An Eye for News Chapter 23
“I truly have underestimated you. Didn’t
expect you to have correctly guessed so many things, and I almost died by your
hands there. Are you the girl’s bodyguard?”
The driver sneered. He waved his
gun and ordered Se Cai, “Come over here!”
Since the cat’s out of the bag,
he would force Se Cai to drive while he kept Xin Yu under control.
“Se Cai, save yourself and run!”
Xin Yu yelled.
Regret couldn’t even begin to
describe her feelings then. She mistook Se Cai who was actually trying to save
her as a rapist and her kidnapper as the virtuous one.
“Run? Believe me, I want to!”
Se Cai laughed bitterly. There
was no place to take cover and the swampy condition of the surrounding would
greatly slow him down. He couldn’t possibly get away from a trained marksman. The
Eye for News system didn’t exactly make him bulletproof.
“Shut it, and get back in there!”
Xin Yu opened her mouth to say
something but the driver cut her off. After he shoved her inside the car, he
pulled from underneath the seat a pair of handcuffs and cuffed her to the
a.s.sist handle.
He slammed the door in her face
and then pointed his gun at Se Cai, “Right, now it’s your turn!”
“Alright, don’t be reckless
here, I’m sure the Blue Sky Rehab wouldn’t want a murder on their hands…”
Se Cai kept his hands up and
moved slowly to the car.
The driver chuckled mirthlessly.
“Well, I didn’t expect you to
figure that out as well. You’re right, I’m hired by Blue Sky Rehab but I don’t
work under them. I’m a free mercenary. It’s just so happens that our target
overlaps so I’d figured I would make use of them.”
Se Cai didn’t expect Blue Sky
Rehab to be vicious enough to hire a mercenary but the more he thought about
it, the more sense it made. If the thing fell apart, at least they can wash
their hands clean of it.
“But why are you telling me all
this?”
Se Cai was curious.
“You’ve guessed correctly so
many things but not the girl’s true ident.i.ty? Maybe you’re not as smart as I
thought. Come on closer, I’ll tell you.”
Se Cai leaned in towards the man
but suddenly the man snickered and moved to smack Se Cai on the side of his
head.
The swipe came as fast as
lightning, it once again confirmed for Se Cai that the driver was a well-trained
mercenary.
Se Cai’s right eye tensed and
the mercenary’s movement slowed drastically down.
He leaned back in the nick of
time, and the arm cut the air in front of his face.
Normally, Se Cai wouldn’t opt
for a physical confrontation but when he took in the mercenary’s delayed
reaction, his opponent become less threatening.
With ease, Se Cai evaded nimbly
the mercenary follow-up jab.
“Now is the time!”
Se Cai put his entire weight in
his body and slammed into the driver’s torso, pushing both of them to the
ground!
The driver pointed his gun at Se
Cai and pulled the trigger. Thankfully, all his shots missed because his hand
was wounded. An eyebrow knife was sticking out of his arm.
Turned out Se Cai still had the
knife he s.n.a.t.c.hed from Xin Yu in his grasp and he had hidden it from the
mercenary’s view all this while. When they both came tumbling down, Se Cai
utilized gravity and plunged it into the mercenary’s armed hand.
Thank G.o.d Xin Yu came from a
good family background, or else any other cheap eyebrow knife would have broken
in the tussle.
“Se Cai, are you alright?!”
Xin Yu heard the multiple gunfire
and screams outside of the car and she yelled worriedly.
Se Cai didn’t have the time to
reply because he realized with growing alarm that the mercenary was too strong
for him to be able to fully pin to the floor.
The driver tossed the empty gun
away and kicked Se Cai off.
“I’m going to kill you!”
The mercenary wailed furiously
as he loosened his unharmed left arm at Se Cai.
Se Cai ducked and his punch hit
the car door, creating a dent. The man must have been incredibly powerful
because the door was made out of steel. If it had landed on Se Cai, he would be
knocked out cold. Se Cai quickly scurried away.
“We’ll see how much longer you
can run!”
The man said with a manic glow in his eyes and
he charged once more at Se Cai.
“F*ck me, your hand and leg are
both injured so why are you still so agile?!”
Se Cai cursed inwardly.
Xin Yu struggled against the
cuffs until her wrist was red from chaffing but it was futile.
“Se Cai, run, you’re not his
match!”
Xin Yu shouted despairingly.
When the driver revealed his
mercenary ident.i.ty, she knew they were both goners. But if possible, she wanted
Se Cai to save himself.
“Run? If I run, you’ll be dead!”
Se Cai uttered through gritted
teeth. He believed he could outrun the mercenary because his leg was injured
but could he really leave Xin Yu behind?
“Turn off the headlights!”
Suddenly, Se Cai was blessed
with an idea. He yelled at Xin Yu who was in the car.
“Turn off the headlights?”
Xin Yu was caught by surprised
but she didn’t hesitate. She pulled herself as forward as she could and turned
off the ignition.
She was unclear about Se Cai’s
intention but she had full faith in him now.
Furthermore, she really didn’t
have any other option.
The car’s engine came to a halt
and the area was submerged into darkness.
The mercenary lost his target so
he stopped mid-charge. The car headlight’s was the only light source within a
300 meters’ radius. He couldn’t even see the step in front of him much less Se
Cai who was further away.
However, this was an irrefutable
advantage for Se Cai.
The Eye for News system had
gained for him night vision.
He saw the mercenary crept
towards the general direction of his car, probably aiming to switch the lights
back on.
Se Cai’s presence was shrouded
by the enveloping darkness and pouring rain.
“He’s basically a cripple and a
blind. If I still can’t win him, I probably don’t deserve to live anyway.”
Emboldened by the thought, Se
Cai picked up a st.u.r.dy branch from the floor and slunk towards the mercenary. When
the man found the car handle, Se Cai swung the branch hard down on the back of
his head.
The mercenary crumbled instantly
to the floor.
The back of one’s head was
responsible for one’s respiratory, digestive, homeostatic and cognitive
functions. Furthermore, it was more vulnerable than the front of the skull.
Se Cai was in the hospital
yesterday for a head concussion and the knowledge he had picked up from his own
health report turned out to be quite helpful in that situation.
Se Cai nudged the mercenary with
his feet. After he made sure the man had fainted, he dropped the branch and
started to catch his breath.
After all, he was only a temp
reporter. This was his first time getting involved in such a volatile
situation.
He started shivering in fear
after the adrenaline that had kept his blood pumping melted away.
He could have easily ended up in
an unmarked grave in the middle of nowhere.
Se Cai stumbled towards the car
and when he opened the car door, the piercing wail of a woman pulled him back
to reality.
Xin Yu had leaned in as far as
she could and she was aiming her high heels at Se Cai.
She was wearing a pair of YSL
heels and its heel was about 8 centimeters long. It could definitely inflict
some pain.
Se Cai pulled her legs into a grapple
hold but she kept struggling.
“Stop, stop, stop, it’s me!”
Se Cai yelled as loud as he
could and flipped on the car’s internal light.
The weak light filtered down
into the cramped s.p.a.ce and when Xin Yu saw Se Cai’s mud-splattered face, she
stopped struggling and started to cry.
The tears were from a rollercoaster
of emotion, there were anger, fear, worry and now relief.
“Why are you crying, I’m not
dead.”
Se Cai joked but winced when he
felt the wound in his abdomen.
When he tackled the mercenary,
he was kneed in his abdomen. The pain previously dulled by adrenaline surfaced.
Se Cai searched the bottom of
the seat for the key to unlock the cuffs. He saw the mercenary kept the key in
the cuff’s hiding place with his enhanced vision earlier. In the rush of
things, he forgot to inform Xin Yu of that.
After he unlocked her, Xin Yu
flew into his arms.
“Thank G.o.d, you’re okay and
still alive. I’m so sorry I misjudged you and dragged you into this mess.”
Before Se Cai knew what was
happening, he felt her lips on his mouth.
The rain was still falling and
they stayed in that tight embrace for quite some time…
Then, they parted. The kiss wasn’t
romantic, it was more of a joy from being alive than anything else. Both of
them were silent, each nursing their own thoughts...