"She is the legendary..." The moment Wisteria heard the other party's codename, her back instinctively tensed up. Her fingertips curled slightly, and she hesitated for two seconds before whispering the second half of her sentence, "Senior Harbinger Bird?"
The legendary killing machine actually looked this harmless?
Wisteria was a bit skeptical about this, but she still joined the search party for Shen Yi.
She actually didn't understand why Iris was so certain that Shen Yi would be with their boss.
Harboring this confusion, Wisteria followed behind the two of them and witnessed how this beautiful woman in front of her softly inquired about Shen Yi's whereabouts while killing people without blinking an eye.
The whole process took no more than three seconds.
Wisteria was amazed, and her slight hesitation vanished into thin air. She quickly jogged a couple of steps to catch up. "Senior—"
"Are you tired? You've worked hard!"
Iris couldn't help but scream internally.
Those were all her lines!
And so, along the way, Wen Ya's cheerleading squad grew from one to two.
By the time the two groups finally met up, Shen Yi was still trying to argue with Shen Sigui over who would go and explain to Ms. Wen the trivial matter of why neither of them answered their phones.
Shen Sigui reached out, wanting to press down on Shen Yi's head and push her to the front.
Shen Yi nimbly shrank back, backhandedly grabbed his collar, and yanked him in front of her.
The two pushed and shoved, neither willing to let go first.
Unfortunately, a perpetual shut-in like Shen Sigui was no match in strength for Shen Yi, who had been trained by Wen Ya since childhood.
She easily shoved him right in front of Wen Ya.
Shen Sigui stumbled two steps, and when he steadied himself, he met Wen Ya's unblinking stare.
"..."
In an instant, the gloom in the man's eyes was so thick it could drip water. He pursed his lips but still stubbornly put on a smiling face: "Good evening, sister-in-law."
"Good evening," Wen Ya delivered the deadly question: "Why didn't you answer my calls?"
"My phone died, sorry," Shen Sigui naturally apologized.
Wen Ya didn't actually care whether he answered his phone or not.
"And what about you, baby?" The woman gently stroked Shen Yi's face.
"Something happened just now, I didn't hear it." Shen Yi hurriedly explained, hugging her mother's waist and complaining in a soft voice: "Youngest Uncle just hurt my heart, which is as fragile as crystal...!"
Seeing this, Shen Sigui wasn't anxious at all. He even leisurely crossed his arms and slowly said, "There are only a few months left until the New Year."
"Speaking of the organization's year-end bonus this year..."
He knew exactly where to strike where it hurt.
Sure enough, Shen Yi, who had been trying to tattle, immediately dared not say a word.
She really wanted that year-end bonus. It had nothing to do with the amount; it was the bonus she deserved.
If it got deducted over such a trivial matter, she would truly be so depressed that she'd cry at the family gathering.
"Alright, don't ignore my calls next time." Wen Ya reached out and wiped a bit of dust off her face. "Mom had to ask quite a few passersby in order to find you."
Out of the corner of her eye, Shen Yi caught sight of the bloodstains that hadn't completely dried on Wen Ya's cuffs, and she obediently nodded.
The word "ask" was used very subtly.
Wisteria had been in the organization the longest, but this was the first time in all these years she had seen the boss's true face.
The man was currently standing two steps behind Wen Ya, his eyes slightly lowered.
His aura was exactly as she had imagined—looking like a sinister, frail man.
Wisteria stood blankly not far away, witnessing this family drama, and suddenly recalled a past event.
She had been in a relationship when she was seventeen.
At that time, Wisteria even thought about following Senior Harbinger Bird's example and washing her hands of the business. Iris had hugged her, crying and shouting about what the two of them would do without her.
Wisteria had even confidently declared that she was going to learn from Senior Harbinger Bird and completely quit the organization.
After hearing this, Shen Yi hesitated to speak for a long time. It took her a while to organize her words and join in to persuade her:
"But Harbinger Bird's situation is different from yours. You will definitely get played if you do this, Wisteria!"
"How is it different? Isn't it just a story about finding an honest man to be with and then washing your hands of the business?"
Wisteria hadn't understood at the time.
Now she understood.
Senior Harbinger Bird was Shen Yi's mother.
And the boss of The Archive was Shen Yi's uncle.
Therefore, it could be deduced—
Shen Yi's father must also be an assassin.
How was this a story of finding an honest man and leaving the underworld?
This was clearly a mutual attraction between assassins.
Neither of them were good people, so neither had to pretend. They could go home as a married couple and smile at each other over the same bloodstained knife.
...How morbid.
Shen Yi was still chatting with Wen Ya in that half-coquettish tone when Iris suddenly pulled her away halfway through.
The three of them started a little meeting.
"The Archive belongs to your family, so why do you still get scolded along with us?"
Wisteria sincerely asked a rather practical question.
When the three of them were scolded by the team leader, Shen Yi got scolded no less than they did.
Shen Yi covered her face, "Because our company relies on performance."
"Ah."
This answer made the two of them pause for a moment. Then they both realized it, laughed, and replied one after the other:
"I didn't expect your family's enterprise to have such a conscience."
"Companies with such a conscience are rare these days."
At the thought that the eldest miss also got scolded, Wisteria and Iris instantly felt relieved.
...
That night, dense red lights almost completely enveloped the organization known as Heguang. Not a single internal member of Heguang was spared.
From the core management down to the peripheral contacts, no one escaped.
In just one night.
The world was turned upside down.
International news wouldn't report conflicts between such factions.
The news still showed politicians shaking hands, the stock market rising and falling, and floods in some distant country.
But privately, both high society and the underworld were going crazy discussing how The Archive had bloodily purged an entire organization.
The storms of the outside world had nothing to do with Shen Yi for the time being.
She had been busy all night and caught up on her sleep after returning home.
After getting enough sleep, she started pulling friends online to play games. Heguang's headquarters had been destroyed, Song Yi had been killed, and things had finally settled down one by one.
The past half month had been calm and peaceful. For Shen Yi, such idle days were the best.
At noon, while sleeping on the sofa, she dreamt of being indignant about getting scolded because she had been playing too many games recently.
Groggily shaken awake, she saw Shen Wenta's face but hadn't fully processed it yet.
She instinctively wanted to throw a punch at him.
Shen Wenta didn't dodge or evade.
His eyelashes didn't even flutter as he just looked down at her.
