Impulse

Chapter 26: Impulse

Yang Zhen'er turned to Tang Baona in disbelief. "He-he-he... did he just insult me?"

That first "damn it" from Xiang Kun had indeed been directed half toward her, so it really had sounded like he was insulting her.

Xiang Kun and the blond-haired man were standing some distance apart. Their brief exchange of glances had lasted only a fraction of a second before Xiang Kun immediately pretended to look elsewhere, so Yang Zhen'er and Tang Baona hadn't realized he was watching someone.

Seeing Xiang Kun toss out a "Talk to you later" and walk away, Yang Zhen'er couldn't let it go. "No way. He needs to come back and explain himself! Why did he insult me?"

Tang Baona grabbed her friend, looking uncertain. "I think... he wasn't insulting you? Maybe it was just a verbal tic, like 'damn' or something? He seemed to be in a hurry..."

But before she could finish, Yang Zhen'er had already dragged her forward.

Xiang Kun might only have been walking briskly, but he still moved fast, nimbly weaving through the crowd. If he hadn't stopped, the two women wouldn't have found it so easy to catch up with him.

When she saw Xiang Kun stop, Yang Zhen'er went over and called out, "Hey, bald guy! Who were you insulting just now?"

Xiang Kun looked back at them, surprised. "Why did you follow me?"

Then he realized what they meant and said helplessly, "Sorry. Something just came up, and I let a swear word slip. But I really wasn't insulting you..."

Yang Zhen'er frowned. "Then who were you insulting? What are you doing here, sneaking around while you're on the phone?" She pointed at the phone in his hand, where the call was still connected.

Seeing Xiang Kun's expression, Yang Zhen'er and Tang Baona realized he didn't seem to be faking it. It seemed he really was in the middle of something.

Xiang Kun was about to answer when he suddenly turned to face the narrow alley. The blond-haired man hiding inside had charged out.

Xiang Kun's dynamic vision was now far better than an ordinary person's. He clearly saw the blond man's contorted facial muscles and vicious gaze, as well as his right hand gripping a short dagger, held close to his right hip.

Was this guy crazy?

Xiang Kun wasn't nervous, afraid, or flustered. Faced with the blond man charging out with the dagger, he didn't dodge. Instead, he stepped left, blocking the man's path out of the alley. As the man thrust the dagger at him, Xiang Kun casually but precisely seized his wrist with his left hand and pulled him forward. Then, with his right hand still holding his phone, he braced it against the man's stomach and flipped him up into the air.

In that single exchange, Xiang Kun used the man's momentum to flip him into the air. He landed hard on his back, and the back of his head took a heavy blow too, leaving him dazed. The twisted position of his arm made him release the dagger, which clattered to the ground.

The blond man shook his head, rolled over, and tried to push himself up from the ground. Xiang Kun couldn't let him. He walked over, drove his knee into the man's lower back, and forced him back down. Then he pulled both of the man's arms behind his back in turn with his left hand, pinning them there with his knee.

The blond man fought back with all his strength, but under Xiang Kun's overwhelming force, the whole thing looked remarkably easy. Xiang Kun had subdued him with just one hand—his right hand was still holding his phone.

"Fuck! Let me go, you bastard! I'll kill you! I'll kill your whole family! Fuck you, you *@&%￥#@!..."

The blond man cursed furiously. Xiang Kun grabbed him by the hair with his left hand and pressed his face straight down against the pavement. Now the man couldn't open his mouth at all. He didn't even need to open it; his nose and lips were already scraped bloody.

It was usually hard to hold someone face-down with just one hand, because they would struggle and turn their head, easily twisting away. One hand alone rarely sufficed to keep them pinned.

But Xiang Kun was overwhelmingly stronger than the blond man, and managed it with ease. With his other hand still holding the phone, he pushed his slipping glasses back up and looked at the stunned Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er. "Don't be afraid. He's a wanted criminal. I've already called the police. They'll be here soon..."

After subduing the blond man, Xiang Kun suddenly felt an urge to smash his head in, or simply drive his knee down hard enough to break his spine.

But Xiang Kun was certain that the man's curses hadn't affected him, and he wasn't angry because the man had attacked him with a dagger, either.

The urge had come out of nowhere and was hard to explain. It was more like spending a fortune to learn a powerful new skill in a game and wanting to test it out on a monster, or putting in hours of effort to practice a song or a dance and wanting to find a stage where he could perform it for others.

After completely overpowering and pinning the blond man, Xiang Kun suddenly felt an urge to unleash his strength to the fullest.

The impulse had come on like a passing whim and wasn't all that strong. Xiang Kun could control it, so he looked up at Tang Baona and her friend to distract himself.

When the blond man had charged out, Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er hadn't really noticed him, let alone seen the dagger in his hand.

So when Xiang Kun suddenly grabbed someone nearby, flipped him into the air, and slammed him down on his back and the back of his head before stepping forward and brutally pinning him to the ground, it terrified them. They instinctively huddled together and backed away two steps.

But once Xiang Kun had subdued the blond man and looked up to explain, they also noticed the dagger on the ground and understood what had happened.

Officer Chen's voice came through Xiang Kun's phone. "Mr. Xiang, what's going on?! What happened over there? Did you use force? Did you get into a fight with the suspect?..."

Though Xiang Kun's struggle with the blond man had been brief, it had caused quite a commotion. It had happened on a busy street, too. After the people nearby were startled into clearing a space around them, a crowd quickly gathered, and some people immediately pulled out their phones to record videos.

Fortunately, the police arrived in less than two minutes.

Several officers had come on Officer Chen's orders. They took custody of the blond man, confirmed his identity, handcuffed him, and took him back to the station. Xiang Kun went along with them.

Before getting into the police car, Xiang Kun pointed at his phone to signal to Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er that he would contact them later.

Watching the police car carrying the blond man and Xiang Kun drive away as more police cars arrived, Yang Zhen'er couldn't help whispering to her friend, "Nana, you said he was unemployed. Is he going to become a police officer now?"

"How could he? It's not that easy to become a police officer, and he didn't graduate from a police academy." Tang Baona frowned as she replied. Still, she had to admit that from everything they'd seen of Xiang Kun just now, he really did seem like an undercover plainclothes officer. And the two of them had nearly gotten in the way of his arrest.

Could Brother Bin and Sister Han have been mistaken? Maybe Xiang Kun had actually been a police officer all along, and he'd only worked as a programmer as an undercover assignment?

Without even realizing it, Tang Baona's imagination had begun to run wild too.