Du Hongyuan checked the time, urged Wang Qi, and said, "It's almost time for your date. Let's hurry up and get ready to head out."
"Wait a minute. He's the one going on a date—what does that have to do with you? What are you getting ready for?" Kong Liu asked, looking at the rather excited Du Hongyuan with a puzzled expression.
"Brother Kong, you don't understand!" Chen Zhirui said with a grin. "When junior girls go out, they usually travel in packs from their dorms. Even though Brother Wang only asked out one person, there are definitely going to be more than just her showing up."
Kong Liu smiled and said, "So you guys are basically staging a dorm mixer?"
"You'll never find love just sitting in the dorm!" Du Hongyuan said as he combed his hair. "Only by casting a wide net can you find your true love!"
"Oh, give me a break."
Kong Liu rolled his eyes at him, then turned to Chen Zhirui and asked, "Are you going too?"
"I... I don't really have anything to do, so I'm just going along to hang out with them." Chen Zhirui scratched the back of his head sheepishly and asked, "Brother Kong, are you coming with us?"
Kong Liu answered without hesitation, "Not interested."
He had zero interest in such boring activities. Besides, he had only just made it back to campus from outside, and he really didn't want to go out and drag himself around again. All he wanted to do was crawl into bed early and lie down.
Chen Zhirui nodded and said, "That's true. You already have Campus Belle Gu, so you definitely shouldn't be out messing around."
Hearing this, Kong Liu felt a row of black lines cross his forehead. "She and I are just very special friends," he said.
Du Hongyuan chimed in from the side, "Right, right, right—so special that she took the initiative to give you a VIP card!"
When they got out of the car earlier, Kong Liu had casually shoved the Peace Residence VIP card into the shopping bag. As a result, when the three guys unpacked the bag, the card fell out, leaving Kong Liu with no choice but to tell the truth—that Gu Chenxi had given it to him. He left out the part about the fifty-thousand-yuan spending balance inside.
Naturally, none of the three believed Kong Liu's excuse about being "special friends."
The more he explained, the murkier it got, so Kong Liu simply gave up trying. He changed into his indoor shoes, climbed up onto his bed, and decided to lie down for a bit before taking a shower.
As it turned out, the moment he lay down, he fell fast asleep.
When he woke up again, the dorm was pitch black and dead silent. His three roommates still hadn't returned.
Kong Liu rubbed his temples, sat up in a daze, and pulled out his phone. There were a few scattered spam notifications and a message from 【Xixi】 asking if he wanted to play a video game. Checking the time, it was already half-past eleven. Curfew was at midnight.
Kong Liu replied to Gu Chenxi that he had just been sleeping, and then sent a message to Wang Qi asking when they would be back.
Gu Chenxi replied very quickly, and the two began chatting online, but Wang Qi never answered.
Kong Liu sent messages to Du Hongyuan and Chen Zhirui as well, but still received no reply.
Just as Kong Liu began to feel that something was wrong, his phone suddenly rang with an incoming call from an unknown number. A girl's voice came from the other end: "Is this Senior Kong Liu?!"
Hearing her call him senior, Kong Liu assumed she was just another nameless pursuer. He was about to hang up when her next words made him frown: "Senior Kong Liu, please come and save Senior Wang Qi quickly, they..."
Kong Liu's brow furrowed tightly as he anxiously demanded, "What happened to them?"
"They were beaten up by someone!"
"Where are you?"
"Stinking bitch, trying to snitch, are you?!"
"Ah—"
A scream suddenly echoed from the phone, and the line went dead.
Not long after, Kong Liu received a photo sent by the other party using Wang Qi's account. In the photo, Wang Qi, Du Hongyuan, and Chen Zhirui were piled on top of each other, their faces covered in blood.
Not far away, a burly man was pulling a girl by her hair, trying to snatch something from her.
Another message arrived from Wang Qi's account: "Paramount, Private Room 888. Kong Liu, if you've got guts, show up. Don't you dare call the police, or I'll finish these guys off first!"
Looking at the messages on his screen, Kong Liu wore a dark expression and clenched his fists. Even though he knew it was a trap, he had no time to overthink it.
He pulled on his shoes and sprinted out of the dorm as fast as he could.
***
"Driver, please drive faster. It's an emergency!"
Sitting in the front passenger seat of the taxi, Kong Liu watched the seconds ticking away on his phone, feeling extremely anxious. Yet the driver looked utterly relaxed, his unhurried pace making Kong Liu urge him once more.
The driver gave a bitter smile and said, "Young man, it's not that I don't want to go fast. There's a speed limit on this road, and speeding means fines."
"How much is the speeding fine?"
"Not much, but the penalty points..."
Before the driver could finish, he saw Kong Liu rip a thick stack of banknotes out of his wallet and ask, "Is this enough to cover the fine? If not, I can transfer you some more with my phone."
As he spoke, Kong Liu pulled out his phone directly and scanned the payment QR code pasted on the dashboard.
"Hey, young man, it's not about the money..."
Just as the driver tried to stop him, a payment notification chime rang out from his phone.
"WeChat Pay: Ten thousand yuan received."
Kong Liu looked at the taxi driver and asked, "Is that enough? If not..."
"Enough!"
The driver waved a hand dismissively, cutting Kong Liu off. His expression suddenly turned serious: "I've been out of the racing circuit for so many years, and you're the first person to pay me to drive fast... Kid, hold on tight!"
"Huh?!"
Kong Liu widened his eyes in surprise.
The moment the driver's voice trailed off, he slammed his foot down on the accelerator. With a smooth clutch shift, he dropped the car into fifth gear and went hurtling down the road. This time, the taxi driver seemed to recapture the glory days of his youth on the racetrack, taking corners with pure drifts and without ever slowing down.
Thanks to the driver's god-tier driving skills, a journey that should have taken half an hour was completed in a mere ten minutes.
As soon as he stepped out of the car, Kong Liu grabbed the door frame and threw up violently. The meal he had shared with Gu Chenxi earlier that evening was thoroughly emptied out.
The driver thoughtfully handed Kong Liu a tissue to wipe his mouth.
"Thanks. I feel much better after throwing up."
Kong Liu wiped his mouth, his face still deathly pale. Had he known the driver's idea of speeding would be this intense, he wouldn't have spent money just to torture himself.
"I should be thanking you!" the driver said, looking thoroughly refreshed. "Young man, I haven't driven with such unbridled exhilaration in a long time."
"Don't mention it."
Kong Liu shut the car door, shook his head to clear it, and adjusted his state of mind. He casually picked up a palm-sized rock from the ground, weighed it in his hand for a moment, shoved it into his pocket, and walked toward Paramount KTV.
A hot-figured, beautiful greeter looked at Kong Liu as he approached and immediately greeted him with a beaming smile, "Sir, do you have a reservation?"
Kong Liu said, "Take me to Private Room 888."
"Private Room 888?" Hearing that, the greeter immediately asked, "Are you Young Master Qin's friend?"
Kong Liu frowned slightly and asked, "Young Master Qin? Qin Zizhuo?"
"That's right. It looks like you really are Young Master Qin's friend."
With that, the smile on the greeter's face grew even brighter. She reached out to guide Kong Liu and said, "Please follow me."
Kong Liu had originally assumed that he had provoked Chen Junjie during dinner with Gu Chenxi earlier that evening, and that Chen was the one who had sent people to beat up his roommates. Hearing the greeter mention this just now, it finally dawned on him that Chen Junjie didn't even go to their university, nor would he know his roommates. The only person who would actively pick a fight with the three of them was that bastard Qin Zizhuo.
Kong Liu followed the greeter toward their private room.
As it turned out, it was pure coincidence.
Qin Zizhuo had originally only come to Paramount to sing tonight. While walking down the corridor, he happened to run into Du Hongyuan hitting on a girl, so Qin Zizhuo stepped in and ruined his fun.
When two enemies meet, words quickly escalate into an argument.
Hearing the commotion, Wang Qi and Chen Zhirui immediately rushed out of their private room. Seeing all three of them there—and assuming Kong Liu was around as well—Qin Zizhuo wanted to barge into their room to settle old scores with Kong Liu.
Qin Zizhuo's actions infuriated the three of them. Du Hongyuan, with his fiery temper, grabbed a wine bottle and tried to smash it over Qin Zizhuo's head.
However, this wasn't school. The two bodyguards accompanying Qin Zizhuo were no pushovers, and they subdued Du Hongyuan in just a few moves.
Wang Qi gave a quick word of instruction to the girl he had a date with tonight, telling her to call Senior Kong Liu for help, before rushing in alongside Chen Zhirui to lend a hand.
As a result, after exchanging only a few blows, both of them ended up sprawled on the floor as well.
While the girl Wang Qi had brought out was making her phone call, her three other roommates tried to bolt for the lobby to get help, only to be grabbed by their hair by the bodyguards and dragged back into the private room.
Looking at the three figures lying incapacitated on the floor, Qin Zizhuo smashed a wine bottle over each of their heads, followed by another round of punches and kicks. If the bodyguards hadn't held him back, this crazed lunatic with bloodshot eyes probably would have beaten the three of them to death.
Qin Zizhuo still wasn't satisfied after venting his anger on the three of them, so he used Wang Qi's phone to summon Kong Liu, intending to give him a beating too.
Inside Private Room 888 at that very moment...Qin Zizhuo grabbed a girl by the neck, his expression ferocious as he snarled at her, "You're quite pretty. Why'd you have to go and fall for a loser like this?"
With that, Qin Zizhuo kicked Wang Qi, who had already passed out.
The girl whose neck was being squeezed was the one Wang Qi had a date with tonight. Her name was Yang Xue'er, and she was the one who had just called Kong Liu.
The other three girls, sitting huddled and shivering in the corner out of sheer terror, were Yang Xue'er's roommates.
The group had been having a perfectly good time until Qin Zizhuo suddenly burst into the private room, started a senseless brawl, and turned everything into this chaotic mess. They were completely innocent in all of this.
Wang Qi was jolted awake by the kick. Seeing Yang Xue'er gripped by the throat, he let out a hoarse roar, "Qin Zizhuo, you scum! Let Xue'er go right now!"
"I'll give you a way out!" Pointing at the newly conscious Wang Qi, Qin Zizhuo said to Yang Xue'er, "Give me a kiss right in front of this loser. Kiss me once, and I'll let one of your roommates go. How's that?"
"Ptuu!"
Yang Xue'er spat a mouthful of saliva straight into Qin Zizhuo's face.
"Damn you!"
*Slap!*
Wiping the spit from his face, Qin Zizhuo backhanded Yang Xue'er across the face.
Seeing the woman he loved getting struck, Wang Qi mustered the very last ounce of strength in his body, lunged forward to knock Qin Zizhuo away, and then threw his own body over Yang Xue'er to shield her. No matter how savagely Qin Zizhuo beat him from behind, he refused to get up.
*Bang!*
The door to the private room was kicked open by Kong Liu. The female hostess standing beside him took one look at the absolute devastation inside and froze.
"Keep watch for me. Don't let the security guards in until ten minutes are up."
With that, Kong Liu tucked a red hundred-bill into the front of her uniform as a tip, took off his jacket, and stepped into the room.
"Kong Liu, you son of a bitch, you finally showed up!"
Seeing Kong Liu walk in, Qin Zizhuo abandoned Wang Qi, whom he had just beaten unconscious again, grabbed a bottle of beer from a crate, and marched toward Kong Liu.
"I actually thought you wouldn't have the guts to come!"
Kong Liu didn't say a word. He pulled out a rock he had just picked up from the entrance and stuffed it into his jacket, instantly turning the garment into a makeshift meteor hammer.
Caring little what Kong Liu was up to, Qin Zizhuo barked at his two bodyguards, "Get him!"
The two bodyguards immediately lunged forward, pincer-attacking Kong Liu from left and right.
Kong Liu swung his jacket, smashing it viciously right into one bodyguard's temple.
"Ah!"
The bodyguard let out a miserable shriek and clutched his head.
At the same time, the other bodyguard had already thrown a punch straight at Kong Liu's face. If that wind-breaking fist connected, it would surely knock Kong Liu out of the fight.
Kong Liu took a half-step back, dropped his center of gravity, and ducked beneath the straight punch. Evading the attack, he brought his five fingers together into a blade-like hand and jabbed a spear-hand strike straight into the bodyguard's eyes.
"Ah!"
Another agonizing scream rang out. Blood and tears instantly streamed from the bodyguard's eyes. Blinded, he began flailing his fists wildly, punching furiously at the empty air.
The first bodyguard, who had taken the blow to the temple, managed to stagger back to his feet at that moment and charged at Kong Liu again with renewed fury.
Kong Liu nimbly dodged his reckless assault, lashing out with his jacket-wrapped rock to batter the man's body. Spotting an opening, Kong Liu delivered a fierce kick to the bodyguard's knee, buckling his leg so that he crashed to the floor. Raising his jacket high once more, Kong Liu brought it crashing down onto the man's face.
*Thud!*
The dull impact of the rock against skull echoed through the room. The bodyguard collapsed to the ground, completely out cold.
Having dealt with the first, Kong Liu whirled around, gripped his improvised weapon, and strode toward the bodyguard whose eyes he had blinded. With swift, clean efficiency and zero wasted motion, he landed two brutal strikes straight to the man's head.
In less than two full minutes, both bodyguards were sprawled flat on the floor.
Staring at the two motionless bodyguards lying at his feet, Qin Zizhuo was too stunned to even process what had happened.
He had always assumed that among Kong Liu's three roommates, Du Hongyuan was the strongest fighter. Never in his wildest dreams did he expect Kong Liu to be such a lethal brawler, effortlessly neutralizing his team of professional bodyguards in a matter of moments.
As Kong Liu walked toward him, Qin Zizhuo felt as though he were facing the God of Plague. Terror flooded his eyes. The terrifying aura emanating from Kong Liu made his body back away uncontrollably; his grip loosened, and the beer bottle slipped from his hand, shattering on the floor with a sharp crash.
Tripping over the debris on the floor, he tumbled backward. The broken glass sliced into his hands, but he was beyond caring about the searing pain in his palms as he scrambled frantically backward.
He retreated until his back hit the corner of the wall, leaving him nowhere left to run.
"Kong Liu, you bastard, you killed someone, you're finished! Just wait for a prison sentence! Don't touch me—if you lay a single finger on me, you're dead! I am the only son of the Qin Family of Zhonghai!"
Even on the brink of death, Qin Zizhuo showed no remorse, desperately trying to cow Kong Liu with threats.
"..."
Bypassing idle chatter, Kong Liu delivered a swift kick straight into his midsection.
"Ugh!"
Reeling from the blow, Qin Zizhuo coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. Like a trapped beast letting out its final roar, he shrieked, "Kong Liu, you lunatic! Do you have any idea who my dad is?!"
"Hah, hahaha."
Hearing Qin Zizhuo's words, Kong Liu actually laughed, as if hearing the most ridiculous joke in the world.
Crouching down, he whispered in a chilling tone right into Qin Zizhuo's ear, "Even if your dad were the King of Heaven himself, here in Zhonghai, he'd still have to answer to the Kong Family..."
"The Kong Family? You... you are..."
Chapter 34: A Blessed Turn of Events (Tragic Edition)
Before Qin Zizhuo could finish his sentence, he passed out cold from sheer terror.
Kong Liu wasn't about to let him pass out that easily. Picking up a glass of wine from the table, he splashed it directly across Qin Zizhuo's face, jolting him awake once more.
"Trying to play dead?" Kong Liu flashed a somewhat hair-raising smile and said calmly, "I haven't even finished beating you yet!"
"Spare me, I'm begging you, I really know I was wrong, I'm sorry, I was blind—ah..."
Kong Liu successfully proved that the soundproofing of Paramount's private rooms was top-notch. The hostess had stood outside the door for ten full minutes without hearing a single unusual sound.By the time she fetched the security guards and unlocked the door, Qin Zizhuo was lying on the floor covered in blood, whether dead or alive is unknown. Kong Liu, along with the three girls, was in the middle of hauling Du Hongyuan and Chen Zhirui over to the sofa, while Yang Xue'er held the still-unconscious Wang Qi with a heart-wrenching expression.
Before long, the ambulance called by Kong Liu arrived at the scene. The three young men were rushed to the nearest hospital. Fortunately, most of their injuries consisted of superficial cuts, minor fractures, and mild concussions, which would heal fine with proper rest and care. The four girls had suffered only minor scrapes and a severe fright, leaving them otherwise unharmed.
As for Kong Liu?
He was completely unscathed. After finishing his statement at the police station, he stopped by a roadside street stall for a plate of stir-fried rice noodles before making his leisurely way to the hospital.
Normally, beating someone up would land him in detention, but a single phone call was all it took to get him released immediately. The reason for his release was simple: self-defense.
Tonight's incident was entirely Qin Zizhuo's fault; if anyone was to blame, it was him for courting his own doom.
Checking the time, Kong Liu saw it was already four in the morning. There was no point heading back to the dorm now, so he would just have to grab some rest at the hospital. Besides, he wasn't particularly tired, having woken up fully rested before heading out tonight.
There were still a few unread messages on his phone from Gu Chenxi. Seeing that he hadn't replied, she had simply sent a final "good night" and stopped texting.
Putting his phone away, Kong Liu rested one hand on the car window, letting the slightly chilly night breeze drift through his fingers.
When Kong Liu arrived at the hospital, the three guys had already woken up. They were lying in their hospital beds while the four girls attended to them.
Kong Liu handed Yang Xue'er a room key, telling her to take her roommates and get some sleep; he would keep watch for the remaining hours of the night.
Having lived through a night of sheer terror, the girls were indeed exhausted. Following Yang Xue'er, they left the hospital for the hotel Kong Liu had booked right nearby. It was a luxury suite with three bedrooms and a living room, easily accommodating all four of them.
The moment the girls left, the three guys who had previously put on such a "serene and composed" facade instantly dropped their act, groaning and wailing—they had only been putting on a brave face in front of the girls earlier.
Wang Qi took the lead, asking, "Old Liu, Xue'er and the others told me you were the one who took down Qin Zizhuo and his two bodyguards all by yourself tonight?"
A peculiar look crossed Kong Liu's face as he smiled and asked Wang Qi, "Calling each other by pet names already? Did you two finally make it official?"
"Well... pretty much, I guess."
Wang Qi scratched the back of his head, looking somewhat embarrassed.
Wang Qi had to thank Qin Zizhuo for the rapid progress tonight; if the guy hadn't pulled such a stunt, Wang Qi and Yang Xue'er's relationship wouldn't have advanced at such lightning speed.
"Don't try to change the subject!" Du Hongyuan struggled to prop himself up from the bed, wincing as he said, "The combined strength of all of us couldn't handle Qin Zizhuo's two bodyguards. How on earth did you take them down by yourself?"
"Uh... pure luck."