Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The wind had been strong in Qubei City these past few days.

Or maybe it was just that the unfinished building I was in let drafts through from every direction.

Not far away, I could still faintly hear the sounds of fists and kicks landing. Someone beside me offered me a cigarette.

I pushed it away.

“Xu Chang doesn’t like it when I smoke.”

…

“Look into the girl Xu Chang brought back last night.”

I turned and said to the man beside me.

He had been with me ever since I joined the organization. Since he ranked seventh, he was called Li Laoqi.

I usually called him Xiao Qi. He had been with me so long that, to some extent, he dared to say things others wouldn’t.

“Sister Qing, sigh…”

“You’re the smartest woman I’ve ever met.”

“So you should understand better than anyone that something like love has no place with people like us.”

“…”

He stood beside me with his hands in his pockets, staring out over the empty lot of rubble with me.

“Which one of us doesn’t have blood on our hands?”

“Big Brother has gone clean now. There’s no way he’d marry someone like us, someone with blood on her hands.”

“We’ve shouldered murder charges for him, so of course he’ll treat us well. But if you’re talking about a proper title? That’s definitely impossible…”

Yes. The reason Xu Chang trusted me so much, the reason he had spoiled me like this all these years, was because I had shouldered a murder charge for him.

Over the years, there had been plenty of blood on my hands. So much that sometimes, when I saw myself late at night, it was as if I could see the vengeful ghosts coming to claim their due.

So much that sometimes, I nearly forgot who I really was.

An undercover agent. A nail buried deep in the dark earth. A long and lethal fuse.

All bought with thirteen years of my life and the blood of my colleagues.

No one ever came to this abandoned unfinished building. The sounds of that beating had ended not long ago.

I lifted my head and looked up at the bright white clouds beneath the clear sky.

I didn’t care how many women Xu Chang had. I was only afraid.

Afraid that decades of painstaking preparation would go up in smoke because of one uncertain factor.

“Let’s go. Time to meet that little girl he brought back.”

I turned and said to the people behind me.

Unlike the cries and screams lingering in the abandoned unfinished building, Xu Chang’s villa was quiet and peaceful.

As soon as I entered, I saw a girl with a braid lying on the sofa reading a book.

When she saw me, she started and immediately became stiff with nerves.

“You…”

The girl’s eyes darted away when she looked at me, and she lowered her lashes.

“Are you Big Brother’s wife?”

Surprised that she would describe me that way, I sat down beside her.

“No.”

“Oh…”

The girl shrank a little toward the corner, looking faintly disappointed.

“I thought the only woman worthy of Brother Xu would be someone as beautiful and outstanding as you.”

“…”

There was a naive innocence in the girl’s eyes, the kind that knew nothing of the world.

I gave a bitter laugh inwardly. Here was another girl so dazzled by Xu Chang’s appearance that she had lost all sense.

I had just been about to reach out and rub her head when someone suddenly called out to stop me.

“Sister Qing, Big Brother said you’re not allowed to touch Miss Lin.”

The man beside us came over quickly, forcing his way in front of me. If not for the respect he still had for me, he would have all but dragged me out.

“We ask that you don’t come to this villa again. This place belongs to Miss Lin now.”

The girl was so frightened she curled up again, while I raised an eyebrow.

Well, well. Such a high level of protection.

“Fine. I’ll leave.”

Xu Chang had brought back plenty of women over the years, but this was the first one he’d ever protected to this extent.