Free Web NovelChapter 1160: Chapter 354: Days We Walked Together
Chapter 354: The Days We Walked Together
Yue Yao was a little surprised. In all her years with Li Yan, she never knew he had a friend who was just as formidable an assassin.
However, in front of Li Yan, she remained as obedient as always, asking no questions. She immediately put away her guns, didn’t interrupt their conversation, nodded, and then stepped back. Seeing Li Yan drinking tea with the visitor rather than fighting, she felt slightly relieved. At their level, perhaps some had long been kindred spirits, feeling an instant connection upon meeting.
Of course, there was also the possibility that the visitor was much more formidable than Li Yan, having already subdued him in some way, which forced him to let her leave and avoid unnecessary sacrifice. But Yue Yao didn’t believe anyone could personally defeat Li Yan. At most, they might have captured someone Li Yan cared about, forcing him to compromise. If that were the case, she shouldn’t act rashly.
"She’s very suitable for you," the visitor remarked emotionlessly after Yue Yao left.
Li Yan nodded, "I know, but just because someone seems suitable doesn’t mean they truly are for each other."
His words were a bit circuitous, not ungrateful, but expressing his feelings.
He had been with Yue Yao for many years and was very familiar and in tune with her. Why hadn’t he thought of pairing with her before? For others, perhaps industry dangers or identity secrecy could be reasons, but Yue Yao was a head of the Assassin Group, so those were not issues. Together, they were actually ideal.
Li Yan hadn’t considered this question before. Only familiar people like Guan Ziyi thought he and Yue Yao were the best match. After many recent emotional experiences in the past year, he occasionally pondered it. The result was that after Yue Yao came, she became a catalyst for his relationship with Yurong, and conversely, a catalyst between him and Yue Yao!
They matched, they were in sync, they were the most suitable... but they lacked passion! She centered everything around him, but he didn’t want her to lose herself. The deeper the understanding, sometimes the lack of surprise, even words. Simply put, they felt like an old married couple even before they started dating. Where would the passion come from? Even Yue Yao hadn’t considered passion, as long as the status quo could be maintained.
Why do many not choose lovers from the same industry; why do people who are too familiar and understanding become opposite-sex confidants but find it difficult to become intimate lovers—there are reasons for this.
Those were past thoughts. Now Yue Yao had become more vibrant with Yurong in the middle, making their hearts beat faster. However, Li Yan did not continue, and the visitor just brought it up with a sentence, naturally not needing to discuss private matters.
"He came..." Li Yan said softly.
This was a matter of concern for the visitor, who was waiting for him to speak.
"Is this time he’s after you?"
Li Yan shook his head, smiling wryly, "It’s an ordinary person, because I didn’t root out the problem before, leading to this trouble. Speaking of... it’s not him coming after me; instead, he reminded me."
He briefly recounted the feud with Liu Yuyang. The "he" they mentioned was exactly the "boss" Li Yan had always worried about.
The visitor was silent for a while, then asked, "Have you seen him?"
Li Yan shook his head again, "He sent a message with a strange phone number... but he must have found and seen me. After I finished handling things the night before, I was attacked and fell unconscious. I only woke up last night, finding myself at home; I heard ’he’ arranged for someone to take me to the hospital and contact my wife."
The visitor frowned, "Could his men easily ambush you?"
"In fact... I don’t know what happened," Li Yan smiled bitterly, silently apologizing in his heart because of the ’Heart Demon’—his biggest secret and last resort, which must remain undisclosed to anyone, leading him to lie and conceal.
The visitor furrowed his brow deeper, not suspecting Li Yan of lying but rather the considerable energy ’he’ had!
"I sent you an email before, did you receive it?"
Li Yan nodded.
Previously, the visitor had sent an email disguised as spam, using the assassins’ coded language for concealment, which would attract Yue Yao’s attention but not others. The specific decryption of the code was agreed upon between them. The obtained result was a link to a cloud storage space. Upon returning home, Li Yan extracted the files, which were multi-layered compressed, each protected by a password they had agreed upon.
After multiple decompressions, the final content was just a letter. It contained matters the visitor wanted to tell him, deciphered using coded passwords, making it painstaking. The precaution was not against others but against Li Yan’s close friend Guan Ziyi!
It’s not that Li Yan had issues with Guan Ziyi but because the letter involved the "boss"! Guan Ziyi, the ninth ranking, was nurtured by the boss despite being close to Li Yan. He was a master in hacking, tracking, electronic information, and had a team, so they had to exercise utmost caution.
After reading the content, Li Yan destroyed the files. He didn’t reply to the visitor and couldn’t tell anyone else or even Yue Yao. It was information secretly gathered by the visitor regarding the boss—preparation for their retaliation against the boss!
"Looks like you showed dissatisfaction, so he came to confront you... and conveniently did you a favor."
"..." Li Yan was silent, acknowledging this favor, which he also discussed with Zheng Yixuan last night.
"You’ve changed your mind..." the visitor didn’t need Li Yan to say it aloud, already sensing the difference.
Li Yan sighed, took a sip of tea, and said, "How to put it... in the past two or three years, I’ve been living among ordinary people. Especially this past year, I’ve been mostly settled here. I’ve not felt weary of such living, instead started adapting, integrating, and becoming accustomed.
Originally, I had a holiday mindset, living and working among ordinary folks as a form of adjustment. But after returning last year, I haven’t taken on many tasks. Instead, I found myself willing to go to work to do some unfamiliar jobs, which were less profitable and slower than assassination. Being an assassin became my off-duty adjustment instead.
These changes were due to the environment, mindset, people, and events influencing each other... leading to a feeling of fatigue..."
"No need to say more!" the visitor stated solemnly, "You now have a wife, a lover, a career, status, prospects, and embrace—this made you lose the heart for revenge!"
"..."
Revenge!
Yes, Li Yan and the visitor’s conspiracy was against the mastermind who selected them, kidnapped them for training, and turned them into murder machines!
The visitor was also one of the teenagers who trained with Li Yan originally. They became friends over time, encouraging each other during training, relying on each other during exams, saving each other’s lives, and forming a life-pledging friendship where they trusted each other’s lives.
Facing endless insane training and one round after another of life-claiming exams, they knew evading one meant difficulty avoiding the next; surviving one more time was even harder. Both fought desperately to live, but each time they lived, fewer people survived. Thus, the chance of dying at each other’s hands in the future doubled!
A life-pledging friendship, in normal society, could be a lifelong friendship; but in such a hellish environment, it was transiently ’by life’!
Back then, others also had such close friends, even some dying by their friends’ hands. Li Yan and the visitor felt powerless about the future, and finally, the visitor decided to leave! Either way was death; why not take a gamble. And to leave, they had to hurry, as when few remained, leaving became impossible.
So, they spent several days planning an escape method. They combined what they had learned as assassins with their creativity, agreed on some coded contacts, remembered each other’s hometowns, and left a future contact email. They promised to activate the arranged email and contact the other if they survived with freedom. Of course, they encouraged each other not to die!
Moreover, even if one couldn’t contact the other, the surviving one must take care of the other’s parents.
This was their life-pledging promise, so even today, discovering Li Yan might be in danger or trouble, the visitor would drop everything and rush to protect him, just like he’d protect his own parents.
Their plan was not a good one. That place was like a large prison, and they were all just high school kids with little life experience. Everything they’d learned, including killing, survival, and prison breaking, was taught by assigned instructors. For students yet to graduate, escaping professionals was never easy!
To survive, the visitor decided to fake his death once.
Their plan was executed during an exam. That time, Li Yan "finally" encountered his friend, the visitor, and they fought desperately. In the end, it seemed Li Yan’s gunmanship prevailed, shooting the visitor, causing him to fall under Li Yan’s gun!
At that moment, it seemed the visitor’s departure was even more dangerous and difficult. But back then, they felt it was almost the same regardless. Whether staying or going, the most likely outcome was a single word—death!
The difference was dying today or tomorrow; a quick death once or repeatedly surviving narrowly only to keep struggling for the next time until eventually possible death (Can you read this in one breath? Impressive lung capacity!).
They didn’t know; they never cared before. Whether the visitor could fake his death and escape, it was up to luck...
(Friendly recommendation for an urban supernatural novel: Super Repair (Book ID 1822704)) (To be continued, for more details, please visit www.qidian.com, with more Chapters and support the author and legitimate reading!)
