Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

Wang Yanqiu thought to herself: this fellow is truly thick-skinned. He spins lies without so much as a flicker, right off the top of his head. He really is a talent.

Yang Ce had come in with perfect justification and left with perfect justification, leaving Zhao Ying rather embarrassed. Only after he'd gone did she say, "Yanyan, that's just how Yang Ce is—careless and casual. Don't hold it against him."

"I can't afford to 'not hold it against him,'" Wang Yanqiu said crossly. "When I first moved in, heaven knows where he dug up a construction crew—they were hammering away twenty-four hours a day. I couldn't even rest properly. I could have killed him and still not felt satisfied. If not for your sake, I'd have dealt with him long ago."

"Yang Cenbin is just a careless sort, but there's no real malice in him," Zhao Ying hurried to explain on Yang Ce's behalf. "A little tolerance is all it takes. Still, from the look of things, you two get along quite well now."

"What choice do I have? We're neighbors—we're bound to run into each other. Am I supposed to go around with a sour face and quarrel all day?" Wang Yanqiu laughed. "Besides, we go to the same school, so I let the matter drop."

"Heh, that's true. By the way, Yanyan, are you used to living here all by yourself?" Zhao Ying asked, looking around Wang Yanqiu's spacious villa.

"It's all right. How about it—why don't you move in and live here with me, Sister Ying?" Wang Yanqiu suggested with a smile.

"I'd love to, but I'd only be a burden to you. If I moved in, Yang Ce would be coming over here even more often, and you don't like crowds. Better I don't disturb you," Zhao Ying said. "We live close enough anyway—a couple of steps and I can drop by for a visit."

Wang Yanqiu thought to herself: if you don't come, does that mean Yang Ce won't? But this was one thing she absolutely could not say to Zhao Ying, so she kept it to herself.

The two chatted a while longer before Zhao Ying took her leave. Passing by the villa where Yang Ce lived, she hesitated a moment, then hurried away.

Yang Ce stood at the window watching Zhao Ying's receding figure and sighed softly. That had been close—he'd nearly given himself away today. Zhao Ying's attitude was unclear enough as it was; add Wang Yanqiu into the mix, and she'd only grow more hesitant. It was even possible she'd turn him down again.

Only after Zhao Ying had vanished completely from sight did Yang Ce come out of his villa again. This time he didn't knock—he simply vaulted over the courtyard wall from his own yard into Wang Yanqiu's.

His feet had barely touched the ground when he looked up to find Wang Yanqiu standing in the yard, hands on her hips, sneering at him.

"You—what are you doing here?" Yang Ce felt as awkward as a thief caught in the act.

"It's my own yard. Where can't I be?" Wang Yanqiu curled her lip. "You, on the other hand—leaping over walls and rooftops like that. Practicing your martial arts?"

"Ha, yeah. You know how it is—in our line of work, we assassins have to keep our skills sharp, or they rust." Yang Ce gave a dry laugh.

"As if anyone would believe that." Wang Yanqiu shot Yang Puqi a look. "What, Chen Shutang's gone and you're bored all alone, so you thought of me?"

Wang Yanqiu had hit the mark, and Yang Ce felt a flash of embarrassment. Naturally, though, he wouldn't admit it. "It's like this—didn't I mention it last time? I want to gather our assassin squad for centralized training. I came by to discuss it with you."

The moment Wang Yanqiu heard it was about the assassin squad, her interest was piqued. She nodded and said seriously, "Let's talk inside."

Yang Ce breathed a sigh of relief. So Wang Xiaoniu had an obvious weak spot—next time she gave him grief, he'd just bring up the future of the assassin squad. Ha, what a fine idea.

Once inside the villa, Wang Yanqiu fetched Yang Ce a bottle of green tea and then settled onto the sofa, looking ready to listen intently.

"Little Yanyan, I'm getting ready to head over with the hit squad in a bit. This is something better done sooner than later—the faster the better," Yang Yanzhou said. "That way, our hit squad can get on track as quickly as possible."

"Yang Ce, is that training you're talking about actually useful? You're going to train these people yourself?" Wang Yanqiu asked.

"Personally? Of course I don't have that kind of time, but I'll find someone to train them," Yang Yanzhou said. "The truth is, what these people lack is a kind of mutual chemistry in working together. Take them individually, and their skills are passable enough, but put them together and they fall short. Apart from the ones who already have fixed partners, if you randomly pulled any two of them out to work as a team, I'd wager they'd do worse than they would alone. So what I want to train is exactly that—their mutual chemistry. That way, plenty of missions they couldn't handle individually can be completed by several of them working in coordination."

Wang Yanqiu nodded in deep agreement. What Yang Yanzhou said made a great deal of sense. Raising everyone's individual strength in a short time was impossible, but just as Yang Ce said, they could improve the group's ability to coordinate—and with good coordination, many things could be accomplished with half the effort.

"Good, I'm in favor of that," Wang Yanqiu said approvingly. "This is something I hadn't considered before. You're right—a mission one person can't complete can absolutely be finished by several working together."

"There's one more thing—the way the old Black Widow hit squad took on missions. That needs to change too," Yang Ce continued.

To be continued.

1024. The Organizations Merge

"How so?" Wang Yanqiu asked.

"Small jobs—if we can avoid taking them, we should. There's no real profit in them, and they easily expose the hit squad's targets," Yang Yanzhou said. "The old method of taking jobs over the phone—cancel it. Switch everything uniformly to the internet, and then I'll figure out a way to connect our system with the international assassin agencies."

"I'm in favor of that, but we don't have many missions to begin with right now, and a lot of our old clients only know our phone number. If we change it, won't we lose most of our clients?" Wang Yanqiu said with some hesitation.

"Most of your old clients are asking you to help settle business disputes, right? Things like breaking a leg or crippling an arm?" Yang Ce waved his hand with a smile. "Jobs like that are better left untaken. You don't make much from one job, it does nothing to raise the hit squad's reputation, and instead it drags the hit squad down to the level of street thugs."

Wang Yanqiu nodded a little sheepishly, but what Yang Yanzhou said was the truth. Her hit squad was, after all, far too obscure—not many people knew of it, and even these clients had taken considerable effort to accumulate. "But having some is better than having none, isn't it? Unless you have a better channel for taking on big jobs."

"Of course. If I didn't, I wouldn't be making this suggestion," Yang Hengye said. "After all, I'm a member of the hit squad now too—the squad's rise and fall is directly tied to me."

Though Fang Tian had been out of the game for a long time, there were still some rather important missions for which many people wanted to lure him back. So it could be said that if Fang Tian raised his voice in a call, he would never lack for missions.

"Really?" Wang Yanqiu looked at Yang Ce with some delight. If they could take on big missions, then naturally she would not want to serve as some low-level revenge thug.

"Leave that to me," Yang Ce said with confidence. "Come on, let's go to the hit squad right now and move these people."

"Mm." Whatever Yang Yanzhou said now, Wang Yanqiu listened to. She had already come to regard Yang Ce as the sole hope for reviving the hit squad.