Feng Ru (43)

The girl nodded at Gu Feng while her companion greeted the trespasser with silence. The place became awkward for some time. The situation only improved when the male lead, who finally couldn't take the silence anymore, started to narrate to them the problem which led him to the couple's table.

It was actually about Tang Lan.

Through some unknown means, the female lead had managed to escape from the prison, her current location unknown. But this usually careful mystery-thriller author suddenly went off-script and deliberately left a message as a clue. A single name actually. And since it was written on the wall using blood, it gave the police a heavy impression that she was out for vengeance, which also means, she would have a high likelihood of appearing somewhere near this target.

At that table, only one person had a connection with the female lead.

"So are you saying, I need the police's protection now since she's out of the prison and could attack me at any given time? Or is it that I should now start living in fear of her retaliation?" The said target, Jiang Li, laughed after hearing Gu Feng's explanation. 

Distress showed on the policeman's face, weirded out by the other man's way of speaking. "I'm afraid the first you said is correct. Your safety is concerning, especially since there was something weird about that woman. She..." Gu Feng paused and frowned, seemingly not knowing how to phrase the next important point.

"She what?" Na Yu anxiously asked.

Jiang Li saw the other man giving the two of them a complicated look before reluctantly saying, "... She has shown some signs of insanity. And paranoia."

"Huh?" The younger man widened his eyes a bit. "What did you policemen do for her to end up like that?'

"What do you mean?" Gu Feng looked slightly offended, "We dealt with her through the standard protocols. We, the policemen made sure all our prisoners are given basic necessities and will stay fit in the prison. Our sense of justice will not allow us to do anything lacking nor beyond that. After all, no matter what crimes they have committed, they still have human rights and are capable of changing and repenting. We know we at least have to treat them with the minimum amount of respect."

The vocalist sneered, unconvinced by the male lead's lecture. 'Damn sophistry! What you do, the others might necessarily not do. Corruption is omnipresent. How can you be so sure that all the other policemen are as righteous as you? Who knows, the warden might have been bribed by those Tang Lan offended and made things difficult for her inside the prison?'

It was not because of his consideration of Gu Feng's dedication and respect to his profession that he didn't say this out loud, but his laziness to argue about politics and corruption.

He simply asked,  "Is it her companions inside then?"

Gu Feng didn't nod nor shake his head. His expression was stiff. The answer could not get any more obvious.

"I have asked her other female inmates. They said Tang Lan has become very quiet. But at times, she would mumble incomprehensible words inaudible to them like a madwoman. The only thing they did catch was her mentioning your name with extreme hatred."

"Oh?" Jiang Li stayed expressionless. The girl seated across him appeared more anxious than him. 

"Wait. Mr. Officer, I don't get why will she harbor vengeful thoughts toward him."

Gu Feng shook his head and looked at the vocalist. "I, too, want to hear the reason from Mr. He."

System: ... Because while there's no way she'll remember being possessed by Miss Feng Ru under his command, she will easily recall being left to be verbally humiliated by his friends before getting kicked, punched, and knocked out by him. I swear, my host should be brought back to kindergarten and start learning about manners and correct his three views!

Oblivious to the system's complaint, Jiang Li answered Gu Feng with a sincere expression, "Officer, I truly don't know. To be honest, I should be the one getting angry since she wanted me to act as his boyfriend in front of her friends even though we have long broken up."

"I see." The male lead nodded. "Let's not talk about it anymore then. What I would like to consult Mr. He about is whether you'll allow us to monitor and guard you since someone out there may be a threat to your life."

"No." Without a second thought, he answered.

"Mr. He?" Disbelief was on the police officer's face. Gu Feng began looking at the man as if he was an alien. Why would he reject a professional's help when his life was truly in danger?

Jiang Li reasoned that once he forwarded this issue to the company's higher-ups, they would surely send capable bodyguards to him. That way the police would not have to allocate him people and could concentrate on locating Tang Lan.

"Are you sure about it? You should not treat your safety so lightly."

"I appreciate the thoughts but my mind won't change. What can a weak woman do to me anyway?"

Gu Feng threw him a meaningful look. Jiang Li knew the guy was contemplating whether to tell him about that weak woman being a lunatic. But what he didn't know was that all the pieces of evidence in his hands about Tang Lan's evil deeds came from Jiang Li. 

More than anyone in the world, Jiang Li knew just how dangerous she really was. But even if he was not a hacker who finds locating people and robbing money from banks as easy as pie, he was still quite well-versed in self-defense due to his two past lives' training and education. Apart from this, Feng Ru was always lingering around Na Yu, who was in turn always stalking him. Given these, even if Tang Lan was a psycho, there was nothing to fear!

'No matter how grave it sounds like, I'm more concerned about why someone, as educated as him, didn't wait for me to finish eating with my girlfriend before bothering me. Does he know how rude that is?'

It had been a while since he realized the male lead had a strange way of looking at Na Yu. Jiang Li disliked it so much. It doesn't matter if his affection for the girl was not yet to the point he could confidently say he loved her. After all the betrayals and sh*ts he experienced before, someone coveting what was his was one of the things he vowed to never tolerate again!

The male lead was not the scummy type?

Jiang Li faked a smile.

"Officer Gu, I'm actually facing some troubles here which needs the police's assistance. It has to be just us two men. How about we go near the restroom then you hear out this other concern of mine?"

Na Yu furrowed her carefully drawn brows at him, not remembering anything that fits his vague descriptions.

The male lead only nodded without hesitating for even a second. Not long after though, regret showed in his handsome but bruised and swollen face.

Jiang Li was pissed off so when he couldn't deliver the usual cyber-shaming attack, he dragged Gu Feng off somewhere using a nonsensical excuse and started beating him up there. The other man tried to defend and fight back. But even with his male lead's halo in full-throttle, because something unseen was moving some random and inconspicuous objects around, he found himself often stumbling on the ground and receiving the annoyed man's punches in his face and body. It was Feng Ru who decided to help in the shadows when she recognized Gu Feng as that annoying playboy's older brother. 

"Damn, what did I do to you?!"

Before the beaten up guy lost consciousness, he angrily shouted this to Jiang Li. But the hateful madman merely replied with another punch. "Heh, reason? You scared me so much with your news so here I am practicing my self-defense skills on you. Thanks, Officer. Once Tang Lan appears, I'll make sure to use this against her. After all, this is my limited kickboxing skills that I become proficient with through your self-sacrifice, respected officer."

Once done dropping that line off, he went back to Na Yu. As for the male lead lying unconscious on the ground, he was picked up by the escaped prisoner Tang Lan who somehow appeared there a minute later. 

Fate seemingly played its cards again. The female lead was freed and Gu Feng had run into the villainess. It caused the plot to finally show signs of progress, like a clock that restarted after getting frozen at one particular point in time.