Shi Cho locked eyes with the man in black and gold, for a moment it was if a silent conversation took place. Any normal person looking at the exchange wouldn't have thought twice but Minzhe immediately understood. Zhi Ruo was a mark. And the man after Zhi was no ordinary man. Mr. Min wasted no time calling Tadashi. "Boss. I think your house guest from this morning took the liberty to put a hit on the lady boss."
"Who is it?" Tadashi demanded.
"Jin Lei." Mr. Min quickly answered. The name Jin lei means 'gold dragon,' which was actually perfect. Jin Lei was a vicious beast that would burn down anything standing in its way.
His very name made Tadashi's heart sink. Why would a man like that, be sent to kill a small time girl like Zhi Ruo. That made no sense at all.
There were only a few people that made Tadashi nervous and Jin Lei was one of them. The man was trained at the same academy as Tadashi.
Jin was always more advanced than the other children and quickly became a Crane Academy legend.
The Crane Academy was a training facility that posed as a boarding school. The facility specialized in training elite children assassins and spies for an unnamed branch of the government. Children were recruited, taken to live and train, and then sent on specialized missions.
Jin Lei was a year above Tadashi but with Tadashi's skill, the two became pitted against each other. The rivalry brought the best fight out of the two until the day the two were paired for a mission together.
That day Tadashi Gao was murdered. His heart stopped for seven whole minutes before starting up again. Jin Lei brutally beat Tadashi before leaving him hooked to a machine that continuously sent high voltage shocks through his system. Each shock felt like a hot knife to the heart.
While Jin Lei, who was long gone left Tadashi like that to suffered for 10 hours before an extraction team from the Crane academy finally arrived.
It was months before Tadashi was sent on another mission but Tadashi was never the same again. Jin Lei was a monster and a traitor. He now belonged to an assassin squad that was untouchable. That organization was one of the reasons why Crane academy was created in the first place.
Tadashi's felt panicked. Why would Jin take such a low ranking mission like Zhi Ruo... unless this was personal? Unless.. unless he took this mission because it was HIS woman.
Tadashi dropped what he was doing and immediately headed to Zhi Ruo. If Jin wanted her dead, she had absolutely no chance.
**
Zhi Ruo was talking to a friend of little Shi Cho's but with her eyes, she was watching a man who was getting closer. She noticed the same man staring in her direction earlier but now it seemed he gained courage enough to come to talk to her.
The man was dressed in all black with a gorgeous gold jacket. The vibe he had was confident and fierce but very low key. His facial features were ordinary and had one of those faces that could just blend in with the crowd but stand out when one on one. He seemed normal enough but for some reason, Zhi got a horrible feeling from him.