Hidden Assassin

Chapter 48 – Two Choices

TL: Milaryn

Edit: IlkonEbi

July, a sunny, clear blue sky with a few rare fluffy clouds to be seen. The atmosphere in the Liu family’s villa was relaxed and comfortable.

A healthy, wheat-colored Shasha was relaxing in the pool like a young dolphin. Lingjing sat on the poolside chair in her spotlessly white dress reading a novel and hugging an ugly, white cat. Jiaming lay on the chair next to her and read comics. An attractive older girl in sunglasses wearing a sensual white swimsuit was relaxing spread-eagled on an inflatable air bed in the pool. She sighed happily, “So this is the life of freedom… I’m too fortunate.”

That girl was, of course, Zhang Yahan.

That night, after Jiaming had assisted that woman in running away, he originally wanted to bring her to the safe house that Marilyn and Heidi had stayed at. However, on the way there, they coincidentally met Shasha, who was on her way home. After he told her about Yahan’s arranged marriage situation, and how he had coincidentally met up with her outside after she escaped, Shasha felt extremely sympathetic. Thus, Yahan joined them at the Liu family’s villa.

After Yahan left her home, the Zhang family sent out their men along with the police to search high and low for her. Naturally, they were unable to find her, as she was hiding at Shasha’s family villa. On the day of the engagement, the Liu family had expected Yahan to be there, so the Zhang family had no choice but to show them the video that Jiaming had deliberately left behind. They then said that their daughter had ran away from home due to that video. The Liu family was temporarily speechless when they found out that it was their fault Yahan had disappeared and the elder of the Liu family said they would severely discipline Liu Wenli. As a result, they would follow the business development plan the Zhang family had proposed, but would like to ask them for another chance regarding the engagement with Liu Wenli and to properly persuade Yahan when they found her. The Zhang family naturally accepted this condition, but their ardour in searching for her had significantly weakened after that day.

Shasha’s father, Liu Zheng, did not usually live at that villa. Thus, this large house became a haven for the few of them. Yahan had originally had some reservations, but ended up settling into their small family environment after a short adjustment period. When school ended and summer vacation came, the four of them lead a life of decadence at the villa – they swam in the pool, relaxed in the sun, watched videos, and played games every day.

Of the four, Yahan was the oldest; she had been a teacher for two years. Having a lively and cheerful personality, as well as being multi-talented, Yahan could dance even better than Lingjing; her kungfu framework was steadier than Shasha’s, she could sing, knew how to play a few instruments, and even knew English. It did not take a lot of time for the two girls to see her as an older sister. Jiaming occasionally scoffed at Yahan, so the three girls would join up and bully him. Naturally he was not afraid of Yahan, but because he was used to being bullied by the two little girls, he would get beaten up until he looked like a swollen bun every time. It made him squat by the wall and wonder if he was being too much of a nice person to allow them to do that to him.

“Huhu, now you know how awesome we are!” When the two girls left, Yahan smirked smugly at Jiaming, causing him to roll his eyes at her, “Saving you is the biggest mistake of my life. Good people don’t get rewarded for being good in this world.”

“Who told you to take advantage of things… Speaking of which, since you already took advantage of me, I gotta do the same to you. You shouldn’t agitate me too much, otherwise I might accidentally leak your secret…”

Noisily arguing with each other, the two of them tried to kick at each other’s butts. Years later, when they would rewind their memories, this type of interaction would be considered as a warm and fond expression of friendship between the two of them. As to revealing Jiaming’s secret, it was naturally just a bluff.

In front of this mentally mature boy, for some reason, Yahan could finally relax. It might have been possible because he still had the body of a child, or because, even though he had seen her whole body, and they had had some overly familiar contact, she only felt that it was natural and unrestrained. His views were already developed— just like an adult, and at the same time, he exuded an aura of stability and safety. She did not want to make assumptions, but if his two closest friends did not know about it, she wondered if she was the only one that knew his secret. Was this a secret between them? If that was indeed so, she did not know why, but the thought of it made her feel warm.

After finding out that Yahan knew how to play various instruments, Lingjing decided to learn the piano from her. There was a piano at the Liu family’s villa, but because no one knew how to play it, it had just become an expensive furnishing. Yahan had played it once and Lingjing fell in love with the beautiful sounds. Once she started learning from Yahan, Yahan discovered that Lingjing had an astonishing talent for it. By the end of the first month of lessons, she was already encouraging Lingjing to develop in the direction of playing the piano because she would definitely be successful in it.

Thus, July passed quickly. When August arrived, Yahan’s body started to take a turn for the worse and she became thin and pallid for no apparent reason. She also did not have a lot of energy, but when Jiaming and the girls asked about her health, she brushed off their concerns. Finally one day by mid-August, she got a fever and her body suddenly became bloated. When she woke up, her whole body — including her face — seemed to be swollen and filled with gas and her originally well-proportioned elegant figure had completed disappeared.

“I don’t want to go to the hospital. Jiaming, you have to help me buy a medicine, prednisone[1], I’ve… had to take that medicine before…”

The two girls were at a loss of what to do, as the weak Yahan insisted on not going to the hospital. It seemed that she had been sick before, and even though the Zhang family had appeared to temporarily stop searching for her, if she were to go to the hospital, she would be instantly discovered. Jiaming went out for two hours to search for the medicine, but he returned with a gloomy expression.

“Your whole body is swollen and it’s a sign of kidney disease. Prednisone is a hormone drug, if your situation was stable, then I would’ve followed your instructions. But seeing you like this now, taking the wrong medication could be more harmful. Your only option is to go to the hospital to receive treatment.”

“No… I don’t want to go to the hospital… they’ll make me go home if I do…”

Her weak protests were ignored, and Jiaming carried the powerless, swollen woman against her will. The two girls went outside to flag a taxi and they rushed to Jianghai City’s best hospital.

“Jiaming, Lingjing, Shasha… I don’t want to return and get married, I want… to stay with you all… Don’t let them take me back, Jiaming…”

In the taxi, Yahan continued weakly begging the three children, but Jiaming coldly ignored her and did not say anything. Lingjing and Shasha had already been crying with worry since earlier. They knew that Yahan needed to go to the hospital for treatment, so they could only tearfully comfort Yahan. Reaching the limit of his patience, Jiaming only said one thing, “I assure you that you will not be marrying that useless Liu Wenli!”

“Your tone of voice… is so rude, I really want… to give you a kick…” Yahan smiled weakly.

Not long after they entered the emergency room of the hospital, members of the Zhang family received the news and rushed in as well. They were somewhat startled to see the three children. Jiaming used the reason that they had studied martial arts together before to explain their presence there. He clarified that when they met a swollen Yahan, they just accompanied her to the hospital. Even though the Zhang family was somewhat suspicious that they had bumped into Yahan, who had runaway from home, because they knew that Jiaming was the Huang family’s young master, they did not say much. After all it was only a small incident between the Zhang family and the Huang family.

Afterwards, they discovered that Yahan had a kidney disease since she was young and it would occasionally flare up. The last time that happened had been last year. If the disease was not treated in time, it could have turned into uremia— a disease where the byproducts, usually secreted in urine, enter the bloodstream and then it would ultimately end in kidney failure. Even though they had arrived at the hospital a bit later than they should have, it was still treatable and the situation did not worsen, otherwise their only option would have been to perform a kidney transplant.

At the hospital, late at night the next day, under the steady beeping of machinery, Yahan was sleeping soundly when someone suddenly lifted her hand. As she weakly struggled to open her eyes, she fuzzily saw Jiaming’s abominable face. He was currently poking curiously at her swollen cheeks. Every time he poked, her cheek would sink in, then slowly flatten out and return back to it’s swollen state, and judging by his expression, he seemed to find it very interesting.

“There should be guards outside, how did you…” Yahan asked halfway before smiling sheepishly, “Ah, I nearly forgot that you have remarkable abilities…”

“You’re rather cute right now.” Poking the girl’s cheeks, Jiaming smiled, “I came to visit you tonight, but I didn’t bring anything. I just wanted to ask you which plan you would like to use to escape from your arranged marriage.”

“Huh?”

“There are two choices and you can only pick one. The first plan is rather simple and there’s not many loose ends – this useless Liu Wenli heard that you have been caught and tonight he’ll be drinking more than usual to celebrate. Then, he will decide to drive home on the highway, and unfortunately, because he is so loved by the gods, it would lead to an untimely death and we would all feel very sorrowful about this loss. The second plan is rather more complicated, but it’s not unachievable. If you can drag the wedding out to next year around October, then my teacher can cause the Liu family to completely collapse. Then, when you take over, you will be the queen and no one in the Liu family would be able to question your orders. Tell me, which plan do you pick?”

Yahan blinked slowly, “About the first plan, there really won’t be any loose ends?”

“Nope.”

“Then I’ll pick the first plan. But, if possible, could people not die?”

“Of course it’s possible, since he wants to marry you, then he only needs to not be able to perform.” Jiaming shrugged.

“Then it’s decided, I’m sorry to trouble you, Jiaming.” Yahan smiled, “You crafty bastard…”

Shortly after, Jiaming’s figure disappeared from the room and Yahan fell back asleep. The corners of her mouth were curving up gently into a smile.

She would just leave everything to that man to handle…

[1] Prednisone – a synthetic corticosteroid drug that is used to suppress the immune system and inflammation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prednisone for reference). ↩

2/ 2 chapters of the week (next release is Monday, April 9).

Sorry for the lack of chapters this week. I changed jobs recently so I’ve been adjusting and I haven’t had time to translate. I’m still aiming for the 15 releases a month, but it will definitely be irregular for a bit this month because I don’t have any stockpile >_<>

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