"Murder to silence witnesses is just standard procedure."
You have to admit, Li Huan was... direct.
"Boss! Are you sure you want to push things this far?"
The voice of the man who had been throwing knives from the shadows grew cold.
"What? You want to go down in flames together?"
Li Huan put his hands behind his back and stood there brazenly, sneering, "Come on! If you want to live, you can try to kill me!"
His stance at this moment was indeed rather arrogant.
He seemed completely unafraid of the throwing knives attacking from the shadows.
Whether this was sheer confidence or utter recklessness, no one could tell.
"Fine! You've got guts! In that case..."
The leader behind the wooden crate could no longer hold back. He now had two more throwing knives in his hand.
A total of three.
"Die!"
He exerted force with one hand and hurled a throwing knife. Empowered by its spin, the knife traced a bizarre arc, circumventing a blind spot of the wooden crate.
It flew directly towards the back of Li Huan's head.
This attack alone demonstrated an almost imperceptible level of control over his throwing knives.
At this moment, Li Huan felt an icy aura approach the back of his head.
It carried with it the chill of death.
He was just an ordinary person. If he were truly hit by the throwing knife, his fate might not be much different from that of the bandit who had been shot in the head earlier.
Yet, even so, he showed no panic and remained calm.
At this very instant, when the throwing knife was still about a meter from his head.
*Bang!*
A gunshot rang out.
*Clang!*
A spark flashed on the surface of the projectile, accompanied by the sound of metal colliding. The throwing knife deviated from its original trajectory, veering off to the front left.
It failed to hit Li Huan directly.
The hidden sniper had intercepted the throwing knife.
This!
This marksmanship was utterly divine.
It seemed that the hidden sniper was the true source of Li Huan's confidence.
"How... how is this possible?"
Seeing this, the bandit leader behind the wooden crate stared with wide eyes, unable to believe what he was witnessing.
"Damn it!"
He looked at the two remaining throwing knives in his hand, gritted his teeth, and roared with resentment, "I'll fight you to the death!"
But just as he prepared to use the two throwing knives in his hand as his final weapons for a desperate gamble, a sinister voice suddenly emerged from behind him.
"Good knife skills! A pity!"
Before he could even turn, his body stiffened abruptly.
*Puff!*
A gush of blood erupted from his mouth.
"Wh-when?"
He lowered his head dumbly and looked at his chest. There, he saw a bloody hand.
Clutched in the palm of that bloody hand was a beating heart.
Utterly gruesome!
Without him even realizing it, someone had pierced through his chest from behind and extracted his heart.
This showed just how ruthless and cruel the attacker was.
Even in death, the bandit leader never saw the face of his assailant. His eyes remained open, unable to close.
He died with his grievances unresolved!
"Ah! It's been so long since I've eaten such a fresh heart! How nostalgic!"
From a dark corner beside the fallen corpse, a voice rasped like blades grinding against each other.
It was grating and unpleasant!
"Old Ghost! I wasn't done playing yet! Why did you act so soon?" Li Huan looked at the blood flowing from beneath the wooden crate, shaking his head with a wry smile, expressing his helplessness.
However, his complaint went unanswered by the figure lurking in the shadows.
"Sigh! Still as wilful as ever!"
Li Huan was accustomed to this.
He then turned his gaze towards Zhou Ting, whose eyes were vacant, a morbid smile spreading across his face. "My dearest mother! Do you know why I brought you here?"
At this moment, Li Huan seemed to exude a long-suppressed malice, making him appear somewhat sinister.
Truly chilling!
"Huan... Huan'er! Don't... don't joke with your mother! Hurry... hurry and save me!"
Seeing Li Huan like this, Zhou Ting's face had turned as pale as paper. Her voice trembled uncontrollably.
"Alright! I'll save you right now!"
Li Huan took a step forward, the morbid smile on his face growing more ferocious.
"Don't... don't come closer! No..."
Zhou Ting struggled backward desperately, her eyes filled with terror and despair.
But Li Huan showed no intention of stopping.
At this moment, ravaged by various negative emotions, Zhou Ting suddenly roared, "Li Huan! I order you to stop! Stop! I am your mother! You must listen to me! Stop... stop it!"
Seeing the hysterical Zhou Ting, Li Huan's expression gradually contorted.
Especially when he heard the word "order" from Zhou Ting's mouth, his emotions were clearly further ignited.
This reminded him of his youth, when he was treated like a mere "tool."
...
In truth, from the moment Li Huan was born, his misfortune was foretold.
For on the day of his arrival, he was destined to bear an indelible mark of shame.
That was... being an illegitimate child.
That's right! Li Huan was an illegitimate son.
Back then, Zhou Ting, though involved in the entertainment industry, was never truly popular, always lingering on the fringes of third-tier stardom.
However, fortunately, in her youth, her physical condition and looks were top-notch. At a business reception, she met the protagonist of the event.
That was Li Huan's father – Li Cunyao.
And Li Cunyao was a member of the Li clan, one of the four great families of Kyoto.
Thus, Zhou Ting immediately seized this opportunity. Not long after, at the age of barely twenty, she became pregnant.
But just as she was fantasizing about climbing the ladder of the Li clan, reality dealt her a cold slap.
How could someone from the four great families of Kyoto allow Li Cunyao to marry an actress?
And most tragically, not only would the members of the Li clan disagree, but Li Cunyao himself never intended to bring Zhou Ting into the Li family.
In his eyes, Zhou Ting was just one of his many mistresses, nothing special.
Now, even though she was carrying his child, it did not mean he would take responsibility.
At that time, after experiencing the indifference and heartlessness of Li Cunyao and the Li clan, Zhou Ting, utterly disheartened, locked herself in her room for three days and three nights.
All her dreams were shattered!
And when Li Cunyao was about to find Zhou Ting and order her to abort the child, an accident occurred.
Zhou Ting!
She disappeared!
That's right! After those three days and nights, Zhou Ting seemed to vanish from the face of the earth.
Even with the Li clan's network, Li Cunyao could not find any trace of Zhou Ting.
Until twenty years later, when a young man named Li Huan entered Future Technology Group, that sealed gear of time finally began to turn.