Chapter 1: August 9th

Shen Tong held her breath, pressing tightly against the stone wall. Below her was a bottomless abyss, and one misstep would mean certain death.

"Xin Liu, I know you're hiding down there. You understand our rules, right? We're comrades, you don't want to make things difficult for us, do you?" Shen Tong heard Xin Wu's voice.

Accompanying Xin Wu were members of the Bing group.

A few days ago, the Third Prince Zhou Zheng led a patrol to inspect the Yellow River flood, and the three groups, Jia, Ding, and Xin, sent out twenty assassins. It was the most brutal battle Shen Tong had experienced since officially becoming an assassin.

That day, they were fully prepared, but they never expected that the person sitting in the carriage was not the Third Prince Zhou Zheng, but Xiao Ren!

The other side was well-prepared and set a trap, allowing them to walk right into it.

At this moment, Shen Tong recalled the moment when Xiao Ren moved the tip of his sword away from her chest with a smirk that was not quite a smile.

"I'm not killing you because I don't kill women, but because I have no need to kill a dead person."

Yes, Xiao Ren had already seen through it. Even if he spared her, she would still die.

Not by Xiao Ren's sword, but by the order of their master.

At that moment, in Xiao Ren's eyes, she was already a dead person.

From the day she was brought back, her life was no longer her own. She was an assassin. From the age of eight to eighteen, she had only done two things: preparing to become an assassin and being a qualified assassin.

After escaping from Xiao Ren, Shen Tong found Jia Er, who was barely alive in a pile of dead bodies. She wanted to escape with him, but Jia Er smiled at her and said, "Good girl, give me a quick and painless death, please."

Without hesitation, she raised her knife and stabbed Jia Er in the chest. Jia Er looked at her gratefully and said intermittently, "Thank you... escape... don't... go back..."

In that battle, out of the twenty assassins, only she and Xin Shi from the Xin group survived. Xin Shi wanted to go back, but she hesitated. Xin Shi coldly said to her, "Our lives are given by the master. It is a great honor to die at the hands of the master."

They were assassins, their lives were as lowly as dust, they didn't even have names, only numbers. Every mission they undertook came at the cost of their lives. If they won, the opponent would die; if they lost, death awaited them. Even if the enemy spared their lives, the master would not let them go.

Every failure was a crisis for the master, so they couldn't leave a living witness, even if they were just assassins who only knew how to kill.

Shen Tong's ears echoed Jia Er's words before he died. She knew that going back would mean death, but Xin Shi would definitely reveal that she was still alive. If she wanted to survive, she should kill Xin Shi, but Shen Tong couldn't do it. She was injured and couldn't deliver a fatal blow. Instead of fighting Xin Shi to the death, she chose to conserve her strength and run in the opposite direction.

But Shen Tong was still found.

It wasn't because her means of escape were not clever enough, but because the people sent to hunt her down included members of the Bing group and the person most familiar with her, Xin Wu from the Xin group.

Xin Wu entered three days before her. In the Xin group, Xin Wu and she were the only women, so they had been best friends, like sisters, since childhood. Three months ago, Xin Wu was sent on another mission, and Shen Tong didn't expect that when they met again, Xin Wu would be there to kill her.

Shen Tong didn't blame Xin Wu. Xin Wu was just following orders. If it had been Xin Wu who escaped today, she would have followed orders to pursue and kill her.

They were just tools in the hands of the master, a tool like a knife that didn't deserve to have emotions and a life.

Two years ago, when she and Xin Wu were on a mission, they accidentally discovered this place. At that time, she had joked that this place was the most suitable for hiding...

Shen Tong smiled bitterly. Everyone knew that she and Xin Wu were close friends, so that's why Xin Wu was sent to kill her. If she didn't die today, then Xin Wu would have.

Shen Tong gritted her teeth, took a deep breath, and suddenly leaped up, grabbing the stone wall with both hands, exposing herself completely.

She looked up and saw Xin Wu in her sturdy outfit. Xin Wu's face was pale, and her cold eyes looked down at Shen Tong. At that moment, they were not comrades, not sisters, but hunter and prey.

There was no emotion in Xin Wu's voice as she looked down at Shen Tong. "Xin Liu, you can't escape. You've never been my match, and there are also members of the Bing group. If you don't want to suffer, you should end it yourself."

"What about Xin Shi?" Shen Tong asked.

"Dead," Xin Wu said flatly.

"He's only eighteen, isn't he?" Shen Tong sighed.

"So are you." In the Xin group, Xin Wu, Xin Shi, and she were the same age. They were all orphans, not knowing where their hometown or parents were, and not even knowing their own birthdays, so their ages were not exact.

"Today is the ninth day of the eighth month. It will be my death anniversary from now on. I finally have a day of my own. It's nice," Shen Tong smiled.

"Yes, the ninth day of the eighth month is a good day. I'll remember it," Xin Wu finally looked away from Shen Tong and looked up at the clear blue sky.

The sky was clear, with no clouds, only a lone goose flying.

Shen Tong also looked up at the sky. It turned out that the blue sky was so beautiful, but she had never paid attention to it before...

Xin Wu leaned down and reached out her hand. Shen Tong raised her arm and reached up to grab Xin Wu's hand, struggling to reach it. Xin Wu reached out and held her hand.

Two hands tightly held on the cliff.

Shen Tong smiled again, her smile was beautiful, like a newly blooming flower bud, struggling to leave behind a final touch of charm in the wind and rain.

Xin Wu also smiled, and as he did, he let go of their clasped hands.

Shen Tong spread her arms, her scarred body falling like a broken kite off the cliff.

The mountain wind howled, tossing Shen Tong's long hair into the air, dancing in the wind.

This was what it felt like to fall, so long, so long that it made her remember many things, those long-forgotten memories unfolding in her mind, as if from another lifetime.

She remembered the small courtyard filled with wisteria, her mother sewing under the flower trellis. She would run to her mother, who scolded her while gently wiping the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief.

At that moment, a maid led someone over, it was Rongniang, who used to be her mother's maid.

Rongniang knelt before her mother, who gestured for the maid to take her away.

As she left, she saw a little girl standing outside, looking frightened, like a startled deer.

The girl was about her age, and she curiously looked at the girl, who was also looking at her...

Now, thinking back, the girl's face seemed familiar, who was she, why couldn't she remember?

What happened after that? There was no time to think about it, not in this life...

... There was the sound of the wind, the chirping of birds, and Shen Tong's figure grew smaller and smaller, eventually becoming a tiny black dot, disappearing from sight.

August 9th, the first day that belonged to her.