Chapter 132: Iron Man (Please Vote, Please Subscribe)

“Then just go up to him and spit in his face to show your indignation! That’s what all those football stars like Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, and even the young Ronaldo do.”
“No way, people who spit at others always get red-carded. I’ve never spat at anyone in my life.” Zhanbo had always been a good boy since childhood, never having done such a thing.
“What are you afraid of? This is out on a busy road—you’ll never see him again in your life. What could he possibly do to you?” Hu Yifei continued to egg him on.
“No, I can’t. My master taught me: ‘The way that can be spoken of is not the constant way; always leave a margin in all things!’”
Lu Ziqiao finally couldn’t hold back and blurted out, “Zhanbo, did you learn to drive at Wudang Mountain or something?”
In the end, under their relentless encouragement, Lu Zhanbo spat at the black Honda, marking the first time in his life he had done such a thing. To his own surprise, it actually felt rather liberating.
“Look at what a day this is! My dear Zhanbo has finally vented his emotions like a real man, and that wretched announcer is actually going to appear on TV. We really should celebrate!” Hu Yifei said cheerfully, throwing shade at both of them without a shred of mercy.
The car drove onto the overpass, but all the vehicles came to a halt—a traffic jam.
“Oh no, looks like there’s a jam up ahead,” Zhanbo said, making a sound of dismay as he stopped the car. But when he saw the black Honda Jeep, his face turned ashen. Groaning, he said to Hu Yifei, “Sis… you lied to me!”
“How did I lie to you?” Hu Yifei asked, puzzled.
“You said I’d never see that Jeep again in my life!” The black Jeep had stopped right next to Zhanbo, and a burly man inside was glaring at him fiercely. Zhanbo was so frightened he didn’t dare even turn his head.
“Haha, perfect! If they dare provoke us, we’ll show them what we’re made of!” Lu Ziqiao said eagerly, happy to see chaos.
“Don’t… don’t be rash. We… we don’t even know how many of them there are,” Zhanbo replied reluctantly.
Lu Ziqiao rolled his eyes. “There are four and a half men in our car. We basically have the advantage!”
Zhanbo thought for a moment. “Isn’t it three and a half?”
Zeng Xiaoxian laughed and mocked, “Ziqiao means I count as one, Ziqiao counts as one, Yifei counts as two, and you count as half—so that’s four and a half!”
“You! I’ll have you know I… I’m not afraid of them!” Lu Zhanbo glared at Zeng Xiaoxian indignantly and then muttered, “It’s just that our car can’t move. If a fight really breaks out, it’ll be hard for us to run away.”
A flock of crows flew by as Hu Yifei and the others almost spat blood from exasperation.
“Xiao Xie’s Bumblebee is up ahead!” Zhanbo pointed to the yellow sports car not far ahead.
“I’ll go ask what happened.” Hu Yifei opened the car door and walked straight to the Bumblebee, asking Xiao Xie, “Xiao Xie, what’s going on up ahead?”

“There’s been an accident up ahead. I’m not sure about the details yet. Guangu, you all stay in the car. I’ll go check.” Xiao Xie opened his door and got out.
“I’ll come too! I’ve never seen a car accident before,” Wanyu volunteered, her face full of excitement, as if she were going to a movie.
“I’ll go have a look as well!” Meijia chimed in.
“I’ll go to Mr. Zeng’s car,” Guangu said, seeing that he was the only one left in their car and deciding to join Lu Zhanbo and the others.
“What!” Zeng Xiaoxian was shocked to hear from Guangu that there’d been an accident up ahead and that they wouldn’t be moving anytime soon. He exclaimed, “No, I have to run to the TV station!”
“How far is it from here to the TV station?” Zeng Xiaoxian got out of the car, doing warm-up stretches as he asked Lu Zhanbo.
“Thirty kilometers,” Zhanbo replied.
“Thirty kilometers? Okay! I’ve got fifty-two minutes. Thirty kilometers in fifty-two minutes—use a calculator and tell me how fast I need to run!” Zeng Xiaoxian demanded.
“Fifty-two minutes is three thousand one hundred twenty seconds. Thirty kilometers is thirty thousand meters. Divide that! Congratulations, you’ve just matched Jamaica’s nine-point-six-nine world record!” Zhanbo’s IQ in this area was frighteningly high, though his EQ was abysmally low.
“Ah! Ouch!” Even before he started running, Zeng Xiaoxian bent over clutching his leg, pretending to be in pain. “I forgot I used to have an Achilles tendon injury!”
Lu Ziqiao couldn’t help but mock, “Did you twist it hurdling or something?”
Zeng Xiaoxian put on his most pained expression and replied blandly, “I hurt it playing golf.” He even mimed a golf swing as he spoke.
“…” The three of them stared speechlessly as Zeng Xiaoxian lied through his teeth.
Meanwhile, at the accident scene, it was a bus and a truck that had collided. The truck driver had already been rescued, but the bus was nearly dangling off the overpass, half its body suspended in the air. Those inside the bus dared not move, and those outside didn’t dare touch the vehicle for fear of disrupting its balance. The area around the bus had been cordoned off by traffic police, who were waiting for a crane to come and pull the bus to safety.
“How dangerous!” Hu Yifei cried, seeing the bus with half its body jutting out over the overpass.
“Save them, quickly!” Wanyu, watching the teetering bus, felt her initial excitement turn instantly into anxiety.
“Hey, where’s Xiao Xie?” Chen Meijia suddenly noticed that Xiao Xie had disappeared at some point.
“Are we going to die?” As they looked at their unconscious, bloodied driver, the passengers on the bus began whispering fearfully among themselves, a wave of terror spreading through the cabin.
“We can’t just sit here. We have to open the door and get out.”
“Mom, I’m scared.”

“Don’t move!”
…
Because the driver had passed out in the crash, no one dared go to the front to press the button to open the door. Seeing the bus swaying dangerously, someone in the back finally lost their nerve and grabbed the safety hammer, smashing open the rear window.
“Don’t jump!” The passengers at the front shouted when they saw those in the back preparing to climb out the window.
“I’m not stupid. I’m not going to die here with you lot!” With that, the passenger leapt out of the rear window without hesitation. The moment he jumped, the balance of the bus was instantly broken.
Creeeeak! The bus emitted a spine-chilling groan as it plunged off the overpass.
“Ah…” The passengers inside were paralyzed by terror, their minds going blank as they let out instinctive screams.
Those watching on the roadside couldn’t bear to look and turned away.
The traffic police standing nearby were all shocked, then immediately glared furiously at the passenger who’d jumped from the bus. If only they’d waited for the crane, everything would have been fine, but thanks to his jump, over forty passengers’ lives were now lost because of his selfishness.
“Why are you all staring at me? I was just trying to save myself,” the passenger who’d jumped down muttered defensively, trying to cover up his guilt with bravado under the angry stares.
“Why are they still screaming?” Chen Meijia, her hands over her eyes, wondered aloud. The overpass was only a dozen meters high, and nearly a minute had passed—why were the screams still going on, and why hadn’t they heard the bus hit the ground?
“Iron… Iron Man! There’s really an Iron Man!” Wanyu shouted joyfully, seeing a red-and-gold figure suddenly appear beneath the bus.
“I must be dreaming!” Hu Yifei pinched Chen Meijia hard as she stared at Iron Man, who hovered in midair, holding the bus aloft with both hands.
“Ow, Yifei, why did you pinch me?” Chen Meijia rubbed her arm, and seeing the shock on Hu Yifei’s face, followed her gaze—then couldn’t help but exclaim, “Holy crap, it really is Iron Man!”
“Iron Man! Iron Man, over here, over here!” Lu Zhanbo cheered excitedly, waving his arms.
…
For now, Xiao Xie still didn’t want to reveal his true identity in front of everyone, since in the city, the existence of superhumans often led to unnecessary trouble. Still, even if Xiao Xie appeared as Iron Man, it wouldn’t affect the accumulation of admiration points, because people were worshipping this real-life Iron Man, not the one from the movies.