"Here, this is the person."
A photograph was placed on the glass table in front of the young girl. She glanced at it, seeing a man in a formal suit, appearing to be around sixty years old, passionately speaking behind a row of microphones.
"Kill him, and you'll become N afterward."
The woman who handed over the photo curved her lips in an alluring smile. After seeing the girl nod, she picked up a watering can and went to the balcony to water her newly purchased hyacinths.
Jiang Ning was fourteen years old at the time.
That was the first task N had given her.
To let her replace her and become the new N.
Jiang Ning took the photograph back to her room. An hour later, she had learned the key information about the target.
Jiang Yuntao, male, Han ethnicity, 61 years old, married with a son and daughter, harmonious marriage, known as part of the industry's "Hero Couple," Chairman of Jiang Group, renowned entrepreneur and philanthropist, founder of the Guardian Angel Foundation...
Jiang Ning infiltrated the Jiang Group's internal system and found his schedule.
September 6th, City H, Royal Gala Hall, charity banquet.
A mixed crowd - that would be her opportunity to strike.
This wasn't Jiang Ning's first kill. By the age of eight, N had already made her take lives.
But those were just training; this was a mission.
N had taught her many ways to kill invisibly. This time, Jiang Ning chose to use poison, making this man, who already had heart problems, die of a myocardial infarction. Everything would be perfect.
When she returned to N's side, the woman was still on the balcony, watering her beloved hyacinths with nutrient solution.
"Finished?" N asked casually.
"Yes, I watched him die before coming back."
"How do you feel?" N asked again.
"Nothing."
The girl's cold voice rang in her ears. N turned to look at her and suddenly gave a soft laugh: "He let you become N. This is your destiny, and it was his destiny too."
"Destiny?" Jiang Ning didn't understand why this woman was saying such things; it sounded mystifying.
"What we call destiny - living is luck, dying is fate."
When saying this, N's eyes held a trace of pity as she looked at Jiang Ning.
Jiang Ning didn't want to discuss such matters further and only asked: "If I'm N from now on, who are you?"
"Me? Hehe, who knows, anyway I..."
The casual words seemed to fade away gradually. As Jiang Ning tried hard to hear what else she said, the scene before her suddenly shifted, changing to the basement of an abandoned building. Stagnant water covered the floor, with drink bottles, foam lunch boxes, and plastic bags left behind by workers long ago floating on the surface.
The air was filled with the stench of decay, dirty water, and a heavy smell of blood.
When Jiang Ning walked in, she was frozen by the sight before her.
A man was tied kneeling to an unconcreted steel cage. Sunlight filtered through the uncovered drainage opening, and Jiang Ning clearly saw that his ears and nose had been cut off, his eyes were bloody holes, and his open mouth had no tongue - just a bloody mess.
His upper body was bare, his shoulders bleeding profusely from dozens of thin slices of flesh carved away with a sharp surgical blade.
Jiang Ning couldn't help but swallow, struggling to steady herself as she tried to recognize the blood-covered face, realizing it was Black Snake's disciple, codename Silver Fox.
"Why are you here?"
The woman wore a typical hospital white coat, though it was now stained with blood. She turned to glance at Jiang Ning, playfully twirling the surgical knife in her hand.
"What happened to him?" Jiang Ning tried to ask casually: "You'll offend Black Snake if you treat him like this."
"Oh, really? Then let him be offended."
The woman raised her lips in disdain, her enchanting eyes smiling seductively while murderous intent raged in their depths.
She didn't answer Jiang Ning's question, turning back to continue slicing into Silver Fox's body, one cut after another.
Thin slices of flesh mixed with fresh blood rolled into the dirty water, the smell of blood permeating their small space.
With each cut, Silver Fox would shudder. If he still had a tongue in that open mouth, he would surely be screaming endlessly.
This was the first time Jiang Ning understood what it meant to be "unable to live or die."
After an hour, Silver Fox was barely breathing, numbed by the pain.
Though the woman hadn't injured any vital spots, he had lost too much blood. Jiang Ning knew he would only last another half hour at most, with no chance of survival.
"N, he had those kinds of thoughts about you."
The woman seemed to have had enough fun and put away her knife. Walking to Jiang Ning's side, she gazed at the barely human Silver Fox, admiring her handiwork while explaining: "He coveted your beauty, wanted to imprison you. He'd already found a place and bought all the tools, just waiting for a chance to drug you. Unfortunately, he wasn't very clever, and I found out."
Jiang Ning turned to look at her in disbelief, then heard her sneer: "Heh, not knowing life from death, daring to have such disgusting thoughts about my person!"
The blood-stained surgical knife was held out to Jiang Ning.
She said: "The final cut, you do it."
Jiang Ning didn't hesitate, taking the knife and with a flick of her wrist, sent it flying straight into Silver Fox's throat. Blood gushed out...
The red was particularly striking in the dim basement. Jiang Ning blinked, and in the next second, the scene before her changed completely again.
The smell of blood vanished, the putrid water disappeared, and she found herself standing in a secret room, somehow holding a small, exquisite wooden box, while black-clad men with guns surrounded her, all aimed at her.
"So this is the infamous assassin N, feared in both legal and criminal worlds? Not so impressive after all."
The leader sneered, his eyes filled with the pleasure of trampling a strong opponent.
"Hand over the national treasure, and I'll leave your corpse intact."
Jiang Ning knew there was no escape, so she chose to take these people to hell with her.
"BOOM!"
A massive explosion rang out. She saw huge blood-red lotus flowers appear before her eyes, her consciousness gradually dispersing. She knew she was experiencing death.
"Zing zing zing!"
In her final moments of death, she heard the sound of a zither.
A zither?
Jiang Ning suddenly opened her eyes, and Nangong Muyan's smiling voice mixed with the zither sounds reached her ears: "Awake now?"
So it was a dream.
Jiang Ning hadn't completely escaped the thoughts from her dream. She stared at Nangong Muyan - the same person who had worn a blood-stained white coat and tortured Silver Fox in the basement was now wearing an emerald green traditional dress, smiling as she plucked the zither strings, without any trace of killing intent or hostility.
"Why are you staring at me like that?" Nangong Muyan felt Jiang Ning's intense gaze and looked up from the strings, only to notice her still-shaken expression.
"Did you have a nightmare?" Nangong Muyan raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised.
Before Jiang Ning could speak, a hand pressed against her neck, and after a moment, the other woman said: "Your heart rate is at 144! What frightening thing did you dream about?"
"I dreamed about you."
Jiang Ning answered casually, making Nangong Muyan's expression freeze.
Jiang Ning picked up the teacup from the table, wanting to drink some water to calm herself, but it was snatched away just as it reached her lips.
"It's cold. In late pregnancy, it's better to drink warm water."
Nangong Muyan poured out the cold tea outside the pavilion and instructed Xiaoru to bring a pot of hot water.
Through these actions, Jiang Ning finally fully awoke, her heartbeat gradually returning to normal.
The scenes from her dream were all events from her previous life. Now she wasn't N anymore; she was Jiang Ning, married to Liu Ming'an and eight months pregnant with his child.
Today, Liu Ming'an, Zhou Yi, and Zhang Shun had arranged to go fishing together. Feeling bored at home, she had come to Zhou Mansion to learn the zither from Nangong Muyan but had accidentally fallen asleep.
When a cup of appropriately warm water was handed to her, Jiang Ning drank half of it while Nangong Muyan kept watching her, clearly expecting an explanation for her earlier words.
"It's nothing really, just dreamed about some things from the past."
Jiang Ning didn't want to elaborate on the details, knowing that Nangong Muyan wouldn't want to remember those things either.
However, she couldn't help but reflect on fate's arrangement. Nangong Muyan had killed the silver fox for her sake, earning the black snake's hatred. In the end, the black snake set a trap, intending for them both to die horrible deaths, but by some twist of fate, they were instead transported to this world, where they lived as ordinary people.
Nangong Muyan nodded, having guessed the content of her dream. Without pressing further, she spoke from experience: "Pregnancy hormones can cause significant changes in your body, making it easy to get lost in wild thoughts."
Jiang Ning slowly finished her cup of water before hearing the question, "Are you still learning?"
"No, I'm really not talented at it," Jiang Ning admitted self-awareness.
Nangong Muyan agreed: "Indeed, teaching you was exhausting."
The melodious sound of the zither filled the pavilion again. After listening for a while, Jiang Ning frowned: "Why are you still playing 'Fisherman's Song at Dusk'? Can't you play something else? This tune always reminds me of the weather forecast."
"You're so annoying! You're not paying to listen, yet you're so picky and full of complaints!"
Though Nangong Muyan complained, she still indulged Jiang Ning. Her fingering changed, and the originally gentle and leisurely melody suddenly became passionate and inspiring, with an overwhelming momentum that seemed to transport listeners from the lotus-filled waters of Jiangnan to a battlefield thick with killing intent.
Jiang Ning's lips twitched, surprised that she had switched to "Prince of Lanling Entering Battle."
Her belly, which had been quiet all afternoon, seemed awakened by the stirring melody. Jiang Ning felt the little one inside kicking and punching restlessly. She couldn't help but laugh softly, lowering her head as if talking to herself: "You like this tune, do you? I wonder if you'll be a mischievous child?"
"Who knows? Maybe a general who'll fight in battles and become a noble, bringing glory to the Liu family," Nangong Muyan teased.
Jiang Ning placed her hand on her swollen belly, her eyes full of hope and motherly love: "I only wish for a peaceful life for this child."
Before the song ended, Jiang Ning noticed someone approaching. She and Nangong Muyan looked up, expecting to see the three fishing brothers returning, but instead saw Su Hui, Zhang Shun's wife and a distant cousin from outside the Zhou Yi's five clans.
Beside Su Hui was a little boy around four years old, Zhang Shun's eldest son, Zhang Haozhi.
"Cousin, please come in and sit," Nangong Muyan warmly invited.
Due to their husbands' relationships, these three women often met and were quite familiar with each other. Besides Jiang Ning and Nangong Muyan, Su Hui was a gentle, understanding woman who was older than both of them. Having married and had children earlier, she always felt like an elder sister to them.
As Su Hui and Zhang Haozhi entered the pavilion, Jiang Ning had already poured water for both mother and son.
"Thank you, Aunt Liu!" Zhang Haozhi thanked her in his childish voice.
"You're welcome."
Jiang Ning smiled at him. Strangely enough, she hadn't particularly liked dealing with children before, and even when she first became pregnant, the thought of becoming a mother had made her anxious.
But as her belly grew day by day and the child developed within her, perhaps due to the hormones Nangong Muyan mentioned, she developed a feeling called "maternal love."
She began looking forward to the child's birth and the prospect of raising it for the next decade and more. When she saw other people's children, especially well-behaved and polite ones, her heart would soften.
Nangong Muyan had twin daughters, but they were only a few months old and prone to crying, so Jiang Ning chose to keep her distance.
Zhang Haozhi, nearly four years old, was exactly the kind of likable child Jiang Ning appreciated.
Seeing Zhang Haozhi curiously eyeing her belly, Jiang Ning took a chestnut cake from the table and handed it to him.
"Zhang Shun just sent word that the three brothers caught lots of fish, and asked me to come here so we could all have dinner together. That's why I brought Haozhi along," Su Hui explained with a smile after sitting down.
"Wonderful!" Nangong Muyan placed her zither on the railing's platform and rested her chin on her hand, smiling with curved eyes: "I've been craving grilled fish for ages. Since we have nothing else to do, I'll cook myself."
"Then I'll show off my skills too and make a fish porridge for you both," Su Hui added.
As Jiang Ning listened to their conversation, her eyes twinkling with amusement, she was about to speak when Zhang Haozhi cheerfully asked her: "Aunt Liu, is it a brother or sister?"
"We don't know yet," Jiang Ning answered seriously.
Nangong Muyan teased the child: "Haozhi, do you prefer a brother or sister?"
Zhang Haozhi thought for a moment: "A sister."
The three women all knew why - Zhang Shun's second child was also a boy, so the child probably wanted what he didn't have.
Nangong Muyan asked knowingly: "Why do you want a sister?"
The child answered earnestly: "Because Aunt Liu is beautiful, so her daughter must be a great beauty!"
"Hahaha..." The innocent words of a child made all three women laugh.
Soon after, the three fishermen returned with their buckets.
Nangong Muyan and Su Hui supported Jiang Ning as they went to look. The bucket contained several large fish and a turtle.
Liu Ming'an put down his fishing rod and came to support his wife. Jiang Ning glanced at the fishing line and asked curiously in a low voice: "Can this kind of line catch such big fish?"
It seemed the line would break before pulling up such large fish.
Liu Ming'an looked at his two elder brothers chatting with their wives, then leaned close to Jiang Ning's ear and revealed the truth: "The fish were bought from the market. We fished all afternoon and only caught one turtle."
Just as Jiang Ning was about to laugh, Liu Ming'an showed his concern: "How are your zither lessons with sister-in-law going?"
"Um..." Not wanting to admit her lack of talent to her beloved, Jiang Ning thought quickly: "I find the zither uninteresting. I'd rather learn calligraphy and painting from you."
Liu Ming'an immediately agreed happily: "Of course! I'll teach you hands-on until you master it!"
