After beating Wu Shanhe men, Lin Huai yelled angrily, “Are you all dumb? You’ve been fooled.”
“What?” Wu Shanhe’s subordinates froze.
One of the students goaded loudly while looking at them, “Don’t listen to his gibberish. He touched our boss’ woman, so he must die tonight!”
Lin Huai was silent. There was nothing he could say to defend himself, and the karaoke lounge lackeys were already here; all of them armed and ready to kill, barricading Lin Huai in the room even after Wu Shanhe’s rampaging exit.
Lin Huai adopted a grim expression as he said, “Get Brother Gang over here, so he can explain himself. Did he bring Ran Ran here, or did I?”
Deep down, Lin Huai knew he was framed; he just had no idea how Ran Ran was involved in all this or why the scheme seemed to be so well-planned, like a set of dominoes falling one on top of the other. Luckily, Lin Huai prepared for a situation like this and kept a hand in his pocket, secretly sending a message that he’d typed out while waiting in the room, ready to send it with a press of a button in case something happened.
Dao Zi and the others would have infiltrated the karaoke by now, ready to fight their way up as soon as they got the message. Tonight, Lin Huai’s goal was to get rid of Chen Gang.
Just then, Chen Gang swaggered into view from among the crowd and said angrily, “Lin Huai, we’ve been nothing but hospitable to you and you stir up trouble in our territory? Do we sports majors look easy to you?
Lin Huai wasn’t that surprised upon seeing Chen Gang acting furious, so he simply smiled and replied, “Just go ahead and frame me, why the excuses? And what’s going on with you all today? Surely you’re not so bold as to murder me in this very room?”
“We won’t go that far.” Chen Gang smiled in delight as he continued, “Not bad, brother. It’s not every day I see people as fearless as you who can remain emotionless at times like this. Bravo, bravo! It’s a pity that you won’t get to walk out unharmed today because I’ll be honest, we don’t plan to kill you but there are just too many people in this room; it would be a shame if you accidentally get crippled.”
Lin Huai gave him a thumbs up and smiled. “I guess Mr. Hu is doing everything to get rid of me. He even planned a scheme like this to kill two birds with one stone.”
Wu Shanhe’s defeated subordinates stood up one by one, and one of them asked curiously, “What’s going on? Did you not take advantage of our boss’ girl?”
The guy was approaching Lin Huai as he spoke.
Lin Huai replied, “Of course not. That girl called Ran Ran was already here when I came. She must have been threatened by Chen Gang to have come here.”
That student exclaimed with indignation, “Oh, so this is a trap!”
Suddenly, another subordinates of Wu Shanhe pointed to him and shouted, “Li Ming, didn’t you say that Lin Huai took our boss’ girl and—”
Before they could finish, Li Ming had closed in on Lin Huai and drove a dagger into his waist from the back. Anybody else would have been caught off guard, because Li Ming was targeting Chen Gang a minute before and then attacking Lin Huai the next.
Chen Gang’s eyes lit up, but just as he was about to cheer, Lin Huai seized Li Ming’s wrist as if he’d anticipated the attack. Then, with a sickening crack, Li Ming fainted with a cry of agony.
Lin Huai tossed Li Ming against the wall before turning to Chen Gang with a smile. “If I’m not wrong, this man must have been your informant. It must have been him who goaded Wu Shanhe to come for me.”
Chen Gang didn’t expect Lin Huai to react swiftly, let alone dispatch Li Ming in one move. Then again, he had the advantage in terms of numbers; as much of a fighter Lin Huai was, he was a sitting duck. Chen Gang stepped back and commanded, “Everybody attack!”
All of Chen Gang’s lackeys swarmed the room, but Wu Shanhe’s subordinates rushed to them, yelling, “Mr. Huai, we’ll lend you a hand.”
Lin Huai led the charge as both sides clashed, but because the opposing gang vastly outnumbered Lin Huai’s, it wasn’t long before he was the only one left on his side.
As a top-notch bodyguard, Lin Huai burst into his element as a one-man killing machine. However, these lackeys were not the plain student fighters on campus but trained gangsters with decent mental fortitude. Since the tiny room limited Lin Huai’s fighting ability, he suffered two stab wounds despite having brought down plenty of Chen Gang’s men.
At that moment, a battle cry rang out from the hallway area; it was Wu Jun, yelling, “Brother Huai, we’re coming!”
Lin Huai was overwhelmed with joy. He immediately seized a lackey’s knife and used it to start fighting again, hacking quite a few men in the process.
With the pincer attack led by Lin Huai, Wu Jun and Dao Zi, the lackeys’ formation was disrupted and they were caught by surprise. Lin Huai—with no intention of escaping—rushed straight for Chen Gang because he was a member of Yulan’s Four Tigers and his ultimate goal today was to get rid of him. He wouldn’t kill Chen Gang, but aimed to at least cripple him. After all, Chen Gang had surrounded himself with his men, so Lin Huai had technically acted in self-defense.
As Lin Huai got closer and closer, Chen Gang turned back and yelled, “Stop him! Stop him!”
Lin Huai slashed several more men on his way, but got another two stab wounds as a result. After that, he heard Chen Gang yell, “Save me, Brother Dao!”
Of course, he was not referring to Dao Zi, but Li Kandao!
By then, Lin Huai was already out of the room when he felt a terrible killing aura behind him. Everyone in front of him was attacking relentlessly, but most of them were pushed back when Lin Huai retaliated with several slashes of his knife; two of their knives were even broken in the process.
Lin Huai quickly turned around, but Li Kandao’s blade was already inches from his body. The only thing he could do was sidestep the knife, which still left a large but shallow gash on Lin Huai’s chest.
The attack took Lin Huai by surprise, but Li Kandao was positively shocked too. He’d gotten ridiculously stronger lately, and had been confident that he could take Wu Shanhe down. But Lin Huai, even while facing so many lackeys at once, had successfully dodged his attack. He still got hurt, of course, but most people would have been heavily injured, downed by a single slash.
Lin Huai, on the other hand—despite him being surrounded on all sides in a hallway that also limited his fighting ability— was still astonished that Li Kandao had still managed to land a blow on him. Li Kandao’s skill with the knife surprised him, considering it was enough to put him on par with known assassins.
Li Kandao’s eyes were ablaze with excitement as he roared, “Nice dodge! I can see why Mr. Hu was so cautious with you! I suppose even if you die tonight, it would be an honor to die in our hands!”
With another roar, Li Kandao brought his knife down once again.
The killing intent in the slash was enough to suffocate everyone in the room, even Lin Huai’s pupils contracted. Was this guy really a student? Never mind being on par with assassins, Li Kandao was probably skilled enough to become one himself if he made the effort.
It was still nothing compared to Lin Huai himself, though!
Just when the lackeys had stopped attacking and left Lin Huai to face Li Kandao alone, Lin Huai tackled Li Kandao so that the fast slash hit nothing but air. At the same time, Lin Huai’s body hit Li Kandao’s like a shot put, sending Li Kandao several steps backward with a grunt. To Li Kandao’s disbelief, the impact had also severely disrupted his focus.
After sending Li Kandao backward with one hit, Lin Huai decided to keep his momentum going and get rid of Li Kandao. He hated Chen Gang more, but right now Li Kandao posed a bigger threat. If it had been a single combat, Li Kandao would have been no match for Lin Huai, but now Lin Huai was distracted with the lackeys in a team battle, so having to spare attention to deal with Li Kandao would make him vulnerable to attacks.
Lin Huai was just about to rush forward when all the hairs on his back suddenly stood on end. On instinct, he grabbed one of the lackeys behind him and held him against his chest, so quickly that the guy didn’t even have time to react. It was then that Lin Huai noticed a black gun barrel aiming at him from behind a room door, and the only reason it was not fired was because the shooter had noticed that he was using a human shield.
Damn, there were guns too? Just how big of a fight is this?
He’d been planning to get rid of them, but now his only option was to retreat.
Lin Huai hollered, “Everyone! Fall back downstairs!
From behind the door, Zhou Minghu walked out with his gun in hand, casting a grim look toward the room beside him as he said, “It’s like what you said, this Lin Huai is a pain to get rid of.”
Just when Lin Huai was fighting his way to the staircase, he saw Xuan Yuzhai stepping out of a room at the end of the hallway. Lin Huai gritted his teeth, realising that Xuan Yuzhai and Zhou Minghu were apparently in cahoots.
Li Kandao rushed toward him again with a machete in hand, lackeys following suit.
Zhou Minghu glanced at Xuan Yuzhai as he said, “It was a good thing you reminded me, otherwise I would have been careless.”
Xuan Yuzhai smiled. “You’re being modest, Mr. Hu. This whole plan was your idea, except for the next part, which is mine.”
Zhou Minghu said in a deep voice, “But I initially thought we wouldn’t have to resort to this step. Now, it seems that it has become the most crucial part of the plan.”
Xuan Yuzhai smiled again, “I was thinking the same thing. After all, your plan was foolproof from a strategic standpoint, having perfectly considered from every angle. Our only miscalculation was that Lin Huai had managed to fight his way through our schemes with pure brawn, even the feared Li Kandao was no match for him!”
“Mm hmm.” Zhou Minghu furrowed his eyebrows; there was a murderous intent in his eyes as he commanded in a low voice, “This man cannot be left alive!”