Shen Yi's lips tightened at his words, and she argued back, "I was just careless!"
She wasn't a superhero; she couldn't predict her opponent's next move.
Shen Wenta's face was full of mockery.
Pei Wanyan also noticed the blood on Shen Yi's forehead.
She quickly intervened, "Alright, Wenta, let me take your sister to the infirmary first. She's so young and her skin is delicate; it wouldn't be good if it left a scar."
Shen Wenta stood a little straighter. The wind blew his white shirt against his waist, outlining his lean, slender frame.
He didn't give Shen Yi another look, saying coldly, "Suit yourself."
Pei Wanyan took the opportunity to take Shen Yi's hand, a gentle smile on her face. "Let's go, little sister. I'll take you to the infirmary."
Shen Xun still wanted to follow, but Shen Wenta stopped him with a half-smile. "Are you going to follow her to the infirmary too? Being too clingy makes it easy for people to hate you."
It was his own brother, yet he was following Shen Yi, a person of unknown origin. This made Shen Wenta quite unhappy.
"..."
Shen Xun stopped in his tracks, no longer in a rush to catch up. He turned around and said in a measured tone, "Yi-yi protected me in the classroom earlier."
"She was so brave. Even though she was scared to death and her hands were shaking, she still grabbed a utility knife and pulled me out with her."
Therefore, Yi-yi wouldn't hate him. He and Yi-yi were the best of friends.
"That feeling was so strange," Shen Xun muttered to himself, ignoring his third brother's dark and gloomy expression.
The sensation of being protected for the first time felt incredibly fresh and interesting.
"Is that so?" Shen Wenta felt strangely rattled. He lowered his head and sneered, "So you were actually protected by her?"
That coward Shen Yi would actually protect a brat like Shen Xun?
Shen Wenta was somewhat displeased.
But soon, seeing his brother's joyful expression, that displeasure was replaced by a sense of novelty.
Shen Wenta suddenly... also wanted to experience the thrill of being protected.
*
"Yi-yi," Pei Wanyan asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice on the way to the infirmary, "you and your brother seem to really hate him?"
"Yes," Shen Yi said fiercely, "because there's something wrong with his head."
"Haha, I suppose that's true."
Pei Wanyan actually agreed with her.
Shen Yi's eyes lit up. "Right? He has such a bad personality!"
Shen Wenta was a total psycho.
Pei Wanyan smiled, but this time she didn't join in.
Shen Yi could badmouth Shen Wenta because they were siblings.
But she couldn't criticize her boyfriend's faults, even if he was indeed terrible.
Pei Wanyan gently changed the subject. "Your brother is quite the gentleman to me."
"I can see he smiles very warmly at you. To me, he's just viciously aggressive," Shen Yi grumbled. He was a complete lunatic. Between the knives and the guns in the middle of the night, did she owe him in a past life?
Their daily interactions were purely of the "if we're siblings, let's take a few stabs at each other" variety.
Pei Wanyan thought to herself silently.
From the sounds of it, their relationship was indeed terrible.
In that case, the girl didn't seem to have much value as an acquaintance.
After all, the Shen family currently had only one heir.
Consequently, for the rest of the walk, the previously gentle Pei Wanyan didn't say another word.
After bringing Shen Yi to the infirmary, the young woman turned and left decisively.
...
The students left in the international class watched as their teacher rushed out in a panic and then returned as if nothing had happened.
The teacher announced loudly, "The matter has been perfectly resolved."
"Don't be afraid. Shen Yi and Shen Xun will be back to continue class in a moment. I hope you treat your classmates well and stop this group bullying."
From the tone, it sounded like the teacher was actually siding with those two.
"They were so arrogant in the classroom! Teacher, how can you still side with them?"
"Those two siblings are clearly mentally unstable! Didn't you see? Li Ning's face is disfigured!"
"This isn't fair!"
Some students began to protest.
"Did you think about fairness when you were bullying Shen Yi?"
The teacher sneered and slammed a hand on the lectern, drowning out their shouting. "Do you want me to pull up the classroom surveillance footage for everyone to see?"
In an instant, all the students went silent.
Shen Yi and Shen Xun had certainly made a name for themselves with their sudden outburst.
The next few classes were peaceful.
This also signaled that the siblings had completely lost their social standing in the school.
However, there were always exceptions.
Chen Jiaojiao gathered around them after they returned, holding her face in her hands and exclaiming, "I knew I wasn't wrong about you two. You're both pretty ruthless."
These siblings were definitely different from the usual pretentious crowd.
She had always thought they were from some middle-class family with a few connections, but now it seemed that wasn't the case.
Such a major incident had been swept under the rug so quietly.
Even the teacher, who usually turned a blind eye to classroom bullying, had uncharacteristically warned the other students.
"What does your family do?"
It all feels very mysterious.
Shen Xun looked up impatiently, staring at her for two seconds with a gaze that flickered with a chilling coldness. "An assassin."
"Haha, Shen Xun, you really know how to joke. You can't scare me," Chen Jiaojiao said, doubled over with laughter. She quickly leaned in and lowered her voice mysteriously. "Speaking of which, I actually do know of an organization that has been training assassins for generations."
Shen Yi interrupted, "Assassins? Isn't that a profession you only see in movies?"
"No way," Chen Jiaojiao looked at her strangely. "Why would you think that? Plenty of politicians are mysteriously shot, and plenty of tycoons die in their homes under bizarre circumstances. Basically, they’ve all been targeted by hired hits."
"It’s usually the work of those professional assassins."
When it came to the profession of assassination, the most representative figures were those from the "Archive" organization.
It was unclear which family they served; it was a very mysterious and famous organization of killers.
"But small fries like us have only heard rumors. Assassins and such have nothing to do with us anyway."
Chen Jiaojiao wasn't particularly afraid of assassins; after all, no one would be bored enough to kill her.
It was the powerful figures with real weight who should be afraid.
After all, the higher the status, the easier it was to be targeted by an assassin.
The financial magnates and power players would rather offend politicians than deal with an assassin organization that traded in blood.
In a trade war, losing just meant a potential financial loss.
But if an assassin targeted you, you’d lose your life.
If people are killed, they die. While that sounded like a redundant platitude, it was also an absolute truth.
The wealthy only valued their lives more than others.
"Supposedly, if you want to place an order with them, you have to wait in line. Besides, very few assassins from the Archive take orders from ordinary wealthy merchants like us." Chen Jiaojiao slumped against the table, venting her frustrations. "If an Archive assassin really took an order, the first thing I’d do is hire them to take out Song Yi!"
Shen Xun thought about it nonchalantly.
Of course.
The "Archive" organization belonged to the Shen family and was managed by his youngest uncle.
When those professional assassins spent too much time killing, they gradually became numb.
This led some of them, who were seeking excitement, to only challenge the most dangerous missions.
The group had little interest in orders from ordinary wealthy merchants like Chen Jiaojiao’s family.
Only someone like his father—whose cards and assets had all been seized and frozen by his grandfather—would be unpicky.
Shen Sixing had been very short on money lately.
Not only did he have to pay the exorbitant tuition for Hejing Academy, but he also had to save up some extra money for his daughter.
...And Chen Jiaojiao’s family was, indeed, very rich.
At this thought, Shen Xun decisively wrote down a phone number and handed it to Chen Jiaojiao. The boy’s voice was flat. "If you encounter trouble, you can call this number."
"Just remember to have the final payment ready. I can give you a one percent discount."
"A one percent discount?" Chen Jiaojiao subconsciously looked at the number on the paper, finding it hard to believe. "What’s the difference between that and the original price?"
Shen Xun replied, "If you prefer to pay full price, that’s fine too."
Chen Jiaojiao was speechless. She casually stuffed the note into her pocket, not taking it to heart, assuming it was just the number for a bodyguard company. "Fine."
Perhaps Shen Xun and Shen Yi’s family ran a security firm?
"If I need it, I’ll have someone call for a consultation."
...
"Brother," Shen Yi waited until Chen Jiaojiao had left before falling silent for a moment. Finally, she asked the question she was curious about. "The number you gave her... isn't that Dad's?"
Shen Xun: "Yes."
Shen Yi was puzzled. "Why did you give her Dad’s number? Even if something really happens, she can hire professional bodyguards. Dad doesn’t really have any special skills, does he?"
In her impression, Shen Sixing was just a miserable corporate slave. He was the kind of worker who would hold her on weekends, rubbing his face against hers in a silly way, and lazily shouting at the top of his lungs, "I don't want to go to work!"
"Is that what you think?" The boy’s expression turned strange, and he asked with a heavily leading tone, "Yi, don't you want to know what Dad actually does?"
It had been over a year. Was Shen Yi really not even a little curious about their father's job?
Shen Sixing went on business trips frequently, and whenever he returned, he always carried the scent of gunpowder and blood.
Anyone should have been able to tell something was wrong.
Especially since his sister had very sharp intuition and powers of observation.
"No," Shen Yi said very calmly as she pressed his head down onto the table. "I don't."
Regarding her old man's profession, she really, truly wasn't curious at all.
It couldn't possibly be something like a professional assassin, right?
Haha, what a joke. She was just scaring herself.
