A bullet flew to Yuan Yu’s right, firmly embedding itself in the door ahead of the two and causing a thin line of blood to appear on his cheek from the brush of metal to flesh.
This time, Yuan Yu didn’t attempt to restrain his scream. He ducked low to the ground, sobbing about something or other, and the burly bodyguard that had appeared so intimidating earlier was sprawled over the table and looking ahead with a face that clearly displayed his dumbfounded appearance.
“What are you doing!?” Fu Zhen reacted first, kicking her subordinate to the floor and glaring at him before hurriedly rushing to Zhang Li’s side. “Are you two alright? I assure you, I had not ordered him to–”
“I sincerely apologize for my clumsiness. In all my years handling a weapon, I’ve never had such an incident occur...” The burly man hurried back to his feet, approached the two with a deep bow, and explained despondently, his face white as a sheet at the thought of such a rookie mistake occurring.
Zhang Li was shocked stiff by the event, not able to do anything except turn and look at the two after half a day.
When he opened his mouth to speak, Fu Zhen seemed to realize something and ruthlessly kicked the back of her subordinate’s leg, dropping him onto his knees with a cry of pain.
“M-Mistress, it just went off on it’s own when I was cleaning the mess. I tripped a little, but I even put the safety back on, how could something like that happen?” He asked quietly, examining the pistol in his hands with despair in his eyes.
“I will apologize on my subordinate’s behalf as well. I can assure you that we had no intention of harming you or your assistant, nor changing our deal.” The woman’s face softened as she looked to the sincerely confused man, grabbing the gun from him and hurriedly ejecting the magazine and the bullet stored in the chamber. “Please forget about this incident.”
“I… suppose that no harm was done. Anyone could tell that it was a simple accident.” Zhang Li explained calmly, although his face showed a cramped and uncomfortable expression. He had never thought that this woman would go so far to threaten him! This wasn’t an accident, it was an intimidation tactic!
There was no reason for her to go back on her word, was there? What are the chances that her right hand man had actually misfired? Zhang Li’s head was beginning to hurt from how close the two of them had come to dying, his confidence sapping abnormally quickly.
“Ah, I nearly died…” Yuan Yu mumbled miserably, finally raising himself onto his trembling feet with dead eyes. “The world is too scary, who brings a gun to a simple meeting? I can’t understand these crazy rich people…”
As his assistant stumbled out of the room, Zhang Li sent the two a meaningful glance before leaving again, walking backwards to ensure they didn’t intend to shoot at him as he left.
If the pair watching him leave wasn’t feeling so miserable as well, they would have probably laughed at this sight, but as it was they only stared with complex emotions and then breathed out long sighs after the door closed behind him.
The CEO and his assistant left the Fu estate in a daze, stepping into Zhang Li’s car without saying a word to one another.
“Sir, are you feeling alright?” The driver glanced back at the silent pair, quirking an eyebrow as they both opened and closed their mouths a few times before settling back into complete silence.
“We’re going to Su Jia’s company.” Zhang Li eventually forced out with a tired face, a hand pressed over his eyes as though to cover his unease. “Drive slowly, please.”
It wasn’t long after they had started to drive that Zhang Li’s servant interrupted the two’s wordless conversation, his voice clearly carrying a hint of confusion.
“Sir, it seems that there’s a problem with the car.” He glanced back to his boss’ face that was darkening with fury. After a long moment, Zhang Li’s expression relaxed somewhat and he sighed with resignation.
So what if the car’s broken? It’s not as bad as being shot and killed!
“Just pull over. Yuan Yu, call a taxi.” He ordered the two calmly, waving his hand as though he wasn’t bothered. After a moment, he realized that the driver hadn’t heard him and was staring blankly at something on the car’s console. The car gently came to a stop in the middle of the street.
“I said to pull over, are you deaf?” Zhang Li’s rage returned once he saw the cars piling up behind them and so he sneered, kicking the driver’s seat like a petulant child. “Are you incapable? You should know the meaning of ‘pull over’!”
“Ah, I don’t have any service.” Yuan Yu mindlessly muttered to himself, still in a daze from his near death experience. “Mister Zhang, does your phone–”
“Get out of the car!” The driver shrieked suddenly, pressing himself against the door and scrambling outside after throwing it open in a panic.
Zhang Li was stunned for only a moment before following his example, hurrying out of the car and dragging his stupid assistant by his arm outside.
Just as the two exited the vehicle, a roaring inferno spread over the top of it and engulfed it completely.
Yuan Yu stared dumbly at the sight, a cloud of smoke quickly obscuring his vision.
“What’s the meaning of this!?” Zhang Li roared madly, leading his assistant away from the area. After catching up with the cowardly driver, he grabbed him by the collar and vented angrily. “Before leaving, didn’t you think to say ‘fire’? How useless can you be?”
“Sir, that was really too unnatural! How could the engine suddenly go up in flames after running perfectly fine all this time?” The driver was dumbstruck. The car hadn’t had any problems before and it was even newly bought this year! It was unthinkable that it would suddenly catch fire and spread that quickly, wasn’t it obviously sabotaged?
“Then, Fu Zhen?” Zhang Li questioned suddenly, thinking back to the attempted murder that he had suffered earlier. Was this another intimidation tactic? This woman really used bizarre methods! She should just openly threaten him if that was her intention!
Zhang Li furiously released his helpless servant, feeling stifled in his chest from all his overflowing negative emotions. He’d only been reborn a few days ago, yet things were already going so poorly.
Normally, he should’ve had a few years of peace before he began to suffer, wasn’t this second chance too unfair?
His frustration was punctuated by the sound of an explosion not far away, followed by the screams of passerby.
“Call the fire department!” Zhang Li barked irritably, his annoyance rising as he was looking at the two frozen in fright employees.
“Yes, sir. Mister Yuan, can you go and see if anyone was hurt in the explosion?” The driver nodded promptly, awakening from his shaken state, and turned to the assistant with an apologetic look. “Be careful to not go too close.”
Yuan Yu wanted to reject this suggestion completely, but he somehow ended up going with the flow and following the driver’s orders. He wandered back to where the car was covered in a thick barrier of smoke.
“Is everyone safe?” He called out helplessly, feeling that there was not much point in checking at all. What would he even be able to do if someone was injured? Just as he was about to head back, he stopped when he heard a weak voice calling out.
“I-I’m stuck, help me…” A faint and fragile sounding female voice arose from somewhere inside the smoke, causing Yuan Yu to freeze in his movement.
“T-The fire department has been called!” He replied back with what he intended to be a comforting tone, however he ended up sounding a bit stiff as he was hesitating about whether to approach her in the smoke or not. “Is there any fire where you are?”
“No… It’s just painful, my car was crushed… Please help me…”
After saying her piece, the originally faint voice became even more quiet and drifted off.
“A-Ah, keep talking! I’m coming, just wait a little while!” Yuan Yu couldn’t help panicking and he began to wade through the smoke, wondering where the other drivers that had been parked behind their car had gone.
After a moment, he received his answer. A few voices rose from somewhere in the distance, the noise of their conversations drifting through the air as they were speaking with each other or on cellphones about the incident. Although he couldn’t see them through the smoke, they should be gathered not far away, outside of the range of danger.
“Hey, are you still there? Can you talk?” He fumbled awkwardly in the smoke, heading to the area that should be just behind the fireball that was Zhang Li’s car. Although the air became smoky to the point of choking him and the heat began to become unbearable, he persisted and continued calling for her.
A thumping could be heard a short distance away and Yuan Yu naturally deduced that it was the girl who no longer had the energy to speak. He picked up pace again and hurried to the location, finally making out a car in the dense smoke.
The entire front was smashed by a fragment of Zhang Li’s car that had been blown clear away, it was a miracle that the girl inside wasn’t killed immediately. Her body was mostly free of the wreckage, however her legs seemed to be pinned underneath the front section of her vehicle.
“I’m here, can you still hear me?” He hurried to her side, kneeling down and looking for any way to free her from the metal monstrosity. “What’s your name? Let’s talk to stay awake, alright?”
“Wu Xue…” Wu Xue, the beauty whose face had lost all color due to blood loss, murmured in a daze. Her eyelids fluttered as she attempted to remain conscious. “My father is so rich, he’ll pay you so well if you save me… Please don’t let me die… Ah…”
Yuan Yu was slightly stunned by her words. She’s trying to bribe people even in this situation, he really couldn’t understand rich people. Well, what was money when you were at death’s door? He’d do the same, if he was wealthy like this girl or Zhang Li.
“I’m going to try and get your legs out. It might hurt, but please bear with it.” He resolved himself in his heart after seeing the girl’s face. If it was just a voice, then maybe he could’ve returned to Zhang Li and the driver, but now he felt an obligation to help the person in front of him.
Yuan Yu leaned over and began pulling on the metal that was crushing her. Although the air was quite hot, it naturally hadn’t melted the car and so wasn’t pliable enough to pull off even with a huge amount of effort.
The assistant was at a loss. He wasn’t a fireman or something, how would he be able to free her without tools? After a moment, he shook his thoughts away and grabbed a long and straight piece of metal to use as leverage.
After exerting all his strength to stick the object into the same opening as where Wu Xue’s legs were trapped, he threw all of his body weight and his best effort onto the other end.
“Crawl!” He called out to the dazed girl, hoping that she would still be aware enough to hear and act on his words.
To his relief, the opening widened a little and the girl managed to scoot away from the wreckage and out of the crevice. Once she had moved far enough, he dropped the stick and backed away to catch his breath.
“Thank you…” Wu Xue sobbed pitifully, her wide eyes filled with tears as she buried her face into her arms. “My legs really hurt, come help me…”
Yuan Yu naturally nodded and hurried over to her, feeling both exhausted and overflowing with energy as his adrenaline had kicked in. After heaving the girl onto his back, he hurried towards the voices of others.
“There’s two people coming out of the smoke!” Someone called out in surprise and people flooded over, supporting the tired assistant and helping lower the girl to a safe place on the ground.
“It hurts, ah!” Wu Xue had completely fallen apart now that she was safe and was now sobbing loudly enough to attract the pitying gazes of all the onlookers. “My legs, my legs…”
“Mister Yuan!” The driver emerged from the crowd, having been surprised to see the assistant coming out of the smoke with another person. “You really went in and saved a person, don’t you think you could’ve been hurt?”
And who was it that sent me into that danger? Yuan Yu scowled at his coworker in his heart, but he was aware that neither him nor Zhang Li had expected him to go into the smoke of his own accord.
They simply assumed he would come back and let them know if he saw that anyone was injured, so they could properly redirect emergency services, yet he went and saved her without anyone else’s assistance.
While Yuan Yu was ignoring the driver and feeling a bit self satisfied for playing hero, his boss was staring at the person he saved with a strange expression.
Zhang Li naturally recognized the pitiful figure of Wu Xue, that spoiled rich daughter that had caused him so much trouble in his last life. After glancing at his assistant who wasn’t too concerned about the girl after saving her, he lit a candle for him in his heart.
Yuan Yu, you’re truly unlucky to have gotten involved with that troublesome woman!
