Chapter 7: Warmth With You p1
Fang Qiang had never been in a fight before. Seeing two gleaming knives lunging at him, his instinctive reaction was to dodge backward.
He moved incredibly fast, but to the two robbers, the faster he dodged, the more cowardly he seemed.
“Hey, kid, aren’t you the brave hero? What are you running for?” they jeered, brandishing their machetes as they charged after him.
Fang Qiang simply leaped backward again, effortlessly evading their attacks.
At first, the robbers thought that since this man had dared to step forward and play the hero, he must have some skill. They had been on guard. But now, seeing that he only knew how to run, their caution vanished, and they grew arrogant.
“Damn you for sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong! I’m going to chop you to pieces!”
With a roar, the two blades became a blur, forming a tight net of steel that closed in on him.
By now, Fang Qiang had retreated to a corner with nowhere left to go. But the series of backward leaps had given him a newfound confidence in his body’s capabilities, agility, and reaction speed.
Amid the flashing blades, Fang Qiang stopped dodging. Instead, he charged forward. He moved like a gust of wind, slipping right through the gap between the two machetes.
The two robbers saw only a blur before their target vanished. As they stared at each other in bewilderment, they each felt a light tap on their shoulder.
They spun around in horror to see Fang Qiang standing behind them, wiggling his eyebrows smugly.
“You’re asking for it!”
Humiliated and enraged, they swung their knives and charged again.
Fang Qiang laughed heartily. As if addicted to the thrill, he repeatedly weaved through their attacks to get behind them, playing a game.
Each time, the blades would graze past him, so close he could feel their icy chill, yet he would always manage to dodge by a hair’s breadth, without a single scratch.
The tall leader of the robbers grew frantic watching from the side, completely forgetting about the shop owner as he yelled encouragement.
“You guys have been working hard. Time for a break!” Fang Qiang chuckled. Once again, he slipped behind his opponents and suddenly kicked one of them square in the backside.
“Waaah!”
The robber let out a strange cry and went flying, crashing through four or five shelves before tumbling to the ground, where he was pelted by falling merchandise.
Fang Qiang himself was taken aback, not expecting his kick to be so powerful. The remaining robber also froze for a second. Fang Qiang recovered first. He leaped to the man’s side, grabbed a steel pot from a shelf, and brought it down squarely on his head.
CLANG!
The man didn’t even have time to cry out before his eyes rolled back and he collapsed, unconscious. That was too easy! Not satisfying at all!
Fang Qiang shrugged with regret and turned his gaze to the only one left standing: the tall robber.
The tall robber was dumbstruck. He swung his machete wildly. “Come on! You bastard… I’m not afraid of you! Come on…”
“Good that you’re not afraid. I was worried you’d run away…” Fang Qiang said, his words tumbling out like a tongue twister, a joyful expression on his face as he walked forward.
But the tall robber let out a terrified scream, vaulted over the counter, and scrambled to escape.
He was just about to reach the door when a hand grabbed the back of his neck and dragged him back. The tall robber cried out and instinctively swung his knife backward, but the moment he raised his arm, the weapon was snatched from his grasp.
“Didn’t you say you weren’t afraid? Why are you trying to run?” Fang Qiang complained, annoyed. He shoved the knife back into the man’s hand and took a few steps back. “Come on, let’s go again.”
The tall robber was utterly bewildered. With a roar, he threw the knife at Fang Qiang and bolted in the opposite direction.
He heard a whoosh and felt a hand grab his neck again, dragging him back to the same spot.
“Please, that’s a machete, not a throwing knife. What are you doing? Let’s start over!”
“You son of a bitch! I’ll kill you! Aaaah…”
“What’s wrong with you? Can you please show a little professional spirit? Again!”
“Brother, please let me go… I’m just a part-timer doing this on the side! Boo hoo…”
“Hey, hey, this is my first time in a fight! Can’t you let me have a little fun? Don’t run!”
“Waaaaah… Help me…”
…
The farce finally ended with the wail of police sirens.
The shop owner had called the police. She had slipped out while the men were distracted and used a passerby’s phone to call for help. The police arrived fifteen minutes later.
The poor tall robber had been tormented for a full fifteen minutes—knocked down, running away, being dragged back, and forced to attack again, over and over.
It was inhuman torture.
So much so that when the police rushed in, the robber, his body and mind severely traumatized, saw them as saviors. He burst into tears and threw himself at them, begging for protection.
Only then did Fang Qiang, still not fully satisfied, stop. He helped the police arrest all three robbers.
“You’re… Mr. Fang?” The officers all recognized him and were quite surprised. The man had been brought into the station twice recently; nearly every cop knew his face. Why the sudden change of heart? Why was he suddenly doing good deeds?
“Yeah, it’s me,” Fang Qiang said with a grin. “I was just doing some shopping and saw a robbery in progress, so I decided to step in. Ha, it’s just my duty as a good citizen. No need for a commendation.”
The officers exchanged glances. One of them said politely, “Mr. Fang, please come with us to the station to give a witness statement.”
“Sure, no problem.” Fang Qiang was in a great mood now, his previous animosity toward the police having vanished. He got into the police car with them, and they all headed to the Dragon City police station.
As fate would have it, the officers in charge of the interrogation were none other than Zhou Cong and Ruan Lin.
“What are you doing here again?” The two of them were stunned to see him.
“Don’t look at me like that. Today, I’m a good citizen. I did you guys a favor and got rid of some criminals,” Fang Qiang said cheerfully, pulling up a chair and sitting down.
Ruan Lin looked him up and down, a strange expression on her face. She suddenly pulled Zhou Cong aside and began whispering to him.
Fang Qiang didn’t mind. I acted heroically today. They can’t possibly accuse me of breaking the law again, he thought, and waited patiently.
After a moment, the two officers returned to their duties. They took the three robbers into the interrogation room and began questioning them.
Fang Qiang had expected to be called in to give his statement, but a long time passed with no word. The police didn’t even thank him. He started to get annoyed and impatient. Finally, after the robbers had been interrogated and led away, Ruan Lin walked over to him.
“If you don’t need my statement, why did you bring me here? I’m leaving,” Fang Qiang said angrily, standing up to go.
But Ruan Lin blocked his path. “You can’t leave,” she said arrogantly. “We still have questions for you.”
The young officer was apparently used to being bossy. Her rude tone was incredibly grating.
Fang Qiang’s anger flared. “What crime did I commit? On what grounds…”
“Weren’t you just burned from head to toe in a fire?” she cut him off. “How are you completely recovered today? And with enough energy to get into a fight?”
It hit Fang Qiang like a ton of bricks. Damn it, he thought. In his carelessness, he had completely forgotten about that. How was he going to explain this?
Should he tell her that the professor’s agent had saved him?
No, absolutely not.
Not only did he have no love for the police, especially this particular officer, but he also had a gut feeling that if his invention was exposed, it would bring him nothing but trouble.
If it were just a simple physique enhancement agent, that would be one thing. But the problem was, it was now mixed with chameleon genes.
If people found out, they would surely treat him like a monster. And other scientists might want to study him as a test subject. That would be a disaster.
He had no choice but to bluff. “The doctor said I have a strong constitution… I recover quickly…”
“Who are you trying to fool?” A cold smile appeared on Ruan Lin’s pretty face. “Someone with severe burns all over their body, healed in less than two days? You can tell that to the ghosts.”
“I… I don’t know how it happened either!” Fang Qiang decided to stick to his guns. “I’m healed, and that’s that. If you find it so unbelievable, why don’t you go ask the doctor?”
