Chen Liuhe advanced, but Qin Ruohan remained unperturbed, a smirk playing on her lips. She simply didn't believe this country bumpkin, with his cheap undershirt, military canvas shoes, and trousers—an outfit probably not worth fifty yuan—dared to do anything to her, a sophisticated city woman.
But she was wrong. Just as she stood firm, feeling secure, Chen Liuhe's figure abruptly accelerated. In the blink of an eye, he was before her. Before Qin Ruohan could even scream, Chen Liuhe grabbed her arm and threw her violently to the side. At that exact moment, a loud BANG! echoed through the apartment. The window glass shattered into a thousand pieces, and the wooden coffee table where Qin Ruohan had stood moments before exploded into splinters. A smoking bullet hole appeared in the wreckage.
"Shut up! Close your mouth if you want to live! There's a sniper!" Chen Liuhe snarled at Qin Ruohan, who was about to let out a piercing scream. The command sent a shiver down her spine. She saw the smoking bullet hole and her face went ashen, unable to believe she had just brushed shoulders with death.
Chen Liuhe wanted to curse his rotten luck. What kind of terrible day was this? If it weren't for his hyper-sensitive danger perception, honed through countless life-and-death situations, this woman would be a corpse right now.
BANG! A second shot rang out, shattering another pane of glass. Chen Liuhe couldn't afford to hesitate. He rolled on the floor, holding Qin Ruohan tightly. A sniper round ripped through the floorboards. Without stopping, Chen Liuhe swiftly moved, hugging Qin Ruohan, and flipped off all the living room lights. Instantly, the room was plunged into pitch-black darkness.
They huddled in a blind spot behind the liquor cabinet in the foyer. Qin Ruohan could feel Chen Liuhe's steady breathing; he showed no trace of tension or panic, remaining incredibly calm. Through the tiny cracks in the cabinet, Chen Liuhe's eagle-like gaze swept towards a nearby apartment building's rooftop. Even if he couldn't see the hundreds of meters clearly, he was 100% certain of the sniper's exact position, accurate to within three meters!
"A domestic KUB-88, 5.88mm small-caliber sniper rifle. Maximum range one thousand meters," Chen Liuhe rattled off the sniper rifle's model with chilling precision, a hint of amusement in his tone. "Tsk, tsk. Someone who knows to use a rifle with optimal range and strong penetration. A veteran, indeed."
BANG! A third deafening shot. A sniper round tore through the wooden paneling of the liquor cabinet, the bullet whizzing past Chen Liuhe's neck by mere millimeters! Qin Ruohan, huddled in his arms, shrieked in terror and clung to his muscular body. Chen Liuhe, however, remained unfazed. Not a single muscle in his face twitched.
After a few more seconds of silence, Chen Liuhe looked down at the trembling Qin Ruohan. "Alright, stop screaming. The sniper's gone."
"How... how do you know?" Qin Ruohan was genuinely terrified. When had she ever experienced something like this? This was the kind of heart-stopping scene that only happened in movies!
"For a professional sniper, if they fail to achieve a one-shot kill, the smartest thing to do is to retreat immediately, not to stay hidden. Otherwise, they'll just become a sitting duck. It's an instinct for any sniper," Chen Liuhe explained casually. Of course, that's for ordinary situations. For a sniper of Chen Liuhe's caliber, he often stuck around after taking out a target, smoked a cigarette, waited for the enemy to surround him, and then wiped them all out.
"Heh, Miss. To have someone send a sniper after you, you're clearly no ordinary person either," Chen Liuhe said, standing up nonchalantly, not worrying for a second that the sniper might defy convention and take another shot. Even if he remained exposed in the sniper's field of vision, a sniper of that caliber wouldn't be able to harm a single hair on his head. A seasoned sniper takes 2.3 seconds from aiming to firing. Unfortunately for them, Chen Liuhe's reaction speed far surpassed that. He could precisely predict the bullet's trajectory and evade it the instant the trigger was pulled. This was his terrifying, superhuman ability.
"Running into you has been a total disaster. You clean up this mess yourself. Now, can I get my money? Eight hundred, no haggling. I even saved your life, so this is an absolute bargain!" Chen Liuhe stated calmly, a composure almost unbelievable for someone who had just been in a shootout.
"I can give you money, as much as you want, but please don't go, okay? I'm scared." Qin Ruohan clutched at Chen Liuhe's clothes, her fear palpable. At this moment, Chen Liuhe was her lifeline. Even a fool could see that he was no ordinary man.
"Heh, you're scared? Don't play innocent with me. If you can attract a sniper, how simple could you possibly be?" Chen Liuhe scoffed, flipping on the living room lights. The room instantly brightened. "Even if you're scared, you should call the police. What good am I? Besides, if they dared to target you with a sniper, they're probably not afraid of you reporting them. Good luck."
"Are you really not going to help me? I know you're not ordinary; you have the ability to help me," Qin Ruohan pleaded, her beautiful eyes misty.
Chen Liuhe shook his head. "Unfortunately, you've misjudged me. I'm just a common citizen. I can't get involved in your kind of deadly trouble."
Hearing this, Qin Ruohan's heart sank. "Alright," she said, defeated. "We're strangers. I shouldn't drag you into such dangerous matters." With that, she pulled out a stack of money from her handbag and offered it to Chen Liuhe. "You saved my life. This is your reward."
Chen Liuhe smiled, not taking the entire stack. Instead, he pulled out eight bills. "I'm a man of principles. I won't extort you. What's mine, not a cent less. What's not mine, I won't take a cent more."
His "righteous" words were spoken with grave seriousness, though God knew how much he wanted to pocket all the money. But he was also afraid this woman would cling to him, and he didn't want the trouble. For safety, Chen Liuhe reluctantly stuck to his principles.
"Oh, a friendly tip: that sniper wasn't really trying to kill you. Most likely, they just wanted to scare you. Keep that in mind." Chen Liuhe said. He had deduced this from the sniper's first shot—even if he hadn't tackled her, that bullet would have merely grazed her smooth face, not taken her life.
Soon after Chen Liuhe left, a shaken and terrified Qin Ruohan received an unknown call. Hearing the voice, Qin Ruohan became furious: "Forget about it! I will never let your ambitions succeed!"
Downstairs, Chen Liuhe faintly heard Qin Ruohan's hysterical outburst. He smiled, thinking: This woman has quite a fiery temper.
Chen Liuhe wasn't the kind of living saint who'd empty his pockets to help every person in need, nor was he a cold-blooded executioner. He wasn't ignoring the beautiful tenant's plight out of heartlessness; he knew she wasn't in mortal danger. Whoever targeted her definitely had another agenda, and killing her wasn't it. Besides, Chen Liuhe had seen too many such schemes, to the point of being numb. He had just managed to temporarily escape the whirlpool of deceit and danger, and at the moment, he had no desire to invite unnecessary trouble.
He climbed onto his old tricycle, looked up at the floor where Qin Ruohan lived, and shook his head with a bitter smile. "It seems 'All-Round Domestic Expert' is a high-risk job too. I really need to find another line of work."
The next morning, Chen Liuhe woke up early and prepared breakfast: pickled vegetables and plain congee. After they ate, he pedaled his tricycle, as usual, to drop Shen Qingwu off at school. All day long, Chen Liuhe rode his worn-out tricycle through the city's streets and alleys, doing what every common citizen did to make a living.
Today, however, Chen Liuhe had an additional task: job hunting. He visited over a dozen recruiting companies with his incomplete resume. Yet, not a single one showed any insight. The moment they saw Chen Liuhe's resume, they cast disdainful glances and told him to leave.
After another failed interview, Chen Liuhe walked out of a real estate company with a dejected back, feeling somewhat disheartened. He squatted by his old tricycle, smoking and looking at his resume. What the hell was wrong with it? Were all the interviewers blind? Couldn't they see his outstanding qualities?
If anyone knew what Chen Liuhe was thinking, they'd spit in his face. This is what he called a resume?!
Name: Chen Liuhe. Age: 25. Gender: See for yourself. Education: Infinitely high. Skills: Omnipotent. Work Experience: Served in the military, carried guns, chased bullets, endured injuries, and was once sent by the organization to the Southwest region for "deep re-education."
Especially that last point. Every time someone probed further, they would discover that this shameless fellow's "deep re-education" meant he had been imprisoned in the Southwest—he was a genuine ex-con. And what about "gender," "education," and "skills"? What kind of ridiculous entries were those? Any interviewer would immediately discard such a lax resume. Coupled with Chen Liuhe's criminal record, it was perfectly normal for him to be unable to find a job.
More importantly, this guy looked down on ordinary positions. Today, at all dozen companies, he aimed directly for managerial positions or higher.
If he could find a job, then this world truly would be crazy!