Ch61.2 - Love Song on Ice (18.2)

translator: baumkuchen editor: serefina, glitterypanda

He Changsheng looked around.

Nearby was a house under renovation, with bricks and long wooden planks. Everything needed was available.

The current circumstances were completely unlike with Dong Ge’s one versus four in the bathroom in the beginning. Their opponents were all big and tall adults. There were about six or seven people, while they had only three. Adding on the fact that there were too many tools here, if they really got into a fight, they would definitely get hurt.

Above all, at this juncture, they had a competition in just a few months.

Even though He Changsheng was an upright person, that didn’t mean he would try to do something beyond his capabilities.

He knew that their only plan was to run.

What made him feel thankful was that Dong Ge was probably equally aware of his own strength.

Instead of looking for trouble, he simply dusted the gravel off his clothes in silence and staggered to his feet.

Who knew that when that fatty saw him get up, he would suddenly move his leg in for a kick, just so happening to kick him straight in the stomach.

This kick truly wasn’t light, making Dong Ge roll a few meters away.

Seeing that the time was ripe, Lou Sifan pushed the fatty away and shouted loudly, “Quick, run!!”

Dong Ge’s reaction was extremely quick. Ignoring the pain, he grabbed onto the sleeve of the hand He Changsheng had reached out to him, turned, and ran back the way they came.

061 asked the same question for the thirty-sixth time, his tone already holding a bit of indescribable anxiety, “Do you need my help?!”

Chi Xiaochi replied to him for the thirty-sixth time, “Wait.”

061’s heart hurt so much for him he was trembling. “You’re hurt! You have a soft tissue contusion......”

Pressing against his painful injury, Chi Xiaochi continued to hurry forwards, limping. “I noticed.”

As he spoke, he listened for movement from behind them.

......Those people hadn’t caught up.

And Lou Sifan hadn’t followed either.

When his nose was struck by a fist, Lou Sifan’s entire person wasn’t able to react, forced to bend over by the eye-watering ache.

He had originally been planning to circle around behind them after pushing the fatty away and find a spot to hide. When they went off to catch Dong Ge, he would pass through these alleyways he had long become familiar with, find Changsheng and act out a rescue scene from a drama.

He hadn’t thought that the fatty would actually catch him, chuckle, and following that, punch him in the face.

Lou Sifan clutched his clearly dislocated nose, the pain hard to bear. “What are you doing?”

No one answered his question.

He was kicked to the ground by someone, and a storm of punches and kicks rained down on his body.

He was like a sandbag, punched voiceless by endless fists.

After a few tens of seconds of siege, the punches and kicks disappeared at the same time.

Everyone dispersed, and when Lou Sifan, his face covered in dirt and gravel, opened his blurry eyes, he watched with wide eyes as the leader, the fatty, picked out a piece of wood about the same size as his arm out of a stack.

No, this wasn’t right......

They must have gotten something wrong......

Lou Sifan began to screech, “Let me go! I’m——”

The fatty didn’t let him finish his self-introduction.

With a whoosh as it sliced through the air, the stick smashed into Lou Sifan’s knee.

At that moment, Lou Sifan couldn’t even scream. His mouth fell open and he collapsed, his face covered in dirt and tears.

Meanwhile, the He Changsheng who had mindlessly followed Dong Ge out of the alley finally realised after running for almost one hundred metres that Lou Sifan hadn’t followed.

He stopped.

Just as he turned his head, a miserable scream ran over He Changsheng’s nerves like the wheels of a truck.

He Changsheng’s eyes widened.

In the next second, he turned, ready to run back.

Dong Ge grabbed hold of him. “What are you doing?”

He Changsheng was so panicked that he sounded on the verge of tears. “Lou-ge! Lou-ge didn’t come out with us!!”

Dong Ge was stunned stiff, as if he’d only just realised. He took a few deep breaths, grabbed He Changsheng’s hands in a firm hold, bent down and picked up two bricks from a corner of the wall on one side, and placed one into He Changsheng’s hand. “Together.”

061 panicked. “What are you doing?”

Chi Xiaochi didn’t respond, simply moving his neck slightly.

061, “......” Damn it!

Just as the two dazed teens wielding bricks were about to rush back, a figure ran out from around the corner, grabbing hold of them with each hand. “Dong Ge! Changsheng!”

Looking back, Dong Ge couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment. “Uncle?”

The person who came was Dong Feihong.

Seeing the huge footprint on Dong Ge’s body, he said, panicked, “What happened? Your mother told me to come pick you up. Just now, I heard——”

He Changsheng was shaking uncontrollably. “Uncle, something happened. Lou-ge’s in trouble.”

Dong Feihong said, “I’ll go take a look.”

Dong Ge reached out and grabbed his hand, his expression becoming tense. “They have a lot of people.”

Dong Feihong simply said, “I’m always here for you.”

He turned his gaze to He Changsheng. That pair of forever-gentle eyes were currently filled with a cold light. He ordered, “You two stay here. Don’t move, and don’t look for trouble. Call the police immediately.”

Then, he turned and ran with long strides towards the area where the scream had come from.

Out of Dong Ge’s sight, Dong Feihong’s eyes darkened.

He rolled his neck slightly, letting out a few sharp cracks.

Right as the two dialed the police, they heard another heartrending howl come from the same direction.

Both He Changsheng and the operator on the other end of the line were shaken.

But fortunately, that voice was neither Dong Feihong’s, and nor was it Lou Sifan’s.

Following closely after that was another scream.

Hearing these sounds, the operator realised the severity of the situation. After getting the location of the fight, they immediately informed the on-duty officers.

In that short, one-minute call, a total of seven screams came from that alley.

The moment he put down the phone, He Changsheng couldn’t suppress his worries any longer. He threw down the brick in his hand and rushed straight back.

Dong Ge followed closely after him.

When the two returned to the little alley, they couldn’t help but draw in a sharp intake of cold breath.

All seven of the people who had surrounded them had all fallen to the ground, each of them with an incredibly obvious broken bone, each crying and wailing uncontrollably.

The fatty who had just been showing off his physical strength was now a twitching mountain of flesh, dragging along his broken leg as he inched back in fear.

While Dong Feihong was moving closer to him step by step, his features filled with a bone-chilling coldness.

The fatty’s eyes were red and swollen, his teeth chattering uncontrollably, pleads for mercy flowing out of his mouth, “Big Bro, dage, spare me, please. Spare me, I won’t dare to ever......”

Dong Feihong turned and asked Dong Ge, “Dong Ge, were they the ones who bullied you?”

Upon hearing this name, the fatty’s eyes bulged as if he had seen a ghost. His chest rose, expanding, and the flesh on his face trembled uncontrollably. “Dong Ge? Dong Ge...... He’s Dong Ge?”

Dong Feihong’s eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Then, he sensed something wrong. “You guys were specifically looking for Dong Ge? You guys did this on purpose?”

Before the fatty could even open his mouth, Dong Feihong swung his fist, slamming it into the wall right next to the fatty’s left ear.

The fatty clearly heard the sound of the fragments of stone falling to the ground, as well as Dong Feihong’s low voice, “Speak.”

The fatty didn’t dare to imagine what it would be like if such a punch landed on his head. He immediately confessed everything in a half-shout, half-sob, “It was Dage...... It was Lou Siyun! Lou Sifan’s older cousin told us to come and beat up Dong Ge, he wanted his leg! It wasn’t us who wanted to do this! ......”

He Changsheng, who had just run to Lou Sifan’s side and squatted down, preparing to check on his injuries, froze.

He turned his gaze stiffly towards the unconscious Lou Sifan. His lips began to tremble slightly.

Dong Feihong found something wrong with this. He asked forcefully “Then how did you guys get the wrong person?”

An hour later.

In the public security bureau’s infirmary, 061 asked the already patched-up Chi Xiaochi the same question.

“How did they get the wrong person?”

Chi Xiaochi carefully pulled off his coat. “Why wouldn’t they.”

061 fell silent. “......You already knew?”

Chi Xiaochi said, “There were too many flaws. The location of the KTV and the time he chose for us to go for karaoke, both weren’t quite right.”

061 remembered.

The night before, after receiving the WeChat message from Lou Sifan saying that he had booked the KTV, Chi Xiaochi had casually looked up the KTV’s specific location.

Chi Xiaochi pressed a hand to his stomach, recovering for a while. “I had you check Lou Sifan’s family background many times. I’ve long known what kind of societal connections he has.”

That was true, but 061 hadn’t thought that Chi Xiaochi would actually be able to remember the information he’d looked up such a long time ago this clearly.

Chi Xiaochi then said, “Those people were following us yesterday.”

061 said, “......How did you notice?” Even he himself hadn’t noticed.

Chi Xiaochi said, “I’m a celebrity.”

061, “......En?”

Chi Xiaochi said, “Even when I just go out to throw out my trash, there’ll be six or seven paparazzi following me.”

061, “......” Understood.

“When I realised something seemed wrong, I began to think up plans,” Chi Xiaochi said, “Given Lou Sifan’s personality, it would be impossible for him to personally make a move or to get someone he’s familiar with to do it, so as to avoid implicating himself. Since these people wouldn’t be familiar with us, then there would inevitably be gaps in their ability to recognise us.”

As he rubbed his wound, he asked in a lazy drawl, “Liu-laoshi, when you’re unfamiliar with a person, what’s the best way to identify them?”

......Distinctive features, of course.

Realisation came to 061 in a flash. “So, when you went to get a haircut yesterday......”

Chi Xiaochi nodded slightly. “After getting rid of my biggest distinctive feature, I then needed to change another feature.”

As he spoke, he stood up, walked over to the back of the chair, and picked up the jacket that had been draped over it.

—— It was a reversible jacket.

The inside was a pale blue, and the outside was white, on it imprinted a dark footprint.

Chi Xiaochi draped his jacket over his arm, and said lightly, “Today, after Lou Sifan came into the house, I chose the clothes I was going to wear out according to the colour of his clothes.”

061 sucked in a cold breath.

He remembered that Lou Sifan was wearing a dark blue coat today.

If one looked at it on its own, dark blue and light blue were extremely easy to distinguish between. However, under the dim glow of the streetlamps, one’s vision would be seriously affected.

And in the KTV, when Chi Xiaochi put his jacket back on after taking it off, he had very naturally flipped it so the white side was facing outwards and shoved his cap into his carry-on bag.

In the eyes of that group of gangsters blocking the road, all three of them weren’t wearing hats, and since they’d lost the reference of “long hair”, then, one was clearly wearing red, another was clearly wearing white, and the last one was wearing blue. Who cared if it was dark blue or light blue?

Even after asking up to this point, 061 still couldn’t help but ask another question, “What if he hadn’t planned on making a move? What if he was just listening to He Changsheng and trying to repair his relationship with you?”

Chi Xiaochi blinked. He asked, “Then I got a haircut, and changed my clothes. What did I lose?”

061, “......”

Chi Xiaochi turned and looked out the glass window.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Under the bright corridor lights, He Changsheng sat alone on a plastic bench, casting a long shadow. With his head in his hands, he stared at the floor. It was unknown what he was thinking.

Chi Xiaochi said in a soft voice, “The one who has lost the most, is outside.”

061 thought, the one who has lost the most is clearly in the hospital.

At that very moment, Dong Feihong was sitting in the interrogation room.

The injury report had just been sent over. The officer in charge of the investigation found it hard to hide his surprise. “They all only had one injury?”

The person sending the report also clicked his tongue in astonishment. “Each person only had one wound on their bodies, but they were all broken bones. The one who did this was both steady and precise.”

The legal definition of a heroic act or an act of self-defense was to stop once the danger was over. If they continued beating or killed their opponent after their opponent already lost their ability to resist, it would be considered excessive self-defense.

Yet in this case where he had ruthlessly taken down his enemies with one blow, no one would be able to say that the person beating them had committed excessive self-defense. It could only be considered a heroic act.

The officer and his coworker walked back into the interrogation room, sat down across from Dong Feihong, and examined Dong Feihong’s face.

Such a refined, gentle-looking person......

After asking his name, age, and gender as protocol dictated, he asked, “Your occupation?”

Dong Feihong replied politely, “Mangaka.”

The author has something to say:

Officer: What manga are you drawing?

Uncle: One Punch Man.

sere: HAHAHAHHA i love OPM. real talk tho thats karma bitch press F to pay respects jk to fucking smash LSF

baum: F. Also, CXC’s so good at on the spot planning omg