The Fight

At the corner, Li Ran seemed to hear footsteps on the stairs. She opened her eyes, still half-asleep.

"Brother Yangyang..." she murmured, her voice low and her face flushed. She looked a little sick.

Wang Yiyang frowned and walked over.

"You were outside all night?" he asked.

Li Ran forced a smile but didn't answer. She seemed unsure what to say.

"Have you eaten breakfast? Never mind." Wang Yiyang realized there was no point asking. "Come on, I'll take you downstairs for breakfast. Then you should head to school."

Li Ran pushed herself to her feet against the wall. After a moment's silence, she replied softly.

"Mm... thank you, Brother Yangyang."

"It's okay. Don't worry. Things will be all right soon." Wang Yiyang didn't know how to comfort her, so he could only offer vague reassurances.

Li Ran seemed to have heard plenty of such reassurances already. She merely smiled faintly, showing little reaction.

They put away the blankets, and she obediently followed Wang Yiyang downstairs.

Then they sat down at a noodle shop by the entrance to the residential complex.

The proprietress, a woman in her thirties wearing a large white apron, was busy wiping the tables.

The shop had only just opened, so Wang Yiyang and Li Ran were among her first customers.

"What can I get you?"

"Two bowls of beef rice noodles, one spicy and one not." Wang Yiyang ordered without asking Li Ran.

Li Ran said nothing and kept her head down. Only when the noodles arrived did she silently pick up her chopsticks and begin eating, one mouthful after another.

But as she ate, tears dripped into her bowl.

Wang Yiyang didn't say anything more. He quickly finished his own bowl, then got up to pay.

"Come on, let's go to school. You..." He suddenly noticed how filthy Li Ran's dance clothes were.

If she went to school dressed like that, it could have a very bad impact on a girl.

After all, her once-white dance clothes and white tights were now smeared with patches of gray and black.

Wang Yiyang was at a loss for a moment.

Li Ran seemed to have realized the problem too, but she said nothing.

They finished breakfast and left the noodle shop. Only then did she suddenly speak.

"I'll go find a classmate and borrow a uniform to change into. Thanks, Brother Yangyang. Don't worry about it." She spoke softly.

"Your good friend?" Wang Yiyang asked.

"Mm..." Li Ran nodded.

"Then... have you called her?"

"I got in touch with her earlier. She said yes. Oh, Brother Yangyang, could you... could you lend me some money?" Li Ran lowered her head again, her face burning red.

"All right." Wang Yiyang took a hundred-yuan note from his wallet and handed it to her.

Li Ran took it silently, then bowed deeply to Wang Yiyang before turning and hurrying into the stairwell. She disappeared in moments.

Wang Yiyang sighed and checked the time on his phone. It was eight fifteen.

Today was the first day of the operation he had ordered, mobilizing the group's forces against Mantis.

The initial deployment had begun assembling personnel at seven that morning.

According to Dada's testimony, three of Mantis's hideouts had been exposed. Wang Yiyang was targeting the closest one.

He had to find out why Mantis had gone after Yuekong Martial Arts Hall.

And why they had used such a brutal method, wiping out the entire family.

Of course, if he couldn't find any clues, he might return to the martial arts hall.

Rather than investigate in secret, he could gather evidence and confront Zhong Can directly, or simply ask his grandfather what had really happened.

Angli Hotel, Yingxing City.

Two tall, crew-cut men stood languidly in an alley outside the hotel, smoking and chatting in low voices with their heads bowed.

The sun was nearing midday, and the temperature was slowly rising.

Yet the two wore thick hoodies with hoods, the edges of black masks peeking out of their pockets.

"Have we confirmed the target's location?" one of them asked quietly.

"Long ago. Someone saw him there earlier, and he hasn't left the hotel. If he hasn't caught on, all we have to do is guard the entrance. He won't get away." The other man sounded calm.

"True enough."

As frontline operatives for Mantis, they had less than three years of training, but intensive drills and drugs had made them far more capable in combat than ordinary people.

Thud, thud, thud, thud...

Suddenly, a heavy rhythmic sound rushed toward them from a distance.

"The construction noise around town keeps getting worse. I can barely sleep anymore." One of them smiled and took a drag.

"Maybe the government's started another urban development project. That's how those officials are. They tear down perfectly good projects, rebuild them, then tear them down again." The other man shook his head.

"Whatever. It's none of our business. Come on, let's get to work and head home."

One of them flicked away his cigarette butt, stamped it out, and strode toward the alley's exit.

The two had just stepped out of the alley, their smiles not yet completely faded, when they saw squads of heavily armed riot police rushing into Angli Hotel. They wore black body armor, carried riot shields and submachine guns, and had infrared scanners mounted on their helmets.

Bang!

The doors were smashed open.

"Lock down the area!"

"This is a riot-control drill. This is a riot-control drill. All unauthorized personnel, evacuate the area immediately!"

Several armed helicopters circled overhead, sweeping their blinding spotlights across the hotel. Beams of white light, like lasers, scanned the windows on every floor.

The deafening chopping of the rotors was the "construction noise" the two men had just heard.

"..."

"..."

The cigarette between one man's lips dropped soundlessly to the ground, but he didn't notice.

Both men stared blankly at what was unfolding before them.

At least a hundred armed riot police had surrounded Angli Hotel. Police cars kept arriving in the distance, and squads of armed special police hurried out of them.

Farther away, red dots flickered into view, sweeping across the hotel's floors. They were the laser sights of snipers.

"There are two more here!" someone behind them suddenly shouted.

"We're law-abiding citizens!" The two men shuddered and hurriedly raised their hands, shouting. As they raised their hands, they dropped to their knees and clasped them behind their heads, not daring to move.

"If you're law-abiding citizens, why are you so practiced at crouching down?" The voice behind them held a hint of bemusement.

"Take them away!"

The two men were dumbfounded.

Just before they were led away in handcuffs, an even larger armed helicopter raced toward Angli Hotel, its rotors thundering.

The helicopter's side door slid open, and Jian's face appeared in the doorway as he looked down at the hotel, which was gradually being taken over.

A moment later, he took out his walkie-talkie and switched it on.

"Boss, we've successfully captured the first hideout. With the military's support, we've surrounded it completely. Would you like a live update?"

"I only want results." Wang Yiyang's calm, cold voice came through the walkie-talkie.

"Understood."

After turning off the walkie-talkie, Jian waved a hand. Several ropes were quickly lowered from the helicopter behind him.

Soldiers in full body armor slid down the ropes and landed on the hotel roof.

As soon as one of them touched down, he swiftly took a small, precision instrument from his back and set it on the rooftop.

The instrument was pitch black, with four ring-shaped components like loudspeakers arranged around it.

At the soldier's touch, a hidden touchscreen quickly unfolded at the top of the instrument. A mass of black-and-white data flashed onto the screen.

Beep... beep... beep...

As the data scrolled, the instrument's base rapidly emitted rings of microwaves, undetectable to ordinary people. They spread down from the rooftop, penetrating dozens of meters underground.

As the microwaves spread, the display changed rapidly, filling with countless red dots.

Each dot represented a living person somewhere in the building.

While the soldier worked, the others spread through the hotel like ink dropped into clear water.

Some rappelled down the outer walls, some hurried down the stairwells, and some even cut through the floors with cutting tools.

Click.

Jian took a gun from one of his men and disengaged the safety. He walked toward the stairwell.

"Boss, I heard there are quite a few martial arts experts in there. Be careful," his deputy reminded him quietly.

"Martial arts?" Jian casually fired a shot. Bang.

A figure burst out of the stairwell to the right, a bloom of blood opening across his body as he fell to the ground.

"I used to practice it too."

He gripped his gun and strode into the stairwell without another word.

Gunshots, explosions, roars, and screams echoed throughout the hotel.

Wang Yiyang gazed quietly outside the café, watching the flow of the street, the people, the cars, and the wash of sound.

On the pristine white tablecloth in front of him, the Red Leaf Coffee in his cup, laden with milk, slowly swirled as he stirred it, forming ring after ring.

Once the mission target and the team had been set, he had suddenly found himself with nothing to do.

He wouldn't dare go to the scene and take command in person.

If a stray bullet hit him, or an enemy he'd missed got close, he'd have no way to defend himself. Any injury at all would be a terrible loss.

He valued his life too much.

If he could stay safely in the rear and give orders, why go to the front lines?

He wasn't one of those brain-dead villains in movies who, just before their plans succeeded, had to pop out and explain everything to their enemies, basking in their shock and astonishment.

Then they got turned around at the last moment and died for good.

The highest level of planning was to make sure your enemies died still believing someone else had been their foe.

Or to make them think they'd simply suffered an unlucky accident.

Of course, he was still far from reaching that level, so the only thing Wang Yiyang could do was stay in the rear.

He lifted his coffee and took a small sip of the dark-brown liquid. Frowning, he set the cup down and tore open another packet of sugar, pouring it in.

That was already his third packet.

For some reason, the café's sugar didn't seem sweet enough. No matter how much he added, it still didn't taste very sweet.