At Zhou Shengnan’s shout, people came spilling out of the surrounding rooms.
They crowded around and saw Zhang Zhongyi’s huge, naked body careening about like a giant white pig.
Chen Weihua had wrapped a quilt around himself and looked utterly disgusted.
The night before, Zhou Shengnan had stripped Zhang Zhongyi—but Chen Weihua himself had been naked too.
Zhao Hongying had it even worse. She’d been left in nothing but her underwear and undershirt, tossed onto the floor by Zhou Shengnan to sleep there all night. Now she was not only sore all over, she seemed to be coming down with a fever.
Who could have imagined that after going to bed perfectly normally, she’d wake up to find a man in bed with her husband?
“Chen Weihua, didn’t you say Zhou Shengnan had been lying before? What’s going on here?”
Zhao Hongying glared furiously at Chen Weihua. The last time Zhou Shengnan had come by and accused him of selling his body, Zhao Hongying had assumed it was just slander from a woman who couldn’t have him.
But now the man was right there in their bed!
“How should I know where this guy came from? I thought it was you—” Chen Weihua retched.
He was just as disgusted. The thought of that deadweight pig holding him all night made his skin crawl.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. He turned on Zhang Zhongyi, stood up with the quilt wrapped around him, and kicked him to the floor.
“You sick pervert! I’ll beat you to death!”
After being ambushed and beaten, then spending the night in bed with a stinking man, Zhang Zhongyi was furious too.
Chen Weihua kicked him down, but he scrambled right back up and used his weight to pin him down, then landed two punches.
“You dare hit me? I’ll beat you to death!”
In an instant, the two were rolling around, fighting as if they meant to beat each other’s brains out.
More and more people gathered outside the door. Good grief—what a spectacle! It had been ages since they’d seen a scene this entertaining.
Hidden in the crowd, Zhou Shengnan watched them fight through a gap, pinching her nose as she shouted encouragement now and then.
“Come on, fight! Gouge his eyes, pull his hair! Rolling around like that—is this how you consummate your marriage?”
“Oh, that pretty boy—give him a groin kick! Take that fat bastard out, and he won’t be able to get up!”
“And you, silly girl on the side! Your man’s about to get shoved into the bedside table, and you’re not going to help? You must have something going on with that fat bastard!”
Zhou Shengnan’s advice worked wonders. The fight went from two people to three, and it grew more and more vicious.
Chen Weihua had already grabbed a stool and started swinging.
Zhang Zhongyi fought back with the merchandise Chen Weihua had bought. Before long, the padded jackets and trousers were being ripped apart, and tufts of cotton were flying all over the room.
“Stop fighting! My merchandise, my money!”
Watching the goods get wrecked, Zhao Hongying slapped her thigh in distress.
She’d bought all this with the family’s savings. She hadn’t even made the money back yet, and now a good portion of the merchandise was ruined!
Watching the three of them make fools of themselves, Zhou Shengnan quietly took her leave with the 120 yuan she’d raked in from Chen Weihua.
Heh. Today she’d not only dealt with a lecher, she’d also taught that pretty boy who lived off women a lesson.
Another day of doing good deeds. Zhou Shengnan felt as if the red scarf on her chest had grown even brighter.
By now, it was broad daylight. Zhou Shengnan returned to the hostel where she’d been staying. As soon as she walked into the room, she saw two women furtively fiddling with her cabinet.
“I saw that brat put plenty of food in there with my own eyes. We’re checking out soon anyway. If we take it, she won’t know where to find us.”
The middle-aged woman had been drooling over the way Zhou Shengnan ate the day before.
And since Zhou Shengnan hadn’t come back all night, the woman had started getting ideas. There was only a little padlock on the cabinet; with a bit of work, they could pick it.
Zhou Shengnan stood behind the two women with her arms folded. The other woman had clearly moved in after her.
Who would’ve thought they’d join forces to steal from her after just one night?
A tiger that doesn’t show its claws gets mistaken for a sick cat!
Zhou Shengnan crouched behind them and waited until they finally got the lock open and let out delighted cries.
“Oh, we finally got it open! Wonderful!”
The middle-aged woman beamed. The woman opposite her was just about to speak when a cheerful voice came from behind them.
“Oh, this is wonderful! You finally got that lock open. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to lay a hand on you!”
The two women looked as if they’d seen a ghost. They turned around to find Zhou Shengnan blinking her big, sparkling eyes and grinning ominously.
“Caught in the act, with the goods in your hands. Are you two ready for the big slaps I’ve got waiting for you?”
With that, Zhou Shengnan grabbed them by the hair and dragged them out of the room.
“Help! Thieves! You rotten scoundrels! I’m just a young girl traveling alone, and these two old hags are bullying me!”
Zhou Shengnan pinned the women in the hallway and slapped them, alternating hands until their faces were swollen.
She didn’t let that get in the way of her wailing. By the time everyone nearby came over, they were all stunned.
For a moment, no one knew whether to say the young woman was unlucky to have run into thieves, or the two thieves were unlucky to have run into a young woman with astonishing fighting skills.
“What’s going on? What happened?”
The hostel manager came running when he heard the commotion. The two thieves finally felt they’d found someone who could save them.
They reached out for help.
“Manager, help! We only wanted to take a little of her food, and she’s trying to kill us!”
Before the woman could finish, Zhou Shengnan grabbed her by the head and slammed it toward the floor.
“Bullshit! My cabinet was locked. You picked the lock and stole from me, and now you’re asking for help?
I had gold bars in there! They’re gone! Who am I supposed to complain to?”
If those two women knew how to play the victim, so did Zhou Shengnan.
“Boo-hoo, it’s hard being a young girl on my own. If my mother weren’t waiting for money for heart surgery, would I have come all this way to make a living?
Boo-hoo, you two broke into my cabinet and stole my gold bars. That was everything I owned!”
Hearing Zhou Shengnan, the people around them looked at her with sympathy.
Of course, if she weren’t pounding the two women as she spoke, she’d have seemed even more convincing.
“Gold bars? What gold bars? We didn’t touch those! We only wanted to steal some of your food!”
Faced with the huge accusation Zhou Shengnan had pinned on them, the two women protested their innocence—and, in the process, admitted they’d been stealing.
The onlookers rolled their eyes at their pleas.
“So stealing food is fine, is it? It’s not yours. What gave you the right to reach for it?”
“Exactly! You think stealing food is a minor offense? First it’s food, then it’ll be cows and cars!”
Hearing the people around her, Zhou Shengnan decided that most of them had some sense after all.
The hostel manager was afraid someone might die, so he went over to mediate and asked Zhou Shengnan to let the women go for now.
As for the missing gold bars—or whatever else—he said they could sort it out once the police arrived.
“Manager, safety is everyone’s responsibility. These two thieves dared to steal from your hostel. That clearly means they’re trying to ruin your reputation.
Think about it: if people hear that things go missing at your hostel, who’ll stay here in the future?
And if your performance targets aren’t met, what will the other hostels think? They’ll laugh you out of town!”
If you want to bring someone over to your side quickly, tie your interests together. Once the matter affects them, they’ll naturally become your ally.
Sure enough, the manager’s expression grew much more serious after hearing Zhou Shengnan’s words.
The two women’s petty theft might not seem like much, but it could damage the hostel’s reputation.
“Miss, don’t worry. I’ll make sure you get a satisfactory result.”
With the manager involved, Zhou Shengnan became free to leave the matter in his hands.
Calling the police was out of the question. Neither the hostel nor the two women who’d been beaten wanted to involve them.
So, after a round of haggling, the two women ended up taking a beating and each had to pay Zhou Shengnan five yuan in compensation for emotional distress.
With money in hand, Zhou Shengnan had learned her lesson. She upgraded to a private room, deciding she’d rather spend the money than have to keep worrying about her things being stolen.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Apart from going to the travel agency every day to ask about her visa, Zhou Shengnan had now got Huole thoroughly figured out. She’d also found the goods she wanted to bring back: canned yellow peaches.