"Make sure you get Uesugi-san home safely, Lu Mingfei!" Chen Wenwen patted Lu Mingfei on the shoulder.
"You have to watch her walk right through her front door," Su Xiaoqiang added, raising an eyebrow. "Don't go dropping her off in some weird neighborhood."
Lu Mingfei stumbled on his feet. "As if! What kind of person do you take me for?"
It was already nearly seven o'clock by the time they finished discussing the details of the cultural festival. In early autumn, the sky still darkened early. Zhao Menghua had suggested that the boys walk the girls home. Since Erii had shown a clear aversion to any male other than Lu Mingfei, that was how things ended up this way. Lu Mingfei, fundamentally useless as he was, couldn't help feeling a bit nervous about being entrusted with such a heavy responsibility once again—even though he had already walked her home yesterday.
Erii naturally and instinctively took Lu Mingfei's hand.
"Ooh la la~" That was Su Xiaoqiang—you could tell just by hearing it. "Lu Mingfei's getting pretty smooth."
The night hung low, the autumn wind still carrying a hint of lingering warmth. Leaves drifted down from the trees one by one as the young man and young woman walked side by side down the tree-lined avenue. The roar of passing car engines and honking horns, the ringing of bicycle bells, the shouts of street vendors, and the chatter of pedestrians formed the main melody of the city's nightlife. With the lights just coming on, the nightscape possessed a unique and wonderful charm.
The two arrived at the familiar park. Because school had started, there were hardly anyone around at this hour; the children were probably all hunched over their desks under desk lamps, writing away furiously.
"Finger, Finger." To this day, Lu Mingfei still had no idea why Erii had decided to give a dog a name like that.
Erii called out the dog's name, looking around in all directions. They had already walked a huge circle around the park without catching even a glimpse of the dog.
"Maybe it went somewhere else to live," Lu Mingfei suggested.
Erii looked somewhat anxious. "No way. We come here every day to bring it food. It's totally used to living here by now. Why would it leave?"
"Maybe its territory got taken over by some other large dogs," Lu Mingfei said, realizing as they walked that not only had they not seen "Finger," but there wasn't a single other dog in sight either. "Could it have been caught by the stray cat and dog shelter?"
"That's possible." Erii had noticed this issue a while ago and thoroughly agreed with the thought.
"Let's get going, then." If they delayed any further, Lu Mingfei would have a hard time explaining to Uncle and Aunt why he was coming home so late.
"I hope it doesn't get bullied in there," Erii whispered.
"Woof, woof, woof, woof, woof!"
As they turned the corner of the park, a familiar barking reached their ears—sharp, hurried, and carrying a somewhat threatening edge, as if something were struggling.
Lu Mingfei, who had originally intended to just leave, quickened his pace and followed the sound. He saw two men—one fat and one thin—stuffing Finger into a woven sack. Next to them, a van contained many more sacks just like it, each one looking as though it held a small dog inside.
"What's wrong with this damn dog? So vicious," the fat man spat onto the ground.
"Should fetch a pretty penny, though," the thin man replied, taking the sack and tying a piece of rope tightly around the opening.
"They're dog thieves!" Lu Mingfei rushed out, but Erii was even faster than him.
"Let it go!" Erii showed not the slightest bit of fear toward the two fierce-looking, sinister dog thieves.
"Little girl, I advise you not to stick your nose into other people's business." The thin man spat out the toothpick he was chewing like a dart, then brought his foot down to snap the toothpick stuck slantwise in the ground.
"I'm sticking my nose in anyway," Erii said, her stubborn face flushed with anger.
"Aren't you afraid big brother here might kidnap you along with it? Skinny, this chick's not bad." The fat man looked Erii up and down. "With this figure and this pretty little face, selling her to some dirt-rich landowner out in the mountain hollows ought to bring in a good sum."
"Yuck, gross!" Erii put her hands on her hips and glared at the two dog thieves.
Lu Mingfei, following close behind, had already dialed the police emergency number. The dispatcher on the other end had already recorded their conversation.
"I've already called the cops. If you don't want to get arrested, you'd better let the dog go right now," Lu Mingfei said, stepping in front of Erii.
"You haven't even grown your hair out yet, and you're playing the hero?" Skinny grabbed Lu Mingfei by the collar.
Lu Mingfei felt an anonymous rage burning in his chest. He tried to break free, attempting to pry Skinny's hand away from his collar, but failed. His vision began to blur, as if some scalding hot liquid was streaming down from the top of his head.
"So weak, didn't you eat today?" Skinny's voice rang clearly in his ears.
"Want to make a trade?" That voice from his dream suddenly echoed beside his ear.
"What did you just say?" Lu Mingfei looked at Skinny.
"I said, go home and suck on your momma's milk!" Skinny punched Lu Mingfei right in the face. His teeth cut the inside of his lip, and it swelled up instantly.
"Say that again." Lu Mingfei endured the pain and forced himself back up. He was intentionally stalling for time; the nearest police station was only two blocks away, and he figured the police would arrive any second.
"You really are a piece of work," the fat man growled, kicking Lu Mingfei in the shin.
"Let him go." Erii's voice carried a solemnity unlike anything before—her tone icy, yet freighted with an irresistible power. In the dim light of night, her eyes seemed to glow. They were no longer their usual deep rose-red; in their place were dazzling Golden Eyes.
"Little brat, getting all high and mighty. Let big brother teach you what kind of man can actually protect you." Skinny let go of Lu Mingfei and turned his gaze toward Erii, reaching a hand out toward her cheek. "And she's a half-blood, too. Those golden eyes look pretty neat."
"Get your filthy hands off her!" Lu Mingfei batted his hand away with a swift slap. Immediately afterward, he struck Skinny in the abdomen with a punch—not very powerful, but enough to force him back a step. Following up instantly, Lu Mingfei kicked Skinny right in the crotch. Skinny let out a miserable wail and collapsed straight to the ground. Lu Mingfei turned his head toward the fat man and delivered a kick to his crotch as well. His strength wasn't great, but as long as it hit a vital spot, it still did some damage.
The fat man crumpled to the ground, staring at Lu Mingfei and his Golden Eyes. *Damn it, how did he move so fast? And besides, weren't his eyes black?*
In the distance, a figure in a black trench coat turned and walked away, murmuring to himself, "Time Zero or 'Satori'? Looks like it's not you."
Sirens wailed in the distance. The two dog thieves scrambled up in a panic, desperate to escape. A police car had already pulled up to the roadside, and two officers stepped out with flashlights in hand.
"Don't move! Hands on your heads!" The beam of a flashlight illuminated the dog thieves' faces.
Skinny delivered a ruthless chop to the back of Erii's neck. He grabbed the unconscious girl and pressed a knife against her throat. "Nobody move, or I'll kill her!"
"What a pain." Seeing Erii taken hostage, the man in the black trench coat in the distance turned back around.
"Let her go!" Lu Mingfei blocked the fat man's path. "Let her go, and I'll be your hostage instead!"
"Fatty, don't listen to him! Go start the car!" Skinny barked orders.
The fat man skirted around Lu Mingfei, scrambled into the driver's seat, jammed the key into the ignition, and the engine sputtered to life immediately.
"Don't do anything rash, let's talk this out!" Seeing the two about to escape, Lu Mingfei spoke up in a hurry, trying to block them.
A young police officer walked up to Lu Mingfei's side. "Don't panic. The sniper is almost here. Stop provoking them and just stall for time."
Lu Mingfei glanced at the officer. A flash of fierce malice flickered in the man's eyes, his pupils shimmering with a faint golden halo.
"Finger" had already wriggled free from the woven sack. It lunged forward, sinking its teeth straight into Skinny's ankle. Skinny shrieked in pain, thrashing wildly to shake the dog off, but to no avail.
*There has to be a way. There's definitely a way,* Lu Mingfei told himself. He knew a special kind of energy was hidden inside his body—just like before, that sensation of everything around him slowing down. If he could just tap into it one more time, he could knock that knife away.
"Want to make a trade?" he muttered under his breath. He could clearly remember the strange sensation from earlier; to him, those words—"Want to make a trade?"—were the spell to awaken that mysterious power.
He received no response. It seemed as though this power always sought him out on its own terms, and he had never once gotten a reply when he tried to summon it.
"Hey, big guys, how about this—you let her go, and I'll talk Uncle Police into letting you walk?" Lu Mingfei raised both hands. The spell had failed; he had no way to save Erii using that bizarre acceleration. "You guys only abducted a few dogs. If you get caught, it's just a year or two in prison. There's no need to throw away a human life over this and turn it into ten years minimum or the death penalty!"
"No way! Fatty, don't listen to him! We're carrying way more than just a few stray cats and dogs—we've got human trafficking records on us too. There's no way we're letting them catch us!"
Lu Mingfei's jaw practically hit the floor. Was this what they called a confession without even being beaten? The cops might not even have figured out who they were yet, and these idiots were blurting out everything themselves. Were they missing a few screws in their heads?
"Hmph, what absolute scum and trash," the golden-eyed police officer muttered, looking at the two dog thieves with utter disdain. "Nono, are you ready?"
Lu Mingfei heard the officer behind him speaking into the Bluetooth earpiece in his ear—wait, it wasn't even a police radio.
"On my count of three, two, one—charge forward and catch Erii," the officer's voice echoed right beside his ear.
"Got it." Lu Mingfei nodded, feeling a bit bewildered. How did this police officer even know Erii?
"Three, two, one."
Lu Mingfei lunged forward. At the exact same time, a gunshot shattered the stillness of the autumn night. A burst of blood blossomed across Skinny's face. Lu Mingfei caught Erii in his arms, whipped his head around, and stared in utter astonishment at the police officer behind him.
"Hey! Which precinct are you with?" Two other police officers blocked his path.
The strange officer stripped off his police uniform in one fluid motion, revealing the black trench coat he wore underneath. "Don't worry, it's a Frigg bullet. Just a high-potency anesthetic, nobody's dying."
Frigg? Lu Mingfei thought of the queen of the Norse pantheon. Legend had it that Frigg was the lawful wife of Odin, king of the gods, and the mother of the god of light, Baldr. When Baldr was plagued by nightmares, she had exacted an oath from every living creature in the nine underworlds, binding them never to harm Baldr. Presumably, this so-called "high-potency anesthetic" drew upon that imagery of absolute harmlessness.
The man leaped high into the air like an agile ape, bounding from one tree to another before dropping down from the branches and leaving the park, vanishing amidst the startled gazes of the crowd.
Lu Mingfei glanced back at Skinny. Sure enough, there wasn't actually a wound on his face; the exploding blood had seemingly come from whatever was inside that bullet.
The police officers slapped handcuffs onto Skinny and the fat man.
"Do you two need a ride to the hospital?"
"No trouble, thanks." Lu Mingfei looked down at Erii. Her breathing was steady; she had probably just passed out.
"You kids are students, right?"
"Yeah. Today was club recruitment day, so we ended up running a bit late and never expected to run into something like this."
"Alright then. Leave your contact info and come down to the station this weekend to give a statement." The officer handed over a small notebook.
"Okay." Lu Mingfei wrote down his phone number and address.