Chapter 204: Su Yuqing on a Stormy Night

"Thank you." Su Yuqing tried to decline, but the clerk insisted, forcing the umbrella into her hands. All she could do was offer her thanks.

As she opened the umbrella and prepared to leave, she unexpectedly spotted a familiar figure.

"Lin Yu’an!?"

She looked over and saw Lin Yu’an cornered by three young punks.

After a moment of hesitation, Su Yuqing mustered her courage and walked over, umbrella in hand.

"Stop it, right now!" Su Yuqing said hurriedly as she saw the three of them beating Lin Yu’an. "If you keep hurting him, I’m calling the police!"

She frantically fumbled for her phone, only to remember with a jolt that her mother had smashed it before she’d left the house.

The punks watched as Su Yuqing fumbled in her pocket, her expression shifting when she came up empty.

The three punks, who had been momentarily cowed by her threat to call the police, immediately turned to her and sneered.

"Looks like you left home without your phone."

"Hey, pretty girl. We can stop messing with him. Why don’t you come and play with us for a bit instead?"

These three punks were all talk and no action. Seeing Su Yuqing with her clothes soaked through, their eyes gleamed, but they were only thinking of copping a feel, just a simple touch.

They were ignorant of the law and didn’t know the exact penalty for molestation, but they knew damn well how severe the punishment for rape was.

So they dared to molest her, but they didn’t dare to rape her.

Still, molestation was no minor crime.

Just as the three closed in on Su Yuqing, Lin Yu’an, who had been silently taking the beating without fighting back, suddenly struggled to his feet and blocked their path to her.

"This has nothing to do with her!"

Then, Lin Yu’an immediately turned to Su Yuqing and said, "Get out of here. Now."

"Too late to run now! Grab her," the one they called Yellow Hair ordered, sending his two cronies to block Su Yuqing’s escape.

Seeing this, Lin Yu’an, who had been passively taking all the abuse, suddenly snapped.

It’s not scary when a loud, boisterous person loses their temper. But when a quiet, mild-mannered person is pushed until they snap, it’s a truly terrifying sight.

Once a person like that snaps, they lose all restraint.

And that was Lin Yu’an in this moment. Seeing that the three had designs on Su Yuqing, he charged at them like a wild animal.

But, predictably, he was met with a hail of punches and kicks.

This time, however, Lin Yu’an wasn’t the same boy who just passively took the abuse. He fought back, using every part of his body as a weapon.

"SHIT! This son of a bitch bites like a damn dog! AAGGHH!" In an instant, Lin Yu’an had sunk his teeth deep into the arm of the guy next to Yellow Hair, who howled in pain.

The next moment, Lin Yu’an targeted the other punk and bit down hard on him as well.

No matter how they hit him, he refused to let go. He nearly tore a chunk of flesh from the punk’s arm before the boy started screaming apologies and begging for mercy, finally managing to yank his arm free.

Seeing his two buddies get bitten so viciously, Yellow Hair started to lose his nerve.

The tough fear the crazy, and the crazy fear the suicidal.

This kid was a total psycho. For all he knew, the guy had rabies. Getting bitten just wasn’t worth it.

The three of them could only shout one last empty threat before beating a hasty retreat.

Chen Mo knew the three punks were carrying knives.

But for these punks, carrying knives was clearly just a way to bolster their courage. They didn’t actually have the guts to use them.

All Lin Yu’an had to do was act a little crazy, and it was enough to send them running.

Watching this scene unfold, Chen Mo finally understood where the injuries he’d seen on Lin Yu’an back in school had come from.

’So he really did get them protecting Su Yuqing.’

With the three punks gone, an exhausted Lin Yu’an collapsed, slumping right into a puddle in the pouring rain.

"Are you okay?" Su Yuqing rushed over to help him up, her voice filled with concern.

"I’m fine. Thank you," Lin Yu’an said quietly to Su Yuqing.

"We’re classmates; you don’t have to thank me. Besides, you protected me just now, so I’d say we’re even," Su Yuqing said, managing a gentle smile.

Lin Yu’an glanced at her outstretched hand but chose not to take it. His own hands were filthy from the muddy water on the ground. Instead, he used the pavement to push himself to his feet.

He walked over to a nearby trash can and retrieved his schoolbag, which the punks had knocked to the ground earlier.

He immediately unzipped a small compartment and saw a clean handkerchief resting safely inside. A wave of relief washed over him.

"Your umbrella’s broken. Here, use mine," Su Yuqing said, glancing at Lin Yu’an’s mangled umbrella and handing hers over. "But it’s from the convenience store over there, so remember to return it when you’re done."

"If I take your umbrella, what about you?" Lin Yu’an asked, looking at Su Yuqing in surprise.

"It’s fine. I feel like walking in the rain for a bit, so I don’t need it," Su Yuqing said. Her expression faltered for a second before she forced a smile.

Lin Yu’an may have been quiet and reserved, but he was incredibly perceptive.

He keenly sensed that something was wrong with her.

"Did something happen?" Lin Yu’an asked tentatively.

"It’s nothing. Just some family problems," Su Yuqing replied, shaking her head with a smile.

Since it was a family matter, Lin Yu’an knew he couldn’t press her for details. Still, he really couldn’t take the umbrella.

’How could he possibly take a girl’s umbrella and leave her to walk home in the rain?’

But while he was hesitating, Su Yuqing shoved the umbrella into his hands and immediately took off, disappearing into the curtain of rain.

By the time Lin Yu’an snapped out of his daze, he could no longer tell which direction Su Yuqing had gone. She had vanished into the dense, dark sheet of rain, which swallowed all light.

Left with no other choice, he opened the umbrella Su Yuqing had given him and started for home.

It was then that Chen Mo realized something. ’No wonder I never saw that umbrella again later. Su Yuqing gave it to Lin Yu’an.’

In the downpour, Su Yuqing wasn’t the only one on the move. Another figure darted through the rain behind her, carefully avoiding the surveillance cameras.

Chen Mo, who knew Lin Ranhai was following her, wasn’t surprised in the least.

What he was most curious about now was what exactly happened at the location of Su Yuqing’s "accident."

He glanced at the silent, floating form of Su Yuqing beside him, and together they followed the memory of her as she walked onward, moving along a predetermined path.

In the downpour, Su Yuqing was soaked to the bone, but she’d grown so numb that she no longer felt the biting cold of the rain.

She walked on like a zombie, with no destination in mind, no idea where she was heading next.

Before she knew it, she had wandered into the old district, an area with no working surveillance cameras.

Su Yuqing listlessly shuffled under an awning, staring blankly at the torrential downpour before her.