bookpower Chapter 29 BACK TO THE PAST PART 2
Chapter 29 BACK TO THE PAST PART 2
"Master, here are the reports." Anna handed over a navy folder with gold trim along its edges.
She watched as her hands reached for the folder and flipped it open. The contents hit her like a physical blow – how could she not remember this piece of shit?
Li Min's "boyfriend" was the son of a notorious drug lord, and the apple hadn't fallen far from the tree. The reports detailed his sophisticated operation specializing in designer drugs and experimental compounds. His latest venture – a new synthetic drug – had already claimed lives across three provinces. But drugs were just the beginning.
To fund his twisted experiments, he'd expanded into human trafficking, targeting young women specifically. Li Min had been just one of many victims who'd crossed his path. His method was always the same: arrange to meet, then have his men kidnap the girls right in their own neighborhoods.
Li Hua had seen through him immediately, forbidden Li Min from seeing him, even locked down their mansion to keep her safe. But Li Min, young and naive, had managed to slip away anyway, forcing Li Hua to frantically search the neighborhood that fateful night.
Three days from now, when she was finally released from the hospital, her organization would join forces with the elite members of the Shadow Assassin's' Guild. Together, they would methodically dismantle both the Drug Lord and his sons entire operation – burning down drug labs, intercepting shipments, and liberating trafficking victims. Their compounds would be reduced to ashes, their network scattered to the winds, and their reputation destroyed beyond repair.
She would then drag the drug lord's son in front of Li Min and, without a word of explanation, slice his head off. The brutal execution would serve as a twofold lesson: to Li Min about the consequences of naivety, and to anyone else who dared threaten her family.
A lesson written in blood, delivered with the cold efficiency that had made her name feared in both the corporate world and the underground.
Even now, suspended in this future-past moment, Li Hua couldn't shake the cold certainty of what she'd done. The drug lord's son had sealed his fate the moment he'd targeted her family—his death wasn't just justified, it was necessary. For the lives he'd destroyed, for the chaos he'd sown, for daring to think her family was vulnerable. Yet beneath her iron-clad justification burned a familiar rage, white-hot and consuming, at how many times her sister had drawn her into such violence, how many traitors had forced her hand.
But then Li Min's face floated in her memory—that moment during the execution when innocence collided with brutality. A knot formed in Li Hua's throat. She could have chosen differently, couldn't she? Could have dealt with him quietly, secretly, sparing her sister's eyes from witnessing such savagery. Li Min's trust had already been shattered by his betrayal; did she really need to watch her own sister become a monster too?
"Master." Anna walked over, "What do you want to do with him? Should I remove him from all future assignments?" Anna's voice pulled Li Hua back to the present moment, to the trembling man curled in the center of the training hall.
"Does he have a Family?" Li Hua asked.
"Yes, master. Newly married and a baby on the way."
Li Hua shut her eyes for a moment before responding, "Send him to the defensive unit."
He would live, and more than that, he would prosper. The defensive unit - it was where she sent those she couldn't bear to destroy completely. Double pay for half the risk, stationed safely away from the darker aspects of their operation. A place where a man could support his family without staining his hands too deeply in blood.
Li Hua knew this truth intimately, had created this sanctuary beneath the guise of practicality.
"Yes, Master." Li Hua caught the flicker of hesitation in Anna's movements before she cupped her hands and bowed slightly. The gesture was respectful enough, but Li Hua hadn't missed that momentary resistance—that familiar tension in her second in command's shoulders before accepting the command.
As Anna's footsteps faded, Li Hua remained motionless in her chair, letting the weight of the moment settle around her. She recognized that resistance in Anna's stance—had worn it herself countless times before.
These small acts of mercy, these moments of humanity that Anna viewed as weakness, were battles Li Hua had fought within herself for years. She'd learned to hide them masterfully, cloaking compassion beneath a veneer of cold calculation, justifying each decision with carefully crafted reasoning about resource allocation and operational efficiency.
But deep down, she knew these choices were fragments of her humanity refusing to die, echoes of the person she might have been in another life.