When Lan Jin splashed the boiling water, she had opened the door and poured the entire basin right onto the woman. But Huang Jinghe had thrown his water through the door. Because of the metal grill across it, some of the boiling water bounced back. The man got scalded, but a few drops also landed on Huang Jinghe.
Thankfully, Huang Jinghe had good reflexes. As he threw the water, he quickly jumped back several steps. Some drops hit him, but it wasn't much.
The man hadn't expected a kid like Huang Jinghe to be so gutsy. One second and the boiling water had already been flung. But with Huang Jinghe now inside the house, there wasn't much he could do to him. Lan Jin, on the other hand, was still standing on the stairwell landing. She was a woman—how hard could it be to handle a woman?
Without even stopping to think, the man rushed toward Lan Jin downstairs.
Lan Jin had been standing near the stair railing. The moment she saw him charging down, she immediately backed away several steps. Just as she was calculating how much force it would take to kick the man down the stairs, Huang Jinghe flung open the front door and came running out, baseball bat in hand.
Seeing the man closing in on Lan Jin, Huang Jinghe dashed down in huge strides, caught up from behind, and swung the bat hard into the man's back.
Anyone who's ever used a real baseball bat knows, it might look light when players swing it, but it's actually quite heavy. Huang Jinghe was no stranger to baseball. His grip was strong, and in this moment of danger, he hadn't bothered holding back. The blow landed squarely on the man's back while he was still on the stairs.
The man let out a cry and tumbled all the way down. He crashed onto the floor, landing flat, unable to even crawl.
Seeing the man hadn't touched Lan Jin, Huang Jinghe finally exhaled in relief.
"Good thing I was quick," he thought. "If Sister Lan got hurt while trying to help me, that'd be on me."
But the man's groaning was impossible to ignore. Lying on the floor, he clutched his back and shouted, "Ah, it hurts! I... I can't get up! Something's broken! I can't move! You crippled me! You'll have to pay for this!"
Crippled?
Broken?
Lan Jin glanced at Huang Jinghe. "Where exactly did you hit him?"
Huang Jinghe pointed to the spot on the man's back. "Right about here. I didn't use that much strength. You think I hit his spine? That area doesn't need a lot of force to mess it up."
Honestly, the whole thing had happened too fast. He had aimed for the man's back, but whether it injured the spine... hard to say. Still, the guy was a complete scumbag. Even if it caused damage, Huang Jinghe wasn't going to regret it.
That was how Huang Jinghe felt. But Lan Jin clearly saw things differently. She looked at the man on the ground, who kept crying about a broken back. His hands, however, were moving just fine. His face only showed normal pain, not the kind you'd expect from a snapped spine.
Lan Jin made up her mind right there.
Didn't matter if he was faking or not. Since he claimed something broke, might as well make sure he never gets up again.
She raised her foot and stomped hard on his lower back.
Crack.
A sharp sound was swallowed up in the man's cry of pain, but Lan Jin heard it clearly. This time, it really was broken. That settled her nerves.
Huang Jinghe, though, didn't hear a thing. And honestly, he didn't believe Lan Jin could have stomped hard enough to break a man's spine.
Watching the guy turn red from the pain and roll his eyes back, Huang Jinghe couldn't help thinking, "He's really going all in with the acting."
But the man didn't move again. After that initial scream, he made no more noise. His hands twitched in the air for a moment, then his head lolled to the side. Still. Silent.
Huang Jinghe stood up straight and pressed one foot against the man's backside, rocking his body slightly with it. When there was still no reaction, he got nervous.
"Sister Lan... did he really just die? I've never... I've never killed anyone before."
"You make it sound like I have," Lan Jin replied.
She nudged the man's body with her foot and flipped him over, then leaned in and held a finger under his nose. "Still breathing. Since he's not dead, not our problem."
Relieved, Huang Jinghe exhaled quickly. "Good. That's good. But we can't just leave him here on our floor, can we?"
Lan Jin thought for a moment. "Then throw him downstairs."
Just as she finished speaking, Nana darted forward from beside her feet. The dog pushed the man's body toward the stairwell with its head. With one good shove, the man tumbled down the stairs. When he landed on the next floor, Nana followed, gave another push, and repeated the process—rolling him down three whole floors—before scampering back up.
Nana came to stand beside Lan Jin, lifted his head, and looked up at her with an expectant expression: I did a good job, right? Praise me!
Neither Lan Jin nor Huang Jinghe could look him straight in the eye.
Lan Jin played along and said, "Nana did great. You'll get an extra meal tomorrow morning."
Huang Jinghe's lips twitched. Honestly, thank goodness Ren Siqiao had been put back into Lan Jin's storage space earlier. If that little one had seen this, they might have tried to pull the body apart. Plus, with Huang Jinghe here, if he'd witnessed that, she wouldn't even know how to begin explaining.
Now that the man was dealt with, today's chaos had come to a close. She and Huang Jinghe had actually worked pretty well together. At first, he'd hesitated and second-guessed himself, but once he acted, his follow-through had been solid.
"I didn't expect you to hit so hard," she said.
Huang Jinghe understood what she meant. His expression turned a little shy, but he grinned sheepishly. "My parents actually warned me about this when they called earlier. Sister Lan, if you hadn't stepped up first, I probably would've kept hesitating."
But it wasn't like he could hold back forever. He just needed that push. Now that he'd taken the first step, things wouldn't be so difficult next time.
Lan Jin nodded. "Since your parents already warned you, I won't need to say more."
Huang Jinghe gave a serious nod. "I understand, Sister Lan. It was my first time dealing with something like this. But now that I've crossed that line, it'll get easier. I won't drag anyone down again."
"This probably won't be the last time something like this happens. We'll need a real plan. No one knows how long the poisonous fog will last. As long as we're stuck inside, the threat stays with us."
Huang Jinghe offered, "Sister Lan, since nobody lives on the 31st floor, should we try locking the emergency stairwell door there? That door's solid. At the very least, it can keep people out."
"You got the key? I sure don't."