Main Text Chapter 96: Taking the Initiative

"Sorry, but in a pinch just now, this was the only solution I could come up with," Ye Fei said apologetically. He'd relied on this tactic often during past missions, but back then his partner had been his girlfriend, so there had never been any awkwardness. Zhong Yuhan was a different matter.

"It's fine, I understand," Zhong Yuhan said shyly.

"Well, then—you should stay here tonight and get some proper rest. No matter what happens, unless I'm the one who comes back, don't respond to anything. Don't open the door. Got it?" Ye Fei told her.

"You... you're not going to sleep here?" Zhong Yuhan asked.

Ye Fei hesitated. She had already learned a few of his little secrets today, and he believed Zhong Yuhan would never betray him, so he decided to reveal a bit more.

"After what you saw today, I'm sure you've guessed that I came to this school for a reason," Ye Fei said.

Zhong Yuhan was silent for a moment, then nodded. "I know. From the moment you started tracking those people, I understood. You're here to investigate Zhang Xiaoxiao's kidnapping, aren't you?"

Ye Fei nodded without elaborating. The two matters were probably connected anyway, so saying so wasn't exactly wrong.

"Yes. So I hope you'll help me keep it a secret," Ye Fei said.

"I won't tell anyone," Zhong Yuhan promised, then added with concern, "Are you planning to go investigate tonight? What just happened will definitely have put those people on their guard. Isn't it too dangerous to move now?"

Ye Fei smiled coldly. "It's precisely because of that that I have to take the chance and strike. They've already seen me in this room with you, so they won't suspect me at all. This is the perfect time for me to make a move and beat the grass to startle the snake. Let's see exactly which 'snake' comes slithering out."

"I understand. You want to stir them up, make them restless, and then watch from the shadows to see who they really are," Zhong Yuhan said.

"Ha, clever," Ye Fei laughed.

Although he intended to set out tonight, now wasn't quite the right moment. Ye Fei stayed in the room for another hour, changing into his black night gear and strapping on his full equipment. Tonight, he meant to give that grass one hell of a beating and see whether he could flush out a big snake.

Before leaving, Ye Fei took out a dagger sheathed in green leather and placed it in Zhong Yuhan's hands.

"This is my dagger. It's extremely sharp—sharp enough to cut through iron like mud. I want you to keep it on you for protection. If you run into danger, use it to defend yourself," Ye Fei said, drawing the blade. It gleamed coldly in the light, radiating a biting, killing edge.

"Be careful not to hurt yourself. This dagger is very, very sharp," Ye Fei warned her repeatedly, afraid that Zhong Yuhan might accidentally wound herself with it. People who weren't used to handling cold steel could easily end up cutting themselves.

"Mm!" Zhong Yuhan hugged the dagger tightly against her chest, still sensing the faint trace of Ye Fei's presence upon it.

Ye Fei smiled faintly. Seeing the time was about right, he quietly opened the window, climbed out, and dissolved into the night.

"Ye Fei, be careful—" Zhong Yuhan watched him leave through the window, staring into the darkness until he had vanished into it, and silently prayed in her heart.

...

Beneath a dark tree, two security guards were passing the time with idle conversation.

"We've searched for hours and found nothing. That guy sure knows how to hide," one guard said.

"But the only person in this whole school who could have followed Brother Qiang and still gotten away—the only one we know with that kind of skill—is Ye Fei," the other said.

"Ye Fei? That's not very likely," the first guard said.

"Maybe. Then again, with a girl student like Zhong Yuhan in front of him, Ye Fei's mind must have been on nothing else. The flush on her face when we saw her—that was definitely the afterglow of sex. So the timing doesn't work for Ye Fei either," said the guard who had first doubted him.

Ye Fei heard all this from his hiding place in the tree and sneered coldly to himself. Before making his move, he had already notified Cui Yanwu. Cui Yanwu had hesitated but finally agreed, on the condition that Ye Fei not cause too much commotion—just enough to startle the hidden hand behind these people. If the noise reached the public level and stirred up panic, the other side would seize the chance to pressure Cui Yanwu into shutting down the investigation.

Right above the two guards, a dark shadow dropped down like a great bird. Both men heard the wind and looked up.

"Not good—" The two guards reacted instantly and sprang apart in opposite directions.

But Ye Fei had chosen his moment carefully, and dodging wasn't so easy. One guard took a whip kick straight to the neck, and under the immense force, collapsed unconscious on the spot.

The other guard managed to avoid it, but Ye Fei closed in immediately, attacking relentlessly, giving him no room to breathe, let alone to shout a warning.

*Whoosh—wham!*
*Smack!*

Ye Fei's fists hammered the man's face and neck, elbows slammed repeatedly into his chest, and knees drove up hard into his stomach, treating the man like a punching bag. Every blow struck flesh, each landing with a dull thud.

The guard's heart sank. If he'd known it would come to this, he'd rather have been knocked out at the very start like the other one—at least that would have spared him this torment.

*BAM!*

Ye Fei threw one vicious punch and granted the guard his wish, knocking him out cold.

*Crack. Crack. Crack. Crack.*

A series of sharp sounds, and Ye Fei had crippled both men completely. Then he melted back into the darkness and slipped away. These men were thugs through and through—leaving them intact would only mean more evil done. If not for the fact that murder would cause too many problems, tonight Ye Fei would have done far more than just cripple them. As it was, they'd be lucky to face death tonight.

"Brother Qiang, the men at the southwest corner aren't responding," a guard said after failing to raise the two Ye Fei had just taken down.

"Southwest corner. Go check it out, now," Sha Qiang said, immediately leading his men over. They finally found the two guards lying in the dark, limbs broken.

"Tell everyone to stay sharp," Sha Qiang said in a low voice.

"Yes." One of his men nodded, then began contacting the people scattered around the campus.

A short while later, the man who had been relaying orders spoke up again. "Brother Qiang, two more of our men aren't responding."

"Damn it. Notify everyone—fall in, right now. He's trying to pick us off one by one," Sha Qiang said. As the men gathered, he quickly called Hua Ge. At this point, he couldn't care less whether Hua Ge was annoyed at having his sweet dreams interrupted or whether he'd fly into a rage.

"Hua Ge, something's wrong. There's trouble tonight," Sha Qiang said urgently into the phone.

"Stop panicking. Calm down and tell me what happened," Hua Ge said, his face dark with displeasure.

...

*CRASH—clatter!*

A crisp, sharp sound—the shattering of glass.

"Shit. Everyone, back to the security office, now!" Sha Qiang shouted. Their target had run over to the security office.

Ye Fei sneered in the darkness. The security office was at its weakest, their manpower spread thin. He had long since crept into position nearby. He had already scoped out every camera location over the past two days, and after destroying them all, he broke the security office's night lamps in the dark, plunging the entire area into pitch blackness.

He had memorized the positions of the four guards inside. With utter darkness all around, Ye Fei—bold in his skill—struck through the veil of black and burst into the security office.

One guard fumbled for a flashlight. The moment its beam flickered on, a boot came flying straight at his face.

That kick was no light tap. The guard toppled backward, his nose snapping instantly, brow bone splitting open, lips shredded into a bloody mess, several teeth knocked loose.

*Shing—*

In the dark, the flashlight's beam caught the short dagger in Ye Fei's hand, glinting coldly. The blade flashed as it danced, and in a heartbeat, Ye Fei had stabbed three guards. He kicked the flashlight away, and it clattered to the floor, smashed.

Blinded by the sudden darkness, the three guards were hopelessly disoriented. They couldn't find the attacker no matter where they looked.

"Who the hell are you?" one guard bellowed.

*Thud—smack!*

Ye Fei said nothing. He kept attacking relentlessly, moving through the dark like a fish through water, every strike landing with deadly precision. He had undergone inhuman, devilish training—one segment of which had made him intimately familiar with the human body. With a single glance, he could judge a person's height and weight. Once he closed the distance, he didn't even need his eyes; he could calculate every position with perfect accuracy.

*Rumble, rumble, rumble.*

Footsteps approached. Sha Qiang and his men were almost back.

Ye Fei smiled coldly. His fight here had ended quickly—the darkness gave him the advantage. Having crippled all four men, he vanished once more into the blackness before Sha Qiang could arrive.