Chapter Ninety-Three: Is That Really Even Human?

On the avenue leading to the North City railway station, ten police cars were racing ahead with lights flashing and sirens wailing, heedless of the changing traffic signals.

Anyone who saw it was both curious and unsettled. It had been a long time since North City had seen such a desperate, full-force deployment of ten police cars. What on earth had happened? What kind of incident had broken out somewhere in the city?

In the front passenger seat of the first car sat a woman of striking figure. She was dressed in loose plainclothes, but even through the fabric the fullness of her chest could still be made out. She was beautiful, with a delicate oval face, though at that moment the expression on that face was anything but calm.

Her bright eyes kept flicking toward the clock in the police car, and her elegant brows were tightly knitted. Beneath a straight nose, her lovely mouth was drawn tight with the impatience burning in her heart.

"Not there yet? Hurry up! Where is the special response team? Haven't they arrived either?"

This woman was none other than the young policewoman whose underwear Xue Tianai had once seen, Shen Xinyi.

More than ten minutes earlier, Shen Xinyi had already changed clothes and was ready to get off work. She had even stepped outside the police bureau building when, suddenly, the entire building erupted with the shrill cry of alarms.

She had no choice but to rush back. The moment she reached the police station lobby, she saw officers in full uniform running about in great haste, and so she stopped caring about propriety and followed the dispatch vehicles out in her plain clothes.

On the way, she had learned the basic situation: someone had actually gone to rob a chicken restaurant, and it seemed they were carrying illegal firearms.

Robbing a bank or a jewelry store, Shen Xinyi could still understand as normal enough. But why would a robber target a chicken restaurant?

Still, robbery was robbery. No matter the place, it was a violation of the law of the land. Absolutely zero tolerance.

"Captain Shen, at our current speed it'll take nearly five minutes to get there! The special response team is also on the way to the scene!" The policeman driving the first car had beads of sweat gathering on his forehead.

At the moment, he could be said to be driving with every ounce of his strength. He had not only to watch for pedestrians and vehicles on the road, but also to keep the speed up.

"I'll give you only three minutes! Speed up!" Shen Xinyi's lovely face had gone rigid, and her eyes were locked tightly on the road ahead.

"Understood!" the officer in the driver's seat shouted, pressing harder on the accelerator.

...

Inside the chicken restaurant, the gunshot had brought about a silence like death.

The three sharp cracks had naturally startled everyone terribly. They had even imagined the miserable young man blocked before the three gun muzzles being splashed with blood and collapsing in a grisly scene.

But when they could finally make out what was happening, everyone was stunned.

What? How was that possible? What had just happened in that instant? Had the robbers' pistols missed? No, no, that couldn't be. At such close range, with three muzzles, how could they possibly miss?

There stood Xue Tianai, calmly in place, at some point with a pair of golden butterfly knives in his hands, a faint, devilish smile playing on his lips.

"Didn't your mothers ever tell you that little kids shouldn't play with guns?"

Xue Tianai lightly blew away the heat from the butterfly knives and smiled at the terrified robbers.

The moment the three robbers pulled the triggers, Xue Tianai had already drawn his butterfly knives and used them to block the three deadly bullets for himself.

"E-elder brother-in-law?" Cen An'an stared at Xue Tianai's back with wide eyes, her face full of disbelief.

When she heard the gunshots, Cen An'an had already covered her eyes and dared not look again. Guilt flooded her heart.

If not for her willful request, brother-in-law would not have invited her out for this meal, and then the three of them would not have been in danger like this... Yet not only had brother-in-law not blamed her, he had even used his own body to shield her and Qin Mengxue from those black muzzles...

But whether it was Xue Tianai's mocking tone or the fact that he still stood there unharmed, all the evidence told Cen An'an the same thing: her brother-in-law was all right.

"An'an, don't worry. Your brother-in-law is very skilled. There's no need to be afraid!" Qin Mengxue looked at Xue Tianai's towering back like a mountain and revealed a happy smile. At that moment, her heart was filled with gratitude.

Yes, without a doubt, this man had saved her again. He had once more stood before that dreadful gun muzzle for her and once again placed himself between her and danger.

To have such a man who would protect her without fear of life or death, what more could she ask for?

"What... what did you just do?" The most shocked, of course, were the robbers who had fired the shots. They had expected Xue Tianai to be dead for certain, yet he now stood perfectly intact across from them. What on earth was going on?

Could it be they hadn't actually fired the bullets? No, impossible. The three empty casings scattered on the floor proved beyond doubt that bullets had indeed been fired from their guns.

Then why?

"I didn't do anything. Can't you see I'm standing right here?" Xue Tianai spread his hands, butterfly knives in both palms.

"Impossible! Go die!"

The three robbers raised their pistols again and aimed at Xue Tianai. Since three shots had failed, then they would fire three more.

But would Xue Tianai give them the chance?

The answer was obvious: of course he would not.

Before the three robbers could even react, Xue Tianai's figure vanished from where he stood like a phantom.

"Wha—ahhh!"

The robber in the middle among the three let out a bloodcurdling scream, and the gun in his hand dropped to the floor.

Xue Tianai, who had vanished a moment before, was suddenly at his right side, a golden knife piercing straight through his palm.

"Oh, right, and you too! Stop standing by the door all the time. Are you the guardian spirit of the gate?"

Xue Tianai yanked out the knife that had pinned the robber's palm, then hurled it at the robber by the door, who had secretly raised his gun toward him.

The knife flew with astonishing speed, even carrying a sharp whistle through the air. The next instant, it plunged viciously into the robber's right shoulder.

"Oh, right, I forgot. There's still the left shoulder."

With that, Xue Tianai flung the other butterfly knife from his opposite hand, driving it hard into the robber's left shoulder.

With both shoulders nearly ruined at once, the man by the door howled in pain, the gun falling from his hand as he collapsed weakly to the ground, twitching in agony.

"Damn it!"

At that moment, the other two robbers, still armed, finally reacted. They hurriedly swung their muzzles toward Xue Tianai and squeezed the triggers hard.

But in the blink of an eye, after kicking aside the robber whose palm had been pierced, Xue Tianai spread his arms wide, caught the two gun hands as easily as reaching into a pouch, and crossed them before his own face, forcing the muzzles to point at each other's thighs.

Bang! Bang!

Two muffled gunshots followed.

With them came two heart-rending screams. Both men now had holes blown through their thighs, and blood gushed from the wounds.

Xue Tianai then exerted a little force with both hands. With two crisp cracks, the wrists of the two robbers went limp at once.

"Ah! Ah!"

With their wrists suddenly broken, the two robbers' cries became even more ghastly.

Xue Tianai released their hands, caught the two falling pistols, and with a flip of his wrist there came a sharp metallic sound. In an instant, the two guns had been reduced to a heap of parts.

After casually tossing the gun parts to the floor, Xue Tianai seized the bodies of the two robbers, who were kneeling on either side of him in pain, and threw them toward the door.

The two bodies flew over the heads of the stunned crowd like dirty rags and were hurled straight toward their companion at the entrance. After crashing heavily to the ground, they convulsed as if struck by high voltage, foamed at the mouth, and fainted.

Xue Tianai moved lightly over to the robber he had first pierced through the palm and then kicked aside, and said with a wicked smile, "All right, now there's only you left. Don't be anxious. I'll have your four brothers gathered together in just a moment."

He punched the man's forehead hard. Before the robber could even say a word, the blow knocked him unconscious.

Xue Tianai grabbed him by the collar, dragged him all the way to the pile of fallen robbers by the door, and then let go.

Silence. Stunned disbelief. An eerie stillness.

Was this really a human being?

Everyone inside the restaurant was looking at Xue Tianai with utterly astonished eyes. The reversal had come so fast. The four robbers who had been flaunting their power just moments earlier were now stacked in a heap at the entrance like dead dogs.

Especially Xue Tianai's miraculous skill; it exceeded every imagination. They felt as though they had just watched a Hollywood action blockbuster.

Who exactly was this young man?

Xue Tianai paid no mind to the ghost-struck looks around him and simply returned to Qin Mengxue and Cen An'an.

The instant he came back to the two women, Qin Mengxue rushed into his arms, clung tightly to him, and buried her head in his chest without saying a word.

Cen An'an had still not recovered from the fear of moments before. Her face was a little pale, and her body, soft with weakness, leaned against Xue Tianai's arm as she murmured with a trembling voice, "Brother-in-law... brother-in-law..."

The tingling warmth from his arms and chest, together with the faint fragrance from the two women, made Xue Tianai's heart begin to wander as well... Ah, in one word: bliss.

But before Xue Tianai could properly enjoy it, the restaurant door was suddenly pushed open again.

Xue Tianai turned to look in curiosity.

Just one glance, and his face darkened.