"Niannian, did the same information that appeared on you and Gu Wanqing appear on me too?"
Liu Menghan wanted to make sure whether she had the same mark.
"Yes, Auntie. I think you've probably felt it too—that strange sensation of your thoughts and soul merging together. Other memories will also appear in your mind. They should all be things that really happened."
Liu Nian told Liu Menghan everything she knew.
"So you were involved in the campaign against Lin Ao? What role did you play? How come I never knew?"
Liu Menghan was puzzled. After Ye Chen sent Liu Nian back, she had arranged for her to go to school, and Liu Nian had never once mentioned being involved in anything concerning Lin Ao.
Back then, Liu Nian had said she'd been taken in by a kind couple and raised as their daughter. Liu Menghan had checked, and everything had seemed to add up.
Was there something she didn't know?
"Auntie, I was 'Night Heron.'"
Liu Nian said the name calmly. Liu Menghan thought she'd misheard.
"What did you say? Auntie didn't hear you clearly."
Liu Nian had no choice but to repeat herself. "Auntie! I said I was 'Night Heron,' the youngest female assassin in Yama Hall! I started killing when I was fifteen—"
Before Liu Nian could finish, Liu Menghan covered her little mouth.
"Niannian, wait a moment. Let Auntie process this."
Liu Menghan was shocked and heartbroken.
She knew what Yama Hall was: Ye Chen's organization, Huaxia's number-one team of assassins, lurking in the shadows.
Any assassin in Yama Hall with even a little renown had endured training so inhuman that you couldn't begin to imagine what they'd been through.
Liu Menghan held Liu Nian tightly in her arms.
Her eyes reddened, and two trails of tears slowly slipped down her cheeks.
"Niannian, so those adoptive parents you told me about were made up? All those years you were gone, you were in Yama Hall the whole time? Was all of it Ye Chen's doing?"
Liu Menghan understood now. Liu Nian wouldn't lie to her. If this was true, then Ye Chen had to be behind it.
"Mm. Ye Chen knew from the start that I was part of the Liu Family, but he still sent me to Yama Hall to be brainwashed. He sent me back to the Liu Family so I could act as a sleeper agent and help him get information from inside the family. He wanted the Liu Family to go up against the Lin Family, so he could absorb the Liu Family without a hitch."
"He also sent me to assassinate Uncle Lin Ao countless times. It was only when I was trying to kill him that I got a little freedom and warmth."
Liu Nian murmured on in Liu Menghan's arms, slowly telling her the whole story.
As tears streamed down her face, Liu Menghan gently patted Liu Nian's back, soothing her.
Her gaze turned icy. Ye Chen! I, Liu Menghan, would never let you get away with this.
Ye Chen had first appeared a few months later, at the Liu elders' birthday banquet. They had invited the entire city to celebrate. After Liu Nian went missing, the elders' health had worsened day by day, so they'd held a grand birthday banquet to bring them some good fortune.
That was when Liu Menghan met Lin Ao. Later, Lin Ao began pursuing her. He'd concealed his engagement to Gu Wanqing, and his passionate courtship had moved Liu Menghan. Then came the scenes of Lin Ao getting engaged—or married—only for Xiao Fan to crash the wedding and steal the bride.
Whenever Liu Menghan arranged to meet Lin Ao and talk, he would go mad and try to possess her. Then Ye Chen would appear.
Ye Chen would beat Lin Ao to a pulp, and from then on, he was constantly showing up in front of her. He revealed that he was part of Yama Hall. After that, business crises kept cropping up for the Liu Family, and Ye Chen would show them evidence that Lin Ao was responsible, then help them time and again.
Looking back, had those crises really been caused by Lin Ao?
Couldn't Ye Chen have arranged them himself?
And now she'd learned that Ye Chen had actually thrown Niannian into Yama Hall and trained her to be an assassin!
The fury in her heart only grew harder to contain.
"Auntie, I want to get stronger. I want to protect the Liu Family, protect you, and protect Uncle Lin Ao."
Liu Nian raised her head and looked earnestly at Liu Menghan. With her soft, chubby little hands, she wiped away Liu Menghan's tears.
"This time, Auntie's here. Niannian, you just focus on living your life. Leave everything else to me."
Liu Nian shook her head. "Auntie, I understand Yama Hall's capabilities—and Ye Chen—better than you do. I have to get stronger."
"By the way, Auntie, I only knew that you hated Uncle Lin Ao so much back then. Why?"
At last, Liu Nian asked the question that had been weighing on her most.
Liu Menghan paused. She really had never told Liu Nian about this.
"Well, Lin Ao pursued me... and then..."
Liu Menghan explained the whole story to Liu Nian.
"Then I want to ask you something, Auntie. Did you really mean it? Or were you being controlled? Did you truly fall for Uncle Lin Ao?"
After hearing everything, Liu Nian had a feeling Liu Menghan had been like her—compelled to do certain things against her will.
Liu Menghan paused, looking a little lost.
She carefully recalled each of their encounters.
The first time, she'd felt as though her thoughts and actions were being controlled.
But from the second time on, things changed.
Lin Ao would act differently, sometimes as if he'd become another person—like that night when he secretly slipped into her room.
It was only after that night that she became aware of her own "existence."
By the third and fourth times, she realized that she really had fallen for Lin Ao.
Liu Menghan smiled, as if a weight had lifted from her mind.
"I really do like Lin Ao."
Liu Menghan took a deep breath.
"I've decided. This time, I'll make the first move! I'm going to win Lin Ao over, no matter what!"
Liu Menghan's eyes gleamed. She could already picture Lin Ao surrendering beneath her pomegranate skirt.
Liu Nian rested her forehead in one hand as she sat in Liu Menghan's arms.
Gu Wanqing was already coming on strong, and now her own aunt wanted to barge in too.
Honestly, was Uncle Lin Ao lucky, or was he doomed?
Who should she help when the time came?
Obviously, her aunt. She felt there was no way her aunt could compete with Wanqing.
You had no idea how fierce Wanqing had been at the amusement park.
Lin Ao had no idea that Liu Menghan had already sworn to win him over.
Things had once again gone somewhere he couldn't have imagined.
Meanwhile, Lin Ao was busy at home.
"Uncle Zhang, get some steel plates custom-made for me. The kind even missiles can't punch through."
"Right, right. Add a few layers of those plates inside every door."
"Bulletproof glass, too. Get me a few layers. That's right, several layers."
"Isn't there some kind of laser detection system? Use the Lin Family's resources to get a few Gatling guns or something. The kind that can detect targets precisely and take them out."
"Go all out."
"And get me an underground bunker."
"The budget? As long as Lin Corporation doesn't collapse, pile it on!"
Ever since coming back from the hospital, Lin Ao had been busy with plans to fortify the Lin Family Manor.
On the way home, he'd kept wondering how he could effectively defend himself against Xiao Fan.
He'd been assassinated at home time and again. People could just walk right into the grand Lin Family Manor as if it were their own place. What kind of joke was that?
Then he smacked his forehead. He was loaded—why not solve the problem with money?
And so he'd come up with the idea of using the best materials in the world to turn his house into an iron fortress!
How had he not thought of this before?
Once it was done, even if dozens of Great Grandmasters showed up, all they could do was shake their heads and leave!
He refused to believe it!
Just you wait, Xiao Fan.
You'd better not try any underhanded tricks. If you came into the Lin Family Manor, you'd be in for more than you could handle!
Had Lin Ao not noticed that he'd gone off track too?
Before you continue