Chapter 47 - 15: Because of You
Zhang Shutong froze for a second before his body reacted instinctively. He shot forward, about to signal the others to rush the man and snatch the gun.
But a dull thud echoed out. The girl’s casual kick had unleashed an incredible amount of power. The man’s body was instantly sent flying backward like a puppet with its strings cut, his feet leaving the ground—
Lu Qinglian immediately shifted her stance. The foot that had been in mid-air landed swiftly, and with a twist of her ankle, the sole of her shoe made a teeth-grinding screech against the dirt path as she channeled power through her entire body!
Her other leg followed in an instant. She executed a reverse kick, striking the long gun with perfect precision.
THUMP, THUMP. The two kicks landed in the blink of an eye. The first knocked the man down, the second sent his weapon flying. The next second, the man in the baseball cap was airborne, gun and all, before crashing hard onto the dirt path behind him.
As dust plumed into the air, the girl calmly retracted her leg, her long robe settling back at her side.
"..."
「The evening of December 5th, 2012.」
Zhang Shutong and his friends had encountered a man with a gun.
The man had taken his classmate hostage.
And then, the man went flying.
Zhang Shutong and the others were all dumbstruck. If you had to use a popular, distinctly dated phrase from that era to describe their state, it would have to be—
’My buddies and I were all gobsmacked.’
—not until the man’s intermittent groans and curses broke the silence.
Only then did the group snap out of it. Qingyi rushed forward and landed a karate chop on the man. Ruoping ran to Lu Qinglian’s side, anxiously asking if she was okay, with Du Kang right beside her.
Zhang Shutong, meanwhile, went to retrieve the long gun from nearby. Cradling it in his arms, his heart finally settled.
In just those few moments, he had broken out in a cold sweat. Now, as the night wind blew, he felt a chill run down his spine.
’Seriously, there won’t be any more surprises, will there?’
Calling tonight’s experience a roller coaster would be an understatement. First, the patrolling police, then the bald man electrofishing, and now this guy with a gun. Each one was more dangerous than the last... He pinched the bridge of his nose and couldn’t help but glance at Lu Qinglian.
Ruoping had her hands on Lu Qinglian’s shoulders, peppering her with questions, her expression a mix of astonishment and adoration. The girl would sometimes give a slight nod of her chin or shake her head, as stoic as ever.
It was as if she hadn’t just kicked away an armed thug, but a shuttlecock in a child’s game.
Recalling that kick, Zhang Shutong was still overcome with a sense of unreality.
He had always known Lu Qinglian was a mysterious person, but this was a bit too much. Was this girl really a Temple Priestess at some place called the Cyan Snake Temple and not the Shaolin Temple?
He had actually practiced some self-defense back in high school—you couldn’t save the world without a few moves up your sleeve, after all. And while he’d only ended up being slightly better than the average person, he still had a decent eye for skill.
The girl’s two kicks just now were superb in terms of reaction time, power, and accuracy. Forget his high school self; even the him from eight years in the future wouldn’t last a round against Lu Qinglian.
Compared to fighting, Zhang Shutong was better at using his head. He felt his brain was something he could control, but physical strength wasn’t something you could just will into existence.
Now was the time to use his head.
"Shutong, come take a look at this," Qingyi called out from the side.
He walked over and saw that Qingyi had found a snakeskin-patterned plastic sack. Faint rustling noises came from inside, as if it held a few chickens.
Zhang Shutong first felt the outside of the bag. The two of them staggered their positions, fully prepared, then opened the sack and shined a flashlight inside. It really was a close relative of the chicken—
Lying inside the bag were two large, half-dead birds. Their beautiful yellow feathers were dull and listless. The two boys looked at each other, confirming their suspicions.
"A yellow ibis?" Qingyi asked hesitantly.
"Probably. I’ve only ever seen a taxidermied one." Zhang Shutong pushed aside the crests of the two birds, frowning. "Aren’t these things almost extinct? It’s pretty crazy that these two managed to find them."
This bird is a species unique to the island. He’d forgotten what level of nationally protected animal it was, but getting caught with one would definitely land you in jail for a few years.
"No wonder that bald guy pulled a knife..."
"Electrofishing was just a side gig for them. Now, look at this gun." Zhang Shutong picked up the long rifle. He had only ever been interested in melee weapons, so his knowledge of firearms wasn’t as good as Qingyi’s. "An air rifle?"
"Yeah, let me see... Whoa, it’s even a PCP. Pretty advanced." Qingyi took it and examined it, almost striking a pose to aim. "This thing can do some serious damage... So they really were poachers?"
"Yeah, just a couple of poachers that we happened to run into," Zhang Shutong sighed. "But look, the birds aren’t dead. They must have shot something else."
Of course, that wasn’t something they needed to worry about. They could just hand it all over to the police later.
Zhang Shutong continued his analysis:
"So, the person Du Kang saw back then was the guy in the baseball cap. There were two of them from the start. The one in the cap went west, and the bald guy came over later."
Hearing this, Qingyi slapped his thigh.
"I knew it! My fault, my fault. We actually heard the bald guy on the phone, saying something about ’students’ and ’wasn’t seen.’ I thought he had spotted Du Kang, but it turns out he wasn’t the one who saw him..."
"It was the guy in the baseball cap, warning him," Zhang Shutong finished his sentence.
"Sigh..." Qingyi was a little hard on himself.
Zhang Shutong clapped him on the shoulder, offering a few words of comfort, then called Du Kang over to ask about what he had experienced. He was finally starting to get a clear picture of the whole incident:
First, they hadn’t been "surrounded."
There had only ever been two poachers: the man in the baseball cap in front, and the bald man behind. It was just that the man in the cap had circled back from the west and happened to run into Ruoping and the others.
At that time, the three of them had climbed onto the dirt path. Relieved to know the bald man was burying fish and not a person, and also finding the smell below unpleasant, they had deliberately moved a little farther away.