"It's you?" Zheng Dandan opened her lips slightly, her eyes full of surprise. The man in front of her was Qiao Zhiping, whom she had rescued in the mountains.
Although they only met once, Zheng Dandan was quite impressed by him.
"It's me." Qiao Zhiping nodded in response.
"Why are you here?" Zheng Dandan looked at Qiao Zhiping with a curious look in her eyes.
"A drop of kindness is repaid with a spring of gratitude. It just so happens that I will be staying in Luoshui City for a while, so I want to protect you by the way." Qiao Zhiping replied with a calm temperament.
When the gangsters heard this, their faces changed instantly.
"That... I, I was confused just now. I apologize right away!" The leading thug looked at Qiao Zhiping in fear and was extremely nervous.
Seeing that Qiao Zhiping didn't respond, he looked at Zheng Dandan, who was smiling and seemed easy to talk to. "Little girl, I'm sorry. Please be magnanimous and forgive me this time, okay?"
Zheng Dandan nodded gently after hearing this, and she curled her lips slightly and said, "Okay, it's very simple for me to forgive you. Just compensate for the loss."
As soon as these words were spoken, the faces of the gangsters suddenly became stiff and ugly.
"Little girl, we really don't have any money." The leading thug said bitterly, "The best we can do is to come up with eighty. Is that okay with you?"
Zheng Dandan slowly shook her head, "Five hundred, not a cent less."
"Little girl, are you really going to force us into a dead end? I admit that we were wrong to smash your brother's stall, but 500 yuan in compensation is really too much. If you insist, we will have no choice but to fight to the death!" The leading gangster threatened helplessly.
It was true that he was afraid of Qiao Zhiping, but even a desperate dog would jump over the wall, let alone a human. Since he couldn't win Zheng Dandan's forgiveness, why should he swallow his anger?
"That's right, it's a fight to the death!" A gangster echoed.
Seeing this, Qiao Zhiping's cold eyes shot at the gangsters like sharp arrows.
The thugs felt Qiao Zhiping's gaze and their momentum suddenly shrank.
"What you see is that it's not that we don't want to apologize, but that she insists on making demands that are impossible for us to fulfill. She wants our lives, so why can't we resist?" The leading thug questioned Qiao Zhiping while suppressing his fear.
"The boss is right. Even if she kills us, we can't even come up with 500 yuan. She's really forcing us to die!"
Upon hearing this, Qiao Zhiping looked at Zheng Dandan, waiting for her follow-up. He didn't believe that Zheng Dandan would do anything in vain.
Sure enough, Zheng Dandan spoke.
She looked at the thugs and said, "It doesn't matter if you can't pay it now. You can write an IOU and pay it back slowly. If you do something wrong, you should bear the corresponding consequences. Don't you agree?"
"Five hundred yuan is a huge sum of money. It will take us forever to pay it back!" One of the gangsters said reluctantly, with a very resistant attitude.
"Okay, I promise you!" The leading gangster agreed readily.
It's just an IOU. At worst, he can just default on the debt later. He doesn't believe that Qiao Zhiping can always protect Zheng Dandan.
Qiao Zhiping saw through the leader's thoughts and frowned slightly.
Zheng Dandan smiled and ordered loudly, "Xu Quanyou, bring out paper and pen so they can write."
Soon after the words fell, a 30-year-old man with a familiar figure appeared in front of everyone.
"Xu Quanyou is my bodyguard. He is very skilled. Do you want to have a fight with him?" Zheng Dandan looked at the thugs who were writing IOUs with calm and kind eyes.
Without waiting for the gangsters to answer, Zheng Dandan gave them a look.
Xu Quanyou understood Zheng Dandan's intention and took action immediately.
The thugs instinctively resisted, but they were no match for Xu Quanyou. In less than five minutes, they were all lying on the ground wailing.
"Well, he's pretty good, isn't he?"
Zheng Dandan still had a smile on her face, but the thugs couldn't help but feel horrified when they saw it.
"Yes, big brother is very skilled."
"Yes, big brother is awesome!"
Facing Zheng Dandan's gaze, the hooligans dared not not answer. Only then did they realize how much trouble they had gotten into due to their momentary confusion.
Seeing this, Zheng Dandan smiled and said, "Very good. Remember to honor the IOU you wrote. I hope you can get this paper back within a year, otherwise I don't mind him coming to settle the account with you."
"We..." The leading thug looked at Zheng Dandan with an embarrassed expression, "The protection fee we collect every day is only a few yuan or so at most, and we often get nothing. Brothers need to eat and live. If we can't change it within a year, can the deadline be extended a little?"
"I don't want protection money. The money you return to me must be clean and legally earned." Zheng Dandan said slowly and expressionlessly.
The gangsters looked at each other in confusion. They had no idea what legal income was!
"We are gangsters. What can we do if we don't collect protection fees?" The leading gangster suppressed his anger and asked Zheng Dandan.
"You don't have to be gangsters." Zheng Dandan raised her eyes and looked at the leading gangster. "I'll give you a chance. Set up a stall for my brother and you'll get 30 yuan a month. You can keep 10 yuan for yourself and use the rest to pay off your debts."
"What did you say?" The gangsters all looked at Zheng Dandan in disbelief.
"I'm giving you a chance to set up a stall for my brother. You'll get 30 yuan a month, and you can keep 10 yuan for your own use and use the remaining 20 yuan to pay off your debts." Zheng Dandan repeated good-temperedly.
"Is it really possible?" asked the leading thug in disbelief.
"It's definitely correct." Zheng Dandan replied.
"Okay, I'll do it!" said the leading thug with great pride.
"We dare too!" the gangsters echoed.
In fact, if they can have a decent job, why would they want to be gangsters?
Because they were incompetent, gradually getting older, and living in idleness at home all day, they had no choice but to come up with the idea of collecting protection money.
"You must return all the protection fees you have collected. If you want to work for me, you must behave yourself. If you are willing, come and report tomorrow." Zheng Dandan reminded.
"……OK."
When the leading gangster heard that he had to pay back the money, he hesitated, but finally agreed.
"good!"
The thugs were used to following their leader, and when they saw the leading thug agreed, they followed suit.
After solving the problem of the gangsters, Zheng Dandan turned her gaze to Qiao Zhiping and said, "Thank you for your secret protection."
"I was still negligent." Qiao Zhiping looked at Zheng Dandan apologetically, glancing at Xu Quanyou. "Besides, you don't need my protection, you can be safe."
"It's different." Zheng Dandan smiled. Suddenly, she felt hungry. She checked her watch and asked, "Want to have dinner together?"
At Cheng Huadong's party, she only had time to drink a few glasses of red wine.
"I just have something to say to you." Qiao Zhiping looked at Zheng Dandan deeply and agreed happily.
Feeling Qiao Zhiping's profound meaning, Zheng Dandan's movements paused slightly, and she secretly thought about what Qiao Zhiping would say.
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