Sweeping Wind

There were a lot of young people in the bustling bar. Annina drank a few glasses of beer and went dancing on the dance floor. Xia Lei sat quietly by himself at a small table, thinking over some things.

He’d used the high-precision lathe eight times in one day’s work. Other than the one time he’d used it for the purpose of fixing Annina’s motorcycle, he’d used his X-ray vision on it the other seven times. In those seven times, his left eye had recorded all of the machine’s inner structure and circuitry. He recalled the images and the recorded imagery appeared as pictures in his mind.

‘The lathe in Annina’s workshop is not the most advanced one in Germany but it way surpasses China’s best standards. If we compare the difference, it would take China at least 30 years to catch up. I need to upgrade my lathes and try to get more interaction with even more advanced lathes. The structure of the lathe is not most important - the Computer Numerical Control is. How can I solve this problem?’ Xia Lei pondered.

The difference between high-precision lathes and normal lathes lay in the CNC. The highest precision lathes cannot function without the CNC, so understanding the structure is not enough and he’d need to get its CNC. The problem was this - he could see the structure of the machine with his left eye, but how could he see an intangible thing like the CNC?

‘I have to find some way to interact with more models of high-precision machines; the more advanced the better. I’d also need to gain more knowledge about CNC. It’ll be best if I can research this. If I can’t, I’d have to find some way to steal related software or computer chips.’ Xia Lei decided quietly on his intentions.

He was clearly not a spy but what he was doing now was rather spy-like. He had a choice before he came to Germany but now that he was here he had no other options. He had to finish the mission quickly and get out of danger as soon as he could.

The DJ in the bar put on music with a very heavy bass and the youth on the dance floor started going wild, moving their bodies with abandon.

Xia Lei looked at the dance floor and quickly spotted Annina. She was, unquestionably, the prettiest woman on the dance floor. Several men were dancing around her, trying to entice her to dance with one of them. Annina, however, seemed to enjoy being surrounded by them and their attention and danced excitedly.

At that moment, a black youth reached and touched Annina’s waist.

“What are you doing?” Annina looked back at him and glared.

The greasy youth smiled nastily, “What are you pretending for?”

“Shameless!” scolded Annina, “You’re gross!”

Another black youth took the chance and touched Annina’s bottom.

Annina turned around and slapped the second youth on the face.

Slap! She had hit hard and the slap could be heard clearly over the music.

“You bitch!” The youth who’d been slapped was furious and grabbed Annina’s golden hair, pulling her head down.

The bar’s security strode over.

Several black youths suddenly appeared, hindering the security guy. One of them raised a tattooed finger and pointed at the security guard, saying, “Don’t move. This doesn’t concern you. You make enemies of us Black Dynasty, you die.”

The security guy seemed afraid of the group of youths and took two steps back.

Xia Lei stood and walked towards the dance floor but stopped at the edge.

He’d seen the first youth touch Annina and wanted to help her when she turned around to scold him but he suddenly remembered his identity and his goal. He knew that it was no problem for him to take care of a few young guys but the problem was that if he hurt someone, Essen police would investigate and a Chinese person who knew kung-fu would stand out very much indeed. Furthermore, a worse possibility would be him getting deported for breaking German laws. Long Bing and himself would fail the mission if that were the case!

While Xia Lei was stressing and hesitating over what to do, the youth who’d grabbed Annina’s hair dragged her towards the back door.

Annina shouted loudly for help but nobody dared to help her. Nobody seemed willing to offend an infamous local underground gang for the sake of a stranger.

Xia Lei was struck by a thought and walked quickly towards the back door. He slipped outside before the black youth and Annina exited.

Beyond the back door was an alley with a few large rubbish bins. The waste from the bar went in those and a sour stench which could be smelt a mile off came from them. The smell worked as a deterrent and no one was willing to come close. The alley was also dim and had no lights.

Xia Lei took off his shirt and covered his face, then hid himself beside a rubbish bin.

The back door was pushed open and a few black youths dragged Annina out.

“Bitch!” The youth holding onto Annina’s hair pushed her to the ground and said fiercely, “You dare slap me? You’ll see the might of the black later. Hahaha!”

The youths surrounded Annina.

“Wha,what are you going to do?” Annina said fearfully. She’d lost all her arrogance and her heart was full of terror.

“Do?” The leader smiled lecherously, “We’re not going to pass up on a free white girl. We’ll sell you on the black market after we’ve had our fun. White girls like you are definitely worth quite a bit of money.”

“Lukas!” Annina suddenly shouted, “Lukas!”

“Who’s she calling?” said a black youth.

“Her boyfriend?” a black youth mocked, “Or is it batman? She’s trying to get a hero to save her!”

The leader spoke, “She had someone with her and that person may have already called the police. We need to leave. Take this bitch with us to our base. We’ll make full use of her!”

“Yeah!” a black youth smiled lasciviously, “White girls like this are very clean. We can just go raw. Haha!”

The group of black youths laughed.

The leader grabbed Annina by the hair again and pulled her up from the ground.

“Please, let me go! I’ll give you my wallet! I have a thousand euro!” cried Annina.

The leader sneered, “What you have belongs to us now. Obey me or I’ll kill you right now!”

The youths dragged Annina towards the alley’s exit.

At that moment, a figure suddenly came out from behind the rubbish bins with a brick in hand. The figure went to the back-most youth of the group and struck him on the head.

Bam! A muffled sound could be heard before the youth tumbled to the ground.

Before the other youths could react, the masked person struck another youth who was turning back to see what had happened.

Bam! There was another dull thud and the brick broke. The youth who was turning back fell to the ground as well.

“Get him!” the leader roared as he reached for his gun.

The masked person suddenly zoomed through the gap between two black youth and punched the leader in the throat. He was as quick as a person jumping from the top of a building. The leader barely had time to blink before the punch connected with his throat.

The throat was one of the vulnerable parts of the human body and a person would be temporarily suffocated after being struck heavily there. The leader would not be able to draw his gun and attack while gasping for air.

The remaining two youths finally figured out what was happening and reached for their guns but the masked man was much faster than they were. Both his hands chopped at the hands of the youths and they shouted in pain. The masked man’s hands were like hardened steel.

He struck blows like the wind on the two targets. An uncountable number of blows rained upon the two youths in the blink of an eye. In just a few seconds, the two youths were beaten black and blue and they collapsed to the ground.

Annina stared dumbly at the masked man who had saved her. She felt that he looked familiar but her reactions were slow and she could not tell who he was based on skin, hair or body shape.

At that moment, the leader caught his breath and clutched at his still-hurting throat. “You dare make enemies of Black Dynasty? You’ll die! I swear I’ll use your head as a bedside piss-pot!” he threatened in a strange voice.

Xia Lei kicked him in the face and he shut up completely.

“You…” Annina looked at Xia Lei. Though terror had released its hold on her, her mind was still a mess and she still could not act like her normal self.

“Leave! Quickly!” Xia Lei turned and ran out the alley with those words. He did not want Annina to see his face.

Lending her help was already a mistake. If he let her see his face he would be in even bigger trouble.

Annina watched Xia Lei’s rapidly disappearing back and said after a while, “Strange, I think I’ve seen him before…”

Xia Lei removed the shirt from his face and put it on as he ran. Two minutes later, he returned to the bar and quickly entered the bathroom. He washed his hands and face, then straightened his shirt before walking out of the bathroom.

Annina walked in from the back door at that time. She looked around and quickly discovered Xia Lei.

Xia Lei walked to her and pretended to look surprised, “What happened, Miss Annina? Why are you so dirty?”

“You…” Annina asked tentatively, “You don’t know anything?”

“My stomach wasn’t feeling too good and I was in the bathroom earlier. Tell me, what happened?” said Xia Lei.

There was a flash of disappointment in Annina’s eyes. “Let’s go. I’ll tell you on the way.”

“Ah, okay. Let’s go.” Xia Lei followed her out of the bar.

Xia Lei climbed on the Harley-Davidson Breakout and reached to hold Annina by the waist.

Annina’s nose twitched. She could suddenly smell a sour stench and it made her recall something. A small smile appeared in the corners of her lips.

The Harley-Davidson Breakout motorcycle roared its way into traffic at the speed of a sweeping wind.