novelraw Chapter 110: The Viper
Chapter 110: The Viper
A red light blinked on Mo Chou’s encrypted tablet with a rhythmic urgency.
Mo Chou was in the middle of a rare, quiet evening at the Liu Mansion, her mind drifting toward the new assignment that she had received for her class, when the high-level mission alert pierced the silence.
Her eyes immediately lit up with interest as high-level also meant high payout.
Her fingers flew across the screen immediately bypassing three layers of biometric security in seconds.
But as the details of the contract loaded, the air in her lungs seemed to turn to solid ice.
’Target’: Lu Jinhai
Reward: $50,000,000.
Status: Accepted.
The contract wasn’t open for bidding anymore.
The reward was too tempting after all and it had been immediately claimed by ’The Viper’—the 11th ranked assassin in the Assassin Organization.
He was a specialist in close-quarters elimination and chemical warfare.
Mo Chou’s heart dropped into her stomach. She scrambled to her feet, her chair skidding across the polished floor with a harsh screech. She dialed Lu Jinhai’s private number, her hand trembling slightly as she grabbed her car keys and a compact medical kit hidden in a false-bottom drawer.
"Rabbit? It’s late," Lu Jinhai’s voice came through, sounding relaxed.
"Where are you? Exactly. Right now," she demanded, her voice sharp and devoid of its usual playful lilt.
"I’m at the ’Starlight Lounge’. Min Gui dragged me here as ’compensation’ for my long absence," Lu Jinhai sighed.
Mo Chou could hear the muffled thrum of jazz and the clinking of crystal in the background. "He’s currently trying to convince a waitress to marry him. I’m just sitting here looking at the quarterly tech projections. I haven’t even touched the wine, if that’s what you’re worried about."
"Listen to me very carefully," Mo Chou said, her voice dropping into the low, commanding tone of an assassin. "You are in immediate danger. Huo Zhai is away on Council business, isn’t he? Who is with you?"
"Just Huo Jichen," Jinhai replied, his tone instantly sharpening as he sensed the shift in her energy. He knew that tone; it was the one she used when the world was about to catch fire. "what is happening?"
"I’m coming to you. Do not drink anything. Do not leave the VIP area. Just wait for me."
She hung up and dialed Reaper’s number instead. ’Pick up, big brother, pick up.’ It went straight to voicemail. He was likely deep in a mission of his own, his phone discarded or dead to avoid GPS tracking.
Gritting her teeth, she sent a high-priority, encrypted message to 007, her contact in the Organization’s digital wing: [Code Red. Target is protected. Intercept the Viper’s contract and authorize an immediate cancellation. I will handle the field fallout.]
---
The Starlight Lounge
Mo Chou didn’t stop for a disguise. There was no time for the "Rabbit" mask or the complex prosthetics of the "Granny" persona.
She knew her kind very well, the handsome pay would make anyone drool, there was no way Viper would wait, he would immediately go for the kill before the prey was even alerted of the danger.
She threw on a dark, oversized hoodie and rushed into the neon-lit chaos of the city.
By the time she reached the Starlight Lounge, her internal clock was screaming. She bypassed the bouncers using a digital VIP slip and sprinted toward the private elevators, her heart hammering against her ribs.
When she burst into the VIP lounge, the scene looked deceptively normal. Lu Jinhai was sitting on a plush velvet sofa, a tablet glowing in his lap. Beside him, a handsome, boisterous man with messy hair, Min Gui, was laughing loudly, a glass of amber liquid in his hand.
"Oh! So this is the legendary Mo Chou?" Min Gui beamed, standing up to greet her with a wide, playful grin. He had never met her, but Lu Jinhai’s rare smiles had always been attributed to her. "Jinhai said you were special, but he didn’t mention you were a ’bursting-through-doors’ type of girl. Is this a romantic rescue? Are we eloping? I can be the best man!"
"Not now, Min Gui," Mo Chou snapped, her eyes scanning the ceiling vents, the service corridors, and the exits.
"Wow, she’s feisty," Min Gui chuckled, nudging Lu Jinhai’s arm. "I see why you’re whipped, buddy. She looks like she’s ready to fight a war just because you stayed out past your bedtime. Calm down, sister, he’s been a good boy."
Mo Chou was about to retort when her nose twitched. It was faint—a sweet, almost cloying almond-like scent.
’Isoflurane.’
"Get down!" she hissed.
But it was too late. The vents hissed with a soft, mechanical sigh, releasing a concentrated mist of sleeping gas. Min Gui’s eyes rolled back mid-laugh, and he slumped onto the sofa like a puppet with cut strings.
Huo Jichen, standing by the door, collapsed before he could even reach for his holster. Lu Jinhai, despite his high physical conditioning, swayed violently, his eyes fixed on Mo Chou for one desperate second before his head fell back against the velvet.
Mo Chou held her breath, her hand flying to a specific pressure point behind her ear—an old assassin trick she’d learned in her previous world to force the heart rate down and slow the absorption of toxins.
She bit the inside of her cheek until the iron taste of blood filled her mouth, the sharp sting of pain keeping her consciousness from flickering out.
She collapsed onto the floor, mimicking the others, pretending to be just another unconscious victim.
---
Soft, heavy footsteps clicked on the marble. A man in a waiter’s uniform stepped out from behind a pillar, a silenced pistol held with professional ease. The Viper.
As he leaned over Lu Jinhai to deliver the final, killing blow, Mo Chou exploded into motion. She swept his legs with a low, powerful kick, sending him crashing through a glass coffee table in a spray of shards.
"The 11th rank shouldn’t be so careless about checking pulses," Mo Chou rasped, her lungs burning with every shallow breath.
The Viper recovered with terrifying speed. He didn’t waste time with words; he lunged with a serrated combat blade. The room became a blur of steel and shifting shadows. Mo Chou used her medical knowledge to aim for his nerve clusters, paralyzing his left arm with a precise, lightning-fast strike.
She was winning—until a shadow flickered in the periphery of her vision.
The Viper wasn’t a solo act tonight. A second assassin dropped silently from the ceiling vents, a tactical knife aimed directly at the base of her skull.
Mo Chou twisted mid-air, a move that defied gravity. She kicked the Viper back with her heel while blocking the newcomer’s strike with her forearm. She was fighting two-on-one in a room still thick with lingering gas. As she spun to disarm the second man, a cold, sharp sting sliced through her leg.
The Viper’s blade had found her calf.
She didn’t cry out. She couldn’t afford to waste the precious oxygen left in her lungs. She used the momentum of the pain to drive her elbow into the Viper’s temple, knocking him into a deep unconsciousness. Then, she turned to the partner, her movements becoming frantic as the blood loss began to compete with the toxins in her system.
With a final, desperate surge of adrenaline, she slammed the second assassin’s head against the edge of the bar. Silence returned to the lounge, broken only by her ragged breathing.
---
Mo Chou’s leg was pulsing, a dark, heavy pool of crimson forming on the white marble. She didn’t have time to tend to it properly. If the authorities or Lu Jinhai’s people found two high-level assassins in this lounge, the investigation would peel back every layer of her life.
With agonizing effort, she dragged the two unconscious men toward a large supply closet near the service exit, her breath hitching with every inch. She heaved them inside and turned the heavy lock.
The gas was finally clearing. Mo Chou leaned against the closet door, her face ghostly pale, her skin slick with a cold sweat. She tried to reach for the medical kit in her pocket, but her vision was blurring into grey and black.
In the lounge, Lu Jinhai gasped, his eyes snapping open. His body, conditioned for fast recovery, fought off the remnants of the gas.
"Little rabbit?" he choked out, stumbling to his feet, his head spinning. He saw the shattered glass, the overturned furniture, and the silence. "Mo Chou!"
He followed the trail of dark, wet droplets on the floor, his heart hammering against his ribs in a way it never had, even when his life was in danger.
He found her slumped by the supply closet, her hand pressed uselessly against a jagged, soaking red gash in her leg that had turned her jeans black with blood.
"I... I handled it," she whispered, her voice barely a thread. She pointed a weak, trembling finger at the locked closet door. "Don’t... don’t let anyone find them. Keep it quiet."
"Forget everyone else," Jinhai growled, his voice cracking with a rare terror. He scooped her up into his arms, ignoring the blood staining his expensive charcoal suit. "Stay with me, Rabbit. That’s an order! Open your eyes!"
But the world had already tilted away. Mo Chou’s head fell heavily against his chest, her eyes closing as the blood loss finally claimed her consciousness, leaving Lu Jinhai alone in the silent, blood-stained room.
(*T^T)