Chapter 43 Striking the Table

A melodious and sweet piano tune echoed in the air.

A sliver of golden sunlight pierced through the gap between two wide, exquisitely crafted lace-trimmed curtains into a room, casting a hazy golden hue over it. This only added to the charm of the already luxuriously decorated, aristocratic yet cozy room.

A woman with a noble air, wearing a pristine white dress, sat before the piano, her elegant and beautiful hands dancing nimbly and effortlessly across the keys.

A man radiating the aura of a person in power, dressed in a black overcoat, sat beside the woman. From time to time, he lowered his gaze, then looked up at her, his eyes brimming with boundless affection.

In the man's arms nestled a child who looked about a year old, dressed in a one-piece cartoon monkey outfit. The baby opened his pure, clear eyes, lying quietly in his father's embrace while watching his mother play the piano. Lulled by the cradle song played by his mother, he comfortably closed his eyes.

"Sir, sir, are you alright?" A string of concerned English words sounded beside Hei Yuyi.

"Mom, ah..." Hei Yuyi snapped his eyes open.

A dark face was looming right in front of Hei Yuyi, with thick lips, pearly white teeth, and eyes blinking unblinkingly at him. The distance between their faces was less than the span of a single hand.

Hei Yuyi instinctively kicked his feet hard, the force pushing the back of the seat so that it tilted backward. At the same time, he swung his right hand into a fist, punching directly toward the dark face.

"Bang." Clearly, the Black man had not expected Hei Yuyi to suddenly open his eyes while unconscious, and before he could react, he had an intimate encounter with Hei Yuyi's fist.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch, what are you doing?" The Black man cried out in pain, covering his bruised right eye with his hand and jerking his body upward.

"Thump." His head had another intimate encounter with the car roof.

The blackness of the night sky had faded, and blue gradually displayed its charm, sweeping across the entire expanse.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I..." Hei Yuyi's consciousness cleared amidst the Black man Jack's howling. Relying on the strength of his waist, he sat straight up in one swift motion. At the same time, he realized that he was currently sitting in the front passenger seat of a car, with the Black man Jack sitting in the driver's seat to his right.

At this moment, Jack was covering his right eye with one hand and his head with the other, looking at Hei Yuyi with aggrieved and bewildered eyes using his one uninjured left eye.

"I'm sorry, I didn't react in time just now and thought you were a bad guy." Of course, Hei Yuyi wouldn't admit that this was an instinctive reaction honed by Inoue Izumi's long-term training.

"Oh." Jack howled for a long time before finally stopping, lowering the hands that had been pressed against his head and right eye. His head was fine, protected by his hair so no injury was visible.

However, beneath his right eye, there was a slight swelling of a crimson hue. His naturally small eyes appeared even smaller, looking rather comical on his dark face.

"Um, bear with this for a moment."

Without waiting for Jack's puzzled and bewildered gaze, Hei Yuyi reached out and pressed directly onto Jack's right eye.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Jack was already in a bad mood from being hit for no reason, and now Hei Yuyi was touching his wound without explanation.

Naturally, Jack moved to retaliate, his hands shooting out quickly toward Hei Yuyi's wrists, fingers curled into a grappling stance.

"Don't move, I'm helping you massage it." Hei Yuyi extended his left hand, tapping swiftly against Jack's left wrist to neutralize his strength, then transformed it into a fist to strike Jack's right hand. Following that, he quickly grabbed both of Jack's wrists, subduing the hands of the police academy-trained Jack using merely the strength of his left hand.

Jack was shocked. He was a graduate of the International Police Academy, where his combat skills had ranked in the top three. Later on, he became top-tier in the International Police Force, cracking several major international cases and fighting bodyguards of major drug lords and top mercenaries. It was only because he offended someone very powerful during a case that his superiors told him to lie low, leading to his temporary assignment as a local minor police officer in this area.

He never expected this young man before him to neutralize his attack using only one hand. Although he hadn't used his full strength, it was still not something an ordinary person could easily handle.

Hei Yuyi had no idea how much was going through Jack's mind at that moment; he merely wanted to make up for his earlier mistake and relieve Jack's pain, since he had caused it after all.

Had Hei Yuyi known Jack's true identity and what he was thinking, he would never have shown off like that, risking the exposure of his own identity just to treat a cop.

Using a unique massage technique, Hei Yuyi gently massaged the swollen area on Jack's face with his right hand.

"Wow, this is truly amazing!" Jack looked in the rearview mirror at his right eye after Hei Yuyi's massage. The red swelling had completely vanished, and the pain was gone. Had he not experienced it firsthand, he would never have believed such a magical treatment existed in the world. Amidst his astonishment, he also forgot to ask why Hei Yuyi possessed such remarkable martial arts skills.

"Gosh! It's eight o'clock, I have things to do, I'm leaving." Dropping those words, Hei Yuyi opened the car door, jumped out, and strode quickly toward the school.

"Hey, go on then. Haha, that face is still so handsome. You say... no, you..." At that moment, Jack was admiring himself in the rearview mirror, raising his freed hands to stroke his face narcissistically. The sound of the car door closing reminded him of the question he hadn't yet asked, but before the words "Wait up" could escape his lips, Hei Yuyi had already vanished into the stream of commuters.

"What on earth is that kid's identity?" Jack muttered to himself, touching his head.

"Ah, my new car!" Jack checked the time—it was eight o'clock, and he was going to be late. He released the handbrake, stepped on the clutch and brake, and shifted gears. As he glanced into the other rearview mirror while turning his head, he noticed the broken seat back on the passenger side and let out a pained, strange howl.

Inside Class 5 at Rimukawa Academy, Matsutani 野 was sitting at his desk with his legs crossed and arms folded. Resting on his desk were a hamburger, French fries, and a cola.

"How come Hei Yuyi isn't here today? Could it be that he's already..."

"Who told him to be so blind as to dare cross Boss Matsutani."

"Exactly, serves him right."

"Is he crippled, or already..."

The teacher stood at the podium, lecturing earnestly. Beneath the podium, the students used their textbooks to shield their faces while whispering among themselves about the latest gossip.

"Humph, humph." Uno卓 slumped over his desk, listening to the students' discussion. He glanced at Matsutani 野—who had his eyes closed to rest as if everything was completely under control—and Miyamoto Tsuneyasu, who was listening intently to the lecture. With a disdainful sweep of his gaze toward the empty seat where Hei Yuyi had sat yesterday, triumph was written all over his face. He nodded at the lackeys casting inquiring glances his way to satisfy their curiosity, thereby further cementing their status in the academy.

Aside from Hei Yuyi, two other people were absent: Suzumiya Asuka and Watanabe Reimu. Perhaps because the current topic of conversation was centered on Hei Yuyi, the other students in the class didn't pay much attention to the absence of Suzumiya Asuka and Watanabe Reimu.

"Uno, does Reimu have a performance today?" Matsutani 野 stretched lazily, picked up the cup of cola from his desk, took two sips, and looked at Uno卓. His voice was neither too loud nor too soft, yet it stood out rather conspicuously in the otherwise quiet classroom.

"Yeah, it's at eight tonight. She probably went to practice yesterday." Uno卓 turned his head to nod at Matsutani 野, his voice also moderately pitched, completely unconcerned that they were currently in the middle of a class.

"What about the tickets?" Matsutani 野's eyes lit up, perking up as if only watching Watanabe Reimu's performance could arouse his interest.

"Right here, same old seats." Uno卓 pulled three tickets from his pocket, stood up directly, walked over to Matsutani 野, and handed the tickets to him.

"Awesome." Matsutani 野 took the three admission tickets and snapped his fingers.

Standing on the podium, the teacher awkwardly continued the lecture. Deep down, he felt extremely dissatisfied with the behavior of Matsutani 野 and Uno卓, but he lacked the courage to speak out. When he wanted to raise his voice to remind them to keep it down, constrained by Matsutani's "glorious record" at the school, he could only pretend as though nothing was happening beneath the podium and continue lecturing at his original tone.

"Knock, knock."

The classroom door was gently tapped twice by a hand.

The teacher's gaze, along with those of a portion of the students, shifted toward the classroom entrance.

"It's him!"

"How could it be him?"

"How is he still able to come to class?"

The murmurs of bizarre discussion caused the remaining students whose attention hadn't been drawn earlier to turn their heads as well.

"Hei Yuyi!"

Matsutani 野, Uno卓, and Miyamoto Tsuneyasu were also stunned. They had given their orders yesterday, and seeing that Hei Yuyi wasn't in the classroom this morning, they assumed the matter had already been handled, so they hadn't bothered to call and confirm. Who could have imagined that Hei Yuyi would reappear at the classroom door safe and sound?

"I'm sorry, teacher, I'm late." Hei Yuyi said apologetically to the teacher.

"What is wrong with you? Class has been going on for so long, why are you only showing up now? Do you even want to attend class? If..." Upon seeing Hei Yuyi's attire and recalling that he was merely a transfer student from the countryside, the teacher on the podium immediately vented all his pent-up anger onto him. He didn't dare do anything to Matsutani 野 and the others, but towards a poor student with no power, no influence, and no background to speak of save for a receding silhouette, he didn't need to be polite.

Listening to the teacher's unsparing nagging, Hei Yuyi shrugged helplessly and stood at the doorway. After all, he currently had no background to rely on; he was just a student, and being scolded by a teacher for being late was only natural.

"Bang!"

Matsutani 野's expression turned somewhat gloomy. He heavily slammed the three tickets down onto his desk, pushed the desk away, and walked toward the classroom door. One of the admission tickets slipped off the desk, slid down to the floor, and came to a stop beneath the seat that currently belonged to Hei Yuyi.

"You..." The teacher still wanted to say something, but hearing the sound of the desk being slammed, he immediately turned his head. Discovering that Matsutani 野 was walking toward him with a dark expression, the teacher instantly clamped his mouth shut and retreated step by step until his back hit the corner of the wall. He wondered if his voice had been too loud just now and disturbed Matsutani, displeasing him to the point that he was going to do something to him. But Matsutani had never acted like this when scolding other students before! Could it be that he had a very close relationship with this Hei Yuyi? How could he have missed such vital intelligence?

Tilting his head, Hei Yuyi looked at Matsutani 野 walking toward him. Seeing that murderous expression, Hei Yuyi suddenly remembered that he seemed to have stood this so-called "Boss of Class 5" up last night.

He really seemed pissed off.