Luo Yingbai spoke confidently: “Of course it’s true, your stall is in that… where was it? Oh, I can’t remember the exact place, but it’s definitely been overturned, you should…”
Believing it might be true, Zhang Li and his wife turned and ran.
Xia Xianning stood behind Luo Yingbai, laughing, “Was it really overturned?”
Luo Yingbai also laughed, “I don’t even know where their stall is. I’m afraid he’ll come back and beat me.”
“I’m afraid he’ll come back and beat you…” Xia Xianning raised an eyebrow, mimicking Luo Yingbai’s tone, and said with a half-smile, “If we go and overturn the stall now, it would be the same, right?”
Luo Yingbai turned to look at him, and they exchanged a glance, both bursting into laughter.
Zhang Li’s wife was coming to the hospital to see their daughter, so they couldn’t work. But this small food stall was their family’s entire source of income. Not wanting to miss a day’s business, they temporarily hired someone to watch the stall. When Zhang Li arrived, he saw a tattooed man walking towards him from a distance, who without a word, kicked over Zhang Li’s small food stall.
Zhang Li felt like his heart was shattering at the moment everything toppled over. He didn’t even have time to think about why Luo Yingbai had told him about the stall being overturned, and it took nearly half an hour before someone acted, striding up and angrily shouting: “What are you doing!”
The man turned and glanced at him, wearing a tank top and shorts on a hot day, revealing his muscular arms and calves, with a fierce look.
Zhang Li was instantly scared, his tone weakening: “Even if the food isn’t good, you could just not pay, why are you smashing my stall?”
The worker he had hired looked aggrieved: “Boss, he didn’t buy anything at all, he just came and started smashing things.”
The burly man glared: “What’s the problem? I just found this place annoying. If you had set up the stall better, would I have smashed it?”
Zhang Li was so angry his chest hurt, stammering: “You… you…”
The man punched him again, sneering: “It’s because you’re an eyesore standing in front of me, making me want to beat someone up.” After saying this, he swaggered away, leaving Zhang Li almost fainting from anger.
The punch wasn’t heavy, but being humiliated like this in front of everyone was incredibly embarrassing. Zhang Li gritted his teeth but decided to swallow his grievance – the other man seemed so arrogant, he might be part of some local organization, and Zhang Li couldn’t afford to offend him.
Zhang Li didn’t dare call the police, and could only check his things while trying to save face, muttering: “These days, you see all kinds of people, randomly smashing someone’s livelihood.”
This statement prompted onlookers to respond:
“How can you say that? If your stall wasn’t set up in such a bad spot, would people get angry?”
“Exactly. Why didn’t he smash anyone else’s stall? Why specifically yours?”
Looks like an outsider, too flashy. I think I’ve seen the guy who smashed the stall before, and he usually has a good temper. He must have been really provoked.”
“Right, this pie seller doesn’t seem like a good person.”
Zhang Li: “…”
He didn’t know that Luo Yingbai had cast a “resentment spell” on him, causing everyone who saw him to speak the same predetermined words for a period of time. Zhang Li just felt like everyone around him had gone crazy.
Not blaming the perpetrator, but instead criticizing the victim for being an eyesore?!
He hadn’t initially planned to report it, but now he was furious. He ran to the nearby police station to file a complaint and coincidentally saw the young man who had warned him about the stall standing at the entrance, playing with his phone.
Zhang Li had always thought Luo Yingbai was a police officer. Excited, he rushed over to explain his situation, hoping the police would help him.
Luo Yingbai didn’t even look up, eyes still on his phone, impatiently saying: “Yeah, I know. Didn’t I already warn you? Your stall got smashed, and now you’re here talking to me about it?”
Zhang Li was on the verge of a breakdown, shouting: “Don’t you police do anything about this kind of thing?!”
Luo Yingbai finally looked up, his face full of contempt: “Handle it? How? I’d say the problem is with your family.
Why else would someone specifically kidnap your daughter? Specifically smash your stall? Specifically beat you? The reason must be with you… Oh, did you mix something bad into your pies? Go back. I’ll contact the relevant departments to thoroughly check your ingredients and hygiene.”
Zhang Li roared: “What kind of attitude is this? I’m reporting you!”
Luo Yingbai opened the doorway: “Oh, go ahead. My brother is the chief.”
Zhang Li: “…”
He turned and walked away without another word, limping from anger.
He was carrying several lunch boxes and walked to the hospital room door, just in time to hear his wife and child talking inside. His wife’s voice was low: “Anyway, just listen to your mom. When your dad comes back, quickly apologize to him, don’t argue with him. Just tell him that it was because you were playing around that they kidnapped you, and it won’t happen again, understand?”
Immediately following was the daughter’s naive voice: “But I wasn’t playing around…”
His wife said: “If you weren’t playing around, why did those two people not kidnap other children? Ruirui, be good, just tell mom and don’t make dad angry anymore, okay? Dad works very hard outside…”
Seeing this seemingly familiar scene, Zhang Li could no longer listen. He strode into the hospital room and roared: “Stop talking! Shut up!”
His wife and child turned their heads together, their faces identical with terror.
This terror was like a sharp needle that instantly punctured Zhang Li’s anger, instead making this uneducated man feel a strange sense of desolation.
He had a difficult day, with all the hardships inflicted by strangers. But at this moment, seeing his daughter treated the same way, Zhang Li realized that these were actually given to her by himself and her mother.
In a corner of the hospital, someone was crying heart-wrenchingly.
If in this case, the one who died was his daughter…
Ruirui saw him silent and timidly said: “Dad, I’m sorry, I was playing around…”
“No,” Zhang Li took a deep breath, uncomfortably patting her head, “Dad doesn’t blame you. The bad guys are not good… Dad and Mom will protect Ruirui and stay far away from bad people.”
After speaking, even his nose felt sour, partly from shame, and partly… from grievance.
The little girl was easy to comfort. After hearing a few words, she was both surprised and happy, quickly becoming excited.
Zhang Li felt heartache mentioning it: “Fixing the car cost 872.5 yuan. Including today’s lost business, it’s probably around a thousand.”
Ruirui suddenly said from behind: “Mom and Dad, there’s money in my teddy bear.”
Zhang Li’s wife turned around and saw her daughter holding a stuffed animal almost as big as herself. The daughter laboriously dug in the bear’s pocket and really pulled out a small stack of bills.
She was startled and went to take the money to count: “Where did this bear come from?”
Ruirui said: “The police uncle gave it to me.”
Zhang Li’s wife said: “Are these money someone dropped? We need to return them…”
Midway through her sentence, her counting fingers suddenly stopped – there were a few loose bills mixed in the stack, which added up to exactly 1372.5.
This came so suddenly that Xu Zhe was startled, and when he looked up, he saw a tall young man in a police uniform standing in front of him, holding his phone and looking at the Weibo post he had just edited.
