Chapter 69.1: I Can Play a Pickpocket~
As the saying went, people might be given the wrong names, but they were never given the wrong nicknames. Rat was just like a real rat, quick to dodge and slip away. He pulled his hand back fast and retreated in the opposite direction, managing to move most of his arm out of the way before Jiang Xia brought the hammer down. In the end, it only grazed the side of his arm.
Even so, the brief contact sent a searing pain shooting through Rat’s forearm.
Bracing himself against the wall, he quickly retreated two meters, shaking his aching right arm and shouting, “Dongzi! Brother Dong! She’s got a weapon! She’s no pushover!”
“Look at you, cowering like a wimp.”
Dongzi had finished parking his bike. He took a good look at the weapon in Jiang Xia’s hand, and his eyes grew more cautious, but he wasn’t particularly afraid.
He narrowed his eyes, the thick flesh over his cheekbones bunching up as he sneered. “It’s just a hammer. It’s not some real weapon. What are you afraid of? There are two of us!”
As he spoke, Dongzi lifted the back of his shirt and pulled a dagger from his waistband.
He removed the sheath and tossed it into the bike’s basket, then waved the gleaming blade at Jiang Xia in an unmistakable threat.
“Originally, we just wanted to teach you a little lesson. But since you’re being so uncooperative, looks like we’re not going to settle this peacefully today.”
With someone backing him up, Rat regained his nerve. He glanced around, picked up a mud-covered red brick from the ground, and stepped forward. Still keeping himself behind Dongzi, he raised the brick and threatened Jiang Xia.
“Did you hear that? You’re not leaving here today!”
Two thugs stood before her. One had a green dragon tattoo on his arm and a dagger in his hand; the other held a brick aloft. Neither looked particularly weak in a fight. Any other police officer would probably have felt at least a little intimidated.
But Jiang Xia felt no such fear. On the contrary, she was currently wrestling with a different problem.
How could she subdue both of them without killing either one?
Forget it. Her skills weren’t good enough for that. She’d just have to stall for a little longer and wait for Lu Yixing to arrive.
With that in mind, Jiang Xia staggered her feet, one in front of the other, bent her knees slightly, and lowered her center of gravity. Maintaining a stance that would allow her to exert force at any moment, she held the hammer in her right hand upright in front of her, its striking face pointing upward, ready to swing at a moment’s notice.
Keeping her eyes on Dongzi, the more threatening of the two, she replied, “Then let’s see which one of us won’t be walking away.”
Dongzi’s eyelid twitched.
Damn it, she really was a tough nut to crack!
He’d thought a female police officer would be easy to bully, but judging by her stance, she’d clearly had some training too. Teaching her a lesson was going to be difficult!
Difficult or not, Dongzi had no intention of backing down.
If they were dealing with a male armed police officer wielding a hammer and the two of them couldn’t beat him, then reporting back to their boss would at least be understandable. But if they ran away without even fighting a female police officer, how could they ever show their faces on the streets again?
He refused to believe that two men couldn’t take down one female police officer!
“Rat, go around her left!”
Dongzi called out to his accomplice. Clutching the dagger, he cautiously approached Jiang Xia from the right, one step at a time.
Following his instructions, Rat straightened his arm and held the red brick in front of him, slowly closing in from the left.
The two men moved to flank her, steadily narrowing the distance.
Seeing this, Jiang Xia calmly retreated.
One meter, two meters, three meters… All three seemed to be moving backward as if someone had copied and pasted the same image over and over.
Dongzi kept his eyes fixed on Jiang Xia.
Assaulting a police officer and killing one were two different things. Although he’d pulled a knife, he still wouldn’t dare go so far as to kill her. Especially with her standing there, gripping a hammer and watching him like a hawk. One good hit from that thing would send him straight to the hospital.
He had to find the right moment to strike—one that would let him teach her a lesson without getting himself hurt.
But… why wasn’t this female police officer afraid at all? She wasn’t leaving him a single opening!
Puzzled, Dongzi kept his eyes trained on her while taunting her.
“Why do you keep backing away? Weren’t you so brave just a moment ago? If you’ve got the guts, come at me!”
“Yeah!” Rat chimed in immediately. “You can back up all you want, but you still won’t get away!”
Jiang Xia wasn’t the slightest bit affected by their words.
She kept her eyes fixed on the two men while watching the intersection through the gaps between their bodies.
The moment she spotted the familiar figure in green, Jiang Xia abruptly stopped retreating.
She flashed the two men a brilliant smile.
“With that huge, colorful tattoo covering your arm, even an idiot would notice you following me. If I’d wanted to run, I’d have done it ages ago.”
Jiang Xia continued, “You two idiots should try guessing why I’m waiting for you here.”
What?
The moment those words left her mouth, Dongzi’s mind jolted. He suddenly realized something was wrong.
She was clearly in danger, yet this female police officer hadn’t called for help even once!
That wasn’t normal!
The clattering sound of a bicycle approaching came from behind them. Dongzi and Rat instinctively turned to look. The male police officer they’d been certain had ridden far away had somehow returned and was now charging straight toward them at breakneck speed.
They’d walked right into a trap!
That damned bitch!
A murderous impulse surged through Dongzi. He wanted to stab Jiang Xia immediately, but before he could even turn his head back, Jiang Xia, who’d been waiting for precisely this moment, had already swung her hammer straight at his head!
Did he really think she’d been kindly warning him just now?
She’d been distracting him so she could strike!
By the time Dongzi turned around, all he saw was the hammer hurtling toward his face with a fierce rush of wind.
His pupils contracted sharply. He desperately twisted his head and upper body to the left to evade the blow, blindly thrusting the dagger forward.
Jiang Xia’s expression instantly turned stern. As the dagger came closer and closer, she quickly pulled back her swing, twisted sideways to dodge, and simultaneously raised her leg to kick him squarely in the groin!
“How the hell is there another cop?!”
Rat shouted. He turned around and saw Dongzi already locked in a fight with the female police officer. He hesitated, unable to decide whether to jump on his bike and flee or rush forward to help.
But before he could make up his mind, the male police officer who’d appeared at the intersection had already charged right up to them.
There were only two or three meters between him and the men, but Lu Yixing didn’t slow down in the slightest. He flipped off his bicycle and, in one fluid motion, grabbed the bike and swung it straight at the thug holding the brick!
With its solid iron frame and a net weight of twenty kilograms, the heavy, old-fashioned roadster traced a perfect arc through the air. Not only was it astonishingly fast, but its striking range was enormous.
Rat tried to dodge, but there was no escaping it. The wheel slammed squarely into his chest, and the still-spinning pedal smacked him right on the jaw with a sharp smack. The impact sent him crashing into the wall behind him, stars flashing before his eyes.
Lu Yixing didn’t let up. He immediately followed with a sweeping side kick aimed directly at Rat’s ribs.
Thud!
A heavy impact rang out. Rat thought he heard something crack. It felt as though knives were slicing through his entire chest. He couldn’t draw a proper breath, and all strength drained from his body. His fingers loosened, allowing the red brick to fall to the ground. He slid slowly down the wall and collapsed, his face deathly pale.
He was pretty sure he’d broken a rib.
Amid the pain, wave after wave of regret washed over Rat.
He shouldn’t have stopped earlier. He should’ve run immediately! No, he shouldn’t have come to ambush anyone in the first place!
Meanwhile, on the other side, Jiang Xia’s kick landed squarely in Dongzi’s groin.
“Aaagh!”
An indescribable agony spread instantly from the point of impact. Dongzi let out a howl of pain, and his body instinctively doubled over. His legs went weak, and he dropped uncontrollably to his knees. His face turned ashen, while veins bulged across his forehead and beads of cold sweat broke out over his skin.
Jiang Xia still wasn’t finished. Seeing that he’d temporarily lost the ability to fight, she immediately followed up with another strike. She kicked his arm, sending him sprawling onto the ground, then reached out and snatched the dagger from his hand.
When Lu Yixing turned around, he saw the tattooed thug lying on the ground, curled tightly into a ball and clutching his groin, while Jiang Xia stood beside him with a dagger in her hand.
Lu Yixing let out a sigh of relief. Looking at the tattooed thug’s current state, he fell silent for a brief second before quickly averting his eyes and turning to Jiang Xia.
“Are you okay?”
As he spoke, Lu Yixing’s gaze fell on the hammer in Jiang Xia’s hand. He looked a little surprised.
“Jiang Xia, you brought a hammer to work?”
“Of course.”
Only now did Jiang Xia finally let out a long breath of relief.
Excellent! This time, she’d managed to subdue her opponents without killing anyone. Her combat skills had improved considerably. Definitely worth a thumbs-up!
“I can’t get issued a gun, and it’s so dangerous out there these days. I have to carry something to defend myself. This was the most suitable tool I could find at home.”
The small hammer was discreet yet packed a considerable punch. Unlike scissors or an axe, which were obviously intended for attacking, it wouldn’t arouse much suspicion if someone saw it. It was practically an essential item for staying safe at home or while traveling—whether for self-defense or, if necessary, killing someone and setting a place on fire. And look, she’d already put it to use today!
Without it, she wouldn’t have been able to hold her own against them for so long. She would’ve had no choice but to stab one of them with her scissors again.
“Let’s talk later.”
Jiang Xia naturally slipped the hammer back into her crossbody bag, then pulled out two coils of thick rope and tossed one to Lu Yixing.
“Let’s tie them up first, before they recover enough to run away.”
Lu Yixing caught the rope.
He couldn’t help sneaking a couple more glances at Jiang Xia’s crossbody bag.
What was this thing, a magical bag of holding? How could it possibly contain everything?
Jiang Xia stepped forward and twisted Rat’s arms behind his back, tying him up.
Lu Yixing did the same to Dongzi. As he worked, he asked, “How did these two thugs end up targeting you?”
“I went to the police station to visit my mentor.”
Jiang Xia secured a loop in the rope as she explained what had happened. “They’d caught one of Cai Tou’s henchmen, so his people started keeping an eye on them. There were men watching outside the police station. I originally thought those two lookouts wouldn’t follow me because they didn’t have a vehicle. I didn’t expect there to be someone waiting for me farther down the road.”
That was a genuine miscalculation on Jiang Xia’s part. She hadn’t expected these people to be so brazen.
Still, having them follow her here was better than having them follow her all the way home.
“By the way.”
Jiang Xia turned the question around on him. “Why did you suddenly take this route? If I remember correctly, your way home isn’t in this direction.”
Since she’d already been to the police station, she obviously knew everything, so Lu Yixing didn’t bother hiding it anymore.
“When I got off work, I heard that the local police officer who’d reported Bai Fangqiang being beaten into the hospital was a former colleague of yours. I also heard your mentor had been injured, so I thought I’d go over and check on the situation. I happened to run into you.”
I bet that was more than just a coincidence.
They weren’t even related. Why would he go out of his way to check on her mentor?
Jiang Xia blinked. She was just about to say something when the thug beneath her seemed to have recovered a little. He began howling in agony.
“I’m dying! I’m dying! Get me to the hospital, quick!”
“Come back and tell me when you’re actually dead!”
If he could still scream like that, he certainly wasn’t going to die. Jiang Xia snapped irritably, then looked up at Lu Yixing.
“Should we take them to the municipal public security bureau first?”
“These two won’t be easy to transport.”
After finishing the restraints, Lu Yixing stood up and dusted off his hands.
“How about this? I’ll make a call and ask an on-duty officer to bring over a motorcycle with a sidecar. That’ll make it easier to take them back.”
Transporting people on a bicycle was exhausting. Since she could avoid the effort, Jiang Xia was more than happy to agree.
“Sounds good.”
Lu Yixing made the call, and before long, someone arrived on a motorcycle with a sidecar.
The officers weren’t criminal investigators but traffic police from the traffic division. Whether out of concern for safety or for some other reason, two of them had come, conveniently allowing them to take both thugs away.
“Attacking police officers in broad daylight?”
The older traffic officer leaned out from his seat on the motorcycle and looked at the two street thugs. He couldn’t help exclaiming, “Have they got a death wish or what? Where did they get the nerve?”
Meanwhile, the younger officer was hauling the men onto the vehicle. Seeing the tattooed thug’s legs trembling as he hunched over and shuffled sideways like a crab, he froze for a couple of seconds. Then, finally grasping what had happened, he abruptly turned to look at Jiang Xia.
Now that’s one fierce woman!
That street thug had to be permanently crippled down there, didn’t he?
“These people are cunning. They know exactly what the consequences will be.”
Jiang Xia could tell, too, that the men had genuinely only wanted to teach her a “lesson.” The knife had been brought out merely to intimidate her. If she hadn’t made the first move and provoked the tattooed thug, he probably wouldn’t have actually used it.
In that case, even if they’d beaten her up, the injuries would at most have amounted to minor bruises—not even serious enough to qualify as a minor injury under the law. Even if the men were arrested and sentenced, they’d only get a year or two in prison. That wouldn’t deter people like them at all. They’d be back on the streets before long, behaving even more recklessly than before.
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