“You dare hit me?”
After a long moment, the man struggled to prop himself up with his hands, his face full of shock.
He had no idea how she’d gotten behind him so quickly, nor could he fathom the sheer strength she possessed.
“Hah! Scum like you deserves to be beaten to death! If you don’t leave right now, I’ll smash your head in with the corner of this chair. Believe me?” Su Yun hoisted a chair, her gaze murderous as she glared at the man.
She was beyond control now, consumed by rage.
“You wouldn’t dare! Go ahead, try it!” The man, clearly provoked, didn’t believe she’d actually do it.
Bang.
Without hesitation, Su Yun smashed the chair onto the ground right in front of him.
The sturdy wooden chair, perfectly fine for sitting moments ago, shattered upon impact, its pieces scattering like a pile of toppled building blocks.
One of the chair’s legs flew straight into the man’s forehead.
The force of the blow left his vision dark for several seconds.
“What, still not leaving?”
Su Yun raised another chair, aiming it at the man as if she genuinely intended to bring it down on him.
“Monster… you’ll regret this!” This time, the man was truly scared, panic flashing across his face.
He scrambled past Su Yun with all his strength, and once he reached the shop’s entrance, he bolted out, running for his life.
Su Yun stared after the vanished thug, her breath coming in short, heated gasps, unable to calm down for a long while.
Murmurs soon drifted in from outside, likely from passersby who’d heard the sound of the chair smashing.
“Hey, are you girls okay?”
The elderly shop owner finally rushed out from the kitchen, quickly shutting the shop’s iron shutter.
“I’m fine,” Su Yun said, lowering the chair. Her head still spinning, she sat down to steady herself.
“Sister Xiaoyun…”
Qin Xue emerged from the kitchen.
She had tried speaking earlier, but Su Yun, lost in her fury, hadn’t heard a word, as if Qin Xue’s voice didn’t exist.
This version of “Sister Xiaoyun” was entirely new to her. At first, it had even scared her a little.
But in the end, Qin Xue felt an overwhelming sense of safety radiating from Su Yun.
“Are you hurt anywhere?” Qin Xue asked anxiously, hurrying forward to hug Su Yun from behind.
The soft touch against her back finally cleared some of the fog in Su Yun’s mind.
“No…”
When she’d been angry, Su Yun’s whole body had burned with heat, an uncontrollable sensation. She had no doubt that if the man had actually touched Qin Xue, she might have bashed his head in on the spot.
Maybe this was what happened when an honest person finally snapped.
“You girls need to be careful. Try not to provoke people like that in the future. Things have been chaotic around here lately,” the shop owner said as she approached, holding an iron rod.
She’d intended to help, but after seeing that Su Yun could handle herself, she’d stayed in the kitchen, watching.
“Chaotic?” Su Yun, seated on the chair, looked up in surprise. She pressed against the soft weight on her head, barely managing to lift her gaze.
In Su Yun’s memory, this place was remote and sparsely populated, with perhaps less-than-ideal public safety. But when she’d come back before the New Year, she hadn’t heard any bad news.
Her thoughts drifted to the lock on her family’s door, which had been pried open and stolen.
Why hadn’t she been surprised back then? Because almost every year when they returned, there was a good chance the lock would be broken.
It had been so long, and since there was nothing valuable in the house, they’d only reinforced the lock without doing much else.
In that moment, Su Yun suddenly understood something.
The darkness hidden beneath this town’s calm surface was slowly starting to emerge.
“You girls just got back from out of town, didn’t you? You didn’t know?” The auntie’s expression was equally surprised, but she sat down and began recounting recent events in the town.
One weekend night last month, a barbecue stall on the next street had been the scene of an incident.
It was similar to what Su Yun had just experienced, but the perpetrators were six men.
When their flirtations were rebuffed, they turned violent, dragging a young woman who hadn’t reacted in time to the ground. Another girl who tried to intervene was beaten alongside her.
It was late, and there were hardly any people around. Even if there were, they likely wouldn’t have dared to help.
In the end, the ground was stained with blood, the girls were broken, and the men fled. The victims ended up in the hospital.
This incident alone wouldn’t necessarily mean the town was chaotic.
The problem was that, to this day, no one had been caught, and there’d been no updates or resolution. It was as if the incident had never happened.
People didn’t talk about it openly, but those in the area knew, and fear simmered quietly in their hearts.
“What…” Su Yun’s eyes widened in shock as she listened to the shop owner.
She was at a loss for words, her body trembling with fear.
Su Yun didn’t dare imagine what might have happened if Qin Xue had been alone in the shop. She might have ended up like the victims in those stories, dragged and beaten on the ground.
Of course, she’d never let Qin Xue go out alone.
“Don’t the authorities do anything around here?” Qin Xue asked, frowning at the shop owner.
She’d never encountered anything like this. The city of Summer End had excellent public safety.
“Are people really allowed to do bad things without consequences?”
“They did at first. The police sent a lot of people, and even my shop was investigated,” the auntie replied.
“But then it all just… fizzled out. Look around, girls. This area’s practically deserted. Most people have gone to work in other cities.”
As she spoke, the shop owner’s voice dropped to a whisper, leaning in so only they could hear.
“This place is so remote, it’s easy for things to go unnoticed. I suspect there’s some kind of gang hiding here. They might’ve been found out, but no one dares to do anything about it.”
“?” Su Yun and Qin Xue gasped in unison, their mouths falling open in shock.
They breathed cautiously, suddenly understanding why the auntie spoke so carefully and had shut the shop so quickly.
“Alright, I’ll make you another bowl of noodles. It doesn’t seem safe today, so after I’m done, I’ll head upstairs to rest,” the shop owner said, slowly standing to clean up the spilled Black Bean Noddles before returning to the kitchen.
Su Yun and Qin Xue helped the shop owner tidy the tables and chairs.
“Um, how much for this chair?” Su Yun asked, gathering the fragments of the chair she’d smashed and calling toward the kitchen.
“No charge, no charge. As long as you girls are okay,” the auntie replied.
“You’re only a bit older than my son. If something happened to you, I’d feel terrible. I’d rather not run the shop at all.” She waved her chopsticks dismissively, unconcerned about the cost.
“Thank you,” Su Yun said, returning to her seat and sinking into thought.
Qin Xue sat quietly beside her, not hugging her this time.
“I’m sorry for bringing you here and getting you into this mess… We should be able to head back soon,” Su Yun said, her voice heavy with guilt.
“Sister Xiaoyun, are you going to stay here from now on?” Qin Xue asked, seemingly unbothered by the incident and more curious about Su Yun’s future plans.
(End of Chapter)