CHAPTER 63 ♦ AGENDA

Yin Xu Dong half laid by the bed, caressing Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s forehead once in a while to check if she had any symptoms of a fever. After which, he checked his thick medical textbook; he should study harder. He didn’t want to be unable to do anything when she’s injured—like now—save for staring helplessly at her.

When Zhuo Xiao Xuan opened her eyes after feeling her phone placed by her pillow vibrating, she saw Yin Xu Dong leaning against the bed, his head nodding away once in a while. She extracted a hand from under her bed to take the phone and looked at the notification. After she finished reading the secret message that was encoded with all sorts of languages, she sighed silently. Z organisation was not very not dissatisfied with her failure this time.

Zhuo Xiao Xuan didn’t expect that she would meet that person—You Ming*. 

* 幽冥 = dark/hell/netherworld Z L T

She had been searching for a time machine desperately. The more she found out about the time machines, the lower the possibility, she realised, for her to return to her previous world—it was just an impossible dream. Though You Ming’s appearance had caused her to fail her mission, their unexpected encounter was worth it for her from another perspective.

She checked the time, it was already two in the morning. She kicked Yin Xu Dong who was asleep with her feet.

Yin Xu Dong woke up with a startle. Rubbing his eyes, he climbed over to ask, still in a daze: “You want water?”

Warmth surged at Zhuo Xiao Xuan. She said, her voice tinged with a rare warmth and gentleness instead of the chilly tone she frequented: “Come up the bed of you want to sleep.”

Yin Xu Dong pinched his slightly stuffed nose, glancing at Zhuo Xiao Xuan, a little embarrassed. “We, we aren’t married yet, won’t it be too early to sleep together?”

Zhuo Xiao Xuan pulled the covers off. “You sleep, I’m leaving.”

“What?! You’re leaving? Where are you going? Your injuries aren’t healed yet!”

“Enh, I have to go back.” Z L T

Yin Xu Dong’s head drooped. He only raised it after a long while. He asked, very hurt: “I’m very useless aren’t I? I wasn’t able to help you at all.” 

Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s gaze swept past the several thick medical textbooks, her gaze softening. “You’re very hardworking. I’ll let you dress my wounds in the future very soon.”

“Bah! Idiot! You won’t get hurt in the future!” Yin Xu Dong grabbed both her wrists and brought it to his mouth, giving them a light kiss. “You need to be careful, careful and more careful… can I ask you a favour?”

“What?” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL

Yin Xu Dong’s eyes flashed. “I know the job you’re doing at the moment is very dangerous, but if you meet with an extremely dangerous or difficult situation, can you save yourself first, mindless of everything else, and come back safely to me? I know I’m being selfish, but…” He would never let Zhuo Xiao Xuan go on such dangerous missions no matter what, and what’s more was that the organisation, , even if it’s a state-affiliated, wasn’t that clean either.

“Alright, I promise you.” To her, this wasn’t a very demanding request, for she wasn’t a magnanimous person to begin with. She was only working for Z organisation, not selling her soul for them. She’d never thought of sacrificing her life to complete a mission in the first place; she would chose to flight over fight should the situation become difficult. The jobs Z organisation were doing weren’t the cleanest anyway. As a pawn utilised by the organisation, she really had no need to put her life on the line when she’s using them to achieve her goal at the same time.

“Watch you health. Come over to drink some soup, I’ll cook a pot and wait for you anytime.”

“Enh, I’ll call you when I’m free. I’m going.” Z L T

Under the dark of the night, Zhuo Xiao Xuan evaded the guards and returned to the Zhuo Mansion. She wasn’t tired at all as she had slept for a very long time at Yin Xu Dong’s place, so she sat on the mat to cultivate to tend her wounds. She must quickly recover so she could look for You Ming.

The next morning when Zhuo Xiao Xuan went down to the living room, she saw the members of the Zhuo family sitting on sofa the chatting away.

Zhuo Hong Yi noticed Zhuo Xiao Xuan with the corner of his eyes. At that, he immediately called Zhuo Xiao Xuan who had originally been meaning to pass them and head for the door: “Xiao Xuan, have you had dinner? There’s still some bread in the kitchen, make sure to eat your breakfast on time!” His distant biao mei sured moved about like a shadow. Though he wasn’t home all the time, he somehow didn’t catch sight of her at all for the past few days; he didn’t see her during breakfast, lunch or dinner. Ye ye had told him that her family was gone, that’s why she came to seek out ye ye; it wasn’t easy for a little girl like her. As he looked at his biao mei, he suddenly felt the responsibility of a biao ge dawning on him even more. He should be more caring to her.

“Enh.” Zhuo Xiao Xuan replied expressionlessly.

“Hong Yi ge, is this the distant biao mei you mentioned?” A lady sitting beside ZHuo Hong Yi looked at Zhuo Xiao Xuan curiously with her almond eyes. “Zhuo ye ye’s grandchildren are all very good looking, Zhuo ye ye, your family’s genes must be very good!”

Zhuo Xiao Xuan recognised her; she was the white swan from the SF. She was in an intimate relationship with Zhuo Hong Yi so it was only normal to see her around in the Zhuo Mansion.

The white swan had her way of talking. Her words had Zhuo lao ye’zi bursting out in laughter. As he laughed and laughed, he noticed Zhuo Xiao Xuan standing there silently. At that, he immediately got angry: “You lass where are your manners? Don’t you know how to greet people when we have guests? This is Wu Commissar’s youngest daughter Wu Dong Ya. She a few years older than you so you should call her jie jie.”

“Hello. If there’s nothing else, I’m leaving.” Zhuo Xiao Xuan nodded blandly at Wu Dong Ya before leaving quickly.

“That blasted girl! Infuriating!” In her wake was Zhuo lao ye’zi’s roars.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, Zhuo ye ye don’t spoil your health with your anger now.”

“…” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL

Zhuo Xiao Xuan wasn’t very concerned about Zhuo lao ye’zi fainting from anger; he was the clearest out of them on how busy she was with her missions, so all he’d been doing was just enacting his role. She heard that he’s recently become engrossed in impersonating…

As per usual, Zhuo Xiao Xuan went to the little bookshop. She threw a coin over and the other person caught it. After making sure there wasn’t anyone around, she asked: “D’you have  ‘The Troubles of Working’?”

“No.” The old man didn’t even look at her. Z L T

“‘The Most Vexing Job’?” Z L T

“No.” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL

“‘Work’s Beyond Terrible!’?” Z L T

“No.” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL

“You don’t even have these books? You better close your shop soon for the better!”

“I vaguely remember we may have these books inside, you come in and select for yourself.”

Their secret code matching, Zhuo Xiao Xuan walked into the room and turned a corner. There was a bookshelf; a few books were placed on the shelf, one of which being ‘The Troubles of Working’. She walked over, pulled the book out and reached in to feel the protruding object. Gripping the item, she gave it a turn and the bookshelf started rotating before revealing a door. After she walked in, and closed the half-opened door to the bookshelf behind her.

The outside in the torn-down bookshop and inside the door were two different worlds. When Zhuo Xiao Xuan walked in, she saw rows of computers with large screens, and before every screen sat a person; they were all looking at the computers, engrossed, their hands tapping away on the keyboard. When they heard someone entering, they only spared the person who entered a glance before returning to their work, unconcerned. It wasn’t that they were not vigilant enough; they were responsible for collecting and handling intelligence, they can pack up and leave if they didn’t even get the intel on their new member Zhuo Xiao Xuan.

That’s right, the little bookshop was the intel branch of Z organisation. It was Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s first time entering. Though her expression remained calm, she could not help but marvel mentally when she saw everything.

“Newcomer, yes, you, come here.” The door to a small room opened and a woman shouted at Zhuo Xiao Xuan.

Zhuo Xiao Xuan entered the room. A man in his thirties sat behind a desk. He raised his head and said to Zhuo Xiao Xuan: “You failed your mission this time.”

“I know.” IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL

“Reason.” The man lightly tapped the tabletop. Z L T

Though she was unwilling to admit it, Zhuo Xiao Xuan could not deny it: “I am not skilled enough.” 

“In the report you submitted, you mentioned he had a very strong bodyguard? So strong even you can’t defeat him?” The man said. Z organisation had Intelligence, Logistic and Operations departments. For some reason, all the departments had enough talents save for Operations, especially the Sniper Tea,. The members the team recruited were all specially selected and exceptionally talented. The reason Zhuo Xiao Xuan could enter was because she finished off an entire branch of separatists; her abilities was self-explanatory.

The Sniper Team’s job scope wasn’t the easiest; they had to obey the commands of the organisatio and finish off the target. These targets however were no ordinary people. For example, Zhuo Xiao Xuan’s target this time Gao Zheng Ye, who seemed to be an estate dealer, was in fact a drug lord, and was an arms dealer. He did a very good job in hiding his identity. If the organisation he led was to rebel, they would deal quite a bit of damage. Hence, the hidden organisation Z would not let him be, have him to die of an “accident” and have them believe it was their enemies that had assassinated him. Part of the reason for his death could also be a crime of passion, of revenge… as long as they were able to get rid of these society-wrecking individuals and not be in the know that it was the state that pulled the strings, they would come up with pretty any kind of cause of death.

It was said that the previous target of the leader in the Sniper Team was known to have died of shock over a fake snake. This tale became vast and varied in Z organisation; what a beautiful method to kill someone! This was what you called a skilled killer, to be able to kill even virtually!

Zhuo Xiao Xuan nodded. IAAK IS HOSTED @ ZHANLAN TL

The man rubbed his forehead. “If we send two more over, what do you think will be the chances of winning?” He received intel that Gao Zheng Ye will meet up with an arms dealer from Central Asia a week after this. If they were to successfully secure their deal, there would be countless weapons that would enter the country… it was time to put an end to Gao Zheng Ye!

“No.” Zhuo Xiao Xuan replied calmly. 

Actually, she had her agenda in replying like that. She didn’t want to kill Gao Zheng Ye while she was still unable to defeat You Ming. If she did, then You Ming, his bodyguard, will leave, and it would be no easy task for her to locate him again. What she needed to do now was to avoid startling their target and create a plan. First, they had to lure him away from Gao Zheng Ye, after which, she, under no disturbance from anyone else, will kill him!