Chapter 58: Return to Transformers

Because it is near the Yangtze River, the wind blowing from the not-so-distant river surface always carries some moisture; in mid-April in Nandu, one can still feel a hint of chill at night.

After dealing with a blond guy and venting some pent-up anger, Sun Cheng also verified some of his previous conjectures; sure enough, because of certain things Liu Kun said, Xiao Hong was now targeting him.

This point was also what he found most baffling; after all, Sun Cheng had never told anyone about the fortuitous encounters he had experienced, and it was clear that the two of them had been plotting against him even before that.

Liu Kun had lived in the same dormitory with him for many years, so it was impossible for him not to know that the family that adopted him could barely be considered middle-class; there was simply nothing in their home that would make Xiao Hong spend so much effort setting up a trap around him...

"Wait... could it be..."

Sun Cheng, who had been thinking about this problem the whole way, suddenly had a flash of inspiration; his body stiffened as he walked back to school, and his face was immediately filled with unconcealable fury.

"... There is only this possibility... If it is Liu Kun, he indeed knows... This bastard..."

Having finally combined all the scattered information he had grasped, Sun Cheng felt not only annoyed and frustrated, but as if his whole body were about to burn up.

Liu Kun was his roommate for many years in college, and their relationship had been quite good before.

This guy's family situation was not very good, and he had always been tight on money, often relying on borrowing from everyone to get by in the past.

Thinking of this, Sun Cheng couldn't help but secretly curse himself for being too incautious before.

He should have guessed it earlier; after the start of his senior year, Liu Kun suddenly became wealthy, and he heard that he was pursuing a junior student at the time, but he was busy with his startup planning and didn't pay much attention to that aspect.

Now that he thought about it, Liu Kun probably had already borrowed money from 'Student Loan' back then; with the nature of this group of black-hearted loan sharks wearing the skin of 'Campus Loan', he must have sunk deeper and deeper afterward.

Forced to repay the debt and unable to pay it back, he actually harbored evil intentions and set his sights on the people around him.

In his heart, the evil fire named anger was burning brighter and brighter, and Sun Cheng was gradually unable to suppress the thought of giving Liu Kun a sound beating.

A gust of river wind blowing in his face made Sun Cheng, with his suit open, shiver, which brought him back to his senses, and he continued to walk toward the dormitory.

Because he was worried that returning the same way would lead to running into Xiao Hong and his group, who had come after receiving a text message from the blond guy, Sun Cheng took a detour after leaving the park, preparing to return from another direction.

Soon arriving outside an alley he often walked through, Sun Cheng, who unexpectedly found the alley pitch black, couldn't help but stop his steps.

"The light is broken?"

Although this small alley was only a hundred meters long, it was his shortcut back to school. After passing through here, it was only a few hundred meters to the gate of Nanjing University of Technology; if he didn't take it and walked the main road, he would have to walk at least three miles more.

Not many normal people like to walk in the dark at night, but after thinking about it, Sun Cheng didn't want to walk any extra unnecessary distance, so after hesitating for a moment, he walked quickly into the alley.

Once night fell, the small alley appeared very quiet.

Because the lighting in the alley was broken, it looked pitch black at a glance, and it was inevitable to feel a bit creeped out walking alone.

However, after walking for a while, he saw footsteps coming from the opposite side of the alley, which made him feel a little more at ease, and he subconsciously slowed his pace.

The alley was not long, and since they were walking toward each other, the few people coming from the other end of the alley soon appeared in Sun Cheng's field of vision.

"Yo, it's classmate Sun Cheng, what a coincidence!"

Suddenly, an unfriendly greeting came; although the alley was dim, it didn't mean Sun Cheng was blind enough not to recognize the person walking up to him.

His gaze lingered on the face of the young man in the lead for only a second before his heart sank, "It's you!"

That young man was none other than Xiao Hong, who had some grudges with him!

"Classmate Sun Cheng, so late, where have you been fooling around just now!"

With a cigarette in his mouth, Xiao Hong looked at him triumphantly, his face almost blooming with a smile.

"Damn!"

Sun Cheng cursed inwardly; he really didn't expect that such an unlucky thing could happen in the world.

He had worried about running into these people and chose to take a detour to return to school from another direction, but he didn't expect his caution to become a superfluous act, and he actually bumped into the other party here.

Xiao Hong gave a wink, and the four young men with him immediately surrounded him.

"I was wondering why that guy A Mao hadn't sent me a text for a long time; he's quite alert, to have even shaken him off..."

Seeing that Sun Cheng was already a turtle in a jar with no way to run, Xiao Hong triumphantly lit a cigarette for himself, "Why aren't you running anymore?"

"I was still wondering how long you could stay peaceful with your nature..."

A dangerous alarm was flashing in his brain; Sun Cheng clenched his fists, suppressed his anxiety, and replied coldly.

He had just shaken his hand to move the shopping bag he was carrying in his right hand to his left hand when he saw two of the young men Xiao Hong brought with him move closer to him very vigilantly, so he had to temporarily suppress his plan to draw the Taser from the holster under his ribs.

"Without that constitution, what are you pretending to be a big shot for..." Xiao Hong sneered at him, "You still want to stick an onion in your nose and pretend to be an elephant with me?"

Spitting out the cigarette butt he was holding, he looked at Sun Cheng and asked with a fake smile: "Shouldn't you pay back the debt you owe me today? However, we have to change the IOU. Do you want to sign one for three hundred thousand? Or five hundred thousand?"

After finishing his words, he and the few people he brought with him tacitly took a step forward in unison, having already tightly surrounded him.

This guy, it seemed, had no patience to continue playing games with him and was prepared to directly coerce him.

Come to think of it, the previous trap, which was linked ring by ring and quietly ensnared him, didn't look like something this person in front of him could come up with.

Realizing that he had no way out, Sun Cheng alertly sidestepped to the wall first, took the opportunity to reach for the holster under his ribs, and after feeling the Taser in his hand, he felt much more confident. He looked at Xiao Hong coldly, the murderous intent in his eyes undisguised: "I'm quite curious, what kind of background does your family have, that you haven't been killed for acting like this..."

"Kill me?"

Xiao Hong grinned, a brilliant smile appearing on his face, "There are many people capable of killing me, but you are definitely not among them!"

"I've got you today. A Bing, write an IOU for five hundred thousand and make him sign it!"

Xiao Hong sneered and waved his hand, and he saw a young man next to him with a tattoo that looked like a scorpion on his arm respond, quickly taking out paper and a pen from his pocket, and actually writing the IOU on the spot by the light of a mobile phone.

"You still dare to act tough with me when you owe me money? You have to sign this IOU today, whether you want to or not!"

Seeming very satisfied with his current expression, Xiao Hong lit another cigarette and put it in his mouth, saying slowly: "We are all civilized people, and I don't want to use force on a proud son of heaven like you. Sign the IOU today and prepare to pay me back. If you don't have money to pay, let your family come. If your family can't come up with it, you'll have to sell your house, sell your kidney, or sell yourself to pay me back..."

By the end, his face was indescribably ferocious and cruel; it seemed that Xiao Hong, who was only about two or three years older than Sun Cheng, really hadn't done little of this kind of bullying and coercion.

Finally managing to load the magazine into the Taser in his hand, Sun Cheng suddenly let out a sigh of relief. He had been cautiously paying attention to his surroundings and finally saw the two people surrounding him reach out to take cigarettes and pass a lighter to each other, their vigilance relaxing.

Sun Cheng hardened his heart, violently swung the shopping bag in his left hand at the face of the young man blocking his path, and at almost the same time, his right hand drew the Taser from under his ribs and fired a shot directly at Xiao Hong's chest.

To hit a person, hit the face first; to capture the bandits, capture the leader first.

Although Sun Cheng hadn't been in many fights, it didn't mean he didn't know any common sense; anyone could tell with their butt that he couldn't win a one-on-five, so he had to fight for a chance to escape.

Taking out Xiao Hong was the most important step.

"Crack!"

Accompanied by the low sound of the gunshot, Xiao Hong, who never expected him to dare to resist, was hit directly by his shot; his body trembled violently, and after letting out a scream, he twitched and fell to the ground.

"Bang!"

Kicking aside the tattooed man who was busy with the IOU, Sun Cheng took advantage of the surprise to break out of the encirclement; where would he stay to wait for them to react? He immediately took to his heels and ran toward the other end of the alley.

"Stop him!"

Sun Cheng had only run three or four meters away when the young man behind him, whose nose had been struck by his shopping bag, wiped his tears and chased after him with a hateful roar.

The others also reacted; one person huddled next to Xiao Hong, who was twitching on the ground, to attend to him carefully, while the remaining three chased after him together.

Seeing the anger on their faces, if Sun Cheng were caught by them, he feared he would be in for a brutal beating.

"Keep going, just a little longer..."

The light at the end of the alley was getting brighter; Sun Cheng forced a breath, secretly encouraged himself in his heart, and gathered all his strength to run forward.

But his speed was clearly inferior to that of a group of thugs who had spent years fighting and acting like hooligans on the streets and alleys; the sounds of angry curses and threats behind him were getting closer and closer.

Suddenly, Sun Cheng seemed to hear a scream from behind.

Although he quickly realized that something seemed to have happened in the alley behind him, out of caution, Sun Cheng did not stop; it was not until he reached the mouth of the alley that he hurriedly glanced inside for a split second while turning the corner.

Vaguely, he seemed to see an extra figure in the alley.

In the next second, he ran completely out of the alley and could no longer see the situation inside.

Sun Cheng did not know that just as he was busy running for his life, a lithe figure in the alley behind him had suddenly jumped steadily from the second floor of a nearby building, casually flicked a dagger in the darkness, and it had firmly embedded itself into the thigh of a thug who was less than a meter away from him.

Accompanied by the scream, the few pursuers could not help but stop.

The young man struck by the knife felt the pain in his leg, his face twisted by the agony, and he roared at his two companions: "What are you looking at? Beat her..."

Clearly, the few of them immediately realized that the person who had suddenly appeared was a woman.

"So, the task I was sent here for is to clean up thugs and hooligans?"

The lithe figure seemed to complain with dissatisfaction; seeing that the two had already rushed in front of her, she did not care at all.

Not until a punch was about to hit her cheek did she see her tip her toes, tilt her body slightly to draw an arc, her hands as fast as lightning; one hand blocked his chest, while the other gripped his swinging fist tightly like an iron hoop, and then her right arm exerted sudden force to strike heavily against the man's arm joint.

"Snap!" After a crisp sound of bone breaking, the man's face turned pale suddenly, and tears immediately welled up.

"Useless!"

She raised her hand and delivered a fierce hand-blade strike precisely onto his arm, causing him to roll his eyes and pass out immediately.

Seeing the other person also rush in front of her, she narrowed her left eye slightly, and the corners of her mouth curved into an arc.

"Your stance is unstable, oh..."

As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly lowered her body and swept the thug to the ground with a leg sweep.

Then she delivered a heavy kick to his chest; the astonishing force kicked him flying four or five meters high before he hit the corner of the wall heavily and passed out completely.

"So boring..."

Looking up at the back of Sun Cheng, who had already run and disappeared from her field of vision, she stretched lazily. While walking toward the thug who had been stabbed in the leg and was lying there in terror, she took out an iron box from her body with a cross-shaped mark consisting of four inverted triangles printed on the shell, and took out several syringes from it.

"The materials are a bit poor, but they can still be used..."

Taking one out, she walked slowly to the side of the thug who had been stabbed and said with a smile: "Be good, after this shot, it won't hurt anymore, oh..."

Accompanied by a scream, the alley soon fell into a dead silence again.

Sun Cheng did not remember when he had lost the Taser, and he could not even remember when he had returned to his dormitory.

Not long ago, he had just made up his mind to take the initiative against Xiao Hong and the others and completely settle these disgusting bedbugs.

A dozen minutes later, reality taught him a lesson, making him understand that plans could never keep up with changes.

The Taser was exposed, and his fingerprints must be on it; he didn't even know where he had dropped it.

And that Xiao Hong—after today, there would be no more compromise.

Waves of lingering fear kept his mind from calming down; Sun Cheng sat listlessly in his dormitory at his computer desk, calculating in a panic how many mistakes he had made tonight.

Until a familiar ringtone sounded, startling him out of his unease and self-reproach.

Sun Cheng picked up the newly bought domestic Android phone, and after just one glance at the familiar number appearing on the screen, his eyes bulged.

Hesitating for a long while, until the ringtone had been ringing for seven or eight seconds, he finally took the phone; Sun Cheng took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and then pressed the answer button: "Sister, what's wrong?"

The next moment, a gentle young female voice came through the phone; it was the daughter of the family that had adopted him—Ye Qi, who was also his sister now.

"Hello, is that A-Cheng? Why hasn't your phone been getting through for the past two days..."

"I accidentally dropped the phone two days ago, and it was only just fixed today! Why? Do you have something to ask me?" His voice was a bit nervous.

"... Can't I call you if there's nothing wrong?" A soft, complaining voice came over quickly, and not long after, a light laugh followed: "Alright, isn't your birthday coming up soon? I happen to be going to Nandu in a few days; will you come to pick me up then?"

"You're coming to Nandu?"

Sun Cheng's heart sank, and his tone became heavy: "I've been quite busy lately, so you shouldn't come for now. Birthdays and such don't matter; missing one doesn't mean anything..."

Without waiting for the other side of the phone to react, he hurriedly added: "Don't come recently, I still have things to do, hanging up now!"

After saying this, Sun Cheng hurriedly hung up the phone, threw it onto the table, leaned back in his chair, and frowned with his eyes closed, not knowing what he was thinking about.