A Book Can't Be Judged By The Cover Chapter 130: An Opening

A year had passed, and yet Haji still recognized the face of the man who killed his parents. Even without his mask on, Haji could tell that he was the one who got out of the truck as soon as it ramd their family’s car. It was because of him that Haji’s life fell apart. Because of him, Haji lost his entire family in a snap of a finger.

All that contempt and hatred channeled through Haji’s hand as he pressed the taser even harder at Ricardo’s leg. His teeth gnashed while the electricity got the better of him, he started seeing sparks in his gaze, but the taser didn’t knock him out. Sohow he managed to keep himself awake through sheer willpower alone.

Ricardo lifted his hand and strained his wrist with his remaining strength. He then brought it down, aiming at Haji’s neck so he could kill him for good. He didn’t want to take his life since it would give him more trouble. Nevertheless, now that it ca to this, he could indulge himself in a compromise. A body or two wouldn’t matter once they got the ransom. Besides, if they kept gumi hostage until the last minute, there’s no way the authorities would act on it.

Stab.

Haji scread in pain as the knife dug through his shoulder. Thanks to Ricardo’s current situation of being electrocuted, his aim beca off. Supposedly, he determinedly stabbed Haji by the neck, but his hand spasd at the last second, and the knife dug through his left shoulder. It cleanly pierced through in-between the joint and the socket, cutting off important tendons and rendering his entire left arm useless.

There was nothing he could do anyway since Ricardo’s n eventually got back to their senses, and they grabbed Haji without a second thought. If only he had a couple more seconds, he’d have been able to knock Ricardo unconscious. All the more better if he died on the spot.

With a knife on his shoulder, Haji got shoved toward the other side of the room. It seed like Ricardo’s n were about to give him a serious beating— even if they didn’t want to beat up a young man, they didn’t want to disobey Ricardo either. That would equate to death if they were even to consider doing it.

Haji wasn’t going to give them a chance to overpower him, though. By now, he’d beco hypersensitive, responding to the weakest of stimuli. His instincts had kicked over as well, granting him the guts to pull out the knife from his shoulder.

A spray of blood flew across the air as he tugged the knife free; so drops even splashed on gumi, who had been biting her lips this ti. She didn’t want to get into any more trouble, that’s why she kept quiet. As much as she wanted to help out, there was only so much she could do since thick ropes constricted her entire body. No matter how much she tried to struggle, the ropes just won’t budge.

"GAHHH!" Haji scread as he aid the knife at Ricardo’s throat. Desperation had finally overco him, and his adrenaline helped him go beyond his pain threshold.

Haji and Ricardo were basically all over each other, so the other guards couldn’t intervene. Before Ricardo could do anything, Haji plunged the knife at him, aiming at his throat. "DIE! DIE! DIE!" He repeatedly scread as his bloodshot eyes leaked blood due to the imnse pressure.

Before the knife could slit his throat clean, however, Ricardo caught the blade with his hand, and he pushed Haji out of the way. There was no doubt that Ricardo was more formidable than Haji since he was more muscular. In terms of raw strength, there was no chance that Haji could go head-to-head with him.

"What a flimsy little fella." Ricardo spat on the floor before glaring at Haji. "You’re pretty slippery, aren’t you, just like your parents."

Clearly, Ricardo was trying to rile Haji up just so he’d make a wrong move. This would prompt the other people in the room to jump on him, rendering him defenseless. As of now, though, Ricardo wanted to incur as much pain as he personally could at Haji. This was Ricardo’s way of revenge for everything that Haji’s parents put him through— as if killing them and putting his younger sister in a coma wasn’t enough.

Then again, there was always the option of holding gumi at gunpoint. Right now, Ricardo didn’t resort to such an underhanded trick since he was confident he’d be able to contain Haji by himself. If worse cos to worst, he’d have one of his guards point a gun at gumi before one-sidedly beating Haji up. Ideally, that would be the last stretch before killing Haji in cold blood.

Besides, Ricardo didn’t want to resort to using guns as much as possible since the neighbors would be alard by the gunshot. The guns were supposed to be accessories to ward off trespassers. They couldn’t use them, though, despite needing them at the mont. It would have been nice if every gun was equipped with a suppressor. Sohow, the thought of putting silencers on the gun flew out of Ricardo’s mind and now he regretted not thinking about it earlier. Then again, it would’ve been easy to just pop a bullet on soone without thinking about the neighbors, but Ricardo had better plans.

Once again, Haji charged at Ricardo, lashing out the knife in his hand. Even though he seed to be acting out on pure wrath alone, his moves were calculated, and even Ricardo had a hard ti dodging the slashes. Sneaking in so punches here and there, Ricardo decided to tire Haji out and then beat him to a pulp.

It didn’t take long before Haji ran out of gas, and Ricardo seized this chance by kicking him in the stomach. Haji slashed his knife out of impulse, wounding Ricardo’s ankles, but his actions made him let go of the knife. This was what everyone was waiting for.

Before Haji could get back on his feet, pairs of hands grabbed him on all his appendages, putting him in place and rendering him immobile. A sinister smile appeared on Ricardo’s face as he spat on the floor for a second ti. "You seem to be enjoying yourself, Sasajima," He emphasized his last na before slapping him right across his cheek.