Before Zhang Chao could react, the man beneath him punched him in the stomach, catching him off guard and sending him to the ground in pain, unable to move.
Duan Pengyue stuffed a blanket into Zhang Chao’s mouth, then rained down punches on him, leaving Zhang Chao unable to cry out even as he was beaten.
Li Qinkuai and Lin Sheng heard the commotion and pushed the door open, only to see Duan Pengyue in a frenzy, relentlessly beating someone.
Lin Sheng watched the ferocious, murderous look on Duan Pengyue’s face and instinctively prayed for the man on the ground, hoping he wouldn’t be beaten to death—just crippled would be enough.
Meanwhile, Li Qinkuai leaned against the doorframe with her arms crossed, occasionally urging, “Hit him harder.”
When it seemed like enough was enough, Li Qinkuai finally said, “Alright, stop. Any more and he won’t be able to talk.”
Hearing this, Duan Pengyue stopped. Lin Sheng immediately yanked Zhang Chao up and demanded, “Speak! Who sent you?”
Zhang Chao sobbed and shook his head. “Wah… I don’t know. A woman sent me. I really don’t know her name. She gave me fifty yuan to come here and sleep with Li Qinkuai. She told me Li Qinkuai was a city girl, and if I slept with her, she’d become my wife and could only marry me!”
Hearing Zhang Chao’s words, Li Qinkuai instantly understood the sinister plan Yang Liwen had concocted.
“Did she also tell you to call people over later, so everyone could see you sleeping with me?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what she said!” Zhang Chao nodded frantically, afraid that any delay would earn him another beating.
“How could Yang Liwen be so vicious?! She’d even think of a scheme like this!” Lin Sheng shuddered in fear.
He never imagined that someone as seemingly sweet and innocent as Yang Liwen could harbor such a demonic heart.
Looks like I’ll have to stay away from women from now on!
Duan Pengyue’s face darkened, and without a word, he kicked Zhang Chao between the legs, effectively ending his ability to father children.
Zhang Chao howled in agony, “My balls!”
His cry was so loud it woke people in the surrounding train compartments.
“What’s all this noise in the middle of the night?”
“If you’re not sleeping, don’t disturb others! Do you think this train belongs to you?”
“Can’t you let people sleep at night?”
“What’s going on with you people? Why are you making such a racket at night?”
As more and more people gathered, Li Qinkuai patted the auntie on the upper bunk and said, “Auntie, you can get up now. Time for the show.”
The auntie immediately threw off her blanket, gasping for air. “Oh my goodness, I was about to suffocate! Don’t worry, girl, I saw everything. I’ll definitely testify for you!”
“Someone, catch the pervert!”
“Catch the pervert!”
Li Qinkuai instantly changed her expression and shouted at the top of her lungs.
She wanted to blow this incident wide open, to call everyone out and make Yang Liwen infamous.
“What’s going on here?”
“Yeah, tell us what happened. How dare someone try to pull something like this on a train? There’s no justice anymore!”
“Who’s the pervert? Where is he? I’ll beat him to death!”
The onlookers shouted with righteous indignation.
“It’s him! He came to our compartment in the middle of the night trying to pull something. If I hadn’t woken up and switched places with my husband, letting him sleep here for a while, he would’ve succeeded!”
“Nowadays, every family has womenfolk. What would you do if your own family members encountered such a thing while traveling by train?! If this gets out, reputations would be ruined—it’s a matter of life and death!”
The auntie sleeping on the upper bunk immediately chimed in: “That’s right! Who doesn’t have a wife, daughter, or sister? If they encountered something like this on a train, they’d probably feel they couldn’t go on living! I saw it clearly just now—this shifty-eyed man came in, took off his clothes, and started groping the person on the bed!”
“Thank goodness it was the woman’s husband sleeping there. If the woman had been asleep, she’d have had no way to clear her name even with ten mouths—she’d never wash away the stain! What should be done with such a person? If we don’t deal with him, people like him will only multiply. Today it’s this woman, tomorrow it could be your daughters, sisters, or wives!”
Li Qinkuai quietly gave the auntie a thumbs-up. As expected of someone with life experience—she had laid out the stakes perfectly in just a few words.
“Beat him to death!”
“Can’t let someone like this go—he must be beaten to death!”
“Report him to the police!”
“Why bother with the police? Just send him straight to be shot! Someone like this doesn’t deserve to live!”
“Yes! Straight to execution!”
Upon hearing he might be executed, Zhang Chao trembled in fear, pleading incessantly.
“It wasn’t me! That woman paid me to come here! Let me go, I don’t want to die! It was all that woman’s fault, not mine! Let me go, I swear I’ll change, I’ll never do such a thing again!”
Li Qinkuai found it laughable and exposed him directly: “You’re scared now, but weren’t you afraid when you took the money?!”
When Yang Liwen returned, she only saw a crowd gathered around the door of her sleeping berth, pointing and whispering. Overjoyed, she rushed over and shouted: “She’s a shameless woman who’s always flirting with men!”
She yelled as she pushed through the crowd.
But then she saw Zhang Chao, beaten black and blue, as well as Li Qinkuai, Duan Pengyue, and Lin Sheng standing there perfectly fine.
Yang Liwen froze: “What are you all doing here?”
Seeing her, Zhang Chao immediately cried out: “It’s her! This woman—she’s the one who paid me to come to the berth and sleep with this woman! It’s her! It’s all her fault, not mine!”
Panicked, Yang Liwen denied it: “What nonsense are you spouting! I don’t even know you!”
“It was you! You gave me money and your berth ticket to come here. Now you’re trying to deny it? I won’t let you get away with it!” Zhang Chao shouted furiously.
Li Qinkuai raised her hand and slapped Yang Liwen across the face, then spat: “As soon as we boarded the train today, you accused me in front of everyone of seducing your man. Now you’ve paid another man to rape me! Someone with such twisted thinking like you should be sent for reeducation through labor!”
The onlookers, seeing it was Yang Liwen behind all this and hearing Zhang Chao’s words, understood everything. They echoed in agreement:
“So it was her all along—she never looked like a decent person!”
“Send her for reeducation through labor!”
“We must report her to the police!”
Yang Liwen turned pale with fright, shaking her head and denying: “It wasn’t me! She’s trying to frame me! It has nothing to do with me—she’s trying to frame me!”
Li Qinkuai: “At this point, you still think you can deny it? That’s impossible! I warned you, but you wouldn’t listen! Duan Pengyue, go get the railway police.”
“Alright.” Duan Pengyue agreed immediately.
But before he could leave, he saw the railway police arriving with others.
The railway police had come after hearing the commotion. After understanding the truth of the matter, they handcuffed Yang Liwen and Zhang Chao, promising: “Comrades, rest assured, we will definitely give you an explanation.”
Then, turning to the onlookers, they shouted: “Alright, everyone go back to sleep!”
Seeing the matter resolved, everyone returned to sleep.
Lin Sheng quickly yawned: “Alright, I’m heading back too. You two comfort each other.”
Li Qinkuai glanced at Duan Pengyue’s clenched fist, which had some bloodstains on it.
He had been silent and grim-faced since earlier, lost in thought.
Li Qinkuai sighed, motioned for Duan Pengyue to sit down, and took out a cloth to wipe the blood: “You should have been more careful when hitting someone.”
Duan Pengyue looked at the person in front of him, who was carefully cleaning his wound with lowered head, and felt even more distressed. After a pause, he finally spoke: “I’m sorry, I didn’t protect you well enough.”