With sweat sprinkling her temples, a pint-size woman no taller than five feet waits in the foyer for what could be her last day.
"Are you the guard that the Meyling Food Court sent to protect Lily?" Lucario immediately asks before even stepping a foot into the foyer.
Fueled with fear, the woman lunges out of her chair and bows to Lucario. "My mission… protect girl… new leader," she states with her broken English through the thick Chinese accent. Noticing Lucario shaking his head, the woman does her best to defend herself. "My English… very bad…. But my skills… very good… I promise."
"Why would they send someone like her in such a rush? They didn't have to send anyone in the first place," Lucario mutters to himself as he scratches the back of his head.
"Why don't we gi- ah!" A sharp sting runs across Billy's cheek. With wide eyes, Billy realizes that his cheek has been quickly sliced just along the surface of the skin but enough to draw blood.
"My skills… very good… I promise," the woman repeats as she holds a fine needle between her fingers. "The girl… new leader… very safe… I watch."
Lucario peeks behind Billy and finds the needle used to scratch Billy stuck on the wall not too far back. Crossing his arms, Lucario leers down at the woman. "What's your name?"
Bowing once again but more composed than before, the woman answers. "Me… no name… but code name… Shi Jianqiao… short Jian Jian… means 'sword'."
"Where were you originally based in China?"
"Shandong Province in East China region."
A creak in the hallway alerts the three people in the foyer. Turning to see who has been eavesdropping, the trio sees Lily peeking from around the corner.
"Lily!" Lucario announces as he beckons for her to enter the foyer. Once Lily is close enough, Lucario sets a hand on Lily's head and gestures over to the woman. "Lily, this is Jian Jian. She will be your new caretaker along with Ryan and the others."
Hesitantly, Lily steps forward and scans the woman from head to toe. After a few seconds of observing, Lily grabs the woman's hand. "Jian Jian is like me, right?" she randomly states, still looking up at the woman. "Jian Jian had a hard life but is living better now."
Lucario and Billy glance at each other confused.
"What do you mean by that, Miss Lily?" Billy asks as he crouches down.
Lily points at the faded scars on the woman's hands. "A hard life doesn't disappear even after you start living a better one. Memories on the body never forgets, but that's all the more reason to keep on living so that you can make better memories."
"Our Miss is so kind," Ryan quietly cries from the hallway.
With a small sigh, Billy grabs Ryan's ear and pulls him into the foyer. "Jian Jian, you will be under Ryan here until you learn the ropes. Once you think you can handle things yourself, you can take the initiative without needing his supervision. Do you understand?"
Nodding her head, the woman seems to have settled down. "Me.. good job… I promise. Learn… better English… better service… new leader."
"We will be expecting a lot from you," Lucario concludes before picking up Lily and handing her to Ryan. "Your first job will be to get Lily to bed. Billy will show you to your room afterwards."
Jianqiao bows one more time before following Ryan out of the foyer. After a moment of silence, Lucario glares at the dark hallway going towards his office.
"Ethan, why are you still lurking in the shadows?" Lucario questions, flicking on the switch to turn the lights on.
Emerging from the hallway, Ethan's perturbed face and still silenced steps gives way of what he's thinking. "You wouldn't think that the Meyling Food Company is trying to test Lily, would you?"
"Test Lily how?" Lucario asks yet already having an idea of what Ethan means.
"As in seeing her demeanor. How she handles herself. If she's strong enough to be a leader or even survive in our world."
Facing the direction of the faint laughter coming from Lily's room, Lucario clasps his hands behind his back, clenching so hard that his smooth tan skin turns snow white. "I'm sure that they must have some sort of ulterior motive for sending someone to watch Lily, but for now, all we can do is observe from a distance. We must not underestimate her. They wouldn't give her a famous code name for nothing."
"Famous code name?" Billy and Ethan ask each other without receiving an answer back.
—
"Jian Jian!" Lily shouts as jumps up and down from the garage, giggling to herself. "I'll see you after school!"
"Bye bye, Miss Lily," Jianqiao responds with a gentle smile. As soon as Lily disappears into the garage and sees the car holding her and Ethan inside it drive off, Jianqiao's smile instantly disappears as she begins heading over to Lily's room. "Miss Lily… protect… all cost."
Meanwhile, finally arriving at school, Lily and Ethan make their way to the classroom when they suddenly hear Jeremy screaming and throwing things. Sliding Lily behind him to shield her, Ethan enters the room first but not before getting smacked in the face by a stray workbook flying in the air.
"This is so frustrating! I'm not like you, losers! I'm better than you!" Jeremy screams as he smacks everyone in the face. The tears from his incessant anger roll down his face as his bruises that he tries to hide slightly expose themselves.
"Hey!" Lily shouts while wiping the blood from Ethan's face. "Apologize to Ethan right now!"
"You! It's all your fault!" Jeremy blames, trudging over to Lily and balling his fists up. "My parents said that they got kicked out of the organization they were in because they decided to team up with your dad! Because of you, my parents released their anger on me! Because of you, my parents are at risk of losing everything!"
Swinging his arm back, Jeremy winds up to punch Lily but slings his fist into Ethan's face after Ethan manages to get up fast enough to protect Lily.
"Ethan!" Lily exclaims as she catches Ethan from hitting his head on the floor.
"You will never lay a finger on Lily as long as I'm here," Ethan coughs, wiping his mouth. "None of this is Lily's fault. Blame your horrible excuse of parents. They are just getting retribution for their crimes."
"My parents are this country's lawmakers! How could they break the laws that they create?" Ethan scoffs, still trying to act tough.
"It's because they create the laws that they are able to break them." Standing back up, Ethan slowly walks towards Jeremy, staring daggers into his soul. "I know very well first hand what laws your parents have broken, so you should ask them yourself what monstrosities of crimes they have committed."
Before Jeremy can get another word out, the teacher walks into the classroom and scolds the children. Ethan gets sent to the school clinic with Lily to get his wounds treated, and Jeremy is sent to detention for hurting a student and causing a mess in the classroom. However, in the midst of the chaos, Lily couldn't help but wonder what Ethan meant by knowing what crimes Jeremy's parents have committed first hand.