(1)
Jingye Luqiao never drank alcohol because alcohol would impair his mind. But at that moment, he felt like he was drunk—his coherent train of thought came and went, sometimes feeling like he was in a dream, sometimes in reality, sometimes his body wouldn’t obey, and sometimes it felt like that was his own thoughts and choices.
When he finally came to his senses, he found himself at a dead end.
A faint glimmer of light appeared on the horizon. In the distance, waves slammed forcefully against the coastal rocks, and the strong wind whipped his coat tails, making them rustle loudly, as if a typhoon was approaching. He stood like that at the edge of the cliff, the towering waves almost brushing against his ankles. A salty, fishy smell was already spreading in the air.
“Jingye Luqiao! Surrender! You have no way out!”
More than twenty fully armed armed police officers chased up from all directions of the hillside, completely blocking his escape. He glanced behind him, as if one step back would be enough for the surging waves to swallow him whole.
“Drop your weapon! Hands on your head!” “Don’t put up a last-ditch fight!”
“If you surrender now, you still have a chance to return to Japan! Otherwise, we will open fire!”
“Even if I were to assassinate the Japanese Prime Minister, I would never fail.” Jingye Luqiao calmly swept his gaze over everyone’s blurry faces. “There’s a mysterious force interfering with me.”
“Stop talking nonsense! Face reality, Jingye Luqiao!”
Jingye Luqiao lightly shook his head. He absolutely trusted his abilities. After so many years as an assassin, he had never encountered such a perilous situation—failing a mission and then being unable to escape. That was simply impossible. But if he had encountered a superpowered person, then everything became reasonable again. He was indeed a top-notch professional assassin, but in the end, he was just an ordinary person. Facing an unknown supernatural power, the fact that he could still resist until now was purely due to his instincts.
“Mission failed,” he muttered to himself indifferently.
“What are you trying to do? Even if you jump from here into the sea, there’s absolutely no way you’ll survive!”
“As an assassin, even in death, I must never leave behind evidence of my crimes.” Jingye Luqiao slightly raised the corner of his mouth. “I am a dedicated assassin—”
“Stop! If you cooperate with us, after your sentence is served, we’ll arrange for you to return to your country!”
Jingye Luqiao completely ignored the voice. He took another half step back, the heel of his shoe scraping against the cliff edge, kicking a few small pebbles down. The huge wind and waves swallowed both the pebbles and the sound of them hitting the water, and in the next second, Jingye Luqiao leaped forward.
Even the closest person couldn’t stop him in time. When everyone rushed forward and looked down, he was already gone. The huge waves slammed against the cliff with a bang, as if trying to shatter the rock face.
Reality wasn’t a game. The raging sea was more dangerous than a wild beast, and jumping from such a height was almost no different from falling onto hard soil.
“He’s probably dead already.” “Even if he’s dead, we have to find the body.”
“The waves are too big. We might not even find the body.”
“Regardless, go search first. If there’s no body, find the last traces he left behind. We need to confirm as best we can whether he’s dead.”
“Understood.”
—
(2)
Xue Tianling listened to the report coming through the walkie-talkie and couldn’t help but sigh. “Such a stubborn guy…”
“What happened?” Ye Wen asked softly, holding An Jing in her arms, who was too weak to even speak.
“We cornered him at a cliff, and he jumped into the sea.”
“Did he escape?”
“Jumping into the sea from there—almost no hope of survival.” Xue Tianling shook his head. “And the wind and waves on the sea today are especially strong.”
“What a troublesome guy,” Qiu Yi sighed.
“I’ve captured quite a few so-called international assassins, but none were as troublesome as him. In the case files, there are records of assassins with the same level of professionalism, but none as dedicated as this… They’re practically death warriors selling their lives to the powerful.”
“Maybe he’s an assassin directly trained by Japan.”
“Other than that, I can’t think of any other possibility. That guy’s sense of conviction is completely unlike other assassins who kill for money.”
An Jing, lying in Ye Wen’s arms, moved her lips with great difficulty and squeezed out a word, “Thirsty…”
“Do you want water?” Ye Wen quickly called out to the rescue personnel, “Do you have any water?”
“We have bottled water!” Someone immediately responded.
After taking the bottled water handed to her, Ye Wen brought it to An Jing’s lips. The latter greedily drank large gulps, as if even her blood might evaporate if she didn’t take in any fluid.
Gulp, gulp, gulp…
“Drink slowly, be careful not to…”
“Cough, cough, cough…”
“Slow down, slow down, don’t drink too fast.”
“Phew… it feels so awful…”
“It might be a side effect of using superpowers.” Ye Wen glanced at Taiyin, who had already fallen asleep in Qiu Yi’s arms. “How do you feel now?”
“Headache… my whole body hurts… dizzy… feels like the whole world is spinning…”
“Don’t move for now. We’ll carry you to the car soon.”
“It hurts…”
An Jing closed her eyes tightly, her delicate face twisted in pain. “Ugh… it hurts so much…”
Ye Wen couldn’t help but look up and shout, “Xue Tianling, isn’t it here yet?”
“Almost here! The research institute’s ship is about to dock!” Xue Tianling waved his hand emphatically. “Quick, carry her onto a stretcher! The ship is docking at the shore ahead. Take her to the ship—hurry!”
“How is Taiyin?” Ye Wen watched as two professional rescue personnel slowly lifted An Jing onto a stretcher, finally breathing a slight sigh of relief.
“She’s fine, just exhausted and asleep.” A hint of a smile appeared on Qiu Yi’s face. “When we get back, let Shui Shui make her some vegetable puree.”
“Yeah, she really overdid it today.”
“Haha, it’s probably been a long time since she’s been this tired.”
“Really, she completely drained herself…”
—
(3)
An Jing opened her eyes a crack amid the rocking motion, seeing a glimmer of light on the distant horizon slowly brightening, and feeling the humid moisture brought by the surging waves. Though the wind and waves were strong, the sky was still gradually lighting up. The sun persistently and steadfastly shone its light bit by bit into the entire world.
She felt her brain could barely turn to think anymore. She could only hear someone nearby urgently shouting something, accompanied by the piercing sound of alarms.
“She’s losing consciousness!”
“Her heart rate is dropping!”
“Quick, she’s going into shock!!”
“Hold on…”
—
(4)
The light before her eyes gradually receded, and An Jing felt herself continuously sinking into the deep sea. The oxygen in her body slowly decreased, and the feeling of suffocation grew stronger. Everything before her began to blur, all things losing their color.
Suddenly, a young girl in a white dress stretched out her arms, swimming desperately toward her from above. An Jing, with her thoughts already fuzzy, instinctively widened her eyes and saw that familiar little face. The latter kept kicking her legs, her translucent dress clinging to her body, her faintly pink skin exceptionally clear at that moment.
Then, she finally hugged An Jing, lowered her head, and pressed their lips together. Moist and warm air quickly passed into her mouth, and her body slowly regained sensation. After that, she held her and swam upward with all her strength. The sea surface, which should have been infinitely far away, had now become extraordinarily close. In just a few breaths, they stuck their heads out together, greedily inhaling the incredibly fresh air.
An Jing felt the air was even fresher than in the deep mountains, and her entire body relaxed.
“Xiao Jing… are you okay?”
“I think… much better… phew… huh… is this a dream?”
“Mm, I sensed your condition was very dangerous, so I tried using this method to call you back from the depths of your consciousness.”
An Jing wiped the corner of her mouth a bit shyly, her gaze lingering on Zhu Ying’s pink lips for two seconds before quickly looking away in a fluster.
“Hehe, if Xiao Jing wants to kiss, you can kiss me as much as you want when you wake up, okay?”
“Eek?!”
“I don’t know how, but suddenly I can hear your thoughts again, even in dreams, loud and clear.”
“Ah…!”
“But don’t worry, I won’t confuse dreams with reality. Because the Xiao Jing’s thoughts I hear in dreams sound like a boy’s voice~”
“Huh? Is that so…”
“Mm!” Zhu Ying dragged An Jing to the dream beach and hugged her tightly. “Xiao Jing, do you want to wake up now?”
“Uh… I think it’s better to wake up as soon as possible…”
“Pfft, you’re lying~ You clearly want me to hold you a little longer~”
“Cough!!”
“What, what is it? Perverted Xiao Jing is thinking about that kind of thing at a time like this?”
“I, I’m not thinking about it!”
“You clearly are!”
“I, I, no, it’s not that I want to, it’s just, it just popped into my head!”
“Is that so~” Zhu Ying dragged out her words with a mischievous smile.
“Re, really!”
“But it’s really childish, wanting to stick your head into my clothes—why do you like that?”
“No, no, it’s not… cough, I don’t know… I just think it’s… just…”
“Perverted?”
“Ye, yeah…” “Is that so?”
“Eve, everyone has different preferences!” An Jing turned her head away, her face red. “I just think it helps me get closer…”
“Why have clothes in the way?”
“Because… inside clothes, it feels safer?”
“I completely don’t get it~”
“Hmph, you get to see my thoughts, so I want to see what you’re thinking too!”
“No, no, Xiao Jing can’t look!”
“Eek!?!!!”
“I said you can’t look!!!”
“Wh, what! Xiao Ying wants me to use my tongue to… from your forehead…”
“Don’t say it, don’t say it!!!”