Forsythia Brown's place is tucked away in one of the urban villages.
It's a standalone two-story house with two rooms on each floor. It's not small, with a pond at the back and a courtyard at the front.
The motorcycle ride from Enchanting to her home takes an hour. To reach the courtyard from Enchanting, it is necessary to circle the yard.
This detour is by design.
Tonight, as usual, she rides her Harley Motorcycle around the courtyard for a quick inspection. Seeing all her markers intact, she thinks: Good, it's safe!
She opens the gate, parks the bike, locks the gate, and feels for the house keys. With keys in hand, Forsythia opens the door comfortably.
The ground floor houses the living room, kitchen, dining room, and bathroom. On the second floor are two bedrooms - one with an ensuite bathroom that serves as her master bedroom, and another that she has turned into a simple martial arts room.
By the time she finished her shower, it was already eleven o'clock.
Forsythia Brown sits on the edge of the bed while using a towel to dry her hair. Just as she was about to lay down to sleep, her phone beeps with a text message.
She casually picks up her phone. The text is from a familiar number. There is only one set of numbers in the message.
Raising an eyebrow, she quickly deletes the message. Then after putting on a set of loungewear, she grabs an apple and her phone and heads downstairs while munching.
The stairs are just an ordinary set of concrete steps. There's an irregularly shaped space about the height and width of a person at the corner. Inside is a miscellaneous cupboard that seems custom made to make the most use of the space. It's filled with shoes, umbrellas, and other odds and ends.
Forsythia looks around, checks the curtains, and after confirming there are no unusual sounds from outside, she tosses the apple core into the nearby trash bin. Then she reaches into the cupboard, finds the button, and the cupboard automatically moves forward with a beep.
Once the cupboard moves completely away, the ground underneath also begins to shake. Subsequently, the floor opens up.
Turns out, there's more to this house below ground level.
Forsythia descends the steps and just as she reaches the last step, the floor closes automatically above her and the cupboard returns to its original position.
This is clearly not an ordinary house.
Despite its location in a nondescript urban village, it is a safe house belonging to a criminal investigation agency.
She is now an informant, part of the National Supreme Criminal Investigation Team.
The basement spans about forty square meters, fully ventilated and fitted with twenty state-of-the-art computers.
For safety reasons, not only is there an emergency escape route, but the basement also houses a large supply of bottled water and dry food. Inside a red hidden door, lies the world's most advanced portable weapons - quite unreachable to her, because the door requires a password.
Well, passwords are not really her concern, but she decides it's better not to offend Beauty Child.
She presses a button and immediately the basement is as bright as daylight. All twenty computers start up, with four of them constantly monitoring her safehouse.
On the other computers, apart from the largest screen at the center progressively revealing a cold, stunning face, all other screens flicker with ever-changing numbers or cryptic data diagrams.
"Darling, what's up?" she asks as she cozily nestles into a comfortable leather boss-chair, looking at the largest computer screen. She yawns and adds, "Remember, you owe me overtime pay for this month."
The stunning woman on the computer screen snorts and coolly utters, "Audrey".
At the word, Forsythia immediately perks up. With a bright smile, she amends her attitude and flatters, "Just kidding. You can totally ignore those words. Serving the people is the ultimate glory. How could one quantify that with money? Even if I were to die on the field, I would never ask the organization for a penny of condolence money."
Forsythia now wears an expression like a golden retriever trying to win over its owner. Cute and straightforward. However, the lady on the screen merely cocks an eyebrow, looks unimpressed and jumps directly to the point: "You have successfully approached Yigol Foster. Well done."
The Yigol Foster mentioned by the fair lady refers to the head of Enchanting, now the president of Red Blossom Society, commonly known as "Third Brother" in the martial world. Reportedly, he obtained his current position only after killing the previous president of the Red Blossom Society. However, no one could find evidence of him killing the previous president, as he remains missing to this day.
The Red Blossom Society, in its previous avatar was a gang involved in devious undertakings such as deception, abduction, murder, and robbery. Over time, the former president gradually reformed the society and under the reign of Yigol Foster, it supposedly became fully rehabilitated.
However, once a pirate, always a pirate. No matter how much they try to reform, they are still caught in the limbo between the legal and the criminal world.
Forsythia performs at Enchanting just to get close to Yigol Foster.
"Next, adapt accordingly. You know what I mean." the lady adds.
Performing at Enchanting is just the first step to get close to Yigol. The real task is finding an opportunity to infiltrate his core organization. Forsythia understands what the lady means. She makes the 'OK' gesture, salutes playfully. "Yes, madam!"
"In light of your success, here's your reward."
Upon hearing the word "reward", Forsythia immediately sits up straight, her eyes fixated on the screen. A hand appears on the screen, Beauty Child's hand, holding a phone. The phone plays a video revealing a battered courtyard where dozens of children are doing their morning exercises.
The children vary in age, though their clothes are not fancy; they are at least clean.
In the video, the focus eventually turns to a chubby four-year-old girl with short hair. She is on the smaller side among the children, but her little arms and legs do the exercises methodically and with discipline.
The moment Forsythia spots the little girl, her eyes immediately fill with tears. She reaches out to touch the big screen, her fingers tracing over the little girl's shiny eyes, long eyelashes, and small nose, before finally resting on her bright pink lips. She murmurs, "Audrey.."
As soon as she utters the name, the video ends and the cold, stunning lady reappears on the screen. This time her icy demeanor seems to have softened a little, her voice also softer, "Why are you crying? She will be back with you soon."
"Can she come back earlier?"
"You've gone through so much over the years, now there are only four months left. Just bear with it a little longer."
Yes, she has endured so much over many years. Only four months left, and then she could live with her precious little girl forever. What can't she endure for this?
Forsythia lifts her head, forcing back her tears, and simply says, "Okay."
"I'll send you the video."
"Okay."
Everyone assumed that Forsythia was heartless enough to have an abortion. But who knew that the real reason was to infuriate Gem Atkinson into divorce? Ultimately, it's safe to say that Forsythia purposefully angered Gem into filing for divorce.