Courage to Conquer a Strong Enemy, Love Rekindled in the Arms of Passion

Bo Yu leaned against the rusted steel beam, the salty sea breeze carrying the scent of rust into his nostrils.

He counted the vibrations of his wristwatch's heartbeat monitor: 97, 98, 99 — when the numbers reached three digits, the ventilation ducts suddenly let out a mournful metallic scream.

"Picking your spots well," a deep voice rasped through an electronically synthesized tone. The man with a tungsten steel mask crushed through the ceiling and fell, his tactical boots leaving spider-web cracks on the cement floor.

Moonlight glinted off his mechanical prosthetic, and eerie blue arcs of electricity crackled between his fingers.

Bo Yu leaned back to dodge the electric punch aimed at his face, his skull smashing into the shattered wall, dust raining down around him.

The RX-9 serum boiled in his veins, and he could clearly see the muscle fibers beneath the man's nano combat suit, vibrating in a tight, rhythmic pattern, like taut steel cables.

This was no human body structure.

"How many parts has Boss Xu replaced for you?" Bo Yu spun, kicking a shelf that exploded into a flurry of instant noodle bags, and suddenly, seven blue lights flickered in the chaos.

Nano-robots, which he had prepared earlier, instantly formed into an electric net, but they mysteriously dispersed upon making contact with the man's chest.

A muffled laugh escaped beneath the mask. "Electromagnetic shield, basic setup." The man swung his mechanical arm, and the shelf debris struck the cold storage door like cannonballs, shaking the chandelier hanging from the ceiling.

Bo Yu's pupils contracted — Xiao Xia was still inside.

A sudden flashback struck him from three days ago, on that rainy night.

Tang Yao, curled up in the dockside container, her wet hair clinging to her pale face: "The sonar frequency has a trough every 27 seconds, remember this rhythm..." The sensation of her fingertip brushing across his palm now transformed into spectral data on his retina.

"Distracted?" The five mechanical fingers brushed his throat, leaving three deep gashes.

Bo Yu used the momentum to roll into the shadows, his lower back slamming against the frozen refrigeration pipe.

The coldness snapped him back into focus, and the breathing technique Tang Yao had taught him activated automatically. Each exhale was perfectly timed with the troughs in the ferry's sonar frequency.

The footsteps of the pursuing assassin suddenly faltered, and a spark flew from the connection between the tungsten mask and the nano suit.

Bo Yu narrowed his eyes. The abnormal brainwave pattern was flashing on his retina — when the ferry's engine and Tang Yao's wavelength overlapped, the cyborg's energy supply experienced a 0.3-second delay.

"So that's it," Bo Yu licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, the restlessness of his wolf side roiling under the suppression of the serum.

He kicked over a gasoline barrel, the viscous liquid spreading across the floor, inching toward the assassin's feet.

When the man lifted his foot to pursue, the nano-robots hidden in the oil slick suddenly coalesced into a steel spike trap.

The man's furious shout rang out as Bo Yu shattered the glass window and leaped into the alley.

The sea fog was so dense it felt like a solid, but he could still catch the scent of cedar from 300 meters away — that was the smell of Tang Yao's hair.

His old shoulder injury suddenly split open, and the poisoned blood mixed with the RX-9 serum, dripping onto the ground and corroding the concrete into sizzling pits.

"Gotcha." The mechanical prosthetic came barreling through the fog.

Bo Yu didn't retreat; he pressed forward, allowing the sharp blade to pierce his left shoulder. The poisoned flesh instantly dissolved the nano-coating.

The assassin realized and tried to withdraw, but Bo Yu's bloodstained teeth clamped down on the hydraulic pipe of his elbow.

Moonlight broke through the clouds at that exact moment.

Bo Yu felt a burning pain in his tailbone, his vision blurring with blood mist.

There were still 13 seconds until the peak of the full moon, but it was enough — he heard Tang Yao's soft laugh in his memory: "Little pup, you need to learn how to control your anger."

The rusty breakwater suddenly began to vibrate in a regular rhythm, as the ferry's sonar entered its trough phase.

The assassin's mask's breathing valve suddenly jammed, and the filtration system emitted a sharp whistling sound.

Bo Yu smirked, and through his werewolf-enhanced vision, he clearly saw the flashing red light from the chip implant at the back of the man's neck.

The sea breeze suddenly shifted.

Bo Yu's pupils filled with blood-red veins as moonlight bathed his shoulder, coating it in silver frost.

The red light at the back of the assassin's neck grew larger in Bo Yu's retina, flickering like wolf smoke in the dark night.

"Twenty-seven-second trough." He whispered the number Tang Yao had taught him, biting down on the RX-9 slow-release capsule hidden beneath his tongue.

The bloody liquid from the capsule slid down his throat, and the beast within him awakened, millions of scarlet eyes opening inside his veins.

The assassin's mechanical prosthetic was still smoking, and pieces of nano-coating fluttered down like black butterflies into the oil slick.

Bo Yu arched his back, hearing his spine crack like firecrackers, moonlight glinting off his nails with a tungsten-colored gleam.

"Little pup, you need to learn how to control your anger." The voice in his memory gave direction to the blood surging through him.

When the ferry's sonar emitted its 17th hum, Bo Yu moved.

The rusty steel beam snapped beneath his foot, and before the cement fragments could hit the ground, his fist, with the sound of wind, smashed into the assassin's mask.

The red light at the assassin's neck flickered violently, and the electromagnetic shield shattered like a fragile soap bubble in the 0.3-second delay.

"Bang!"

Pieces of the tungsten steel mask flew past Zheng Yufu's conical hat, embedding deep into the dock's wooden pilings.

The old fisherman, hiding behind a fishing boat, gaped at the troublemaker who had helped him fix engines, now pinning the assassin to the asphalt with a beastly posture.

Bo Yu's nails dug into the assassin's mechanical arm's joints, his werewolf hand tearing through the nano-coating, blood and flesh mixing, but he smiled like a mischievous boy who had gotten his way: "Next time, remember to put a protective cover on the hydraulic pipe."

The ferry's horn suddenly cut through the night sky, and the sonar frequency perfectly matched Tang Yao's breathing pattern.

The chip at the back of the assassin's neck exploded, the electronic eye flickering twice before completely shutting off.

Bo Yu rose, breathing heavily, and realized his shadow was twisting in the moonlight — the protrusion of his wolf's tailbone had already broken through his jeans.

The cedar scent wafted from 300 meters away.

He stumbled toward the ferry, the side effects of the RX-9 serum making the containers in his vision wobble.

But when the figure in the white lab coat appeared on the deck, all the noise in the world faded.

Tang Yao's collarbone still bore the burn marks from the shock collar, but in her hand, she held a half-dismantled sonar controller.

"Stupid dog." She tossed aside the bothersome protective mask, her hair unfurling like a starry curtain in the night breeze. "If you'd come half an hour later, I would've turned Xu's encrypted channel into a midnight love radio."

Bo Yu wanted to retort, but his throat was filled with a mouthful of sand.

He saw Tang Yao's bare feet tread over the glass shards on the deck, saw the deeper bruises on her wrist than three days ago, and finally, saw the drop of seawater clinging to her eyelash, stubbornly refusing to fall.

The breakwater suddenly surged with a massive wave.

Tang Yao crashed into his arms with such force that Bo Yu nearly fell into the sea. Her cold fingertips slipped into his torn collar, pressing exactly on the old scar beneath his collarbone — the mark they had left when they first met.

Bo Yu rested his chin on her trembling shoulder, suddenly laughing: "You secretly hid the RX-9 antidote?"

"In the third button," Tang Yao mumbled, her nose brushing against his bloodstained shirt. "Xu's sonar password... is the frequency spectrum of 'Ode to Joy.'"

In the damp, salty air, Bo Yu clearly heard the ticking of the electronic timer in her arms.

Tang Yao always loved dismantling gadgets and turning them into jewelry. Now, the modified capacitor in her earlobe was still faintly warm.

When the ferry's spotlight swept over, Bo Yu tightened his arms, letting the girl's tears soak into his chest wound.

"They used liquid nitrogen to stop your bleeding?" Tang Yao suddenly gripped the back of his neck, her medical gloves brushing against his still-transformed werewolf skin. "Seven bone fractures, three ribs…"

Bo Yu lowered his head, biting her unfinished words. The kiss, tasting of rust, carried three days and nights of sleepless fatigue.

Tang Yao's fist struck his shoulder, but it turned into a trembling grip on his shirt.

In the distance, the sound of Feng Hacker successfully cracking the electronic lock rang out, as though hitting pause on this kiss.

"Let's go, the tech geek says he's made instant noodles on Uncle Zheng's fishing boat." Bo Yu scooped the girl up, who still wanted to check his injuries, and deliberately kicked an empty can off the deck. "The kind with double ham sausage."

Tang Yao buried her face in his neck, her breath brushing against his still-sensitive werewolf skin. "Your heartbeat is too fast."

"It's because some witch cast a spell on my chest."

As they walked under the moonlight toward the fishing boat, Zheng Yufu was pounding a frozen fish compartment with a crowbar.

Feng Hacker, wearing dark circles, peeked his head from behind the computer, his instant noodle fork pointing at the monitor: "Xu's transport truck will pass Pier 7 at dawn, but…"

His voice suddenly cut off.

Bo Yu lowered his head, following everyone's gaze, and saw his blood dripping down his pant legs, leaving small pits smoking on the deck.

Tang Yao suddenly grabbed his wrist, and with medical tweezers, she pulled out a half piece of metal foil with a code from his sleeve.

"Tracking device from Xu's laboratory." Her nails dug into Bo Yu's palm. "He took a blood sample while you were fighting."

The sea breeze suddenly thickened, and the broken flags on the ferry's mast made a sharp sound.

Bo Yu touched the needle hole healing at the back of his neck, recalling the strange laugh from the last time he faced Shen Killer.

Tang Yao suddenly pressed the metal foil into the wound on her collarbone, and fresh blood instantly stained the encrypted number.

"Now he must be wondering how to distinguish the two toxin samples." She smiled like a cat that stole fish, her white lab coat brushing over Bo Yu's trembling fingers.

Feng Hacker silently rolled the thermal bucket over, and the smell of braised beef noodles mixed with Zheng Yufu's special chili sauce.

Bo Yu listened to Tang Yao and the hacker argue about signal frequencies, watched the old fisherman use nano-robots as bait in the sea, and was suddenly choked by a boiling satisfaction that made him tear up.

When Tang Yao secretly mixed the antidote into the chili sauce, Bo Yu was staring at the swirling dark clouds on the horizon.

He felt for the shard of Shen Killer's chip in his pocket, the Xu's Group logo glinting coldly under the moonlight — just like the cigarette Qian Duobao handed him three days ago, burning with the same cobalt blue.

The fishing boat swayed gently with the night's waves, and Tang Yao's knee pressed against his other injured side.

Neither of them mentioned Xu's boss, the betrayals, or the losses, but under the starlight, they shared a box of instant noodles.

But Bo Yu knew that when Tang Yao arranged the sonar controller parts into the shape of the Big Dipper, the gears of revenge had already engaged.

The sound of the tide swallowed all the unsaid words.