Chapter 133: Could You Be a Little Gentler With the Beauty?

Blocked by sand, soil, and thickets of weeds, Lin Yang steadied himself without a moment’s hesitation. He struggled to his feet and crawled toward the patch of grass where Bai Jing had fallen. For a woman—especially a beautiful one—that shove had been far too rough. Considering she was a petite, elegant beauty, Lin Yang had likely tanked his own reputation in her eyes.

Bai Jing was fortunate; she had landed on a soft mound of earth. Lin Yang’s forceful shove had sent her crashing into it, and this buffer had effectively dissipated the kinetic energy from her fall. Aside from some soreness in her skin and tissues, she was unharmed, though the sudden, unexpected shove had instilled a deep sense of fear in her.

Just as Bai Jing climbed to her feet and, driven by vanity, reached out to brush the dirt from her clothes, a shadow rapidly approached her. Though the speed was not extreme, the distance was so short, and Lin Yang was so cautious, that she did not notice him at all until he was right upon her.

Startling a person is one thing, but startling a woman usually leads to trouble. Bai Jing was not cowardly, but she was still frightened by Lin Yang’s sudden appearance. Screaming is a reflex familiar to all women.

"Ah!" The sound was high-pitched and powerful. Lin Yang, being the closest to her, bore the brunt of it. As luck would have it, just as his head leaned in toward her stunningly beautiful face, her head whipped around, and his ear was perfectly aligned with her cherry lips.

A sound generator met a receiver, achieving peak acoustic efficiency.

*Buzz.* His eardrum vibrated violently, teetering on the edge of rupture. Stung by the piercing shriek, Lin Yang’s eyes widened instantly; were it not for his eye sockets, his eyeballs might well have popped out.

In the desolate wilderness, the sudden, shrill scream of a woman—one can only imagine the effect.

Lin Yang reacted quickly. He used his dirt- and weed-stained right hand to cover Bai Jing’s mouth, which was wide enough to fit an egg, and held his left index finger to his lips in a "shh" gesture. But the scream had already carried.

*It’s over,* Lin Yang signaled with his mouth. Without another word, he grabbed Bai Jing’s arm and rolled into the nearby thicket.

A difference of a second can spell disaster. Lin Yang’s reaction time was a heartbeat faster than normal, and it was this that allowed him to narrowly evade the rocket grenade already hurtling toward his previous position.

A deafening *boom* erupted for the fourth time. Rolling smoke, mingled with flying dirt and weeds, reduced visibility to a terrifying degree. Taking advantage of this rare opportunity, Lin Yang pulled Bai Jing tightly into his arms and rolled down a slope that was nearly vertical.

Had Lin Yang not deliberately maneuvered their tumble, they would surely have been caught in the blast radius.

The sheer power of the rocket shell left Bai Jing, who had just been screaming, trembling with fear. Her terrified eyes locked onto Lin Yang’s face, which remained devoid of panic. Because their bodies were pressed so closely together—a contact so intimate it felt surreal—and because the tumble had left them both clutching one another, Bai Jing couldn't even free a hand to pat her chest and soothe her own panic.

"I'm sorry." Clearly realizing she had made a grave mistake, Bai Jing was not the type to cling to vanity at the cost of survival. She was brave enough to admit her error; after all, if Lin Yang hadn't acted with such desperate urgency to bring them to safety—no matter how rude and unrefined his methods—face would naturally have taken a backseat to life.

Looking straight ahead, one could see that the person firing the rocket launcher had changed. Compared to the burly young soldier in camouflage from before, this marksman was terrifyingly accurate. With a 100% hit rate, he didn't even need to aim; a single sharp glance, a trigger pull, and the rocket shell would arc through the air, followed by that earth-shattering roar.

It was the leader of the lean group of five who had fired the rocket. As expected of the leader, his strike was extraordinary.

His precision and impeccable timing earned the praise of the other four, but to the seasoned leader, it was nothing new; at most, he offered a smug, internal smile.

Believing he had blasted Lin Yang and Bai Jing to pieces, the leader ordered his four subordinates in a low voice: "Search. If you see anything with a pulse, leave none alive."

Following a crisp affirmation, the four men, fully equipped with specialized weaponry, pointed their guns toward the potential enemy positions and fanned out in a sweeping formation.

Lin Yang and Bai Jing had escaped just in time. While they hadn't completely exited the search perimeter, they had secured a moment of safety. However, the three people who had jumped from the third vehicle were not so lucky.

Among the three, the subordinate from the Bai family had some skills; he could hold his own against three third-rate thugs, but against fully armed special forces soldiers in camouflage, he was completely outmatched.

As for the two biology experts who knew nothing but test tubes and research, they had no choice but to head for the underworld under the relentless fire of the four men.

The two experts were somewhat lucky, as someone had explicitly ordered their lives be spared, though they could not avoid being brutally struck by gun butts—the only goal being to prevent their escape.

The surviving Bai family subordinate met a far different fate. Bullets have no eyes; he happened to run into a hail of them. Like a swarm of homing killer bees, the bullets tore through him, and he collapsed in a pool of blood.

*Cut the grass and pull up the roots, or the spring breeze will bring it back to life.* Any ruthless person knows this. The five men sent by the Fang family were clever; having secured their prey, two of them acted as guards, cautiously escorting the two unconscious biology experts back the way they came.

The remaining three stood guard, their eyes scanning the blast site like lightning.

The late autumn night fell quickly. It had been dim just a moment ago, but within fifteen minutes, it was pitch black. This was especially true for the crater, now half a meter deep from the explosion.

As specially trained soldiers, their vigilance was far beyond that of ordinary men. After scanning the area and finding not a single scrap of fabric, the three of them reached the same conclusion: the woman who had screamed had not been killed by the blast; she was likely still alive and unharmed.

Facing the crater, which was only a meter wide and half a meter deep, they weren't stupid enough to think she had been buried by flying dirt and weeds. If that had happened, it would have been an incredible miracle—or, as the saying goes, they’d have seen a ghost.

The leader gave a low command, his face twisted with a cold, disdainful sneer. He seemed determined to capture the woman who had let out that high-pitched scream.

From the nearby thicket, Lin Yang watched the three searchers clearly. He also saw the two biology experts being dragged away. Had he been alone, he would have charged forward to rescue them without hesitation. But now, with Bai Jing—a "burdensome" beauty who lacked even the strength to truss a chicken—he couldn't bear to leave her safety to chance.

Just as he was debating whether to rush out alone to ambush the two men closing in on them, Bai Jing, worried for the safety of the biologists, stood up as if she had lost her mind, intent on the foolish plan of offering herself as a hostage.

*Kill the target and silence the witnesses; cut the grass and pull up the roots.* Having secured the two experts who knew the formula for the "Natural Beauty" serum, the five men had marked everyone else as targets for execution. Bai Jing standing up now was undoubtedly courting death.

The intention was noble—sacrificing oneself to save others—but not everyone values altruism. For special forces soldiers who view their mission as more important than life itself, Bai Jing’s "cleverness" only made things worse. She was met with ruthless gunfire. Everyone knows bullets don't have eyes, and by the time they whistled toward her, it was too late for Bai Jing to dodge.

In that split second, just as the stunning beauty was about to meet her end, Lin Yang showed his true mettle. He acted just in time, though his methods were always disagreeable. One should treat a beauty with tenderness, but Lin Yang seemed completely oblivious to such concepts.

He grabbed the beauty’s ankle and yanked her violently backward. Such a reckless maneuver was something only Lin Yang could pull off.

"Ah!" With a terrified scream, Bai Jing’s body tilted sharply, and the bullets that had been raking the air missed her completely.

Lin Yang showed a tiny bit of tenderness; as Bai Jing was about to make intimate contact with the ground, he reached out to shield her. However, whether it was calculated or mere coincidence, Bai Jing’s sensitive chest area suffered another misfortune, being violated by the self-proclaimed "virtuous and talented" rogue.

Fortunately, this time he didn't use both hands to cover her; otherwise, it would be hard to imagine him not taking advantage of the situation again with his shameless hands to enjoy the softness.

However, Bai Jing’s scream once again exposed their position, and a fresh round of frantic, merciless gunfire rained down upon them.

Lin Yang had no choice but to scoop Bai Jing up around the waist and roll again, using the earth as a buffer to evade the fire. Otherwise, the dense barrage would have turned them both into sieves.

Pressed by the three men’s frantic shooting, Lin Yang was forced into a chaotic scramble. Because he had to protect the helpless Bai Jing, he couldn't help but be hit. He had already suffered injuries during the incident at the scrap yard; while not fatal, they significantly hampered his agility. Now, under this renewed frenzy of attacks, his wounds multiplied, and a bullet pierced his lower leg. The heart-wrenching pain caused cold sweat to pour down his face, but he gritted his teeth and held on.