close the door behind him.

Two days later, in the café of the Li family's Twilight Manor, Yang Chen and Jian sat on opposite sides of a coffee table in the corner, surrounded by the lingering aroma of Blue Mountain coffee.

"You didn't just bring me out for a cup of coffee, did you?" Yang Chen looked at Jian, who remained silent, and couldn't help but smile and ask.

Jian pursed her lips. "What, are you missing Miss Mo? Don't worry, it won't take you much time. Tomorrow, you'll return to Zhonghai, and I'll leave Hong Kong too."

"It's not what you think. Although Qianni is a woman I care about, we're not at that level yet," Yang Chen knew Jian was just making a casual joke and didn't take it seriously.

"I'm just hesitating whether to give you the gift I've been working on alone for the past two days," Jian took a deep breath, revealing a wise smile. "I've made up my mind. I'll give it to you."

With that, she took out a small, unlabelled deep yellow plastic bottle from the pocket of her jeans. The bottle was the size of a thumb, very small and delicate.

"What's this, medicine?" Yang Chen picked up the bottle, unscrewed the cap, and found inside about a dozen dark brown pills.

Jian's expression was somewhat complicated. "For the past few years, I've been researching how to control and eliminate your strange illness. Although I haven't been able to come up with a perfect solution, through ample experimentation, I've understood some basic principles. These pills are the result of my final experiment last month. I didn't name them because it's unnecessary; they exist only to serve you."

"What do they do?" Yang Chen asked softly.

"They can forcibly stabilize you when you can't control yourself. However, as you use them more, their effectiveness will decrease, and there may be negative side effects that make the next onset more severe," Jian said slowly.

In other words, this was a kind of chronic poison. It could alleviate your suffering and prevent you from going insane for a short time, but ultimately, because of it, you might completely lose your humanity!

Yang Chen fell silent, then smiled bitterly. "Are you harming me or saving me?"

"You can choose not to use it. I brought it out because I don't want to hide anything from you," Jian looked at Yang Chen with a hint of expectation.

"You know me, I can't refuse it. Of course, I hope I don't have to use it."

With that, Yang Chen put the pill bottle into his pocket.

Jian sighed, "I knew it."