Chapter 7: An Urban Legend Is Born

Who was Lu Renjia, really?

The girl lay in bed, her long hair loose beneath her. Her skin was white as fine jade, which made the glossy black strands stand out, and along with it came a look of youth and beauty hard to miss.

Her waist was slender enough to be held in one hand, and her long, well-shaped legs were enough to stir any man. The tempting form tossed from one side to the other on the wide bed like a lobster laid out on a plate.

Still, beautiful as she was, a soft frown had settled on her brows. It added a hint of sorrow to her charm.

Bai Luomeng felt only irritation when she thought back to how Lu Renjia had acted today.

When he first stepped out for her, she’d been more than pleased. Who wouldn’t want a knight in shining armor to charge in and deliver them from a bully?

But the more she thought it over, the more uneasy she grew. As she remembered it, classmate Lu Renjia had always lived up to his name. He was that kind of person who never showed his cards, kept to himself, and hung around on the edge of the class without mixing in with anyone.

How come he just happened to step in today? Why exactly that moment, to help her?

So Bai Luomeng figured someone must have cooked up another of those stale hero-saves-beauty plots, just to earn her gratitude.

Not that she would refuse to feel grateful even then. The motive might be fake, but it still was the best way a girl her age could fend for herself.

She knew that Murong Yunhai was fake and rotten too, a man who lived on her admiration and gratitude. Yet she still needed his protection if she was going to keep attending the academy at all.

Even with Lin Yuyan bullying her every day, she meant to finish her studies. That was the only way to take some pressure off her family; and later, some job would let her get by a little better.

Every time she went home, she did her best to hide her bruises. Any mark that couldn’t be hidden away, she’d lie and say it came from an accidental fall.

All so her mother wouldn’t worry.

But what Lu Renjia did today left her baffled.

He only needed to stop Lin Yuyan’s bullying. Instead he shoved her unconscious and then heaped humiliation on her on top of that.

To her body? To her spirit? It was a destructive blow either way.

Was going that far really necessary? Was she worth protecting so hard?

Then those bold, high-handed words of his burned themselves into her mind.

‘From today on, Bai Luomeng is my own sister, in every way but blood! If anyone wants to pick on her, they’ll have to get through me first!’

At that, the cold ones and the fair-weather classmates who’d sooner kick you when you were down all lowered their heads.

They were like small animals in the presence of a beast of prey. Scared. Terrified. Daring not even to breathe too loud.

It made Bai Luomeng realize how contemptible they were. These were the wastes she’d been living among, and the funny part was, before Lu Renjia stood up for her, she’d been scared stiff of these very bullies.

That was why she laughed. She laughed at their cowardice, and she laughed at herself, for being even more useless than they were.

That should have been the end of it, right?

The hero saves the beauty. The beauty is grateful.

The pretty girl throws herself into her savior’s arms, and the stage is set for a happy story.

But Lu Renjia behaved like he hadn’t even seen how lovely she was. His gaze was calm and unbothered; no stirring of desire in it at all.

He had her go around collecting the class’s protection fees, and, as a bonus, he dealt with Gu Jingchu, that creep who stalked her home after every dismissal, forcing her to take long detours just to shake him off.

The relief felt wonderful. So, for the first time, the honest, well-behaved girl pocketed money squeezed out of her classmates.

That still didn’t mean she was about to throw herself at a man. To find out what was really on his mind, she paid Murong Yunhai a visit after class.

If Lu Renjia truly had his eye on her looks, watching her act close to another man would surely make him lose his cool.

Right on cue, Lu Renjia clashed with Murong Yunhai.

But what stunned Bai Luomeng was that his eyes didn’t hold a trace of the possessiveness of a male who sees his female threatened.

She only saw disappointment. Pity.

What had him disappointed? Who was he pitying?

The girl felt duly confused. What a strange person Lu Renjia was!

Her plans for studying tonight were going to have to wait, thanks to a certain blockhead currently wandering the streets.

…

‘Argh! I’m so damn broke!’

Lu Renjia crouched by the roadside, scratching at his head in frustration. He’d just pawned off some of his valuables, but thanks to shady buyback rules, he only managed to get pennies for them.

After rent and meals, there was nothing left. Not enough for anything.

Lu Renjia lived in one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods. The streets in the old blocks had turned decrepit, and the streetlights flickered on and off, long past due for repair.

He sat staring at the intersection and felt that life was tough and the way ahead was nowhere in sight.

‘Gusu Tianxue! You there?’

He wanted to call on his almighty, all-knowing god, to have her hand over a bit of spare pocket money to a poor mortal who simply needed to eat and sleep.

Unfortunately, nothing stirred except the cold wind and the fallen leaves.

‘Damn it! Where am I supposed to get money?’

He shoved his hands into his pockets and trudged toward the dimming street with a frown. It was getting late. Time to go to bed and sleep it off.

Next time that careless god of his showed up, he’d fling himself onto the ground and roll around howling until she handed over some cash.

No money, no peace!

A job? A job paid almost nothing. And what about enjoying life anyway?

Lu Renjia was here on vacation, after all.

‘Help! Somebody help! Robbery!’

Lu Renjia turned his head with some surprise. He almost forgot: this world here was chaotic enough to even have proper gangs.

Wasn’t it only normal to get robbed right out in the open?

He rolled his eyes, and an idea came to him. Slowly and without a hurry, he walked toward the shouting.

‘Is there anyone around!?’

A professional woman was having a tug-of-war over her handbag with two ruffians.

Honest to god, what she wanted was to just run for it, given the two brutes, but the bag held her daughter’s school fee, and a fee at an aristocratic learning institute did not come cheap. She couldn’t let it go without a fight.

‘Hmph, you old hag. You don’t know what’s good for you.’

When the gangster could see the woman wouldn’t let go, and wouldn’t stop yelling, his courage flared up out of spite. He produced a knife to teach her a lesson.

‘Hey, hey, isn’t picking on an auntie a bit low?’

A young man appeared out of nowhere, a warm and easy-going smile on his face. His eyes were fixed on the gangster’s fat gold chain.

‘Looks like dinner for tonight and tomorrow is taken care of.’

‘Come and pick on me instead!’

A titanic force slammed into the thug. The man gave a short, throaty yelp, cut off by a crisp snap.

‘Do you know who we are…?’

‘I don’t care who you are!’

Fed up after a whole day of that nonsense, Lu Renjia waded right in.

In the dark side street, his motions were barely there to be seen. In no time, both thugs lay unconscious on the ground.

‘Thank you! Thank you, little hero!’

The woman stared at him gratefully, asking for his name.

‘Just call me Successful Man,’ the boy said as he squatted beside the thugs and roughly stripped their clothes off their backs.

‘Okay… thank you, then.’

The woman figured the little young hero might not be all there. She muttered another thanks and hurried home.

‘These should be real.’

Lu Renjia had fished a keychain out of their pockets. He looked over the modified motorcycle and decided it was worth a trip to the scrapyard.

La la la. La la la.

A cheerful little song drifted through the alley, where two unconscious thugs lay stark naked in the cold.

And a new urban legend of the city was born….

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