Chapter 128 Stefan, Please, Don't Die
The bullet tore through the air with a sharp whistle, grazing past Cecilia's ear.
A scorching blast of heat exploded, knocking her back a stumbling step.
"Watch out!"
Stefan grabbed Cecilia's wrist and yanked her entire body behind him. The movement was rough and swift—a physical instinct faster than thought.
"Get down!"
He growled, pushing her toward the ground while quickly crouching himself, using a thick concrete planter by the street as temporary cover.
Cecilia's knees slammed hard against the cold ground, her mind going blank from this sudden violent change.
Just now, was that gunfire?
Not a movie, not special effects, but real gunfire—the kind that could instantly tear life apart.
More intense bursts of gunfire poured down on them. The planter in front of them was hit by bullets, sending stone chips flying and dirt spraying everywhere.
"Don't lift your head!"
Stefan pressed her entire body firmly in front of him, using his own body as her second shield.
Cecilia could feel his palm covering her back—solid and steady, radiating a heart-stopping warmth.
Chaotic screams, cries, the sound of heavy objects hitting the ground, all mixed with the endless gunfire. In just a few seconds, the entire old street had fallen from a paradise of everyday life into a hell of blood and fire.
Cecilia's heart pounded wildly, mixing fear with an inexplicable tremor.
Through a gap in the planter, she saw a passerby who had just run across the street. Before he could feel relieved, a stray bullet hit his back.
The person pitched forward and never got up again. Blood quickly stained the cobblestone street beneath him.
This scene made Cecilia's blood freeze.
Death—so easy, so sudden.
"Follow me!"
During a brief pause in the gunfire, Stefan pulled her up, keeping his body extremely low as they moved quickly along the wall.
"Over there!"
He pointed toward a more solid building corner not far away.
Cecilia nodded. At this moment, her brain had given up thinking, completely entrusting her safety to his judgment.
She trusted him.
In this life-or-death moment, this Stefan who had just been testing her had become her only support.
The two moved one after another, weaving quickly through gaps in the gunfire.
The smell of gunpowder was sharp and unpleasant, mixed with the stench of blood, making her want to vomit.
Each of Cecilia's breaths came with a burning pain, her lungs feeling filled with sand. Her body trembled slightly from fear, but her steps didn't dare pause for even a moment.
She didn't want to die.
She had finally gotten a new body to live in. She still had revenge to take, still had Robert and Mabel to protect.
She absolutely couldn't die here!
A loud bang—a gas canister at a street-side food stall was hit by a bullet and exploded. A massive fireball shot into the sky, blowing off the entire roof.
The scorching shockwave, carrying debris, swept in all directions.
Stefan once again shielded Cecilia beneath him, using his back to take most of the impact.
A piece of red-hot metal scraped past his shoulder, tearing through his dark casual jacket and leaving a charred mark.
"Are you okay?" Cecilia's voice carried a tremor.
"I'm fine, go!"
Stefan didn't look back, just pulled her forward.
Just as they were about to reach that safe corner, a dark object came flying out of a second-floor window at an angle, cutting through the air with a sharp sound.
The thing traced an ominous arc through the air, falling precisely toward where the two of them stood.
A grenade!
Cecilia's pupils contracted violently the moment she recognized what it was.
Time slowed to an extreme in that moment.
She could see the grenade tumbling through the air, could see the tiny sparks from the burning fuse.
They couldn't escape.
This thought pierced through her entire body like ice.
In that split second of despair, a tremendous force suddenly struck from the side.
Stefan made a move that Cecilia couldn't understand at all.
Using all his strength, he violently pushed her toward the safe area inside the corner and threw himself forward without hesitation.
"Stefan!"
Cecilia's cry was completely swallowed by a deafening explosion.
The terrible blast went off less than nine feet from her.
The blast wave and shockwave were blocked mostly by Stefan's body, but the force still made her feel like her internal organs had shifted, her ears filled with a jumble of sounds before the world instantly lost all sound.
Rubble and dust came crashing down on her head.
"Stefan!" Ignoring the pain throughout her body, Cecilia struggled to get up from the ground.
The dust gradually cleared.
Stefan lay there, motionless.
His back—that expensive casual jacket was already blown to shreds, a bloody mess. Blood was gushing from his wounds, quickly staining his clothes and the ground beneath him.
"Stefan?"
Cecilia knelt beside him, reaching out with trembling hands to touch him, yet not daring to.
She was afraid that one touch would shatter him.
"Stefan, wake up!"
She pushed his shoulder, her palm touching a sticky warmth.
No response.
He lay there quietly, that face usually full of shrewdness and calculation now buried in the dust, impossible to see clearly.
Cecilia's heart felt like it was being crushed bit by bit as time passed.
Why? Why did he do this?
Was he crazy? Wasn't he a businessman who put profit above all else?
"You said I was your chess piece. Aren't you the best at weighing pros and cons?" Cecilia murmured, her voice broken.
"For a chess piece like me, was it worth it? Is your life worth so little?"
Countless questions exploded in her mind, but she got no answers.
"Say something! Stefan!"
Panic.
A kind of panic she hadn't experienced even after her rebirth—like cold seawater, completely drowning her.
"Don't die."
Cecilia's voice carried a sob as she carefully turned Stefan's body over.
A trickle of blood was slowly sliding from his temple, running down his sharply defined face.
"Stefan!"
Cecilia's voice completely lost control. With trembling fingers, she reached for his carotid artery.
Cold, weak.
He still had a pulse.
He wasn't dead yet!
This realization instantly flooded strength into Cecilia's nearly collapsed body.
She couldn't let him die here!
"Wake up! You wake up right now!"
Cecilia slapped his face hard, trying to wake him.
"Stefan, didn't you want to see me win the national championship? Didn't you say this was an opportunity for me to grow quickly?"
"Get up! Get up and watch!"
He still showed no response, lying on the ground motionless, his life force so weak it could be extinguished at any moment.
"You can't die. I haven't gotten my revenge yet. I haven't made Rufus pay."
"If you die, who will help me? What am I supposed to do alone?"
Cecilia's tears finally fell uncontrollably, dropping one by one onto Stefan's dust-covered face.
"Stefan, please, don't die."