Liu Yutong and Gao Min exchanged a glance, both seeing a flicker of surprise in each other’s eyes.
Pearl City’s public security was arguably the safest in the entire country—especially on the turf controlled by the Ten Thousand Dragons Society. Open street chases were unheard of, and even scuffles among petty thugs were rare.
It wasn’t a question of courage; anyone bold enough to try would face only two outcomes: either get invited for tea by the police, or get taken away for “legal education” by the Ten Thousand Dragons brothers.
Let alone the fact that today, nearly three thousand core members of the Ten Thousand Dragons Society had gathered here.
So they really wanted to know who was foolish enough to barge in here.
“Come on, let’s go check it out.” Liu Yutong stood up.
“Alright!” Gao Min nodded, finding the whole thing absurd.
In all her years on duty, she had never encountered such a ridiculous scene—chasing someone down right under the noses of the Ten Thousand Dragons?
And on top of that, in front of thousands of people.
What was the difference between that and daring to make trouble on the doorstep of a god?
The noise of shouting and fighting grew closer.
“Stop right there! Don’t run!”
“Damn, he’s quick!”
“Grab him and kill him!”
“......”
Just as they stepped out of the private room, Liu Yutong and the others saw a young man sprinting desperately toward the street, running for his life.
That man was Lin Feng.
That night, he had been bored stiff alone in the hotel. Since he hadn’t had a chance to explore Pearl City properly over the past few days, he decided to sneak out to buy some local specialties to take back to the imperial capital—as a little hometown keepsake for Aunt Jiang.
He had shopped for about two hours and bought a lot of stuff.
Just as he was standing by the roadside, waiting for a taxi to return to the hotel, he happened to notice a few suspicious characters lurking in an alley behind him, muttering something he couldn’t make out.
He hadn’t thought much of it at first, but while waiting for the cab, he instinctively glanced in their direction.
That single glance changed everything.
Among those men, one wearing a duckbill cap happened to look up, locking eyes with Lin Feng.
Their gazes met.
Lin Feng froze for a second, muttering to himself that the guy must be crazy—why wear a hat so late at night?
Just as he turned to hail a cab, the man suddenly pointed a finger at him and barked, “What are you staring at?!”
Lin Feng hesitated, turning back with an innocent look. “I wasn’t staring at you guys.”
“Not staring? Then what were you looking at over here?”
“I was just taking a look.”
“Taking a look? You’re ‘just taking a look’ this late at night?”
Lin Feng was irritated by this unreasonable attitude. After all, he was the young master of the Lin family in the imperial capital. How could he swallow such an insult? Acting on impulse, he shot back, “Yeah, I was staring at you. So what?”
But the moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them.
Because those men all stood up at once, their faces fierce as they zeroed in on him, muttering things he couldn’t fully understand.
“Damn it, this kid is trouble!”
“He must have overheard what we were saying!”
“If that gets to Liu Yutong’s ears, we’re finished.”
“Grab him! Don’t let him get away!”
“Take him down!”
Seeing the danger, Lin Feng turned and bolted.
As he ran, he cursed himself: Lin Feng, you idiot! Are you brain dead? Picking a fight with a bunch of thugs this late at night?
Lin Feng sprinted for his life, thinking that after a bit of running, they’d give up. But when he glanced back, he realized he had seriously underestimated how vengeful these people were.
Not only did they refuse to give up the chase, they even called in reinforcements and armed themselves with machetes, looking determined to chop him into pieces.
Terrified, he even dumped the tens of thousands worth of local products he had just bought.
At the same time, he cursed inwardly: What the hell? Are people in Pearl City this petty? Is the local temperament this brutal?
All because of a glance? And they pull out machetes over it?
The chase dragged on for who knows how long. Lin Feng fled in panicked confusion, zigzagging like a headless fly, until—by some bizarre twist of fate—he ended up near the Ten Thousand Dragons Plaza.
By then, several cuts had opened up on his body, blood seeping out. He had clearly been injured during the escape.
But even after being wounded, he managed to break free again and run even faster.
Maybe it was the adrenaline pumping wildly in a life-or-death situation, temporarily numbing the pain and unleashing his survival instinct, that kept him going.
When Lin Feng spotted a brightly lit street up ahead, still bustling with the smell of barbecue and showing no signs of shutting down, he almost cried tears of joy.
Salvation was at hand!
As long as he reached that crowded area, those pursuers wouldn’t dare follow him. He could even get someone to call the police and an ambulance.
But just as he reached the street entrance and was about to scream “Help!” he froze like he had been struck by lightning.
He didn’t even feel the pain from his wounds anymore.
What... what was that?
That pitch-black mass—was that people?
He rubbed his eyes instinctively and looked again.
They were people!
All people!
One long street was packed with men in black suits, seated densely from end to end—a sea of them so vast he couldn’t even see the other side.
Lin Feng’s jaw dropped, his mind reeling.
His only thought was: Have I stumbled into a super gang’s gathering?
Or are they filming a sequel to Kung Fu Hustle and The Godfather right here?
The group chasing him had finally caught up to the street entrance.
Leading them was the man in the duckbill cap, panting heavily, still cursing, “Run! Run all you want! I’ll make you learn what—(⊙o⊙)!”
His words died halfway as he froze, his mouth still hanging open but no sound coming out.
The few accomplices behind him caught up one by one, equally stunned.
The once noisy street had fallen silent.
One after another, the men in black who had been eating skewers and drinking looked up, their gazes turning in unison toward them.
Several thousand pairs of eyes bore down on Lin Feng and the thugs holding their machetes.
And those thousands of eyes gradually shifted from their normal color to... green.
Like starving wolves spotting a fat sheep.
“Yesss! A chance for merit delivered to our doorstep!”
“I might actually get that commendation flag for bravery!”
“Let me have it—I’m newly promoted and haven’t gotten one yet.”
“It’s only six or seven of them, not enough to go around. What do we do?”
“Simple—whoever’s fastest gets it.”
“......”
Getting a commendation flag in Pearl City these days was getting tougher. Everyone knew why: the crime rate was too low, so there was no work to be done.
Now that a bunch of clueless criminals had practically walked into their laps, they were as excited as wolves spotting meat… their eyes glowing green.
At that moment,
Even though their target was right in front of them, the leader in the duckbill cap had no desire left to seize him—only an overwhelming, bone-deep fear.
I freaking tried to chase someone, and how did I end up in their gang’s hideout?
He stiffly turned his head to look at his accomplices.
His accomplices were also terrified, frantically signaling him with their eyes: Boss, run!
But no matter how hard they—or the ringleader in the baseball cap—tried, they realized their legs wouldn’t obey.
Just then, in the middle of the crowd, a man in black slowly stood up.
Then a second, a third, a fourth... countless men in black rose from their seats, their eyes fixed on them, the green glint in their gaze growing ever brighter.
The baseball cap and his thugs finally couldn’t bear the overwhelming pressure bearing down on them. They dropped to their knees in unison, their cleavers clattering to the ground.
“G-Gentlemen... w-we’re not here to cause trouble.”
“We’re just after that kid... he’s got a beef with us... we’re just chasing him... that’s really all it is!”
No one answered him.
Thousands of men in black simply cracked their knuckles and flashed “friendly” grins, ready to strike at any moment.
The sheer weight of their presence was suffocating.
Lin Feng felt the same way. His mind went blank, and his legs were shaking too.
Just as he was about to kneel down and beg for mercy—wait, no, plead that he was just an innocent bystander—a cool, clear voice rang out beside his ear.
“Lin Feng, are you so bored in the capital that you had to come to my turf and play a real-life game of escape?”
