—
Yunjinna sat in her room for two hours afterward.
Didn't cry.
Was past crying.
Just sat.
Her three friends had left almost immediately after.
Mengqi had hugged her and said something supportive that Yunjinna hadn't heard properly.
Lulu had said she'd call later.
Xinyi had said nothing, which was worse.
She sat on her bed and stared at the wall clenched her fist tightly with an angry look.
That girl.
That horrible, smiling, beautiful, infuriating girl.
She'd had a camera.
A personal security device set up on her first day. Who did that? What kind of seventeen year old trash out of an orphanage set up security cameras on her first day in a new house?
What kind of person was she?
Yunjinna pressed her hands flat against her thighs.
She'd walked into that sitting room so certain.
So sure of herself.
She'd built everything perfectly — the timing, the tears, the wobbling generous forgiveness, all of it
—And that girl had taken it apart in four minutes.With a smile on her face.Without raising her voice once.Without even looking angry.
Yunjinna stood up. Walked to her mother's room. Knocked once and pushed the door open.
Ruan Suyin was at her vanity. She looked at her daughter in the mirror.
"Mother," Yunjinna said. "I want her dead for real this time."
Ruan Suyin looked at her for a moment.
"Liang Boshen—"
"I don't care about Liang Boshen." Her voice raised, flat and hard.
Nothing like the tearful performance from downstairs.
"I want her gone before that. I want her to suffer. I want her to regret ever setting foot in this house."
Ruan Suyin turned on her stool to look at her daughter properly.
Something moved in her eyes.
Not disagreement but consideration
"She's smarter than we thought," she said.
"I noticed."
"The camera—"
"I know, Mother."
Yunjinna's jaw was tight.
"So we can't do anything that can be recorded. Something that can't be traced back."
Her eyes were cold and certain and looked, in that moment, very much like her mother's.
"There are ways."Ruan Suyin looked at her daughter.This girl she had raised. Protected. Fought for.
She reached for her phone."I know some people, Since the last one failed, we'll get someone to hire some D-Mercenary team" she said quietly.
"Not connected to us. Untraceable." She paused.
"It'll look like a random incident."
Yunjinna nodded once.
"Tonight,"
she said.
Ruan Suyin looked at her for one more second.
Then she dialed.
——
Yunjiao heard them through the wall.Not the words. Just the tone. The low purposeful murmur of two people making a plan.
She already knew what the plan was going to be.
She'd known since Ruan Suyin's forty-second phone call this morning.
She sat cross-legged on her bed eating chips and reading the Liang Boshen file and listening to the city outside her window.
"Hawk."
"They made the call,"
he confirmed. "Same encrypted line as this morning. Call duration: thirty-one seconds."
"Tonight?"
"Most likely. East road. Same as before."
Same as before.
She thought about that for a second.
They weren't even being creative.
She ate another chip.
"How many this time?"
"Six."
She nodded slowly.
Okay.
Six.
She cracked her knuckles.
That was fine.
—
The east road at eight PM was the same as every other night.
Quiet. Lit.
A convenience store two hundred meters down.
Yun Jiao walked out of the residential gate with her small bag and her strawberry lollipop and her completely unhurried pace.
Six men this time.
She counted them as they stepped out.
Bigger than last night's four.
Someone had paid for an upgrade.
She was almost flattered.
The one in front looked at her and smiled the same smile the man yesterday had smiled Leering, lustful and disgusting.
"Hey little girl—"
"I'm going to stop you there," Yun Jiao said pleasantly.
He blinked.
She took the lollipop out of her mouth.
"I'll be honest with you," she said, looking at all six of them with the patient expression of a teacher addressing a class she had low expectations for.
"I did this yesterday. I really don't want to do it again — it's tiring and I was in the middle of something interesting."
She tilted her head.
"So here's what I'm offering. You take the money you were paid, you go home, and tomorrow you send your employer a message telling them it's done."
She paused.
"And then you never come near me again."
She seriously wasn't in the mood for this, it was a complete waste of her time, that mother and daughter pair completely underestimate her too much.
The six men looked at each other.
Then at her.
Small girl. Lollipop. Shopping bag.
The one in front laughed.
Yun Jiao sighed.
Put the lollipop back in her mouth.
"Fine let's get this over with" and moved.
—
From the shadows, forty meters back
Si Xi watched.
He had not planned to be here.
He'd been heading to a meeting three blocks away when Lin Feng had spotted the men assembling and pulled them back on instinct.