They Hit Me, I Was Scared to Death...

One minute before Lu Chengze's men surrounded the small park, an inconspicuous white van parked by the roadside quietly drove away right under their noses.

Inside the van, Bai Jin had been knocked unconscious, his hands tied behind him, and tossed into the back seat. His eyes were covered as well.

The only phone he had on him to contact the outside world had also been tossed by the two of them into a small flower bed somewhere in the park.

The woman sat in the passenger seat, constantly flattering the man driving. "Honey, you're amazing. You actually caught White Scarf so easily."

The man grinned arrogantly. "Everyone overseas said White Scarf's methods were insanely ruthless, practically unbeatable. Looks like he's nothing special after all!"

"Exactly! I thought he'd be so impressive! Who knew this was all he had?"

The two laughed heartily, as if they wished they could announce to the entire world that they had captured White Scarf.

But they knew they were currently in A Country, a place where guns, drugs, and mercenaries were banned. In the end, they only notified several other assassins and told them to come watch the entire process of torturing White Scarf to death.

When the man gave their exact rendezvous location over the phone, neither of them noticed that Bai Jin, who should have been unconscious, curled his lips into an incomparably cruel smile.

Found you.

When Bai Jin went out for a morning run today, he did not notice the bodyguards Lu Chengze had secretly arranged, but he did spot two suspicious figures skulking around.

Before going to sleep last night, Bai Jin had anonymously released a bit of information about White Scarf online. Given those assassins' obsessive determination to hunt down White Scarf, that little bit of news was enough to drive them mad.

Still, Bai Jin had underestimated the assassins' capabilities.

Only two of them had come.

Though disappointed, Bai Jin made a bold decision: he would pretend to lose while fighting them, let the two capture him and knock him unconscious.

Then he would follow the trail and wipe out the other assassins in one fell swoop.

The van drove for about an hour. Discounting the time they had deliberately spent taking detours three times, Bai Jin could roughly deduce that they were about to reach their destination.

Sure enough, five minutes later, the van stopped.

Bai Jin adjusted his breathing again and let the man roughly drag him out of the vehicle and carry him away.

He did not react at all throughout the process, like a lifeless puppet.

Neither of them noticed that when the man dragged Bai Jin out of the van, one of his shoes suddenly fell to the ground.

The shoe landed perfectly beside the wheel, tipped over on its side.

Even more bizarrely, a tiny red light at the bottom of the shoe kept flashing, accompanied by the nearly inaudible ticking of a countdown.

Bai Jin was carried upstairs, up two flights of stairs. A door opened, then closed.

Then he was thrown onto the floor, his head slamming heavily against it. The pain made him bare his teeth, and he took the opportunity to wake up.

Someone tore off his blindfold. What he saw was an utterly ordinary two-bedroom apartment. Judging by the decor, it had probably been renovated not long ago and was specifically meant for renting out.

These two really knew how to pick a place. The more openly they rented an apartment and lived there, the less likely anyone would suspect them.

The darkest place was right under the lamp.

He listened carefully to the sounds above and below, even hearing a child crying...

Since that was the case, Bai Jin could not make things too bloody. He lowered his head, pretending to have only just realized that his hands were bound. He struggled, but failed to break free.

The woman sneered. "Oh! You're awake! Don't waste your strength. The rope tying you up was specially made for us, prepared specifically for you."

Bai Jin tried to back away until his body hit the wall and he could retreat no farther. Only then did he curl into himself, trembling.

Though his little face had gone deathly pale with fright, he still tried to remain calm. "What do you want? You'd better let me go immediately, or Fifth Master will never let you off."

Slap—

When the man heard White Scarf using Lu Chengze's name to intimidate them, he panicked badly.

Without thinking, he stormed over to Bai Jin and raised his hand, delivering a hard slap across Bai Jin's face. "Hmph! By the time Lu Chengze finds you, you'll already be a cold corpse."

But when he remembered their current hideout, he relaxed again.

Five distinct finger marks immediately appeared on Bai Jin's face, and his cheek swelled red. His eyes instantly filled with tears, making him look utterly pitiful.

He did not cry out in pain or look at the two of them. Instead, he turned to look at the window, a bone-chilling smile on his lips as he began counting down. "Ten."

"Nine."

"Eight."

"Fuck! What do you mean?" Bai Jin's sudden countdown made the man nervous.

Bai Jin ignored him and continued counting. "Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Honey, is he stalling for time? Could Lu Chengze's people have already caught up?" The woman anxiously paced in circles.

But they had clearly thrown away every communication device Bai Jin had on him. How could he contact the outside world?

"Impossible!" the man denied flatly. It was not their first day carrying out missions. How could they make such a rookie mistake?

The woman rushed to the window in panic. Disregarding the risk of exposure, she pulled back the curtains and looked downstairs. "Then what the hell is he counting down for?"

Since it was a workday, the only vehicle in the parking spaces below was their van.

And just as the woman pulled back the curtains, Bai Jin's countdown reached "one." The moment the word left his mouth, the woman watched their secondhand van get blasted into the air.

The sky-high flames and deafening explosion instantly threw the quiet residential complex into an uproar.

Before the woman could even scream, she saw Lu Chengze's exclusive car speeding straight toward them.

"Honey, F-Fifth Master is here..." The woman trembled all over in terror. "What do we do? Fifth Master must have discovered us..."

The man viciously pulled out a gun from behind him. "What are you afraid of? White Scarf is still in our hands. We just need to hold him hostage—"

The man's voice abruptly cut off. The woman turned around in confusion, only to discover in horror that Bai Jin had somehow broken free of the rope binding him.

And that specially made rope was now cinched around the man's neck.

Bai Jin pulled the rope around the man's neck with such force that the man's face had already turned red. He had completely lost the ability to resist and could only futilely claw at the rope around his throat.

"Don't move. I don't want to kill you right now." Bai Jin was still smiling, but the smile did not reach his eyes.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Someone was kicking down the door with such force that it felt like the entire building was shaking.

Bai Jin nodded toward the woman and showed off, "See? My man came to save me."

Before the woman could react, the front door was kicked open, and Lu Chengze was the first to rush inside. "Bai Jin..."

The woman stared in disbelief as Bai Jin, who had just been threatening her, suddenly changed expression in the span of a second.

His eyes brimmed with tears. The hands still tightly strangling the man's neck trembled like those of an old man paralyzed by a stroke.

The moment he saw Lu Chengze, he burst into helpless, pitiful sobs. "Sob... Fifth Master, why did you come so late? They hit me. I was scared to death..."

The dumbfounded woman: "..."

The man who had nearly been strangled to death: "..."

Fuck!