He was already very thin, and now that he was sitting on the ground, all hunched over, you really couldn't tell there was a person there unless you looked closely.

"Mmm..."

Zhang Er's mouth was stuffed with a rag, and his eyes stared in terror at the person in front of him, as if he had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.

"What are you yelling about?"

A foot wearing a sneaker lifted up without hesitation and stomped on Zhang Er's face. The ankle was thin, but the force of the stomp was considerable, slamming Zhang Er's head against the wall, rendering him unable to move even in death.

"I'm giving you one last chance. Do you understand who sent you? If I pull out the rag in a bit and you don't explain yourself properly, you'll die."

The speaker was Qing Ning, who had arrived at the last minute. She raised her hand to adjust the hair that was partially obscuring her eyes, and her sweet features now carried a hint of murderous intent.

Despite having a sweet girl style, the way she stepped on Zhang Er's face made her look more like a mature woman.

Moreover, being stepped on by such a beautiful girl might actually be a reward for some people with niche tastes...

But it's clear that Zhang San at this point wasn't the kind of person with niche interests.

His eyes were practically spitting fire. Even with his face stepped on and pressed against the wall, he was still defiant, twisting his head and staring intently at Qing Ning out of the corner of his eye.

He was not convinced!

This job is the kind of lucrative deal that every assassin dreams of.

These conditions must be met simultaneously: the goal is weak, there is no background, and the reward is quite high.

These kinds of top-quality deals are usually snapped up as soon as they're released, so the chance to actually snag one is extremely slim.

Now that they had finally managed to snag one, they had no intention of underestimating it and had made thorough preparations from the very beginning.

He intended not to give Xia Che any chance. The moment he knocked on the door, he had already drawn the rope dagger in his hand. No matter who opened the door for him, he would cut them with one stroke and slit their throat.

Although Zhang Er is an alias, his personal style is just like this common alias. He possesses a natural talent for assassins: a very low profile.

Often, if he wanted, he could sit in a coffee shop all day without a single server coming to ask him if he wanted to order.

The talent of a nobody might not be considered a good thing in other industries, but if you become an assassin, then this talent is practically an SSR-level skill.

Because every assassin desires this exceptional skill—the ability to approach their target silently and stealthily.

It's practically a living bug.

The person using the alias Zhang Er was very good at making the most of his strengths; in fact, the target didn't even know when Zhang Er arrived until the very last second before being killed.

This time was no exception.

He harbored no contempt, concealing his presence to the extreme. He knocked on the door, intending to kill whoever opened it, preferring to kill the innocent rather than let the guilty go free.

But at that very moment, Zhang Er sensed an intense killing intent.

It came from behind me.

As soon as this killing intent appeared, Zhang Er realized something was wrong. He concealed his aura very well, just in case he inadvertently revealed a trace of killing intent, which would then be discovered by the target and make him more alert.

He was confident that he had no killing intent whatsoever, but now he sensed a killing intent far stronger than his own...

If the target has the ability to sense killing intent, then this has already alerted them!

Zhang Er was furious and turned around to kill this unruly colleague.

In that instant, countless possibilities flashed through his mind.

The most probable possibility is that they're here to steal our business.

In this day and age, the status of assassins is not much different from that of rats in the sewers, and jobs are extremely scarce. There are far more assassins than available jobs, not to mention the lucrative job he took on today.

That's something you can only hope to encounter, not something you can seek out.

The fact that he had accepted the order couldn't be kept secret from his competitors.

It's not impossible that he might do it to himself...

After all, employers only care whether the target is dead or alive; they don't care who took the job, since money has to be spent anyway.

"This person's killing intent is even stronger than mine. Could he be one of the top assassins? But... logically speaking, someone like him shouldn't be stealing jobs from his competitors, right?"

In an instant, countless possibilities flashed through Zhang Er's mind, but reality wouldn't give him time to figure things out.

In just one glance, Zhang Er didn't even see who the person was, what they looked like, or whether they were male or female before everything went black and he fainted.

When he woke up, he found himself with his hands tied behind his back and his feet tied together. He was sitting against the wall with a woman standing in front of him.

Judging from the way the person was tied up, Zhang Er immediately realized that the other person was a fellow traveler.

Only those in the same profession understand the parts of the human body that generate force, and how to tie someone up to prevent them from suddenly attacking and injuring them. Once tied up in this way, Zhang Er knew he couldn't break free.

If looks could kill, Zhang Er might have a slight chance of winning.

"Did you understand? If you did, just nod. I believe you're sensible; the gap between us is like an insurmountable chasm."

Qing Ning narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly, toying with Zhang Er's rope-tethered dagger in her hand. Although she really wanted to slit the throat of the person who wanted to harm Xia Che, she needed to figure out who was behind the plot to kill Xia Che.

He's just an assassin; killing him can only temporarily stop the enemy, but it won't solve the problem later.

Lime isn't entirely confident that she can arrive on time every time.

This time it was very dangerous.

"……snort."

Zhang Er snorted coldly from his nose, looking at Qing Ning as if she were an idiot.

"What, are you going to play the 'die rather than surrender' card?"

Instead of getting angry, Qing Ning raised the corners of her thin lips with interest. "We're all in the same industry, all driven by profit. Are you sure you want to risk your life here for that vague sense of dignity?"

"Or... do you not believe I would dare to kill you?"

Almost instantly, Qing Ning raised her fair and delicate hands, and the rope-tethered dagger in her hand seemed to have eyes, flying straight and accurately toward Zhang Er's face.

bass--

The rope-tethered dagger sliced ​​through the rag in Zhang Er's mouth, wiped his face, and plunged straight into the wall.

The long, narrow blade had penetrated more than halfway into the rag. Although it didn't pull out the entire rag, the part that had been cut open indicated that Zhang Er could already speak.

Beads of cold sweat broke out on Zhang Er's forehead, and he found his calves trembling uncontrollably.

At that moment, he understood a fact:

The woman in front of me...

They are definitely stronger than me.