Chapter 9: You Can Carry Me into the Car

“I’m not afraid.”

“You’ll lose your appetite when you see it.”

“No, I won’t.”

Chi Mu rolled up her sleeve and showed him the scar. “My whole face is covered with scars like this one.”

Fu Ningli looked at her without any change in expression. “I know. It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”

“You’ve seen it?”

Chi Mu was surprised. She thought for a moment, then realized, “That day in the car, right? You only saw a bit of it outside the mask. I’m talking about my whole face. Are you afraid of the whole thing or not?”

She emphasized her words.

Fu Ningli, seeing that she was unwilling to take off her mask, simply went along with her. “Fine, I’m scared. Terrified, actually.”

His tone was so perfunctory.

Chi Mu snorted softly.

This man was stubborn to the extreme.

Halfway through their meal, a commotion erupted at the door.

Several dozen men dressed in black stormed into the restaurant and surrounded Chi Mu and Fu Ningli. The leader shouted, “I’m paying for everything tonight! Anyone who doesn’t want trouble, get out now!”

At his words, the customers inside the restaurant scattered instantly.

The same thugs Chi Mu had driven off earlier swaggered out. “Boss Hao, it was her who beat me up!”

Wang Hao laughed heartily. “You can’t even beat a woman and a cripple? Don’t claim to be my men when you go out!”

“Boss Hao, she really is something.”

“Is she any tougher than me?”

Wang Hao had his men smash the restaurant’s surveillance cameras and lock the doors, then turned to Chi Mu with a sly smile. “Little lady, I’m a man who cherishes women. As long as you keep me company properly, I’ll let you go. Got it?”

Chi Mu tilted her head. “I don’t get it.”

“I advise you to be sensible. Offend me, and my men will teach you a lesson. By then, no one will come to save you, no matter how much you scream!”

Chi Mu glanced at the locked door and the destroyed cameras, then started loosening her wrist.

Wang Hao thought she was scared and reached out to touch her face with lustful eyes. “Come on, let me see your face.”

Just as his hand was about to touch her mask, Chi Mu’s eyes turned cold. Swiftly and decisively, she grabbed Wang Hao’s wrist and then struck his vital point with a knee.

Immediately, a sharp, pig-like scream filled the barbecue restaurant.

Wang Hao’s men were stunned, instinctively protecting their own vital points.

“Damn! What are you standing there for? Hit her!”

The men snapped out of it. Looking at the seemingly fragile Chi Mu and their boss clutching his side on the ground, they hesitated, but after a brief mental battle, they grabbed bottles and charged.

Soon.

Crack! Bang! Smash! Pop! Boom!

The floor was littered with men sprawled in all directions.

The scene was gruesome.

Song Yuan, just returning from his bout of diarrhea, witnessed Chi Mu single-handedly taking down ten men and shivered in fear.

“What’s going on?” he asked Geng Yu, who was watching by the window.

Geng Yu said, “Master Ning is being bullied. Miss Chi’s teaching them a lesson.”

“Why don’t you go help?”

“I’m waiting for the right moment to make my move.”

“Ugh—”

Song Yuan bent over, clutching the wall, grimacing. “No, no, it’s coming again…”

Inside the restaurant.

Chi Mu ordered a huge pile of barbecue, telling the staff to pack it up. “That big guy is paying tonight. Ask him for the money.”

Fu Ningli’s wheelchair rolled over Wang Hao’s hand.

As Wang Hao screamed, Fu Ningli lowered his gaze. “Don’t scream. Even if you shout your lungs out, no one will come to your rescue.”

The two left the “Hao Wings” restaurant. Song Yuan had not yet arrived.

Fu Ningli called him, but Song Yuan was crouched on the toilet, struggling and saying he needed to take the night off.

Fu Ningli had the spare car keys and asked Chi Mu for help. “My friend has diarrhea and can’t come. Please take me home.”

“All right. Once we get home, I’ll check your leg.”

Chi Mu pushed Fu Ningli to the car.

Opening the door, she looked at him sitting in the wheelchair and fell into thought. “How am I going to get you into the car?”

Having just witnessed Chi Mu’s incredible fighting skills, Fu Ningli thought for a moment. “I think you can carry me.”

“…”

Geng Yu, hiding in the roadside bushes eavesdropping, begged silently, “Master, please be a normal person.”

Just as he thought the innocent and kind Miss Chi Mu would really lift his tall, troublesome master who stood six feet two, Chi Mu called over a middle-aged woman washing dishes by the roadside.

“Sis, a hundred yuan. Can you help me lift him into the car?”

The woman, who earned about a hundred yuan washing dishes all day, smiled broadly at the young Miss Chi Mu calling her “sis.” “Of course I can!”

Fu Ningli was not having it.

“No, she’ll drop me.”

He was fastidious and didn’t like being touched by strangers.

Chi Mu reassured him, “Don’t worry. I’ll catch you from below.”

The woman rubbed her hands eagerly and lunged at Fu Ningli, fearing she’d lose the one hundred yuan. “Young man, don’t worry! Lifting you will be like carrying a chick!”

Fu Ningli resisted, reaching out to block the woman, but Chi Mu pressed his hands down. “Don’t move, it’ll be quick!”

“Chi! Mu!” Fu Ningli gritted his teeth.

“Clang!”

His head bumped the car roof.

“Bang!”

His hand hit the door frame.

“Ah!”

His waist was pressed down by the woman.

Chi Mu watched nervously. Once the woman had succeeded and stepped back, Chi Mu immediately paid and got into the car. “Where do you live?”

Fu Ningli stared at the back of Chi Mu’s dark head, his wrist beads spinning faster and faster. “West Huayuan, Building 9, 19th Floor, No. 19 Qingping Road.”

Chi Mu felt a chill down her back, turned on the heater, and focused on driving.

They rode in silence.

The car entered West Huayuan.

West Huayuan was an upscale residential community.

That Fu Ningli lived here showed his current living conditions were quite good.

Chi Mu glanced at Fu Ningli through the rearview mirror.

Back in middle school, classmates called him a poor boy from the countryside, saying his breakfast money never exceeded five yuan.

Now, he had a house and a car. It must have been a difficult journey.

Chi Mu drove into the underground garage.

Next to a parking space stood a middle-aged man.

Seeing the car, he stepped aside, then, after the car stopped, opened the door and bowed. “Sir, you’re home.”

Chi Mu got out, puzzled by the man’s identity, when Fu Ningli spoke. “This is Uncle Zhang, who takes care of me. Uncle Zhang, this is my friend, Chi Mu.”

Chi Mu greeted Uncle Zhang, then together they lifted Fu Ningli out of the car and wheeled him upstairs.

Fu Ningli’s apartment, like the man himself, was decorated in cold black, white, and gray tones: simple, detached, with a sense of purity and tranquility.

Uncle Zhang went to prepare tea for their guests.

Chi Mu pushed Fu Ningli into the master bedroom, eager to examine his leg. “Do you want to take off your pants yourself, or should I help?”

“Here?”

“Or on the bed?”

“…”

Chi Mu noticed his ears reddening and asked curiously, “Why are you shy? I’m a doctor and have seen plenty of nude bodies.”

Fu Ningli would never admit to being shy. He immediately loosened his belt. “I’m hot, unbearably hot!”

He undid his belt but couldn’t use his leg to pull his pants down.

Chi Mu saw this and bent to help.

It took a great effort, but she finally succeeded.

She took a deep breath, half-kneeling on the floor, and began examining his leg.

Just then, Uncle Zhang, carrying tea, walked to the door, caught sight of the scene inside, and was so startled he turned around quickly.

He hurried away but bumped into the sofa leg, dropping the tea cup, which shattered crisply on the floor.

Fu Ningli and Chi Mu heard the noise and both looked up in unison—