Chapter Eighty-Four: The Fierce Young Woman

Thank you to 69 and Xing'er for your generous tips, and thanks as well to the brothers for your likes and recommendations. Much appreciated.

“Are you following me?”

Qiu Fengyu stopped, then turned to look at Miyakura Ryoko, who had been trailing behind him, tilting his head as he asked with grave seriousness.

Miyakura Ryoko hurriedly stepped back twice and bowed to him. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

“Don’t follow me anymore!” Qiu Fengyu said, nodding at her. When had he become some kind of woman-killer? He thought about it, but could not make sense of it, so he kept walking.

After only a few more steps, he stopped again.

“I said, don’t follow me anymore!”

Though his voice was loud, there was not the slightest trace of menace in his expression. It seemed this little girl had probably seen him slaughter the bull and her heart had gone soft for him.

“I... I... I’m sorry, Mr. Qiu. I want to go home!”

Japanese women had this one flaw: no matter what you said, they bowed to you, as if it were a farewell to the dead, sickeningly ingratiating.

“Then go on home...”

“Yes, Mr. Qiu!”

As she spoke, Miyakura Ryoko continued walking in Qiu Fengyu’s direction. He felt something was off, scratched his head, and suddenly remembered that the route to the Japanese villa seemed to overlap with his for a stretch.

So that was it. He had not become more handsome after all, nor had some Japanese girl fallen for his talent. He rubbed his head, a little embarrassed, and called after her back, “Watch your step at night. A girl alone on the street...”

Would you look at that—just after he shouted those few lines, two young men in black jackets suddenly lunged out from a corner of the street and blocked Miyakura Ryoko’s path.

They were strangers. Qiu Fengyu did not know them, and they were clearly not from this town. They looked a bit like Mexicans.

“Hey, bitch, we’re a little short on cash lately, and our pants are a little loose...” As soon as they spoke, a thick Mexican accent came through, and not far beside them stood two motorcycles.

It was the sort of corny setup straight out of a cheap melodrama: the hero saves the beauty, and the beauty falls for the hero.

Qiu Fengyu felt that tonight he was probably going to become a hero in some girl’s eyes. He sighed helplessly and walked over.

“Hey, buddy, don’t come any closer... best not to meddle!” One of the young men suddenly drew a pistol from his waist and pointed it at Qiu Fengyu.

He had a cobra tattoo on his wrist, and another on his neck. It was conspicuous, giving him a vicious look.

“All right, buddy, relax a little.”

“Get lost, and don’t get in the way...” the young man threatened.

The other one kept menacing the Japanese beauty.

“Chinese? Korean? Or Japanese... I like you. You’re very pretty. Come with me tonight, and I promise I’ll bring you back tomorrow morning... Don’t hesitate. This thing is hard and sharp... Be careful not to cut your face, and then have someone find you in the morning, naked, lying here, cold all over, your eyes wide open, and blood on your neck...”

Qiu Fengyu had already begun to judge the man.

Poor showing.

An absolute poor showing. He had rambled on and on, trying to threaten a girl. If you were out to rob someone or kidnap them, just get down to business—no need for all the chatter.

“All right, fellas, I’m sure you wouldn’t go around killing people just because a girl won’t listen to you. You must be with some kind of gang...” Qiu Fengyu said, taking a few more steps closer.

“Hey, asshole, I told you not to come any closer, or I’ll blow your balls off...” The gunman laughed loudly. “What I like best is blowing off the balls of you Asians...”

“I don’t believe you would. I really don’t...” Qiu Fengyu shook his head and stepped closer again.

The fellow with the dagger glanced over at him.

With a crash, the knife-wielding man suddenly fell to the ground, and then let out a heaven-shaking scream.

The bastard had dropped so abruptly that one moment he was on his feet, and the next he was sprawled on the pavement, with Miyakura Ryoko’s knee driven into his chest and the arm holding the dagger twisted horribly to one side.

Clearly, that arm was ruined. Broken.

The man with the gun spun around and tried to shoot Miyakura Ryoko. That was the reaction of a normal person, but if it had been the reaction of a killer, he should have shot Qiu Fengyu first, and then the Japanese woman.

He reacted like a normal person, so when he turned, Qiu Fengyu slapped his hand aside and the pistol flew from his grip. Before he could do anything else, the man suddenly dropped to his knees and toppled sideways. Then someone fell from the air, bringing a knee crashing down onto his back with a hideous crack of breaking bone.

“Can I call the police now?”

Miyakura Ryoko stood there very calmly, her face still ice-cold as she spoke to Qiu Fengyu.

“Sure, go ahead...” Qiu Fengyu shrugged.

It was really too awkward. He had originally wanted to play out the whole hero-rescues-beauty scene.

“I studied karate,” Miyakura Ryoko said to Qiu Fengyu in a flat voice, then began calling the police.

Soon Sheriff Coffin arrived with a team.

“Cobra...” Coffin looked at the two men being loaded into the patrol car and said to Qiu Fengyu, “You’ve crossed paths with people you shouldn’t have crossed. The Cobra organization—at first they didn’t even have a name, but each member had a cobra tattoo on the wrist and neck. They were also notorious for being ruthless, so the name spread through both the police and the underworld.”

“What kind of people are they?” Qiu Fengyu asked.

“A bunch of immigrants from Mexico. Robbery, extortion... they’re linked to more than twenty murders, but they’re hard to pin down. They ride around on motorcycles, roaming everywhere, like... a pack of wolves wandering the wilderness.” Coffin shrugged.

“All right, now you’ve got two of them in your hands. You can count this as a promotion, Coffin!” Qiu Fengyu said with a smile.

“Thank you,” Coffin said, smiling back.

“No, I didn’t do anything. It was all that girl!” Qiu Fengyu laughed. “I got saved by a girl today. That’s interesting. Very interesting.” He spread his hands and looked over at Miyakura Ryoko, who was giving her statement.

“Get out of here. Don’t stay here,” Coffin said to Qiu Fengyu, then walked over to the Japanese girl. After a few words, Miyakura Ryoko walked back toward Qiu Fengyu.

“Thank you. Without you, I couldn’t have done it.”

Miyakura Ryoko bowed again to Qiu Fengyu.

“You’re actually pretty skilled. I didn’t expect you to be such a fighter!” Qiu Fengyu said with a smile. “I should be the one thanking you.”

Miyakura Ryoko smiled faintly and bowed once more before slowly making her way home. Qiu Fengyu smiled. When that girl smiled, she really was beautiful. Unfortunately, you rarely got to see it; her face usually seemed frozen in place.

“Take these two bastards away... ambulance... damn it, forget the ambulance, just take them away like that...” Coffin shouted at the officers, waving them on.

And so the two unlucky men were dragged into the patrol car, all the while howling in misery.

“You’re dead meat... You had no right to treat us like this...”

Even after being hauled into the police car, the two bastards were still issuing threats.

“You’re dead meat, and that bitch is dead meat too, and that Asian is dead meat, I guarantee it... Ah—damn it, ah—”

The man kept screaming.

“Just shut your damned mouth,” Coffin snapped, shaking the hand that had just pressed on the fellow’s wound, then pulling out a tissue to wipe it clean. “Go howl in prison, bastard!”

“Boss, I think we should take them to the hospital first...” Caleb said cautiously to Coffin.

Ever since Coffin had become sheriff, she had been acting far too fierce.

“Take them to the station for statements first, then to the hospital,” Coffin said, then started the car and drove off toward the police station.

Qiu Fengyu returned to the noodle shop. Thinking about what had happened today, he found it rather amusing, and before long he could not help laughing to himself. Then he went downstairs and took a beer from the refrigerator.

“What an embarrassment!” he muttered.

It really was a little embarrassing.

That Japanese beauty was actually a karate expert. Qiu Fengyu had truly misjudged her. If not for that rigid expression of hers, she would have been a genuinely appealing girl. Still, Qiu Fengyu had no particular interest.

By then, under the two bastards’ screams, Sheriff Coffin had finished taking their statements and sent Caleb to take them to the town hospital, with him and another officer assigned to guard them.

This case was certainly beyond what the small-town police station could handle, so she reported it upward. Tomorrow, the bureau would send someone to take over, because this had already involved gang-related murder, robbery, and other serious crimes.

Because of this incident, the town would probably no longer remain peaceful.

The Cobra organization was clearly missing two of its members, and they had disappeared in Abilene. That meant they would come here, searching until the two men were found.

And that also meant the town was facing a test.