Chapter 4: You Have Successfully Caught My Attention
Chapter 4: You’ve Successfully Caught My Attention
His lungs burned as if aflame, his heartbeat pounding so fiercely he could feel it almost bursting from his throat.
Yet Lu Li did not stop.
He ran harder than he ever had during the thousand-meter race in his middle school entrance exam thirteen years ago.
What a joke!
Failing to run well in that exam might have cost him full marks at most, but failing to escape now meant his life was literally over!
Drenched in the rain, Lu Li glanced roughly around him.
The downpour was torrential, the night heavy and dark.
Even though this was a commercial district square, there was not a soul in sight.
He turned swiftly and dashed into a small side door leading to the stairwell.
This passage connected to the underground second-level parking garage.
Using the dim yellow light from the stairwell’s sensor lamp, Lu Li sprinted all the way to the underground parking.
Perhaps because it was late and not a weekend, coupled with the supermarket connected to the parking being closed, there were not many cars in the garage.
He hurried to his own car, opened the door, and got inside.
He glanced left and right.
No one else was inside. Good.
He quickly started the engine, and the automatic headlights cast a stark white light in the dim underground garage.
He pulled out his phone and scanned the parking QR code; after paying three yuan, he drove directly toward the exit.
After climbing two consecutive slopes, Lu Li emerged from the parking lot.
Outside, the rain poured down relentlessly; even with the wipers on their highest setting, visibility did not exceed fifty meters.
But Lu Li no longer cared.
He slammed the accelerator, running red lights as he sped toward home.
Fortunately, with the heavy rain and the late hour, there was not a single car on the road besides his black BMW.
Under the glow of yellow street lamps, his car left a trail of water spray on the wide eight-lane road.
What usually took half an hour today took only five minutes.
As he entered the residential area’s underground parking, Lu Li observed the security guard’s booth beside the barrier.
It was pitch black inside—probably the guard was asleep.
The camera scanned his license plate, the barrier lifted, and he parked his car.
After turning off the engine, he didn’t get out immediately but rolled down the window to pull out a cigarette, placing it between his lips.
He had been on edge the entire way, fearing something might go wrong again.
Now that he was at home, he allowed himself to relax a little.
He patted himself down but couldn’t find his lighter.
Frowning, he reached to check his pants pocket.
Suddenly, a hand appeared beside him, holding a chrome Zippo lighter flickering with an orange flame.
“Thanks.”
Lu Li instinctively leaned forward to light his cigarette, then suddenly froze.
The flickering flame illuminated a slightly smiling yet inscrutable face.
Behind the wavering light, her crimson eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.
“What the hell?!” Lu Li yanked open the car door and rolled out in one smooth motion.
He stood, clutching a small hand axe he kept under the seat for protection.
The woman in front of him—dressed in a new short-sleeved police uniform and cap—stepped out of the passenger side, then gracefully circled the car to stop about three meters away.
This was the new Bai Mu Li, wearing a black skirt, black stockings, and black high heels.
Lu Li sized her up—mainly admiring the perfectly proportioned legs wrapped in black silk.
They seemed over a meter long, neither too thin nor too thick.
A pair of truly beautiful legs—no, damn it!
Lu Li slapped himself.
Was now really the time to be staring at legs?!
He warily faced Bai Mu Li, speaking with a hint of helplessness, “Miss, why won’t you leave me alone? I admit I’m handsome, but there are plenty of people who look only slightly worse than me. Why give up a whole forest for just one towering tree? Don’t you think so?”
Bai Mu Li covered her mouth and laughed softly. “Mr. Lu, isn’t that cheeky talk just to flatter me? At first, I wasn’t interested, but your little trick has successfully enticed me.”
Lu Li was speechless.
He sighed. “Looks like you won’t let me go.”
He tightened his grip on the small axe.
Right now, only this hand axe gave him a shred of security.
“Mr. Lu, do you intend to resist?” Bai Mu Li tilted her head, still smiling.
“The most glorious day in one’s life isn’t the day of success and fame,” she said, “but the day when one rises from despair and sorrow to challenge life, bravely stepping into the fight.”
“Mr. Lu, I like you even more now~~”
Lu Li said nothing.
Then suddenly, his eyes widened in horror as he stared behind Bai Mu Li.
She instinctively turned around.
Behind her was only the empty underground parking lot—nothing else.
Thwack!
The axe struck firmly on her head, blood splattering everywhere.
She turned back, flashing a playful smile at Lu Li. “Mr. Lu, you always manage to surprise me~~”
Lu Li looked at Bai Mu Li, her head bloodied with the axe still embedded, and sighed, sinking to the ground. “Whatever, man. I’m giving up.”
How could he run now?
He escaped, she pursued, and he was completely trapped.
“There will always be things beyond your ability in life, but if within your capacity you’ve given your all, then that’s already very good.”
Bai Mu Li, axe pressed against her head, half-kneeling before Lu Li, pulled a cigarette from his pocket and placed it in her mouth, then lit it with the lighter before returning it to his lips.
“A Mr. Lu who fights with all his might—I don’t dislike that~~”
Feeling the damp filter of the cigarette in his mouth, Lu Li’s gaze involuntarily drifted to the gap between Bai Mu Li’s legs.
Beneath the black stockings, some color flickered faintly.
Purple lace, perhaps?
No!
Is this really the time to be looking at that?!
He sat on the floor, cigarette dangling, eyes dull. “All talk and no action. Are you planning to take the graduate exam?”
Bai Mu Li, half-kneeling before him, couldn’t stop smiling. “Mr. Lu, it seems you’re not afraid of me anymore.”
“I am, I’m scared to death,” Lu Li replied with a smile, “but unfortunately, I found a flaw.”
That’s right! Everything happening here was an illusion!
Lu Li wasn’t losing his mind, escaping reality; he had concrete proof.
His speed!
He had observed that he’d been driving at about seventy kilometers per hour.
Even so, running red lights, he couldn’t have reached home in under ten minutes!
Yet it took only five minutes this time!
Not even flying low could be that fast!
And given his personality, he’d never drive faster than seventy in the city.
The route was wrong.
But every intersection matched his memory perfectly, and the underground parking details were exactly as he recalled.
So there was only one answer:
This was a hallucination!
Lu Li fell backward, lying on the ground in a sprawled position.
“Whatever, I’m going to sleep first.”
He closed his eyes.
The next moment, he felt the world spin wildly.
Opening his eyes, he saw the familiar ceiling—the ceiling of his own bedroom.
“So it really was just a dream.”
Sitting up, Lu Li gave a wry smile and reached for a cigarette to sober up.
He unplugged his phone from the charger and planned to scroll through the news.
“Where’s my lighter?”
The Zippo lighter that normally sat on the nightstand was nowhere to be found.
He leaned over the bed to search underneath, unlocking his phone with his fingerprint as he went.
No lighter under the bedside table either.
He sat back down, placing the cigarette back on the nightstand, his gaze flickering to his phone’s home screen.
Then his eyes froze.
His wallpaper had changed.
It was a photo of a beautiful woman smiling and flashing a peace sign.
Bai Mu Li.
(End of chapter)