Shen Yi grabbed Shen Sixing by the arm and practically hung off him, dragging him backward. “I seriously doubt the capital’s Buddhist prince is going to respect what we do for a living. Come on, Dad! Stop humiliating yourself.”
Shen Sixing ignored her. He pulled his arm free, brushed off his sleeve, and walked over anyway.
The moment he approached, all three of them fixed their eyes on him.
Xiu Yan leaned close to Wen Ya’s ear and lowered her voice—though not quite enough to stop everyone nearby from hearing. “Your husband… doesn’t look very energetic, does he? Xiaoya, you were always the pickiest one in the village. Back then, there was a line of men chasing after you all the way to the village entrance, and you didn’t take a fancy to a single one of them.”
“And yet, after being away all these years, you ended up finding yourself a…”
She considered her wording before finally choosing a relatively tactful description.
“…a man who looks pretty honest?”
The smile on Wen Ya’s face stiffened. Her fingers tightened around the tree trunk, and the bark gave a faint crack beneath her grip.
Shen Yi was genuinely worried that her mother might rip the entire tree out of the ground in a fit of anger. She quickly cut in with a smile, “That’s because Dad just finished working today. He’s usually very energetic.”
The man standing behind Xiu Yan, dressed in a dark-gray shirt with Buddhist prayer beads wrapped around his wrist, stepped forward.
He moved with unhurried ease. An imposing air that came from long years in a position of power surrounded him, and when he stopped in front of Shen Sixing, he spoke in a low voice.
“My surname is Zhou.”
Shen Sixing smiled as well. Compared with the other man’s forceful presence, he seemed particularly gentle and mild. “Hello, Mr. Zhou. My surname is Shen.”
Xiu Yan rested a fingertip against her chin. Seeing that he possessed not the slightest hint of masculine vigor, she found him even more distasteful and asked, “What do you do for a living?”
Shen Sixing reflected on his career.
Assassin. Paid by the job, with no social insurance or benefits. His work consisted of making targets disappear from the face of the earth.
Thus, he arrived at a conclusion and answered softly, “I serve the people.”
Mr. Zhou raised an eyebrow slightly, his expression difficult to read.
“Serve the people?” There was a hint of amusement in Mr. Zhou’s voice. “Which department, exactly?”
Shen Sixing smiled. “There isn’t a department.”
“Freelance?”
“Something like that.”
“Then who are your clients?”
The people Shen Sixing had served came from all walks of life: government officials, wealthy businessmen, underworld bosses, and a few others… who were difficult to classify.
“Classified,” he said.
Mr. Zhou’s brows shifted almost imperceptibly.
Xiu Yan covered her mouth and laughed. “Xiaoya, your husband is quite the comedian. Classified? Does he think he’s a secret agent?”
Wen Ya pressed her lips together. She grabbed Shen Sixing by the wrist, her grip tightening as her expression grew darker and uglier.
Shen Yi secretly tugged at Shen Xun’s sleeve and whispered, “Hey, what are they trying to do? Why is the atmosphere so weird?”
Shen Xun leaned against a nearby tree and stared for several seconds before analyzing the situation with bored detachment.
“Based on the changes in Mr. Zhou’s expression, his current assessment of Dad is that he’s suspicious but interesting. If Dad says more than three things that have nothing to do with reality, Mr. Zhou’s favorable impression of him will decline, but his amusement will increase.”
Shen Yi: “Speak like a normal person.”
Shen Xun: “In simple terms, he suspects Dad is mentally ill and is treating him like a source of entertainment.”
Shen Yi: “…”
She sighed. “Our poor dad.”
Mr. Zhou leaned forward slightly, his expression calm and composed. “Mr. Shen, you don’t look like a local. Where did you work before?”
“I moved around a lot,” Shen Sixing replied, leaving no opening to exploit. “Wherever I was needed, I went.”
Xiu Yan immediately laughed. “So, basically, you’re unemployed? Xiaoya, you were the one we had the highest hopes for when you left. And after being gone for more than ten years without coming back, it turns out you married a man like this. Were you too embarrassed to return?”
The smile vanished from Wen Ya’s face in an instant, replaced by a sharp, icy look.
“Don’t talk about my husband like that.”
Xiu Yan gave a little laugh. “Your personality really hasn’t changed at all. Who’s bullying him?”
Then her gaze shifted back and forth between Shen Sixing and Wen Ya. “And how exactly do you two make a living? Xiaoya was never very bright, even as a child. Don’t tell me you talked her into this.”
Shen Sixing once again reviewed his career.
Take the job. Scout the location. Carry it out. Clean up. Get paid.
“It’s…” He carefully considered his wording, trying to make it clearer. “We sign a contract, collect a deposit, and then I go do the work. Once the work is done, I deliver the results and collect the balance.”
Mr. Zhou stared at him for a full five seconds.
His sharp instincts detected something faintly strange.
“Mr. Shen, what exactly do you mean by ‘the work’?”
Shen Sixing assumed that, given the other man’s business attire, he was probably part of the corporate world and would understand what a project was.
So he smiled and switched to more professional terminology. “Something like a project. Every project is different. Some have short timelines and can be completed in three days. Others take longer and require me to stake out a location for at least half a month. Most projects are completed entirely on my own.”
It sounded even more bizarre.
Xiu Yan stopped laughing too.
“Stake out a location for half a month?” she asked half-jokingly. “What are you, an assassin?”
Mr. Zhou grew increasingly cautious. “Mr. Shen, would you mind telling me what your project involves?”
He felt that the kind of project most people understood seemed rather different from what Shen Sixing had in mind.
“That’s hard to say.” Shen Sixing smiled apologetically, thinking it over. “Every client has different requirements. Some want things handled cleanly and efficiently; others want it to look like an accident. A lot of clients have some truly bizarre requests, and it gives us quite a headache.”
They were clearly just assassins—the kind who took people’s money to eliminate their problems. But as society developed at breakneck speed, employers were no longer satisfied with simply having their enemies die quickly. They now demanded that their targets die miserably—and with artistic flair.
Those requests were incredibly troublesome. They even expected the assassins to take photos of the scene.
Shen Sixing still had some bloody pictures in his phone gallery that he hadn’t managed to delete completely.
Xiu Yan pressed a hand to her forehead as her temples began to throb. The sense of superiority she had felt upon returning to her hometown vanished with a resounding crash.
Shen Sixing continued adding fuel to the fire. “Sometimes clients add requirements at the last minute. For such unreasonable demands, we charge extra, of course.”
“But I’m actually quite easy to deal with. Our line of work relies heavily on word of mouth, so our prices are negotiable.”
“…”
His eyes were pitch-black, and his features plain. Compared with Mr. Zhou, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary passerby who had wandered onto a film set.
But now, as he bent down, the corners of his eyes curved into two faint arcs. Daylight was reflected in his pupils, revealing a distinctly ominous chill.
A fine layer of gooseflesh rose along the back of Xiu Yan’s neck.
Wen Ya’s heart pounded wildly. She clutched her chest, crouched down, and forced a smile. “My husband was just joking with you.”
“…”
Neither of the other two men had even the slightest hint of a smile left on their faces.
They certainly didn’t think he had been joking.
When Shen Sixing said those things, his expression was perfectly natural. There wasn’t the slightest trace of pretense.
Xiu Yan gripped her husband’s hand tightly, her voice softening. “…Are you serious, sir?”
Mr. Zhou pondered for a moment, weighing his options. Then he slowed his speech and asked in a low voice, “If I ever need your help, how would I get in touch with you?”
Shen Sixing gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but I haven’t been in this line of work for many years.”
“Xiao Xun, Xiao Yi.”
As he spoke, he called the two children standing nearby over.
Shen Yi and Shen Xun exchanged a glance, then took a deep breath. For some inexplicable reason, they felt like children being pushed forward by their parents to perform a talent at New Year’s.
Shen Yi braced herself and pulled a business card from her pocket, handing it over with both hands. She spoke so quickly that the words nearly blurred together.
“Mr. Zhou, we look forward to serving you in the future.”
“If you contact me, I’ll give you a one-percent discount.”
Mr. Zhou accepted the card. “…Thank you.”
He couldn’t help glancing at the boy beside her, wanting to see how he would respond.
Shen Xun noticed his gaze and immediately took a step back, refusing him coldly. “Don’t contact me. I won’t give you a discount.”
“…”
Xiu Yan couldn’t help wondering what kind of family this was.
Mr. Zhou stared intently at the contact number on the card. The Buddhist beads around his wrist knocked softly against one another.
“Mr. Shen.” Mr. Zhou lifted his head. His gaze passed over Shen Sixing and landed on the two children in the distance. The corner of his mouth twitched—an exceedingly rare lapse in composure. “So these two are also…”
“My daughter and my son.” Shen Sixing’s tone was perfectly matter-of-fact. “Shen Yi and Shen Xun.”
Mr. Zhou’s expression, previously as calm as still water, finally began to crack. “The three of you…are all freelancers?”
“Mm.” Shen Sixing thought for a moment, then added, “It’s a family business.”
Xiu Yan finally recovered from the shock of discovering that her best friend’s husband might be an assassin. She let out an awkward laugh. “A family business? Your whole family is in the…in the…”
She gradually found herself unable to finish the sentence. Instead, she called out her friend’s name in despair.
“Xiaoya?”
“How did you end up marrying a terrorist?!”
“He’s not!” Wen Ya suddenly raised her head. “Terrorists carry out indiscriminate attacks. My husband specializes in precision strikes—he distinguishes between targets! He has professional ethics!”
