If I couldn’t find Lin Yumeng here, finding her later would be a real problem. Her phone was turned off, so I couldn’t track her location. Star City is so huge, and if something happened to her, a girl all alone like that, it would be nearly impossible to find her.
Xu Ze was frantically scanning the remaining private rooms—he had to locate Lin Yumeng as quickly as possible. Otherwise… what would happen to a girl who seemed drunk, stuck in a room with several guys?
Just thinking about it made him feel terrified. At some point, he noticed his heart starting to race, pounding faster and faster with anxiety and tension.
“If Yumeng really ends up in trouble… hmph…” Xu Ze’s eyes flashed with a sharp, icy light. In this place full of noise and excitement, the air around him began to feel noticeably colder.
“What a crazy place…” Knife muttered quietly in the virtual space, staring at the large light screen in front of him. It displayed the scene scanned by Xu Ze—figures twisting wildly under the colorful lights, and even a few men and women completely absorbed in snorting something off sheets of tin foil, their faces full of ecstasy.
But Xu Ze paid no attention to those scenes. Since he hadn’t spotted Lin Yumeng yet, he just swept past them. However, those images only made the anger and anxiety in his heart surge even higher…
Another ten faint reddish figures quickly sharpened into view within his sight. A dozen or so people were dancing wildly in one of the private rooms, while a few others were gathered around a sofa, arguing about something.
Xu Ze frowned and was about to glance past them when he noticed some of the people in that group breaking apart and pushing toward the ones dancing wildly in the middle, dragging a few girls out with them.
And then he saw it—on the sofa, now exposed because the crowd had moved away, lay a girl.
Seeing that familiar figure, Xu Ze’s eyes suddenly lit up. Then the pent-up anger exploded inside him, and he strode quickly toward the door of that private room.
The doors at Splendid Huatian were pretty solid, but Xu Ze kicked one open. With a loud “bang,” the door shook violently and swung inward.
The noise from the kicked door was so loud that everyone inside jolted. But only a few actually reacted—the rest kept dancing wildly to the pounding music, almost completely oblivious.
Those who did react saw Xu Ze storming in with a cold, fierce look on his face. They immediately started cursing at him, throwing the girls they had been dragging onto a nearby sofa, then shouting angrily as they gathered around Xu Ze.
“Who the hell do you think you are? Get the hell out!” The leader was a guy in his twenties with bleached yellow hair and an earring. He stomped over, eyes wide, yelling at Xu Ze, reeking of alcohol. Then he raised his hand and swung a slap at Xu Ze’s face.
But Xu Ze’s attention was already fixed on the sofa across the room. One quick glance told him that Lin Yumeng seemed to be lying there, barely conscious—but her clothes were still intact. A guy was reaching out, trying to pick her up.
Xu Ze couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved. In these few minutes, it seemed nothing had happened to Lin Yumeng yet. Those guys had probably been arguing over her, which had kept her from falling into their hands. If he had arrived any later, who knows what might have happened.
Xu Ze didn’t really register what the yellow-haired guy was saying. He just felt a sharp wind coming at his face. Instinctively, he tilted his head, then casually slapped the guy away.
He didn’t hit hard—he was very restrained. Just a casual slap. So the yellow-haired guy only lost two teeth, spun around in place, and landed on the ground with a thud.
With the annoying guy out of the way, Xu Ze walked quickly toward Lin Yumeng. Her condition looked bad, and he needed to check if she was okay.
But the room was big and crowded. A couple of the other guys, seeing that Xu Ze had just slapped the yellow-haired guy down, shouted and charged at him with bloodshot eyes.
These two were pretty tall, about Xu Ze’s height, but skinny as rails. Xu Ze was really irritated by these little wasps getting in his way, so he didn’t give them much of a chance. With two light taps of his hand, both guys screamed in pain and pulled back their fists. Then, with two more shoves, Xu Ze sent the skinny pair tumbling away.
The loud, wild music kept thundering in the room. The dozen or so men and women who had been dancing continued to twist wildly, oblivious. Only a few guys standing by the sofa, who hadn’t come over yet, stood there dumbfounded, watching the three men easily taken down by Xu Ze.
But soon, the remaining three, seeing Xu Ze striding over with a cold expression, quickly snapped out of it. Two of them suddenly showed a flash of madness. Without a word, each grabbed a wine bottle from a nearby table, smashed the bottoms on the edge, and then charged at Xu Ze with a fierce yell.
Hearing their shouts, Xu Ze finally pulled his attention away from Lin Yumeng. He looked at the two guys, around his age but clearly far more reckless, and a cold glint appeared in his eyes.
He didn’t like to start trouble, but he also didn’t like others starting trouble with him—especially when they came at him with weapons.
The two guys rushed straight at Xu Ze with the sharp, broken bottles, looking like they wouldn’t stop until they had stabbed someone.
Seeing that Lin Yumeng wasn’t in serious danger, Xu Ze’s earlier violent rage had already subsided a bit. But watching these two with such brutal looks in their eyes, a flicker of cold light crossed his face again.
He didn’t dodge the incoming bottles at all. Instead, he reached out swiftly, grabbed both hands holding the bottles, and twisted.
“Ahhh… ahhh…” The sudden screams cut sharply through the pounding music. Xu Ze let go, and the two guys clutched their right hands, howling and crying out in pain in the middle of the room.
With the annoying little wasps out of the way, Xu Ze continued walking quickly toward Lin Yumeng, who wasn’t far away. The guy standing next to her—the one who had apparently won the argument and was trying to pick her up—was now completely paralyzed with fear.
Seeing Xu Ze approaching with those cold eyes, the guy screamed and quickly scrambled out of the way, not daring to block him any longer.
With that pest gone, Xu Ze had no time to deal with him. He quickly reached out and took hold of Lin Yumeng’s wrist.
The cardiac monitor activated instantly… As bioelectric signals shot out, wave patterns quickly came back. Xu Ze looked at them and breathed a small sigh of relief. Her heart rate was just a little fast—nothing else seemed wrong.
He carefully observed Lin Yumeng lying on the sofa, restless and barely conscious, and made a rough guess. It didn’t look like she was just drunk. More likely, she had been drugged.
“Initiate blood abnormality analysis…” Xu Ze didn’t hesitate any longer and directly activated this third-level system function.
At his command, the automated response system quickly replied: “Beep… Blood abnormality analysis activated.”
At the same time, a tiny needle emerged from Xu Ze’s ring and quickly pierced the skin of Lin Yumeng’s wrist.
A few seconds later, the system reported back: “Ketamine detected in the blood. Concentration approximately 3 micrograms per milliliter.”
“Ketamine?” Hearing the name, Xu Ze frowned. He knew exactly what that was—the most common thing in bars and KTVs. A hallucinogen. K powder. Often used for bad purposes.
But the amount wasn’t too high, so it wouldn’t threaten Lin Yumeng’s life. That eased Xu Ze’s worry a little.
He turned and looked behind him. In the middle of the large private room, the group of men and women were still dancing wildly. A couple of the girls and a few guys looked somewhat familiar—probably Lin Yumeng’s classmates.
Judging by their reactions, Xu Ze could tell that these people had probably also been given some kind of stimulant or hallucinogen.
He sighed softly. It wasn’t hard to guess what had happened. Probably right after school started, Lin Yumeng’s classmates had decided to come sing karaoke at Splendid Huatian… and this was the result.
He sighed again, had Knife call the police, then picked up Lin Yumeng and prepared to leave. As for her classmates, he’d leave them for the cops. He couldn’t handle them all by himself.
Just as he lifted Lin Yumeng, a few KTV security guards ran through the door. Seeing the yellow-haired guy climbing up from the floor, and the two guys hopping around screaming with their wrists cradled, their faces immediately changed.
The guard in front hurriedly helped the yellow-haired guy up, looking at his injuries while putting on an angry, flattering face: “Young Master Yang… Young Master Yang, who’s the idiot that dared to touch you? I’ll take care of him for you…”
The other two guards rushed to calm down the two guys who seemed to have broken wrists. Meanwhile, one of them—apparently higher-ranking—angrily yelled at another guard: “The hell are you standing there for? Hurry up and call an ambulance for Young Master Hu and Young Master Lin!”
