The Assassin's Enemy Lover

Zi Han kissed his lips and smiled happily, “I will see you in a few days, okay?”

Yi Chen could feel that Zi Han was telling the truth but his heart was overcome by fear. Fear of losing Zi Han.

His gut was right, not about losing Zi Han but that the Zi Han he knew would come back to him as a changed person. He no longer talked about his plans on avenging his father nor did he mention his father ever again. It was as though he was hiding something from him.

***

Zi Han was indeed hiding something. To fully understand what he was hiding one would have to go back to the so-called surprise Zi Xingxi brought for her son.

It was the ultimate death list with a full list of names. These names belonged to every single person who indirectly participated or was responsible for the prince’s death.

“Will you look at that?... Each and everyone of these people is living their best lives... wining and dining... being merry. All these benefits were gained by stepping on my husband’s dead body,” said Zi Xingxi showing the list to Zi Han.

Zi Han stood next to her scrolling through the list the fire in his heart blazing like it had been doused with fuel.

.....

“Did you speak to that boy?” he asked wondering what his mother would do to him.

Zi Xingxi took a long drag of her cigarette and released a long string of smoke blurring the floating screen before saying, “Yes... by the time your grandfather will be done with him we will know everything that he knows. He is much more useful alive than dead.”

Zi Han nodded his head while accepting the cigarette she passed to him. The moment he pinched the cigarette bud in between his lips the door opened and his grandfather walked in his expression dark.

The two people’s gazes met and Zi Han froze in place. He knew his grandfather hated him smoking but he felt like it was a necessity right now. For the past few days, he had held back because Yi Chen was there thus he jumped at the chance to accept his mother’s offer. Who would have thought his grandfather would catch him before he could even take a puff?

“Give it to me,” he said his tone commanding, and Zi Han didn’t dare refuse. He gave his grandfather the lit cigarette but instead of putting it out, Zi Feiji took a long drag while Old Lu transferred files to the main system.

“What did you find?” asked Zi Xingxi asking her father.

Zi Feiji’s lips quirked up into a smile that wasn’t exactly a smile. He was clearly angry.

“How did you get the list?” he asked instead, “Can it be traced back to us?”

Zi Xingxi took the cigarette from him and responded, “We have been working on a virus that can infiltrate Sheba undetected. All thanks to Li Ran’s constant intrusion Lynn Feng managed to plant it on his system so that when he infiltrated Sheba again we would be granted access. It will never be traced back to either him or us.”

Zi Xingxi placed the half-smoked cigarette in Zi Han’s mouth while saying, “We should thank your boyfriend this time. He really helped us a lot even though he doesn’t even know it.”

Zi Han’s chest tightened hearing this. He didn’t think that his mother would use this method. As long as Yi Chen wouldn’t be implicated then it was fine.

Zi Feiji nodded his head before saying, “He was telling the truth. He doesn’t know how the prince ended up in the Republic but he was injured so bad his death was inevitable. His memories were vivid and not altered.”

The room fell into silence for a while as though everyone was processing this news their own way. Light sniffles broke the silence and Zi Han raised his head to comfort his mother but she broke into a pained laugh as she squatted on the ground.

“I want to destroy the Republic... I want to kill them all,” she whispered her voice ridden with grief.

Zi Feiji looked at his daughter squatting on the ground with both her hands resting on the sides of her head and said, “The Republic is a whole different mission. It will take everything we have to destroy them... but that list... those people are easy to eliminate. If we deploy a few loyalists we will wipe them out within a week.”

“No,” whispered Zi Xingxi shaking her head as she got up, “It has to be me. I have to do it. He was my husband.”

“And he was my father,” interjected Zi Han with a look of determination on his face.

“No,”

“Not a chance,”

The pair of father and daughter responded simultaneously. Neither of them wanted Zi Han to dirty his hands and besides he had chosen a career in the military thus it was best he stayed far away from this as much as possible.

After that conversation, they honestly thought they had reached a consensus. Zi Han would stay away from this and they would deal with it.

Well, that is until they woke up the next day and seven of the perpetrators were on the news for different reasons. Three were missing, two died of natural causes and the other two were gunned down on the street by a sniper.

Zi Xingxi who was drinking a cup of black coffee spit it all out by accident with some of it splashing on Zi Feiji’s face.

“Oh god, sorry dad,” she said while handing him a paper towel before yelling,

“ZI HAN!!!”

Zi Han who was crawling through his window with one leg in one leg out, “...”

He immediately pulled his foot back outside and ran for it. Too bad Secretary K was too fast for him.

Zi Han half raised his hands in surrender while laughing nervously, “Aha... Sec, secretary K let’s just pretend you didn’t see me.”

Secretary K humphed with his hands crossed on his chest. “Yeah, right. Let’s go, young sir.”

Zi Han, “Fuck.”