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Chapter 63: Chapter 63: Four Simpletons
Tong Yao’s eyes widened, fully asserting herself, "Try and smash it, and you’ll have to pay for the damages. Law and justice are on my side. We live in a society governed by the rule of law, you can’t just act recklessly as you wish."
"A young woman with bold words." The man moved closer to Tong Yao and threatened her, "I don’t feel like smashing things now, I feel like hitting someone."
His words did not intimidate Tong Yao, but they did shock the three men behind him, who rushed forward to hold the man back and persuade him.
"Brother Dazhuang, calm down. Why get angry with a young woman! As long as she stops selling from her stall here, it’s all good, beating a woman would not look good on you."
"Young lady, you better not provoke him any more. Brother Dazhuang has a bad temper and you, with your small frame, wouldn’t withstand one punch. You’d better push your cart away. There are many students in Secondary School No. 2, go set up your stall there. We promise not to bother you."
"Exactly, Secondary School No. 2 has even more students than this one; surely your business will do better there."
Seeing their alternating good-cop, bad-cop act, Tong Yao felt even more relaxed. These guys were nothing more than paper tigers.
Thinking of this, she refused directly: "I won’t set up a stall near Secondary School No. 2, it’s too far away from where I live."
Walking to Secondary School No.2 would take at least an hour, only a fool would do that.
Seeing Tong Yao refuse time after time, the men grew anxious. They had boasted grandly a while ago, and didn’t expect to be backing down in defeat so quickly. The four of them caught each other’s eye, deciding to intimidate her together.
They didn’t believe it! Four grown men surely could handle a young girl.
The four of them put on menacing faces, "Young lady, if you persist, don’t blame us for not being polite."
"If you dare lay a finger on me, I’ll scream ’harassment’ loud and clear. After all, we’re right outside a school, lot of witnesses. I might be scared by the four of you but not enough to keep me from standing my ground", Tong Yao retorted, keeping her tone steady even as she felt a wave of panic inside, "I know that you’re relatives of the school’s snack shop owner. I’m not afraid that I won’t be able to find you if you run."
Tong Yao had already worked out that the only one she was hurting with her stall was the snack shop inside the school. Ever since she set up her stall, the snack shop’s soda sales had plummeted. They were bound to be jealous of her milk tea business and it seemed they had acted quicker than she expected.
And their choices were rather dim-witted.
After hearing what Tong Yao had to say, the men were a bit flustered. They quickly defended themselves, "You ... you can’t make such baseless accusations. We have not touched you."
Sexual harassment is a serious charge nowadays; they could be imprisoned for it. Nobody could carry this kind of blame. They were all family men and having such a charge would cause them shame wherever they went and bring disgrace to their families in the village.
All they did was promise their relatives that they would scare Tong Yao away, but they surely didn’t want to get themselves involved in this.
Tong Yao suppressed her amusement and pointed to the man who had threatened to hit her, "He was the one saying he wanted to hit me. How am I to know whether he just wanted to take advantage of me under the pretext of wanting to hit me?"
The man quickly defended himself when he heard Tong Yao’s words directed towards him, "I was just helping my relatives and trying to scare you. I didn’t actually mean to hit you. If I really wanted to, I wouldn’t have wasted so much time talking to you. Now, young lady, remember to speak conscientiously and not make baseless accusations."
Good heavens!
If this turns into a big deal, he wouldn’t even need the police to sort him out, his wife would be enough to do the job.
When she heard this, a crafty look flashed in Tong Yao’s eyes. She suddenly switched to a smiling face, "Brother, you’ve been taken advantage of, haven’t you? Your relatives are jealous of my business and instead of talking to me themselves, they sent you. Isn’t this just causing harm? If something were to happen, they could simply wash their hands off the matter, but you guys would be left to deal with it."
"..."
After hearing what Tong Yao said, the men thought about it carefully and realized that this was indeed the case. Their faces turned sour.
They were only trying to help their relatives solve a problem, but said relatives had actually treated them like fools and scapegoats.
After exchanging glances, the leading man quickly took a stand, "We’re sorry, young lady. We meddled in your business. Please don’t call us sexual harassers. We have no ill intentions. You can set up your stall here. We won’t bother you anymore."
Tong Yao squinted her eyes and smiled, "Thank you for your understanding. I’ll give you a 20% discount if you come to buy milk tea in the future."
Compared to Tong Yao’s expression before and her expression now, it’s as though she had transformed. Earlier, all she wanted to do was solve the problem at hand and didn’t think too much about it. Now that they saw Tong Yao again, they realized she was actually quite pretty and were relieved they sobered up in time. If she had really begun to scream, people would definitely believe her word.
Four grown men harassing a young woman would be no minor offence.
Thinking about it this way, the men couldn’t wait to skedaddle out of this sensitive place.
Feeling that their relatives didn’t handle this matter appropriately, the four men left hastily without even bidding farewell to said relatives and went straight home.
"Girl, who were those people?" Seeing the men leave, He Fang hurried towards Tong Yao with her cart. The panic hadn’t left He Fang’s face and her voice was still shaky from the fright.
"Don’t be afraid, they won’t bother us anymore."
They had lost quite a bit of time because of this, and students would soon be heading to school. Tong Yao quickly began to unload her goods from the cart.
He Fang heaved a sigh of relief, but was still a bit scared. She was so frightened that she was weak and couldn’t muster the strength to move the goods. "I saw that man threatening to hit you and almost collapsed in fear. We’re just selling milk tea here, we haven’t offended anyone. They weren’t trying to collect protection money, were they?"
She had previously heard that in some cities, there were some hooligans who collected protection money, only to be caught by the police. How come there were more now?
"No." Tong Yao began to add water to the pot, explaining, "Those were the relatives of the school snack shop owner. They’re jealous because our milk tea sells well. More people might come to cause trouble in the future. When that happens, you just take care of Niuniu and the stall, and leave everything else to me."
Since the snack shop owner was green with envy, he wouldn’t give up that easily. It was only a matter of time before someone came to cause trouble. She needed to arrange everything properly so that she wouldn’t be caught off guard if anything happened.
"More people causing trouble?" He Fang, while worried, admired Tong Yao. "You’re really brave, you don’t seem scared of anything. Even a grown man wouldn’t be as calm as you in a situation like this. I was so scared I almost cried."
Tong Yao let out a giggle, her eyes sparkling brightly, "Fang sister, actually, I was pretty scared too. But what can I do? If I back down this time, I can never set up my stall here again."
In front of her were four burly men, and even though she knew they probably wouldn’t resort to violence, what if she was wrong? She would have surely been beaten today. Any one of their punches would be enough to hurt her.
How could she not be scared?
Fortunately, these four guys were not too difficult to deal with. Otherwise, this could have been truly problematic.
