Sure enough, as soon as the thought crossed her mind, Xie Fangzhu, who had been standing behind her, suddenly appeared in her line of sight, casually walking toward the two men.
In the next moment, his fist flew out.
“Bang—” With a loud crash, the burly man who had called Shen Yingying a “worn-out shoe” was sent flying to the ground like a ragged sack.
The man never expected Xie Fangzhu to strike so suddenly and had no time to defend himself, taking the full force of the blow.
A metallic taste filled his mouth, and the pain made him feel as if his entire face had split open.
Being a man, he still had some pride and instinctively tried to get up and fight back. But Xie Fangzhu gave him no chance to resist. Before the man could even process what was happening, his face was already pinned under Xie Fangzhu’s foot.
“Heh.” Xie Fangzhu sneered, cracking his knuckles loudly. His foot pressed down on the man’s face as if extinguishing a cigarette butt, grinding it maliciously. “Weren’t you pretty slick with your mouth just now? Say something else, let me hear it.”
The burly man’s vision blurred as he struggled to get up, but Xie Fangzhu’s foot felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, impossible to shake off.
In no time, his pride vanished, and he pleaded desperately, “Xie… Brother Xie… I was wrong… Please be merciful, spare me…”
“Heh.” Xie Fangzhu scoffed. “Pathetic. Trash.”
He lifted his foot, and just as the man thought he had escaped, Xie Fangzhu gestured toward Shen Yingying with his chin.
“Go, apologize to my wife. If she forgives you, I’ll let you go.”
The earlier blow had thoroughly terrified the man, and he scrambled over to Shen Yingying on his hands and knees.
His apology was grand—he dropped to his knees and bowed deeply to her.
“Sister-in-law! I’m so sorry, truly sorry! I’m a bastard! My mouth spews nothing but nonsense! Please don’t take it to heart, I’m sorry, so sorry!!”
With that, he kowtowed several times, his forehead thumping loudly against the floor.
Shen Yingying had never received such a grand gesture in her life, and her eyes widened in shock.
But the next moment, she felt an overwhelming sense of satisfaction.
Though inwardly delighted, she showed no sign of it on her face. Instead, she lowered her gaze and stared at the man without a word.
Her silence frightened the man, who feared she wouldn’t relent. He slapped himself hard several times!
“Sister-in-law! Please spare me! I’ll never dare again! If I ever do, let Brother Xie beat me to death!”
Only then did Shen Yingying’s expression soften slightly. She turned to Xie Fangzhu and said, “Let it go.”
Hearing this, Xie Fangzhu withdrew his gaze and scanned the crowd gathered in the cafeteria. “Where’s the other one?”
His voice was cold and flat, devoid of any emotion, but his expression was as sharp as frost, his eyes filled with a palpable malice. This was not the easygoing Xie Fangzhu everyone was used to.
The chaotic cafeteria gradually fell silent as some people remembered.
Although Xie Fangzhu was friendly and helpful to the miners and seemed like a spineless pushover around his wife, the truth was far from it. He was capable, skilled in fights, and his methods were nothing short of ruthless. His pride and courage were undeniable—except when it came to his wife.
In the mining area, he had once been known for his remarkable deeds.That was several years ago. The wife of a miner was coveted by a local bully from a neighboring village. The bully led a group of villagers to the mine, causing trouble and insisting on taking the young wife away.
Her husband cried out in despair, but the villagers from that village were a rough, lawless bunch—rude, savage, and unreasonable. They could twist black into white with sheer force.
They came to the mine every day to stir up trouble, threatening that if the woman wasn’t handed over, the entire mining area would never know peace.
The husband was completely helpless against them and had no choice but to turn to the mine’s security team for help.
The head of the security team first tried reasoning with the bully from the neighboring village, appealing to his conscience.
But the other side refused to listen to reason. Instead, they sent young men from the village armed with tools, ready to fight, which scared the reasonable security chief into a hasty retreat.
Later, the security chief grew angry and resorted to force.
But the villagers were unfazed. They had the elderly men and women from the village lie down in the mining area, crying and wailing, complaining of aches and pains everywhere, and accusing the vast mining area of bullying poor, innocent civilians.
The security chief was at his wit’s end, utterly helpless against these savages. He wished a divine warrior would descend from the heavens to rid the village of its troublemakers.
And in the end, someone formidable did appear—Xie Fangzhu.
He volunteered to take charge, armed himself, and led the tunneling team’s men straight to the neighboring village.
Despite Xie Fangzhu’s usual gentle and refined appearance, he was actually a ruthless man who kept his true nature hidden. Not only was he exceptionally skilled in combat, but his methods were also astonishing.
If the young men from the neighboring village were savage, Xie Fangzhu and his men were even more savage, beating them until they couldn’t fight back.
If the elderly men and women from the neighboring village were unreasonable, Xie Fangzhu and his men were even more unreasonable, forcing those unreasonable elders to cower in corners, trembling with fear.
They didn’t even spare the village children, catching and beating every one they found. For days, the neighboring village echoed with the cries of children, who began to see the miners as harbingers of disaster.
The villagers never expected the seemingly decent miners to be even more shameless and dishonorable than they were, utterly devoid of martial virtue!
In the end, unable to win in a fight or even in shamelessness, how could the bully from the neighboring village dare to covet the beautiful young wife? He and his gang slunk away with their tails between their legs.
With this move, Xie Fangzhu not only solved the leaders’ problem but also addressed an issue that had long troubled the mining community.
Before this incident, people from the neighboring village would occasionally sneak into miners’ homes to steal coal. After this, they didn’t even dare to set foot in the mining area.
Miners could leave coal outside their homes for days, and it would remain untouched.
Xie Fangzhu’s reputation in the mining area soared. Brave and resourceful, he became a hero, admired and respected by all.
This was also why, even when Shen Yingying repeatedly cheated on him, no one in the mining area thought he was weak. On the contrary, they saw him as loyal and devoted, believing it was Shen Yingying who was ungrateful.
After all, with Xie Fangzhu’s capabilities, if he ever got serious, how could Shen Yingying’s frail physique possibly stand a chance?
But no one dared to speak ill of Shen Yingying in front of him, at most offering a few tactful words of advice.
Given how Xie Fangzhu cherished Shen Yingying, how could he tolerate anyone speaking badly of her?
If you upset him, you’d face the consequences.
The reason they dared to discuss it openly today was simply because what happened between Xie Fangzhu and Shen Yingying yesterday was too outrageous.His woman had run off with another man, yet today he was still treating her like a treasure and taking her out to eat. It was infuriating, like watching iron that refused to become steel, and even more infuriating was Shen Yingying’s shamelessness.
Just as the people in the cafeteria were breaking out in a cold sweat, inwardly relieved that they hadn’t spoken too loudly earlier—otherwise, they would be the ones in trouble now—a chubby man in a sweat-soaked shirt, crouching low, tried to slip out of the cafeteria unnoticed, using the crowd as cover.
What had just happened to his companion had terrified him.
Though he was covered in fat, he couldn’t withstand a beating!
But the vigilant crowd didn’t let him off. After Xie Fangzhu finished speaking, as if afraid that touching the chubby man would bring trouble upon themselves, in an instant, the people around him scattered like startled birds, leaving the chubby man fully exposed to Xie Fangzhu’s gaze.
Chubby man: “…Damn it!”