Chapter 100: Seeking Help for Fang Tian

Night fell, and the sky was thick with dark clouds, obscuring the light of the stars and moon. The entire world seemed swallowed by endless darkness, and with it, people's hearts grew heavy; everything seemed to portend that a storm was brewing.

Approaching ten o'clock, the sky was suddenly torn apart by a dazzling bolt of lightning, and immediately after, a torrential downpour poured down like a burst dam, pounding violently against the windows as if a thousand armies were galloping and fighting.

"Good thing I got back fast!"

Shen Yan, who had just returned home after eating a late-night snack, couldn't help but think himself lucky. He moved as fast as a bullet leaving a chamber, rushing to the balcony to gather the clothes he had hung out to dry.

Just as he was preparing to take off his clothes to shower, the doorbell suddenly rang with a "ding-dong."

Looking through the peephole, it was actually Fang Xiang.

"Why did you run all the way here?" Shen Yan asked as he opened the door.

When he went to the factory in the afternoon, Fang Xiang had specifically sought him out, saying she wanted to draw an advance of one thousand yuan on her wages to take her younger brother to buy some clothes and purchase daily necessities.

There was no precedent for salary advances at the factory, but since they were acquaintances and Shen Yan trusted Fang Xiang's character, he had her write an IOU and lent it to her in a private capacity.

At the time, Fang Xiang had been moved to tears and even bowed to Shen Yan, handing him a "good person card," but he didn't understand why she would suddenly appear here.

"Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!"

Fang Xiang sneezed repeatedly. The heavy rain had soaked her through to the bone. Her wet gray T-shirt and casual cargo pants clung to her skin, outlining her delicate curves, and two braided pigtails hung obediently in front of her, with water droplets continuously dripping from the tips of her hair.

She wiped the rainwater from her eyes and then said weakly, "Boss, can you let me come in first?"

Shen Yan stepped aside to let her in.

However, just as the two reached the living room, under Shen Yan's stunned gaze, Fang Xiang actually plopped down and knelt on the floor.

With tears streaming down her face, she said, "Boss, please, save my brother."

"Get up and talk about it." Shen Yan was startled and hurriedly reached out to support her arm to help her up, but Fang Xiang refused, begging Shen Yan to save her brother, Fang Tian.

"If you don't get up, I'm going to kick you out."

Shen Yan scolded, and Fang Xiang gave a start, finally crawling up slowly. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and coupled with her being soaked through, she looked truly pitiful.

Shen Yan sat down on the sofa and told her to explain what exactly had happened.

It turned out that after borrowing the money from Shen Yan, Fang Xiang had taken leave from her night shift and taken Fang Tian out to the streets to shop for daily necessities.

Everything had been going just fine.

However, when they returned to the vicinity of the shantytown where they lived, the siblings encountered a few local thugs. Because Fang Xiang was striking in appearance, she was harassed. Fang Tian, young and hot-blooded, cursed at them, resulting in the thugs surrounding and beating him. During the struggle, a switchblade fell out of a thug's pocket, which Fang Tian picked up and used to stab the thug in the stomach.

Afterwards, the injured person was sent to the hospital for treatment, and Fang Tian was taken to the Police Station, with the situation still under further investigation.

According to the police, Fang Tian's case was suspected of being excessive self-defense. If the thug insisted on pressing charges, Fang Tian could be sentenced to Fixed-term Imprisonment, and Fang Xiang needed to find a lawyer as soon as possible to prepare for a court defense.

Fang Xiang felt as if she had been struck by lightning. She never expected that her brother would encounter such a disaster just after arriving in Hangzhou. It was all her fault; she shouldn't have taken her brother to buy clothes, or this wouldn't have happened.

Fang Xiang had been in Hangzhou for two years, either working or on her way to work. She lived in a shantytown and didn't know anyone with power or influence. In her desperation, the only wealthy person she could think of was Shen Yan, who was also a law student.

She didn't know if Shen Yan would help, but she was clutching at straws and decided to give it a try.

"Achoo! Achoo!"

After hearing the sequence of events, Shen Yan frowned slightly. Having not yet studied criminal law, he couldn't gauge what kind of punishment Fang Tian might face.

Seeing Fang Xiang sneezing incessantly, her cheeks flushed, and her body shivering uncontrollably from the cold, and then looking at the torrential rain outside the window, Shen Yan said, "Why don't you go to the bathroom and take a shower to get rid of the chill? I'll look up the relevant legal provisions online; specific situations require specific analysis."

Fang Xiang was currently at a loss, and could only pin her hopes on Shen Yan. She did whatever Shen Yan told her to do, and besides, being soaked through was certainly not a solution.

She had even dirtied the floor of Shen Yan's home.

Thus, she walked into the bathroom, feeling uneasy.

The bathroom was really huge, and it even had a bathtub; the decor was so exquisite. When she was selling houses, Fang Xiang had always fantasized about how great it would be if she had a house like this in Hangzhou.

Unfortunately, ideals are plump, but reality is incomparably cruel. With a house costing over a million, and her having no education or skills, she feared she wouldn't be able to earn that much even if she struggled for a lifetime.

Some people are born in Rome, while others are born as beasts of burden.

While showering, Fang Xiang pondered how to save her brother. Actually, the police had made it very clear: spend money to hire a lawyer for the defense. If they lost the case, her brother would be sentenced to Fixed-term Imprisonment of less than three years and leave a stain on his record, and then her brother's life would be ruined.

The Fang family now consisted of only Fang Xiang and Fang Tian. Their grandmother had passed away from illness three months ago. Four years ago, before their mother closed her eyes, she had tearfully held Fang Xiang's hand, repeatedly urging her to take good care of her younger brother, and only after Fang Xiang promised did she reluctantly leave this world.

Fang Xiang still remembered the way her mother looked before she died. Coupled with the fact that she and her brother had been close since childhood and the family had lost its livelihood, she, who was in her first year of high school at the time, resolutely chose to drop out and work just to support her brother's education.

Yet Fang Tian wasn't cut out for studying and didn't reach the score threshold for junior college in the college entrance exam. In fact, Fang Xiang knew that Fang Tian didn't dislike studying, but felt that her earning money alone was too hard and wanted to enter society early to share the pressure for her.

Having such a sensible younger brother made Fang Xiang feel both comforted and heartbroken.

Regardless, she had to do her best to save her brother. Even if he couldn't be released without charges, she had to ensure that her brother's future life wouldn't be too destitute.

Fang Xiang couldn't even scrape together a thousand yuan right now; wanting to hire a lawyer was no different from a pipe dream.

She couldn't help but recall her time as a sales clerk at Weilan Zhidu. That client wanted to keep her as a mistress and was full of filthy language, even attempting to get handsy, so she slapped him hard across the face.

Afterwards, the client complained to the sales manager, who told Fang Xiang to apologize. Fang Xiang not only refused but also declared that she had done nothing wrong.

Her mother had taught her from a young age to be down-to-earth, not to degenerate, and that she couldn't take dirty money; she had always kept this in mind.

Later, the client used buying a house as a pretext to demand that Fang Xiang be fired on the spot. The result was self-evident, and the stubborn Fang Xiang was forced to leave Weilan Zhidu.

The world is large, and scum is everywhere.

It wasn't that Fang Xiang hadn't heard of colleagues being harassed, but when it actually happened to her, she realized how disgusting some people were. Having seen through the real estate industry and the service sector, Fang Xiang felt that earning money ultimately had to rely on her own two hands, so she became a factory girl again.