33: Chapter 33 Let go of that woman

For the next few days, Zhang Fan welded himself to his office in the incubation park.

The Digital Power project was trickier than he had imagined.

The underlying code for the Sok Engine was like a ball of yarn that a cat had clawed at—a chaotic mess that made his head ache.

He only slept four or five hours a day, drank so much coffee that his stomach turned sour, and his fingers grew numb from tapping on the keyboard, yet he didn't feel tired at all—the code dancing across the screen felt like it was paving a path to the future.

Every time an optimization succeeded and the loading progress bar jumped forward, the flame in his heart burned a little brighter.

In the meantime, he visited the hospital twice.

Zhou Yurou was recovering well; she could already walk by holding onto the wall, though her complexion remained pale, like paper that had never seen the sun.

Zhang Fan gave her the recording he had made at the stir-fried chicken shop.

She listened with headphones on, her fingertips gripping the phone tightly until her knuckles turned white, and her fingertips pressed indentations into the screen.

After listening, she said nothing, simply shoving the phone under her pillow and staring motionless at the phoenix tree outside the window.

"The police are already investigating Yuan Mubai for forging the report," Zhang Fan said, sitting by the hospital bed, trying to make conversation. "Has Yang Lei... given you any more trouble?"

"No," Zhou Yurou replied in a soft voice, as if afraid of disturbing something. "He's probably busy appeasing Yuan Mubai."

She paused, turned to look at him, her eyes tinged with a faint redness. "Thank you, Zhang Fan."

"It's nothing," Zhang Fan said, scratching his head without saying much more.

He had done what he could; the rest was up to her.

The daily system intelligence continued to push on time, all trivial blue information—"Buy one get one free yogurt at the supermarket," "Incubation park elevator maintenance," "Strawberry cake for afternoon tea at the company next door."

Zhang Fan gradually let his guard down, thinking that things would finally calm down on Zhou Yurou's end and he could focus on dealing with the Sok Engine bugs.

That was until late one night, while he was debugging the loading code, a line of scarlet text suddenly popped up in the bottom right corner of the screen, stinging his eyes—

[Emergency Intelligence: At 1:00 AM, Cheng Hu will bring two people to intercept Zhou Yurou in the Yujing Garden underground garage with malicious intent.]

"Cheng Hu?" Zhang Fan's fingers froze on the keyboard, his heart sinking sharply.

The name reeked of thuggery; it didn't sound like someone to be trifled with.

He checked the time: 12:30 AM.

The Yujing Garden underground garage? Why would Zhou Yurou go there in the middle of the night?

He quickly clicked on the system description, and lines of small text popped up, making his scalp tingle.

Cheng Hu, a local hoodlum in Jiangcheng, in his thirties, with bleached yellow hair, made a living by loan sharking and "fixing problems" for others, with a criminal record of two administrative detentions.

His connection to Zhou Yurou couldn't be separated from one person—Yang Lei's younger sister, Yang Linlin.

Yang Linlin was a spoiled girl who didn't get into high school and met Cheng Hu while wasting time at a technical school, falling head over heels for him.

Zhou Yurou felt Cheng Hu wasn't a good person and tried to persuade her to break up with him several times, even contacting the school and teachers, and had even called the police twice to chase away the people Cheng Hu had brought to block the school gate.

Because of this, Yang Linlin hated this sister-in-law, feeling that she was meddling and had ruined her "romance."

The real spark was Yuan Mubai.

After Zhou Yurou handed the recording to the police, Yang Lei finally realized he had been played by Yuan Mubai, had a huge argument with her at the hospital, and stormed out.

Unable to swallow her anger, Yuan Mubai actually sought out Yang Linlin, adding fuel to the fire by saying that Zhou Yurou had always disliked her and had deliberately ruined her good thing, adding, "Your brother doesn't protect me anymore, and he won't protect you in the future either."

Yang Linlin, blinded by jealousy and rage, actually said to Cheng Hu, "Go teach that woman a lesson and show her who's boss!"

As for Cheng Hu, he already held a grudge against Zhou Yurou for ruining his affairs. Combined with Yang Linlin's exaggeration that "my sister-in-law looks honest but is actually a master at playing the victim and is a coward at heart," and thinking of Zhou Yurou's plain yet alluring face, he had already developed other intentions.

At midnight tonight, Cheng Hu called Zhou Yurou and said in a drunken voice, "Yang Linlin drank too much, I brought her to the Yujing Garden garage, come down and pick her up."

Although Zhou Yurou had her doubts, after all, it was Yang Lei's sister, so she threw on a coat and went downstairs—she had come in a hurry, still wearing that beige loungewear, the fabric so thin it revealed her silhouette, not even having time to put on a bra.

"Damn it!" Zhang Fan slammed his fist onto the desk, causing the monitor to shake and a bunch of error messages to pop up on the code interface.

He grabbed his coat and rushed out, forgetting even to turn off his computer.

Once he left the office building, he realized it was drizzling outside, the cold raindrops hitting his face, making him shiver.

It wasn't far from the incubation park to Yujing Garden, just a dozen minutes' ride.

He hopped on the small electric scooter he had won in a lucky draw, twisted the throttle to the max, and the wheels rolled over puddles, splashing water along the way.

The wind poured into his collar, cold as ice, yet his whole body was burning with intensity.

"System, do you have any fighting skills?"

Amidst the wind, he pleaded with the system for help.

To deal with hoodlums, courage alone wasn't enough.

[Martial Arts Proficiency: Requires 100 Intelligence Points.]

Zhang Fan's face darkened.

He only had 35 points in total, which he had accumulated day by day from daily tasks.

"Can the system offer credit?"

The system didn't respond, remaining as aloof as ever.

"Fine, no point relying on you." Zhang Fan gritted his teeth, pulled out his phone, and dialed 110. "Hello, officer, something might happen in the underground garage of Yujing Garden residential complex; someone is going to harass a resident... Yes, I'm heading there now, please hurry!"

After hanging up, he felt a little more at ease.

He had a clear understanding of himself; going head-to-head with hoodlums on his own would definitely just be throwing his life away.

Now that he had the police as a backup, if things really went south, he would just hide and record the video; he couldn't risk his life.

Ten minutes later, the small electric scooter pulled up shakily at the entrance of the residential complex.

Zhang Fan shook the water off his head, rushed into the apartment building, and pressed the button for the basement level in the elevator.

The underground garage was eerie; most of the sound-activated lights were broken, with only a few on, casting a dim, yellowish light like ghost fire.

The air was filled with a damp, musty smell, and the "drip-drop" sound of water from afar echoed throughout the empty garage.

"Sister Zhou?" he called out in a low voice, his heart beating like a drum, his footsteps extremely light, his leather shoes making a "swishing" sound on the concrete floor.

Turning around a concrete pillar, the sight before him made all the blood in his body rush to his head—

Zhou Yurou was pressed against the cold wall, her beige loungewear pulled askew, exposing half of her thin shoulder, the skin at her collarbone glowing white under the dim light.

She wasn't wearing a bra; under the thin fabric, the outline of her chest was faintly visible, a kind of fragility that was shocking to behold.

Three men surrounded her, and the yellow-haired leader was none other than Cheng Hu; he wore a lecherous grin, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, with ash falling onto Zhou Yurou's clothes.

His hand was already pressed against Zhou Yurou's chest, his fingertips rubbing restlessly: "Yang Linlin didn't lie to me; sister-in-law is much more exciting than her..."

"Let go of me!" Zhou Yurou's voice trembled, but she gritted her teeth hard, her fingernails leaving red marks on Cheng Hu's arm. "Cheng Hu, if you dare to touch me, I'll call the police and see you rot in jail!"