77: Chapter 77 Heading to the "Battlefield"

As the wisps of blue smoke rose, the scene from earlier involuntarily flashed before his eyes.

Meeting De Hua, striking up a conversation, getting an autograph...

At this moment, Chen Sheng felt he was lucky.

Lucky to have encountered a star like De Hua, who possessed both great character and an excellent reputation.

He imagined that if it had been Hua Kun instead, the outcome might have been entirely different.

“Whew~” Along with a puff of smoke, Chen Sheng exhaled a heavy breath of turbid air. He then pulled out his phone, opened green bubble, and posted a photo of himself and De Hua with a simple caption: “Brother Hua treated me to breakfast.” Just like that, he shared it to his Moments.

Three minutes... no, one minute later, his Moments exploded as expected.

Simultaneously, his phone began to ring.

The first person to call was Old Yu. Chen Sheng figured the guy had been fishing all night again with no luck; bored and playing with his phone, he must have just seen the post.

Yu Yu: “Slander! This is absolute slander!”

“Holy crap! Old Chen, is this for real? You didn't Photoshop this, did you? Or did you just meet someone who looks a lot like Heavenly King Hua...” Either way, he simply didn't want to believe that Chen Sheng had met the man himself.

“Haven't you seen the news? Brother Hua has been in Shu City for the past two days filming a show,” Chen Sheng said leisurely.

“Holy crap! Holy craaaaaap! Old Chen, you really deserve to die, man. You've been having some serious dog-shit luck lately, damn it!”

Beep, beep—

Chen Sheng was just about to show off a bit more when Old Yu hung up on him, leaving his desire to brag hanging uncomfortably in mid-air.

Fortunately, Old Yu's call was like a signal. Soon, An Xiaonuan—who was just about to head out—Fatty, his cousin, his older cousin... many people close to Chen Sheng called one after another. Their tones were so sour with envy that Chen Sheng grinned so wide his gums showed.

Then there was his Moments; the 99+ comments were enough to say it all.

Having satisfied his urge to show off through the phone calls, Chen Sheng lit another cigarette and entered a sort of 'sage mode'.

After finishing the cigarette, Chen Sheng folded up his chair. The dazed look in his eyes cleared, instantly becoming sharp. He took out his phone, searched for security supply stores, and followed the navigation to the nearest Night Hawk Security Supplies. Under the owner's recommendation, he bought a high-pressure pepper spray with a reported effective radius of one meter and a compact telescopic baton.

With his gear gathered, Chen Sheng drove to the Kangsheng Office Building and parked in a nearby public lot. Checking the time, it wasn't even 9:00 AM yet. He reclined his seat, lay back halfway, set an alarm on his phone, and closed his eyes.

He wasn't sleeping; he was mentally rehearsing his next moves. He had to ensure everything went perfectly.

The alarm set for 10:10 soon went off. Chen Sheng snapped his eyes open. After checking once more that the pepper spray, baton, and other preparations were on him, he quickly pulled open the car door and headed straight for the top of Building C of the Kangsheng Office Building.

He took the elevator directly to the 32nd floor, but to reach the rooftop, he had to go up one more floor via the fire escape.

Chen Sheng stepped softly up the stairs to the fire door, pushed it open slightly to peek through, and then slipped outside quickly.

Reaching the rooftop, he immediately scanned his surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was in sight did he let out half a sigh of relief.

He couldn't be blamed for being so cautious; no one knew if the person who threw things from heights would scout the location beforehand. In short, it was better to be safe than sorry.

Chen Sheng carefully circled the rooftop, checking every nook and cranny. Once he was certain no one else was there, he finally exhaled the other half of his breath.

However, that lap around the roof led him to a good find.

In an inconspicuous corner sat a small pile of bricks.

Judging by the moss on them, Chen Sheng estimated they dated back to when the building was first constructed.

The workers must have been careless during their final inventory and left them behind.

For Chen Sheng, this was a stroke of luck.

They say there's no street fight a brick can't solve; if there is, use two.

So, clutching a brick in each hand, Chen Sheng returned to the area facing the fire door and hid behind a decorative wall at an angle.

Hiding here, if anyone came upstairs, he would be able to hear them as long as they made even a little noise.

Moreover, whether due to poor craftsmanship or intentional design, the decorative wall had some curves that served as excellent visual cover.

Most importantly, if he were discovered, he could use the wall to play a game of cat-and-mouse, buying more time for a counterattack.

Standing behind the wall with nothing to do for the moment, he instinctively reached for his cigarettes but quickly pulled his hand back. “Can't smoke!”

If the other person came up suddenly and the smell of smoke hadn't dissipated, it would alert them and they'd leave immediately—that would be a disaster.

If you don't kill the snake, you'll suffer its bite. If he let the person slip away this time, there might be more than one victim next time.

“Is there anything else I haven't done?” Chen Sheng forced his attention away from his craving for a smoke.

Suddenly, he slapped his forehead. “How could I forget something so important?”

Chen Sheng hurriedly pulled out his phone and set it to silent. After a thought, feeling that wasn't secure enough, he simply turned on airplane mode. If the phone rang at a critical moment or while he was gathering evidence, the problem wouldn't just be whether it was a 'disaster' or not.

Just then, a loud bang came from the nearby fire door, as if someone had kicked it open violently. Following that, a voice full of curses and heavy breathing reached Chen Sheng's ears.

“F*cking reports! I stayed up for three f*cking nights, and that bastard rejected it with one casual sentence...”

“That f*cking b*tch, hooking up with...”

Chen Sheng silently glanced at his phone screen; it was 11:00 AM. He was glad he hadn't smoked that cigarette, or he would have been exposed.

He pressed his body closer to the decorative wall, holding a brick in one hand and pepper spray in the other—prepared for both a 'civilized' and 'martial' confrontation.

However, the turn of events was somewhat outside Chen Sheng's expectations.

The man was ranting wildly about the company, the boss, the manager, the supervisor, his colleagues, and even society...

Ugh! The cursing was quite foul.

But after a bout of furious venting, the man suddenly went quiet. He stood at the edge of the rooftop, staring blankly at the busy traffic through the gaps in the railing. With a 'click,' he lit a cigarette. He puffed on it very lightly—so lightly that even the breeze seemed to take more than its fair share of the smoke.

He smoked very slowly, too, until the cherry had burned halfway down and the heat reached his fingers. Only then did the man drop the butt and stomp it out firmly.

The man took a deep breath, wiped the madness from his face, and replaced it with a smile that had clearly been practiced a thousand times. He straightened his tie and walked quickly back toward the fire escape.

...