Chapter 86 08

Chapter 86.08

A loud bang shattered the night's stillness as the two vehicles collided violently.

The car shuddered under the immense impact, its front end instantly caving in.

Li Shang, in the passenger seat, felt the world spin. The windshield, under the terrifying force of the collision, instantly splintered into countless sharp fragments, scattering through the air.

In that critical moment, the seatbelt yanked him hard against the seat, digging forcefully into his chest and abdomen. Then, with a soft puff, the white airbag instantly deployed, cushioning his body.

Just seconds later, Li Shang regained consciousness. He coughed involuntarily a few times before fully coming to.

Glass shards had cut his forehead, and warm blood trickled down his brow, staining his cheek and white collar.

Ignoring his own injuries, his first instinct was to check on the person beside him: "He Lin!"

The moment before impact, He Lin had decisively yanked the steering wheel, choosing to protect Li Shang. As a result, He Lin’s side bore the brunt of the collision.

Now, He Lin sat quietly in his seat, head slumped weakly, eyes closed, brows slightly furrowed as if lost in a painful nightmare.

Li Shang’s heart suddenly lurched. He quickly reached out to check for breath at He Lin’s nose and felt for his pulse. Only when he detected He Lin’s faint breath and the beat of his pulse did he breathe a sigh of relief.

There were no visible external injuries on He Lin either—the impact had likely been so violent that He Lin had temporarily lost consciousness.

Li Shang’s heart rate slowly returned to normal, but he knew it was no time to let his guard down. He looked ahead through the shattered, spider-webbed windshield.

The large vehicle that had hit them was gone.

This was no accident—the other party had been targeting them. Besides the ramming vehicle, several vans had also stopped not far away, surrounding their car in the middle of the road.

Then, people began stepping out of those vehicles—all grown men, clutching various weapons, marching purposefully in their direction.

At least a dozen of them…

Li Shang quickly left a voice note in the group chat: "We’re in trouble. Location: intersection of Xiyuan Road and Xin’an Road. Requesting backup."

As he spoke, the men had already drawn near.

Li Shang’s eyes darkened. He unbuckled his seatbelt, kicked open the buckled car door, then shrugged off his bulky outer coat, leaving only a thin white shirt.

On the autumn night, the street was chilly. The scene of the accident was a mess, littered with wreckage.

Li Shang stepped forward into the open space in the middle of the road, cracking his knuckles.

His gaze swept over the men, and he muttered under his breath, "Not in the best condition, but it’s enough to deal with this scum…"

After speaking, he glanced around.

The men spread out in a semicircle, surrounding him.

Seeing that he was alone and unarmed, a burly man with a menacing face made the first move. Holding a gleaming short knife, he rushed straight at Li Shang.

Li Shang didn’t even look up. The strands of hair falling over his forehead hid his eyes, making it impossible for the others to read his expression.

The man chuckled, his eyes filled with disdain, as if mocking Li Shang’s foolhardiness.

The man’s knife plunged ruthlessly toward Li Shang’s chest.

But at the last moment, Li Shang moved. His gaze was frosty, his handsome face expressionless, yet exuding a bone-chilling composure.

Just as the man was about to reach him, Li Shang swiftly reached out, his long, powerful fingers accurately seizing the man’s wrist holding the knife. Then, with a sharp twist, a sharp crack sounded as the man’s wrist bones gave way. The man let out a scream.

In the next second, Li Shang pressed down, and the knife clattered on the pavement.

With just one exchange, Li Shang assessed the situation—these were likely unskilled hoodlums, not professional bodyguards or assassins. But they outnumbered him, and He Lin was still unconscious. He couldn’t afford to be careless.

Almost simultaneously, another man lunged from Li Shang’s left side, his fist whistling through the air aimed straight at Li Shang’s temple.

Li Shang turned and dodged, nimbly evading the heavy blow.

His right hand shifted from a fist to a palm, chopping hard at the man’s neck. The man’s body stiffened instantly, his eyes widened, his legs gave way, and he dropped like a stone to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Li Shang had cleanly taken down two men.

It all happened too fast for the others to react.

Li Shang moved with agility, almost darting in front of another man. His right arm muscles tensed as he delivered a swift, powerful hook punch, landing squarely on the man’s jaw. The man’s head snapped to the side, teeth and blood flying out.

As he pulled back his arm, Li Shang twisted his waist, his elbow arcing with brutal force into the eye of a man behind him.

The man cupped his face, screaming, blood seeping through his fingers as he curled up in pain on the ground.

Someone tried to sneak up from behind, but Li Shang didn’t turn around. Relying on his sharp hearing to pinpoint the position, he lifted his left leg backward, executing a spinning kick. His long leg moved like lightning, carrying immense force as it struck the man’s abdomen, kicking him back several feet. The man stumbled several steps before collapsing.

Li Shang’s figure weaved through the crowd with ease, almost every strike precisely hitting vital points—ribs, wrists, head, knees—all his targets.

His movements were efficient and devoid of flourish, every move a crippling strike.

This was his combat style, honed through years of experience, incorporating techniques from Krav Maga and joint manipulation. Even the strongest bodies had weaknesses at the joints, and joint manipulation exploited these vulnerabilities with skillful force to quickly subdue opponents.

In an instant, Li Shang used his fingers to dislocate another man’s shoulder and kicked another squarely in the chest, sending him flying.

But on this dimly lit suburban street, the men seemed endless. They dragged away their unconscious comrades, and more jumped out from another vehicle to join the fight.

As time passed, the intense battle drained Li Shang’s stamina, and he gradually began to struggle.

His originally cold, stern face was now pale as paper, and fine beads of sweat dotted his smooth forehead. Just as he fended off another wave of attacks, Li Shang caught a glimpse of a figure dragging a gleaming iron rod toward the police car.

He Lin…

Li Shang’s heart clenched violently, and his physical exhaustion instantly vanished. Only one thought remained in his mind—he had to protect that person!

These men were likely low-level thugs hired for money. Li Shang had initially hesitated to seriously injure them, but now he could no longer afford to hold back.

Li Shang wrested a knife from one of the men, his wrist twisting swiftly as he struck back with fierce momentum.

In an instant, blood sprayed, staining his white shirt.

After seriously injuring several men in succession, Li Shang tore an opening through the encirclement and turned to sprint urgently toward the car…

.

He Lin didn’t know where he was. In the distance was a tranquil white light, and he felt his body sinking.

His hands and feet felt buoyant, and his body gradually floated upward. Surrounding him seemed to be blue-green water, and then he saw countless corpses floating in it.

They were the people he had dealt with—those who had gone missing and drowned. He had identified their bodies in the morgue.

Among them, he even saw a familiar figure—Lian Xuan…

He Lin suddenly realized he couldn’t breathe either.

He wanted to surface, but felt trapped. He Lin reached up and felt a thick layer of ice. His hands and feet felt smaller, and along with them, his strength drained away. His clothes were heavy, and struggle as he might, it was futile.

The last bit of oxygen in his lungs was exhausted.

In the dream, this suffocating feeling didn’t bother him; instead, he felt a sense of tranquility.

It was a calm despair.

He Lin felt he was about to die. His heartbeat grew slower and slower, and he gradually closed his eyes, waiting for death to come.

At that very instant, he felt something grasp him—a hand, likely that of a teenager, not as knobby as an adult's but incredibly strong.

In the murky water, that person pulled him, swimming resolutely toward a bright light.

Finally coming to, he cooperated with the person’s movements, struggling to remove the heavy, soaked winter coat he was wearing.

After what felt like an eternity, with a loud splash, he was pulled out of the water and dragged all the way to the lakeshore.

He Lin knew he was in a dream, yet it felt as if he were trapped in a memory from the past.

He felt himself lying on the ground, his body freezing. His eyelids were heavy, and he could barely open his eyes.

Someone seemed to be calling his name, faint and distant.

Then, someone began giving him CPR, pressing forcefully on his chest.

The next moment, cold, soft lips pressed against his…

When their lips touched, air entered his body, and a thought flashed through his mind: "This is my first kiss…"

His chest was continuously compressed. Coughing and choking, he finally regained his breath.

After some time, he opened his eyes and saw his middle school classmate, Lv Yichen, sitting beside him, sobbing his eyes out.

The sunlight was a bit blinding. Weakly, he said, "What’re you crying for? I’m not dead."

He Lin coughed a few times and sat up. His body felt cold again. He noticed they were sitting on a stone platform beside a frozen lake. His clothes were soaked, his cotton coat was gone, and in just a short while, his clothes had iced over. Not far from the lake surface was a terrifying gaping hole in the ice.

He remembered: he had been playing ice hockey with a group of classmates and went to retrieve the puck when the ice cracked, causing him to fall into the hole.

At the time, he tried to swim upward, but his waterlogged clothes dragged him down. He struggled in the water for a while, unable to find the hole’s location. If someone hadn’t saved him just now, he would have drowned.

Seeing him turning blue from the cold, Lv Yichen took off his own cotton coat and put it on him.

He Lin instinctively wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and asked Lv Yichen, "Was that you?"

Tears streamed down Lv Yichen’s face as he hurriedly waved his hands. "No, it wasn’t me. I went with the others to find adults nearby. It was that transfer student from the next class over who jumped in to save you."

He didn’t say a name, but both of them knew without saying who he was referring to.

He Lin looked around but saw no one. He asked, "Where is he?"

Lv Yichen said, "He was just passing by. After asking me if it was you who fell in, he threw down his backpack, took off his coat, and jumped in. I was terrified, thinking neither of you would make it… But after a while, he pulled you out. Then he gave you CPR, and when you coughed up some water and your heartbeat returned, he left."

He asked, "Did he say anything?"

"He said he had to catch a bus and didn’t have time." Lv Yichen thought for a moment. "Also, when I thanked him, he said it wasn’t necessary and that he was repaying you for the dumplings."

He was stunned.

Dumplings?

It seemed like… dumplings.

The dream ended there, and He Lin’s senses came back…

It was noisy around him. His head still felt foggy and heavy, and he could faintly hear the sounds of fighting in the distance—or perhaps very close.

He Lin struggled to open his eyes. In the darkness, he saw several faint flickers of firelight—burning wreckage scattered from the car crash. His vision was blurry, and a dull pain throbbed from the impact on his left rib, though it wasn’t bad enough to keep him from moving.

He Lin forced the car door open, holding his head with his hand, and stumbled out.

A figure appeared before him, approaching him.

Before he could clearly see who it was, a metal rod whistled through the air, swung at his head…

Hearing the sound, He Lin instinctively threw up his arms to block.

In that instant, Li Shang rushed without hesitation to He Lin’s front, using his body to shield him from the blow.

With a sickening thud, the heavy metal rod struck his back with a whistling force.

Li Shang felt a surge of pain and couldn’t help but let out a grunt.

He took the hit squarely, his body collapsing forward in front of He Lin.

He Lin, still dazed from waking up, instinctively withdrew his blocking hands and opened his arms.

Then He Lin saw Li Shang’s figure draw near, abruptly and unexpectedly falling against him.

In that moment, the distance between them closed sharply—so close that He Lin could clearly see the blood dripping from Li Shang’s temple, the pain in his handsome brows and eyes, and the bright red staining his pale cheeks and white shirt.

The contrast of red and white was strikingly poignant.

Then He Lin felt his chest press against Li Shang’s cool body.

He Lin could almost hear Li Shang’s heartbeat, feel his shallow breathing, and smell the blood around him…

A subtle feeling welled up in his heart. He felt a faint itch on his neck—Li Shang’s forehead had inadvertently brushed against it.

Before He Lin could process this sudden intimacy, Li Shang, fighting through the pain in his back, forced himself upright. The enemies were still there; it wasn’t time to drop their guard.

Li Shang’s gaze swept casually, and he noticed his blood had stained He Lin’s neck.

The bright red drop on his skin looked like a delicate petal.

Almost instinctively, Li Shang reached out and gently wiped away the bloodstain with his fingers.

The motion was so natural, yet carried an indescribable tenderness.

In that instant, He Lin’s pupils contracted slightly. His heart pounded wildly. He felt that, as Li Shang left his embrace, his calloused, cool fingers had briefly touched his neck…

At that moment, He Lin fully regained his senses.

His mind replayed the heart-stopping scene: Li Shang had taken a blow for him. He might be injured!

A flood of sensory information rushed into He Lin’s brain—the chaotic sounds around him, the smell of burning in the air, the armed assailants standing before him…

Time instantly returned to its normal flow. Only three seconds had passed.

He Lin quickly sized up the situation.

The man wielding the iron rod, furious that his attack had missed, swung the weapon wildly once more.

He Lin saw this, swiftly wrapped an arm around Li Shang's waist, spun nimbly, and pulled him to safety behind his back. Using the momentum of his turn, he delivered a powerful kick without hesitation.

He put all his strength into that kick.

Before the man could bring down the iron rod, He Lin’s foot struck him hard in the chest. The man’s chest visibly dented under the impact. Staggering back two steps, he dropped the iron rod with a loud clang. Then, unable to stand any longer, he fell to his knees, clutching his chest as he coughed up blood.