Li Wei's Cheat

"Ah, they're fighting!" Before Seraphine could even get a good look at her father's constipated scowl, her attention was yanked away by the sudden shift in the scene outside the window.

Across the street, the two men who had been facing off and talking had abruptly come to blows.

Li Wei had struck first.

He smashed a loaf of bread right into fat Aubrey's head.

Aubrey, stung by shame and pain, lashed back in fury.

His strength clearly surpassed Li Wei's, and his bloated frame wasn't as clumsy as it looked. The fight quickly turned one-sided.

Fat Aubrey knocked Li Wei down again and again, but Li Wei got up each time.

Soon, both were bleeding. Blood pooled on the ground.

Yet they didn't stop.

"Th-this..." Seraphine's face went pale.

She had never seen anything so savage and terrifying. In Piltover, such things were rare.

The two men brawling were like the wild wolves from storybooks—mad, bloodthirsty.

Why did people have to hurt each other like this?

Seraphine didn't understand.

"Dad." She instinctively turned to her factory-owner father. "Go get someone to help Li Wei! He looks like he's about to be beaten to death by that fat man."

Me, go save that brat?

The old man's face was still dark as thunder.

"This isn't our business, Nini. It's just two Zaunites fighting—what's there to save?"

"Besides, you saw it yourself: Li Wei struck first. Since he started it, he should suffer the consequences."

He deliberately hid part of the truth, lecturing his overly naive daughter with a straight face.

In truth, Erwin knew exactly who that fat man was and why Li Wei had hit him first.

If it were twenty years ago, and he stood in that spot, he would have torn into him like a beast too.

But not now.

He was a Piltover business owner, a father.

As a father, he just wanted Seraphine to stay far away from that Zaunite boy.

As a business owner, he had no desire to offend the Iron Fist Gang boss's brother—that obnoxious fat man Aubrey—over a mere apprentice.

If Li Wei had just defaulted on a loan, his daughter's pleading and wheedling might have softened his heart enough to help.

But Li Wei had already been pushed into hitting fat Aubrey, the Iron Fist Gang boss's brother, making an enemy of him for good.

Sure, this was Piltover. Zaunite thugs couldn't run wild here.

As a Piltover business owner protected by the Enforcers—even a small one—Erwin had no reason to fear the Iron Fist Gang or any other gang.

But shit doesn't kill you; it just makes you stink.

What if those thugs came by every few days to cause trouble, disrupting his business? He was just a small business owner, not one of those Piltover tycoons who could have Enforcers on call to fend off harassment.

The cost of saving Li Wei had already far exceeded what he was willing to pay for a moment of kindness.

"I don't have the ability to save him. Seraphine, stop watching!"

"You don't even know who Li Wei is, so don't go sympathizing with him so easily."

"Maybe..." He hesitated, glancing at the brutal fight across the street.

But he still took his daughter's hand and stammered out a lesson: "Maybe all his troubles are his own fault. Zaunites love drinking, gambling, and borrowing from loan sharks. Getting beaten is what they deserve."

Lying was wrong, but teaching his daughter to stay away from Zaunites was absolutely right.

That was his experience as a Zaunite himself.

So Erwin said it anyway.

"But..." Seraphine still couldn't bear it.

Her gaze kept drifting to that Zaunite boy, his face streaked with blood yet still resolute.

"No buts. Come back and finish your meal!" Her father's tone hardened deliberately.

"Sweetie, come to Mama." Her mother coaxed gently. "Tell me about the new song you wrote yesterday."

"Mm..." Seraphine bit her lip, her face pained, her pale fingers gripping the windowsill, reluctant to let go.

But she had always lived under her parents' protection. In the end, as before, she silently obeyed.

She let go, drew the curtain, and pretended nothing had happened outside, that she had seen nothing.

But just then.

"Wait!"

She turned to leave, but her steps halted at the window.

"What's wrong?" The couple was utterly baffled.

"I heard it," she said, as if possessed.

"Heard what?"

"Singing—I heard him singing again!"

Seraphine spun around excitedly and yanked the curtain open:

"It's him—"

"He's the one singing!"

Li Wei had been seething the whole time.

But he hadn't lashed out at the fat man, Aubrey, out of anger or humiliation.

He'd struck because he knew that, while it looked like he had a choice, he really didn't.

The moment Aubrey cornered him on the street, his options were gone.

Either fight back and carve out a path to escape, or surrender and become a slave under gang control.

The fat man wasn't going to offer a third option—letting him walk free.

So Li Wei made the first move.

He tried to gain an edge with a sneak attack, then slip away in the chaos.

But that fat man could take a beating, and his movements were far more agile than expected. Not only did Li Wei fail to escape, he got dragged into a fight where the odds were stacked against him.

"Bastard—"

A fist came flying like a meteor hammer, slamming into Li Wei's head, which wasn't much bigger than the fist itself.

Aubrey, his skull cracked by a loaf of bread, was furious and screamed like a madman:

"How dare you!"

"How dare you lay a hand on me, Aubrey!"

Li Wei was knocked to the ground, blood gushing from his nose.

Baku watched sadly but didn't dare move.

Janna, curled up in his pocket, couldn't help at all.

Just like Aubrey had yelled—how did he dare?

"Of course I dare!" Li Wei wiped the blood clean and got back up.

Because he wasn't completely without an edge now.

He still had the original owner's memories—the memories of a Zaunite.

As long as he immersed himself in those memories, he could "become" a true Zaunite.

Zaunites don't surrender; they bite back like mad dogs, no matter how strong or terrifying the enemy.

Because they have nothing left to lose but their lives. And if the enemy wants to take even that, there's nothing left to fear.

"Die!" Aubrey raised an arm as thick as a pig's leg and slammed it down like a bear's paw.

Li Wei didn't even dodge.

He met the slap head-on:

Laughable—it doesn't even hurt.

Compared to the knife his own uncle had stabbed into his back in the original owner's memory, the damage was so low it was barely noticeable.

Even the mine overseer's whip had more force behind it.

So Li Wei not only didn't dodge, but acted like a rabid dog that had lost its mind—took the slap head-on, then turned and bit down on that arm.

"Aaaah!" Aubrey howled in pain.

Li Wei, expression unchanged, tore a chunk of flesh off his arm and casually spat it onto the ground.

"Aaaaaah!" The burly Aubrey kept screaming.

But Li Wei, several times smaller and thinner, had already gone back to using his teeth and nails, savagely ripping into his flesh.

"You're—asking for it!!" Aubrey's eyes blazed with murderous pain.

He was still big and strong, so he soon yanked Li Wei off him like a chicken and slammed him hard onto the ground.

But Li Wei got right back up.

Up again, he launched into another reckless frenzy of biting, like an unkillable zombie.

Another punch knocked him down.

He staggered back to his feet.

Another punch floored him.

He got up again.

Like he'd eaten a Nika Fruit, he just kept getting back up no matter what.

"Aaaaah!" Even though Li Wei was the one taking more damage, it was only the fat guy, Aubrey, who was screaming.

Little by little, he actually started to get scared.

Seeing Li Wei walking toward him covered in blood, Aubrey even instinctively took two steps back.

"You... you bastard."

"How the hell are you this tough to take down?"

"Because I'm a Zaunite." Li Wei clenched his blood-soaked fist. "And you're not."

Aubrey was only born in Zaun and dressed like a Zaunite.

A real Zaunite wouldn't just stand there wailing pathetically after losing a chunk of flesh, wouldn't instinctively back down after bleeding this little.

This guy had long gone soft in Piltover's honey pot, forgotten who he really was.

Li Wei shot a contemptuous glance at the fat man, who was already crying, then turned around, picked up the chipped black bread, dusted it off, and prepared to leave.

"You... don't think you can run! Once I call my brother, he'll find you and your sister and tear you both apart!" Aubrey roared in a pathetic rage.

But Li Wei didn't even acknowledge him, a hint of disdain in his eyes.

"Hahaha." Someone in the crowd laughed.

"Who laughed? Who laughed?!"

Aubrey's face flushed red as he looked around.

No one was laughing, but it felt like everyone was.

They were all looking at him like he was trash.

Even if he was the Iron Fist Gang boss's little brother, he was still trash.

Or rather, it was exactly because he had such a powerful brother watching over him that he seemed even more pathetic.

"Li Wei. Stop right there."

Aubrey's roar suddenly turned bestial.

"Hm?" Li Wei had a bad feeling.

He turned around, only to see Aubrey pull a small glass bottle from his pocket.

The cork was already off, and inside was a faint purple liquid.

"That's..." Li Wei's pupils contracted.

"Shimmer?"