Her body’s ingrained instincts, honed over years, couldn’t comprehend this. Her body might react faster than her mind, so she dared not know, terrified of harming her true family.
Thus, she could only feign indifference. Only then could she claim to have never had any family from beginning to end.
Yet, subconsciously, she still felt she should meet her relatives. This was the true, deep-seated unwillingness within her heart.
The meticulously prepared banquet was not just a perfect curtain call for her life, but a flamboyant declaration to the world: she had been here, and she had departed in glory.
Xingyuan smiled, her voice firm, "But I care, so will you accompany me to take a look?"
"Just to look. I simply want to know what kind of people they are. Neither of us will disturb their lives. Don't you agree?"
The resistance in her body weakened, and the lingering wisp of consciousness retreated, clearly agreeing with Xingyuan's words. She too wished to see her relatives.
No matter where they were, or if they cared about her as their child, she wanted to see them one last time.
Xingyuan gently curved her lips, lightly patting her chest, and continued her search online.
Although the human trafficker was likely to be wanted, it was not impossible that he had slipped through the net.
However, Xingyuan stood up, casually took a baseball cap from the wardrobe, and put it on. She was going out to see.
She had never had her photo taken, but with the internet so advanced now, if her relatives had posted a missing person notice online, she had a high chance of finding them this way.
She hadn't had plastic surgery, so finding people using her current appearance and sketching her childhood likeness should be no problem.
Soon, Xingyuan, holding a freshly drawn portrait, left the small stall.
She input the portrait data and conducted a network-wide analysis. Although it would take a long time and be extremely troublesome, Xingyuan didn't mind the wait.
The processing power of a single computer was too low, and her mercenary organization also had its own hackers with extremely advanced techniques.
So, she directly used her authority as the organization's leader to temporarily commandeer those high-efficiency computer equipment. Each computer was responsible for sifting through data from different regions, and then deriving the final correct results based on the information she provided.
Therefore, after meeting those who knew her whereabouts, Xingyuan directly took up residence at their headquarters.
The headquarters was located in a war-torn region, where there were no rules. If there were any, it was the rule of the fist.
Whoever had the stronger fist could claim a foothold here.
As a result, even national governments dared not send troops to clear them out, hence it was also known as the country of madmen.
After years of effort, they had established a firm footing and built relatively friendly relationships with two of the local organizations.
For rapid development, this mercenary legion was split into two parts: one was pure military force, building prestige through bloodshed; the other was "merchants," responsible for logistics and fundraising. Currently, things were quite harmonious.
But no one knew how long this harmony would last. They looked down on each other yet had to maintain a superficial peace, and everyone knew why.
They called their leader "Shura." No matter who they looked down upon, they remained loyal to their leader.
However, very few people truly knew what Shura looked like.
Although Xingyuan wished to maintain the secrecy rules of an assassin, too many people had seen her since she joined the mercenary group. She couldn't deceive them, so she simply eliminated a batch. The remaining ones were either trustworthy veterans or subordinates she controlled through various means.
Xingyuan held a small knife, peeling fruit, and lazily looked at the man tied up tightly before her, sneering, "What, you don't even know how to deal with a traitor now?"
"Boss, he leaked information outside. This batch of goods is worth a hundred million US dollars. Even if we chop him up, we can't recover our losses!" someone kicked the kneeling man resentfully, his eyes full of unwillingness.
Xingyuan walked over slowly. She stopped three steps away from the kneeling Huan Yuan, her eyes flashing with sharp coldness, and said with a smile:
"Tsk! Huan Yuan, don't you plan to save your precarious little life?"
"Pah!" Huan Yuan snorted coldly, craned his neck, and said with backbone, "Kill me or skin me, as you please!"
As soon as Huan Yuan finished speaking, he was violently kicked to the ground by someone beside him, who said angrily, "Who allowed you to speak to the boss like that?"
"How pathetic!" Xingyuan chuckled lightly, playing with the small knife in her hand. Then, it accidentally fell into Huan Yuan's hand, instantly piercing it.
Xingyuan pulled out the knife and wiped the blood on Huan Yuan, saying perfunctorily, "My hand slipped! So sorry."
"Huan Yuan, you know me. I don't mind if you tamper with a transaction or try to gain some personal profit. However, such a huge loss, how do you plan to compensate me?"
"I spit! Your goods have harmed countless people. For money, do you have no bottom line?" Huan Yuan said fiercely.
"Bottom line? Can that give us money? Besides, aren't we all desperadoes? If we had a bottom line, we'd have died long ago." Zhang Yan, standing nearby, kicked him hard, repeatedly grinding his toe on his back, forcing him to stay prone.
Xingyuan also laughed. She truly hadn't expected that there would be such a fool among her subordinates. It was truly absurd, like a mother of absurdity giving birth to absurdity, taking absurdity to the extreme.
Xingyuan didn't want to say more. She waved her hand and ordered, "Drag him away. Find out who bribed him. Deal with him according to the old rules."
"Boss, do we even need to investigate? It must be those cops. They come here every few days, trying to brainwash the brothers. If you ask me! We should just clear out those people again. They're all so arrogant. We don't *need* them." Zhang Yan complained.
"Now is a time when we need people. The truly useful ones are closely watched by those cops, making it hard for us to get them. Once they're no longer useful, we can..." Qi Ying quickly pulled Zhang Yan, who had lost his composure.
"Alright, stop singing each other's praises here." Xingyuan frowned irritably, picked up a cigarette, and lit it.
After calming her emotions, Xingyuan said calmly, "I've told you to handle these matters. I only want the results. As long as it's not too excessive, I won't interfere."
"Yes, boss." Qi Ying nodded, a deeply hidden admiration in his eyes.