Trian had joined the federal army when he was young and had gone through the selection process of the Seal Assault Team, but was eliminated in the last round.
After fighting on the battlefield for several years, Trian was forced to leave the army due to mental health issues, and having quickly spent all his savings upon returning to the Federation, he switched careers through a referral to become an assassin who earned money by taking hit jobs.
Luo An Greenwood, from the FBI in Washington D.C., was a well-known leader of a specialized investigative unit, with excellent case-solving abilities, formidable combat skills, and an outstanding counter-surveillance awareness. For an assassin, he was a target of high difficulty.
At first, Trian didn't plan to take on this job. Over the years, he had completed numerous orders and killed many people. He didn't care whether his victims were innocent; all he knew was that the luxury cars he drove, the gourmet foods he ate, the…fine cars he could afford, were all attained with the heads of these people.
And that's why Trian always kept a respectful distance from the federal law enforcement, as he hadn't had enough of the luxurious life yet.
However, in the end, Trian still took the Luo An Greenwood job.
On one hand, the client's request this time was not to kill, but to track; on the other hand… the client had offered too much, and Trian was somewhat shy and not very skilled at refusing others' kindness.
This morning, when he received the call to end the surveillance, Trian was stunned for a moment before asking the client whether he should just kill Luo An Greenwood.
There were two reasons Trian asked this; first, if surveillance paid this much, killing Luo An would definitely fetch even more money from the client.
Secondly, Trian had been tracking Luo An Greenwood for a month, and Luo An didn't show any signs of aberration.
This suggested that Luo An Greenwood's capabilities were just so-so, and the title of "the most outstanding investigative unit leader" might just be blown out of proportion by some FBI higher-up, which was something Trian had seen a lot in the army.
Based on his surveillance experience over these days, Trian judged that killing Luo An Greenwood might be somewhat troublesome but not incredibly difficult; this contract was doable.
In the end, the client refused the suggestion, which pissed Trian off a bit, but after cursing Luo An Greenwood's damn good luck, he drove off from Wall Street; he wouldn't kill anyone without someone paying first.
Tracking someone is a very physically and mentally demanding task, and Trian was exhausted this month; once the task ended and the money was deposited, he immediately checked into an upscale hotel and called over four young and pretty female models with excellent figures and skilled techniques to give him a massage.
After a session lasting more than three hours, Trian was even more weary.
Leaving the hotel and driving back to a villa, Trian lay on the bed and fell asleep as soon as his eyes closed.
He slept so deeply that by the time Trian woke up, it was already 4:30 the next morning.
"That long-haired model yesterday was really something, I heard she's a college student at some New York University, working part-time..."
Lying in bed, Trian smacked his lips and carefully savored the memory for a while, letting out a few strange laughs, took a sip of water, threw off the covers, and prepared to get up and wash.
"..."
Just as he sat up, Trian suddenly froze and then slowly lowered his head to look at the water glass in his hand.
He remembered that he went straight to sleep after coming home yesterday; he hadn't poured himself any water.
Thud—
A chill raced up his spine to the back of his head, and Trian's hairs stood on end. He violently threw the glass and rapidly rolled out of bed onto the floor while his right hand reached under the bedside table for the handgun he always kept hidden there for emergencies.
His hand touched nothing!
Trian, who was initially groggy from sleep and could hardly open his eyes, now had his eyes wide open, and beads of cold sweat slid down as he quickly moved to the wardrobe and opened the secret compartment.
The compartment contained only a small dagger, the other handgun that should have been there had vanished without a trace.
"Fu-k!"
Trian whispered a curse, his scalp tingling, and took a deep breath to suppress the panic rising from the depths of his heart. Gripping the dagger, every muscle in his body tensed, and he cautiously moved step by step out of the bedroom.
There was nobody in the living room. Trian turned to look towards the kitchen and his pupils contracted sharply, because there, beside the dining table, stood a silhouette all too familiar to him.
At the dining table, Luo An, dressed in a black tracksuit, was tapping away at Trian's laptop, next to which lay Trian's pistol.
Seeing that the other party had noticed him, Luo An looked up and smiled:
"Good morning, Mr. Trian. I saw you slept soundly last night, so I didn't want to disturb you. Sorry."
"..."
By now, cold sweat had completely soaked Trian's back. His mind raced through a multitude of possibilities. After a few seconds of silence, he swallowed and, clutching the dagger in his hand, asked:
"Did you discover I was following you a long time ago?"
Luo An did not reply, just smiled and nodded.
A jolt went through Trian's heart, and he continued to ask:
"Then why did you only come for me now?"
With his hands spread, Luo An smiled and countered:
"What do you think?"
As long as a month ago, after having dinner with Morgan and Edward, and leaving that private club, Luo An had detected someone tailing him based on the "emotional perception" in his mind.
Luo An wasn't surprised by this, because this was the outcome he desired.
When he initially investigated the truth behind the deaths of his father, Charles, and mother, Beverly, and came up with nothing, Luo An realized that there was probably much more to it than meets the eye.
At that time, Luo An had no clues at all, aside from knowing the waters ran deep. He couldn't do anything and had no option but to choose a slow investigation.
A month ago, when the real mastermind behind the "Deputy Governor heart transplant assassination case," Joseph, appeared and indicated that he had a good relationship with Luo An's father, Charles, Luo An realized the opportunity to solve the case had come.
Joseph was wealthy and a high-profile figure in the Federation; he certainly knew a lot of information, and likewise, it meant many people knew his information.
There certainly had to be someone who knew about the friendship between Joseph and Charles.
As Charles' son, Luo An seized upon Joseph, and to uncover the truth and seek revenge, he would inquire about Charles.
How much Joseph actually knew, the mastermind behind the murder of Charles might not be aware, and at this point, the mastermind had only three options:
Send someone to kill Luo An; or to kill Joseph; or to wipe out both of them.
Luo An was waiting for exactly this, waiting for the mastermind to send someone to kill him, because without anyone coming for him, he, with no clues in hand, wouldn't be able to continue the investigation.
For this reason, he went to the temporary detention prison conspicuously and without any attempt to hide.
The next day Luo An went to the private club again, and did not express approval or disapproval of Morgan's suggestion to use Gold Coins to post a reward inside the club, seeking clues to the truth behind Charles' death.
Luo An couldn't be sure at that time whether there were any spies of the mastermind in the club who had killed his father, Charles.
After realizing that Trian had emerged and begun to follow him, Luo An was very happy. He temporarily put aside the Ten Million Dollars transferred by Morgan.
Luo An had thought that Trian would take action at that time, and that night he deliberately slept with Mona.
But Trian didn't make a move at all, and over the next period of time, it was always just following, with no intention of taking any action.
This made Luo An realize that his PlanA had failed.
But Luo An wasn't panicked; he still had PlanB to PlanZ.