One Man, One Gu

The changing room was the same as ever: a row of rusty lockers divided into small compartments, one for each person.

Jiang Yiming's locker was in the bottom row, where it was usually very damp, so he had lined it with pieces of cardboard.

He inserted the key and had barely opened the door a crack when a piece of cardboard fell out.

The cardboard lining the locker had been pressed tightly against the metal. How could it have fallen out for no reason?!

Realizing something was wrong, he yanked the door open.

Sure enough, someone had been through his things!

One set of work clothes was missing, and a packet of biscuits had been taken by who knew whom. Most importantly, the Dragon Scale Cup his parents had left him was gone!

"Who was it?"

"There are only two keys to the lockers at the factory. One is with me, and the other is kept in the office."

"Whoever could take the key from the office was most likely Fatty Hu!"

At that thought, Jiang Yiming kicked the locker door shut and went to find Fatty Hu.

As soon as he left the changing room, he saw Fatty Hu arrive outside the factory gate with five or six people, all looking ready for a fight.

Sure enough, there was nothing wrong with the retractable gate. It opened so smoothly... Fatty Hu led the charge inside.

"Stop!" he shouted as soon as he saw Jiang Yiming.

Jiang Yiming had no intention of running. Before Fatty Hu could speak, he demanded, "Where are the things from my locker?"

"What things? You mean that hideous cup?" Fatty Hu laughed. "I thought it was an antique, but I had a friend take a look, and it turned out to be a fake. No use keeping it, so I tossed it in the trash."

He spoke smoothly, but Jiang Yiming could tell from his tone that most of it was probably a lie.

"If you won't tell the truth, don't blame me for what happens!" Jiang Yiming's gaze turned icy.

Fatty Hu glanced at the helpers behind him and roared with laughter. "I won't blame you, I won't blame you. If you really dare lay a hand on me, I won't blame you even if you cripple me!"

Before he had finished speaking, Jiang Yiming had already charged over.

Fatty Hu hurried back, and his helpers swarmed forward to block Jiang Yiming's path.

Jiang Yiming showed no fear and plunged straight into them.

Those men were no pushovers. They spread out, then closed in, easily surrounding him. Two grabbed his shoulders, two pulled at his arms, and another locked his arms tightly around his waist.

Jiang Yiming had plunged in precisely to let them grab him!

Only with contact could he use his Gu without anyone being the wiser!

"Ah, fuck!"

"This kid's got thorns on him!"

The group that had held the upper hand suddenly began shouting. They let go almost at the same time and stepped back, some clutching their wrists, others gripping their thighs.

They didn't know what had happened either. They had only felt something prick them.

When Fatty Hu saw this, he immediately protested. "At least make your acting believable! So what if he's got thorns? Even if he's covered in nails, you still have to grab him!"

The men seemed to feel that being scared off by a teenager was too humiliating, so they moved to charge him again.

Then something strange happened. Before they could even lift their legs, they all crumpled to the ground as if drunk. In the blink of an eye, their gazes went vacant, and they lost consciousness.

Jiang Yiming had only used Level Two Primordial Gu. Its poison wasn't potent enough to kill them, but it could knock them out.

After all, poisoning so many people to death in broad daylight, under surveillance cameras, would only be asking for trouble.

Poisoning them unconscious was enough.

When Fatty Hu saw all his helpers collapse for no apparent reason, his arrogant swagger vanished. He forgot everything else and took to his heels.

The fat on his body bounced up and down, severely hampering his speed.

After only a few steps, Jiang Yiming caught up and kicked him down. He followed through by pouncing on him and pinning his head down.

"I'll give you one more chance. Give my teacup back, and I'll let you go!"

"Pah! Hit me if you've got the guts! If you injure me, I'll turn right around and send you to the slammer to eat shit!" Fatty Hu talked tough.

Should I give him a beating?

Jiang Yiming thought it over briefly and soon had his answer. Yes! I have to beat him hard!

He rained down punch after punch. Fatty Hu wailed, a stream of filthy curses spraying from his mouth like machine-gun fire.

Wasn't Jiang Yiming afraid he wouldn't get the Dragon Scale Cup back?

Of course he wasn't.

On the contrary, he was beating Fatty Hu so viciously precisely to get the cup back.

He knew his limits. After dozens of punches, Fatty Hu's face was black and blue, but he had suffered no fatal injuries.

"That's enough for today. If you still haven't returned the teacup by tomorrow, don't blame me for going for the kill!"

As Jiang Yiming spoke, he spat on him before striding away.

But as he left, he quietly left the Red Tail Centipede Gu behind.

This was all part of his plan.

People had a contrary streak, especially someone like Fatty Hu, who thought himself above everyone else.

Jiang Yiming had humiliated him so badly that he would surely hate him to death. So when Jiang Yiming told him to hand over the cup, he might well react out of sheer contrariness, refusing to hand it over and even destroying it!

With Red Tail following him, Jiang Yiming could seize the chance to take the cup back when he went to fetch it for destruction!

That would be much faster than searching for it himself.

After leaving the factory grounds, Jiang Yiming didn't go home. Instead, he lay in wait outside the perimeter wall.

The maximum distance for communication between a person and a Gu was fifty meters, while the pork processing factory was over a hundred meters in both length and width.

To keep a better watch on Fatty Hu, he released Ghost Face as well.

With the two Gu working together, he could watch Fatty Hu's every move without a blind spot.

Fatty Hu, meanwhile, called the police immediately after his beating.

Before long, a police car arrived at the factory gate.

Two officers got out and entered the security office. Before they could speak, Fatty Hu hurriedly said, "Officers, I'm the one who called. Someone broke into my factory and attacked me. Just look at my face, and my arm..."

As he spoke, he quickly bared his arm.

"If I hadn't called the police, I might have been beaten to death! You have to catch that kid!"

Before he had finished, one of the officers asked, "Is there surveillance footage?"

"No. But you can't fake injuries like these!" Fatty Hu had already decided not to produce the footage.

After all, the footage showed him bringing people over and calling Jiang Yiming to a halt. That meant he had started the trouble, and it would be hard to explain.

"Where's the person who attacked you?"

"He ran."

"He ran? You don't have anything to go on, so why don't you go to the hospital and get an injury assessment first?" the other officer asked.

"An injury assessment?" Fatty Hu knew perfectly well that his injuries were nothing serious.

"Once you've had an injury assessment, we can open a case and arrest him."

There were plenty of ordinary fights like this every day. If everyone involved was present, it was easy enough to take them all back and go through the motions.

The worst cases were ones like this, with no surveillance footage and no one to be found. In such cases, there was little the police could do. Police manpower was limited, after all, and they couldn't send everyone out to find someone over a minor fight.

As soon as Fatty Hu heard he had to get an injury assessment first, his heart sank.

The two officers followed routine procedure, took his statement, and prepared to leave.

"You're just leaving like that?" For the first time, Fatty Hu felt what it was like to be brushed aside.

"Didn't we tell you to get an injury assessment first?" an officer said impatiently.

That left Fatty Hu speechless.

In fights like this, where the person couldn't be found, they generally had the injured party get an injury assessment first. Only if the injuries were truly serious would they send officers out to look for the person.