Chapter 173: I Never Underestimate a Woman

Ding-Dong!

The doorbell rang.

Xiao Yu opened the door, revealing the young woman who had added him on WeChat earlier in the day.

“Come in,” Xiao Yu stepped aside.

“Wow, you’ve got a pretty spacious place,” the woman said as she walked into the living room, feigning surprise.

“Spacious?” Xiao Yu responded with a smirk. “There’s something even bigger waiting for you.”

“Oh, you’re so naughty,” the woman teased, throwing Xiao Yu a flirtatious glance.

“I’m not joking,” Xiao Yu said as he sat down on the sofa, his expression turning serious. “There really is something bigger waiting for you… like a prison cell.”

“Huh?” The woman was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

“I could ask the same thing,” Xiao Yu said, staring intently at her. “How did they figure out that something was off about me?”

Since ancient times, the profession of a hitman had always been shrouded in mystery. Ordinary people couldn’t get close to them, let alone meet with them. Even their transactions required special methods, not just to maintain secrecy but also for their own protection.

A face-to-face meeting? That was unheard of.

Xiao Yu knew that the woman standing before him was unlikely to be the real assassin. Her purpose for being here…

“Haha,” the woman finally caught on and smiled innocently. “What are you talking about, handsome?”

Xiao Yu turned his head. He didn’t look directly at the woman but instead focused on the door. 

“You came in first to check if there was anyone else inside, to see if there were any other threats, right? The real attack is outside the door, isn’t it? They wouldn’t be so foolish, so it only means that you guys are the foolish ones. You must be part of a group willing to risk your lives for money. How much did your employer offer you? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Probably not much higher, right?”

The woman’s expression finally changed, her gaze turning cold as she glared at Xiao Yu. 

She shouted sharply, “Get in here.”

She was wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, which had been connected the whole time. As soon as she shouted…

Boom!

The door was kicked open.

A group of young men wielding machetes stormed into the room.

In his past life, Xiao Yu had once cracked a case and learned about a certain profession. This profession was known as thugs for hire.

What was thugs for hire?

It was a term for those who take money to do someone else’s dirty work. The work could range from beating someone up, issuing threats, intimidation, injuring, or even killing.

A thousand yuan might get someone beaten up, five thousand could lead to someone being slashed, fifty thousand might leave someone crippled, and for a hundred thousand, they could take a life.

As long as you paid them enough, these thugs for hire would handle just about anything for you.

Were these people idiots?

No, they were just a bunch of misfits, self-styled tough guys who thought they were living a life of street honor. They didn’t think about the consequences, leaving their parents to bear the burden of their actions.

Eight young men rushed in, each wielding a machete, their eyes fixed on Xiao Yu. The woman gestured toward him, and the young men swung their blades and charged.

Xiao Yu just smiled.

He still couldn’t figure out exactly how he’d been exposed. But he had time to ponder that later.

A bunch of overconfident youth had come to kill him. Their purpose was clear.

What would Xiao Yu do?

Bang!

Crack!

His leg swung out like a blade. He struck one of the young men’s arms with such force that the machete went flying and the arm hung limp, broken as if it were a piece of wet noodle.

“Ahhh!” The young man screamed in pain.

Xiao Yu’s leg followed up with a powerful kick to the man’s head. The scream was cut short as the young man’s body was lifted off the ground and sent flying.

At the same time, Xiao Yu charged at the remaining seven, who stood there frozen in fear.

No fancy moves, no unnecessary flair—just pure, unadulterated efficiency. Every punch, every kick was focused on speed and power. Xiao Yu was like a machine at that moment.

A killing machine.

Cries of pain and the sound of bones breaking echoed through the room. In less than a minute, all eight young men were lying on the ground.

Xiao Yu stood there, looking coldly at the youths writhing in pain.

They had intended to kill, so he could have justifiably ended their lives right then and there. But he didn’t. After all, he was a cop. Leaving them crippled was as far as he was willing to go.

As he surveyed the scene, Xiao Yu suddenly reached back with his hand and grabbed something. 

“You know,” he said, “I never underestimate women. The ones who seem like innocent little lambs? Those are the ones you should be most wary of. And the prettier they are, the more dangerous they can be.”

He slowly turned his head to look coldly at the woman in front of him.

Her face was a picture of fear, pale and trembling as she gazed at him with wide, scared eyes.

You might think a girl like that couldn’t possibly be a threat.

But then…

Xiao Yu’s eyes shifted to his own hand, where he was holding the woman’s wrist. She held a small, mini-triangle blade.

Do you know what a three-edged blade is? When it stabs into a person’s body, the triangular shape tears the wound open, leaving a cleft-like gash that causes both internal and external bleeding. It doesn’t take much—just three to five stabs, even if they don’t hit any vital organs. The massive blood loss alone can kill someone in a very short time.

Such wounds are extremely difficult to stitch up, and stopping the bleeding is hard. The best way to treat a wound caused by a three-edged blade is to cut it open further and stitch it up over a larger area.

Now imagine a girl like this, holding such a weapon, ready to stab you in the back. Trying to kill you… It’s hard to wrap your head around, isn’t it?

Crack!

With the strength of a raging bear, Xiao Yu snapped the girl’s wrist. She dropped the three-edged blade.

“Ahh…” The girl screamed in agony.

Slap!

Xiao Yu delivered a hard slap across her face, silencing her screams. She collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

“Come in and clean this up,” Xiao Yu said, seemingly to no one, “All that effort wasted. We’ve been compromised.”

“Damn it!” Wang Dong’s voice cursed through Xiao Yu’s earpiece.

Five minutes later, Wang Dong stormed in with his team, exuding an aura of rage. His eyes flashed coldly as he surveyed the scene—the unconscious youths scattered across the floor, and the girl lying among them.

“Brother Wang, don’t give me that look,” Xiao Yu said with a smile. “It’s making me feel like you’re some kind of mob boss.”

“…” Wang Dong rolled his eyes. “What now?”

“What do you think?” Xiao Yu sneered. “We’re going to hit them hard, of course.”

Wang Dong, “???”

“What do you mean?”

“How do they sell those cards?” Xiao Yu asked.

“On the dark web,” Wang Dong replied, frowning. Wasn’t Xiao Yu already aware of that?

“Then let’s go and…” Xiao Yu started walking out of the room. “Shut down the entire operation.”

“Uh…” 

Wang Dong stared at Xiao Yu’s back in shock. Was Xiao Yu serious? If it were that simple, they would have done it long ago. Wait, could it be that Xiao Yu knew his way around computer systems?