Birds of a feather flock together; this is an eternal truth.
"So you guys should know what I do now, right?"
Iris's eyes curved into a smile as she reached out her hand, formally greeting Zhao Shumin and Chen Jiaojiao. "Assassin of the Ninth Group of the Archive, codename Iris. I look forward to working with you in the future."
Zhao Shumin's heart trembled a little. She hesitantly reached out and gently shook Iris's hand.
"Nice to meet you."
"Forget it." Chen Jiaojiao's mouth twitched, but she took a step back and didn't shake her hand. "I wouldn't dare instruct you."
This Iris had been a bit weird since she arrived.
Chen Jiaojiao had thought she was some rich young lady, but after spending time with her, she found out that wasn't the case. Iris's family was very ordinary.
The key point was that her grades were also at the bottom, making her an oddball at Hejing.
She had wondered how this girl had managed to get into Hejing, but it turned out she was an assassin on a mission.
The Archive was Shen Yi's family's property, so it wasn't surprising that Shen Yi and Iris knew each other.
Or rather...
"Are you an assassin too?" Chen Jiaojiao couldn't help but turn to look at her best friend.
Shen Yi snapped back to reality and gave a quiet "mm," not denying it.
After all, her parents were both assassins, so it wasn't strange for her to be in this line of work.
Chen Jiaojiao almost blacked out. Who would have thought that her best friend, whom she had known since elementary school, was secretly doing this kind of work?
"So when you're not at school, you're out there murdering and setting fires?"
Shen Yi strictly corrected her wording: "I'm not out murdering and setting fires every day. We haven't had any business for several months."
"..."
Not having business for several months meant that they used to have business frequently.
Chen Jiaojiao covered her eyes, took a deep breath, and frantically built up her mental defenses to accept this fact, muttering to herself:
"Fine, even if you've become a cold-blooded assassin, I still love you."
After all, the identity of an assassin actually sounded pretty cool in real life, didn't it?
"You guys are really... so scary, Xiao Yi." Zhao Shumin broke out in goosebumps. "What is Song Yi thinking, daring to go against your family?"
Shen Yi thought aimlessly, "It doesn't really matter what she thinks. She's completely being pushed along. The important thing is the righteous people behind her. We have to deal with them first."
Compared to the danger posed by the government and the Heguang Organization, the threat Song Yi posed was negligible.
However, Song Yi shouldn't think about escaping either.
After returning home, Shen Yi immediately placed a huge bounty on Song Yi.
She had the highest authority in the Archive's bounty system and didn't need anyone's approval.
Entered the numbers, confirmed, submitted.
After doing this, Shen Yi didn't leave the Archive but went straight into Shen Sigui's office.
Sitting in the empty chair, she gently bit the back of her hand, pondering.
The Heguang Organization fighting her family was an unwise choice.
Military, politics, business, academia, domestic and foreign, the light and the dark—their people were everywhere. Trying to shake this massive tree head-on was a fool's dream.
So they only dared to play little tricks in the dark.
These little tricks were annoying enough.
"Uncle, can you assign some people to me?"
Shen Yi knocked on the table, signaling Shen Sigui to snap out of it.
"For what?"
Shen Sigui covered his mouth, looking listless. He slightly raised his chin and said lightly, "Don't tell me you want to lead a team?"
"Yes."
Shen Sigui sized up Shen Yi, re-evaluating the child in front of him. "I always thought you being a mascot in the organization was pretty good."
He had practically watched Shen Yi grow up.
He knew his niece's temper; she would hide from trouble whenever possible and avoid getting involved if she could.
But now, this person who always hid away was voluntarily asking to lead a team?
Incredible.
She calmly reiterated her wishes: "I want to do something too. Let me participate in the operation to wipe out Heguang this time."
Shen Yi was particularly unwilling to be pushed along by the so-called plot.
If she didn't do something, she could only watch helplessly as everything slid down the predetermined track.
Shen Sigui heard her seriousness, paused for a moment, and gently tapped his fingers on the desk twice.
"I can give you a group of people."
Shen Yi's eyes lit up.
Shen Sigui's next sentence immediately followed.
"But you must remember to stay safe," his tone was so blunt it bordered on cruel. "Any subordinate I give you can be discarded at any time to pave the way for you."
"And your safety is the most important thing," Shen Sigui looked into her eyes, enunciating each word clearly. "Do you understand?"
Shen Yi casually remarked, "Your speech sounds very capitalist."
Shen Sigui remained expressionless, uncharacteristically lacking a smile.
He stood up, walked around the desk, and stopped in front of Shen Yi.
"I'm not joking with you. Anyone other than family can be sacrificed." He paused, called her by her codename, and warned her as a superior:
"Kelsang Flower, the boss's orders are absolute. You should remember that, right?"
—What a terrifying, dean-like commanding tone.
Shen Yi shuddered all over. "I understand."
"Go on," he said, his expression returning to its careless laziness. "The specific arrangements will be sent to you later."
...
If the Archive represented blood and violence, then Heguang represented justice.
At least, that's what they claimed publicly.
In those impassioned declarations, the same theme was always written: justice, fairness, making the world a better place.
There were countless hot-blooded youths willing to fight for this in private.
Those people were young, idealistic, believing that the world could be changed, and believing that they could be part of the people who changed the world.
Heguang gave them an outlet, a channel.
In Shen Sigui's eyes, these people were a bunch of nonsensical existences.
He had seen too many organizations like this. Every single one made young people shed about the same amount of blood, and ultimately perished in about the same infighting and corruption.
There was nothing unique about Heguang.
The only special thing was that his subordinates would always fail repeatedly when they encountered people from Heguang.
Logically speaking, those sent out by the Archive to execute missions were all elites. Yet, such existences would always fail due to various accidents as soon as they ran into Heguang.
Every time, the people from Heguang managed to escape due to various coincidences and good luck.
It was as if something unseen was obstructing them from behind.
Shen Sigui couldn't understand.
Shen Yi, however, knew that this was the so-called plot.
She didn't want to sit and wait for death, so she took the initiative to ask her mother to help out.
Although sometimes the power of the plot was indeed very strong.
But sometimes, in a comic book worldview, the person with the highest combat power would not be easily shaken or changed.
...
Wen Ya was currently at home, nestled on the sofa hugging a pillow. On the TV screen, a man was roaring his confession in the rain, and the female lead was crying her eyes out.
She was watching with great relish.
Shen Yi rushed home in a flurry, and the first thing she said upon opening the door was:
"Mom—"
"Hi, baby," Wen Ya said, casually ruffling her hair. "Did you get blown up digging a trench?"
Shen Yi's curly hair was already a bit unruly to begin with, but now it was sticking out in every direction.
She looked exactly like a scruffy little puppy that had just gotten into a fight with a hairdryer and lost miserably.
Shen Yi instinctively grabbed at her standing curls. "Huh?"
"Never mind that." She casually tugged at her frizzy hair. "Mom, we're currently carrying out a plan to wipe out an organization. Can you help us?"
Wen Ya's eyes were still glued to the TV screen, where the male lead was pounding the ground and weeping bitterly in the pouring rain—a truly tragic scene.
"Mom!" She clung to Wen Ya like a giant koala, pestering her relentlessly. "Please, please! We really need your help, Mom."
"Alright." Made dizzy by all the shaking, Wen Ya cheerfully agreed. "When are you guys making your move?"
Shen Yi's face lit up with joy. "We'll take action as soon as Second Brother and Li Jianwei figure out their location and breach their stronghold."
"Alright, Mom understands." Wen Ya asked, "What organization has you all so worked up? Is it Heguang again?"
Heguang was a veteran organization.
Even in her youth, Wen Ya had experienced firsthand just how difficult the people there could be.
She had casually killed a few bothersome small fries back in the day, but she never expected that place to still be causing trouble after all these years.
