“Oh my god that poor assassiness!” Jason said in an empathetic tone and looked at Jianmen from another side of a book shelf: “What’d you do with her?”

 

“Come on, Shawn just died!” Caroline stared at Jason for a short while, “Can you miss the point by any further?”

 

“Well, yeah! But it’s kinda obvious that he would die.” Jason shook his head and said in a minorly insensitive manner: “And to be in a mob shakedown as a low level dealer? Not to mention he basically single-handedly pissed off his new management. And just like Boss said, he could’ve died earlier in the store if not for the flying brick phone.”

 

“Still, a bit of sympathy?”

 

“I do feel bad for Nan.” Jason let out a long sigh and looked at Jianmen: “But at least you’ve been taking care of her all these years, so we know she’s fine, well at least physically. But please continue, Boss, what’d you do with the assassiness? ” 

 

“Not gonna lie, that kinda sounds like a real meet-cute.” Caroline giggled: “You know, from one of those cheap rom-com TVs and movies. But with a dark twist.”

 

“Huh, didn’t know you watch rom-coms.” Jason chuckled and said: “I’ve always taken that you are the no pop culture type.”

 

“I am. I just had a childhood and I was nine.” Caroline shrugged and picked a book of medium size from the book shelf in front of her and asked: “Boss, what did you do with the assassin? You didn’t torture her did you?”

 

“What? Who do you take me for?” Jianmen shook his head and explained: “I just asked her a few questions about why she wanted me dead, who her employer was and what else she knew about the Lok family shakedown in Chinatown.”

 

“Yeah, you didn’t really deny it.” Caroline flipped the book open and took a look at the content: “What’d you do with her?”

 

“Well, I am not quite sure of the conventional rules of using power with hostility on civilians, be it Xuanli, or magic, or mojo or voodoo.” Jianmen answered as he also took a book and started reading it: “So I just dragged her to a more discreet place and asked her, with nothing but bare physical power and a simple binding spell. ”

 

“And then?”

 

“And then I used a simple hypnosis spell and asked her the questions I wanted answers to. It turned out that she was hired by some anonymous employer to watch over the scene and ‘deal with’ anyone who might be a witness to the crime there. But there were two different crimes committed by two different gangs or mobs that day, and she did not know which one she was supposed to watch over and clean for. Really, really sloppy job and communication if you asked me.” Jianmen flipped over a page whose content described the mechanism of resonance among different symbols in a magical array, since he already knew about the basics: “She’s technically a professional, but she was only good with the assassination part and not good with the other parts like intel gathering and doing scouting. She had this gift that somehow allowed her to almost not draw any attention to her while she activated it, kinda like an intuitive cloaking spell, which turned out to be the reason for why I did not know she was coming. She used to work in Florida but she got into some trouble and fled to LA and it was her second case here.”

 

“That’s a lot of information from an assassin that wanted you dead.” Jason said in an insinuating tone: “I bet she’s pretty… pretty?”

 

“Um, why the sudden interest in my personal life?”

 

“Because it is Christmas season and we sorta kinda want you to be happy?” Caroline put the book in her hand back onto the shelf: “You don’t have your family here and you’re spending your Christmas with Nan, right? That doesn’t sound like it’s gonna be nice - it sounded like it’s gonna be hella awkward. ”

 

“Not to mention sad and angry. Sounded like Shawn was the only family for her. I hope she recovered from Shawn’s death.” Jason shook his head and said.

 

“Yeah, well. Maybe next year it’ll be different.” Jianmen picked another book from the shelf: “But all these years I’ve lived, festivals are hardly personally relevant or important anymore.”

 

“Aaaand what about Josephine Wong? You don’t wanna spend Christmas with her?” Jason asked: “I bet she’ll be happy to. ”

 

“Yeah, we’re not in that kind of relationship. And it’s … complicated.”

 

“Well, isn’t everything complicated with you Boss? I think you may need to relax a bit sometimes and just appreciate the small things with people in your life.” Caroline winked at Jianmen and Jason with a coy smile.

 

“You wanna continue to hear the story or not?” Jianmen rolled his eyes.

 

“Alright, alright! Please continue. And please tell me that you hunted down Shawn’s killers and bring justice.”

 

“I don’t know what you define as ‘justice’, but ...”

 

-----------------------------------------------------

 

When Jianmen went back to Yewei’s hiding place, he saw that a woman in scrubs was in Yewei’s room, tending to his wounds and scolding him for his carelessness and recklessness. When Jianmen entered the room, the woman immediately pulled a gun on Jianmen.

 

“Relax, I am here because I called the cops on Shanyi’s body, and I brought you a burger.” Jianmen waved a paper bag in his hand and threw it onto the mattress Yewei was lying on.

 

“Who the fuck is this?” the woman still had her gun pointed at Jianmen: “You didn’t tell me someone else also knows this place!”

 

“What can I do? You are so beautiful, I am so happy you’re here, and my wounds were killing me!” Yewei picked up the brown paper bag and took out a burger: “Eww, pickles, this is why you need to ask me first before you order.”

 

“Just shut the fuck up and eat your burger.” Jianmen sighed and turned to the woman in scrubs: “Hi, my name is Jianmen, I know Shawn and I saved this guy’s ass.”

 

“Angela.” the woman put her gun down and looked at Yewei: “And seriously? It wasn’t enough you dragged me and Shawn into this, you had to pull in someone else too? Don’t you ever learn?”

 

“In all fairness to him, I was kinda dragged into this by Shawn.” Jianmen shook his head: “And I just got to know some interesting information - apparently whatever that scroll is, quite a lot of people are looking for it. I just encountered a cleaner for one of them, and even she was a little confused which of the crime scenes she was supposed to cover for.”

 

“Yeah. The area’s getting less and less safe. The piranhas came when they smelled blood in the water.” Angela sighed, “If not for my mom I’d be outta here a few years back.”

 

“Tell me what you know about this buyer. I need to know everything you know.” when Yewei finished his entire burger, Jianmen asked: “And you, you better find another place to hide and have someone treat your potential internal bleeding.”

 

“You have internal bleeding?! What the fuck?!” Angela immediately turned to Yewei: “We’ve gotta send you to an actual hospital.”

 

“Relax! He’s not even a doctor!” Yewei threw the paper wrappers for his burger to the side and stood up: “I really need a nap here. Let’s go after the nap can I?”

 

While Jianmen was still considering whether he should drag Yewei up or slap him into submission, Angela grabbed him by his collar and told him sternly: “You need to go to a hospital right now, motherfucker. You’re not dying on me here. And I don’t know who this Jianmen is, but you are telling him, and me about this ‘buyer’ that you have! Got it?”

 

“Okay! Okay!” Yewei was apparently quite afraid of Angela.