A Little Pickpocketing, Then I Found a Top Assassin

Song Zhao, a fifth-class citizen of the underground city, was born mentally impaired. He spent his days idling around and was good at petty theft and mischief.

While everyone else got angry, he laughed. He cracked jokes, bantered, and talked his way out of trouble, never taking praise or blame to heart. Whenever an argument broke out, he was the first to drop to his knees. He was one of the most heartless, shameless, and thick-skinned people alive.

One day, he sneaked into the Hollow City to swindle people, then accidentally stumbled into a murder scene. He stepped over corpses strewn across the ground and locked eyes with a silver-haired beauty beneath the moon. His long-dead heart began to pound.

Song, to himself: I get it. So this is what love feels like.

He hadn't expected the assassin to be in worse shape than an unhealthy slob like him. The killer chased him with a knife for three miles and still couldn't catch up.

Song, to himself: So passionate? But I'm avoidant, you know. I'm blushing.

In the end, the assassin ran out of strength and collapsed first.

Song Zhao crouched and brushed the silver hair from the person's face. After staring for a long while at that familiar, exquisite face, he let his lust cloud his judgment and stole the person away home.

Life is hard whether you stick your neck out or keep your head down. Since life is so dull, you might as well seek out some excitement.

*

Xi Weiyin's extraordinary empathic powers made him an object of fear. As a weapon, he only needed to carry out his master's orders.

As for other people's negative emotions, he had never been able to refuse them. He could only take them on passively and wait in silence for the day he could no longer bear it and finally fell apart.

Before that day came, someone pulled him away from the noise. That person was a thief, a liar, and a rogue. He modified the collar left by Xi Weiyin's former master to control and exploit him, forced him to comply, and sweet-talked him into working for him.

At first, Xi Weiyin wanted nothing more than to tear that flippant face apart.

But after spending enough time by his side, he found a peace he had never known before.

*

The government came to evict a holdout with official documents in hand, yet avoided any mention of the accident compensation that had been delayed for ten years.

After the visitors left, Song Zhao's usual carefree smile faded. Someone suddenly clasped his trembling hand. Xi Weiyin asked, "Song Zhao, are you angry?"

He denied it expressionlessly. "No."

He was only a little resentful.

Xi Weiyin said, "Haven't you always wanted to use me? You can."

This peace had been so hard for him to find. He would never let anyone disturb it.

Later, when the Hollow City came to capture the dangerous S-rank psychic weapon, Xi Weiyin looked around at the family and friends he had finally gained, reading the complicated emotions within them: reluctance, worry, resentment, fear.

The underground city was full of powerless civilians. Bombing a place like this had no value.

Everyone was anxious about what he would choose.

Xi Weiyin gave up resisting without hesitation. Before he left, he glanced back at Song Zhao one last time and whispered, "Thank you."

But the man was being pinned to the ground, panic and helplessness filling his eyes.

Song Zhao had no grand ambitions. In his life, he had only ever wished for two things: to raise his younger siblings until they grew up, and to make the corrupt government pay his parents' accident compensation.

Now he had a third wish: may Xi Weiyin be safe and happy, and live to be a hundred.

A thick-skinned, easygoing thief who always shifts the blame

x

A straight-shooting psychic assassin who gets overwhelmed by empathy and acts in an instant

*

Reading Guide

Switch, one-on-one, happy ending.

Neither protagonist is perfect. They're ordinary people from the streets, with flaws as numerous as the stars. Some may change as the story progresses; others may remain unchanged even by the ending.

Xi Weiyin is unmatched in combat, but his emotional growth is a work in progress.

Song Zhao is very weak, extremely weak. But as the eldest in the family, I think he must have some redeeming qualities. They'll gradually be revealed in the story.

Any issues with the characters' values or flat characterization are due to the author's limited ability. Please be understanding.

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Theme: Tomorrow will be better