Chapter 40: The Hunter Strikes
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Just when Chu Yue and Bai Ling were about to open the car door, a man with a dry, raspy voice approached them from behind. He came out of nowhere, and it creeped them out.
“Please wait, ladies!”
His voice sent shivers up their spine. They felt uneasy being alone on an empty street with a stranger so late at night.
Chu Yue and Bai Ling turned their heads around to get a look at this weirdo. Was anyone else with him, or was he alone? Dressed in black from head to toe, he was wearing a loose black coat and a wide-brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes. It just so happened that the lights from the streetlamp were shining down at a slanted angle on top of his head, making it impossible to see his face.
Earlier, the girls had checked the street and the area around the car to make sure it was safe. There wasn’t a person in sight. Everything looked okay. So when this stranger came from behind them, walking softly without making a sound, they smelled trouble.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
Chu Yue stared at the person vigilantly as she discretely slipped her hand into her purse and grabbed the pepper spray concealed inside a lipstick case. If this person was up to no good, she was ready to spray him in the face or eyes.
“Are you Ms. Chu Yue?” the man in black inquired.
Chu Yue subconsciously nodded but shook her head immediately after. Panic set in.
“He-heh. It looks like I didn’t get the wrong person!”
Chu Yue caught a glimpse of the man’s hideous devil’s grin in the shadows.
Feeling the situation wasn’t right, she went to grab the pepper spray. But it was too late. The man waved his enormous hand and threw a colorless and odorless powder in her and Bai Ling’s faces. It was devil’s breath. After taking a few breaths, the girls started to feel like zombies.
First, they felt dizzy. Then their vision became blurry and clouded.
The two of them tottered a few steps and collapsed like a couple of wet rag dolls, totally zonked.
“W… what have you done to us?” Bai Ling stammered feebly.
“Relax, this isn’t poison. It’ll make you fall asleep quickly,” the man in black stepped forward and chuckled as if he was admiring two works of art.
Chu Yue struggled to hold herself up. “W…, who are you?”
“It doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you’re Chu Yunxiong’s daughter. If he pays the ransom, I will avert this disaster for him. Just think of yourself as unlucky,” said the man in black.
“L… let go of my friend, t-this doesn’t have anything to… do with her…”
Despite having the temperament of a young mistress, Chu Yue did inherit some of her father’s traits. She was cool-headed and didn’t get rattled as other girls would during a kidnapping. She was even looking out for her best friend.
“My apologies. Aside from money, I happen to like pretty girls, especially students like you two who haven’t been, ahem, excavated much.”
The man in black took a deep breath and said, “The fragrance of your bodies is so…so intoxicating.”
Chu Yue’s face was pale. Bai Ling was in despair. For girls, undoubtedly, their bodies were precious. If they were humiliated by this guy who resembled neither human nor ghost, they might as well kill themselves.
“Do not resist. Be a good girl and follow me, hehe…”
With a sinister laugh, the man in black stretched out his enormous hands that looked like a devil’s claw and grabbed Chu Yue and Bai Ling on the ground.
But at that very moment, he caught a whiff of someone nearby. Years of stalking exclusive prey for a commission coupled with living on the edge had granted him a keen sense of smell that alerted him to danger.
A threat. He felt his adrenalin pumping.
When he turned his head to see who was there, his chest felt tight.
Where is he? He was over there just now!
When the thought flashed through his mind, a burst of energy came from behind him.
His pupils shrank. With no time to think, he immediately leaped to his feet, attempting to avoid the shock.
But it was too late. A brutal palm forcefully struck his back. The man in black quivered and spewed a mouthful of blood, feeling as if he’d been hit by a speeding car. He went flying without control and fell into a posture like that of a dog eating sh*t.
Chu Yue and Bai Ling were terrified. Who sent the man in black flying in the air? They could only see a slender figure in their blurred vision. In the next second, a name popped out in both their minds: Xiao Luo. The character resembled him too much in height and body type.
But under the drug’s effect, they were temporarily paralyzed and couldn’t utter a word. At last, the girls passed out.
The man in black lifted himself slowly from the ground while he looked in horror at the young man wearing a white T-shirt who had super-human strength. If it hadn’t been for the man in black’s swift reflexes, that karate chop would have shattered his back.
Who was that guy?
According to the intelligence he received from the person who hired him, there was no one of his caliber guarding Chu Yue. He’d already lured away two of her regular bodyguards. Where did this guy come from? Was he Chu Yue’s bodyguard too?
“Who are you?” the man in black shouted.
“I’ve been hired to do a job just like you. The difference is that you were hired to kidnap Chu Yue. I was hired to protect her,” Xiao Luo snorted.
Tonight’s encounter made Xiao Luo detest Chu Yue inexplicably. But since he’d already signed a contract with her father, he wouldn’t renege on the deal. He’d been taught to honor his word; this was a guiding principle in his life. Of course, he had also accepted two million dollars in remuneration.
“Talking is useless. Come!”
As soon as the words were spoken, with ghastly eyes, Xiao Luo lunged toward the man like a cheetah. His right palm turned into a claw. Taking an artful trajectory like a slithering snake, he went directly to man in black’s throat against the hissing winds.
What speed is this?
The man in black turned pale.
With no time to think, he ran off, not wanting to provoke, much less deal with, this monster.
“Wanna run?”
Xiao Luo kept chasing the man. Since this kidnapper had already endangered Chu Yue’s life, Xiao Luo didn’t want him to get away, and this was an excellent opportunity to strike. If he seized him once and for all, he wouldn’t have to worry about Chu Yue and keep an eye on her at all times.
But just as Xiao Luo caught up with the man in black, he threw a white powder into his face like a gust of dust.
Xiao Luo dodged it instinctively. When he regained his stance, the man in black had already run more than 20 meters away. This guy was agile. He leaped to a big tree, flipped his body over the walls of a residential area, and vanished into the night.
“Is his zodiac rabbit? He runs fast!”
Xiao Luo decided not to go after him. God knows if there were other hunters out there! Things would get nasty if he kept chasing this guy while others rushed in to kidnap Chu Yue and Bai Ling, who were lying on the ground unconscious. This whole thing was probably part of a well-thought-out multifaceted plan.
He turned around and went back to check on Chu Yue and Bai Ling. Looking at the two unconscious girls on the ground, he frowned.
Then he heard urgent footsteps in the darkness.
Xiao Luo focused his eyes while he thought, there are more of them.
Able to discern people when they were coming from behind him, without even thinking, Xiao Luo swiped at them in an offhand manner. His five fingers were like knives, making a whizzing sound as they tore through the air.
“Mr. Xiao,! We’re Mr. Chu’s bodyguards appointed to guard the young mistress!” one of the men said.