"It's more comfortable without it!"
"It's safer with it on!"
"If you don't wear it, I won't let you ride!"
"Not wearing it is more manly!"
"Are you done? Wearing a helmet while riding a motorcycle won't kill you, will it?"
Ren Lan rented a shared electric bike and asked Lin Jichen to take her back to school.
But because Lin Jichen didn't want to wear a helmet, the two had a bit of an argument.
In the end, Lin Jichen succumbed to Ren Lan's 'tyranny' and compromised.
They rode the electric bike towards the school.
At first, Lin Jichen, who hadn't ridden an electric bike in years, wobbled so much that he almost threw Ren Lan off.
"Damn it, Little Lin, are you doing this on purpose? Do you even know how to ride?" Ren Lan complained.
Lin Jichen awkwardly replied, "Sorry, it's been too long. I'm a bit rusty. Let me get used to it."
"If you throw me off, you're done for." Ren Lan muttered, but still sat obediently behind Lin Jichen, clutching his clothes, afraid of falling off.
After a while, Lin Jichen, who hadn't touched an electric bike in years, finally got the hang of it.
Ren Lan's mind wasn't on the bike, though. She started asking Lin Jichen some strange questions.
"Little Lin, did you grow up with Sister Qiu Xue?"
"Yeah, she's a few years older than me. Our families used to visit each other often when we were kids, so we grew up together."
"Oh, so you were childhood sweethearts?"
"You could say that," Lin Jichen replied frankly.
Ren Lan's expression darkened for a moment, but she quickly hid it.
"You have such a good childhood sweetheart. How did you end up with someone like Guo Jie?" Ren Lan teased half-jokingly.
Lin Jichen, riding the bike, answered with a bitter smile, "I don't know either. Maybe I was just momentarily out of my mind."
"Well, at least you came to your senses in time. You're still teachable," Ren Lan forced a smile, but Lin Jichen couldn't see her increasingly desolate expression behind him.
The night wind blew, bringing a chill.
"It's a bit cold. I'm going to take a nap. Don't talk and watch the road."
After saying that, Ren Lan suddenly wrapped her arms around Lin Jichen's waist, rested her head on his back, and closed her eyes.
"Okay," Lin Jichen agreed and stopped talking, focusing on riding.
Ren Lan wrestled with her thoughts for a long time before mustering the courage to ask Lin Jichen a very important question.
But suddenly, a commotion came from ahead.
"Stop, stop! Hey, you, stop! Did you hear me?"
Annoyed, Ren Lan opened her eyes to see which bastard was ruining the mood.
Ahead, a few drunken men, each holding a beer, blocked the entire road.
This road was quite secluded, with few people passing by, and no one to deal with these drunks.
Seeing Lin Jichen approaching, the men started acting up, blocking his path.
"Let's take another route," Lin Jichen, not wanting trouble, turned the bike around to find another way.
But Ren Lan had already jumped off the bike.
"You bunch of useless shrimp, if you can't handle your drink, go sit with the dogs. Getting drunk and acting like bandits, huh? Get lost before I sober you up with some pain!"
Ren Lan pointed at the drunks and cursed them out.
She had finally gathered the courage to ask her question, only to be interrupted by these drunken rats. She couldn't swallow her anger.
The drunks were initially furious, but seeing Ren Lan's appearance, they all leered and walked towards her.
Ren Lan immediately started fighting with the drunks.
Lin Jichen sighed, parked the bike, and rushed over, knocking one of the drunks down with a punch.
Although he knew Ren Lan could handle these drunken rats with ease, he didn't want her to get hurt, so he struck first.
"Damn it! Brothers, beat him to death!"
The drunk on the ground sobered up instantly and roared in anger.
The drunks ignored Ren Lan and charged at Lin Jichen with beer bottles.
Lin Jichen grabbed one of the drunks by the collar, dodged the incoming bottle, yanked the collar hard, and kneed the drunk in the nose.
With a crunch, the drunk screamed in pain, blood streaming down his face as Lin Jichen threw him to the ground.
The remaining drunks, even angrier, ganged up on Lin Jichen.
Knowing he couldn't dodge, Lin Jichen steeled himself and started punching one of them furiously.
After knocking one down, he immediately turned to the next.
But soon, he started getting hit too. A beer bottle came crashing down, and Lin Jichen blocked it with his elbow.
The bottle shattered, sending a wave of pain through Lin Jichen's arm as glass shards cut into his skin, blood flowing freely.
Ignoring the wound, Lin Jichen viciously attacked the guy who threw the bottle, punching him in the nose and kicking him down.
Then he sat on the guy, punching him relentlessly, ignoring everything else.
The guy screamed and cried for mercy.
The other drunks tried to pull Lin Jichen off.
But Lin Jichen, like a madman, focused on one target, beating him to the end.
Ren Lan quickly knocked down the drunks around her and saw Lin Jichen being surrounded.
Furious, she rushed over and took down the remaining drunks.
Seeing Lin Jichen's bleeding hand, she was filled with rage. She grabbed a beer bottle from the ground and smashed it over each drunk's head, knocking them all out.
Lin Jichen sat on the ground, panting heavily, exhausted.
Ren Lan hurried over to wipe his blood with tissues and tore off his sleeve to bandage the wound.
"Why did you have to get involved? These guys couldn't hurt me. You just caused more trouble."
Ren Lan complained, her heart aching as she looked at the long cut on Lin Jichen's hand, her brows furrowed in concern.
Lin Jichen said nothing, just looked at his hand, then at the drunks on the ground, and couldn't help but laugh bitterly.
In his past life, he was a master of the Enlightenment Realm. Who would have thought he'd end up fighting street thugs and getting hurt? Damn it...
In his past life, a single glance from him could have killed them a thousand times over.
Truly, a tiger fallen to the plains is bullied by dogs.
In the end, it was his poor physical condition. Otherwise, even with just martial arts, he wouldn't have struggled against a few drunks.
He needed to train more!
Seeing Lin Jichen's bitter smile, Ren Lan thought he was angry.
She realized he had helped her to prevent her from getting hurt, and she had complained. She felt guilty.
"Little Lin, I didn't mean it that way. Don't be mad. It's my fault. This is all on me."
Lin Jichen looked at Ren Lan's sincere apology, utterly confused.
Proofreader & Editor: Lotas