Bai Liu stepped over the bodies sprawled across the stairwell, a bloodstained baseball bat in one hand and Du Sanying's wrist in the other, and walked out.
Du Sanying trembled. "Mr. Bai Liu… where are we going now?"
"I don't know."
As Bai Liu stepped out of the narrow building entrance, pale moonlight fell across his calm face. "Someone doesn't want us staying here."
Motorcycles roared around the entrance. The riders were tall and fierce-looking, clearly up to no good. Several engines revved violently as they turned their bikes and charged straight toward Bai Liu.
Bai Liu twisted his wrist and pulled Du Sanying behind him. "Close your eyes."
Du Sanying shut them nervously.
One of the speeding motorcycles hit a slick of discarded vegetable oil on the ground. Miraculously, it skidded past Du Sanying on both sides before crashing into the wall behind Bai Liu with an explosive bang.
The rider, covered in dust and grease, coughed out a mouthful of black smoke and collapsed motionless.
Bai Liu didn't even glance at him. He tapped Du Sanying's shoulder. "Open your eyes."
He straddled Mu Sicheng's heavy motorcycle, and Du Sanying scrambled onto the back seat.
Already shaken to tears, Du Sanying clung tightly to Bai Liu's waist. "Mr. Bai Liu, what are they trying to do? What are we going to do?"
Bai Liu inserted the key and twisted it. The engine roared to life.
"They're here to surround and kill us," he said evenly.
Du Sanying burst into louder sobs. "What about us?!"
Bai Liu smiled faintly. "Of course, we're here to surround and kill them."
The next second, he twisted the throttle to the limit. The motorcycle shot forward like an arrow.
Du Sanying let out a piercing scream, his mouth open so wide his uvula was visible.
Wind battered his face as they sped forward. "Mr. Bai Liu! Didn't you say you don't know how to ride?!"
"Lower the visor," Bai Liu said calmly. "You'll swallow less wind."
Du Sanying obediently lowered it. "But you don't know how to ride a motorcycle!"
"Correct," Bai Liu replied. "But I've ridden shared electric bikes before. It should feel similar."
Du Sanying choked. "How is that similar?! One is a shared e-bike, the other is a heavy motorcycle! That's completely different!"
"If you wanted to deal with them, why not borrow Captain Tang's car instead of Mu Sicheng's bike?!"
"Don't you think heavy motorcycles are cool?" Bai Liu asked mildly.
Du Sanying wailed. "Cool isn't safe! A car would be safer!"
After a pause, Bai Liu added calmly, "I can't drive."
Du Sanying froze. "You've never gotten a driver's license?!"
"The tuition is expensive. I take shared bikes to commute. Learning to drive a car I can't afford would be a waste of money."
"I can't afford a car."
Du Sanying was speechless.
Bai Liu led them through remote, sparsely populated roads. The bikers chased relentlessly, nearly colliding with him multiple times.
Du Sanying glanced back repeatedly, terrified.
These people were insane. They didn't care about pedestrians at all.
Bai Liu was clearly steering toward less crowded areas, yet some of the pursuers cut corners recklessly. If Bai Liu hadn't diverted toward intersections with people a few times to force them to slow down, several innocent bystanders would have already been killed.
No wonder Bai Liu left home on a motorcycle instead of driving. The residential area was crowded. If these maniacs sped through there, casualties would be inevitable. A highway would've been worse.
But what now?
"Mr. Bai Liu," Du Sanying cried, "can we just enter the game?"
"After we solve this," Bai Liu said through his helmet. "Don't leave trouble for the future. Otherwise, they'll block you again next time."
Du Sanying swallowed. "Then how do we deal with them?"
"There's a driving training ground on the outskirts. It's empty at this hour." Bai Liu's tone remained steady. "We'll go there."
—————————————————
At the training ground, Mu Sicheng squatted boredly while Tang Erda paced with a grim expression.
"Can you stop walking?" Mu Sicheng complained.
"Where did Bai Liu go?" Tang Erda demanded.
"You've asked that twenty times. Relax. Even if something happens, Bai Liu will be fine."
He yawned. "He's erratic, but reliable. Otherwise, I wouldn't have lent him my bike."
Tang Erda finally sat down, staring at the dense field of nails Bai Liu had instructed them to scatter. "Will these really work?"
Mu Sicheng rolled his eyes. "At high speeds, motorcycle tires are fragile. A tiny nail can deflate them instantly. The front wheel will swing violently, and the rider will be thrown."
He smirked. "What surprises me more is that Bai Liu actually chose such a remote place to reduce casualties. He could've wiped those idiots out at his doorstep using Du Sanying."
Tang Erda frowned. "Protecting others is what we should do."
"But it's fine if we don't," Mu Sicheng replied coolly. "It's not like Bai Liu started this."
Tang Erda's voice turned cold. "You didn't kill Senior, but Senior died because of you. Don't you feel guilty?"
Mu Sicheng fell silent. After a moment, he said quietly, "I might. Bai Liu definitely doesn't."
"He's doing this so people like us can feel at ease."
—————————————————
In the distance, engines roared.
Bai Liu's motorcycle approached at extreme speed.
"Damn!" Mu Sicheng stood up. "Why is he going full throttle?!"
"No," Tang Erda said sharply. "Something happened."
Mu Sicheng squinted—then his pupils shrank. "Someone's tied up on the bikes behind him!"
Lu Yizhan was bound and unconscious on one motorcycle. On another, Fang Dian—hair disheveled, red bow crooked—was also tied up.
The riders laughed arrogantly. "Surprised? We split up. Caught them too."
"If you surrender and let us run you over, we'll spare them."
"If not, we'll throw them off."
Du Sanying sobbed. "Who are they?!"
"Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian," Bai Liu said coldly. "They helped cover my living expenses in high school."
"For me, they matter."
His eyes were pitch black—devoid of warmth.
He accelerated straight toward the nail field.
At the last second, he flipped positions with Du Sanying, forcing him into the driver's seat.
"I don't know how to drive!" Du Sanying shrieked.
Behind them, chaos erupted. Tires burst. Bikes collided. Riders were flung violently.
Yet Du Sanying somehow avoided every nail and collision.
Bai Liu's shirt billowed in the wind as he stared at the two hostage bikes. When they lost control and were about to crash, he snapped out a white bone whip and tore open a distorted space on the ground.
Lu Yizhan and Fang Dian were cushioned by it.
Bai Liu leapt forward and caught them.
Explosions erupted behind him.
When Tang Erda and Mu Sicheng arrived, Bai Liu handed the unconscious pair over.
"Don't let them wake up," he said.
Then he looked at Tang Erda. "You brought a gun. Give it to me."
Tang Erda hesitated.
"I won't do anything illegal," Bai Liu said evenly.
After a pause, Tang Erda handed it over.
Bai Liu dragged the two kidnappers from the wreckage.
They saw the gun and panicked. "Killing us is illegal! You'll be hunted!"
Bai Liu tilted his head. "Didn't you say no one remembers if it's erased?"
They trembled. "Don't you feel guilty?"
Bai Liu raised the gun calmly.
They scrambled for it.
One grabbed it and aimed at him. "You don't dare kill in real life—but I do!"
He pulled the trigger.
Nothing.
Bai Liu smashed his forehead with the bat.
He beat him methodically until the man vomited bile and screamed for death.
The other rammed his own head into a wall in terror.
Just before the first man lost consciousness completely—
"That's enough, Bai Liu."
A woman stepped forward, smiling, holding wet wipes.
Fang Dian.
She crouched beside the nearly unconscious man. "Give them a gun. Let them attack first. Then your counterattack is legitimate self-defense."
She grinned brightly. "You've learned well."
Bai Liu wiped the blood from his face.
"Sister Dian," he said quietly, "why are you awake?"
"Don't worry. Old Lu isn't."
She kicked the men lightly. "They're not dead, right?"
Bai Liu didn't answer.
Fang Dian flashed an eight-toothed smile. "Same rule as high school. If you do something bad, we'll help you write a good confession. I won't let Lao Lu find out."