Zhang Yaochen had seen many assassins in his life, including many he had trained, but this was the first time he had seen someone like Xu Hang.
He seems harmless, just like a good friend visiting for tea. The tone when he said that he wanted to kill his whole family is like asking, “I’m here to play chess with you.”
Zhang Yaochen was stunned for a moment before he began to wonder how Xu Hang got in. Just as he glanced behind him, Xu Hang raised his gun: “If the Chief of Staff wants to call for help, then we will have to perish together.”
This threat was very effective. Zhang Yaochen took two steps back and sat back in his chair.
Xu Hang held the gun and did not relax for a moment until he sat opposite Zhang Yaochen.
As soon as he sat down, he saw the photo on the table. The gun in his hand trembled slightly. When he looked up at Zhang Yaochen again, there was a bit more hatred in his eyes.
Zhang Yaochen noticed this obvious change.
Ever since that conversation at Qiyan Villa, Xu Hang’s words kept resurfacing in his mind, sparking an involuntary curiosity about him. Questions began to form naturally, along with a daring suspicion, and today might finally be the day he finds the answer.
“You are really capable. You can enter and leave the Zhang family as if you are in an empty place. Look at your clothes… what have you done to my son?” As a father, he would, of course, care about his children.
“I just said that I came here to kill your whole family.”
Zhang Yaochen suddenly became nervous and held the armrest tightly: “You killed them?!”
To be honest, Zhang Yaochen’s action was a little strange. He was eager to stand up, but he restrained himself, with his feet on both sides and his hands tightly grasping the handrails, not relaxing at all. If others saw him, they might think that Zhang Yaochen was pretending to be calm, but Xu Hang knew his true intention.
“That sentence is just what I have been wanting to say to you for eleven years. But I’m not a shameless person like the Chief of Staff. I can’t be so cruel. So please rest assured that they are still alive for the time being.”
Zhang Yaochen was relieved by just a sentence. He raised his eyes again and said, “There are very few assassins who talk as much as you do. If you want to kill me, wouldn’t it be over with just one shot?”
Xu Hang tilted his head: “It is because other assassins are so lazy that the Chief of Staff can live so long. This room looks old and shabby, but it is actually full of murderous intentions and traps. Just like now, you seem to be the one in danger, but I am afraid that more guns are pointed at me.”
Although Zhang Yaochen tried his best to pretend to be as elegant as usual, but the shock in his heart had already pushed him to the brink of collapse. All the secrets that he thought he had hidden well were ruthlessly exposed by Xu Hang.
This room was specially designed by him to protect himself. Even Zhang Yinxi and Zhang Xiuming did not know the secret. However, this young man who had never been here knew it clearly.
Xu Hang looked at him with a smile: “The Chief of Staff would never have thought that Cong Lin would tell me everything, right?”
“So it was him…” Zhang Yaochen suddenly realized, and felt relieved, because even Cong Lin would not be very clear on the structure of this room as well.
“Being away for three days, we should look at each other with a new vision. Chief of Staff, you’ve aged a lot since I last saw you.”
Zhang Yaochen couldn’t help laughing at these words, and his mouth was filled with bitterness. Aging? How could he not age? His son had a broken leg, his daughter was seriously ill and there was no medicine to treat her, and even he was being targeted by the tobacco dealers. The Zhang family was attacked from all sides, and he was really exhausted.
Even without looking in the mirror, Zhang Yaochen could imagine how much grayer his hair had become and how many more wrinkles he had on his face.
“You must know that if I die, you won’t be able to walk out of this room safely either. So let’s just talk about it first.” Zhang Yaochen relaxed a little and looked at Xu Hang steadily. “Who are you?”
He looked up at Xu Hang. Xu Hang was wearing Zhang Xiuming’s clothes, which were a little big for him and made him look even thinner. He was just sitting on an ordinary wooden chair. His eyes, fixed on Zhang Yaochen, seemed veiled with a layer of silver, as if he were staring at something filthy in the dust, gazing with such disdain that it made Zhang Yaochen feel deeply ashamed.
Xu Hang lowered his eyes and looked at the photo, feeling a lot of nostalgia: “Doesn’t the Chief of Staff already have the answer?”
With a bang, it was as if something exploded in Zhang Yaochen’s head.
It’s not fear, but a kind of bell ringing, as if something that he has been waiting for suddenly arrives at a certain time, and there is an echo in his ears, it’s finally here.
His eyes were wide open, and his body was slightly leaning forward, as if he had to look at Xu Hang in this way to see him clearly. He looked at him for a while, then lowered his head to look at the photo, and the two faces seemed to gradually overlap and become increasingly indistinguishable.
“You are Yanchai’s child… you are… Shaotang?” He called out the name in his memory.
Unexpectedly, Xu Hang’s face suddenly showed disgust, and he raised the gun: “Don’t let me hear you shout these names again!”
At this moment, Zhang Yaochen was reminded of the scene when he went to Shucheng many years ago.
Many years ago, he rose from a deserter to a military commander, enjoying great fame in Shucheng, which made many people envious. Naturally, all of this was thanks to Mr. Heming.
Everyone said that Mr. Heming and Military Commander Zhang were as close as Guan Yu and Bao Bao and that with the two of them around, Shucheng was peaceful. At least Zhang Yaochen once thought so as well.
The most terrible thing in the world is not the evilness but the greed of human hearts. When he was young, Zhang Yaochen was also a kind person until he saw Jin Yanchai for the first time.
That was Mr. Heming’s wife, a rare beauty.
When Zhang Yaochen first met Jin Yanchai, he had just walked into the peony garden with a pot of wine in high spirits. From afar, he saw a woman walking towards him with an incense burner. The lingering fragrance was like her amorous eyes, her skirt swayed gracefully, and the butterfly on the jade pendant on her waist seemed to be about to fly away. With just a gentle glance, he knocked over his own winepot.
Mr. Heming picked the most beautiful peony, pinned it on Jin Yanchai’s bun, and whispered something in her ear. But how could the two colors peony resist her shyness as she lowered her head and scolded him?
Just looking at this beautiful couple, Zhang Yaochen blushed, gulped down several bottles of wine, and got drunk for the first time that day. Now when he thinks back, Jin Yanchai’s silver bell-like laughter is still ringing in his ears, and her soft Wu dialect is intoxicating.
He wondered, why didn’t such a beautiful peony flower bloom in his arms?
He was jealous to the point of going crazy. If Mr. Heming were gone, wouldn’t the peony in the garden belong to him? If he could hug this peony, it would be worth dying for.
So he forgot, he forgot who helped his seriously ill mother get out of bed, he forgot who helped him escape the punishment of deserter, and he forgot who gave him selfless help.
He only remembered that beautiful woman and wanted to see her only smile at him.
The only thing he did was to destroy all the peonies in the garden and the peony flower he had been thinking about so much.
When he begged Jin Yanchai to go with him in the fire, her eyes were like Xu Hang’s now, mocking him as if he were a clown. She would rather die alongside Mr. Heming than endure even a moment of his touch.
Even Zhang Yaochen himself knew that this was the worst thing he had ever done in his life.
OMG 😱 😱 😱