Chapter 113: The Killer Arrives

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“I have only this one son. You damned cur—I don’t care who reduced him to this state; I want him dead!”

Zhong Lifeng wore a face full of worry, his heart packed tight with helplessness.

“He must have offended someone he should never have crossed. Even Young Master Wang called to warn me: don’t try revenge, or the Zhong family might collapse…” he said through clenched teeth.

Although Wang Silai had called him too, Zhong still could not swallow his anger.

“Your son’s been beaten into this—half paralyzed, doomed to live as a cripple. And you still care about the future of the Zhong clan? Fine. If you won’t act, then I’ll find men and have the one who did this killed!”

Zhong Lifeng kept silent as his wife screamed in near-madness.

He was no longer sure how deep Lin Fan’s background truly ran.
If Lin Fan were only a friend of Wang Silai, he would have retaliated at once.
But if his backing ran as deep as Wang Silai’s, he had to calculate the cost.

According to his son’s two loose companions, it had been a man named Lin Fan, an ordinary fellow, who had provoked Zhong Xingnan first. He had never imagined that the other side would be so ferociously cruel as to maim his son into a helpless wreck.
And to the point where treatment could scarcely mend him.

On the afternoon of the fifth, Lin Fan and his party returned to Hang City by private jet.
The plane was registered under Zhang Yi’s name, and with all the services it had cost five hundred million.

At first Zhang Yi had also objected to his reckless spending, yet Lin Fan had his reasons: he planned to build a girl group later, and would be traveling constantly. A private jet, he said, would make everything much easier.
Zhang Yi had no choice. Lin Fan now stood so high in her heart that whatever he said, she only had to listen.

Still, she had not moved into Lin Fan’s seaside villa.
Before they married, Zhang Yi still wanted her own independent space and freedom.
She feared that if she handed over precious things to Lin Fan too soon, he might not truly cherish them.
Keeping some distance could also keep Lin Fan focused on his “work.”

But for Lin Fan, work was a life of chasing women and spending on them.
The rest he left to Su Heimo to handle.
Su Heimo, in turn, said the workload was too much and she needed someone else to share it.

The day after he returned from leave.

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As usual, Lin Fan went to the office only after noon lunch.
No sooner had he arrived than Shijie came in carrying files.

“Director Lin, the new company at Tianfu Tower is already under renovation. These materials are for you to review… Also, Superstar Media has a press event the day after tomorrow. You and Director Su are invited. The chairman wants to discuss film and television development with you directly. Do you have time?”

Lin Fan pretended to scan the papers, barely looking up as he replied,
“He agreed this quickly? Weren’t they going to think it over first?”

A week earlier, Su Heimo had proposed a plan. Since the purpose of building a girl group was to launch a few superstars, the most effective way to boost publicity was to enter through film and television projects.
The top-ten domestic film companies were too huge. Qiao Xinxin, Miao Tiantian, and the others had no experience at all and were not fit for major-company productions.

Su Heimo had investigated and found that cooperation with Superstar Culture Media—now rising in the web-drama and web-film arena—would work. Relying on a web-novel platform, they could, at the lowest cost, produce productions no weaker than theatrical blockbusters.

Lin Fan approved.
At Su Heimo’s urging, he proposed cooperation to the chairman. The other side said they needed time to consider.
He had never expected it to drag on for more than ten days.
Now, to propose cooperation again all of a sudden—there was plainly something off.

Lin Fan suspected that Chairman Huang might have met with Shijie or Su Qianlong.
The aim was probably either to swindle him of money, or to place two managers inside Xingguang Entertainment, sideline him and Su Heimo, and seize control.

“No problem,” Lin Fan said, as though entirely unsuspecting. “Reply that both Director Su and I will definitely be there to attend and show our support the evening after tomorrow.”

Once Shijie left, Lin Fan immediately sent a message to Director Dai, asking him to investigate Shijie’s movements over the past few days—where he met whom, what he said, everything, without exception.

That evening Lin Fan drove back to the villa.
Soon after he arrived, the system gave a warning:

[Buzz! A person with strong murderous intent toward the host is approaching. Recommend redeeming the Golden Armor item.]

“Strong murderous intent? Could this be a killer?”
This was the first time Lin Fan had heard the system describe someone approaching him that way.

Another reason unsettled him: security at the seaside villa was top-tier. Aside from the owner and family, anyone entering had to undergo questioning and inspection.
Even the maid and driver passed checks each time they came and went, even logging their health status. Calling it top-secret security was no exaggeration.
Yet now someone with murderous intent had gotten in as if slipping in unseen.

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There was only one possibility: the intruder’s identity was most likely that of a hitman.
“Let’s see if he has a gun first,” Lin Fan thought.

He planned to bait him into revealing himself.

The system store had no items to counter a killer, such as firearms, ammo, or trap devices. Only cold weapons—swords, staffs, clubs—were available, and he had not trained in those arts.

First, his talent was still too low; mastering them would take too long, and he did not want to endure that. He might as well redeem the Golden Armor item and defend himself.
Second, he found that style of cold-weapon art impractical and decorative. In the second-tier shop there were far deadlier ancient martial arts. He planned to wait until it opened, then learn those lethal martial arts and inner cultivation methods that could end a life in one move.

After redeeming the Golden Armor card, Lin Fan sat back on the sofa and leisurely watched dramas.

Not long after, his phone sounded with an alert: someone had broken into the villa.
Through the phone camera, he could even see a black-clad figure in a stealth outfit slipping through the rear-garden window into the hall.

Only then did Lin Fan speak, slowly:
“Who sent you here, and how much did they pay you?”

At his words, the black-clad intruder stood frozen, motionless like a statue, staring at Lin Fan.

Seeing the man did not answer, Lin Fan turned without haste.
It was a killer from head to toe in a dark suit, only his eyes visible. Lin Fan sized him up quickly and, noticing he had no gun, was relieved.

That meant the intruder was likely an expert from the external school.

Clearly, the mastermind knew his strength, so this time they had sent an outside-school specialist to kill him.

“So? Seeing me face to face, you’re not afraid, are you? Come over. Sit down.”

Lin Fan smiled and even beckoned the killer with a gesture.

Before, he had never known how formidable external-school experts could be.
These uncanny odd techniques and strange prodigies were things he had never heard of before.
It was while on vacation in Yazhou that he had specially asked the bodyguard beside Wang Silai about it.
Only then did he learn the difference between external-school and internal-school masters.

External-school experts rely chiefly on hard-force practice, valuing body toughness and agility above all. They move with sharp precision, command a full range of arts, and can kill without warning.