9 Chapter 9: In Calculation _1

This was the first time Song Lan had seen Lu Xiang fight someone.

From over 20 meters in the air, leveraging the inertia, she used her elbow to smash the mighty brute over two meters tall headfirst into the concrete.

The thunderous sound of the body collapsing made Song Lan's scalp tingle. He thought to himself if his nape were hit like this, he would probably be reincarnated in another world instantly.

Having knocked the bruiser down, Lu Xiang swiftly flipped to stabilize herself. Only after noticing that Song Lan had just taken a tumble and scraped some skin off his arm did she finally heave a sigh of relief.

She was about to approach Song Lan when something suddenly occurred to her.

The book "A Love Tip a Day" had mentioned more than once that from ancient times till now, hero saving the beauty had always been a universally popular theme. Even though there seemed to be something amiss in the current role distribution, nothing else could strike such a chord with the scenes in the book.

Lu Xiang halted in her tracks, recalling the various details of the hero-saving-the-beauty episodes from the book.

The key was style.

While saving someone in a crisis, you also had to make a profound impression on them, so that even ten or several decades into the future, they could still vividly recall everything that happened on that day, at that moment.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone on the entire street, Lu Xiang casually brushed some errant bangs off her forehead. Her long ponytail, tied up with a ribbon, flickered with her movements. With a slight upward tilt at the corners of her mouth, she exuded a heroic composure. In the morning sunlight, she resembled a valkyrie reigning over the battlefield.

The crowd fell silent as if time had frozen in this moment.

Song Lan, who was still on the ground and had not yet gotten up, wore a stunned expression similar to the bystanders.

Lu Xiang, she...

Has been acting very unusually lately!

As time ticked away, the pair maintained their poses, and the crowd gradually regained their composure. The atmosphere had subtly shifted from initial amazement to a kind of stiffness.

Though Lu Xiang appeared composed on the surface, she was getting increasingly anxious inside.

Didn't "A Love Tip a Day" mention that when a hero appears, the other party will be so moved that they will throw themselves into the hero's embrace?

But the book never mentioned what to do if the other party fell over during the rescue.

Should she help Song Lan up?

Or should she wait for him to get up on his own?

At this moment, Barna, whose head half-buried in the concrete, seemed to pick up on the awkward atmosphere and instinctively felt he should do something.

The tremors emanating from the ground and the colossal figure rising to his feet successfully redirected the crowd's attention back to him. Back in District 17, wherever he went, he was always met with the respectful gazes of those around him.

The substantial bounty of 310,000 volts, the second-in-command of the Chai Ke Group who had never felt such humiliation under the public eye.

"No wonder that pesky guy persisted."

At this moment, he understood why Song Lan, despite having had several opportunities to run away, always reappeared in their sight at the next turn.

Song Lan was just a decoy. The entire operation was clearly targeted at him by the law enforcers of District 17 — the appearance of Lu Xiang was the best evidence!

"Don't underestimate me, I am Barna!"

Wiping the blood off his face, he roared at the sky. His bloodshot eyes were then fixed on Lu Xiang.

His shout had a remarkable effect on the crowd. Those who had not recognized Barna instinctively retreated a few steps, then scattered and fled. Within a minute, only a few trembling civilians, too weak to run away, remained in the large street.

In the blink of an eye, he was clutching a translucent bottle containing a myriad of capsule-shaped medications.

"Just a bunch of law enforcers!"

Barna flicked the cap open with his thumb. It shot towards a street sign in the distance, leaving a clear hole in it. "This is Brother Chai Ke's territory!"

Despite being more than ten meters apart, Barna's roar still made Song Lan want to cover his ears. The sight of this guy taking drugs was terrifying.

"You better not do this."

In the face of Barna, who stood before her like a small mountain, Lu Xiang simply glanced at the bottle of drugs and warned him.

She was grateful to Barna for helping her break the ice just now, but she still had to do her duty.

"Are you scared?" Barna naturally ignored Lu Xiang's warning. He smirked in her face and swallowed a whole bottle of capsules. "What will happen next, even I can't control."

The dosage was nearly ten times his usual dosage. Yet, if it enabled him to kill the leader of the law enforcement department in order to avenge Chai Ke, he was willing to risk permanent damage to his body.

"Next, you will bleed to death."

Lu Xiang calmly stated. She had no intention of attacking. "There's a limit to human body vessels' endurance. The drug you just took will ramp up your blood circulation in a short period, causing extreme excitation..."

"The one who'll bleed to death is you!"

Barna started moving like a beast. Under the effects of the drug, his entire body had turned red, and the heat radiating from him distorted the air around him.

The next moment, crimson blood burst out from his neck like a breached dam, spectacularly splashing in mid-air.

Excessive blood loss caused him to buckle at the knees, kneeling on the ground even before he could approach Lu Xiang.

No matter how hard he pressed on his neck, he couldn't slow the blood loss.

His mouth was agape, but he couldn't utter a word.

"I've read your profile. You're impulsive and reckless. Once, after a drunken altercation with a customer, you slaughtered everyone in the bar. Chai Ke bailed you out of prison, provided you with drugs, and even entrusted you with the smuggling business of prosthetics in South District..."

Lu Xiang recounted the crimes committed by Barna. All of these were documented by the profiling department. "It can be predicted that once you encounter me, the one who arrested Chai Ke, you will undoubtedly overdose."

In front of Barna's bewildered gaze, Lu Xiang flicked the cuff of her sleeve, revealing a silver needle that she had hidden from the start.

"Therefore, by leaving a minor wound in advance, once you overdose, it would turn into a fatal injury."

"Thud."

All that responded to Lu Xiang was the dull sound of the body hitting the ground.

Everything that happened at that moment fell within her calculations, including the timing of Barna's death.

May 7th, 2166, at 9:17 in the morning.

Resumption of the death sentence for Barna confirmed.

There was no joy in this outcome for Lu Xiang.

Because everything was within calculation.

She looked up at the azure sky.

If only...

Falling in love could be this simple. That would be nice.