In winter, the sky over Area A darkened early. By three in the afternoon, the daylight had already begun to fade.
The island at the center of Ice Lake was far from the commercial district, so it did not attract many visitors.
Still, there were a few groups scattered among the pavilions, pointing at and discussing the frozen surface of the lake.
Jiang Nuan and Chen Ping'an were tucked away in one of the most secluded pavilions.
She had forcibly pushed down all the chaotic thoughts crowding her mind. The mission came first.
The bag of freshly roasted chestnuts from Song’s was still warm, its heat steadily seeping into her palms. The two of them peeled chestnuts at a leisurely pace, looking no different from the tourists who had genuinely come to relax and chat.
Chen Ping'an sat beside her, peeling chestnuts as well, but his entire body looked rigid.
“Relax.” Jiang Nuan tossed a peeled chestnut into her mouth and reminded him in a low voice, “Right now, you look like a terrorist ready to pull a bomb out of his pocket at any moment.”
Chen Ping'an forced his lips into a grin, trying to look more natural, but the smile was honestly rather terrifying.
Shen Wu’s voice came through the mental link. 【The two sides have just confirmed the exact location. They’re in a warehouse five hundred meters east of you.】
【Two Cleaners are on their way. They should arrive in about ten minutes. The arms dealers are expected to number no more than three and should arrive in roughly thirty minutes.】
Shen Wu’s voice was calm and collected, and Chen Ping'an’s face relaxed somewhat. He had looked ready to leap up and pick a fight with someone at any moment.
Jiang Nuan swallowed the last chestnut, exchanged a glance with Chen Ping'an, and stood. Together, they headed toward the warehouse district.
*
Fifteen minutes later, inside the warehouse.
A body lay on its back against the base of the wall. Its eyes were still open, but its pupils had already gone vacant. A bullet hole sat squarely between its eyebrows.
There was no excessive blood spatter. Only a small patch of dark red had seeped into the wall behind the corpse’s head.
The silencer-equipped pistol in Jiang Nuan’s hand still held a trace of warmth.
Two meters away, another man lay facedown on the floor, both hands clamped over his abdomen as his limbs continued to twitch unconsciously.
Shen Wu’s prediction had been right.
In a concealed transaction held in a public place like this, neither side would bring too many people or carry heavy weapons, since they did not want to attract attention.
The Cleaners had sent only two men. With Jiang Nuan and Chen Ping'an lying in wait, they had enjoyed the advantage of surprise and had taken down their opponents with almost no effort.
The only problem was that Lu Shiyan had instructed them to disguise the scene as a double-cross between the Cleaners and the arms dealers.
That meant they could not use any supernatural abilities, lest anyone discover the presence of a third party.
The only variable had been Chen Ping'an’s poor marksmanship. He had originally aimed for the heart, but the shot had veered into the abdomen, leaving the man writhing in agony.
Jiang Nuan barely took aim before pulling the trigger.
Pfft.
The bullet blew the man’s head apart.
The twitching body jerked once, then went completely limp, never to move again.
“Damn, Jiang Nuan, you’re incredible!” Chen Ping'an ducked out from behind another piece of cover and hurried over. Looking at the two corpses on the ground, the shock and admiration in his eyes nearly overflowed. “No wonder you were able to join Zero Squad. With marksmanship like that, you couldn’t have achieved it without several years of practice. That was amazing!”
Actually, she had only practiced for a few months… But by now, she had begun to doubt her own memories completely and was no longer sure how long she had really trained.
Shen Wu’s voice came through again. 【The arms dealers are early. They’ll enter the warehouse in five minutes.】
Jiang Nuan’s eyelid twitched. 【There isn’t enough time. We haven’t cleaned up the scene.】
【Abandon the plan to dispose of the bodies.】 Shen Wu’s voice was frighteningly calm. 【Leave them where they are and hide immediately.】
Jiang Nuan frowned. 【The moment they enter and see the bodies, they’ll become alert. They might even retreat immediately.】
【They’ll be on guard, but their attention will instantly focus on the corpses.】 Shen Wu spoke rapidly. 【Human instinct dictates that when people encounter a sudden situation, they will first confirm who the dead are and what killed them. With your marksmanship, you’ll be able to kill them before they can react.】
Fine.
Jiang Nuan gritted her teeth. As expected of a professional, Shen Wu was insane.
And… judging from what he had said, he seemed to have quite a bit of confidence in her shooting.
Jiang Nuan signaled to Chen Ping'an. The two of them quickly split up and slipped back into hiding behind separate shipping containers.
The warehouse once again sank into deathly silence.
She stared fixedly at the door.
A few minutes later, the warehouse door was pushed open a crack.
Two men in black padded jackets entered one after the other. One of them carried a briefcase.
That had to be the device containing the weapons’ coordinates and the key.
“Where is everyone? What kind of trick are those Cleaners trying to pull now?” The man in front warily surveyed the warehouse.
His gaze swept across the empty space before suddenly stopping at the base of the wall.
“Wait, there’s a body over—”
The man’s hand moved toward his waist.
Before he could finish speaking, Jiang Nuan had already emerged from behind the container and pulled the trigger.
The bullet pierced straight through the man’s forehead, bursting into a spray of blood.
He never even had time to draw his weapon before he fell backward.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Almost simultaneously, the other man fired several shots in Jiang Nuan’s direction.
But the moment she fired, Jiang Nuan rolled across the floor and took cover behind another abandoned oil drum. She even managed to fire another shot.
Taking advantage of the opening, Chen Ping'an fired from behind cover. The bullet struck the man in the right side of his chest.
The tremendous impact staggered him backward two steps, and the gun in his hand clattered to the floor.
This time, Chen Ping'an did not hesitate in the slightest. He fired two more shots into the man.
The man collapsed heavily, his eyes still wide open in death.
The warehouse fell silent once more.
“Damn…” Chen Ping'an lowered his gun and gasped for breath. “That scared me half to death. I thought that shot was going to miss again.”
“You did well. Your timing was perfect.” Jiang Nuan emerged from behind the cover, not stingy with her praise.
Her gaze swept over the four bodies on the floor, confirming that all of them were truly dead.
【Perfect job,】 Shen Wu said. 【Now, arrange the scene as I instructed. You have half an hour.】
For the next half hour, the warehouse became a crime-scene renovation site.
【Chen Ping'an, put three more rounds into the wall to create traces of an intense firefight. Keep the angle slightly upward.】
【Jiang Nuan, kick the briefcase over to the Cleaners’ body and mess up the combination lock.】
…
After they finished, Jiang Nuan looked over the warehouse.
Spent shell casings littered the floor. Intersecting bullet paths crisscrossed the walls. Bodies lay sprawled in pools of blood, and the bloodstained briefcase rested nearby.
Now, whenever other arms dealers supplied the Cleaners in the future, they would have to think carefully about whether they wanted to risk being double-crossed themselves.
Shen Wu said calmly, 【That’s enough. Withdraw.】
Chen Ping'an removed his bloodstained tactical gloves and packed them into a sealed bag. His eyes shone as he looked at Jiang Nuan.
“Your shooting is unbelievably good! Can you teach me? I saw the way you fired, then rolled and shot again to finish him off. It was unbelievably cool!”
“You’re an observer, aren’t you? Why the sudden interest in learning how to use a gun?” Jiang Nuan took one last look around the scene, making sure they hadn’t left behind anything that could be traced to them.
She hadn’t taken the case containing the coordinates and key to the weapons cache.
Taking it would prove that a third party had been present. Their squad was already well supplied with weapons and ammunition; they had no need for a single warehouse’s stockpile.
Leaving it behind, on the other hand, made the scene practically flawless.
“I thought it over, and I just can’t give up on the investigation team—it’s my one true love!” Chen Ping’an puffed out his chest, looking every inch the passionate young man. “Once this mission is over, I’m definitely applying to join the Investigation Department!”
Jiang Nuan’s mouth twitched.
Fine, then. Assuming he could convince his family.
Shen Wu’s voice interrupted their idle chatter. 【After you leave, there’ll be some commotion in the warehouse. I hacked into the transformer outside. In five minutes, it’ll trigger a minor explosion and draw the attention of nearby visitors, who will then report it to the Governor’s Office. The captain’s people will take over the scene. You should go.】
The two of them pulled their collars tight and quietly slipped out through the warehouse’s back door.
Behind them, the lights on the island in the middle of the lake gradually came on, casting the place in a riot of colors. The laughter of tourists and the cries of market vendors drifted faintly through the air.
No one knew that, in the warehouse five hundred meters away, a bloody “robbery among thieves” had just come to an end.
*
When the three of them returned to their lodgings, the sky had not yet grown completely dark.
The mission had gone almost too smoothly. Instead of easing Jiang Nuan’s mind, that only made her increasingly uneasy.
After changing into soft loungewear, she hugged Jiangjiang, who had wandered in from somewhere, and curled up in a corner of the living-room sofa.
She absentmindedly stroked Jiangjiang’s soft fur. The cat purred contentedly.
Jiang Nuan’s gaze drifted toward the clock on the wall again and again as the second hand ticked onward.
It seemed to be moving exceptionally slowly, each step dragging its feet.
“Still no word?” she asked again despite herself.
On the other end of the sofa, Shen Wu sat with his long legs crossed, leaning against the backrest with his eyes closed. He gave a slight shake of his head. “No.”
After several consecutive nights on duty, followed by today’s mission, Shen Wu looked a little tired.
But, truthfully, there was something especially captivating about seeing someone as cool and aloof as him show even the slightest hint of vulnerability.
He opened his eyes, his gaze settling on Jiang Nuan’s bitten lower lip. “If the captain saw you like this, he’d probably think you were gravely insulting his abilities. This is Lu Shiyan we’re talking about.”
Jiang Nuan glared at him, in no mood to trade barbs.
The others had gone to rescue Qi Sui, who was in the process of being transferred. They were facing the main force of the Cleaners, and the danger level was countless times higher than that of her mission today.
On the other side, Chen Ping’an was so tired that his eyelids kept drooping. The intense strain of remaining on high alert had left him utterly exhausted.
“I… really can’t keep my eyes open… I’m going to sleep for a while,” he said as he struggled to his feet and staggered toward the bedroom. “Wake me if you hear anything…”
The door closed with a soft click.
Only two people remained in the living room.
The ticking of the wall clock sounded especially clear in the silence.
Outside, night had long since fallen, and heavy snow had begun drifting down once more.
The living room lights were off. The glow from the streetlamps outside filtered through the sheer curtains, spilling in hazily.
Most of the sofa was hidden in shadow, with only a small section touched by the light from outside.
Jiang Nuan anxiously bit the inside of her lip. Half an hour had already passed since the time Lu Shiyan and the others had agreed to send confirmation of their safety.
All kinds of chaotic thoughts began worming their way into her mind.
Had they been ambushed by the Cleaners? Had the enemy concealed a high-level ability user? Had some new anomalous energy appeared…?
Jiangjiang was hungry. The cat rubbed against her, then hopped off the sofa and waddled away to eat its food.
Without that warm, furry weight in her arms, Jiang Nuan suddenly felt empty. The surge of emotion that had been held at bay came rushing up all at once.
Shen Wu naturally slipped an arm around her and drew her closer.
He rested his chin lightly against the crown of her head. “Don’t worry. It’s not as if you’ve only just met them. There aren’t many people in this world capable of stopping them.”
Jiang Nuan buried her face a little deeper against his shoulder. The fabric of his shirt carried a trace of his cool, austere scent. That scent had once made her feel threatened, but now it brought her an inexplicable sense of security.
Just then, the terminal on Shen Wu’s wrist vibrated.
He glanced at the encrypted gibberish that had appeared on the screen. The tension that had been coiling through his body finally eased.
“The captain sent confirmation that they’re safe.” His voice softened considerably. “The battle was a little complicated, but it’s still under control. Qi Sui has been rescued, and everyone’s safe. They just need a little more time to withdraw.”
The moment Jiang Nuan heard that everyone was safe, the tension that had gripped her all day finally released.
She fell backward, sinking heavily into his arms.
The arm Shen Wu had wrapped around her shoulders slowly tightened, drawing her more securely against him.
The living room was quiet for a long while. The only sound was the wind and snow striking the windows outside.
“You’ve been distracted ever since you ran into the captain as a child today,” Shen Wu said softly, his chin brushing lightly over the top of her head. “What happened?”
Jiang Nuan’s body stiffened. She instinctively turned her head away, avoiding his gaze.
“Don’t be nervous.” Sensing her resistance, Shen Wu did not loosen his hold. Instead, he gently stroked her long hair, his movements soothing. “I told you I wouldn’t read your mind again. I won’t break that promise.”
“I can tell,” he continued. “You’re under too much pressure, Jiang Nuan.”
The living room fell silent again for several seconds.
A sharp sting in her lips made Jiang Nuan realize that she was biting them again. The thought that had haunted her during the day had never truly disappeared. Now, accompanied by that lonely feeling of being abandoned by the world, it rose once more from the depths of her heart.
She had thought she was a traveler who had only just arrived in this world—a bystander observing everything from the outside.
But that terrifying suspicion kept telling her, mercilessly, that she might have been caught in the middle of this game all along.
Who was she, really? What could she still trust?
“Shen Wu…” Jiang Nuan rested her forehead against his shoulder, her voice hoarse. “…Sometimes I feel like I don’t even know myself.”
His fingers threaded through her hair and stroked it gently. “Don’t know yourself? Isn’t that a good thing?”
“Only people who stay exactly where they are, never changing, have no need to get to know themselves all over again.”
Outside, the heavy snow beat against the window beneath the shifting glow of the streetlamps.
“There may be a way to help you relax.” Shen Wu’s fingers slid down through her hair, lightly winding once around the ends. “Would you like to try?”
