The long, deserted corridor was eerily quiet, enough to unsettle the heart. This whole floor had been cleared out. As soon as Yun Ya appeared, a man dressed in a suit and leather shoes came forward respectfully, "Please follow me." At the entrance of the stairwell, a man leaning against the wall, tall and straight in stature, was lazily puffing on a cigarette. Within the swirling smoke, the man’s features seemed even more handsome and coldly aloof. Hearing footsteps, the man raised his eyebrows and looked over, his deep blue eyes emitting a thin, cool glow. "If anything goes wrong with the surgery, you will pay with your life," he warned. His tone was light, yet brimming with murderous intent. Yun Ya smiled, "In my dictionary, there are no words for ’failure.’ The man stubbed out his cigarette, tossing it accurately into a trash bin, and walked up to Yun Ya, towering over her with an overwhelming sense of oppression—Yun Ya’s smile unchanged as she took a small step back. "Then I shall, for the moment, place my trust in you; I hope Dr. Nyx does not disappoint me," he said. With that, he walked away. Yun Ya had just turned the corner when she suddenly heard a piercing scream. The shrill sound was especially startling in the quiet hallway. A disheveled woman ran out of a room barefoot, as if being pursued by a ferocious beast, with two men in black indeed chasing after her. Seeing the man, her eyes lit up, and she ran swiftly towards him. "Ah Yan, Ah Yan, I regret it, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to leave you..." She cried bitterly, collapsing at the man’s feet. Before she could cling to his leg, she was kicked to the ground by his long leg. She got up and, undeterred, crawled towards him again. Yun Ya had never seen a woman cry so pitifully and wretchedly, and even she couldn’t help but feel a twinge in her nose. "Ah Yan... let’s find another donor. There are so many people in the world; we can definitely find a suitable heart, right? I don’t want to leave you..." she pleaded. Yun Ya stood quietly behind Nangong Yan, watching. The two men in black caught up, pinning the woman’s arms one on each side as she struggled like a trapped animal, gazing at him with eyes filled with both desperation and hope. The man walked towards her with measured steps. He moved slowly, his footsteps clear in the silent hallway, pressing down on the heart like the tolling of a heavy bell. He crouched down, tilted her chin up with one hand, his gaze cool and distant upon her face, while with the other hand he tenderly wiped the tears from her cheeks, with the gentleness of a lover. Her eyes instantly brightened: "Ah Yan... you don’t want me to die either, do you?" "Xuexue, this is what you owe Brother. If you can go to the operating table calmly, at least you’ll leave a decent impression in my heart, rather than screaming and shouting like a madwoman." His soft murmurs were full of seductive undertones, and the woman, slightly stunned, looked at the handsome face so close to hers with a near mesmerized gaze. "Only if Brother lives can you redeem your sins. After your death, each year on this day, I will burn a bit more ritual money for you..." The man stood up and took a step back. His cold lips curved into an icy smile: "Take her away." The two men dragged the woman away, her legs scraping against the floor. Her eyes remained firmly locked on him, filled with a desperate and insane flame. "No... Ah Yan, you can’t do this to me... you can’t do this to me..." she cried out. Her mouth was then abruptly covered by the men in black, who forcefully dragged her away. Nangong Yan pulled out a cigarette case, took a cigarette between his fingers, put it in his mouth, and was about to light it when a girl’s voice, clear as the sound of jade beads falling onto a plate, rang out from behind him. "She didn’t volunteer for this." Nangong Yan’s fingers stalled, and he turned his head with a dangerously narrowed gaze. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ N0v3l.Fiɾe.net "Are you having second thoughts?" Yun Ya met his gaze without flinching, her demeanor not the least bit inferior. "I am a doctor, and I have my principles," she stated evenly, with neither humility nor arrogance. "Do you understand what you’re saying?" he asked. Yun Ya smiled gently, "Nyx is a doctor who heals the injured and saves the dying. Her scalpel is meant to save lives, not to take them, but..." Her tone shifted in mid-sentence. "Right now, I am not Nyx. How about we make a deal?" she proposed. Nangong Yan’s lips curled into a smirk, his eyes lingering on her face: "Interesting." Yun Ya tilted her chin up slightly, her eyes icy, exuding a ruthless air. "I am the assassin you hired. The deal is fair, payment for services rendered," she stated plainly. "Oh? And what do you want?" Yun Ya turned around, looking out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the bright sunlight outside, and said indifferently, "Swear on your family and your loved ones, and promise me one condition."