Chapter 151 - Why Is It Always Me?

Silence followed Master's declaration. It was Qing Lok who first recovered. "He's your what?"

"He's the son of my daughter."

"YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER?" Wuming bellowed. "But you were an assassin!"

"Doesn't mean I couldn't have a family," Master shrugged. "I made sure I had no records and wiped my identity clean. I made the same with my wife and when we had a daughter, we didn't even bother registering her for one. We lived in the mountains and started a small family there."

It was as if Wuming's face warped. He didn't know if it was the affirmation that it was possible for an assassin to have a family, or because he couldn't believe he was facing someone who had actually done it.

All his life he knew it wouldn't be possible for him to settle down. He had chosen this path of ridding the world of evil people with his skills and taking the consequences that could possibly follow… But seeing this old man, smiling at them like the bunch of young people that they were, it was as if hope sprang inside him. 

Before he knew it, he was asking, "H-How?"

"Simple," Master leaned back. "I left the assassin life. I dedicated my life teaching students instead." He smiled warmly at Wuming. "You know, kid, in this job you're only as good as your last kill. Once you've hit your thirties—mid-thirties if you're lucky—you'll start to feel some pains in your body. You'll suddenly realize you're not as limber as you had once been. The jobs will get harder to finish. Don't think so much about it. A reason will come for you to stop. You can't live your life if all you do is end one."

Wuming turned his head on the ground. He wasn't expecting that answer. Maybe he should've asked some other time.

His eyebrows furrowed. What was he thinking? Why did he even need to ask? Not like he was planning on leaving this life soon enough. If he did, what else was there?

His frown got deeper. He shouldn't have asked. Now they all had an idea that something was probably going on his mind.

Tsk. He just hated himself at that instant. Just as his mind was suddenly getting too loud, a soft voice broke it.

"Why didn't you catch Ma Min when she was caught with Qing Chen?" Feng Xuan asked.

Shao Fang sighed. "I did try."

**

It had been weeks since he first saw a shadow moving in the darkness and into the woods. His grandfather—Master—had instructed him to go find that person and to do it himself. They didn't need to raise the alarm on the other students and had to do everything quietly.

Shao Fang had gotten close with most of the students. Although they had held the files of each, there were always new things to learn about them. Shao Fang kept everything in confidence and only told his grandfather about it. They had hidden journals regarding each student about the current progress and history.

He even got close to Ma Min. She had been labeled as the resident Ice Princess as she hardly talked. She even refused to acknowledge anyone's existence the first few weeks she had been there. When Master saw the problem, he had put the students in small circles and made them bond.

Master made his student circles go camping in different parts of the woods. They made fire and put up tents. He asked some of his colleagues to put up threats at the students to test their teamwork, planning, and fighting skills.

Shao Fang and Ma Min were in the same group. It was the first time anyone had heard her talk. She shouted orders and escape plans. They made it all alive back at the dormitories.

After the others had heard her talk, all everyone wanted was to hear more. So they pestered Ma Min until finally they could see the wall she had built around herself cracking. She was still distant but it was an improvement from the typical cold shoulder.

Shao Fang was doing his nightly rounds when he suspected that someone was leaving the dormitories. On the first few times, he thought he was just seeing things. Living in the mountains had lead for him to take on beliefs such as ghosts and paranormal creatures. He thought it was just his grandmother making sure he was safe. Master, after all, had always claimed to feel his late wife's presence near him.

But one night, he couldn't sleep and decided to take a little snack in the kitchen. When he got up from his bed, something caught his eye from the window. There was no denying it, there was a form walking in the woods. He wasn't dreaming and it wasn't his grandmother but a living thing holding a flashlight.

He immediately got dressed and followed. But the person was already long gone. He had tried multiple times but he had no luck.

Until that night that Qing Chen and Ma Min were caught. He knew then that it was Ma Min because Qing Chen hadn't been there in the first occurence.

At the first chance he got after dinner the following day, he had taken Ma Min to a quiet corner and asked, "What were you doing in the woods?"

"What are you talking about?" Ma Min asked in her usual bored voice. Her eyes didn't even change. "I saw someone walking there at nights. I thought I'd check it out."

It was me, he thought. "Since when?"

Ma Min shrugged. "I wasn't keeping track."

"Be careful, Ma Min," he warned. "We don't want traitors in these grounds."

"Who does?"

**

"Ma Min had always been precise with what she wanted to achieve—it showed in the group activities we did," Shao Fang continued his story. "There was nothing suspicious with her background. Maybe it was someone else who was sneaking out. We wanted to make sure before we do anything."

"And you're too late," Qing Chen concluded. "Now she got away."

Wuming asked. "What do you think she was doing in the woods?"

"Sending messages probably," Qing Chen answered. "There were others. It was either they knew that Ma Min could get caught, or they were the ones who would receive the message. Ma Min planned on assassinating Shao Fang last night. Probably pin the 'person in the woods' to a dead body."

Feng Xuan was chewing on her lip. "I wonder what the messages were."

"I think it was about you," Qing Chen suggested. "She seems to hate you."

"What?!" Feng Xuan exclaimed. She hardly talked to the other woman—whom she couldn't beat in one-on-one combat. So why?!

"Come to think of it," Shao Fang said. "It was around that time you got here when I started to feel like someone was sneaking out. I even first thought it was you."

"Why is it always me?" she muttered under her breath.

Qing Lok asked, "Are we just going to let her go?"

"Of course not," Master answered and looked at Qing Chen.

He sighed. "We're going to find her."