Chapter 5

In reality, all of this happened in the blink of an eye. The blond young man was, after all, dedicated to his work. After a brief moment of shock, he stared at the man’s fleeing figure and screamed down from the window,
“Coach Luo!!! Please help!!!”

“…” Luo Jingyao instinctively narrowed her eyes, not moving.

“Coach Luo, saving a life is more important than building a seven-story pagoda! Good people get blessed with eight sons!” The young man grew increasingly panicked, his words devolving into incoherence.

“That’s a bit much,” Luo Jingyao muttered with an eye-roll, but in the end, she didn’t delay any longer.

In a flash, she launched forward at full speed.

The man fleeing up ahead had just made it out of the residential complex and was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he suddenly heard hurried footsteps approaching from behind. He cautiously turned his head—and immediately saw a figure quickly closing in.

There was no time to get a clear look at who was chasing him. A cold sweat broke out across his back, and he bolted onto the main road like a madman, dodging oncoming traffic and scrambling over the central divider with both hands and feet.

After briefly getting his bearings, he darted into the small wooded area of the nearby plaza without hesitation.

While continuing to run, he glanced back—only to find that the figure had disappeared.

He looked back again and again in disbelief, then slowly came to a halt, fully turning around to scan the path he came from. Indeed, there was no one else on that forest trail.

Letting out a heavy breath of relief, the man bent forward slightly, trying to calm his pounding chest.

“Damn it, what a shitty day…” he muttered, cursing under his breath as he turned around to leave.

But the moment he saw what was ahead, his right leg—which had just stepped forward—immediately retracted, and he even took a cautious step back.

At some point, Luo Jingyao had gotten ahead of him. She was now leaning casually against a tree trunk with her arms crossed. When the man hesitated and said nothing, she smiled politely and spoke first,
“Were you looking for me?”

Run? Or not?

The man’s eyes darted around rapidly. The burning sensation in his lungs from running made him frown, but seeing it was just a lone woman gave him confidence.

“You’re a cop too?”

He was out of breath from the chase, and his voice had a strange tone to it.

Luo Jingyao shook her head honestly,
“I’m not.”

“Then why were you chasing me?” The man’s voice suddenly shot up several octaves.

“Because the police asked me to.” Luo Jingyao replied straightforwardly.

But her calm tone only felt like mockery to the man. Like an enraged lion, he let out a furious breath and lunged at her with a raised fist, yelling,

“You dare mess with me?!”

BANG!

The dull thud of flesh colliding echoed through the woods. Luo Jingyao didn’t even try to dodge the sudden punch—instead, she raised her left arm and blocked it directly.

She felt a sharp pain in her forearm but curled her lips into a slight smile, not holding back as she immediately followed up with a side kick.

The man had decent reflexes and staggered backward, dodging the kick, but he wasn’t done. He lunged again in frustration.

They exchanged a few blows until the man suddenly tried to fight dirty—grabbing her backpack with both hands and attempting to yank her to the ground by force.

Luo Jingyao didn’t panic. With a quick shrug, she slipped out of the straps, then grabbed one of them with one hand while forming a knife-hand with the other and aimed straight for the side of the man’s neck.

The man’s eyelid twitched. He quickly let go of the backpack as her fingers grazed his neck, the sharp sting sending a shiver down his spine.

But before he could even catch his breath—

WHAM!
A sharp pain exploded in his upper left arm, and his whole body was suddenly thrown into the air before crashing hard into a bush by the path.

“AHHHHH!!!”

His miserable scream sent nearby birds scattering into the sky.

Luo Jingyao quickly retrieved her backpack and sheepishly bounced it in her arms, a little embarrassed by its hefty weight. In the heat of the moment, she’d forgotten what she had inside…

When Lin Jiafan and the others arrived, they were met with a bizarre sight.

The man’s pained groans came from inside the bushes, with only his legs sticking out. Meanwhile, Luo Jingyao stood beside him, hugging her backpack innocently and bowing in apology.

“What’s going on?” the blond young man rushed past Lin Jiafan and peeked into the bushes—then burst into laughter,
“Coach Luo, that was amazing!”

He even kicked the man’s leg lightly,
“Why aren’t you running now? You were fast just a minute ago. What, playing dead already?”

“Um…” Luo Jingyao opened her mouth to explain.

Before she could get a word out, Lin Jiafan had already walked over to check on the man. After a few seconds of silence, he looked at Luo Jingyao with suspicion.

“He tried to snatch my bag. We wrestled a bit, and I might’ve accidentally hit him with it… My bag’s kind of heavy, so…” Luo Jingyao admitted, stumbling a bit over her words but owning up.

“Heavy?”

Lin Jiafan finally focused on the backpack she was hugging. It was clearly larger than the average woman’s bag and was stuffed to the brim.

“Whoa, is he seriously hurt?” the blond guy peeked into the bushes again, then shifted over and curiously pointed to the bag,
“Coach Luo, what do you even carry in there? That kind of impact? Can I take a look?”

Luo Jingyao blinked and handed him the bag casually.

At first, he wasn’t too concerned. He reached out casually—but the weight caught him completely off guard. The bag slipped from his hands and crashed heavily onto the stone pavement with a loud thud.

Too shocked to close his mouth, he quickly crouched down and unzipped the bag—only to find two oversized, weight-adjustable dumbbells inside.

Lin Jiafan saw it too. He raised his brows in astonishment and quipped just before the others could recover from their shock:

“Coach Luo… do you always carry workout gear around with you?”

“Uh…” Luo Jingyao lowered her head slightly, “I originally brought them to use for training. Your police department has a gym, but I checked the equipment—it’s not really suitable for those few guys. So I figured I’d just bring a set from home.”

“This dumbbell set is adjustable—you can add plates, extend it into a barbell, use it as a kettlebell, or even as push-up stands. It’s really practical.”

“Damn…” the blond young officer, still bent over, finally saw the weight on the two dumbbells and couldn’t help but swallow hard.
“Wait, Coach Luo—you were carrying forty pounds and still caught up to him???”

That just made him feel utterly useless!

And thinking about how that equipment was originally meant to be used on them made all the hairs on his body stand up. He felt a weird sense of relief, like narrowly escaping disaster.

“…” Luo Jingyao scratched the back of her head awkwardly.

Thankfully, a few more people arrived at the scene just then, making the area lively again. After quite a bit of commotion, they finally got the man—who didn’t even have the strength to groan—onto a stretcher and into an ambulance.

Luo Jingyao followed the group out of the small forest, watching as the ambulance carrying the injured man and the police officers sped away with its siren blaring.

“Coach Luo really saved the day today. If not, that guy would’ve gotten away!” the blond young man muttered as he stood by the roadside. “Hey? But Coach Luo, what were you doing around here?”

However, before Luo Jingyao could respond, Lin Jiafan’s voice cut in:
“Pang Guangbuyi, go bring the car over.”

Pfft.

Even though it wasn’t the first time she’d heard that name, Luo Jingyao still couldn’t suppress the corners of her lips from curling upward. Her expression twisted slightly from trying to hold back her amusement.

The blond young man—Pang Guangbuyi—waved his arms dramatically in protest:
“Playing is one thing, but you can’t just shout my full name like that in public! Boss, you’re breaking the code!”

Despite his complaints, his legs moved faster than his mouth. He immediately turned and headed for the nearby crosswalk, off to retrieve the car from where it was parked under the crime scene building.

Once the overly chatty presence was gone, Lin Jiafan turned his face slightly toward Luo Jingyao and spoke in a gentle tone:
“Coach Luo, where are you headed next? If you don’t mind, we can give you a ride.”

Luo Jingyao had initially planned to decline, but when she recalled the severed finger she’d seen in her fridge last night, she swallowed her words:
“Then I’ll take you up on the offer. Thank you, Captain Lin.”

“No need to be so polite, Coach Luo.” Lin Jiafan shifted his gaze away and said no more.

From Luo Jingyao’s angle, she could only see his upright posture, his sharp side profile, and the glint of sunlight reflecting off his glasses.

Fortunately, the awkward silence didn’t last long. Soon, Pang Guangbuyi pulled up with the car in front of them.

Understanding the situation, Luo Jingyao took a seat in the second row. Lin Jiafan sat in the passenger seat, just as he had earlier. What surprised her was that there were only three of them in the vehicle.

Apparently, the investigation at the crime scene wasn’t over yet, and she wasn’t sure why these two had left ahead of the others.

Pulling her drifting thoughts back, Luo Jingyao finally noticed the slightly stiff atmosphere in the car. The two men up front had been avoiding conversation, likely out of consideration for her. The only sound came from the faint static of the radio channel.

She absentmindedly picked at the canvas of her backpack, wondering whether she should break the silence.

But before she could make up her mind, a gentle ringtone rang out inside the vehicle. Pang Guangbuyi, who was driving, reached up and tapped the Bluetooth earpiece on his ear to answer the call.

“Hello, who’s this?”

“Are you serious?! The results are out this fast?”

The polite tone he had just used suddenly transformed into excitement. His voice rose an octave, barely able to contain the thrill in his words.

Through the rearview mirror, Luo Jingyao saw Pang Guangbuyi’s face flush bright red.

The person on the other end spoke a bit more, and Pang Guangbuyi responded enthusiastically before hanging up. Then, wiggling in his seat, he exclaimed:

“Boss! I’ve made a huge contribution today!”

“Wanna take a guess what the good news is?”