I won't let anything happen to you

At a time like this, it really would be safer for her to hide.

Although Wen Ning had some training, they were badly outnumbered, and every one of their opponents had a blade. She worried that fighting them would distract Bo Yan.

Perhaps before today, she would never have thought she could distract Bo Yan. But from the moment he gave her that signal to his instruction just now to "find somewhere to hide," Wen Ning was utterly certain that her bootlicking had begun to bear fruit.

Of course, this wasn't the time to think about that. The look Bo Yan had just given her merely flashed through her mind before she immediately took her baseball bat and began backing away, step by step, screened by his back.

Before retreating, she told him in a very, very quiet voice, "Be careful. I'll call the police. Just hold out until they get here. Or you don't have to hold out-we can find a chance to run together."

Bo Yan didn't answer. His expression was casual, yet he watched the kidnappers warily.

He merely reached his right hand behind him and slipped his phone to her without drawing attention.

It was at that very moment that Bo Yan suddenly attacked the musclehead!

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Knowing that Bo Yan was creating a distraction so she could hurry and hide, Wen Ning wasted no time, quickly ducking behind a pile of cement bags in a nearby corner!

Once she was sure the kidnappers weren't paying attention to her, Wen Ning took out Bo Yan's phone.

His phone had no passcode. She swiped it open, ready to call the police, only to see that the screen was displaying his notes.

And in the notes was a message Bo Yan had typed beforehand-

[I've already had Wen Jing call the police. If the plan goes smoothly, they'll need ten minutes at most.]

Wen Ning immediately felt relieved when she read the message.

She thought that was all Bo Yan had written, but accidentally swiped down as she was backing out-

[Stay hidden.]

[Don't be afraid.]

[I won't let anything happen to you.]

Wen Ning froze briefly before quickly exiting and finding Wen Jing on WeChat.

There was no time for idle thoughts now. Bo Yan was still out there taking damage alone. She had to do everything she possibly could!

By now, Bo Yan had already taken down all the musclehead's lackeys.

Though these men were thugs too, not one of them had experienced anything like Bo Yan had.

Abandoned at three, sold at four, he had moved with his birth mother into the home of his drunken stepfather, a beast in human skin, at five. From then on, the sounds of a child being beaten came from that home every day. The neighbors called the police repeatedly, but it was no use. Even the child's own mother beat him-what could they do?

After struggling to survive until eight, Bo Yan began enduring years of school bullying. His little finger had been stomped on and broken, his leg fractured from beatings, his ribs broken, and he had nearly been held underwater and drowned. So much so that there wasn't a single unmarked patch of skin left on him now.

When he was twelve, late one night, his stepfather, saddled with gambling debts, grabbed Bo Yan by the hair and forcibly dragged him into an artificial lake with him. Bo Yan was rescued, but his stepfather wasn't so lucky. Just as he had wished, he would never have to keep paying off his debts.

But from that day onward, his birth mother would go mad from time to time. She called Bo Yan a monster, because this monster had personally pushed his stepfather back into the lake, utterly expressionless, just as the man was about to climb ashore...

Later, so he and his mother could live like normal people, Bo Yan began attending school by day and frequenting underground fighting rings by night.

Those places were thick with foul smoke and filth. Those who lost their bets cursed, while those who won laughed like maniacs. They heard that a thirteen-year-old boy had recently come to the ring, vicious in his attacks, his eyes brimming with murderous intent. In just one short week there, he had won five consecutive bouts. What they loved most was watching this thirteen-year-old boy get beaten until he was covered in blood, yet still stubbornly rise at the very last second of the count. What a thrilling reversal! This was what their money deserved to buy!

They grew excited, they reveled, they flung the money the boy had to risk his life to earn into the center of the ring.

Red banknotes fluttered down through the air. Having gambled his life to win another bout, the boy lay sprawled in the middle of the ring, his face bruised, swollen, and covered in blood, gazing up at this scene of a celestial maiden scattering flowers-

You're truly pitiful, Bo Yan.

The light faded from the boy's eyes as he closed them.

He was risking his life to fight for a way forward for himself and his mother, yet he had long since lost sight of his own way out.

Day after day, year after year, Bo Yan didn't know why he had come into this world, or why he was alive.

He only knew that his mother was ill. If he didn't go to the fighting ring, he couldn't get the money to pay for her treatment.

He had thought all along that he and his mother depended on each other for survival-until the day she put rat poison in his breakfast.

That was the day he was due to take his college entrance exams.

Bo Yan ran for his life. He didn't even know what he was trying to escape. He only felt that everything behind him was terrifying, that if he turned back, he would plunge into a bottomless abyss.

But he was clearly already in the abyss.

Still, he had to run-the farther from Huyang Town, the better.

Bo Yan spent all three days of the college entrance exams in a daze. After finishing the last subject, he left the exam hall and still instinctively looked toward the crowd.

Among all those parents, his mother was nowhere to be seen.

Bo Yan breathed a sigh of relief, then was quickly startled by his own reaction.

When exactly had his only family in this world, his only source of faith, become someone who terrified him?

He began wandering aimlessly through the streets, walking from daylight until dark. When he heard a familiar voice say, "A-Yan, you're here," his whole body stiffened. He looked up to find the underground fighting ring's owner smoking a cigarette and smiling at him.

At that moment, Bo Yan was terrified and despairing.

He thought, Bo Yan, your life is already over.

The owner didn't notice his inner terror, because at eighteen, Bo Yan had long since learned to conceal all his emotions.

The owner offered him a cigarette and asked, "Finished your exams? How'd they go? You're top of your year every time, kid. You must've done well! If I had a son like you, I'd wake up laughing from my dreams every day... Huh? Why are you crying? Didn't do well? It's fine, it's fine. Just repeat the year. You're young. You've got time! Forget it, this is the first time I've ever seen you cry. I'll have someone else fight tonight. Take a day off. I'll pay you just the same..."

That was the last time Bo Yan shed tears. As though venting, he cried without stopping all night, until he had cried every drop of moisture out of his body.

The next day, the sun rose as usual, but Bo Yan couldn't speak, nor could he shed any more tears.

He remained unable to speak for an entire month.

Bo Yan thought that now he had truly become the monster his mother called him.

Later, his mother's condition worsened. By then, Bo Yan was studying in Yanjing. The moment he received his uncle's call, he realized that no matter how hard he had tried throughout his college years, he still couldn't live like a normal person.

His years of experience in Huyang Town had turned him into a monster through and through.

Yet he still brought his birth mother to the best hospital in Yanjing, as though trying to tell them through his actions that he had become normal, that he was no longer that monster.

But when the surgery notice reached his hands, when he saw the risks of the operation and its astronomical cost, Bo Yan stepped into the underground fighting ring once again.

Looking at the banknotes fluttering down into the center of the ring, Bo Yan smiled and closed his eyes.

Let it be, Bo Yan. Stop struggling. It's useless...

Wen Ning noticed that something was very wrong with Bo Yan. Since transmigrating into the novel, the only time she had seen him fight was on the night she first arrived, when he and Bo Xubai came to blows.

Back then, Bo Yan hadn't fought back at all. Bo Xubai had simply beaten him one-sidedly, so Wen Ning had no idea what Bo Yan was like when he actually fought.

Now, the musclehead's lackeys had been beaten to the ground and were howling in pain, unable even to get up.

Bo Yan paid them no further attention. He pinned the musclehead down and began pummeling him!

His blows were vicious. Wen Ning could hear every punch striking flesh!

Seeing that the lackeys had given up struggling, Wen Ning grabbed her baseball bat and ran out.

She called out to Bo Yan, but he ignored him, still kneeling over the musclehead, pinning him down and beating him!

At first, the musclehead had begged for mercy. By now, even his pleas had fallen silent!

Realizing something was wrong, Wen Ning hurriedly grabbed Bo Yan's hand before he could slam it down!

Stopped by someone, Bo Yan paused, then abruptly turned to look at whoever had blocked him!

Wen Ning couldn't describe the look in his eyes at that second. It wasn't as though he was looking at a living thing...

Even when Bo Yan had grabbed her by the throat before, Wen Ning hadn't been this frightened.

Her breathing stopped for a beat, then her heart began pounding, and cold sweat kept breaking out across her back.

Fortunately, Bo Yan came back to himself soon afterward. The look in his eyes shifted from regarding a dead person to bewilderment.

First he glanced at Wen Ning's hand holding his, then at Wen Ning, before finally lowering his gaze to the musclehead's blood-covered face.

As though something had frightened him, Bo Yan suddenly let go and fell backward into a sitting position on the ground.

Realizing something, he hurriedly looked up at Wen Ning and kept shaking his head at her.

Panicked and at a loss.

Wen Ning suddenly felt awful.

She raised her hand, resting her palm on the black baseball cap atop Bo Yan's head, and asked, "Had enough?"

The hands Bo Yan had braced at his sides abruptly clenched.

He lowered his head, his lips curling in self-mockery, his eyes filled with disgust for himself.

Yet the next second, he heard Wen Ning say, "If you've had enough, move aside and let me get a few punches in!"

Bo Yan froze for a moment, then looked up at her in confusion.

He saw Wen Ning whip off her high heels in no time, gripping one in each hand like a cat gone feral. "That stupid fuck pulled my hair! The bastard practically ripped my scalp off! I'll beat him to death!"

With that, she began hammering the musclehead wildly with her high heels!

Bo Yan sat frozen for quite some time. Seeing Wen Ning's seven-figure heels jabbing into the musclehead's nostrils, he reached out, wanting to say something. In the end, he wisely said nothing and silently withdrew to one side, surrendering the stage to the goddess of war in high heels...