Desperate people, accept the seed of my soul!

Xu Suyuan silently took the tactical side bag next to Han Xiao and neatly put the slingshot, steel ball bag, and steel nails that she had checked into it.

Her movements were slow, as if she wanted time to stand still for a little longer.

"Uncle Han," she said softly, her head bowed, "after all this is over... after you've taken your revenge, what are your plans?"

Han Xiao paused for a moment.

He raised his head, his gaze passing over Xu Suyuan, and looked at the photo pasted in the corner of the wall.

In the photo, the little girl in the pink dress is smiling brightly at the camera, with her gentle wife standing next to her.

That was the only motivation that kept him alive until now, and also a wound in his heart that could never be healed.

"...I haven't thought about it in detail."

Han Xiao's gaze became somewhat unfocused, as if piercing through the dark basement and seeing some distant, unreachable place. "Perhaps, I'll go to their graves first, bring them some of their favorite foods, and tell them that all the bad people are dead."

He looked away and chuckled self-deprecatingly. "And then... if I hadn't been caught and executed by the police back then, I probably would have found a place where nobody knew me, changed my name, and opened a car repair shop. Before joining the army, I always wanted to open one. I don't like dealing with people, and repairing cars is great; machines are simpler than people."

"And you?" Han Xiao asked Xu Suyuan.

Xu Suyuan put the last steel nail into her bag and zipped it up.

"I want to say a proper goodbye to Grandma first." Her eyes were a little red. "Then... maybe I can go back to school? Grandma always said that as long as you study, you'll have a future."

She looked up at Han Xiao, forcing a smile: "Does your repair shop... need someone to help with the bookkeeping? I'm good at math, and... I'm also quite hardworking."

Han Xiao was stunned.

He looked into the faint hope in the girl's eyes, a small, extravagant fantasy of a bright future for two people struggling in a dark quagmire.

Like two hedgehogs huddling together for warmth in a storm, knowing full well that the road ahead is a precipice, they are still discussing where to watch the sunrise tomorrow.

Han Xiao did not answer directly.

He reached out his rough, large hand, picked up the packed tactical bag, and slung it over his shoulder.

"...Let's just focus on surviving tonight first."

His voice returned to its previous coldness and hardness, but he did not refuse.

"Let's go."

Han Xiao turned and walked towards the door. "It's time to make our move."

"Remember our goal."

Han Xiao pushed open the iron door to the basement, and the night wind outside rushed in, carrying a biting chill.

"We need to control Wei Changshou first, and then wait patiently."

His eyes gleamed with a wolf-like glint.

"I want Wei Donghai to watch his most beloved father die in front of him. I want him to taste the feeling of having a vast amount of money and immense power, yet being powerless to stop the death of his loved one."

That was the greatest judgment he could face.

"Then, send him down to reunite with his family."

Xu Suyuan followed behind him, tightly gripping the stun gun in her hand, a dark silver light beginning to shimmer in the depths of her eyes.

"Um."

She responded softly, her tone no longer filled with confusion.

"Make him pay for his crimes in blood."

------

At 2:00 AM on the 15th, at Nanshan Ci'an Nursing Home.

Outside the VIP ward, two bodyguards collapsed silently in the shadows.

Their bodies were intact, with no obvious injuries, but their lives were already gone.

This was the work of Heo So-won, who used her abilities to send tiny, deadly objects into their vital organs.

The intensive care unit was deathly silent, with only the eerie green glow emanating from the screen of the electrocardiogram monitor.

Suddenly, the wall rippled like a damp ink painting.

Immediately afterwards, Xu Suyuan's figure "emerged" from the wall.

She was like a ghost that had squeezed in from another dimension, landing without making a sound.

She quickly looked around, her stun gun ready to fire. After confirming that there were no caregivers in the room, she walked quickly to the door and gently opened it.

Almost simultaneously, Han Xiao swiftly and silently slipped inside.

He gently closed the door behind him, his hawk-like eyes instantly locking onto the medical bed in the center of the room.

There lay a withered, emaciated old man.

It was Wei Changshou.

To their surprise, Wei Changshou was clearly not asleep.

The old man leaned against the headboard, several tubes inserted into his body. His face was covered with brown age spots, and his skin sagged loosely on his bones, making him look like a skeleton that had not yet been buried.

Those cloudy eyes slowly moved within their sockets, their gaze piercing through the dim light and landing on the two people who had suddenly intruded.

There was no panic, no cries for help, and not even a noticeable fluctuation in the heart rate curve on the electrocardiogram monitor.

Han Xiao frowned. This unusual calm made him instinctively uneasy, but he did not hesitate. He quickly walked to the bedside, pointing the steel dagger in his hand at Wei Changshou.

"Wei Changshou".

Han Xiao's voice was low, filled with suppressed murderous intent, "Your son, Wei Donghai, has killed many people. Today, I want you to help him pay off some of his debts!"

Wei Changshou took a few labored breaths, and the corners of his mouth actually turned up slightly, revealing a half-smile.

"Collecting debts?"

Although Wei Changshou's voice was weak, he enunciated each word clearly.

"Young man, over the years, the line of people coming to collect debts from Donghai could circle this Nanshan Mountain. You are not the first, nor will you be the last."

This calm indifference made Heo So-won tighten her grip on the stun gun.

Wei Changshou's gaze swept back and forth between the two men, finally settling on Han Xiao's crippled right hand.

Staring at the cross-section of the severed finger, a knowing glint flashed in the old man's eyes.

Let me guess.

Wei Changshou adjusted his posture slightly to make himself more comfortable. "A former special forces soldier, that stubborn, ungrateful guy from the tax bureau, Han Xiao, whose whole family is dead, right?"

The air pressure around Han Xiao instantly dropped.

Wei Changshou ignored his reaction and turned his gaze to Xu Suyuan beside him: "There's another one, who escaped from the lab... a little girl who can walk through walls, named Xu Suyuan?"

His withered lips parted to reveal a set of broken teeth: "Those good-for-nothings under Donghai have been mentioning your names quite often lately. To push them to this point, even to the point of coming here... you really do have some skill."

Han Xiao's voice turned cold as he pressed the steel lance against Wei Changshou's throat. "Since you know so much, you should know why we want to kill you."

"Kill me?"

Wei Changshou didn't even glance at the sharp weapon at his neck. Instead, he seemed to have heard a joke. "Going through all this trouble, bypassing numerous sentry posts to get to my bedside, just to kill an old man who's about to die?"

He shook his head, a hint of undisguised mockery in his eyes: "Are you trying to use me to lure people into the East China Sea? Or do you want him to experience what it's like to watch his loved ones die before his very eyes?"