White Roses Dyed Blood Red

Earlier that Day

Zhang Wenshi

While they waited for their lunch, Zhang Maorong watched as his sister hid from his friend's friend, Li Long Ao. He watched as Li Long Ao made his way to the end of the line.

"Order 59!" Hearing their order being called out, Zhang Maorong smirked, a villainess idea pieced together in his head.

One look at her brother and Zhang Wenshi could immediately tell that her brother was up to no good. She could identify that devilish smirk anywhere.

Her eyes narrowed at the corners as she watched her brother stand up to retrieve their orders.

"Hey!" Sh*t, "Zhang Maorong, what are you doing here?" She inwardly g.r.o.a.n.e.d at her horrible luck.

"I'm having lunch," Thank the heavens, her brother did not rat her out like the rat that he was.

"Is your sister here?" She felt her palms begin to sweat as she 'tried,' to look casual by scrolling away on her phone, while praying for her brother not to tattle.

"Yeah, she's over there," Why this little f-, "Wenshi! Your boyfriend is here too!" This brat is going to get a good beating.

She smiled and made her way over to the pair of boys, "First of all, Long Ao is not my boyfriend, and hi,"

A flash of disappointment appeared in Long Ao's eyes then determination filled them to the brim, "I'm not her boyfriend yet," he said, emphasizing the 'Yet,'

A dangerous glint emerged from Zhang Maorong's eyes.

"Why don't you join us for lunch," Long Ao smiled.

Zhang Maorong shrugged and replied, "Ok," before heading in the direction of the group of boisterous boys.

"You're not going with him?"

She thought about it and said, "I'll stay...with you," He smiled a dazzling smile.

"65!"

"That's us," Zhang Wenshi hopped to the counter and grabbed two trays.

"Yup, that's us alright," Long Ao laughed when he saw his Wenshi attempting to balance 5 trays on her arms and head. He took three and made his way to his table.

"I have to go get my stuff, I'll be right back," declared Wenshi.

"I'll get them, your food will get cold, sit," He pushed her down into an empty seat and placed her noodles in front of her. "Eat up,"

"En, thank you," She watched him leave before turning back to her beef glass noodles.

"Oh ho ho ho, who do we have here?" Remarked an unfamiliar boy. He was one of Long Ao's friends that she had yet to meet. Dark eyes, messy hair, blond and piercings.

"Touch my sister and your dead," Zhang Maorong's voice was dead cold.

"Parker, I'm from America," The boy, Parker, pretended to ignore her brother's threat, but it didn't take a superhuman to the sweat on his forehead.

What a wimp.

"Nice to meet you," He grabbed hold of her spoon hand and gave a light kiss.

"This little piece of-,"

"Shit,"

Before her brother could finish his sentence, Long Ao was already there and ready to pounce.

"Hold these please," He hands her stuff to Maorong carefully.

_______________________

Sheng Rong

_______________________

"Hi, can I come in?"

. . .

"Y-you- What are you doing here?" Sheng Rong pointed her finger at the other in disbelief.

"Jian Nu told me about the meeting I have a few theories to share," Hu Angli scratch the back of his neck, it wasn't hard for him to detect the resentment coming from Sheng Rong. "I'm guessing Ge- Song Gebao told you,"

"You bet she did,"

Sheng Rong glared at the guy while he struggled to find a way to mend the situation.

All of a sudden, the sound of a car door being shut was heard, followed by a few inaudible words.

. . . . .

Yaorui

Yaorui stepped out of the warmth of the car and into the winter air, shutting the door behind her.

"Thank you, Uncle Tang, have a good evening!" She said through the open passenger seat window.

"You don't need me to pick you up?"

"I'll call you if it isn't too late,"

"Well then, I'll be on my way, have a good night,"

"You too, goodbye,"

She backed away from the car and watched as her racer chauffeur performed a trick then sped away. She rubbed her arms then turned around only to meet eyes with the very person she did not wish to see.

"Why are you here?" She glared at the handsome boy.

'He got skinnier,' she thought, 'What are you doing? Snap out of it? Me worrying about him, impossible!' Yaorui scolded herself silently.

Hu Angli watched the myriad of emotions through her eyes.

While observing her, he noticed that her weight had diminished, and her chubby cheeks had begun to hollow out, revealing her cheekbones just the slightest. He was happy to see that the eye bags underneath her eyes were gone, though.

"Let him in, let's see what he has to say," Yaorui walked passed both of them and into the warmth of Sheng Rong's unit.

Sheng Rong sneered, turn and left with the door still open.

Walking into the living room, Hu Angli was met with a warm sight. Everybody was there, together, no one was fighting or arguing, nobody was talking either. They were all doing their own little things alone together.

"Hey, man! You made it," Mu Jian Nu came up and gave him a hug.

"You didn't tell me you were friends with this bastard," Angli felt his friend tense up. "What else did you not tell me?"

"N-nothing,"

"He's on the blacklist," Yaorui said, casually unpacking her bag.

"Why?"

"Brought the first year liar to the table,"

"The fake? Like the one that died?"

"That's the one," Sheng Rong looked at Mu Jian Nu with a newfound hatred.

"She deserved it, her future wasn't going to be any better, the sooner, the better.

"Why do you hate Angli?" Mu Jian Nu looked at them, confused.

"He put Yaorui's family in a coma," Gebao announced in a frighteningly icy voice.

The room turned silent, Mu Jian Nu looked at him with wide eyes while the rest excluding Yaorui gave him accusing glares.

Hu Angli wasn't bothered much with their resentful glare, it was his future wife's sorrowful eyes, that made him uneasy. She wasn't even looking at him, it was as if he was the problem, the problem she wanted to avoid.

'Relax,' he told himself, 'She'll forgive you when she learns the truth,'

"It wasn't me," The glares continued, "And I know how to prove it,"

"You'll go last," And with that, everyone turned back to face whatever they were doing before the stare down.

"Aaaaaaand we're up!" Gebao exclaimed. The TV lit up showcasing five different screens at once.

"What are you waiting for, Angli? Get hooked up," Mu Jian Nu cheered him on before scurrying to Sheng Rong's side, anxious to be in her good books.

After plugging in and connecting to the TV, Hu Angli took a seat next to Yaorui. He knew he probably shouldn't have done that, but it was better than having to see her hateful gaze.

"Who's first?" Yaorui asked.

Ran Jiexu raised his hand, "That would be me," A picture of the crime scene popped up on the screen.

Jiexu zoomed in on the corner where the code A0AA was found.

"You know how the guy,"

"Chen Hao,"

"Yeah, that guy, mentioned something about galaxies, well I did some digging, and it didn't take very long to find out but," Ran Jiexu pulled up a photo of a galaxy, "This is the biggest galaxy that we know of, the name is..."

"1011," Sheng Rong whispered.

"Exactly, as we know, the letter A is the first letter in the alphabet, my theory is that whoever did this, is not human. Then there is also this," Ran Jiexu zoomed in on another spot.

"The roman numerals," Gebao said.

"19, 1, 13, 21, 5, 12, 1, 14," Hu Angli recited.

"Samuel An," Yaorui looked at the screen wide eyed.

"Samuel maybe whoever the murderer 's central target,"

____________________________

City center

A dark figure corched behind the wall of a parkade with a sniper in hand.

His job?

To bring back the target dead or alive.

His target was a man in his late twenties who should be attending a birthday banquet.

He was a top-grade assassin who never let down his guard. If he failed to shot the target, he had already messed with the brakes of his car. Granted, if both did not succeed, the various bombs in his headquarter company and his house would surely do the job, if not? Then a simple kidnapping will do.

The assassin ridiculed the poor man. He shouldn't have offended the wrong person.

But then again, wasn't it a good thing the idiotic man did? If he hadn't offended his employer, then he wouldn't be offered a 2 billion dollar award!

Right on cue, the tall doors opened up, revealing the very man that was destined to die.

"Bye, bye, pretty boy," He sneered.

*BANG*