Long Jinjing screamed from shock and fright when one of the people fighting got stabbed by a dagger in the arm. Blood flowed. Real blood. She ran towards the injured man by instinct but was pulled back hard.
“What are you doing?” Lu Zihao scolded her and locked his arms around her to prevent her from running around. “Stay here!”
“B-blood! There’s blood! Stop! Please stop the fight!”
Lu Zihao waved a hand and the fight stopped in an instant. The five people lined up once again. The injured man acted as if he wasn’t bleeding.
“Someone treat his wound!” Long Jinjing looked around but nobody was moving. She turned to Lu Zihao and pleaded with him through her eyes.
“He’ll be fine. It’s just a superficial wound.”
“But there’s so much blood!”
“Jinjing.” He forced her to look at him instead of the injured man but not before sending a glare at his bleeding subordinate. Although he knew that Long Jinjing was just being kind like always, he still couldn’t stop himself from feeling jealous when she acted so concerned about another man.
She was still very distracted and kept on peeking at the bleeding man out of the corner of her eye, so he signalled with his finger. The female who did the somersault earlier threw another dagger. This time, it flew directly at Lu Zihao.
“Aaaaaaaaah!” Long Jinjing screamed. Her body reacted on its own. She tried to push Lu Zihao out of harm’s way but he remained on the spot like an immoveable mountain.
Then he caught the dagger easily by its sharp blade using two fingers of one hand when it was only inches away from his face. Long Jinjing felt her knees buckle and her vision blur from lightheadedness. He caught her with his other arm and lifted her up to prevent her from falling to the floor.
He flipped the dagger and held it by the handle before throwing it again at another direction. There was a whistling sound and then a dull thump.
The dazed Long Jinjing didn’t see where Lu Zihao threw the dagger because it was so fast. All she could do was to follow everyone’s gaze instead. It took her a few seconds to finally figure out where it landed. She squinted her eyes and saw that the dagger was firmly stuck in the bullseye of a target on the far side of the training grounds. A gasp escaped her soft lips. She looked at Lu Zihao and saw that he was watching her.
“Y-you’re…amazing.”
He didn’t reply. His unreadable expression didn’t change either.
“Uhm…can I sit down for a minute? I feel a little…f-faint….”
His expression changed, finally showing worry. He quickly scooped her up and carried her like a princess before speed-walking to the nearest wall where there were a few benches. He laid her down on one.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“I’m—”
“Don’t lie and tell me that you’re okay if you’re not.”
She bit her lower lip before sighing. “Give me a minute or two. All this is just…a bit too much for me at the moment.”
He caressed her cheek. “You haven’t seen anything yet, Jinjing.”
She held his hand and continued to press it on her cheek. “Yes, I have that feeling.”
While she was resting, Lu Zihao’s subordinates continued their respective trainings. The injured man cleaned and bandaged his own wound before sparring again with a comrade like nothing happened.
Long Jinjing watched everything. She still felt overwhelmed by the entire situation but the fear had now lessened. It was replaced by burning curiosity instead.
“Niko—Zihao,” she whispered and sat up slowly.
“Hm?”
“Can you tell me what is this…p-place? Why are you all doing this kind of amazing but dangerous things?”
He didn’t answer right away and appeared to be thinking. She waited patiently. Finally, he pointed at the man who got injured.
“He’s a former underground fighter in illegal gambling dens.”
Her eyes widened.
He pointed at the woman who did the gravity-defying somersault during the action-packed fight earlier.
“She was a mercenary. Her specialty is assassinations.”
“Assassinations?” Long Jinjing felt cold all over.
Lu Zihao wasn’t done yet. “Shun is a former yakuza member. He beheaded the group’s leader as revenge for raping and murdering his sister so he fled Japan. The yakuza is still trying to hunt him down.”
“W-what….”
“Robin—”
“Don’t tell me Robin is an assassin?” Long Jinjing asked before she could stop herself.
Lu Zihao didn’t reply.
Robin answered for herself. “I am, Miss Jinjing.”
Long Jinjing felt like she couldn’t breathe. She looked at Shun and Robin who had been guarding her and taking care of her. Shun was an ex-yakuza and Robin was an assassin? She almost couldn’t believe it but the serious atmosphere indicated that everything Lu Zihao told her was true.
She looked at Lu Zihao and asked, “How about you? Are you an…assassin, too?”
“If you’re asking if I’ve taken human lives before with my own hands, then yes. I’ve killed people, Jinjing.”
She clutched her chest and looked like she was going to faint for real this time. Lu Zihao didn’t touch her but continued watching her. Everyone was watching her. She was shaking so hard that her teeth began chattering.
“Are you afraid of me now, Jinjing?”
“Y-yes….”
His eyes turned deadly cold.
“But…I still l-love you.”
The ice melted. His eyes (and his heart) trembled but he quickly controlled his turbulent emotions, not allowing himself to show any weakness in front of his subordinates. Although Long Jinjing’s words warmed him, he still didn’t dare to touch her. What if she hated touching someone like him who had dirty blood staining his hands? He must have become an evil murderer in her eyes.
He was thinking this way when the woman threw herself in his arms, almost half-sitting on his lap. He automatically fixed her position so that she was firmly sitting on him.
“I’m s-so…scared, Nikolai,” she whispered. Her voice was so soft that he was the only one who could hear her. “You have to p-protect me!”
His arms tightened around her shaking body. “You don’t…hate me?”
“What hate you? I love you, scary idiot!”
She yelled the words. Everyone heard her. Lu Zihao’s subordinates looked shocked and entertained that she confessed to their boss while also calling him a scary idiot.
