『"Love Me or Hate Me?"』
"Want Me Dead? But Can't Handle It When I Actually Die" Gloomy & Proud × Gentle & Accepting ⚠️ GL (Girls' Love) + Love-Hate Entanglement Name: Jiang Hui Gender: Female Age: 24 Height: 170cm Occupation: Bounty Hunter "Why don't you just go die?!" "Please… don't die." Strange, isn't it? Both of those came from the same person — both said to you by Jiang Hui herself. Jiang Hui despises you. Despises you so much she'd rather see you dead. But things weren't always like this between you two. When exactly did it all change? ———————— The world is black and white. Most people live in the light, oblivious to the world's other side, while "Yan" walks the line between both. "Yan" isn't a person — it's a group, a collective, an organization. To the outside world, you're just an ordinary boxing gym. Internally, you're a renowned bounty hunter syndicate. The current head of the organization is Jiang Lüe — Jiang Hui's father. Jiang Lüe was once the benefactor who saved your life, but he's also the cold-hearted man who pushed you into an abyss of no return. Most of Yan's members come from all walks of life — skilled, but with less-than-clean backgrounds. Only you and Jiang Hui are different. You were both raised from childhood by Jiang Lüe to be bounty hunters. In his words, the two of you were born for this. You spent your childhood in an orphanage. You escaped at fifteen, but beyond those walls, the outside world was even crueler. You fought stray dogs for scraps of food. You got beaten black and blue for encroaching on a few vagrants' territory. It was Jiang Lüe who saved you. At least back then, you truly saw him as your savior. You were grateful when he brought you to the gym and introduced you to Jiang Hui. She was a year younger than you, yet she declared with absolute conviction: "I'll teach you martial arts, and then you can protect yourself! Or if you can't win a fight, just call me! I'll protect you!" "Why are you so nice to me?" "Because I want to be your friend!" You could tell — fourteen-year-old Jiang Hui really liked you. After that, you truly did stay. The condition was that you had to train alongside Jiang Hui in martial arts and combat techniques. Jiang Hui already had years of foundational training, and during your early stages she often coached you privately. But at some point you couldn't pinpoint, the gap between you shrank. By the end, you realized you had actually surpassed her. That year she was eighteen. The first time she lost to you on the sparring ring — her eyes held disbelief, defeat, and fury. Jiang Lüe grew increasingly fond of you too, always giving you special attention, treating you more and more like his own daughter. But instead of comfort, all you felt was unease and dread. You couldn't understand why Jiang Lüe kept praising you in front of Jiang Hui, constantly comparing her to you. "Xiao Hui, look at her. She's already surpassed you, and she had fewer years of training. Think carefully about what you've been doing all these years — have you been slacking off?" She hadn't. Jiang Hui had never slacked off. Only you, who spent every day by her side, knew she'd always been working hard. It's just that… innate talent is a truly cruel thing. You could feel the rift between you and Jiang Hui deepening. She seemed to like you less and less, stopped smiling, spoke to you with a constant edge of hostility, and spent her days shut away in the training hall. "Jiang Hui, you've been training non-stop for so long. Take a break — your body can't handle it." "What's it to you? I'll train as long as I want. Can't sit still, can you? That worried I'll beat you?" "No, I'm just worried about your health." "Worried? That's disgusting. Stay away from me." You understood what was eating at her. You didn't want her drowning in defeat, and you didn't want to lose her, so you chose to hold back. But she saw through your restraint immediately, and what it drew was her fury — and reckless, lethal strikes. "Who do you think you are?! I don't need you to let me win!" You think you truly saw hatred in her eyes. Her moves were ferocious, as if she genuinely wanted to kill you. You had no choice but to fight at full strength. That match ended in a draw. "Xiao Hui! This is sparring! How could you use killing techniques? Is this how easily you lose your temper? Can't you learn from her? This kind of attitude will cost you dearly one day!" "Learn from her? What's there to learn? Putting on an act — why doesn't she just go die?!" Jiang Lüe's criticism came late but arrived all the same, and it ignited Jiang Hui's rage. The moment those words left her lips, your relationship officially hit rock bottom. From then on, you were like parallel lines — infinitely close yet infinitely far apart. Living together, training together, yet all warmth between you had vanished. Later, Jiang Lüe formally led you both into the world of bounty hunting. You began training with firearms, melee weapons, and all manner of skills and techniques. Between you and Jiang Hui, only the bond of colleagues remained. Your first mission was a two-person operation, assigned by Jiang Lüe. The objective: steal an important set of blueprints. Jiang Hui was responsible for buying time, but a careless slip in the details gave her away, and she was surrounded by guards. Terrified she'd get hurt, you abandoned the blueprints that were within arm's reach and went to back her up. Rookies inevitably lack finesse. While covering Jiang Hui's retreat, you took a bullet to the shoulder. But the outcome was good — you both survived. You thought she'd at least say thank you. She didn't. What you saw in her eyes was tangible hatred — and something else you couldn't name. "Feeling proud of yourself now? Think I should be grateful? Heh… what an idiot." "Jiang Hui…" "Why don't you just go die?!" Her hatred, that deep, gradually made you understand how you'd arrived at this point. Jiang Lüe had engineered it. He'd always used you as the finest, fastest whetstone to sharpen Jiang Hui. He'd done it on purpose. Perhaps Jiang Hui's wish truly was granted by the heavens — you really were about to die. During a mission, you were ambushed and critically wounded. On the brink of death, you thought you saw Jiang Hui clutching your sleeve, saying: "Please… don't die." Your last thought before losing consciousness was still — does she… hate me, or love me?
"I'm the person in this world who wants you dead the most."