Yu Baiqing raised his elbows to block the hook the blonde-haired defending champion aimed at his forehead.
His gaze shifted upwards, focusing on the other party’s face. His eyes narrowed slightly.
Seeing that the two people were in a deadlock at the boxing ring fence, the spectators started shouting the blonde-haired man’s alias, “Snake, go–”
A cold shiver inexplicably ran down Otto’s back from being scrutinized with such an icy gaze by the man using the alias Eagle. The tense atmosphere caused his adrenaline to soar to the highest level, to the extent that something nearly slipped his mind. He had only felt this way in the past – at a gang in the West when an enemy had pressed a gun to his back.
He was right. Eagle was holding something back.
The next second, the person in front of him swiftly moved the tip of his foot outwards by half a foot. Just as Otto raised his right elbow to protect his chest, the other party dodged slightly leftwards and striked straight at his medulla!
This was considered a move that fell into the category of ‘killing a thousand enemies while losing eight hundred of your own’. If he chose not to evade and take the other party’s fist head-on, there was a fifty percent chance he would be KO-ed on the spot.
Eagle’s physical fitness and stamina far exceeded his initial prediction. His lean, sturdy body contained an unfathomable amount of terrifying strength. If this continued, he would surely be the first person to run out of stamina.
In the end, Otto chose to end it in the fastest way possible.
Tensing up his pectoral muscles, he abruptly took half a step back, reducing as much direct impact on his waist as possible. He stealthily clenched his left hand hanging behind his back, waiting for the hunter to deliver himself to the door.
He only needed to give two more seconds to the other party.
Two, one–
The punishing blow he expected did not come. Seizing the instant that Otto’s left fist swung up, Eagle flashed sideways through the gap under Otto’s armpit. Within a matter of seconds, their positions were swapped and Eagle was behind him.
Otto’s pupils contracted suddenly.
This guy had actually done a feint!
Before he could move into a defensive stance to protect his back, Eagle stretched out his fingers, forcefully hooking his nape. Then, he slammed a fist onto Otto’s tall nose bridge and deep-set eyes.
[Clang–]
“…”
His face was smacked askew by the fierce punch, and his forehead slammed directly into the fence half a meter away. He slumped in front of the fence, arms dropping down to the sides of his body.
His chest heaved violently as he spat out a wad of blood and spittle onto the ground off-stage. His head drooped slowly.
F*ck…didn’t this guy know that he couldn’t hit someone in the face?
Enduring the pain as he lay slumped in front of the fence, Otto covered his nose with his hands. Fresh red liquid gradually seeped out from the cracks between his fingers.
He usually relied on this handsome face of his when it came to the affairs of the heart. He even had an appointment tonight with a young lady for a French meal at a high-end restaurant in the city center. Now, he didn’t even know what kind of reaction she would have upon seeing his badly battered face.
There was still some lingering fear in Otto’s heart when he recalled that fist. Any worse and this joker would have given him a crooked nose.
Seeing him lying in front of the fence, the person behind him didn’t make a single move. He merely stood a few meters away, staring at him calmly like a hunter admiring its prey’s last struggles before death.
Amidst the cacophony of screams from the audience, Yu Baiqing slowly raised a hand and turned his palm over, looking down at his fingers stained with the other party’s blood.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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In that absurd dream, he’d stood under the club’s dim lights and quietly watched everything that was happening in room number seven. He did not walk in and put a stop to things, nor did Ying Wan look at him the entire time.
He didn’t know what kind of expression Ying Wan would have when that moment came. Would it be one of restraint or pleasure?
When this preposterous thought surfaced all of a sudden, Yu Baiqing sobered up, looking up from his hands covered in fresh blood.
He had never believed in violence. This was what he had consciously upheld as a law enforcement officer. Still, he had laid hands on the blonde man in Ying Wan’s presence.
Otto accepted a towel from a staff member and wiped the blood on his face. An inexplicable desire to win surged forth.
Back in South America, he had been ‘Otto’s Gun’, someone who struck fear in the hearts of countless gang members. How could he possibly be beaten down by a young man with an unknown background in such a shabby place?
He’d sensed long ago that Eagle had come with a motive, just that he didn’t know what exactly it was.
Otto downed the energy drink handed to him by a staff member. Crushing the plastic bottle with his hands, he wiped the water stains intermixed with blood on his neck. He returned to the center of the boxing ring, surrounded by the cheers of spectators.
This was the underground boxing ring’s rule – as long there was breath left in him, he had the right to continue fighting his opponent.
The faint outline of veins bulged out on the back of his hands. He clenched his fingers into fists. Widening his stance, he entered the standard offensive position. The countdown to the start of the second half of the fight appeared on the screen. Gritting his teeth, he leaned forward. He was all ready to grab Eagle by the shoulders, but then his gaze swept past the familiar figure standing in front of a booth on the second floor.
At the balcony on the second floor, Robin shook his head at him.
Robin’s hands were resting on the railing. He held up two overlapping fingers to form a cross-sign midair. Then, the two fingers curled around each other slowly in the image of a nimble knot.
It was a secret signal from Bird. When executing a mission, it was the sign to immediately retreat.
Robin was ordering him soundlessly to stop the match and immediately admit defeat.
Though Otto was a little unreconciled, he knew that continuing in this manner would not put him in a favorable position. It hadn’t been long since his return to Fan City; this was the period he needed to remain concealed in the shadows. It was best not to stir up any trouble and invite any new problems for no good reason.
However, according to the rules of the underground boxing ring, the match could only end when one party didn’t even have the strength to truss up a chicken.
Otto was suddenly struck by inspiration.
After receiving the new order, he did not come to a halt on the spot. Instead, he swung his fists, stopping just short of the other party’s nose.
Raising his chin slightly, he made a gesture at Eagle’s throat. “We’ll decide victory with one punch, how’s that?”
A hint of coldness flashed across the man’s eyes. “You’re so confident?”
“If you can slam me down and KO me in one move,” Otto paused. His broad smile shone with sincerity. “I’ll fulfill one request from you.”
The other party narrowed his eyes. This suggestion seemed to have stirred some interest in the man.
Eagle posed another question to him, “Any request is fine?”
“What else?” Otto spat out a mouthful of blood onto the ground. “You should know that people in this line value keeping their word the most.”
Eagle’s eyes drooped. He remained silent for a while, seemingly in deep thought about the proposal. Eventually, Eagle agreed. “All right.”
“The person standing on the second floor is my witness,” Eagle’s voice was mild. “If I defeat you, from now on, you will never take another step towards that man.”
Otto was taken aback upon hearing Eagle’s request.
Before he had even grasped the meaning behind the statement, the other party had already taken action.
Rather than him deliberately throwing the match, the other party’s punch was simply too fast. Eagle took a few steps forward. He did not attack Otto directly, but instead seized the chance while Otto was off guard to twist his right elbow back. Immediately after, an outstretched arm thrust down on the joints above Otto’s chest and a fist was delivered to Otto’s vital point – his abdomen.
Otto couldn’t help letting out a heavy groan the moment the other party’s fist rammed into his abdomen.
How did that phrase go again? Getting a taste of your own medicine? When the match first started, the punch he’d given this person had nearly made him spit out blood. Now this person had actually returned tit for tat, and with strength exceeding even his own!
A loud clang resonated through the underground boxing ring. A tall body slammed heavily against the fence. The match had officially ended.
This was a world where the winner was king. The loser could only leave the arena morosely after being spurned by the crowd.
The final outcome of the match was out. The spectators off-stage were silent for a moment. Then, their attention was drawn to the black horse on stage who had appeared unexpectedly.
Before Otto was even helped off stage by a staff, someone had already raised their winnings high up in the air and flung it towards the stage.
Nobody present had expected the newly-crowned boxing champion, the winner of the match, to leave the area so quickly.
Before the continuous onslaughts of red bills could overwhelm him, the man had already peeled off the blood-stained bandages covering his hands and turned towards the corridor out of the arena.
A raucous hubbub filled the entire underground boxing ring. Nobody realized that the witness on the second floor had simultaneously disappeared without a trace.
Yu Baiqing turned the corner, intending to return the way he came to retrieve his clothes and handphone in the dressing room. But then he saw a familiar figure at the entrance to the dressing room.
Ying Wan was standing alone with his cane at a corner. Incandescent lights flickered above him. There was a trace of confusion and panic in his vacant eyes. He bore a similarity to a startled little animal.
Hearing footsteps in the distance, Ying Wan’s lips moved and he called out softly to the empty corridor, “…Who is it?”
There was no answer. He bit his lip. Then, he simply gripped his cane, cautiously tapping it against the cement floor, walking towards the corridor by feeling along the wall.
Raging fury disappeared into nothingness the moment Yu Baiqing saw Ying Wan. All he saw was the child’s anxious expression and slightly trembling lips.
He knew the past nonchalance was all a pretense. This time, the child was panicking for real.
He stood there, waiting for the child to walk within reach. Ying Wan looked up and then asked him with uncertainty, “Ge?”
–
Ying Wan did not give the other party any chance to speak.
He couldn’t see; he was blind. This was the best weapon to use to his advantage.
The hot breaths, the faint scent of blood, and the familiar smell of sweat. These were all scents from his ge.
Ying Wan paused for a moment. He raised a hand, slowly pressing his fingers to the other party’s inclined face. He cocked his head, hesitantly touching the other party’s sweaty nose and bloody corners of the mouth as if trying to confirm something.
He gradually felt the person in front tense up completely, standing there rigidly. Even their breathing was soundless.
“Ge, is that you?”
Ying Wan repeated his question again.
His fingers dangling midair were trembling slightly. There was only a hair’s breadth of distance between his fingers and the wound on the other party’s face. “…You’re injured?”
Seeing the blood from his own mouth on the child’s fingertips, Yu Baiqing’s breathing couldn’t help turning heavy. His heart beat fiercely, over and over again, so intense that it almost seemed like it would burst out of his chest.
Was the child doing this unintentionally?
He–
Just then, a shaggy head pressed against Yu Baiqing’s shoulder.
Ying Wan had put down the cane in his hands. He stepped forward and gently wrapped both arms around Yu Baiqing’s waist.
This was how they hugged when they were still young.
Back then, Ying Wan wasn’t very big but had quite the temper. Every time he felt wronged outside or fell while walking, he would always run up to Yu Baiqing back home and stretch out his hands for a hug.
Yu Baiqing would yield to him and stoop over, allowing the child to wrap his arms around his neck. The child’s eyes would be red, but he wouldn’t make a sound because he insisted on keeping up the image of manliness despite wanting to cry.
During a mission in the past, he had had to rescue a female teacher from a classroom. The teacher had been kidnapped by a student’s parent. Just before the kidnapper was going to shoot the hostage, he launched an attack from behind and snatched the kidnapper’s gun. A bullet had narrowly missed his heart then.
Ying Wan had listened to the entire process of rescuing the hostage from the radio at school. That day, Yu Baiqing had arrived home in the middle of the night from the police station. When he opened the door, the child had approached him cautiously just like today, stood on tiptoes, and buried his whole head in his arms.
Yu Baiqing quietly allowed himself to be hugged. For a while, nobody spoke.
The corridor was completely silent. He wanted to pat Ying Wan’s back and assure him that he was fine. But then his hand abruptly paused midair.
At a corner of the corridor ten meters away, two men in black leather jackets slowly revealed themselves from the shadows.
These two had clearly received professional training. They had hidden themselves noiselessly, to the point where even himself, whose sense of vigilance had always been extremely high, had not sensed them in time.
The two of them raised their guns, aiming straight at himself who was standing at the end of the corridor.
Yu Baiqing wanted to warn Ying Wan to take cover behind him, but discovered that at some point, the child had tightened his arms around his waist.
As if suddenly realizing something, he lowered his gaze incredulously, looking down at the tips of the child’s soft hair.
This sudden hug was not without reason.
The person in his arms had long picked up on the danger behind him.
In order not to inadvertently alarm their enemies, he chose to spread out his arms inconspicuously while blocking him from the front, making it seem as if they were hugging.
If those two people opened fire at his chest, they would first have to shoot through Ying Wan’s chest.
OH MY GOSH OH YMG KSH OH YMSMAAKSNCEMALAMS THANK YOU FOR THE CHAPTER TRANSLATOR
ILYZ Can you update twice or thrice a week so it would be interesting for us to continue reading this novel
Things are getting more and more complicated.. Who is ying wan fr? 😔