Chapter 148
Chapter 148
Wen Tangtang stared at the cushioning materials that had been moved away below and, for a moment, was completely dumbfounded.
The rope around her waist was only long enough to let her reach the second floor. A drop of nearly four meters might not kill her, but she couldn’t guarantee she’d still be able to bounce up and run for her life afterward…
Yet unlike Wen Tangtang, who felt as if she were facing a mortal enemy, Nan Mu actually seemed relieved.
Wen Tangtang caught that subtle change in his expression and couldn’t help asking in confusion, “What is that look on your face?”
She secretly wondered if Nan Mu had realized there was no escaping and had simply decided to give up and stop running.
Nan Mu pressed his lips together and yanked Wen Tangtang, who was dangling outside the window and unable to decide whether to go up or down, back inside.
And when Wen Tangtang saw Nan Mu lift her back into the room from outside with just one hand, she was stunned all over again-had she really gotten so light that someone could haul her back with one hand now…
Could skipping meals for one day really make her lose that much weight?
By the time Wen Tangtang snapped out of that useless line of thought, she found that Nan Mu had already climbed onto the windowsill himself.
“Wen Xin!” Nan Mu raised his voice and called Wen Xin, who was blocking the doorway, over. “Hold on to Wen Tangtang.”
Wen Xin: “Huh?”
Wen Tangtang: “Huh huh?”
Nan Mu looked at the two of them, rather helpless. “If I fall, Wen Tangtang’s weight won’t be enough to hold me. If you hold her, it’ll add some resistance.”
“Oh, right.” Wen Xin felt ashamed of his misunderstanding and asked, “You’re going down? But there are people blocking the way below.”
“We have to take a chance sooner or later.” Nan Mu said it lightly while telling Wen Tangtang to tear a strip of cloth from the bedsheet for him.
“If we have to fight anyway, why not just go out through here?” Wen Xin didn’t understand. Climbing down was risky no matter what. If they were going to fight either way…
Nan Mu wrapped the scrap of cloth around his palm. “When we came in, I only saw three people, but I wasn’t sure whether there were others. So if we could sneak away, that would obviously be best. But the person downstairs just now clearly noticed we were trying to escape through the window. Instead of calling anyone else, he called for Old Cai…”
Wen Xin’s eyes lit up. “Which means there are only three of them in the villa?!”
Nan Mu nodded, then looked at the room door that Wen Xin had blocked up tight behind them. “Unfortunately, we found out too late.” Moving all that stuff had been exhausting.
Wen Xin suggested, “But we can wait for them to come to us…”
Nan Mu shook his head. “No. If all three of them rush in together, I won’t be able to protect both of you at the same time.”
They didn’t know what those people’s attitude would be. If they caught either one of them and used their life as a threat, Nan Mu would have no choice but to surrender.
Nan Mu glanced at Wen Tangtang, then jerked his chin, signaling Wen Xin to hurry up and hold Wen Tangtang like a counterweight.
Wen Xin knew Nan Mu was more reliable than him when it came to this sort of thing, so he stopped wasting words and quickly reached out to wrap his arms around Wen Tangtang’s waist.
Wen Tangtang was displeased. “Where exactly do you think you’re grabbing?”
Wen Xin was baffled. “If I don’t hold you like this, how am I supposed to hold you? In a princess carry?”
Wen Tangtang said, “I’m talking about your hands! Can you put them a little lower?”
Wen Xin replied, “But it’s easier to use my strength this way.”
Fuming, Wen Tangtang dragged his hands lower. “You can’t use your strength by holding my waist? Do you have to put them there?”
Wen Xin practically jumped in place. “You think I want to put them there?! Why don’t you blame yourself for being short?”
Wen Tangtang was furious. “Wen. Xin!”
Outside the window, Nan Mu couldn’t take it anymore and rubbed his forehead. After making sure Wen Xin had a firm hold on her, he stretched out his leg, kicked off against the wall in front of him, let go, and rapidly descended.
The enormous downward force yanked the two people still bickering by the window hard against the wall.
Wen Tangtang cried out, “My waist!”
But it lasted only an instant. By the time Wen Xin and Wen Tangtang were both leaning out the window to look down, Nan Mu had already reached the second floor.
He swung left with the momentum, then used the force of the swing back to land steadily on top of an air conditioner unit.
The rope was no longer long enough. Nan Mu simply untied it from around his waist, planning to climb down bare-handed.
Watching from above, Wen Xin felt his heart leap into his throat. He could not help shouting, “Be careful!”
Although falling from the second floor most likely would not kill him, at that height, paralysis or broken bones were no joke.
Wen Tangtang was nervous too. “Watch your arm! You only just broke it, and it hasn’t healed properly yet. It can’t take you messing around like this…”
Nan Mu’s hands paused. He knew Wen Tangtang was referring to the other him, so he could only pretend he had not heard and give no reply.
Wen Xin truly had not known about the broken arm. Seeing Nan Mu hanging from the air conditioner unit and climbing all over the place, he could not help feeling a little impressed.
“Be careful! Ah-”
Wen Tangtang and Wen Xin could only watch helplessly from above, letting out panicked cries from time to time in unwilling accompaniment.
Nan Mu had been perfectly fine at first, but their shouting made him jumpy too.
The burly man standing downstairs planted his hands on his hips, seething as he raised his head to glare at Nan Mu. He was still yelling, “You’ve really got the guts to come down, huh? Throwing yourself into the net, are you? Come on, come on. See if I don’t beat you up.”
Nan Mu gauged the position, then climbed and jumped from the air conditioner unit onto the outer ledge of a second-floor window.
He jiggled the window. It was locked. Fortunately, the exterior wall was not entirely smooth. Relying on his arm strength, he hung outside the second-floor window, trying to shorten the distance between himself and the ground in order to escape.
When the burly man saw where Nan Mu was, he cursed as he strode toward the spot where Nan Mu would land.
Nan Mu made a split-second decision. He let go and jumped down.
At the sight, Wen Tangtang covered her eyes in terror. When she opened them again, Nan Mu had already landed firmly on the ground. The burly man was throwing a punch straight at him.
Seeing this, Wen Xin suddenly remembered that last night, when he had gone to rescue Wen Tangtang, this very burly man had knocked him flat with a head-on blow…
He could not help shouting a warning down below. “Careful! He’s really strong!”
But in the next second, Nan Mu’s movements left him stunned.
After landing, Nan Mu barely took any time to recover before lunging at the burly man.
The burly man reached out and threw a punch, but Nan Mu moved like a snake. Grabbing the man’s punching arm with both hands, he pressed close along the arm and twisted around him in a suppressing maneuver. In an instant, he had reached the burly man’s back and pinned him hard to the ground.
The burly man clearly had no intention of surrendering just like that. The muscles in his arms bulged, coiling like dragons, as he mobilized all the strength in his body and tried to heave Nan Mu off his back.
Compared to the burly man, Nan Mu’s build naturally looked a little slight.
However, Nan Mu reacted extremely fast. Realizing he could not keep the man pinned, he immediately slipped his arm under the burly man’s neck and locked it tight around his throat.
The burly man’s breathing faltered. His struggling grew weaker and weaker, his eyes rolled back, and before long, he passed out.
Nan Mu got up, dragged back all the soft mats the burly man had pulled away earlier, and laid them out below. Then he called up to the two people above, “Hurry up and come down!”