Chapter 27

Chapter 27 – Let’s Go Home

TL: Milaryn

Edit: Fireclaws

TL Note: Bold text is in English.

“Let’s go home.”

At that time I knew that if I were to follow that figure, I would never get lost or get hurt again.

——Heidi Tang, a few years later.

*********************************************************

The sound of continuous gunfire signified the increasing danger losing a life. The sheer amount of bullets fired caused one of the factory walls to collapse.

It was the first time that Heidi, who would grow up to become a beauty, experienced something like this. She was scared, tired, and hungry, and was also surrounded by danger. The gunfire was almost deafening, and even though they were behind a wall, flakes of cement and dust would fly around due to the bullets hitting the wall. Her mother tightly held her and was in the blind spot of all the shooting, but the little girl was making whimpering noises and shivering.

In this cramped area, Jiaming stood on the edge of the hallway, two submachine guns aimed at the stairs, accurately and coldly shooting whoever came up the stairs. Several of the factory’s high-wattage lights shattered and enveloped most of the building in darkness. Jiaming’s shooting remained precise however, as soon as there was a slight sound, a bullet would follow.

On the other side, the remaining subordinates of Tang Jingyao were going crazy. It was one person, only one person was suppressing all of them! The factory was in darkness, but the opponent’s eyesight seemed to be even better than an owl’s. Whoever dared to move out from the safety of their cover would be instantly shot down. Even if there was a gap and they shot in his direction, the opponent would immediately counterattack because he was an expert sharpshooter and they were not.

Knowing that their boss had already died, a lot of them just wanted to escape, while some of them tried to throw a grenade. But because their opponent was in the corridor ten meters above them, they were sitting ducks. If someone were to risk throwing a grenade up there, they first had to expose themselves, pull out the safety pin, and then throw it. However as soon as they revealed themselves, bullets would interrupt them, and as a result, two people had already been killed. Another person had panicked so severely, he threw it in the wrong place and killed their people. In the end, no one dared to use a grenade again.

Forget it, just hurry up and run, let this monster go already…

Afterwards, these remaining subordinates would remember the intense sense of powerlessness they felt. Their boss had wanted to establish the Chinese mafia, but the quality of people that joined could not compare. Even though the recruits had passed the strict entrance tests, most of them were riff-raff from the jianghu. They thought they belonged upon picking up a gun, but the truth was that they were still the same old worthless amateurs. Even though some of them were retired military men like Chen Junbin, a lot of the recruits were mostly swayed to join by the amount of money they could earn. They were obviously not trained and thus unable to act when faced with Pei Luo Jia’s special elite assassin.

“It’s safe, stay against the wall, take four steps. It’s a blind spot…”

“It’s safe, turn left with me, then hide in that corner…”

“It’s safe, come down with me and stay behind me at a three-step distance…”

“Heidi, don’t cry. Everything will be fine…”

Under the dim light, the little girl would tearfully look at Jiaming’s back. He would always be calmly viewing the situation, get into position, shoot, smoothly reload a new magazine before the empty one even fell to the floor, and then it would repeat. It looked like he was dancing instead of fighting and he even had time to gently reassure her.

When they arrived at the second floor, there was an opening in the wall that had collapsed, and Jiaming asked faintly, “I need you to take Heidi and jump down from here, can you do it?”

Marilyn nodded and took off her heels before holding on to Heidi and jumping down. It was only around three meters high, but the ground was full of gravel and rubble, making it challenging to land steadily. Heidi heard her mother lightly grunt in pain before Jiaming descended behind them.

“There should be cars in that shed. We should be safe, so find one quickly.”

Just by wielding the two guns, the people inside the factory did not dare chase after them. Jiaming saw an Audi 100 with a license plate of 000035 and recognized it as the car of the dead Tang Jingyao. In 1995, politicians used this brand and type of car, and the first hundred plates were reserved for them. The police would not dare to stop them as long as they saw that license plate, so they decided on that car. Originally Marilyn wanted to drive, but Jiaming was occupying the seat as he hot-wired it, so she sat in the back while holding onto Heidi. Because of Jiaming’s short stature, when he started driving, it was a somewhat funny sight.

The scenery rushed by quickly as they drove away from the factory, but the three of them traveled in silence. Jiaming did not have much to say, Marilyn was sitting lifelessly, and Heidi sat on her mother’s lap while staring at the side of Jiaming’s face. He shed his disguise as he drove, changing the look of his face and taking off the suit, becoming a middle school student again. Not long after, they arrived at the section of the road where the silver convertible had exploded in the creek. The police had cordoned off the area, causing some cars to stop and look at what happened as a police officer directed the traffic. Jiaming did not slow down at all and zoomed past.

“Did you sprain your ankle?”

Marilyn nodded, “Yeah.” Jiaming noticed Marilyn rubbing her ankle in the rear-view mirror; it was the only question he asked during the whole drive back.

When the car finally reached Jianghai City, it was around ten at night, but the main street was still quite busy. The side streets were much quieter; they pulled over at an empty road, removed all the fingerprints in various locations and then the three of them exited the car.

“I’ll carry Heidi.”

When he saw Marilyn limping along, Jiaming picked up the sleepy little girl while carrying his suit in his other hand. Heidi fell asleep on his back quite peacefully as Marilyn hobbled behind him in her hosiery as she did not put her heels back on.

On this quiet street under the dim streetlights and the lightly blowing night wind, they seemed like a family of three…

*************************************************************

When they returned to the second floor apartment, it was already eleven at night. He gently placed the sleeping Heidi down on the bed in the smaller room and then assisted Marilyn with taking her destroyed hosiery off. She washed her feet and then Jiaming helped apply some medicinal cream to her ankle which had swollen to the size of a bun.

The two of them sat on the bed in the master bedroom, Marilyn tightly gripped the sheets as she gritted her teeth and tears filled her eyes. Jiaming had held onto her foot and was being quite rough with applying the cream.

He had to be doing that on purpose…

After a terse moment of silence, Marilyn finally asked, “You… Do you still want to scold me?”

“Already did.” Jiaming calmly said as he continued to furiously massage her swollen ankle, “Are you still thinking about him?”

Marilyn tilted her head in thought, and after a long while, she faintly said, “There’s a type of plant called a dodder flower[1] that needs to rely on a tree to survive. I thought I was that type of flower; when that man left, I was sure I couldn’t survive without him… But now that I’ve thought about it, it seems that I wasn’t thinking about that man and only longing for the feeling of a relationship. I think I don’t even hate his other wife or hate him for lying to me, what I hate is… I’ve given so much, but haven’t received anything back, and now, there’s nothing left…”

“Heidi’s still here.” Jiaming glanced at her, “So you’re saying you want to forget him.”

“Yes.” Marilyn smiled bitterly as she winced in pain, and spoke honestly under that young boy’s gaze, “I thought I loved him, so I read Chinese novels, ate Chinese food and familiarized myself with everything Chinese. I tried to learn to read and write Chinese and I even rarely left home so I could seem like a proper lady. But now that I can see him clearly, he let go so quickly within these past ten years and just left me behind…”

As she finished, tears streamed down her cheeks, unsure if it was due to her being sad or because of Jiaming deliberately causing her pain. “From now on, Heidi will be my only concern. I’ll take care of her until she grows up, finds a good partner, and stay with her until she doesn’t need me anymore…”

“Uhh no, you should find a nice man and remarry. How old were you when you gave birth to Heidi?”

“… If I remember correctly, I think it was the second day after my eighteenth birthday.”

Jiaming rolled his eyes, no wonder her father rejected their relationship. She got pregnant at seventeen and then gave birth at eighteen; if he had children that were like that, he would beat them to death.

“Only twenty-eight years old? You’re still young, plus there are a lot of men in the world. If you remain single for the rest of your life just because of Tang Jingyao, you really are a big breasted bimbo…”

“But doesn’t China have strict traditions? No one wants a woman that has given birth before… Ah——”Jiaming wanted to strangle this sexy, yet pure-hearted woman to death. She tried to commit suicide because of Tang Jingyao and then actually said these things out loud. He had never comforted people before, and now he had to say something that could reach her? He shook his head, “Please no! You are an American! Taking drugs at the age of twelve, having sex at the age of fourteen, getting pregnant at seventeen and then giving birth at eighteen – a pure American! Don’t you guys consider having sex as normal as meal times with your family? Please don’t destroy the American dream in my heart, ok?”

“But… I feel that the Chinese traditions are very beautiful…”

“Face the truth; there are no horse-drawn carriages in China, and we’re not living in a wooden cottage!” Jiaming shrugged and then sighed, “You big breasted bimbo, women are fine just to cuddle with and to be appreciated for comfort. Who has the time to spend that much effort to thoroughly analyze someone?”

Previously when he still had the identity of an assassin, he could only keep everything in his heart and was not allowed to have feelings or expectations. Now that he had been reborn with the identity of a child, he felt relieved that he could say such things. The woman in front of him was already used to him thinking like an adult and was no threat to him in this current situation.

Marilyn blushed and the two of them fell silent for a while.

Jiaming broke the silence, “Oh, by the way, I’ve called your father already. Within a week’s time, there should be someone coming to pick you both up.”

Marilyn absentmindedly nodded as it seemed that she was thinking about something. After a short while, the swelling on her ankle seemed less serious and as Jiaming was about to let go of her foot, she suddenly spoke up, “Gu… Jiaming…”

“Hmm?”

“I was thinking…”  She raised her head and smiled briefly. “Are you actually an adult? What I’m trying to say is, your mentality seems like one.”

“My situation is very complicated, but treating me like an adult is correct.”

“But you only look like a young child…”

“What adults understand, I understand. What adults don’t understand, I still understand. It’s like that.”

“Then, if I were to… If I were to take off all my clothes in front of you right now, would you look down on me? Or would you find me sexy?”

“Huh?”

Not expecting her to say that, Jiaming speechlessly gaped at her.

[1] Dodder flowers are parasitic plants mostly found in tropical regions – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuscuta for reference. ↩

3 / 4  chapters of the week (next release is Friday, Feb 23).

Marilynpls………………