"These guys are clearly up to no good!"
Yu Xin's eyes sparkled, not with fear, but with a surge of eager excitement.
Liu Yutong wiped the corner of her mouth with a napkin, her expression seeming to show she didn't take the dozen or so men opposite them seriously at all.
Lan Die also quietly felt for the dagger in her sleeve, ready to strike at any moment.
Su Mansu, however, was somewhat more nervous. On their side, there were only four women. Opposite them, counting Hawke and those other foreigners plus the seven or eight thugs with dragons and tigers tattooed on their arms, there were over a dozen people. In a real fight, it looked like a lost cause no matter how you sliced it.
What surprised her most was that Hawke and his crew had gotten out of jail so quickly.
Liu Yutong and the others also found it suspicious, guessing they had probably paid for bail. Otherwise, by normal procedure, they should have been detained for at least a few days.
They might have also used their status as foreigners to go through special channels.
But to seek revenge the moment they got out... that was a bit too hasty. Could it be that these foreigners were all so petty?
Su Mansu's heart beat faster and faster. She took a deep breath, made up her mind, stepped forward, and spread her arms, shielding the other three.
"Boss, this started because of me. I can't let you get involved. You should leave, quickly. I... I'll hold them off. I'm a teacher at the school, they wouldn't dare do anything to me..."
Before Su Mansu could finish her sentence, she heard the sound of shoes hitting the ground behind her.
She instinctively turned her head and saw Liu Yutong take off the black stiletto heels she was wearing today and casually toss them aside.
Yu Xin did the same, and she even somehow produced an expandable baton, flicking it open with a shua sound.
The most outrageous was Lan Die.
Lan Die silently and swiftly gathered her long hair, securing it into a simple bun using just a single chopstick.
Then, as if by magic, she flipped out two daggers with one hand, her eyes suddenly turning cold, carrying a faint, almost imperceptible aura of killing intent.
At that moment, the aura of the three women underwent a dramatic transformation.
Their usual air of being students or corporate executives vanished completely, replaced by the feel of tough, seasoned fighters ready to charge into battle.
The sheer contrast left Su Mansu stunned. Comparing them to the approaching gang of hoodlums, she felt like a naive innocent who had accidentally stumbled into a gang war.
Liu Yutong smiled at her: "Mansu, don't be nervous. This will be over soon."
Yu Xin chimed in: "Yeah, Mansu-jie, just stand behind us and watch. There's no need to be afraid of a little scene like this."
Su Mansu: "..."
That's more like it!
Suddenly, it all made sense!
What happened to the proper, legitimate group company?
This presence of yours, this combat-ready reaction... you all look more professional than that gang of hoodlums over there!
"It's them! Fuck! It's these women who made me lose face!" Hawke pointed at Liu Yutong and the others, speaking in broken Mandarin to a greasy-looking man leading the group who wore a thick gold chain.
The man had a toothpick in his mouth. His gaze swept over Liu Yutong, Yu Xin, and the others, and he grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
"Young Master Hawke, these delicate little girls took you down? You foreigners are too damn useless! But then... these chicks really aren't bad looking."
"Oho... taking their shoes off? Planning to fight us?"
"Hahaha..."
The thugs behind the man burst into laughter, clearly thinking the girls on the other side were overestimating themselves.
"Scram! All of you, get lost! Don't get in the way here!"
"..."
Seeing the situation turning ugly, the street food stall owner and the other customers quickly moved away, afraid of getting caught in the crossfire.
A fight was imminent.
Liu Yutong looked at Hawke: "What, didn't get enough of a lesson earlier?"
Hawke, emboldened by his backup, laughed arrogantly: "Fuck! The cops were around earlier. Now, let's see who can help you. You dare make me lose so much face? If I don't make you get on your knees and beg me today, my name isn't Hawke!"
"Oh?"
Liu Yutong raised a delicate eyebrow slightly: "Causing trouble on Chinese soil? It seems you really don't know the harsh realities of the world."
"And you all," she continued, her gaze shifting to the thugs, "are you sure you want to back him up? If you leave now, I might let you off. Otherwise, you'll bear the consequences!"
Her words were spoken lightly, yet carried an inexplicable chill.
The lead thug was provoked by Liu Yutong's tone. He stepped forward, pointing a steel pipe at her. "Little lady, quite the attitude you've got! I wasn't born yesterday. Be smart, apologize nicely to our Young Master Hawke, then have a few drinks with us brothers, and we'll call it even today! Otherwise..."
He didn't finish, but the threat was obvious.
"Otherwise what?" Liu Yutong asked.
Lan Die, who had been almost like a ghost until now, suddenly had killing intent flash in her eyes. She looked at the leader as if he were already a dead man.
The bald thug felt an inexplicable twinge of fear under Lan Die's gaze, but relying on their numbers and the fact their opponents were just a few seemingly frail women, he didn't pay it much mind. "Otherwise, don't blame us brothers for not knowing how to be gentle with the fairer sex!"
Thud!
The moment the lead thug finished his threat, the sinister grin on his face froze instantly.
He slowly lowered his head to look at his left shoulder.
There, a delicately crafted dagger had somehow appeared. The blade was completely buried in his deltoid muscle, leaving only the black hilt protruding, trembling slightly.
Strangely, the wound didn't bleed immediately, and he didn't even feel pain.
"Huh?"
"What is this?"
The thugs beside him were stunned for a moment, then one of them instinctively reached out to touch it.
"Boss, it's a knife. Looks like it's stuck in there."
As he spoke, this underling actually instinctively grabbed the hilt and shua—pulled it out.
Thug Boss: "???"
He stared blankly at the small hole in his shoulder that suddenly began to gush blood, then looked at the still-dripping dagger in his underling's hand. His brain seemed to short-circuit for a few seconds.
Then, a pig-slaughtering scream erupted.
"OW! OW! OW!"
"My arm! My arm! It fucking hurts!"
"You idiot! Who the hell told you to pull it out!!!"
"Sorry! Sorry, boss! I'll put it back right now!"
"Hey... don't!"
The lead thug tried to stop him, but it was too late.
Thud!
The blond underling, with precise technique, inserted the dagger back into the exact same spot. To prevent it from falling out again, he even gave it an extra push.
The world seemed to stand still for a moment.
The expression on the lead thug's face shifted from twisted pain to bewilderment, then to a kind of indescribable collapse.
He looked down again at the dagger that had returned and was now embedded even deeper in his shoulder, then looked up at the underling before him, and instantly lost it.
"Fuck your grandmother! You're done following me! I don't have a brother as stupid as you!" he yelled, kicking the underling and sending him sprawling.
After the younger thug scrambled up from the pain, he looked aggrieved and said to another stunned gangster beside him, "Third Brother, look at the boss. I helped him put it back in, so why is he even angrier?"
The gangster called Third Brother twitched his mouth uncontrollably upon hearing this and silently took two steps away from this idiot teammate.
The boss was right; this guy really couldn't be kept around. Keeping him would be nothing but trouble sooner or later!
