Outside The Law Chapter 10

While Luo Yu was dazed, Jiang Qi stole away the gun pointed at him and fired at the lock, then kicked the door open. The wound on his arm wouldn't stop bleeding. His face was pale.

Su Jiawen removed his gun too, and put it back in its holster. He grabbed Luo Yu's arms and made the other hold onto him. He asked, "Can you still walk?"

Luo Yu stared at Su Jiawen. He didn't say anything. Su Jiawen avoided his gaze, towing him forward. At least Luo Yu didn't try to resist.　

Coincidentally, the parking lot was right outside the door. Jiang Qi walked ahead and found an old-fas.h.i.+oned SUV. He waved at Su Jiawen and pointed at the car with his uninjured left hand.　

Su Jiawen dragged Luo Yu over and made Jiang Qi prop Luo Yu up. Then, he fired a direct shot into the car's gla.s.s window.　

The gla.s.s shattered. He reached a hand in and opened the car door before removing all the cus.h.i.+oning from the car seat and throwing it onto the ground. Finally, he crawled over to the back seat and unlocked the door.　

Jiang Qi urged, "Hurry, the soldiers He Yonggui hired are almost here."

Su Jiawen opened the car's back doors. Jiang Qi pushed Luo Yu in first; Luo Yu's leg wound was quite severe. He had lost a lot of blood, so his forehead was wet with cold sweat. But Jiang Qi wasn't much better off. The bullet he had taken to his right arm had been pretty serious too.

Su Jiawen had just pulled the live wire out when the soldiers pursuing them charged out of the emergency exit. Su Jiawen's eyes were sharp, so he quietly relayed, "Lie down!"

The car Jiang Qi had chosen was parked in the middle of the lot. It couldn't be spotted in a glance. A group of three soldiers were clearly wary of them too, because they stood in a tiny triangular formation and were approaching slowly. Su Jiawen leaned against the steering wheel and silently reached a hand out to open the car door.

His form was small, so he carefully pushed the door open a little and slipped out, then lightly closed the door behind him.　　

Luo Yu was still pretty calm. He looked down at his own leg; when he looked up again, he found that Su Jiawen had disappeared. He immediately turned to stare at Jiang Qi.　　

Jiang Qi could tell what he wanted to ask. He said, "You don't need to worry about him."

At this moment, gunshots rang out, but they came from the other end of the parking lot. The soldiers seemed to have discovered a shadow, so spun around and rushed in that direction.　

"He……" Luo Yu was ultimately still worried. His eyebrows were tightly furrowed together. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't even lift his leg, he would've gotten out of the car long ago. "Only has eighteen bullets."

Jiang Qi knew whatever he said would be useless, so only shrugged.　

The gunshots stopped. Though the car no longer had a window, they were too far away to catch anything. They could only faintly hear the sounds of fighting. Luo Yu's heart pounded extremely quickly in his chest. Yet, his perked ears could only pick up the sound of a bone breaking and a few angry roars that followed. He couldn't hear Su Jiawen at all.

A few minutes later, Su Jiawen returned.

His light-colored jacket was spattered with blood and grime. There were three submachine guns on his shoulder. When he got on the car, he wordlessly threw the guns onto the pa.s.senger seat and slammed the door shut with a "peng". He continued to hotwire the car.

Luo Yu could only see that his previously pale knuckles were now slightly red.

"How many people left?" Su Jiawen suddenly asked.

It took Jiang Qi a while to react. "Four."

The car lightly trembled, then started. Su Jiawen turned around and glanced at the two in the back. "Seatbelt."

"What kind of stinkin' habit," Jiang Qi cussed as he put on his own seatbelt.

Luo Yu was still staring at Su Jiawen. Su Jiawen asked him, "You want me to climb back there and put it on for you?"

Jiang Qi was annoyed to death of the two of them. He pulled out the seatbelt and stuffed Luo Yu into it. "I'll do it. I'll do it, okay?"

Su Jiawen stomped on the gas pedal and the car took off.

The car was the most common type of SUV found on the island. It was stick s.h.i.+ft, but Su Jiawen didn't seem to have any problems driving it. He accelerated to over two hundred miles per hour, steadily making his way up the mountainous road that was between the airport and downtown.

Their pursuers caught up fairly quickly. The man in charge rode on a six cylinder motorcycle. His center of gravity was low, so his vehicle managed to drive extremely quickly. The motorcyclist lowered his body and sped up.　

"Can you still use your left hand?" Su Jiawen threw three guns behind him. "Take these."

Jiang Qi saw that among them was the Glock 17 that had a very light recoil. He knew it was the one Luo Yu had gifted his boss. His boss only kept a submachine gun for himself.　

Luo Yu's expression became worse from where he was off to the side. Jiang Qi was scared he would suddenly combust.

But this was a command his boss had given him. Jiang Qi could only force himself to say, "I can."

He observed the motorcyclist from the mirror. He wanted to wait until the other was closer before shooting.

Su Jiawen's expression was solemn as he stared in the rearview mirror. He ordered Jiang Qi, "Wait for me to give the okay."

Before Jiang Qi could do anything, the motorcyclist took a shot at the car's back window. Jiang Qi and Luo Yu lost their cover, so crouched over behind the seat to avoid the rain of bullets.

Su Jiawen calculated the optimal distance and said, "Shoot at the gas tank!"

Jiang Qi wanted to stand up and shoot, but he could only use his left hand. The mountain road was rugged and b.u.mpy, so it was hard for him to take aim. The motorcycle was getting closer and closer.　

Luo Yu watched as he spent a long time aiming, then grabbed the gun from him, impatient. As soon as he got an eye on the target, he shot three continuous rounds. One hit the man's body, another hit the front wheel, and the last hit the gas tank.　

The motorcycle instantly exploded. Thick smoke and raging flames threatened to reach the sky. A large quant.i.ty of shattered rock hurtled down the side of the mountain, blocking the armored car following them behind a pile of combusted debris.

Su Jiawen continued to accelerate. He temporarily left the soldiers chasing them in the dust.　

Jiang Qi looked at Su Jiawen, then looked at Luo Yu who looked like a bottle of explosives. While he kept an eye on the situation behind them, he also found a conversation topic. "Elder He is going all in this time."

"Weren't the troops hired by He Yonggui preparing to attack in Switzerland?" Luo Yu had known long before about He Yonggui's little plot. He had just never expected that the other would dare to take a risk in country U, a place that was extremely close to Ping City.

"He hired another bunch of soldiers on the black market after you guys left Ping City. I didn't notice at first, but kept an eye out when I arrived in country U. I ordered an investigation that led to the discovery that he had hired the soldiers. But I didn't expect for Xing Licheng to be looking into this matter as well. He felt that something was off too, but couldn't manage to contact you starting from last night."

Upon hearing this, Luo Yu immediately realized that his phone had been tampered with. He was just about to pull it out when Su Jiawen spoke from up front, "I already threw your phone away when I helped you up earlier."

Jiang Qi's mouth twitched.

"Where's Xing Licheng right now?" Luo Yu asked Jiang Qi.

Jiang Qi said, "He and I reached an emergency agreement to meet at a safe house in the downtown area. Two helicopters should arrive by around twelve midnight."

"Two?" The corners of Luo Yu's lips tugged upwards. "Mine……and Zhen Ting's?"

Jiang Qi looked at Su Jiawen before nodding.

Luo Yu nodded before finally directing his gaze onto the person driving up front. He could see Su Jiawen's eyes from the rearview mirror. He looked so collected and focused, just like he did every time he was stuck in a good book. It was like nothing had changed.

Luo Yu inhaled deeply. Then, he spat out two words he refused to believe, "Ruan Zheng?"

The car smoothly finished a sharp turn. The inertia made Luo Yu nauseous. The wound on his leg hurt so much that it now felt numb, but his heart felt like someone was slicing at it with a dull knife. The pain was so bad that he could barely gather the energy to breathe.

A long time later, he finally heard the person he treasured so much go "un".

Ruan Zheng said, "That's me."

From then until they got off the car, there were no other noises aside from the heated, raw wind sounds that thrummed against the pa.s.sengers' eardrums from through the broken window.　

They finally arrived downtown. In the time before their pursuers caught up, the three of them abandoned the car and got on the most common form of transportation in the downtown area, a three-wheeled motorcycle used for carrying pa.s.sengers.　　

On the motorcycle, Jiang Qi used a clothing item he had found on the car to simply bandage his arm. He put his gun into a tote bag that he had found in the trunk, too. There were a lot of people downtown, so the driver didn't realize that there was anything different about these three.

Jiang Qi gave the driver the address of the safe house. The motorcycle carried them through several alleyways, continuing on for a long time before finally reaching the building the safe house was located in. It was a normal rental building, split into east and west sides. There weren't a lot of levels, and all sorts of people resided in it. Jiang Qi led them into a simple elevator and pressed the b.u.t.ton for the top floor.

The top floor was roughcast and empty of any people or items. No renters had lived there before, but that didn't mean it was clean. The floor was covered with dirt and dust. Ruan Zheng furrowed his brows when he looked at it, then took his jacket off and put it down. He grabbed Luo Yu's hand and pulled him over to sit down. He lifted his head and told him, "You sit first. I'll go buy some medicine."

"Ah Zheng, take the gun." Jiang Qi was afraid that he would encounter pursuing forces, so threw a gun at him.

As soon as Ruan Zheng caught the gun, he squatted down and handed it to Luo Yu. "Mr. Luo, you take it."

Luo Yu scooted closer and weighed the gun. He looked at Ruan Zheng and asked, "Aren't you scared that I could shoot you right now?"

Ruan Zheng didn't answer. Instead, he half-kneeled by Luo Yu's side and examined his wound. He quickly glanced at the degree of damage Luo Yu's pant leg had suffered before determining, "We'll need to take care of your leg wound immediately."

"My gunshot wound……" Jiang Qi interrupted.

"Did it go straight through?" Ruan Zheng turned to look at him. Jiang Qi nodded, so Ruan Zheng replied, "I'll buy bandages for you."

Jiang Qi rolled his eyes, not even bothering to hide his disdain.　

Ruan Zheng kept looking at Luo Yu. Luo Yu stared straight back at him, too. His eyes were only filled with judgement, nothing else. Ruan Zheng didn't like the cold expression in Luo Yu's gaze, so covered it and pecked Luo Yu. He quietly told him, "I'll be right back."

As soon as Ruan Zheng left, the room became silent. Jiang Qi sat on the bay window by the balcony, maintaining a safe distance from Luo Yu.　

A while later, Jiang Qi finally opened his mouth. "What do you want to ask? You can ask me. If you ask Ah Zheng, he might not answer."

Luo Yu replayed the scene of the first time he had eaten dinner with Jiang Qi in his mind. He lowered his voice and inquired, "Why?"

"He's liked you for a while." Jiang Qi glanced at the door before continuing, "I don't know how he got to know you, but he really likes you. Ah Zheng's had a lack of love in this life; he's not from a happy family. The way he's with you is how he normally is, gentle and harmless, always soft-spoken. But he normally kills people. In front of you, he wouldn't."

"I was working for He Yonggui when I was seventeen. I fainted after being cut up by someone and getting thrown in a little alleyway. Ah Zheng brought me back with him. He's the only son in his family——His father was the Chinese leader of a small, local gang in Laos. In his early years, he had an innumerous amount of mistresses, but they only gave birth to daughters. Ah Zheng was the only son. Later on, an explosion injured his reproductive organs and he couldn't have children anymore, so Ah Zheng truly become his sole successor. His dad didn't like his appearance and said he looked too weak, like he wouldn't be able to command respect. Because of this, he was extra strict with him. Ah Zheng had already started walking the line of life and death with a group of old ex-militia when he was just past the age of ten. A couple years later, his dad had an accident and he came to Ping City."

Jiang Qi probably wanted to paint Ruan Zheng as a tragic hero, so he kept talking. Upon seeing that Luo Yu wasn't going to interrupt him, he added, "Ah Zheng asked to meet you once, three years ago. He waited on top of the Jian Island Tower for you the whole night, but you didn't come. Later he started messing with everything you did because he wanted your attention."

Here, Jiang Qi laughed dauntlessly. "Su Jiawen is a student who looked like him. His mom owed a lot of money from gambling. Everything else is also real. One time he saw Su Jiawen outside of Ping University and thought he looked similar to him, so sent someone to investigate him. He scheduled a meeting with Su Jiawen.

"He never told me what they discussed, but a few days later, someone took Su Jiawen to get plastic surgery. He got surgery to look almost exactly the same as Ah Zheng. The person attending Ping University was sometimes Su Jiawen, sometimes Ah Zheng. I didn't know what he wanted to do back then, and he never answered when I asked about it.

"Some time pa.s.sed, and Ah Zheng managed to get your schedule. He used Su Jiawen's ident.i.ty to get into White Nest. Based on what I know about him, I'm guessing he was preparing to drug and rape you. n.o.body expected that you would bring up wanting to be his sugar daddy first."

Luo Yu looked at Jiang Qi, speechless.　

"He told me he originally only wanted to sleep with you a couple of times. But after sleeping with you a couple of times, he wanted you to like him too." Jiang Qi paused. "I know what he did to you was extremely unfair. You can tell too, he's just that kind of person. He has to get what he wants, no matter the means; he's sinister. I'm in no position to explain for him, but if you don't think about all this……"

Jiang Qi sighed softly. "It's up to you to make a decision."

Luo Yu didn't answer for a long time. He imagined what he should do in this circ.u.mstance. His answer was that he should kill Ruan Zheng, and that was doing the least. Thus, he could make neither head nor tail of this situation.

He had remained silent the entire way here because he had discovered that he couldn't even say anything harsh to Ruan Zheng.　

Ruan Zheng came back with a big bag of medicine and food. When he saw that both Luo Yu and Jiang Qi were how he had left them, he first smiled at Luo Yu, then pulled out a bottle of water and unscrewed the lid. He set it beside Luo Yu. "Mr. Luo, I bought the water you like to drink."

"Let me fix Ah Qi up first." He found a pair of scissors, bandages, and medicine, then cut open Jiang Qi's sleeve. Jiang Qi's wound had already basically stopped bleeding. Ruan Zheng used a cotton ball covered in disinfectant to help him clean off the bloodstains before applying the medicine.

Luo Yu picked up the water and took a gulp. He tilted the bottle too fast, so water spilled down his chin. He stared at Ruan Zheng. Ruan Zheng's back s.h.i.+fted with his movements; he was diligently bandaging Jiang Qi's arm. He looked very practiced, as if he had a lot of experience doing this. Jiang Qi trusted him a lot too. Luo Yu sat off to the side, on the jacket Ruan Zheng had brought him, and felt like an outsider.

Ruan Zheng used the scissors to cut the residual bandages off. He told Jiang Qi, "Ah Qi, go wait outside for a bit."

Jiang Qi walked over to the paper bag that Ruan Zheng had brought back. He squatted down and picked out a bento box, then went outside. When he pa.s.sed Ruan Zheng, he muttered I feel like a peasant worker. Ruan Zheng pretended he didn't hear anything.　

He closed the door. Ruan Zheng carried the scissors over to Luo Yu and half-knelt in front of him. He carefully cut off the suit material that had been stuck on Luo Yu's calf because of the blood. Suddenly, he felt something cold press against his forehead.

It was the gun he had given Luo Yu. Luo Yu stared at him emotionlessly, but Ruan Zheng smiled in response. He ignored the barrel glued to his forehead, instead leaning in closer to kiss Luo Yu.

Luo Yu was only scaring him. There was no energy in his arm, which allowed Ruan Zheng to easily push it away. Their teeth clinked together. One of Ruan Zheng's hands rested on Luo Yu's shoulder while the other remained on his leg. Luo Yu could taste cigarettes in Ruan Zheng's mouth.

So it appeared that Ruan Zheng smoked.

Luo Yu was dizzy from excessive blood loss. A sudden sharp pain shot through his calf, causing him to instantly become alert. Ruan Zheng scooted a bit further away from him and tugged the cloth that was stuck on his flesh off.

He carefully cleaned Luo Yu's calf, then used a lighter to disinfect a pair of tweezers. He used the tweezers to remove the gla.s.s shards from Luo Yu's flesh. Ruan Zheng's head was lowered and Luo Yu's vision was blurry, so he couldn't decipher the other's expression. He could only tell that Ruan Zheng's lips were tightly pressed together.　

If they had successfully boarded the plane back to Ping City today and Ruan Zheng had this expression on his face, Luo Yu would definitely have taken him to do everything he wanted to do. As long as he would stop being this unhappy, Luo Yu would've presented the stars and moon to him.　

After Ruan Zheng cleaned up his wound, he grabbed some tablets and handed them to Luo Yu. "Antibiotics."

Luo Yu put the gun down, swallowed a few, and looked at Ruan Zheng. "Don't you have anything to say?"
Ruan Zheng gazed back at him. "What does Mr. Luo want me to say?"

Luo Yu didn't reply. Ruan Zheng continued, "I didn't think it would happen so fast, but it's better this way."

"Better?" Luo Yu's lips twitched in mockery as he inquired.

Ruan Zheng pressed the back of his hand against Luo Yu's forehead, avoiding the topic of debate. "You'll still need to get this looked at when we get back. You have a slight fever."

Even if Luo Yu was extremely capable, he was still a pampered, wealthy son. When had he ever gotten so seriously injured? The onset of fever was expected. Ruan Zheng found some bread and fed Luo Yu; Luo Yu didn't reject him.　

Jiang Qi finished a bento box outside, then opened the door to peek inside. He was scared that Ruan Zheng would get strangled to death by Luo Yu in a moment of inattention. He decided that it would be better for him to stay inside the room. His presence could also somewhat dispel the awkward atmosphere.

At twelve, the island's downtown was still bustling.

Two helicopters landed at the safe house as planned. They parked separately on the east and west sides of the roof of the rental building. Ruan Zheng half-piggybacked Luo Yu upstairs. Xing Licheng waited for Luo Yu nearby.

When he saw Luo Yu, he immediately walked over, wanting to take Luo Yu over from Ruan Zheng.

Unexpectedly, Luo Yu pushed him away and said, "I can walk."

Then he turned around and stared at Ruan Zheng.　

Ruan Zheng saw that he was still willing to look at him and was extremely surprised. He and Luo Yu maintained eye contact for two seconds, before he held his arms out and carefully asked, "Can I hug you?"

Luo Yu's expression immediately turned fierce, but Ruan Zheng hugged Luo Yu quickly while he was off guard anyways. His embrace wasn't very tight, but the warmth and strength he used still belonged to Su Jiawen. He even pecked Luo Yu's chin and told him, "See you in Ping City."

The lighting was dim. Ruan Zheng's expression was very gentle, pure and innocent. Luo Yu still instinctively wanted to hold this person's hand and walk away with him. He couldn't tell if the "liking" Ruan Zheng had given him was real or a figment of his imagination——he would have to ask Ruan Zheng to find out, but Luo Yu didn't want to. He also didn't dare to.

Ruan Zheng took two steps back and turned around to make his way in the direction of the bridge between the two sides of the building's roof. He was walking towards his helicopter, his Jiang Qi.　　

He left his back to Luo Yu, unafraid. It was like he knew Luo Yu wouldn't do anything.

Luo Yu emotionlessly watched Su Jiawen's helicopter take off and rise into the atmosphere before slowly striding towards the cabin door that was open and waiting for him.

The truth comes out~ I'm curious, what would you choose if you were Luo Yu?