Chapter 7 (1/2)

Lin Jingzhe maintained his position and looked at Xu Lian condescendingly. His beautiful face and slender figure looked just as respectable as a moment ago, and his school uniform was clean and neat—the very image of a quiet, frail high school student.

Yet, when Xu Liang saw the smile on his face, he began to sweat profusely. He unconsciously took a step back and tripped over a chair behind him, his fat body tumbling to the ground with a dull thud.

The surface of Lin Jingzhe’s narrow black belt was gradually soaked red with blood. Not able to breathe, “Azure Dragon” Zhang struggled less and less, like a fish dying on a riverbank.

This scene was too shocking for the people present, brutal enough to completely exceed their imagination. In a provincial town in the early nineties, the so-called gangsters lacked most of the qualities people in their occupation should have. Though they swaggered through town calling themselves “mafia,” what they did was nothing more than petty theft, intimidating law-abiding citizens, and collecting protection fees.

And now, a life was being harvested right in front of them. Zhang struggled desperately, face contorted in a hideous grimace, eyes bulging, legs kicking, and a loud wheeze coming from his wide-open mouth…

However, what filled them with terror was not the suffocating Zhang but the person holding the belt behind him—Lin Jingzhe. He looked perfectly calm and unruffled as if he didn’t think he was doing anything terrible.

They often used the phrase “kill without batting an eye.” Now, for the first time, they understood what it really meant.

The people on both sides were scared stiff. “Azure Dragon” Zhang’s men stood a few meters away, watching, yet none dared come forward and stop what was happening. The nearest even moved farther away, for fear they would be next when Lin Jingzhe was done with Zhang.

Zhang desperately clawed at the belt. His nails scratched his neck bloody, but he couldn’t feel the pain. There was a voice in his heart, that he didn’t want to believe, telling him his life was going to end.

Unexpectedly, the first ones to snap out of it were Zhou Haitang and Gao Sheng. When Xu Liang backed away, scared of Zhang, they stayed close to Lin Jingzhe, ready to defend him to death. What happened next, however, was exactly opposite of what they’d expected and, for a moment, they could only stare blankly. Zhou Haitang moved first. He charged forward like a tiger and… grabbed Zhang’s kicking legs.

Lin Jingzhe looked at him, expressionless: “……”

Sure enough, Zhou Haitang was just as stupid in this life as he was in the previous. He rushed to help his friend without a second thought, unconcerned with the consequences.

“You idiot, stop making things worse! Get up!” Thankfully, Gao Sheng was smarter. He pushed away Zhou Haitang, who tried his best to hold Zhang’s legs down, then clamped his hands on Lin Jingzhe’s wrists, trying to make him loosen his grip on the belt. He leaned closer and whispered in a soothing voice, “Jingzhe, Jingzhe, come on, stop it. Let’s go home, don’t bother with them.”

Lin Jingzhe didn’t really plan to kill anyone—it was all just a little play. The public order in Liyun Town was poor, but not so poor as to let someone get away with murder. There was no way he’d sacrifice his precious second chance at life for some insignificant punk.

Zhang almost stopped struggling, it was about time to let go. He loosened his hold, lifted his foot, and kicked the oh-so-domineering a moment ago “Azure Dragon” aside like a dead dog.

Unexpectedly snatched from the jaws of death, Zhang didn’t react for a moment, lying on the ground in a daze. Then he hyperventilated and scrambled violently in an attempt to crawl further away from Lin Jingzhe.

As he did, shivering all the while, he glanced back to observe Lin Jingzhe’s reaction. The teenager stared at him blankly, playing with the belt. His expression was almost the same as a moment ago when he tried to strangle him to death.

His dark eyes resembled an abyss.

The fear in Zhang’s heart reached its peak the second he met them.

His brothers finally found their courage. They came forward and surrounded him, helped him up, then cautiously backed off. Though logically, odds should’ve been in their favor, none of them wanted to provoke Lin Jingzhe.

And so, the group of people who’d swaggered in and made a ruckus planned to leave quietly. Before they managed to slink away, though, Lin Jingzhe broke the silence: “Wait.”

His tone was casual, but everyone felt their hearts leap into their throats.

Zhang’s men didn’t dare move; Zhang, lying on one’s back, started and froze. Under their frightened gazes, Lin Jingzhe shook off Gao Sheng’s hand and stepped closer, scrutinizing Zhang’s bloody face.

Then, with a slight smile, he put the belt that almost took his life on Zhang’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, Brother Zhang, it turned out you came here for nothing. Here, I’ll give you this belt as a gift to commemorate our first meeting.”

When the man carrying Zhang on his back heard this, his knees buckled, and he stumbled, almost falling to the ground.

At the moment, in everyone’s perception, the bloodstained belt appeared to be a venom-spitting viper, but no one dared protest. Seeing Zhang obediently close his hand on it, Lin Jingzhe nodded with satisfaction and stepped back. “I won’t see you off.”

Five seconds later, there was no one left in front of him.

Lin Jingzhe was certain they wouldn’t report him. Every single one of them probably had at least a minor offense on their record—would they go to the police and cry about being assaulted by a high school student?

So he let them go and turned around. His attention focused on Jiang Run, who suddenly found himself left alone.

Not too long ago, Jiang Run proudly followed “Azure Dragon” Zhang in, wanting to teach Lin Jingzhe a lesson. Now, with Lin Jingzhe looking at him meaningfully, he wished he’d never left home.

“Cou… Cousin…” Afraid he would get the same treatment as Zhang, he grabbed the table to keep himself upright, and slowly backed away.

Lin Jingzhe lifted his chin in his direction. The gangsters behind Jiang Run, who were supposed to obey Xu Liang, but whose ability to judge the situation was quite astute, grabbed his shoulders and pressed him to the ground.

“Jiang Run.” Lin Jingzhe motioned them to sit the other teenager in a chair. He clamped Jiang Run’s chin between two fingers and looked down at his panic-filled face.