Chapter 2

In the height of summer, Mountain City's weather was unpredictable. Rain often came without warning.

Toward evening, passing pedestrians saw the sky suddenly darken and hurried into a jog, hoping to get home before the downpour arrived. Even if someone noticed what was happening in the alley, they had no time to spare it a second glance before running off.

Lin Gejie glared furiously at Huang Li and his group blocking the alley exit. Having finally managed to hurt Lu Yao, they all wore smug expressions.

After finishing their part-time job, Lin Gejie and Lu Yao had planned to take the alley as a shortcut home. They had been walking along just fine when Huang Li and his lackeys approached from the other end.

Lin Gejie had been talking to Lu Yao at the time and, not paying attention, accidentally bumped into Huang Li's group.

Lin Gejie, Lu Yao, and Huang Li were all students in Class 8, Year Two at Mountain City No. 1 High School.

Everyone at Mountain City No. 1 High School knew Huang Li had gotten into the best high school in Mountain City through connections. Yet even there, he had not reined in his arrogance. Instead, relying on his family's money and influence, he had caused no end of trouble at the school.

Though they were classmates, they usually kept out of each other's way and had never had any dealings with one another.

The moment Lin Gejie realized he had bumped into someone, he instinctively apologized first. Unexpectedly, Huang Li's group started hitting him without a word. Lin Gejie had been unprepared and took a heavy punch from Huang Li.

Lin Gejie had a fiery temper. How could he swallow that insult? He immediately started fighting Huang Li and the others.

Huang Li's group had the advantage in numbers. Lu Yao could not just stand by and watch his deskmate get surrounded and attacked, so he naturally joined the fight.

Lin Gejie looked guiltily at Lu Yao standing beside him. "Sorry, Yao. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been dragged into this."

When Huang Li saw that several of them still could not beat Lu Yao, he flew into a rage and pulled out a small knife, waving it around.

To protect Lin Gejie, Lu Yao was accidentally slashed across the face by Huang Li's knife. Fortunately, he had dodged in time, so only the surface of his skin was cut, with a thin line of blood seeping out.

Hearing Lin Gejie blame himself, Lu Yao casually wiped the blood from his face with his index finger. His expression remained cold as he said, "It's not because of you. They were targeting me. You don't need to blame yourself."

In fact, Huang Li had heard Lu Yao's name back in Year One, but he had never seen him in person.

After classes were reshuffled in Year Two, he saw Lu Yao's cold, refined face, then compared it with his own ordinary features. That gave rise to something like jealousy. After the Year Two class beauty rejected him, those feelings reached their peak.

Huang Li had recently been pursuing the Year Two class beauty. His pursuit had been so high-profile that practically the entire school knew about it. Yet the girl rejected him outright, saying that the person she liked was Lu Yao.

Huang Li felt humiliated and flew into a rage. He wanted to target Lu Yao to prove his own charm to that girl.

One day after school two weeks earlier, he had suddenly stopped Lu Yao and said he was going to teach him a lesson because Lu Yao had stolen his girlfriend.

Hearing that, Lu Yao only found him baffling. Without even raising his eyes, he walked straight around Huang Li.

Huang Li was enraged by his dismissive attitude and rushed forward to teach Lu Yao a lesson, only to be easily dealt with.

Huang Li had not been able to beat Lu Yao alone before, so today he had shamelessly brought several helpers.

Lu Yao felt that today's matter had nothing to do with Lin Gejie. He said to Huang Li, "This is between us. It has nothing to do with him. Let him go, and I'll stay."

The moment Lin Gejie heard that, he became anxious. "Yao, what are you talking about? How could I leave you alone to fight this pack of bastards?"

There were so many people on Huang Li's side. If he left now and made Yao fight alone, he would be nothing but an animal.

Hearing their conversation, Huang Li laughed triumphantly. "Neither of you is going anywhere! Lu Yao, today I'll see if you can still act so tough in front of me!"

Huang Li had no intention of letting Lin Gejie go. In his eyes, Lin Gejie would only hold Lu Yao back. The reason he had managed to hurt that little bastard earlier was because Lu Yao had been protecting Lin Gejie.

Dark clouds gradually gathered, and the sky grew darker and darker. A heavy rain seemed about to arrive.

Lu Yao glanced at the sky and irritably pressed his tongue against his cheek.

"Enough bullshit. Come at me together."

The sooner this was over, the better.

Seeing Lu Yao's impatient expression as though he were in a hurry to get home, Huang Li recalled the rumors he had heard and burst into mocking laughter. "Lu Yao, there's no one at your house anyway. Why are you in such a rush to get home?"

The lackeys behind Huang Li all burst out laughing at his words.

Huang Li's remark that "there's no one at your house" carried two meanings. One was that no one would be home when Lu Yao returned; the other was a jab at Lu Yao being orphaned.

Mountain City was a small place. Any little bit of news spread through nearly every household.

Lin Gejie had been Lu Yao's deskmate since Year One, so he had naturally heard about Lu Yao's family. The moment he heard Huang Li viciously tear open that wound, rage flared in his chest. "What the fuck do his family matters have to do with you? Did you fall into a shit pit earlier? You sound like you're spraying shit every time you open your mouth."

After cursing Huang Li out, Lin Gejie worriedly looked at Lu Yao beside him.

Lu Yao's expression remained unchanged. In a low voice, he said, "It's fine."

Lu Yao had heard far worse things than Huang Li's words at the funeral.

Lu Yao's gambling-addicted adoptive parents had been notorious in the area for their obsession with gambling. One night in the spring of the previous year, the two had gotten dead drunk after winning money.

Late that night, the two suddenly started drunkenly causing trouble in the street.

Even when the pedestrian light was red, they lay muddleheaded in the road.

At that moment, a truck came around the corner. Because of the blind spot and the dim lighting, the driver did not notice the two lying drunk in the middle of the road and drove right over them.

Clearly, those two had gotten themselves killed in their drunken madness, yet Lu Yao gained the reputation of being someone who brought death to both parents—a harbinger of disaster.

"I said those two from the Lu family should never have brought that brat home in the first place. Look, he hasn't shed a single tear. He's like some kind of monster."

"What bad luck. That kid is a disaster star, born to bring death to his parents. Otherwise, why would his biological parents have abandoned him back then?"

"Old Lu heard some fortune-teller say that raising a boy would improve his gambling luck, so he brought him home. Who would've thought he wouldn't bring them wealth and would cost them their lives instead?"

At the funeral, Lu Yao lowered his eyes and knelt upright before the mourning hall, seemingly oblivious to the gossip and strange looks around him.

Lu Yao had known since childhood that he was not their biological son. Whenever his adoptive parents lost money when he was young, they would viciously beat and curse him, blaming him for not bringing them good fortune.

That only began to improve in recent years, after Lu Yao grew older and became capable of fighting back.

The weak feared the strong, the strong feared the ruthless, and the ruthless feared those with nothing to lose. After Lu Yao fought back fiercely against his adoptive father once, his adoptive parents, who bullied the weak and feared the strong, never dared provoke him again.

Although the truck driver who had killed his adoptive parents had voluntarily offered Lu Yao tens of thousands in compensation, that money only covered a small portion of the gambling debts they had left behind.

Other than that shabby, empty house, all Lu Yao inherited from his gambling-addicted parents was an enormous debt.

To repay the debts his adoptive parents had left behind, Lu Yao had spent the past year or so working part-time jobs like a machine whenever he was not in class. One of his main sources of income was power-leveling accounts for the game Heroes Glory.

Thinking about the power-leveling order he still had to finish that night, Lu Yao did not want to waste any more time on Huang Li's group.

Huang Li had also been enraged by Lin Gejie's furious scolding.

Fine rain began drifting down from the sky as the two sides collided fiercely once more amid the drizzle.

Seeing Lin Gejie being beaten back step by step by Huang Li, Lu Yao grabbed him and pulled him behind himself.

He raised a hand to catch Huang Li's fierce punch, yanked hard, and slammed Huang Li heavily onto the ground, splashing water across the alley.

From the corner of his eye, Lu Yao spotted a baseball bat in a garbage pile not far behind him. He pulled it out and shoved it into Lin Gejie's hands. "If anyone tries to hit you, just swing it around as hard as you can. Then they won't be able to hit you."

Lin Gejie also realized that protecting himself was helping Lu Yao, so he began wildly swinging the baseball bat like a madman.

Seeing Lin Gejie like that, Huang Li and his lackeys realized they could do nothing to him, so they all turned to surround and attack Lu Yao.

After settling Lin Gejie, Lu Yao finally let loose completely.

He was nimble and skilled, utterly beyond comparison with Huang Li and his lackeys, who only knew how to rely on brute force.

His fists carved sharp arcs through the air. Watching Lu Yao's punches land on Huang Li and his lackeys, every blow solid and brutal, Lin Gejie could not help feeling his teeth ache for them.

Even after Huang Li was beaten to the ground in a miserable state, he refused to admit defeat and stubbornly threatened, "Lu Yao, just you wait. This isn't over."

Seeing Lu Yao frown, Huang Li thought he was about to strike again. He hurriedly scrambled to his feet and staggered out of the alley, fleeing in panic without looking back.

When his lackeys saw Huang Li disappear, they hurriedly fled as well.

Seeing that Huang Li's group had all run away while Lu Yao was still frowning, Lin Gejie asked, "Yao, they've all gone. What are you thinking about?"

There was a trace of confusion in Lu Yao's voice. "Did you hear anything strange just now?"

Lin Gejie scratched his head. "No, Yao. Let's go. The rain seems like it's about to get heavier."

When the two reached the alley entrance, Lu Yao's ear twitched. He suddenly turned around and followed the sound toward a discarded cardboard box deeper in the alley.

Lin Gejie followed behind him with a baffled expression.