"Go home and cry to your mommy, little kid."
The leader looked down at Shen Yi, the usual careless smirk of someone used to controlling everything hanging on his lips.
The gun spun in his hand.
"Crying to your parents would be more useful than standing in front of your brother right now. I've seen plenty of you rich, arrogant idiots who think you're above it all."
Around them, the gunmen's mocking, sneering laughter echoed across the deck in knowing unison.
Only Shen Wenta stared at her, unable to snap back to reality.
Her silhouette was impossibly thin, standing there, blocking all the sarcasm and malice that flew toward them.
Protected again.
And not just this once.
She was so much younger than him, yet every time, it was her who stood in front.
Shen Yi was someone who liked to prove her words with action.
Facing the crowd's ridicule, she blinked.
The movement was light.
Almost at the same moment she blinked, her hand slipped out of her coat pocket.
A black short-barreled gun had somehow appeared in her palm, as fast as a magic trick.
She didn't even pause to aim.
Just one shot.
"BANG"
The gunshot exploded in the twilight, shattering the silence.
The sharp smell of gunpowder quickly filled the air, choking the atmosphere. The bullet pierced the leader's forehead with precision.
The man had no time to react; his expression was still frozen in that sneer, his pupils reflecting Shen Yi's final silhouette.
With a heavy thud, he fell straight backward.
His body hit the deck with a dull, heavy sound, blood seeping from the small hole and slowly spreading along the cracks in the planks.
Shen Yi holstered the gun, looking at the fallen figure, a small smile curving at her lips.
"Bye-bye~"
Not a single unnecessary word.
Her tone was as light as saying goodbye to a friend, with a childish, lifted inflection at the end.
But the gun was still in her hand, the barrel still warm, the smoke still curling around her fingertips.
Complete silence across the scene.
Everyone—those kneeling, crouching, leaning against the railings—froze solid.
The air felt frozen, as if even the sea breeze had stopped at that instant.
All eyes were fixed on that thin young girl standing in the twilight.
She looked young, with big, naive eyes that seemed innocent when she blinked.
From drawing the gun to firing, the entire process took less than two seconds.
This was no ordinary girl;
she was a killer.
More than ninety armed men took a full three seconds to react.
Three seconds.
Enough time for Shen Yi to step back twice, grab Shen Wenta's wrist, and pull him back with her to a more advantageous position.
Gunfire erupted behind them.
Once the armed men snapped out of it, a brief, chaotic scramble broke out.
With their leader dead and no one in command, they exchanged glances. Some raised their guns, others hesitated, unsure—after all, a Shen family member was still a significant figure, and they didn't dare shoot recklessly.
A few even started backing away, terrified of being shot in the head by this female killer.
No one would doubt a killer's aim.
Taking advantage of that brief chaos, Shen Yi dragged Shen Wenta behind a thick mast, pressing their backs together.
Bullets whizzed past, thudding against the mast and sending splinters flying.
Shen Yi showed no sign of trembling or fear.
Her breathing was a bit fast as she pulled him closer by his collar, their faces inches apart.
Shen Wenta's eyes, reflecting the twilight, the smoke, and her silhouette, were dazed, as if he hadn't yet recovered from that shot.
"Listen to me, brother."
Shen Yi stared into his eyes.
"I'm going to start over."
Shen Wenta's pupils shrank slightly.
"Even if next time you won't remember what I did or said, still—" She suddenly yanked his collar, glaring at him fiercely, "if you ever doubt me again, I'll shoot you!"
"I swear this is the last time I'll rewind."
"See you later, Shen Wenta. When we meet again, I won't let you cry like this."
She reached out and touched his cheek.
"After all, you look really ugly when you cry."
Listening, Shen Wenta's mind scrambled to decode the information in her words, instinctively trying to grab her hand.
But he missed.
"...Shen—"
Before he could finish.
Time reset.
...
Shen Yi opened her eyes.
Familiar bedroom, quiet night outside the window. No sea wind, no gunshots, no cries.
Moonlight leaked through the curtain gap, a thin streak across the foot of the bed.
She sat up and looked down. Her phone was still beside her pillow, screen dark, stuck on a game results page.
Seven days earlier.
She had chosen to go back seven days.
Throwing off the covers, she got out of bed, flipped on the light, and walked over to pull open the curtains, feeling an uncanny sense of déjà vu.
Outside, the night was still and calm, streetlights casting long tree shadows. An occasional car light swept across the corner, then quickly vanished.
Everything seemed as if nothing had happened.
The system had said: the plot cannot be changed; no one else can interfere.
So what happened on the ship, Shen Yi had to handle alone.
But before that, she could try to solve other things.
Like that old European family, especially that annoying Lorenzo—
If the Visconti family were destroyed, without their cover among various governments, would the plan still go as smoothly?
She didn't know.
But it was worth a try.
Shen Yi had been annoyed with that Lorenzo on the ship for a long time.
She still planned to sneak out in the middle of the night.
This time, the timeline was before the plot started, meaning Shen Yi could ask for help.
If she wanted to wipe out a family alone, that would be impossible.
Of course, she needed her handy brothers and her dearest mom.
But suddenly going crazy and wanting to destroy an old European family sounded insane too.
Shen Yi hadn't yet figured out how to make up a reason to convince her family.
She was still mulling over her wording as she slowly opened her bedroom door and trotted downstairs, only to find her parents watching TV in the living room.
They weren't asleep?
Who stays up at midnight?
Shen Yi's steps froze at the stair landing, her eyes meeting two pairs staring back from the sofa.
The TV was on, volume low, playing some late-night documentary. Two half-empty glasses of water sat on the coffee table, as if they'd been sitting there for a while.
"Xiaoyi, did you come down for water?" Wen Ya asked in a gentle voice. "Still awake? Did you finish your homework?"
"Ah, Mom..."
Shen Yi looked at the two of them fixated on her, her scalp tingling at her mother's triple-question attack. She started babbling, "I'm going to board the Titanic to fly to the moon, maybe orbit outer space for a week, then get repatriated back to Earth. I'll remember to bring you some Martian souvenirs. Bye bye, Mom and Dad! I'm leaving!"
She spun around and bolted for the door.
Wenya reacted quickly, closing the distance in two or three steps. She kicked the door shut and planted herself in front of it, blocking her daughter’s path. The woman leaned back against the door, arms crossed over her chest, tilting her head as she looked at her and gave a gentle smile. “Come back. Sit down.”)
