Chapter 23: Escape from the Tiger's Maw

“Go!” Yang Rui gritted his teeth against the agony and forced the word through clenched teeth. He jerked his head up, his eyes sharp as blades. Through the drifting haze of oil and the chaos of twisting figures, he fixed his gaze on the alley beyond the shattered window, where the darkness was so thick it seemed impossible to dispel. In the turbulent light from the restaurant, he caught the fleeting outline of a shadow—tall, powerfully built, wearing a baseball cap, moving with the speed of a hunting leopard.

The shadow had missed its strike, but did not hesitate for even a moment. It turned and sprinted deeper into the alley.

The target was unmistakable.

It was Yang Rui.

“Damn it!” he snarled.

A vicious determination instantly swept away the dizziness brought on by pain. He shoved aside the wreckage of the table pinning him down and struggled to rise, intent on giving chase. The wound across his back had split open completely under the violent impact and desperate lunge. Warm liquid was rapidly soaking through his cheap jacket, but he paid no attention to it.

Letting that killer escape would mean endless trouble.

“Don’t chase him!” Su Jin struggled to her feet as well. Grease and dust streaked her face, her hair was disheveled, yet her eyes were extraordinarily resolute. She seized Yang Rui’s arm and held on with all her strength. Her fingers were cold, but the force in them left no room for argument. “You’re injured! They came prepared! The alley is too dangerous!”

Yang Rui froze as she pulled him back. In an instant, reason overcame his fury.

She was right. Anyone bold enough to smash a window with a heavy hammer in the middle of a crowded district, then withdraw immediately after missing the first blow, had to be a professional. With his back wounded, rushing into an ambush the enemy had prepared would be no different from throwing his life away.

And Su Jin was still beside him.

“Call the police!” Yang Rui made his decision at once. He abandoned the pursuit, caught Su Jin firmly by the wrist, and pulled her behind him. His keen gaze swept across the disorderly restaurant and the deep, gloomy mouth of the alley beyond the hole in the window. With his back braced against the overturned table for cover, his body slightly crouched, he took up a defensive stance like a lone wolf—enraged, but clear-minded.

The heavy octagonal hammer remained embedded in the splintered tabletop. Red oil and shards of glass clung to its head, silently testifying to the lethal force of the blow.

The chaos inside the restaurant continued. Terrified diners and waiters stumbled over one another as cries, curses, and frantic calls to the police blended into a single uproar. No one noticed the life-and-death struggle in the corner. Even fewer noticed the man called Leopard standing deeper in the shadows outside, coldly observing everything.

A fresh cigarette dangled from his lips, its ember glowing and fading in the darkness like the eye of a poisonous snake. That thunderous strike had merely been a test—a taste before the meal. He had seen Yang Rui’s desperate lunge. He had seen Su Jin restrain him. Most importantly, he had seen the dark stain spreading across Yang Rui’s back, growing deeper by the second.

Blood.

A subordinate’s hushed voice came through his earpiece.

“Boss Leopard, the target’s tough. We missed him! That kid reacted too fast—and he’s protecting the woman!”

Leopard drew deeply on his cigarette. The acrid smoke circled once through his lungs before he slowly exhaled it, the vapor gathering into a pale cloud in the icy air. The scar on his face twisted beneath the faint glow of the ember, pulling his features into a silent, hideously cruel grin.

“I saw,” he rasped, his voice rough as sandpaper. “Hard bones are the most satisfying to break. Use the second plan. Wait at the mouth of the alley until he’s ‘alone.’ As for the woman… frighten her a little. Make sure she remembers the pain. Keep it clean. Leave no survivors.”

“Understood!”

Leopard crushed out the cigarette. He took one last look at the stubborn figure standing before the shattered window, half-hidden by the panicked crowd yet still upright like a nail driven into place.

Then, like a true ghost, he vanished completely into the darkness behind him.

The alley remained deathly silent. Only the faint wail of sirens in the distance began to tear through the night sky, heralding the hunt that had just begun.

It was far from over.

Inside the hot-pot restaurant, the turmoil boiled like a vat of oil. Screams, sobs, the crash of overturned tables and chairs, and the shattering of plates and glasses merged into a terrifying storm of noise. Scalding red broth streamed recklessly across the floor, mingling with shards of glass and scraps of food and filling the air with a sharp, chaotic stench. Like a startled flock of sheep, the diners instinctively pushed and shoved toward the farthest point from the shattered window—the front entrance and the passage leading to the kitchen.

Yang Rui leaned against the wreckage of the overturned table, breathing hard. Every breath tugged at the tearing pain in his back. The place where the boiling broth had splashed burned like fire. Warm liquid soaked through his jacket and clung wetly to his skin. The scent of blood mingled with the powerful aroma of beef fat and chili, creating a nauseatingly distinctive odor.

Cold sweat trickled down his temples like tiny streams, slipping into his eyes and stinging them.

Yet the ferocity and vigilance in his gaze had not diminished in the slightest. His eyes were like blades tempered in flame. One hand gripped Su Jin’s cold wrist, keeping her firmly behind the narrow shelter formed by his body and the wreckage. In his other hand, he clutched a thick, broken table leg, its jagged end sharp enough to cut.

The rough grain of the wood dug into his palm, giving him a strange, solid sense of support as he fought to remain standing.

“Don’t be afraid. The police will be here soon.”

His voice was hoarse from pain and tension, yet unnaturally steady. It carried an unquestionable strength that cut through the surrounding din and reached Su Jin clearly.

He could feel her body trembling faintly, but the wrist beneath his hand conveyed a strength just as unyielding.

“I’m fine.” Su Jin’s voice was tight as well, but remarkably clear. Forcing herself to calm down, she quickly surveyed the chaotic restaurant and the deep alley beyond the shattered opening. That fleeting glimpse of the shadow had taken root in her heart like a cold, coiled serpent.

“They’re outside… There may be more of them.” Her breathing was rapid.

“I know.”

Yang Rui’s gaze was as sharp as an eagle’s. He scanned every disordered figure attempting to approach their cover, alert to any disguised attack. His ears caught every abnormal sound. Beneath the diners’ cries, the distant sirens were drawing closer, growing clearer by the second.

It was a signal that help was coming.

But it could also be a signal that the enemy, cornered and desperate, was about to throw caution aside.

At that very moment, two blinding white lights suddenly flared in the pitch-black alley beyond the shattered window.

Not a flashlight.

Motorcycle headlights.

The engine roared like a beast, tearing through the alley’s silence without warning. A black, high-powered motorcycle without a license plate burst from the darkness like a ghost out of hell. Its front end reared high, its front wheel lifting from the ground as it charged toward the broken glass opening of the restaurant with a savage, destructive force.

The glare was so intense it was impossible to keep one’s eyes open. The engine’s thunder made the ground tremble.

The target was unmistakable.

The corner where Yang Rui and Su Jin were hiding.

“Fuck!”

Yang Rui’s pupils contracted sharply.

It was a matter of life and death.

The attackers did not care whether they exposed themselves. They intended to use the most savage and direct method possible—to crush Yang Rui and Su Jin, along with their cover, into mangled flesh.

There was nowhere to hide.

The wall and the fleeing crowd blocked the space behind them. The wreckage of overturned tables and chairs sealed off one side.

Their only chance of survival was to charge toward the rampaging steel beast and break into the dead angle beside it.