Chapter 23: Knockdown

Shi Yue looked indifferently at the man’s frantic behavior. She intended to cripple him with a single cut, but seeing the terrified gaze of the two girls fixed upon her… she lowered the blade she had just raised an inch.

“Put down the knife! Surrender! Do exactly as I say! Or I’ll kill them!”

The bowl-cut man channeled every ounce of his strength into his vocal cords; normally, he couldn’t muster such a booming voice. He stole a glance at Shi Yue and saw she hadn’t moved at all. Realizing the threat was working, he immediately stood up, dragging one of the girls with him. He hugged the wall, shuffling his feet while warning Shi Yue:

“Move! Let me out! Watch out or I’ll kill someone!”

“…”

Shi Yue remained silent. For a moment, she actually didn’t know what to do; she hadn’t anticipated this scenario. She bit her lip, her mind racing for a countermeasure, but she came up empty.

Ignore the hostage and rush him?

It wasn’t impossible, but firstly, Shi Yue didn’t want to involve the innocent. Secondly, the other little girl was right there watching; Shi Yue didn’t want to do anything too extreme in front of a child… even though she was only just high-school age herself.

Shi Yue didn’t make a sound. She silently turned and cleared a path for the bowl-cut man. His face instantly relaxed. Dragging the little girl, he limped toward the door. Kicking the door open wider, he pulled the girl onto the catwalk, his clattering footsteps echoing loudly.

However, halfway across, the bowl-cut man froze. At a glance, he saw the corpses sprawled across the catwalk and the floor below—necks barely attached, severed limbs still dripping, and blood flowing everywhere. He didn’t need to think to know what had happened.

Even a lowlife like him couldn’t help but feel a chill of terror. He looked back fearfully, only to find that Shi Yue had followed him out at some point and was trailing about three meters behind.

“Back off!” He immediately waved his small knife, widening his eyes as much as possible. “Don’t you f*cking come near me!!!”

Shi Yue stayed silent, simply maintaining that distance. The bowl-cut man took a few steps back; Shi Yue immediately closed the gap to match, making no other moves, just staring at him.

“Don’t come over… I told you not to come!”

He glared death at her, the knife in his hand pressed firmly against the little girl’s neck. The girl stared at Shi Yue’s face in horror, limp as a rag doll, daring not to move a muscle. He retreated inch by inch, and Shi Yue advanced step by step. The two maintained a steady five-meter distance, with no sudden movements.

This continued until the bowl-cut man reached the nearest staircase. He glanced down, then, facing Shi Yue, took a step down the stairs.

Then another step.

And another.

When he stepped onto the third step down, Shi Yue suddenly threw a knife—one she had taken from her pocket and hidden in her sleeve during the brief window when he exited the room, and she was still inside. The moment she threw it, she activated “Time Slow,” ensuring the hilt of the knife struck squarely between his eyebrows.

Because the speed was simply too fast, the bowl-cut man didn’t even see what happened before his head snapped back and he toppled straight down the stairs! As he fell, his grip loosened. The girl in his arms lost her balance and was about to fall with him, but Shi Yue grabbed her just in time.

Thud. The sound of the bowl-cut man’s back slamming onto the ground created a dull echo. Shi Yue glanced down at him; he had taken a nasty fall and didn’t seem to have the strength to get up immediately. So, she first returned the traumatized girl to the room where the other girl was, briefly told them to stay put and not run around, and then, blade in hand, walked back toward the bowl-cut man.

At this moment, the man was clutching his back, the world spinning before his eyes. After staying dizzy for a good while, he remembered what had just happened… that woman dressed like a cosplayer had ambushed him with something while he was going downstairs. When he fell, she had caught the hostage, separating him from his shield…

I was tricked…

“Damn it…”

He rubbed his head vigorously. Just as he barely managed to regain his focus, he saw Shi Yue approaching him step by step, sharp blade in hand.

“Oh shit!”

He instantly sobered up. Subconsciously reaching for a weapon at his waist… he actually found one. A retractable baton!

Relying on his superior size, he let out a roar and, without thinking, raised the baton to smash Shi Yue’s face. Shi Yue bent her knees, arched her back, and instantly raised her blade, meeting his baton head-on with a diagonal slash!

A crisp sound of metal clashing rang out, followed by the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor. The baton was knocked out of his hand in a single blow, and he lost his balance, falling onto his backside.

His pelvis ached, and the web of his hand was numb from the shock. A trace of fear flashed in his eyes. The sight of the corpses around him stimulated his nerves once again. He hurriedly shouted: “Don’t kill me! I—I’ll give you all the money!”

In reality, the reason he was knocked down in one blow was simply the difference in their mechanics.

When the bowl-cut man swung the baton, his legs and torso remained static; he was only using the strength of his upper arm. Shi Yue, however, bent her legs and arched her back, contracting her body like a spring before releasing the energy through her blade. This whole-body power generation was the secret to why her strike carried far more force than his.

He began to beg profusely, pointing toward one of the rooms: “Right there… my, and my brothers’, lots of stuff is in there. You… take whatever you want, just please don’t kill me!!”

“…Did you kidnap those two children today?”

“Huh? Ah… yes…” He nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. “I’ll tell you whatever you ask! I’ll tell you everything I know! I’ll tell you all of it…”

Shi Yue listened quietly. A significant portion of the kidnappings in this area were indeed committed by him and his subordinates. These people were originally idle thugs who heard there was money to be made in trafficking, eventually gathering to become accomplices to the traffickers. Their usual tactic was to spot a target, then publicly claim the child was a runaway from their family or claim a debt was owed… essentially fabricating a reason to snatch people off the street. They would hold them here for a night or two until the buyer contacted them for pickup.

“Who are your buyers?” Shi Yue asked.

“Buyers?”

The bowl-cut man froze, then suddenly said something completely unexpected: “Aren’t you one of them?”

“Me?” Shi Yue thought she had misheard.

But he nodded with certainty. “Yeah, you! Aren’t you here to silence me? You must think I’ve outlived my usefulness, so—”

“Wait.” Shi Yue stopped him immediately. “…Why would you think I’m a trafficker?”

His eyes went wide with confusion. He craned his neck to look at the pattern on Shi Yue’s wrist again, pointing at it.

“That pattern… The guy who always picks up the goods from me… a man, he has the same set of gauntlets, with this exact pattern on them. Aren’t you his partner? Didn’t he send you to shut me up?”

???

“…The man you’re talking about, have you seen him recently?”

“Ah, no… haven’t seen him in about a month. I think he’s from the State of Yan; he sounds like it. The business he does… well, I shouldn’t call it business, I’d say he’s definitely operating at a loss… anyway, he smuggles children all the way from here in Chu to Yan. It’s been going on for a year, he contacts me about once a week. But he hasn’t contacted me for the last month. I thought he didn’t need me anymore and sent you to silence me.”