Hidden Assassin

Edit: Fireclaws

Chen Junbin was somewhat happy today because he had finally found their target after two months. He thought that by accomplishing this, he could gain some merits and have the boss place his trust in him again.

As a 35-year-old ex-special forces soldier, he was quite robust with a medium build. His official job was a trading company’s business manager, but secretly he reported to Tang Jingyao as one of his team leaders. Every month, he would receive an astonishing amount of income off the books. As the saying goes, the thirties is when someone was at the prime of their life.

Last year when he went to worship Buddha at the temple, a monk said that he still had eighteen years of great luck and everything would be smooth sailing. However, Tang Jingyao’s men had lost the mother-daughter pair and there were still no results after a month even after mobilizing all his forces. It also seemed that the situation in America was not going well, so every little thing provoked Tang Jingyao’s wrath. Chen Junbin thought that his incompetence would be punished, but that woman suddenly delivered herself right into his hands; and due to a stroke of good luck, his subordinates had even managed to find her daughter as well. It seemed that the monk was right, he would have to drop by the temple later during the year and give some offerings.

As one of Tang Jingyao’s confidants, he was aware of the organization’s current matters – Tang Jingyao, a mafia family in New York, and a mafia family in Italy had made an alliance. Currently, China was beginning to expand, so the drug market had great potential and these families wanted to claim their stakes first. As Tang Jingyao was one of the partners, they had him handle the supply chain in China while they provided the goods. As long as the buyers could provide enough cash, they would be able to receive the best drugs. Occasionally, he would recall the oath he had made back when he was in the army; however, this was only at moments when he was being weak and naive. He had to make a living somehow and the way of the world was survival of the fittest, so he would deal with it.

When he had received the call from his subordinate, he was actually working on closing a large trade deal. He knew that he should have reported this to Tang Jingyao first, but there were a lot of procedures with closing a deal. His boss was also a busy man and would not be able to handle the situation until evening, so he did not have a particular urgency to update him. When the trade deal was closed, it was already night time and Chen Junbin rejected his customer’s offer for dinner. He called his boss, but reached his secretary instead; guessing that he still had some time before he was summoned, he went home to pick up some things. Since the situation had already resolved, there was no longer a sense of urgency.

Since he was now quite rich, he was able to buy and live in a small villa. When he returned home, the living room was completely dark and sounds of water could be heard from the second floor bathroom. He thought that it was his wife taking a shower and when he imagined her naked body, his heart thumped with excitement. Feeling that everything was currently going his way, he quickly shut the door behind him and did not turn on the lights. He had planned to sneak upstairs and share his joy with his wife.

He had taken two steps when the second floor bathroom door opened with a bang and a body came tumbling out. Chen Junbin was ex-military, so his first reaction was to take cover behind the glass tea table in the living room and reach for his gun at the same time. However at that same moment, a body landed on the tea table with a loud bang, causing it to shatter into pieces. His hand jerked as his gun was shot out of his hand and clattered into the darkness of the living room. Miraculously, he was not injured at all.

Such incredible shooting skills!

“Move, and your wife dies.”

A cold, hoarse voice stopped Chen Junbin in his tracks. He slowly peered up at the second floor; however due to the figure standing right in front of the bathroom light, his features could not be seen. He only saw a relatively short man wielding two guns with silencers on them, one pointed at him and the other pointed at the naked woman sprawled at his feet. It seemed that his wife had been interrupted during her shower.

“Turn on the light… I suggest you don’t press the panic button that’s built in the sofa armrest.”

Chen Junbin paled and quelled any panicked thoughts of resisting. He turned on the lights and finally saw the features of the short man. He looked to be a middle-aged dwarf and he had a scar on his face. He did not look very friendly and it was possible he had some psychological problems… He analyzed this and was further dismayed when he thought about what happened just now with his gun.

“Friend, where did you come from? No matter what happened to you, think of your wife and kids…” Seeing the murderous glare from the midget, he gulped, “At least… let my wife put some clothes on…”

“That depends on your attitude.” The midget made no movement and coldly continued, “I don’t like bullshit. I’m currently protecting the two people your boss is looking for and you are to bring me to them. Your wife was at the hospital a few days ago for a checkup. If you delay me, your wife’s dead body may suddenly show up in the busiest location in Jianghai City… along with the death of your unborn child.”

“U-unborn child!” Chen Junbin’s eyes widened as he looked down at his wife. She shyly nodded at him and he did not know whether to be happy or worried; when the midget continued, “This is why I picked you… Chen Junbin, I have thoroughly researched you and your history of up to three generations. You better not think of double-crossing me. I will give you three seconds to decide. One, two…”

********************************************************

It was around 8:30 in the evening and many cars were still weaving back and forth on the main streets of Jianghai City. On both sides of the streets were a variety of shops; under the city streetlights, a black nondescript Jeep was driving along the airport road. This car consisted of Chen Junbin, his wife, and the dwarf-sized assassin.

Chen Junbin was driving while the assassin sat motionlessly next to him, his eyes hooded and seeming like he had dozed off. The beautiful young wife that had previously been pulled out of the bathroom was now dressed in a bathrobe and sitting in the back of the Jeep. Her hands and feet were tied with rope and she was currently fearfully staring at the back of the seat where the scarred dwarf was sitting.

Chen Junbin had been tightly gripping the steering wheel with both hands, but when he saw that the midget had closed his eyes, his breath quickened as he made a split decision. His right hand had just lifted off the steering wheel when a gun was suddenly placed under his chin, “Unless I say something, both hands cannot leave the steering wheel.”

He hurriedly grabbed the steering wheel; after a moment, the midget continued, “Relax, I like to give people one chance… but only one chance.” Chen Junbin was aghast, the midget had just repeated Tang Jingyao’s favorite line. This person, just where did he come from?

He suddenly remembered that the boss had requested for Pei Luo Jia to get rid of the mother-daughter pair. At that time, Pei Luo Jia had determined that only one person was needed to get rid of all the bodyguards and the pair. Of course, they had not been pleased with that fact and while the assassin had been able to dispatch the bodyguards, he ultimately failed to kill the mother-daughter pair. They had assumed that the assassin had let his guard down and the mother with the mafia background had gotten a lucky shot and killed the assassin. But back then, had this terrifying person shown up and saved them?

Having considered it, he did not dare to try anything after that. As their journey continued, he stopped at a red traffic light and in front of him was an expensive silver convertible. On this warm summer night, the man in the convertible was wearing a scarf and seeing that they had stopped at the red light, he had leisurely climbed to the back seat, fiddling with something there. People that had caught sight of this unusual action from this man in the convertible were pointing and staring at him.

If he had not been in this stressful situation, Chen Junbin would have oogled the silver convertible and imagine himself being able to buy it a few years down the road. He gazed forward nervously, his thoughts in a clutter, and thus did not notice the dwarf frowning slightly as his eyes opened and watched the man in the car in front of them.

Pei Luo Jia… It’s him, huh…

The traffic light turned green and the convertible turned right at the fork in the road. When Chen Junbin hesitated briefly, the dwarf had already turned and pointed his gun at his wife.

“This is a very important junction, if you still insist that the mother and daughter are at Jiangdong Sha factory, I will instantly shoot her abdomen.”

Chen Junbin swallowed nervously and looked back at the road. He had originally planned to go down the right fork behind the silver convertible.

“S-sorry, they’re… They’re actually being held at the abandoned second cement factory, please don’t hurt her, I won’t lie again…”

“You don’t need to explain, you’ve used your one chance trying to lie about the location. If you make another mistake, I guarantee you, there are some really painful ways to die. Now, drive faster.”

A moment later, the Jeep passed the cars, including the silver convertible, in front of them. It soon became a one lane road and as they reached the city outskirts, they drove towards the abandoned cement factory.

The vehicle drove down a scarcely used road; a one way lane on both sides and there were barely any street lights. In the darkness, a lonely jeep gradually drove in the opposite direction of the bright twinkling lights of the metropolis. On one side was a mountain wall, while the other side was a deep mountain creek. Of course, if a car were to roll into the creek, it could potentially kill someone. Thus on that side of the road, there were many short jagged cement posts acting as a safety fence.

Following the assassin’s instructions, the jeep was to continue driving in the darkness and barely any cars passed by them on the other side. After a while, a bright light appeared in the rear-view mirror and seeing that it was rapidly catching up, the midget assassin ordered, “Speed up, but drive closer to the side and let them pass.”

Driving in the darkness was dangerous, but Chen Junbin naturally did not dare to say anything. As they continued, the road gradually widened and the vehicle that was behind them caught up and drove up parallel to them. It turned out to be the expensive silver convertible from previously and the man with the scarf raised his hand in a waving gesture. It seemed that this man must like racing against other cars because he returned to show off next to this Jeep.

If this was a regular situation and Chen Junbin was taunted like this, he would have said something. However in the current moment, Chen Junbin did not dare to make any wrong moves. The gun was suddenly pointed at his temple and the dwarf lunged over, shouting, “Let go of the wheel!”

The threat of the gun caused Chen Junbin to let go of the steering wheel like it was on fire. The assassin then grabbed the steering wheel, made a sharp jerk to the side and then returned it to its original position.

With a bang, the silver convertible was suddenly hit at a high speed, and the convertible was pushed against the short cement posts. The man that was driving the convertible was sent flying out of his car, spinning in a perfect arc and the convertible also flipped over and fell into the mountain creek below. Meanwhile, the Jeep continued driving forward and only felt a violent shock as the car exploded at the bottom of the creek, turning into a giant fireball; the heat and air pressure rushed up from below.

“Perfect… we shall continue on…”

He faintly issued this command as he glanced briefly behind him before settling back down to his original position.

Jiaming OP…

Happy lunar new year (coming from an EST zone so just in time :D)!

3 / 3 chapters of the week (next release is Sunday, Feb 18).

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