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“That’s up to you!” Jiang Junlin couldn’t be bothered to explain further. “Ji Chi, if I broke my promise, I apologize to you. Meeting again, I consider it compensation.”

“Hahaha…” Ji Chi laughed hysterically. “Lying in my bed, is that your idea of compensation, brother? Aren’t you uncomfortable?”

Jiang Junlin truly regretted not having his teeth pulled out by a veterinarian, so he couldn’t speak for three days.

“I broke our appointment, and you kept me locked up for over a month. With this, we’re even. After I leave, we owe each other nothing,” Jiang Junlin’s voice turned cold. He really didn’t want to be drawn into a vortex with Ji Chi, sinking deeper into the mire.

His identity didn’t allow Ji Chi to stand by his side!

The Jiang family wouldn’t agree, and neither would the higher-ups.

Unless he truly quit!

But besides death, he couldn’t leave the dark web of the underworld. It was a dead end. No matter how you looked at it, Ji Chi didn’t understand that those fleeting moments of comfort were a dream from the very beginning.

With a hand uninjured, Ji Chi grabbed Jiang Junlin’s collar, pressed his forehead against his, and spoke with a menacing tone, “You’re dreaming!”

Outside the door, there was a sudden commotion.

Jiang Junlin and Ji Chi were both taken aback. This safehouse was located in an apartment building, a duplex on the top floor. There were two elevators and two units per floor, with another neighbor living next door, a single woman with a son and a daughter.

The woman had a husband who was separated from her and often came to ask for money. Fed up with the harassment, the woman would give him money, but this time, for some reason, it escalated into a physical fight.

The husband had dragged his wife out of the apartment and was beating her mercilessly. Their daughter was crying loudly inside the apartment, and the man’s curses and the woman’s screams echoed through the stairwell.

Ji Chi and Jiang Junlin listened for a moment. It seemed that the husband had gone to get a DNA test for the child and found out that the younger daughter was not his biological child. In a family already filled with conflicts, this revelation only heightened the tension. The ex-husband was shouting that he would kill her while beating her. Ji Chi and Jiang Junlin opened the door slightly and saw the woman’s face covered in bruises, and the little girl holding a teddy bear, standing at the doorway, crying loudly. An older boy, seemingly indifferent, watched the scene as if it were a familiar sight.

Ji Chi and Jiang Junlin had special identities and couldn’t afford to be exposed. They shouldn’t have interfered, but the woman was being beaten too brutally. There were several bloodstains on her face, and the man was using a baseball bat to continuously strike her back, as if trying to break her spine.

The woman cowered, holding her head in a sorry state.

Suddenly, Jiang Junlin swung open the door, grabbed the man’s wrist, and wrested the baseball bat from his hand. “Hit her again, and I’ll call the police!” “Get back to your apartment and mind your own business!” The man, a towering bald giant at 1.9 meters, was almost twice the size of Jiang Junlin. He didn’t take Jiang Junlin seriously and tried to take back his baseball bat by getting closer. Jiang Junlin swiftly twisted the man’s hand, nearly breaking it. Enraged, the man lunged, but Jiang Junlin kicked him hard. The force of the kick sent the man tumbling into the hallway. Jiang Junlin spoke icily, “Get lost!” The man, seeing the situation, glared at Jiang Junlin fiercely, spat, and, noticing that the little girl had some Asian heritage, pointed at Jiang Junlin and asked his wife, “Is this your lover? Living next door to you, have you been having an affair? Is she his daughter?”

Ji Chi, who was already injured and couldn’t physically intervene, leaned against the door and was extremely displeased upon hearing these accusations. Even though the man’s words were slanderous, Ji Chi was still upset. He didn’t like Jiang Junlin having any kind of relationship with anyone, even in someone’s imagination.

“What nonsense are you talking about? I don’t even know him,” the woman explained, her nose still bleeding. Her husband was about to attack again, but Jiang Junlin positioned the baseball bat in front of him.

“I’ll say it again, get lost!”

Their commotion had reached Jiang Junlin and Ji Chi!

The man seemed a bit concerned, especially with Ji Chi standing behind like a gatekeeper, his gaze as cold as a venomous snake. The man wisely dropped his threats and left.

Jiang Junlin returned the baseball bat to the woman, who thanked him profusely.

The little girl stopped crying as well.

Jiang Junlin said, “Go check your injuries.”

She watched Jiang Junlin’s injuries and he returned to his apartment, closing the door. Ji Chi looked at him with a sly smile, and Jiang Junlin asked, “What are you laughing at?”

“You’re quite the chivalrous hero, risking exposure to save a damsel in distress,” Ji Chi said sarcastically. Just a few days ago, someone had insisted on staying indoors unless absolutely necessary, even if someone were to die in front of them, all to avoid exposure.

The mocking came fast.

“If we didn’t intervene, she could have been beaten to death!” Jiang Junlin retorted.

“Who said, ‘Even if someone dies in front of you, there’s no need to intervene’?” Ji Chi chuckled. “Big brother, your actions don’t match your words. Aren’t you afraid of exposure with all these troubles?”

Jiang Junlin and Ji Chi had been staying here for a few days, tending to their injuries and maintaining their vigilance. They were well aware of the situation across the hall. It was just an ordinary single woman taking care of her two children. She ran a restaurant and had a busy schedule, often leaving early and returning late. Most of the time, it was her older brother taking care of the younger siblings, and they had seen him go shopping for groceries and drinks with them several times.

The woman was separated from her husband but not divorced, and each time her husband visited, it was to ask for money. She endured it for the sake of her children. They were just regular citizens, and there was no need to be overly cautious.

Once they closed the door, Jiang Junlin’s rough actions had caused his wound to reopen slightly, but it wasn’t too serious. Ji Chi needed a change of dressing for his hand. He playfully called Jiang Junlin over, “Big brother, help me with the dressing.”

Jiang Junlin glanced at him. Ji Chi couldn’t change the bandage by himself, and the wound did need daily care. He walked over, unwrapped the gauze, and Ji Chi sat on the bed, looking up at Jiang Junlin.

He savored the atmosphere—just the two of them in the world.

Together in exile, depending on each other, it fulfilled his most hidden desires. He was so close, even if Jiang Junlin said something hurtful once in a while, it didn’t matter to him at all.

Jiang Junlin disinfected the wound and applied a sterile dressing. He even gave Ji Chi an anti-inflammatory injection. Ji Chi’s arm looked quite bad, considering the state it was in. How had he found the strength to carry him out of the hidden chamber that day? Where had he found the strength to fire a gun?

This person seemed to care little about his own life.

Jiang Junlin inexplicably felt a surge of frustration building up inside him. However, Ji Chi continued to smile at him as if the days of imprisonment and abuse had never happened. He seemed harmless and disarming, making it impossible for Jiang Junlin to harbor any suspicions.

“Ji Chi, you know…” Jiang Junlin began.

You know we have no future, right? At the beginning, Jiang Junlin had asked Ji Chi this question. You know we have no future, and Ji Chi had replied, “Who cares? People who want to revel in the moment don’t care about the future.”

But Jiang Junlin couldn’t bear it in the end. He had reluctantly agreed to this unspoken agreement they both knew. He always remained rational, refusing to take that one step into the abyss, knowing that it would be a bottomless pit with no way out..