Yang Rui turned to Zhu Ke'er in disbelief. "H-he… he just cursed at me, didn't he?"
Indeed, Ken's reflexive "damn it" had been uttered with his face half-turned toward her, making it sound very much as if it were directed at her.
In truth, Ken had been standing some distance from the blond man, and their exchanged glance had lasted no more than a fraction of a second before he immediately pretended to look elsewhere. Neither Yang Rui nor Zhu Ke'er had realized he was watching someone.
When Ken tossed out a curt "I'll be in touch later" and walked off, Yang Rui's irritation flared. "No way. He has to come back and explain himself. Why is he cursing at people?"
Zhu Ke'er grabbed her friend's arm, hesitating. "I don't think… he was scolding you? Maybe it's just a verbal habit—like saying 'damn' or something. He looked like he was in a real hurry…"
She hadn't even finished speaking before Yang Rui dragged her forward.
Though Ken appeared to be merely walking briskly, his pace was far from slow. He slipped through the crowd with agility and speed. Had he not stopped, the two women might not have been able to catch up at all.
Seeing him pause, Yang Rui called out, "Hey, baldy! Who were you cursing just now?"
Ken turned back, surprised. "Why did you follow me?"
Then he seemed to realize what was going on and sighed helplessly. "Sorry—something urgent came up and the swear word slipped out. I really wasn't cursing at you."
Yang Rui frowned. "Then who were you cursing? And what are you even doing here, sneaking around on the phone like that?" She pointed at the phone in his hand, still in the middle of a call.
Judging from Ken's expression and demeanor, which didn't seem fake, both women sensed that he was indeed in the middle of something.
Ken was just about to answer when he suddenly turned toward the narrow alley.
The blond man hiding inside burst out.
Ken's dynamic vision was far superior to that of an ordinary person. He clearly caught the man's contorted facial muscles, the vicious glare in his eyes, and the right hand clenched at his hip, gripping a short dagger.
Had this guy lost his mind?
There was no panic, no fear, no hesitation. Faced with the blond man charging at him with a knife, Ken not only didn't dodge—he stepped left, cutting off the man's path out of the alley. As the dagger thrust toward him, Ken casually yet precisely seized the attacker's wrist with his left hand, pulling his body forward, while his right hand—still holding the phone—braced against the man's abdomen and flipped him up into the air.
In a single exchange, the blond man was lifted and sent crashing down onto his back. His head struck the ground hard, leaving him dazed, and the short dagger slipped from his twisted arm and clattered to the pavement.
As the man shook his head and rolled over, planting his hands on the ground to push himself up, Ken naturally didn't allow it. He stepped forward, drove a knee into the man's lower back, slamming him back down, then twisted both of his arms behind him one after the other, pinning them with his knee.
Though the blond man struggled fiercely, under Ken's overwhelming strength the entire process looked almost effortless. Ken subdued him using only his left hand—his right was still holding the phone.
"Fuck! Let me go! You bastard! I'll kill you! I'll kill your whole family! You motherf—*&%￥#@! …"
The man screamed curses at the top of his lungs. Ken grabbed his hair with his left hand and forced his face straight down against the pavement. In that position, the man couldn't even open his mouth; his nose and lips were scraped bloody without a word being spoken.
It is usually extremely difficult to pin someone face-down with one hand, because the person being restrained will inevitably twist their head aside. With a single hand, it's hard to maintain control.
But against this blond man, Ken's strength was utterly crushing. He held him down with ease, used his free hand to adjust the glasses that had slipped, and looked up at the stunned Zhu Ke'er and Yang Rui.
"Don't be afraid. He's a wanted criminal. I've already called the police—they'll be here soon."
After subduing the man, Ken suddenly felt an inexplicable urge surge within him: the impulse to smash the blond man's head, or to drive his knee down and snap his spine.
Yet Ken was certain this had nothing to do with the man's curses, nor with the knife attack itself.
The impulse was abrupt and unfathomable, hard to put into words—more like the feeling of unlocking a powerful new skill in a game after paying a steep price, and wanting to test it on a monster, or spending countless hours mastering a song or a dance and yearning for a stage on which to perform.
With the man completely overpowered and immobilized, Ken felt a sudden desire to unleash his strength to the fullest.
Fortunately, the urge was fleeting rather than overwhelming, and well within his control. He lifted his gaze to Zhu Ke'er and her friend, deliberately shifting his focus.
When the blond man had charged out of the alley, neither Zhu Ke'er nor Yang Rui had really noticed, let alone seen the dagger in his hand.
So when Ken suddenly grabbed someone nearby, hurled him into the air, slammed him down on his back and head, then violently pinned him to the ground, the scene had thoroughly terrified them. They instinctively pressed close together and took a few steps back.
But as Ken restrained the man and explained, and as they noticed the dagger lying on the ground, understanding dawned.
Captain Zhao's voice came through Ken's phone: "Mr. Ken, what's going on over there?! What just happened? Did you make a move? You fought the suspect?! …"
Although the clash between Ken and the blond man had been brief, the commotion was considerable, and it had occurred on a crowded street. After the initial shock caused nearby pedestrians to instinctively clear a circle around them, onlookers quickly gathered. Some even took out their phones to start filming.
Fortunately, in less than two minutes, the police arrived.
Several officers, dispatched on Captain Zhao's orders, took custody of the blond man, confirmed his identity, cuffed him, and escorted him back to the station. Ken went along as well.
Before getting into the police car, Ken gestured to Zhu Ke'er and Yang Rui, pointing at his phone to indicate they could contact each other later.
As the police car carrying the blond man and Ken drove off, and more patrol cars arrived, Yang Rui couldn't help whispering to her friend, "Nana, you said earlier that he was unemployed… he's not secretly become a cop, is he?"
"How could that be? Becoming a police officer isn't that easy—he didn't even graduate from a police academy," Zhu Ke'er replied with a frown. Yet, thinking back on everything they had just witnessed, he really had looked like an undercover detective in the middle of an operation. And the two of them had nearly interfered with an arrest.
Could it be that Brother Bin and Sister Han had gotten it wrong—that Ken's real job was being a police officer, and that working as a programmer before had just been an undercover assignment?
Before she realized it, Zhu Ke'er's imagination had begun to run wild.