The First Order

Ren Xiaosu cast a sidelong glance at Zhou Yingxue. Seeing her attitude, he did not know what to say. “Go ahead and pretend to be the sniper. I have no objections.”

“Then after the mission is accomplished, the reward…” Zhou Yingxue carefully probed.

“We’ll split it. I’ll get 80% while you get 20,” Ren Xiaosu said while looking at her.

“I’m only getting 20%?!” Zhou Yingxue said in disbelief.

“You have a problem with that?” Ren Xiaosu looked at her seriously.

“No, no I don’t!” Zhou Yingxue knew her own capabilities well enough. Although she was good at assassination, infiltration, and intelligence gathering, she was not someone who could handle a target like the member of an organization’s Board of Directors. Therefore, just as Ren Xiaosu had guessed, Zhou Yingxue had only latched onto him because she realized he was trying to keep his identity hidden, so she took the initiative to act as his front. It was a win-win situation!

Ren Xiaosu looked at her and suddenly said, “Do you want to gain entry to the Anjing House?”

“Yes!” Zhou Yingxue’s eyes lit up. “I heard that after getting into the Anjing House, even if you don’t complete a mission, you’ll still receive a fixed amount of money!”

Ren Xiaosu snappe, “Dream on! You definitely still have to contribute something. But if you really want to get in, I can help you!”

“What do you want in exchange?” Zhou Yingxue asked. She realized Ren Xiaosu wanted to get into the Anjing House as well!

“Alright, go back to your own tent. We’ll talk about other matters after you get into the Anjing House,” Ren Xiaosu snapped.

With that, he chased Zhou Yingxue out of the tent. What would it look like if he kept being seen with a woman alone? If word of this got out, what would he do if he suddenly got sniped?

At this moment, the other A-rank hitmen outside were not yet asleep. They had quietly watched Zhou Yingxue enter Ren Xiaosu’s tent earlier. After a dozen minutes, she came out again as though nothing had happened. When Zhou Yingxue exited from the tent, she was even tidying her hair.

The A-rank hitman named Wu Tong sighed. “As if he’s a spotter. He’s clearly a boy toy.”

One of the hitmen said indifferently, “It isn’t that uncommon. Many hitwomen also seek comfort after all the dangerous work they’ve performed. Don’t hitmen also visit brothels? It’s all about equality.”

Another person said, “I’m just afraid that that boy toy will drag us down when he gets into the stronghold.”

“What’s there to be afraid of?” Wu Tong smiled and said, “We’ve already discussed this, in fact. My informant has arranged for a way to get us into the stronghold together, but I told the two of them that we’ll have to find our own way into the stronghold. If he’s really a boy toy, we’ll see if Zhou Yingxue can get him into the stronghold on her own. If he can’t get in, he can’t drag us down.”

“Hehe, Old Wu is so wise!”

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu was lying down in his tent. He was holding a pistol in case anyone showed up and sneak attacked him in the night.

Any slight movement would not escape his notice.

Ren Xiaosu could not trust the other four hitmen at all. It was very likely that one of them might have ulterior motives.

When Zhou Yingxue came over, he was not lying when he said he wanted to help her gain entry into the Anjing House. He really had a plan.

As a matter of fact, his goal was to eventually get the Anjing House to help him find Wang Fugui and the others, and the reason why he had been hiding his identity all this while was that he was afraid Wang Fugui and the others would get captured if the other party found out about his identity.

According to Zhou Yingxue, when a hitman reached A-rank, a paper crane would deliver a new cell phone to them.

Other people might think the paper cranes were just folded pieces of paper that could not perceive their surroundings, but Ren Xiaosu knew those who had received the new cell phones would probably have their appearances memorized.

He could hide his face, but that would still arouse the suspicion of others. Therefore, he might as well push Zhou Yingxue to the front while he operated behind the scenes. At least, that would leave him with some room to maneuver.

Both stood to gain, so it was indeed a win-win situation for everyone.

When they set off again the next day, the other A-rank hitmen looked at Ren Xiaosu and Zhou Yingxue with curious gazes. However, Ren Xiaosu did not pay much attention to them and just focused on playing the role of an assistant.

But to Ren Xiaosu’s surprise, Zhou Yingxue seemed like she was really hooked on acting as the boss. She even asked Ren Xiaosu to make tea for her! It was as though she did not feel burdened acting in this way. Then she would hurry over at night to apologize.

Actually, Zhou Yingxue found that letting others assume she was a sniper did not really make her feel that awesome or satisfied. Instead, she got the most kick out of having Ren Xiaosu make tea for her.

Other people might not know Ren Xiaosu’s identity, but how could she not know? To have a supernatural being who was almost legendary brew tea for her, there was probably no need to mention just how great it felt!

It was just that when she apologized at night, her arms got a little sore. Since she acted that way during the day, Ren Xiaosu thought he might as well not chase her away and just let her massage his legs until midnight. Only then did Zhou Yingxue learn to restrain herself a little.

Ren Xiaosu realized Zhou Yingxue was quite an interesting character. She was the kind of person who would get cocky with just a little praise.

There was an old saying specifically for people like Zhou Yingxue. Spare the rod and spoil the child. They would constantly test the limits of how far they could go without getting punished.

When the team arrived outside of Stronghold 73, the members parted ways. They hid the vehicle in the wilderness to the north, specifically covering it with a green camouflage tarp.

After the others left, Zhou Yingxue switched back to her role as the maid. She busied herself around Ren Xiaosu, even taking out an apple from her backpack and peeling it for Ren Xiaosu to eat.

Ren Xiaosu looked at Zhou Yingxue. “What methods do you spies usually use to sneak into the strongholds? You probably don’t have to resort to hiding underneath a truck, right?”

Zhou Yingxue said, “That’s basically how we do it, unless we have a lot of connections in the area. In that case, the private troops will secretly let us in and receive a reward for their help. Some of the private troops can even receive hundreds of thousands of yuan each time they accept a bribe. That’s basically enough to cover 20 years of their salary.”

“Then do you have any ideas?” Ren Xiaosu found a tall hill to observe the vicinity of Stronghold 73 with his spotting scope. To his surprise, he saw the other four hitmen board a vehicle in the wilderness that had driven out of a slaughterhouse.

It turned out they already had a way to get into the stronghold. It was just that they didn’t want Zhou Yingxue and him to get in the same way as them.

However, this wasn’t a big problem as the four hitmen were not obliged to give them any help either. The problem was that Ren Xiaosu had realized the security check at the stronghold’s gate was extremely strict. Other than that vehicle from the slaughterhouse, the other vehicles that were going in and out of the stronghold were all required to open up their cargo holds for inspection. It would not be realistic to think they could get in by hiding underneath a truck.

It would be easy for him to solve this problem since he could just scamper over the walls and get in. But what about Zhou Yingxue? As the spotter, he couldn’t possibly leave the sniper outside and get in by himself, could he? Would there still be a need for him if that were the case?

However, Zhou Yingxue said, “I can control a plant to open up an underground tunnel. The stronghold with the deepest walls is Fortress 178, but even the foundation of Fortress 178 only goes down 27 meters. My plants can easily dig a tunnel through that.”

Ren Xiaosu started to look at Zhou Yingxue in a new light. So it turned out her superpower to control plants was actually quite useful. However, this floral supernatural being was still a little stranger than he had thought. She could dig tunnels.