Chapter 48: [Shut Out]

Of course Hu Tiangou also knew the internet café owner — he and Chen Yan were classmates in college, and although they weren't in the same dorm, they often skipped curfew together to spend the night at the internet café. They'd also been caught during dorm inspections and written self-criticism reports together.

Speaking of which, the first time Hu Tiangou saw the owner, he was awestruck and had actually tried to court her for a few days.

But the owner didn't care for someone like Hu Tiangou at all, so there was nothing that came of it.

Chen Yan thought for a moment: "I don't have the owner's phone number. Send me her number."

"Huh?" Hu Tiangou was taken aback. "You're the one closest to her, and you don't even have her number?"

"Stop the nonsense, just send it to me."

"Alright, alright, alright, I'll send it to you after I hang up."

After the call ended, Hu Tiangou sent a number — he had the owner's phone from when he'd asked for it under the pretext of reserving an overnight machine. Quite a few students had the owner's number.

But Chen Yan had never thought to ask for it.

With the number in hand, Chen Yan dialed once.

The other party hung up immediately.

Not surprising — she had something going on, probably not in the mood to answer unknown calls, and these days there are all kinds of spam and sales calls.

Chen Yan called again.

The second time, she finally picked up.

Chen Yan quickly spoke first: "Boss lady, it's Chen Yan."

"……" The other end of the line went silent for a moment, then came a familiar, slightly hoarse woman's voice: "Xiao Yan?"

Chen Yan said steadily, "I heard you ran into some trouble on your end?"

Hearing this, the owner went silent again, then burst out crying with a wail: "My little brothers got taken away!"

"Which little brother? Second, or Third or Fourth?"

"All of them — all of them got taken away."

Holy shit?

Chen Yan was stunned, then asked, "What exactly happened?"

"Beating — beating someone up."

Good enough — Chen Yan breathed a slight sigh of relief internally. At least it wasn't murder.

Over the course of a minute, the owner haltingly gave him the gist of the matter.

The three little brothers of her family — the kind you could stick at the door as door gods — had beaten someone up outside.

And apparently it was tied to some sort of revenge thing.

Luckily, the other party wasn't seriously hurt, just some flesh wounds, nothing severe.

But the three brothers… how to put it, they weren't exactly bright.

If you're going to do something shady, at least find a secluded spot.

They actually went at it right inside a shopping mall.

Aren't there cameras everywhere in a shopping mall?

They got away at the time, but the very next night the police uncles tracked them down at home.

And the owner was now about to head out to meet the victim.

She planned to apologize and negotiate compensation terms. The most crucial thing was to get a letter of understanding from the victim.

With the letter of understanding, she could secure a lighter sentence.

Hearing this much, Chen Yan said directly, "Send me the address, I'll go with you."

"Huh? Xiao Yan? You…"

"Stop wasting time, boss lady." Chen Yan said quickly, "You're a woman going to someone's door to apologize — what if they're still angry and start yelling and threatening you? You need a man who can stand in front of you and take it."

The owner said nothing, seemingly still hesitating. After a few seconds, she said softly, "Xiao Yan, you really don't have to, I can handle it myself…"

"Stop dawdling, send the address, we'll talk when we meet up."

With that, Chen Yan hung up directly.

After a few seconds, the owner still sent over the victim's address.

Chen Yan looked at the address, and his expression immediately became interesting.

"Luoyun Studio?"

Holy crap?

Who did the owner's three brothers beat up?

·

Chen Yan arrived first at the commercial street where Luoyun Studio was located, stood by the road and waited a while, then spotted the owner in the distance, asking passers-by for directions as she made her way over.

The owner looked haggard, dark circles under her eyes — clearly she hadn't slept well these past two days.

She'd thrown on a trench coat haphazardly, clearly not matching her shoes, and her hair was barely pulled together in a hasty tie, unbrushed.

Chen Yan walked up, grabbed the owner by the arm, and pulled her to the side of the road. The owner started, and once she saw it was Chen Yan, her face filled with anxiety: "Xiao Yan, the place is just ahead, let's hurry…"

"No rush." Chen Yan pointed toward Luoyun Studio. "I've already taken a look. The place is right there. But before we go in, tell me the whole story properly first."

The owner looked a bit agitated, but Chen Yan still dragged her into the teahouse opposite Luoyun Studio — last time when he was dealing with Luoyun Studio and came to scope the place, he'd had tea here.

He led the owner into the teahouse like a regular, found a seat by the window, and ordered a pot of tea.

The owner was in no mood to drink tea, and said anxiously, "Xiao Yan, I know you want to help, but this is something a young man like you can't handle. Listen to me — either you go back now, or… later when you go in with me, just stay on the side and don't talk out of turn."

"Hmm?"

The owner sighed: "Those three brothers of mine are never easy. Over the years, I don't even know how many times I've handled this kind of thing for them.

Beat someone up, cause trouble — every time I'm the one who goes to the victim's family to apologize, offer compensation, and beg for mercy. If I can get the letter of understanding, it can reduce the punishment a lot — I've got experience with this.

This time I asked around — the other party isn't seriously hurt, they're probably just still angry."

"When we see him in a bit, even if he's angry and says something harsh, don't stick up for me. My brother hit someone — getting scolded by the victim's family is only right. Understand?"

In truth, there were things the boss lady kept locked in her heart without saying outright, afraid that spelling them out would wound young Chen Yan's pride.

In the boss lady's eyes, Chen Yan was nothing but a kid — a clear-eyed, foolish big boy who'd only graduated a few months ago. What did he know about society? What could he possibly do?

The fact that he had the heart to come along, the boss lady appreciated the sentiment — but… deep down she truly felt she couldn't count on a young fellow like Chen Yan; she'd have to handle it herself.

Chen Yan could more or less guess what the boss lady was thinking, and he didn't spell it out either — after all, anyone would think the same way; the boss lady's mindset was perfectly normal.

Chen Yan hadn't plastered a notice on his own forehead: I am a man of the Way.

For something this big, why should anyone trust him unconditionally?

"Since we're already here, a few more minutes won't hurt. Tell me the whole thing in detail. Whether I can help or not, I can't say yet, but maybe I can help you brainstorm." Chen Yan's attitude was patient.

"…Alright." The boss lady looked at Chen Yan's young face, and finally nodded.

·

The story was pretty much the same as what she'd said on the phone earlier.

However, the reason her brothers had hit someone — as the boss lady guessed — was that her three younger brothers had probably taken some paid job outside.

The three brothers were hot-tempered and pugnacious, with no real skills to make a living, so day to day they often did this sort of shady work — no great evils, but petty trouble never ceased.

Otherwise, with her three brothers living way over near the university district, how would they ever have crossed paths with people from Luoyunzhai, let alone gone and beaten someone up?

Knowing her brothers as she did, it had to be some no-good friends outside who'd paid them to do the dirty work.

·

"No wonder, a few days ago, the three of them suddenly gave me a few thousand yuan, saying they'd earned it doing some job outside and wanted me to hold onto it to buy New Year goods. That money was most likely the payment."

Chen Yan nodded at this point: "What's the name of the victim who got beaten?"

"…Luo Qing."

The corner of Chen Yan's mouth twitched.

Sure enough, it was that Uncle Qing.

How come he… wasn't surprised at all.

What a damn coincidence.

·

What happened was this: at the time, in a shopping mall, Uncle Qing was wandering around with someone, when the boss lady's three brothers suddenly rushed out, landed two solid punches right on his face, dazing him, then went to town with fists and kicks.

What made Luo Qing angriest wasn't the injury, but the loss of face.

That head of carefully groomed white hair he usually combed down to the last strand — at every occasion he relied on that snowy mane to play the air of a master.

But the boss lady's three brothers had hearts that were just too rotten.

No one knew who it was, but one of them had brought along a pair of clippers, and they held Luo Qing down on the spot and went snip-snip-snip, shearing away at his head.

They took a master's flowing crane-white hair and hacked it into a dog-chewed Mediterranean!

·

Luo Qing getting beaten up didn't surprise Chen Yan — the man behaved too despicably.

Given his way of doing things, this definitely wasn't the first time he'd screwed Fang Fang Laoban; heaven knew how many people he'd offended.

Getting hit in revenge wasn't strange at all.

But what Chen Yan suspected was… surely this wasn't Fang Fang Laoban's handiwork this time?

If Fang Fang Laoban had hired people to do it, then this matter dragged him in too — after all, it was he himself who'd exposed to Fang Fang Laoban the truth about Luoyunzhai screwing him.

That sandalwood incense laced with resentful-bone powder had made Fang Fang Laoban unlucky for nearly a full month — serious illness, broken bones, lost money, the lot.

Fang Fang Laoban was no saintly man or devout woman; once he found out, how could he not retaliate?

Chen Yan wasn't the type to side with his own no matter what — if the boss lady's three brothers had hurt some innocent person, he'd at most help smooth things over, chip in some compensation, that sort of thing.

But the one they hurt was a piece of work like Luo Qing — that was different. The bastard had it coming!

His values were the plain, common folk sort:

Hitting people is wrong.

But if the one getting hit is a villain, that's another story.

·

"Don't be in too much of a rush. Whether the other side gives you that letter of forgiveness or not, your three brothers are going to spend some days in there anyway. The only difference is, with the letter, they can spend fewer days." Chen Yan said slowly: "Your three brothers aren't young anymore — always doing this kind of thing won't do. Letting them taste some hardship this time and learn a lesson isn't a bad thing."

The boss lady glanced at the fellow and sighed: "What you say is true, but… I'm still anxious inside. New Year's almost here — I can't let them spend New Year in a detention center…"

Chen Yan said nothing, but in his heart he thought, so what if it's New Year?

There were many Chinese ways of thinking that Chen Yan did not agree with—all this "it's New Year," "you're already here"...

Always willing to spare no cost accommodating things that clearly don't matter.

Still, he wouldn't say that out loud — though he got along fine with the boss lady, after all, it was her own brothers in trouble.

"Let's go. I'll come with you to meet the guy who got beaten."

Now that he knew the whole story, Chen Yan pulled the boss lady up from her seat, left the teahouse, and headed straight across the street to Luoyunzhai. Once inside, he found a clerk, and the boss lady stated her business…

The result…

·

"Won't see anyone?"

The boss lady froze, her face anxious: "I…"

The clerk in the shop seemed to have been instructed in advance, and shook his head: "Uncle Qing says he's not seeing visitors — especially made clear that if it's the assailant's family coming, he definitely won't see them."

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【Cast some recommendation tickets~】

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