Just then, a commotion broke out from outside the crowd.
"Dashan! Dashan!"
Several men pushed their way through the onlookers and stepped in. At the head of them was a tall, burly man with a face full of coarse, fleshy jowls.
The moment Dashan saw them, his eyes lit up.
"Second Brother, you guys finally showed up! I found this damn woman, but she refuses to come back no matter what I say, and this idiot even dared to hit me. When I get back, I'm definitely going to kill him."
Xiaoli's face drained of all color in an instant, and she slumped right onto the ground. It's over, it's over, she and her brother are dead for sure.
The old woman, who was Dashan's mother, also perked up at once, yelling at the top of her lungs, "Second Son, Third Son, you've come just in time! Drag this little slut away. She doesn't care about her child, abandons her husband, and even dares to run away. Who knows if she's got some other man out there."
Dashan wiped the blood off his face, a vicious, cruel smile spreading across his face. "Shi Xiaoli, just wait till I get you home. I'll teach you a lesson for refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit, you cheap whore."
He waved his hand, and the other men moved to drag Shi Xiaoli and Bowen away.
"Stop right there!"
Xiao Mandong stepped forward, calling out to the group. "You smashed my medicine, and you're trying to leave before paying me back for it?"
The men froze for a second, turning to look at Xiao Mandong, then glancing over at Dashan.
Dashan had not expected this woman to pop up and interfere again. He glared at Xiao Mandong fiercely. "You little bitch, are you never going to quit? I'm warning you, you'd better stop looking for trouble!"
If this woman hadn't messed things up, he would have already dragged Shi Xiaoli away. If there weren't so many people around right now, he would have taken care of this little woman right here.
Xiao Mandong did not back down an inch, speaking up loudly. "Your family matters have nothing to do with me, but is it okay to smash other people's things and not pay for them? Who even are you people? Not even the bad elements would be so bold as to run wild and act with such impunity here."
The surrounding onlookers started chiming in one after another.
"Right, smashing things and refusing to pay? That's just like bandits!"
Look how brutally they were beating people just now, it's terrifying to watch."
Hearing Xiao Mandong and the crowd's words, the men's expressions changed instantly. "Little girl, you can't spout nonsense and slap random labels on people."
"A young woman like you should be more careful about what you do," one of the men said, his tone laced with open threat.
"You're threatening me?" Xiao Mandong raised her voice, drawing stares from everyone around them.
"Everyone here heard that, right? They must be bad elements. They even dare to threaten ordinary citizens. My medicine was smashed by them, and it's only right that I get compensated, isn't it? Now they're intimidating and threatening me, I'm so scared."
The man with the full, fleshy face gave a smirk. "Fine, how much do you say it is?"
Xiao Mandong pointed at the mess on the ground. "That was life-saving medicine. The medicinal herbs are extremely rare and precious. Five hundred yuan is just the cost, not even counting the time I spent simmering it."
Dashan's face turned bright green. "You fucking dare to extort us? Cut the crap and tell me the real price. I've got a kid at home, I don't have time to waste here with you."
The old woman was gripping Xiaoli's arm tight, her mouth not stopping for a second.
"What medicine could possibly be worth five hundred yuan? You little hussy, why don't you just go rob people?"
Xiao Mandong took a step forward.
"Whether I'm extorting you or not, we can just call the police. The public security officers can verify it. This medicine was being simmered for a regiment commander in the military region, and the leaders at the military region can vouch for that."
Xiao Mandong deliberately brought up the military region to put pressure on these people. People in this era had an innate sense of respect and fear for service members, and she was sure that would make them rein in their behavior a lot. She was also worried that these thugs would lose their minds and turn violent, and she knew she couldn't fight all of them off by herself.
She had already asked the aunt who first suspected they were human traffickers to go call the police. As long as she could stall for a little while longer, the police would arrive soon. If this girl really wasn't this man's wife, then she would have done a good deed.
The old woman's face went pale the second she heard the words "public security" and "military region".
Hearing Xiao Mandong's words, Dashan dropped his harsh look and put on a fawning, obsequious smile. "Miss, I really didn't do it on purpose. Could you... let this go?" He absolutely could not go to the police station. What if Shi Xiaoli started spouting off nonsense there?
Dashan's words drew snickers from the surrounding crowd. "Hundreds of yuan worth of stuff, and he thinks a few soft words will make her just let it go? No way, he's daydreaming!"
"This wife is such a spendthrift. She ran away from home just over one yuan, and now they have to pay five hundred yuan for that smashed medicine. That's such a stupid loss. That much money would take half a lifetime to pay off!"
Seeing that Xiao Mandong would not budge, Dashan was desperate to get away. He gritted his teeth and stared at her.
"Fine, you win. I'll pay the money. But I don't have that much cash on me right now. Let us go, and I'll bring it to you later."
Xiao Mandong let out a scoff. "Do I look that stupid to you? Bring it to me later? I don't even know who you are. If you leave, where am I supposed to find you?"
Dashan was left speechless.
Xiao Mandong pointed at the puddle of broken glass on the ground.
"Either you pay up right now, or we call the police or the military to sort this out."
Dashan was fuming with rage. He had chased Shi Xiaoli all the way here precisely because he didn't have any money. If he had five hundred yuan, he would have used it to marry his own wife a long time ago.
His face was livid as he glanced back at his several male relatives.
They all looked at each other, no one daring to say a word.
Then the man with the fleshy face suddenly laughed, his tone sneering and teasing. "Get out of here. Are you so desperate to get married that you're using this trick to extort us into taking you as our wife?"
He had no other way out. Five hundred yuan was more than their entire village could scrape together. The only thing he could think of was to act like a shameless rogue.
"Oh? So you're trying to act like a hooligan and get away with this? And you're making lewd comments to me? I just saw your letter of introduction, it says you're from Wangjiawa Village, right? Fine then, you can leave. I'll go to the military and have them come find you at your village."
The man flinched so hard the flesh on his face jiggled at the word "military".
The rest of the men also paled, looking at each other in total silence.
An elderly man who had not said a word up until now looked at the slap marks on Xiaoli's face, then at the simple-minded Bowen who was standing guard protectively in front of his sister, and suddenly spoke up.
"These men don't look like good people at all. Maybe that girl really was tricked by them."
Another aunt also whispered under her breath.
"If they were really family, would they beat her so brutally?"
The murmur of the crowd grew louder and louder. Dashan listened to the whispers, growing more and more panicked.
He ground his back teeth, staring at Xiao Mandong. The hatred in his eyes was almost spilling over, but he couldn't say a single word.
He couldn't keep acting shamelessly, because she already knew where their village was. He couldn't start a fight either, not with so many people watching, he would never get away clean.
His mind raced, trying to think of a way out. He really didn't have the money to pay. He glanced over at Xiaoli's face, and his hatred for her burned even hotter. When he got back, he would take her, then sell her off. That idiot brother of hers would get a good beating, and then he'd sell him to a remote illegal coal mine. He'd show them, see if they ever dared to run away again.
