Chapter 55 One Minute

The atmosphere inside the private room grew increasingly tense and charged.

Li Yuyao sat on the sofa, originally intending to sit back and enjoy a good show. However, as the situation truly turned stifling, she found herself feeling rather numb instead. She glanced to one side, then to the other. Her lips parted slightly as she wanted to say something to ease the oppressive mood between the two, but she was instantly silenced by the sharp, piercing glares they both shot her way. In the end, she could only resort to frantically flashing suggestive glances at her good friend. Didn't they agree this was just going to be a conversation?

Cai Shuangyu ignored her entirely. Instead, she lazily twirled one of her braided pigtails around her right index finger, seemingly extremely pleased with her own hair.

After a long while, Cai Shuangyu raised her head, locked her gaze onto Song Ren's unfathomable pupils, and suddenly chuckled. "You really are interesting," she said. "I'll help you settle this mess with Wang Kun, but you'll owe me a favor. How about it?"

Song Ren: "… A favor?"

"Yes," Cai Shuangyu replied, her eyes narrowing slightly. "Don't doubt yourself. Aside from weapon combat, which we haven't tested yet, your performance in every other category of fist fighting makes you arguably the most oppressive fighter Fusheng Arena has ever seen. Isn't just that fact alone worth a single investment from me? Furthermore..." Her gaze hardened. "...I dislike that man just as much. If it weren't for a few uncles constantly shielding him from above, I would have fed him to the sharks long ago."

Over the years, Wang Kun had relied heavily on several influential uncles to act arrogant and domineering. Once, he even dared to harbor malicious intentions toward Cai Shuangyu herself. When she found out, she beat him half to death with her own hands. At the time, the elders of the Wo Hop To triad did not dare to intervene, only stepping in to persuade her to stop right before she delivered a fatal blow. Because of that incident, Wang Kun had harbored a deep and abiding fear of Cai Shuangyu ever since.

Song Ren looked at Cai Shuangyu intently. When she reached the end of her sentence, the ferocious glint deep within her eyes was unmistakable. Clearly, her mention of feeding someone to the sharks was not a joke.

A subtle stir rippled through Song Ren's heart, and he boldly suggested, "Then why don't we change the approach?"

Cai Shuangyu: "What approach?"

Song Ren: "I'll take care of Wang Kun for you, and you'll owe me a favor."

Cai Shuangyu paused for a moment, then let out a rare, genuine laugh. "It's truly a pity you aren't in business. Clearly, you're the one who wants to make a move, yet you still expect me to owe you a favor?"

Song Ren corrected her, "It's an idea we both share. So, how about a collaboration?"

Cai Shuangyu did not reply immediately, falling into a brief silence.

Her phoenix-like eyes narrowed slightly as she silently studied Song Ren. Instead of answering, she posed an unrelated question: "If I asked you to make a move against me right now, what are your chances of winning?"

Song Ren raised an eyebrow and delivered a rather arrogant answer: "Ninety percent."

Cai Shuangyu immediately smiled faintly. "Very confident. Honestly, I'm somewhat skeptical of that claim. Care to prove it? If you can take us both down within one minute, I will agree to cooperate with you."

"Shall we give it a try, then?" Song Ren was also eager to test the true caliber of this aloof Wo Hop To leader. However, he quickly realized a slip of the tongue in her words, looked up, and asked, "Wait, what did you just mean by 'both'? Does that include her?" He pointed a finger at Li Yuyao, who was sitting nearby with a sluggish, fish-out-of-water expression.

Li Yuyao straightened her back and let out a disgruntled grunt. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a deep red hair ribbon, bit down on it with her teeth, and swiftly gathered her cascading dark hair with both hands. In one fluid motion, she tied her hair up into a high ponytail. In an instant, the enchanting, siren-like allure faded away for the most part, replaced by a radiant and dashing sharpness.

Li Yuyao lifted her chin. "Who on earth do you think you're looking down on!"

Cai Shuangyu remarked, "Do you really think someone qualified to be my friend would be ordinary?"

Song Ren looked Li Yuyao up and down. He had originally thought this woman merely relied on her family background, but it seemed he had severely misjudged her.

Cai Shuangyu picked up a coin from the table and gave it a gentle flick into the air. "The moment the coin hits the ground, we begin. You have one minute."

The coin spun in the air before descending.

Clang!

Amidst the crisp sound of the coin striking the floor, Song Ren leaped up abruptly, stomped his foot onto the tea table, and lunged straight toward Cai Shuangyu. Compared to Li Yuyao, Cai Shuangyu—who was proficient in gun kata—was undeniably the greater trouble.

Li Yuyao gritted her teeth in frustration. *He's ignoring me again! What an obnoxious man!*

Leveraging the sofa, she sprang forward with a high kick aimed straight at Song Ren's chin. *Hmph! Go ahead and taste my stinky shoe!*

Catching her movement in his peripheral vision, Song Ren tilted his head back to dodge and shot out a backhand, intercepting her ankle mid-air. Because she was wearing silk stockings, her skin felt exceptionally slippery. However, Song Ren had no spare thoughts to dwell on that; using her momentum, he swung Li Yuyao's entire right leg and hurled her straight toward Cai Shuangyu, who had just drawn a firearm.

Cai Shuangyu pivoted to evade. Li Yuyao possessed remarkable agility; while still airborne, she braced her hands against the table, adjusted her posture with a flip, slammed both feet against the wood-paneled wall of the private room, and sprang directly back with a counter-charge. The entire sequence of movements was exceedingly clean and crisp!

By this time, Cai Shuangyu had just raised her gun, but her aim was interrupted once more by a sweeping kick from Song Ren, forcing her to dodge to the side.

Seizing the opening from Li Yuyao's counter-attack, the young woman had already closed in, tightly grabbing Song Ren's right arm while locking her legs around his right leg.

Song Ren's eyelid twitched. *A submission hold between a man and a woman?! What kind of bizarre technique is this?!*

Strange as the move was, it was undeniably effective. Li Yuyao did not need to defeat Song Ren head-on; she only needed to stall his advance for a brief moment. As long as Cai Shuangyu secured her grip on her firearm, Song Ren's defeat would be certain.

Just as Song Ren had surmised, Cai Shuangyu was an expert gunfighter. Even if she wasn't infallible, within the confined space of this private room, she truly hit whatever she aimed at.

With Li Yuyao clinging to him like a koala bear, Song Ren saw Cai Shuangyu leveling the muzzle at him. He violently twisted his body mid-charge, braced one hand against the table, and spun around, dragging Li Yuyao along with him as he slammed directly into Cai Shuangyu.

Cai Shuangyu once again chose to evade.

Thud!

Song Ren and Li Yuyao crashed onto the floor in a sprawling heap. Li Yuyao, landing on the bottom, felt a searing pain across her backside and spine. Her chest was also jammed by Song Ren's arm, knocking the wind out of her and causing her grip to loosen instinctively.

The very second Song Ren freed himself, he jerked sideways, narrowly dodging the muzzle that Cai Shuangyu had swung toward him. Moving like a panther, he lunged forward. Just as Li Yuyao attempted to redirect the gun barrel, Song Ren thrust his index finger directly into the gap behind the trigger.

The fact that Cai Shuangyu could not pull the trigger meant the match was far from decided. Her left hand immediately swept toward her waist.

*Dual pistols?!* Song Ren's eyelid twitched again.

Closing the distance instantly, he kicked her supporting left leg out from under her. Using that opening, he grabbed her gun-bearing right hand, pivoted to the side with a burst of strength, and hurled her entire body into mid-air!

Yet, Cai Shuangyu's gaze remained utterly calm. Even amidst the disorientation of losing her balance, her left hand completed the draw with blinding speed. While still airborne, she had already drawn her second pistol.

However, Song Ren struck her elbow, forcing the barrel off angle.

Cai Shuangyu crashed heavily onto the floor, the wave of pain halting her movements for a single fraction of a second—a window Song Ren instantly seized.

He pinned her lower abdomen with his left knee and elbow while using his right leg to trap her left-hand pistol against the floor. Meanwhile, her right-hand weapon was neutralized by his grip on the trigger. Simultaneously, Cai Shuangyu's slender, porcelain-white throat was locked firmly in the grasp of Song Ren's single hand.