Chapter 128: Please Don’t Die

Chapter 128: Chapter 128: Please Don’t Die

The ordinary-looking man finally sensed the danger himself! Emerging once again from the Peach Blossom Spring Space, Zhang Yun gave him no chance to react. He threw a direct punch right at the man’s head. The man didn’t even make a sound before instantly losing consciousness.

Seeing this, the woman inside the car hurriedly started the engine.

BANG!

Zhang Yun grabbed the unconscious man and smashed him against the windshield!

The woman had just shifted into gear to drive away. The sudden jerk of the vehicle threw the man off the hood, forcing her to slam on the brakes to avoid running him over. By then, Zhang Yun was already at the front of the car. He punched right through the window, knocking her back into the driver’s seat!

Since she hadn’t managed to shift into park, her foot slipped off the brake pedal as she slumped over. The car continued to idle forward, immediately running over the thigh of the man who had fallen in front of it! The sheer pain jolted the unconscious man wide awake.

Inside the car, another woman pulled out a knife and aimed it at the unconscious Ouyang Mingruo.

"Don’t come any closer, or I’ll kill her!"

Zhang Yun leaned in and shifted the gear into park to stop the car. At the same time, a gun appeared in his hand, aimed squarely at the woman inside.

"You can try it. Let’s see if you can kill her faster than I can blow your head off!"

The woman fell silent. Looking at her unconscious partner in the front seat and hearing the man’s panic-inducing screams from outside, she hesitated for a moment before finally moving the knife away.

"Why didn’t you kill her earlier?" Zhang Yun voiced his suspicion. If their goal was to kill Ouyang Mingruo, they could have easily stabbed her and ran when the two of them first grabbed her.

"Our mission was to capture her alive," the woman quickly answered, cowed by the threat of the gun and the shrieks of her crushed comrade.

"So drawing the knife earlier was just to stab me, then?" Zhang Yun sneered.

"We’re all just workers doing a job. If you had been smart enough to stay out of it, we wouldn’t have killed you."

Keeping the gun aimed at her, Zhang Yun demanded, "Come here! Take a bullet, or get knocked out by my fist. Pick one!"

The woman desperately wanted to get out of the car and scream for help, crying murder to attract a crowd. Only by muddying the waters would she be safe and have a chance to escape. But staring down Zhang Yun’s barrel, what choice did she have? The gun had just been snatched from her own people; she knew very well it was real!

"If you shoot, I’ll pull her in front of me as a shield," she said, remembering she still had a Protective Talisman next to her.

"You can try and see if you can pull her faster than I can pull this trigger!" Zhang Yun flicked off the safety. "Three, two..."

Unwilling to gamble her life on Zhang Yun’s marksmanship—at a distance of barely a meter, he really could blow her head off—the woman had no choice but to lean over and wait to be hit. It was incredibly humiliating!

When the commotion had started, bystanders hadn’t dared to approach. The man’s agonizing screams made people curious, yet too terrified to come close. Seeing that it wasn’t safe to linger, Zhang Yun knocked her out with a single punch. He then went over, picked up Ouyang Mingruo, and carried her to his own car. Taking advantage of the fact that no one was stopping him, he quickly sped out of the rest area.

Back on the highway, the thrill of high-speed driving he had felt earlier was entirely gone. The lingering smell of instant noodles on his clothes made Zhang Yun curse inwardly.

Just what exactly did this Ouyang Chunqiu do? How could he find so many assassins? The ones from this afternoon and last night were probably from the same group, but what about these four just now? Were they part of the same crew? That didn’t make sense—if they were, they would have fought him to the death.

Zhang Yun’s understanding of Ouyang Chunqiu was limited to the few details Ouyang Mingruo had mentioned; all he knew for sure was that the man was ruthless. About ten minutes later, Ouyang Mingruo slowly woke up. Feeling the bumpy ride of the car, she instantly sat up in alarm.

"Zhang Yun?" Relief washed over her when she recognized him in the driver’s seat. "You saved me?"

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I’m fine..." Ouyang Mingruo touched the spot where she had been hit. Then, it all came rushing back to her—Zhang Yun had shielded her from the boiling water, and even blocked a knife for her!

"Are you okay? Pull over!"

"I’m n—"

"Pull over!" Ouyang Mingruo demanded sternly.

Afraid she might try to grab the steering wheel, Zhang Yun had no choice but to pull into the emergency lane and turn on the hazard lights.

"I’m really fine. It’s just a flesh wound. I’ve got thick skin, it’s nothing."

Ouyang Mingruo flicked on the dome light. Ignoring the smell of instant noodles, she leaned in close to examine his neck.

"It must hurt so much..."

Seeing the large swath of red skin, she wanted to touch it but didn’t dare, afraid of causing him more pain. This was a burn from boiling water! The light inside the car was dim, so it was probably much worse in reality, not to mention the areas hidden by his clothes and hair.

"Lean forward a bit, let me see the wound on your back." Ouyang Mingruo unbuckled Zhang Yun’s seatbelt.

Zhang Yun had barely moved when Ouyang Mingruo suddenly burst into tears, wailing loudly. Startled, he quickly got out of the car, hurried to the backseat, and pulled her toward him to check. "What’s wrong? Did they actually stab you?"

He was genuinely starting to panic! From the corridor in front of the rest area’s store to the car in the back, Zhang Yun had only seen the two women force Mingruo into the vehicle. Once they were inside, it became his blind spot, and he had even entered the Peach Blossom Spring Space for a brief moment. Who knew if they had stabbed Mingruo during that time? The woman had claimed their mission was to capture her alive, but that was an answer given under the threat of a gun. Who knew if it was the truth? The previous attackers had fully intended to kill Mingruo!

Given the emergency earlier, Zhang Yun’s priority had been to get out of the rest area. He had simply scooped Mingruo up and left, without checking if she was seriously injured. Perhaps she had only just noticed it herself...

Zhang Yun carefully ran his hands over her sides, terrified that his fingers would brush against a pool of blood or a gaping hole.

"Zhang Yun, please don’t die!" Ouyang Mingruo threw her arms around him and sobbed.

Zhang Yun’s heart sank. Although she was crying vigorously, she had gone from saying she was fine to weeping and begging him not to die. The injury must have been so severe that it completely terrified her!

"It’s okay, it’s okay..."

He comforted her while continuing to check her body. He didn’t feel any blood or wounds on her sides, nor did her back seem injured. Zhang Yun frowned inwardly. Could she have been stabbed in the front? That would be even more serious!

"Don’t cry, it’s alright. Let me see the wound first..." Zhang Yun continued to soothe her, trying to get her to sit up properly so he could examine her. But Ouyang Mingruo refused to let go, clinging tightly to his shoulders.

"It’s not alright! There’s so much blood... You can’t let anything happen to you, otherwise I... I..."

Zhang Yun’s heart skipped a beat. Caring little about whether he was being inappropriate, he moved his hands to her front to search for the wound while she held onto him. However, after feeling around for a moment, he couldn’t find any obvious injuries. Besides, if she had been stabbed, she would have cried out in pain when he touched the spot.

Zhang Yun felt a wave of relief. He had checked both her front and back torso; there were no stab wounds. It seemed she must have noticed blood on her body and gotten scared. He had just been stabbed in the back and slashed on the arm, so it was perfectly normal that some of his blood had rubbed off onto her when he carried her into the car.

"At a time like this, you’re still in the mood to grope me?"

"Huh?" Hearing the weeping Mingruo say this, Zhang Yun was utterly baffled.

"Fine, if it boosts your will to live, you can touch me all you want. Just please don’t die!"

"Huh?" Zhang Yun was even more perplexed. Since when was he dying?