Chapter Fifty-Seven: A Surge of Murderous Intent!

Ma Zi took out his phone. The first call didn’t go through—the line was busy. On the second try, he finally got through.

To his surprise, Gao Chao’s voice on the other end sounded even more anxious than his own. Before Ma Zi could say anything, Gao Chao asked, “You’ve got trouble over there too?”

That single word “too” made Ma Zi’s heart skip a beat; it confirmed he’d made the right decision. He replied at once, “Chao-ye, the target hasn’t left the complex, but I noticed something unusual—a man and a woman came out. The man was injured, his face covered in blood. I also saw their car had a Beijing license plate! It seemed off to me, so I thought I’d report it.”

There was silence on the other end for more than ten seconds. Then, Gao Chao’s voice returned: “Good. I knew I could count on you. Now listen carefully: stay where you are for now. In a bit, another team led by A Xiong will follow another target to your location. Link up with A Xiong and keep a close watch. I’ll be there with reinforcements shortly!”

“Understood!” Ma Zi replied, firm and decisive.

...

“Where’s Xixi? Is Xixi alright?”

Song Wanshuang rushed through the door in a panic. Only when she saw Xixi safe and sound did she kneel and embrace her tightly, her heart finally settling.

“Mama, I’m fine,” the little one assured her. Then, puffing her cheeks in indignation, she added, “But just now some bad people hit Grandma. Luckily, Little Tiger was brave and chased them away.”

“What on earth happened? You couldn’t explain clearly on the phone,” Song Wanshuang said, frowning sternly at Aunt Xue.

“Miss, it was the young master from the family—he came by,” Aunt Xue answered, head bowed.

“Which young master?”

“It was Tang Lin, the one always following Third Young Master. He barged in with some shady woman, wandered all over, even went into your bedroom, miss. That woman even tried to steal your gemstone necklace. I couldn’t hold back and confronted them, and the young master slapped me. In the end, he even tried to hit Xixi. It’s all my fault for being useless…” Aunt Xue’s voice broke, and she began to weep.

Song Wanshuang sighed. Aunt Xue was diligent and honest but timid to a fault—with, to put it bluntly, a bit of a servant’s mentality. But Song couldn’t entirely blame her; after all, Aunt Xue’s family had been in service to the Songs for generations. Such a character was only natural.

“And then? How did they leave?”

Aunt Xue stifled her sobs and pointed at the cold, black object on the ground. “It was Little Tiger—he bit the young master. The young master even drew a gun, but Little Tiger still drove them off. Miss, we’re so lucky to have Little Tiger!”

A gun!

The sight of the weapon made Song Wanshuang’s heart freeze. Tang Lin had gone too far—he’d actually pulled a gun. What if he’d accidentally shot Xixi…?

“Little Tiger, you’re amazing!” Song Wanshuang couldn’t help but stroke the tiger’s head, relief flooding her voice.

At that moment, Little Tiger was the picture of docility, nothing like the fierce beast from before. In response to his mistress’s praise, he gave a soft “Woof!”

Such an adorable and dependable companion—Song Wanshuang couldn’t help but smile, though her expression soon darkened. Did this mean her brothers meant to move against her?

Ding-dong!

Lost in anxious thoughts, she was startled by the sudden ring of the doorbell. Everyone inside jumped—was it another uninvited guest?

Song Wanshuang got to her feet, but then it occurred to her that it might be Brother An back.

She went over and peered through the peephole. Several unfamiliar, burly men stood outside, and just a glance at their faces told her they were not to be trusted.

Her heart pounded. How had strangers gotten into this upscale complex so easily? Still, she was the CEO of a company—she kept her composure and called out boldly, “Who are you? Leave at once, or I’ll call the police!”

The man in front was Gao Chao, who had rushed over. Hearing her, he realized his mistake. Turning, he saw the two hulking men behind him standing like door gods. He kicked each of them away, muttering, “Get back, both of you—why crowd so close? You look scarier than bears. Don’t you see you’re frightening the lady?”

The two burly men scratched their heads awkwardly and stepped back, feeling a little wronged. It wasn’t their fault they looked like this—blame their parents. They might be ugly, but they had gentle hearts.

Left alone at the door, Gao Chao straightened his clothes and spoke into the intercom, “Ma’am! We’re not bad people. I’m Gao Chao, working for Mr. Jiang. We’re here to protect you on his orders!”

Mr. Jiang? Which Mr. Jiang—could it be Brother An?

Song Wanshuang was surprised but not yet convinced. She thought for a moment, then asked, “Which Mr. Jiang? Do you have any proof?”

“It’s Mr. Jiang An. As for proof, he said he once entered my number into your phone under the name Gao Chao. That’s my number—check for yourself if you don’t believe me,” Gao Chao replied.

Could it really be true?

Song Wanshuang took out her phone, opened her contacts, scrolled down, and there it was: “Gao Chao.” When had Brother An put it in?

She tapped to call, and immediately the phone rang outside. Looking through the peephole, she saw the young man outside hold up his phone, displaying her own number on the screen.

After a moment’s hesitation, Song Wanshuang finally opened the door.

...

“I have bad news: you might not be able to leave for a while.”

At the headquarters on the fifth morning, Jiang An was waiting for the military to deliver his belongings when Colonel Luo burst in, looking anxious, files in hand.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang An looked up, eyebrows raised.

“You’ve been placed on the Dominator Organization’s death list. There’s a two-hundred-million dollar bounty on your head—and worse, some assassin organizations have already taken the job!” Colonel Luo got straight to the point.

“What happened? How did the news get out so fast?” Jiang An was puzzled. He’d only just taken out Ou Xingkong a few days ago—how did the Dominator Organization find out? Had someone leaked it on purpose?

“Don’t look at me like that,” Colonel Luo said with a wry smile. “I can guarantee the leak didn’t come from our side. The Dominator’s influence is vast, but they’re weaker in China. We believe they figured it out themselves—because the Dominator has a globally notorious member, ‘Prophet’ Shen Jiu.”

“Shen Jiu—real name unknown, gender unknown, nationality unknown—utterly mysterious. According to current intelligence, he has immense innate spiritual power. While not a combat grandmaster, he’s developed many auxiliary abilities. The most famous is ‘Retrace the Killer’: under this ability, it’s said that whenever a Dominator member dies, no matter how far away, Shen Jiu can trace back to see the killer’s face. With a person like this, no one dares to cross the Dominator lightly. We used to think it was mostly rumor, but now it seems all too real.”

A person with such supernatural abilities—that was rare indeed. Innate spiritual power? Jiang An found himself intrigued.

“Once they had your image, digging up your background was easy,” Colonel Luo continued.

“Two hundred million dollars? Isn’t my bounty a bit low? Who took the job?” Jiang An asked with amusement, untroubled, even joking.

“That’s over a billion yuan! For other grandmasters, the price is usually half that,” Colonel Luo replied, half exasperated. “The Dominator has spread the word—the world’s top assassin organization, ‘Blood Moon,’ and the second-ranked ‘Serpent’s Lair,’ have both accepted the contract. On top of that, Dominator is sending their own operative. Three top-level assassins—they mean to kill you within a month! As for who they are, unfortunately, Dominator won’t tell us.”

“No matter—let them come. They can stay as my guests, and there’s no need for them to leave,” Jiang An answered lightly.

Colonel Luo grew anxious. “We’re talking about three grandmaster-level assassins! And you have to understand—two of them are assassination maestros. They won’t fight you fair and square—they’ll use every trick in the book: ambushes, poison, implicating innocents. Many grandmasters have died at their hands, not to mention this time there are three. You mustn’t take this lightly.”

“Implicating innocents?” For the first time, Jiang An’s expression grew serious.

“Yes. The Dominator always wipes out entire families—that’s how they earned their bloody reputation. So our suggestion is for you to stay at headquarters or go to the Huaguo Mountain Manor in Beijing for the month. That’ll keep you safe. Your family can come too.”

Hide?

Jiang An shook his head, then asked suddenly, “Do you know where these organizations’ bases are?”

“Alas, though we’ve dealt with them many times, we have no idea where their lairs are,” Colonel Luo sighed, then stared wide-eyed. “You’re not thinking of striking first and taking out their headquarters, are you?”