The cold wind whistled.
The trees on both sides of the alley bent their branches.
On the winding, twisting roads, a few stray cats occasionally dashed across, accompanied by the sound of tiles being stepped on, disappearing into the night.
Under the lonely streetlamp standing to the side, two slender figures appeared. The warm yellow light refracted, stretching their shadows long.
"You didn’t get caught coming out, right?" Yu Zhi, wrapped tightly from head to toe, took out two pairs of disposable gloves from her backpack.
"No, Shi Yin sleeps like the dead." Ruan Yuan gathered her hair into a ponytail and tucked it into the hood of her jacket.
She put on the gloves handed over by the younger girl. "What about you?"
Yu Zhi shook her head, the corners of her lips curling into a subtle smile. "When I left, I deliberately called him. He didn’t wake up at all."
"Good then." Ruan Yuan looped her arm around the girl’s.
She glanced at the four crossroads ahead. "Little Zhi, you looked up the route, right? Which way do we go?"
Yu Zhi replied, "Weren’t you the one supposed to look it up?"
Ruan Yuan: "..."
Oh great, two people terrible with directions teamed up.
The hurried planning last night was to blame. They each thought the other had taken care of the address, and now...
Yu Zhi’s mouth twitched. "What do we do now?"
The Shi Family’s main residence had never been publicly disclosed. Apart from close friends and family, no one could find it.
"No problem. I have a photo of their house." Ruan Yuan rummaged in her pocket without a trace of panic and pulled out her phone.
She showed the photo to the girl. "Easy to spot—it’s the only house with a red-painted door."
Ten minutes later.
Yu Zhi stood in front of the third house with a red-painted door, her brow furrowing in exasperation. "Ruan Yuan, this way of searching isn’t working."
After circling around, it was clear.
These old residences had remained largely preserved, retaining their antique charm.
A lone dark-red door wasn’t enough to pinpoint the Shi Family’s location.
Ruan Yuan was now feeling troubled.
If she’d known, she would’ve brought her laptop.
"How about I call Little Cutie to ask?" A glint of inspiration flashed in Ruan Yuan’s deep-set eyes, accompanied by a faint smirk.
"Sure." With Jin Yunzhi’s naïve personality, just any random excuse would suffice.
Yu Zhi leaned lazily against the corner wall, her idle gaze inadvertently catching sight of swaying tree branches further behind.
She arched her brows, staring at that spot for quite some time.
Confirming again with her bare eyes that there was no suspicious figure there, she finally shifted her focus indifferently.
"Brother, do you think Little Zhi noticed?" Shi Yin crouched frozen behind a pile of disorganized boxes stacked into a mini mountain.
His anxious heart was about to jump out.
From the shadows, Shi Wei gave the nervous wreck a lofty glance. If he hadn’t dragged the kid away in time, the girl would’ve certainly grown suspicious.
"No, she didn’t." He slightly poked his head out to take a view.
Upon seeing the two women heading in a familiar direction, a shadow of a smile tugged at his thin lips. "Do you know who they’re out to get?"
"Shi Yaoyu?"
Shi Yin, having followed them into this neighborhood, had already guessed their target was a Shi Family Member.
Shi Yaoyu indeed deserved a beating. Even someone like him, who usually didn’t bother with women, felt like slapping her every time they met.
Shi Wei chuckled lightly. "Wrong."
When the sound of footsteps gradually faded, he stepped out from the shadows and tossed a cigarette to Shi Yin.
With a faint ’click,’ an orange-red flame flickered in the wind.
Watching the smirk in his brother’s eyes, Shi Yin’s mind conjured a daring guess. "Brother, it’s not...?"
"Mm. Want to go take a look?"
Could Shi Yin say no?
Having followed them this far, if that woman got caught doing something wrong, he could at least step in to help her.
In his excitement, Shi Yin abandoned even the idea of smoking, urging, "Brother, let’s hurry up. There are still two bodyguards in the yard."
"No rush." Shi Wei remained composed.
He had great faith in the girl’s capabilities.
Even if there were five more bodyguards, it wouldn’t matter.
**
"Little Zhi, should we take one each?" Ruan Yuan crouched by the corner of the wall, her eyes glued to the two men in black standing not far off.
Yu Zhi had intended to take them both herself, but seeing Ruan Yuan itching for a fight, she whispered softly, "I’ll take the right one."
With that said, she moved like a swift, predatory panther, closing in on the prey’s back in an instant.
She raised her hand high, striking cleanly and decisively at the man’s nape with force.
The man didn’t manage even a single syllable before collapsing straight into the grassy clump nearby.
She cast a cold glance at the fallen man and walked directly to the main bedroom door, pulling out a ready-prepared incense stick from her backpack and lighting it with a match.
Moments later, wisps of smoke quietly seeped through the door cracks, wafting over the double bed, infiltrating the nasal cavity of its sleeping occupants. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
"Little Zhi, all done?" Ruan Yuan approached leisurely from the other direction, holding a branch she had apparently snapped off a nearby tree.
"Yes." Yu Zhi pushed open the door.
Her gaze instinctively swept across the bedroom’s interior. Upon spotting shelves full of garishly hued antiques, a flicker of derision flashed in her eyes.
"Didn’t expect Shi Beiming to have quite the collection," Ruan Yuan followed her gaze and snorted. "Though his taste is atrocious."
Even someone like Ruan Yuan, who didn’t claim any expertise in antiques, found the mismatched colors hard to bear.
No matter how valuable, anything ugly wasn’t worth keeping—she wouldn’t accept it even for free.
"He’s blind." Yu Zhi retracted her gaze.
To her, filthy possessions held by filthy people weren’t worth a second glance. Even one more look was repulsive.
"Not just blind—his heart is rotten too."
Ruan Yuan walked to the bedside, grimacing at Shi Beiming’s appearance. "Little Zhi, do we just start hitting him?"
Yu Zhi: "..."
What else? Follow proper procedure?
Yu Zhi casually picked up a porcelain vase and swung it at Shi Beiming’s face. A sharp ’bang’ echoed in the room.
She really didn’t hold back.
The vase nearly shattered from the impact.
Seeing this, Ruan Yuan raised her makeshift weapon—a branch—while furiously cursing, "This is for bullying Shi Yin, you bastard! Let’s see if I can beat you to death!"
Shi Beiming, unconscious, felt nothing—not even the drops of blood pooling at the corner of his forehead.
The two continued their beatdown for a good while until his swollen, bruised face forced them to reluctantly stop.
Ruan Yuan tossed the ’tool’ aside, exhaling deeply. "Little Zhi, how do you think this bastard’s brain works? Trying to scheme against his own son?"
If not for Shi Wei’s resilience, he’d likely be dead by now, and Shi Yin would be trapped forever in a spiral of guilt and self-blame.