She glanced around; the people nearby clearly hadn’t noticed the furtive figure.
Because that person had been targeting her from the very beginning.
Once she knew about the potential danger, she actually felt more at ease.
Then, under the pretense of browsing hats, she discreetly observed the man.
Perhaps aware that what he was doing was shameful, he didn’t stare straight at Shi Yin. Instead, he poked at this and touched that, all to appear natural.
But his footsteps were inching closer bit by bit.
Before long, he had silently moved to behind Shi Yin.
Shi Yin was still picking out hats, seemingly completely unaware of the man behind her.
The man swallowed, holding his phone in one hand while letting the other hang down, intending to brush past the girl from behind as casually as he had done before.
But just as he passed by Shi Yin as usual, his dangling hand never got to graze the girl’s snow-white thigh.
“Slap—”
A crisp, resounding slap cut through the noisy chatter around them, then was swallowed up by the crowd again.
Shi Yin had used tremendous force. The man’s wandering hand was smacked away hard, his wrist going numb instantly. The pain made him involuntarily grunt, and he stiffly retracted his hand.
The man wore ordinary casual clothes and had an unremarkable face, blending into the crowd without standing out at all. At this moment, a flash of panic and discomposure swept across his face.
His instinct was to pretend nothing had happened. He lowered his head, ready to slip into the crowd and escape, trying to get away with it.
But the next second, a shrill, piercing female voice exploded out, ringing through the entire aisle!
“What do you think you’re doing!”
Shi Yin abruptly raised her eyes, her clear gaze instantly brimming with red-rimmed tears. Her face was deathly pale, her whole body radiating the frail helplessness of someone who had suffered a terrible shock, her shoulders trembling slightly—looking fragile and pitiful.
She deliberately raised her voice, sharp and aggrieved, with just the right measure of fear and anger, loud enough for everyone within ten meters to hear clearly.
Outside the shop, Lu Yanshuo and Cao Xuyang heard Shi Yin’s voice at almost the same moment and rushed in from outside.
The groper clearly hadn’t expected things to unfold in a direction he never imagined.
He hadn’t even touched Shi Yin before his hand was slapped away, and because Shi Yin had spoken first, drawing everyone’s attention, his mind went blank for a moment and he failed to run right away.
“I—I…” The middle-aged man froze in place.
He hadn’t expected to run into someone tough today. After all, in the past when he did this, the girls basically never dared to make a sound.
Moreover, he deliberately picked plain-looking ones, precisely because they were easy to manipulate—even if they were groped, they wouldn’t dare raise a fuss.
Department stores were full of things, and girls usually came shopping in groups. He had finally come across Shi Yin, alone.
Not pretty, by herself, showing a lot of skin, with snow-white skin—she looked easy to bully.
The eyes of the people around had mostly been drawn over, but most chose to just watch, and not a single one spoke up first.
Right at that moment—
“Yinyin.”
A steady voice cut through the crowd.
Shi Yin, as if instantly finding her anchor, threw herself into Lu Yanshuo’s arms.
“Xiao—Xiaoshuo-ge, someone touched me.”
Her head was buried in his chest, both arms wrapped around his waist, her voice sounding utterly pitiful.
Lu Yanshuo hadn’t expected Shi Yin to hug him outright, but he quickly stopped overthinking it, patting her back gently with one hand in a soothing gesture.
Then his gaze turned sharp as he looked at the middle-aged man.
【Ding! Received 10 Love Coins from Lu Yanshuo】
Cao Xuyang also glared at the man with hostile eyes, walking over to stand opposite Lu Yanshuo and completely blocking off the sleazy man’s escape route.
Seeing things blow up—and realizing the girl actually had backup—the man panicked completely.
“I didn’t! Don’t spout nonsense!” The man instantly grew frantic, his face flushing bright red. Flustered and furious, he instinctively tried to deny everything, eyes darting around, not daring to meet anyone’s gaze.
But Shi Yin refused to give him the slightest chance to argue. Now that Lu Yanshuo was here, she seemed to have found her anchor, clinging tightly to his waist as she tearfully sobbed, “Yanshuo-gege, I’m not lying.”
Only a thin cotton T-shirt separated the two of them. Shi Yin could clearly feel the man’s warm body heat and his lean, firm waist against her.
Her face pressed against his chest—soft, and probably quite springy.
With tears brimming in her eyes, Shi Yin looked every bit the innocent young girl who had been harassed. Compared to the man’s panicked, guilty, cover-up-the-truth demeanor, the contrast was stark.
The onlooking crowd instantly erupted.
Cao Xuyang, meanwhile, was even more direct—unsurprisingly, he cursed the man out thoroughly, until even his neck turned red, clearly furious.
With Cao Xuyang leading the charge, plenty of others followed suit. Public opinion had completely tipped to one side.
“Oh my god, groping someone in broad daylight?”
“He looks so respectable, and he’s doing something this disgusting!”
“No wonder I heard a commotion earlier—turns out he got caught red-handed!”
“Don’t let him get away! How can anyone be this bold these days?”
A chorus of voices rose up all around. A few warm-hearted passersby stepped half a pace forward, blocking the man’s escape route, their eyes full of contempt and accusation.
Shi Yin looked badly frightened, so Lu Yanshuo led her out of the crowd first.
Looking at her pale little face, he handed her the milk tea he’d just bought, then gently patted the girl’s back with one hand.
He clearly had no idea how to comfort someone, but he still fulfilled his duty as an older brother, his voice so gentle it was almost startling: “Don’t be afraid, Yanshuo-gege is here.”
His fingers moved in a rhythmic pattern, with a very light touch, and before long, Shi Yin’s emotions had settled.
By then, Cao Xuyang had come over too, grumbling and cursing as he sat down, gulping down a big mouthful of water. “Damn it, I was going to call the police, but the guy got away.”
The man had broken through the crowd while Cao Xuyang was dialing, and by now there was no telling where he’d gone.
Though many people had joined in the condemnation earlier, most were really just there to watch the spectacle—and they were afraid he might be carrying some kind of weapon.
So the man had genuinely managed to escape.
Lu Yanshuo’s fingers paused briefly, then, as if nothing had happened, he continued gently patting Shi Yin’s back, his tone calm: “He can run, but he can’t hide. The mall has security cameras.”
By now, Shi Yin had calmed down. She looked up at the young man’s sharp profile and said weakly, “Yanshuo-gege, I’m fine now. Let’s go get something to eat.”
Knowing that Shi Yin didn’t want to draw attention—after all, that had always been her nature since she was little, and the courage she’d shown just now had probably used up all her bravery she had—Lu Yanshuo didn’t push her.
Of course, Shi Yin ended up eating the hotpot rather unsatisfactorily.
To take care of her, Lu Yanshuo and Cao Xuyang kept putting food in her bowl, while Shi Yin could only play the part of someone with no appetite.
She could only suffer while secretly delighting in it.
The suffering was because she couldn’t eat to her heart’s content; the happiness was because during that earlier encounter, Lu Yanshuo had fed back Affection Points to her.
That evening, the two of them parted ways with Cao Xuyang.
Lu Yanshuo carried Shi Yin’s bag in one hand and held her hand with the other.
After all, she was still a young girl—something this disgusting was bound to upset her for a long time.
Lu Yanshuo had never held anyone’s hand before, and Shi Yin had never clung to him as a child. Now, it was as if the two of them were making up for that missed opportunity from her childhood.
Their hands were held loosely, without any intimacy.
Looking up at the man’s tall figure, Shi Yin thought for a long while before finally saying, “Yanshuo-ge, can I come visit you at your place in the future?”