What is bound to come will eventually arrive.

Perhaps President Yu saw Li Lin flirting with Bai Haonan on the surveillance footage. Right after finishing their workout, she announced a business trip starting the next day and simply took Li Lin and Xiaowan along. It was said they were attending a high-level local government reception. One was exceptionally charming, while the other was sharp and resourceful, so one being tactful and the other capable made them ideal assistants for Yu Jiali.

When they set off, Li Lin was much more excited than Xiaowan.

Bai Haonan didn't feel particularly lost. He spent the evening playing around with Kara and Qianniu on the pitch, and decided to resume work the very next day.

As a result, early the next morning, just as the shopping mall opened, a loud crash echoed through the fitness center as the floor-to-ceiling glass doors facing the shopping mall's central atrium shattered all over the floor!

The sound gave Xiaoman at the cash register a massive start. A fitness coach who happened to be near the door rushed over, only to catch a glimpse of two dark figures darting rapidly down the escalator. By the time he sprinted to the atrium railing, there was no sign of anyone.

Awakened from a deep sleep, Bai Haonan rubbed his sleep-heavy eyes. Looking at the sea of broken glass fragments and exchanging glances with Qianniu, his first reaction was whether that local thug from the KTV lounge had come back for revenge.

After all, the promotional flyers he had distributed made it very easy for people to track him down here.

Kara picked up a heavy lump of iron from amidst the shattered tempered glass. It felt like a jagged piece of metal cut from a steel plate—quite heavy, but unlike in martial arts novels, there was no warning note wrapped around it with cloth. None of the three former football players knew what to do next. Bai Haonan even joked whether they should have goofy Ada sniff it out and follow the trail to find the person who smashed the glass. Meanwhile, Vice President Chen called to have someone come replace the glass doors, while suggesting they ask the shopping mall property management to pull the surveillance footage.

Truthfully, Bai Haonan, Qianniu, and Kara hadn't yet fully grasped how ubiquitous surveillance cameras had become in this world. In the end, the property management could only retrieve footage from the various floors and main entrances, showing two thin men in black shirts—which seemed a bit different from the thugs Bai Haonan had previously encountered at the KTV lounge.

Hearing the speculation, the Vice President tried to flatter President Wang: "These street ruffians... why don't you mention it to Chairman Yu? He has underworld connections and can handle this kind of thing."

Bai Haonan felt it was too trivial a matter to bother Yu Deshui and lose face over, especially since he had literally taken a knife to the backside himself. "Too bad their faces weren't clear, otherwise we might as well just call the police."

The property management staff was equally eager to help: "Check your own fitness center's surveillance! Didn't you install so many cameras? Anyone walking past the door will definitely be caught on tape crystal clear."

Bai Haonan had no idea about that. Yet, little more than ten minutes later, he and Qianniu stood in the fitness center, tilting their heads in astonishment as they counted over twenty high-definition cameras!

Aside from several large ones providing comprehensive coverage of every angle in the main fitness hall, there were smaller hidden cameras dotted around the cash register, office, hallway, sauna room, deep-water pool, sports court, and restaurant areas. It felt as though only the restrooms and locker rooms were spared due to privacy, but even their entrances were monitored, leaving almost no blind spots in any direction.

In particular, these latter small cameras were set up quite discreetly. The fitness center's ceiling was made of black lightweight steel keel grids, and looking up, one wouldn't even notice the two-finger-wide miniature lenses hidden amidst the black lattices, silently recording everything.

Vice President Chen suddenly became hesitant and evasive. When Bai Haonan asked him where the footage could be viewed, he hadn't actually thought these surveillance cameras had anything to do with him personally. But seeing the man's expression, he suddenly understood. With a wry laugh, he raised his middle finger at one of the lenses, shook his head, and instructed Qianniu and the others to prepare for the growing midday influx of customers before heading back upstairs. He didn't even bother to check if there was a camera in his sleeping storage room, but simply walked over and sat casually on the spacious artificial turf. It felt as though only by sitting here could he distance himself from all that messy nonsense. Squinting against the sunlight, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

He was suddenly jolted awake by a phone ringtone. Bai Haonan habitually saved numbers without recording names: "President Yu... Have you arrived yet?"

Having undoubtedly received a report, Yu Jiali sounded quite formal yet slightly hurried in her explanation: "We installed surveillance inside the company to better improve work efficiency. All office areas here at Jiazheng Plaza have them..."

Bai Haonan remained silent, leaning lazily against the chair back, waiting for her to finish before replying, "Alright, got it."

Feeling a bit wronged, Yu Jiali said, "Everyone installs these nowadays! The Skynet project is everywhere on the streets! I didn't mean anything else by it; I just need to keep an eye on things for peace of mind!"

Bai Haonan let out a soft hum and quietly waited until the line went dead before hanging up.

On the other side, sitting inside the luxury van, Yu Jiali undoubtedly sensed some subtle shift in the atmosphere. Staring at the darkened phone screen, she suddenly had the urge to tell the driver to turn back. But glancing down at the investment promotion folder on her lap, she remembered that a group of government officials and heavily invested partners were waiting for her on the other end, with a packed schedule stretching straight through the night that left no room for whimsy. Though she didn't feel she had done anything wrong, and Bai Haonan hadn't put a single foot wrong these past two months, a wave of inexplicable grievance welled up in her chest, and her eyes grew hot, making her want to cry.

Yet, sitting in this spacious and comfortable top-tier business vehicle—with the driver and secretary in the front row, and her assistant and entourage in the back—Yu Jiali couldn't afford to let a single shred of vulnerability show. She quickly raised a hand to cover her mouth, blinking hard to push back the stinging heat in her eyes. It was then she noticed Li Lin, sitting in the adjacent sofa seat, watching her cautiously and timidly. Caught in the act, Li Lin immediately looked away, yet foolishly kept glancing back out of the corner of her eye. Even as she turned her face aside, she habitually plastered on a smile—the kind of clumsy attempt at cover-up where you're just beaming awkwardly at the headrest in front of you!

Ultimately, Yu Jiali burst out laughing, and those lingering emotions vanished instantly, just like how Bai Haonan felt seeing Li Lin—resembling a goofy, bright moon hanging in the dark night. It felt as though she were looking at those pretty female classmates she used to envy back in college. In high spirits, she leaned forward: "Yesterday... why did you trim his beard?"

Startled, Li Lin's eyes darted everywhere, utterly unable to come up with a coherent response: "Well, he, uh... it looked a bit pitiful..." Xiaowan, who had been sitting quietly in the back organizing documents, desperately wanted to kick her, though the seat arrangement made it impossible to pull off silently.

Discovering her companion's mindset, Yu Jiali narrowed her eyes seriously: "What's pitiful about him?"

Li Lin finally squeezed out a cautious hesitation: "I... I don't really know. I just felt like he doesn't live a very happy life. He never talks about whatever is bothering him, and he seems kind of all alone—especially when I see him with the dog. He just looks so lonely, and I wanted to take care of him."

Yu Jiali was astonished: "You can tell all that? Isn't he having the time of his life as long as he's chasing girls and playing football?"

Li Lin pouted slightly: "Uncle Kara says he's just a stinking pair of feet with no talent or foundation, and he's always mocking him. He's the worst! As for chasing girls... anyway, I've never seen him chase anyone, I only know he's good to people."

Now it was Yu Jiali's turn to pout: "Good to people? That depends on whether they're pretty or not. If you weren't so pretty, would he have rescued you?"

Right after saying that, she caught Li Lin's eyes darting swiftly toward the back seat. Yu Jiali paused for a moment before bursting into loud, hearty laughter. Of course she realized Li Lin's subconscious subtext was basically: *Look at how pretty the one in the back seat is!*

Compared to her, Xiaowan in the back really was rather plain—possessing a gentle, delicate charm with her small features, standing out for her refinement, though still much prettier than many ordinary women. Talk about catching a stray bullet out of nowhere.

The rest of the journey was thoroughly delightful for Yu Jiali, teasing this clueless, pretty girl and even egging her on to call Bai Haonan: "Call him over to hang out! It's only a two-hour drive anyway. Ask him to come join us and see if he comes."

To her surprise, Li Lin replied with righteous solemnity: "Uncle is not that kind of person. He's always working hard, and I want to learn from him..."

Facing this silly child, Yu Jiali had to bite back her laughter, though she couldn't help wondering if Bai Haonan was just putting on a pretense to chat up girls, while this foolish girl had completely swallowed it hook, line, and sinker, clearly harboring a sense of worship.

Glancing back again, Xiaowan's face remained utterly expressionless as she calmly organized various documents and paperwork—her poker face vastly superior to the gossipy expression of Yu Jiali's original middle-aged secretary. Right then, Yu Jiali made up her mind to completely poach Bai Haonan's little secretary over to her side.

In truth, Bai Haonan didn't feel any intense outrage or a sense of being insulted and violated. After all, nobody had ever trusted him very much since he was a kid. He just offered a self-deprecating chuckle as he got up, playfully throwing a middle finger at the security camera on the sports court as well. Then, nudging Ada with his foot, he headed downstairs to check if his Hummer had been scrubbed clean of bloodstains, since it might come in handy tonight. Passing through the fitness hall, Qianniu still felt a bit uneasy and called a couple of young guys to accompany Bai Haonan.

The shattered glass at the entrance had already been cleaned up, and a fitness coach was stationed there as a greeter, mentioning that the glass factory was rushing out the exact measurements and the replacement wouldn't arrive until the afternoon. Bai Haonan made a startled, comical face and stepped outside with a laugh. Having spent over a week without coming downstairs, he noticed from the escalator that the fourth-floor sporting goods store was basically taking shape. After all, it was just a small retail space of a dozen square meters—completely different from the thousands of square meters of raw space renovation upstairs. Just laying down the flooring and installing shelves was enough. He could catch a glimpse of Chen Meijuan busily arranging merchandise. Just her graceful, tight short-skirted back view was quite alluring. Noticing the two young players also staring, Bai Haonan gave them a playful kick and whispered, "Sister Chen's business... try your best to promote it to customers and help look out for her."

The young players looked slightly surprised: "Hearing Li Lin talk, we thought you and her had a falling out and didn't want us interacting with Sister Chen!"

Bai Haonan treated these relatively innocent players just like his younger self: "We did have a falling out, but even if business fails, the goodwill remains. We need to buy these things upstairs and downstairs anyway, why line the pockets of outsiders?"

The young players nodded repeatedly in agreement. The three men crossed through the relatively livelier third, second, and first floors, stepping out of the shopping mall's main entrance amidst the growing crowd of shoppers.

The building was semi-circular, embracing a parking lot capable of holding dozens to a hundred vehicles. Bai Haonan usually parked his car here. After he was injured and veered onto the curb, old Li had later taken the vehicle away to wash off the bloodstains, and now it was naturally parked back in the open space. The massive, bright yellow vehicle body parked there was eye-catching enough. As he walked toward it while asking about the injuries of Zhou and Liangzi—who had been hurt alongside him—intending to drop by the dorms later to check on them, he suddenly heard the screech of tires violently gripping the asphalt.

No one who cherishes a car would ever launch it with such brutal tire-spinning acceleration, a driving style many motorists probably never attempt in their entire lives. Thus, the sound felt jarringly abrupt to Bai Haonan's ears, and his first reaction was: *Damn it! They wouldn't go this far, would they?!*

His physical reaction was to spread his arms, shove the two young guys back, and stoop to scoop up Ada: "Back! Go back..." Already, his eyes caught sight of an inconspicuous black domestic sedan charging in from the far end of the parking lot with a murderous, feral momentum!

As athletes, their physical reflexes were decent. Scrambling and stumbling, the three of them immediately turned and leaped up the five or six steps leading to the shopping mall's main entrance. High-end shopping mall entrances of this caliber featured multiple glass doors several meters high, each set in an over-a-meter-wide stainless steel frame. Even if the car could mount the steps, there was no way it could crash inside.

Moreover, Bai Haonan's mind raced: this was directly connected to the morning's glass-smashing incident—either to vent frustration or to lure him out. After all, the fitness center had over a dozen strong, athletic young guys and plenty of gym equipment; a real brawl might result in the attackers getting pulverized.

Only an idiot would charge straight inside the fitness center to cause trouble.

Looking back at the black sedan screeching to a halt and doors opening behind him, Bai Haonan felt panicked but not flustered. Pushing the young players into the mall, he then spotted two men in suits descending from the escalator—the kind who couldn't resist taking the steps themselves, making them stand out starkly among the other pedestrians!

Clearly, they had been keeping an eye on him from upstairs all along!

He felt like he was being squeezed in a pincer movement from above and below!

Bai Haonan grabbed the companion who was about to rush toward the elevator: "Those two... are with them too... this way!"

At that moment, his instinct was still to rush back to the safety of the fitness center. Regardless of anything else, that was his turf; even if it meant calling the police to handle it, he would have far more maneuvering room.

Whenever Southern Brother liked to posture as an underworld figure while chasing girls, the truth was he had never possessed a single ounce of that ruthless street viciousness.

When trouble arose at the KTV lounge, his first reaction was to run—that was a normal person's instinctive reaction when facing street thugs. He never had a hot-headed urge to seek revenge or fight back; he simply saw no point in such petty competitiveness. If a dog bites you, do you bite the dog back?

Ada certainly sensed the tension radiating through Bai Haonan's entire body, baring its teeth as it peeked out. But Bai Haonan didn't expect this dog to offer any combat value, so he took the lead and charged deep into the treasure-trove-like shopping mall.

After dodging past numerous counters and shops and casting a hasty look back, he clearly spotted the two suit-wearing men joining forces with the other two in black shirts, their vicious faces stretched out as they craned their necks searching everywhere.

Any hot-blooded, fierce brawler with Bai Haonan's build might have turned around to slaughter their way back. Yet, acting as the sly fox he was, he led the two young guys, relying on his familiarity with the shopping mall's layout, to quickly return to the fifth floor via the internal staff passage and freight elevator.

Just as he was notifying Qianniu and the others of the danger—with the hot-headed young players scrambling for kitchen knives, grip strengtheners, and steel pipes to prepare for a counterattack—Bai Haonan's phone rang. Somewhat puzzled, he answered the unfamiliar number: "Bai Haonan... So you really tucked tail and fled to Guixi, didn't you? Just wait to get hacked to pieces!"

Hearing that familiar yet strange voice sent a jolt straight through Bai Haonan!

*What the hell, how did the bookies get hold of his cell phone number?!*