In the early 21st century, China passed through the most difficult dawn period of reform and opening up. After experiencing a series of historical upheavals, China naturally welcomed a period of rapid development.
All of China was like a wound-up precision machine of enormous scale, beginning to operate frantically.
The open market environment and inflowing foreign investment released unprecedented imaginative space for ordinary people at every level.
On a certain street in C City, S Province, a ten-year-old boy emerged from his home's backyard, discarded the toy in his hands, and ran at full speed through the dark alley.
In the night sky ahead, under the weak streetlight illumination, an agile and light body swept past like a superhero from the movies.
Running into another dead end, the little boy finally lost his target and sat on the ground with a crying voice, as if losing the chance to talk with a superhero had made his life permanently gray.
"Hehe, little child, aren't you tired from chasing after me?"
An ice cream fell from the sky, landing right on the little boy's disheveled clothes. At the same time, a mature female voice also descended from above.
"Wow! Superhero sister!"
The little boy finally saw the other's figure and face clearly, his small face flushed with excitement: "Superhero sister, can you be my master? I want to be a superhero too!"
The beautiful woman was stunned, then burst into laughter, laughing with charming grace.
"Little child, don't you think that besides superheroes, monsters can also fly in the sky?"
The beautiful woman crouched beside the little boy with narrowed, smiling eyes.
"Monsters wouldn't give me ice cream!"
The little boy looked serious, as if this kind of logic for fooling children was beneath his consideration.
The beautiful woman stood up and turned to look in a certain direction. There was the little boy's home—the residence of the head of Zhong Pharmaceutical Group, which was beginning to show prominence in S Province and even nationally.
The beautiful woman showed a mysterious smile, reached out to pat the little boy's head, her expression gradually becoming peaceful: "Alright... from now on, you can call me master. Remember my name—I'm called Wan Yue, the wan from 'winding' and the yue from 'moon.' You must keep it a secret!"
The little boy quickly nodded, his face full of excitement.
...
...
June 15th, Saturday.
In the office building, most companies were closed for the weekend, but a certain office on the 27th floor still had its doors wide open.
Zhong Jing habitually stayed here, ordering takeout when hungry and lying down in the adjacent rest room when tired.
Playing games, surfing the internet, going to bars, engaging in keyboard politics, and doing some work that ordinary people couldn't imagine.
A sexy, tall figure quietly appeared at the doorway, silently watching the young man battling behind the large desk in the depths of the room, showing a slight smile.
"Sorry, this company is closed today! Please close the door, thank you!"
Sensing someone approaching, Zhong Jing didn't even lift his head and coldly uttered this sentence.
"Mm, then I'll come back Monday, little child." The woman smiled slightly and turned to leave.
"Ah?" Zhong Jing's hands stopped, slowly raised his head, then stood up with a somewhat embarrassed expression: "Master, why did you come..."
"You call me eight times a week, so my coming once is surprising?"
Wan Yue wore a black fashionable Chinese-style horse-face skirt, charming and elegant. No matter how much her clothing style varied, it couldn't erase her inherent sexy allure and proud, cold temperament.
Wan Yue walked to the corner and lazily sat leaning against the sofa, lighting a cigarette with a snap, smiling as she looked at the room's furnishings: "Staying cooped up here every day, yet you never tire of it."
"I’m doing the most mysterious and exciting work in the world—what's there to be dissatisfied with? You've entrusted the most important affairs to me, so naturally I must be serious!"
Serving Wan Yue a glass of wine, Zhong Jing smiled and pulled up a chair to sit across from the sofa, his usual cynical expression much reduced.
Before him was his guide into the mysterious world. Although the words "master" sounded more like playing house, and Wan Yue had never called him "disciple" or "student," Zhong Jing greatly enjoyed this identity of being between the normal human and Blood Clan worlds.
"This time... you came for those two people?"
Looking at her figure and appearance that hadn't changed in over ten years, Zhong Jing lowered his voice.
"Them? They're the people Huang Gu and you are interested in. I was actually led by the nose by you two for a while. However, my luck might really be quite good..."
Wan Yue savored the expensive wine. After a brief moment of intoxicated enjoyment, her gaze gradually became sharp, staring into Zhong Jing's eyes with deliberately slow speech: "Fifteen years ago, overseas Blood Clan forces sent something into the country under the pretext of animal organ tissue extraction agent materials, which then entered your family's Zhong Pharmaceutical Group.
"That thing recently appeared with the Tang Family, but these old turtles were finished just after showing their faces. Can you find relevant information from that time?"
Zhong Jing was first stunned, then slowly stood up, pacing back and forth in the room. His expression changed from surprise to silence, then to indifference, and finally he smiled: "Master, have you been waiting for this day all along, including bringing me into the Blood Clan world?
"What you're talking about should be the Tang Family in D City being besieged by the Shadow Arrow Force, right? Huang Gu was arranged by you to D City ten years ago, probably also to secretly investigate the Tang Family."
Wan Yue finished the wine she had been sipping, her face flushed with a red glow, smiling even more charmingly: "The little child from back then has grown up. These questions—you didn't just think of them today, did you?"
"You've always suspected my father's company also has connections with the Blood Clan world, starting from fifteen years ago, then you chose me thirteen years ago."
Zhong Jing frowned, his voice very low: "You even understand my big brother's identity deeply and have hinted to me... So what exactly am I?"
Looking at the young man before her who had accepted so many of her secrets, Wan Yue felt her choice back then was very correct.
The bond between this young man and herself wasn't a child's whim, nor was it simply a product of her having certain purposes, but rather his bones contained an irrepressible thirst for knowledge about mystery and excitement.
Zhong Jing poured himself a drink, downed it in one gulp, sat back in his chair, and stared intently at his former superhero sister, now his ambiguously real master: "This is the first time in over ten years you've made a request of me. From the moment three years ago when you handed all the secrets here to me, I've been waiting.
"People like me—there are probably quite a few in this world, right? Between the Blood Clan world and the normal human world, in many cases, a connecting link is needed. Though they seem to have opposed each other for thousands of years, they actually depend on each other and need proxy agents to exist in each other's worlds."
Facing Zhong Jing's almost interrogative attitude, Wan Yue smiled and nodded, then shook her head: "What you're describing are called brokers. There are indeed many worldwide, but they're just proxy agents for mutual benefit exchange between two worlds. You're not that. You're the warrior I chose."
A flash of shock passed through Zhong Jing's eyes, then disappeared, but he didn't respond.
"Little child, why did you want to be a superhero when you were small? I remember you said you wanted to defeat all the bad people in the world..."
Wan Yue walked to the corner, stroking the tender shoots of green plants with surprisingly calm and gentle tone: "Then let me tell you, when the evil of the normal human world and the evil of the Blood Clan world might merge together someday, who should defeat them?"
"Brother Huang and Brother Zhao have told me some things. You left the Hermit Alliance twenty years ago, so you should have had today's direction back then."
Zhong Jing slowly nodded, a trace of self-mockery appearing at the corner of his mouth: "But I was different over ten years ago. A child's world is always simple—good and evil must be clearly placed before them to choose.
"Yes, in the adult world, good and evil are always hard to distinguish. So in this matter, I must go alone because there are too many unclear things. To achieve my goal, I used decades of connections to establish the secret resources you now control, and those you don't yet control.
"So, little child, do you still want to defeat all the bad people in the world? Just like a superhero."
Wan Yue turned around, slowly walked before the young man, looked down quietly at his face, and that proud aura burst forth from her body again.
Zhong Jing also slowly stood up. After a long moment, he gently nodded: "These years, I could see that you, Huang Gu, and Zhao Peng helped some ordinary people who were blood-infected avoid becoming real monsters, maintaining human dignity even in death. From the day I started calling you master, I was already a warrior."
"I just love how you little children look when you praise me, haha!"
Wan Yue actually showed a trace of girlish attitude, then burst into loud laughter, turning toward the door.
"Master, sixty years ago, before you were blood-infected, what was your identity? I've always been curious."
Zhong Jing called out to Wan Yue who was about to leave.
"Sixty years ago... would you believe me if I said I was Shadow Arrow Force?"
After speaking, Wan Yue's figure disappeared, leaving only the dumbfounded young man.