You Are Really No Match For Me [Fighting] - Chapter 30

The group chatted and laughed their way into the Ping’an Grand Hotel.

After ten minutes of heated debate over what dishes to order, a waitress in a crimson cheongsam glided silently into the private room. Her porcelain-pale face wore a uniform smile, hair pinned up with a gleaming jade hairpin. The slit of her skirt swayed rhythmically as she walked, occasionally revealing the blue glow of mechanical joints beneath. One of them placed a delicate dessert on the table, steam curling in the air, and spoke in a sweet, programmed voice:

“Guests, I am service unit No. 019 of Ping’an Grand Hotel. This is your appetizer, plum cake. Please enjoy.”

Before her words had faded, the edge of Jin Mu’s smart glasses flickered with light. Lu Feng’s upper body projection appeared in the corner of his vision, his voice crackling with barely contained excitement through the earpiece:

“Brother Mu, got work for you—an old acquaintance of you and Jin Gang!”

The bounty announcement flashed. A murderer with dozens of lives on his hands.

Jin Mu’s pupils shrank sharply. It was him.

He leaned slightly toward Jin Yu, who was still watching the android waitresses with interest, and murmured:
“I’ve got something to take care of. I’ll leave first.”

Jin Yu immediately turned, blinking in curiosity. “A bounty job?”

“Mm.” Jin Mu kept it short.

“Need help?” She leaned forward, voice lowered.

A faint smile tugged at his lips, his gaze softening. “No. You enjoy yourselves.” He paused, then added, “Be careful with food—don’t eat recklessly.”

“Mm.” Jin Yu nodded, then added, “Bye-bye.”

“Bye-bye.” Jin Mu stood swiftly.

Instead of heading straight for the exit, he crossed the room. Wang Jiasong was chatting idly with Lu Ting and Xiao Bai when Jin Mu stopped beside him. His voice was low but clear:
“Wang Shao, something urgent came up. Sorry to leave early.”

Wang Jiasong turned, saw it was Jin Mu, and waved dismissively. “No problem, go ahead.” Then, as if suddenly recalling something, his eyes flicked past Jin Mu to Jin Yu at the table, probing with a touch of eagerness: “Jin Yu-jie isn’t going with you?”

He hadn’t forgotten—yesterday, just a few careless words from him had made Jin Mu glare like he might rip him apart on the spot.

Jin Mu didn’t break stride. He shook his head once, leaving a single crisp word:
“No.”

The door clicked shut behind him, his figure swallowed by the corridor.

Outside, the night had deepened. Light from the private room spilled faintly onto the pavement as Jin Mu strode to his Maserati. The engine roared to life, headlights cutting into the dark. The car slid into the night.

Bounty hunters did most of their work after dark, hidden from the light.

At a deserted street corner, the car stopped without a sound. Neon from a failing sign faintly outlined its shape. The passenger door opened. A broad, towering figure climbed in, night wind rushing in with him—Jin Gang.

“Brother, what’s the rush? What happened?” His deep voice carried a taut edge.

“Get in first,” Jin Mu said, eyes scanning the mirrors.

The door closed, sealing off the city’s noise. Only the instrument panel’s blue glow and their heavy breathing remained.

“This mission’s dangerous, isn’t it?” Jin Gang asked.

Jin Mu stared straight ahead at the dim street, his voice calm but edged with blades. “Yes. The target is Long Yanfa. Life or death—doesn’t matter.”

“Long Yanfa?!” Jin Gang’s breath caught, like a hand had closed on his throat. In an instant, rage and killing intent boiled over like a volcanic eruption, threatening to split his skull.

“Fvck! That bastard! Finally!” His voice warped with fury, every word ground out between clenched teeth. “Brother, let me do it! I’ll crush him to scrap with my own hands!”

“Calm down!” Jin Mu’s tone snapped sharp. “Listen—he underwent full-body cyberization last year. Jin Gang—full-body. Brain to heart, not an inch of flesh left. He’s a war machine in human skin. Extremely dangerous.”

Memories bled back—the days when the brothers struggled in District 12. When Long Yanfa had broken Jin Gang’s ribs and spleen, left him on an operating table, body carved apart into machinery. The endless debt that coiled around them like a venomous snake. Jin Mu quitting his office job, stepping into bl00d-soaked underground rings, fighting for survival, fighting to repay loans, fighting until Lu Feng found him and pulled him into bounty work…

Everything they were today—they owed to Long Yanfa.

Jin Mu: “He’s hiding in an abandoned mall. Lu Feng’s blocking the exits. We go in, floor by floor.”

Once, the New World Mall had been a commercial giant, packed with shoppers every day. Now it was dust and ruin. A monument to abandonment.

On the top floor, beneath the glass dome ceiling, pale moonlight spilled across dust-choked decorations. Plastic baubles and fake palms sagged beneath grime. Escalators lay under thick dust, floors littered with trash and shards of glass.

Jin Mu handed Jin Gang thermal goggles. They advanced cautiously.

A noise upstairs.

Jin Gang lunged like lightning, mechanical arm striking. A shadow leapt from the second floor, hitting the ground running.

Lu Feng stepped in through another entrance. The fugitive lunged for him—Lu Feng pressed a button on his remote.

Long Yanfa collapsed, muscles turned to jelly.

“Added a little extra to your systems,” Lu Feng sneered.

But in the next instant, Long Yanfa vanished.

Optical camouflage.

Jin Mu felt the rush of air at his nape—instinct grabbed the invisible fist. His grip closed around solid steel.
“Jin Gang!”

Through infrared, Jin Gang locked onto him. Both arms shot forward, clamping down like serpents. Sparks screamed as Long Yanfa’s torso spun unnaturally, twisting against the hold.

He broke free, landed, and froze. His eyes narrowed on Jin Gang. Recognition flickered. Then realization.
“You? I thought you were dead already!”

Rage exploded in Jin Gang’s gaze. New face or not, that voice, that look—it dragged him back to the nightmare of that day.

“I didn’t die—disappointed? Don’t worry. If you die tonight, I’ll be thrilled.”

They clashed again. Jin Gang’s arms locked around his legs, but Long Yanfa vanished once more. Lu Feng hit the trigger. The fugitive flickered back into sight, cornered near the exit.

“I’d save your energy,” Lu Feng said coldly.

Long Yanfa’s eyes went black as pitch. He charged Jin Gang with inhuman speed.

The two collided. Jin Gang’s grip found his throat, pummeling his skull until his nose bent sideways. Long Yanfa only laughed.

He drove a kick into Jin Gang’s gut, breaking free. “Back then your stomach was softer. This new body… not as fun to kick.”

“You’re dead!” Jin Mu and Jin Gang roared together.

Despite the cyberized body, their combined fury overwhelmed him. Piece by piece, they tore him down—an arm ripped off, systems failing.

Fifteen minutes later, all that remained was a mechanical head in Jin Gang’s grip.

His palms crushed. The skull cracked, white cerebrospinal fluid and blue coolant splattering to the floor.

Jin Mu’s expression faltered, lost for a moment. Jin Gang fell into silence.

Lu Feng broke it with a grin. “Well done. Revenge at last. From now on, you’re free men.”

Jin Gang gave a bitter laugh. “Free? Dragging this metal carcass around? Every month, repairs. Repairs mean money. Money means fighting in underground pits again. What fucking freedom?”

His voice broke. “The day I was torn apart, I lost my freedom forever.”

Jin Mu glanced at him, pale and shaking, and reached out to touch his head gently. Jin Gang’s gaze was still locked on the mangled skull in his hands.

“Let’s go.”

“Brother…” Jin Gang’s voice trembled.

“Mm.” Jin Mu tried not to look, but couldn’t stop worrying.

Tears streaked down Jin Gang’s scarred face. “No more nightmares now, right?”

Jin Mu’s voice rasped low. “…Mm.”

“Brother…”

“Mm.”

“It’s all my fault… you suffered because of me…” His iron arms locked Jin Mu in a crushing embrace, ribs groaning under the force. Jin Mu grunted but didn’t protest. He knew—his brother needed this.

“Don’t say that,” Jin Mu whispered.

“If not for me… you’d be married, with kids by now…”

Five years. Jin Gang, from fifteen to twenty. Jin Mu, from twenty-two to twenty-seven. Ten years in all. Ten stolen years.

He forced a laugh to choke down the ache in his chest. “Isn’t it enough? You’re here. I’m here. That’s all that matters.”

Jin Gang shook his head like a guilty child, tears flowing. “Brother… I’m sorry. You worked so hard because of me…”

Jin Mu patted his back like he used to when they were kids—except now his hand met cold titanium plates. He swallowed the urge to cry. “You’re my brother. Protecting you is my duty.” He blinked hard, forcing a smile. “Come on. Don’t look so grim. Long Yanfa’s dead. Be happy.”

“…Mm. Brother, you too.”

Jin Mu wriggled free, his face stiff with forced composure. “Go home, wash up, get some sleep. Tomorrow’s a new start.”

He saw Jin Gang to the car but didn’t follow.

“Brother, you’re not coming?”

His tone was steady, but sorrow hid underneath. “I’ll walk around a bit.”

“Be safe. Come home early.”

“Mm.”

“Boss, we’re leaving then.”

“Goodbye.” Jin Mu waved them off.

Alone, he lit a cigarette, then drove aimlessly. Top button fastened, collar pulled high against the wind. His glasses, always perched on his nose, shoved into his pocket.

No destination, no navigation, no screens. Just the wheel beneath his hands, the empty streets rolling by. He circled Jiangbei until his fuel gauge blinked red. At a station, he filled the tank—and bought a carton of the most expensive cigarettes. Yuxi, 300 a pack.

So what? Tonight I’ll splurge. Just once.

The phone buzzed—Xiao Bai.

“Hello?”

Noise and laughter roared on the other end, the smell of alcohol almost seeping through. Xiao Bai’s tongue was thick. “You done yet? Hic. Come pick us up—we’re wasted.”

Jin Mu crushed the cigarette underfoot. “Stay put. Don’t wander.”

He drove to the pin they’d sent. A KTV bar.

When he stepped in, cold night air still clinging to him, a warm, tipsy body was shoved into his arms—Jin Yu.

Something inside him cracked, softening all at once.

“Jin Yu’s yours now,” Xiao Bai mumbled, eyes half-closed.

Jin Mu heard himself answer: “Okay.”