Chapter 1

　　A narrow, cramped alley.

　　The walls on both sides were mottled, plastered with half-torn ads offering big money for children. Noises echoed in the alley, accompanied by the thud of fists on flesh and the occasional burst of coarse curses.

　　When Anna Walker arrived, a heart-wrenching, miserable wail came from inside. His heart skipped a beat. He raised the baseball bat he’d just stolen from home and charged into the alley, shouting, "You sons of bitches, ambushing my bro! None of you are getting away today! Grace Bennett, hang in there, I'm coming—"

　　But when he saw the scene in the alley, Anna Walker came to a dead stop, swallowing the rest of his words.

　　He saw several people sprawled on the ground, limbs twisted, all clutching their injuries and gasping for breath. The most pathetic one, a buzz-cut guy, was still hissing in pain.

　　Standing next to the buzz-cut guy was a boy.

　　The boy was tall and slender, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing a pale, thin arm.

　　Grace Bennett wiped the corner of his mouth, brushed off the dust from his clothes, and slowly squatted down, lowering his gaze to the people on the ground.

　　He held a folded pocket knife in his hand, tapped the buzz-cut guy’s face with it, and asked in a low voice, "You said you’d beat me up every time you saw me?"

　　The buzz-cut guy, who had been so cocky just moments ago, now lay there with his eyes tightly shut, looking peaceful: "No... That’s not exactly what I said..."

　　Grace Bennett said, "Next time, bring more people."

　　"......"

　　Twenty minutes earlier, Anna Walker had called Grace Bennett, wanting to ask him to go online together. But after just a few words, something happened on the other end—Grace Bennett got cornered, and from the sound of it, the other side had brought several people.

　　Grace Bennett hurriedly tossed out a "Talk later" and hung up, leaving Anna Walker anxious. Luckily, he’d asked Grace Bennett for his location beforehand and immediately rushed over by taxi.

　　Awkwardly lowering the baseball bat, Anna Walker counted—there were five guys on the ground, all big and burly.

　　Grace Bennett stood up and casually tossed the small folding knife into his pocket. As he passed by, he said, "Let’s go."

　　It wasn’t until Grace Bennett had walked a ways off that Anna Walker snapped out of it and hurried after him, bat in hand.

　　A few hundred meters out of the alley was a familiar street, and a few steps to the right was the gate to their school.

　　Since school hadn’t started yet, the area around campus was quiet.

　　The two of them went into their usual milk tea shop.

　　After greeting the lady boss, Anna Walker looked at the familiar shop and the people passing by, finally letting out a sigh of relief. "Damn, I was scared shitless! Why didn’t you wait for me to go in together?"

　　Grace Bennett bought a pack of tissues and casually picked a bench outside the shop to sit on. "Wait for you? At your speed, you’d only make it in time to cover me with a white sheet."

　　"Don’t jinx it!" Anna Walker said. "I wasn’t asking you to just stand there and wait. Why didn’t you run? There were so many of them—what if you couldn’t take them?"

　　"Too tiring. Didn’t want to run."

　　Anna Walker nodded. Yeah, that’s probably even more tiring than fighting five at once.

　　Grace Bennett had two bruises on his face, blood at the corner of his mouth, and his clothes were filthy. A few passersby glanced over at him.

　　He took out a tissue and wiped himself off half-heartedly. "Where were you saying we’d go online?"

　　"You still want to go like this? Forget it." Anna Walker picked up his phone, pressed the voice button, and said, "Hey, you guys don’t need to come anymore, Grace Bennett took them all down by himself. Don’t come, don’t come."

　　"You called for backup?"

　　"Of course! Otherwise, two against five is a losing game! Oh, and I even stole my dad’s baseball bat..." Anna Walker suddenly remembered something and glanced at Grace Bennett's pocket. "By the way, why did you bring a knife with you?"