It was still early, so Meng Yao first made a trip to the newspaper office.
Such a joyous occasion in the family ought to be shared with the entire Xiangyang District.
After leaving the newspaper office, Meng Yao had only one word to describe her mood:
Wonderful!
Suddenly, a figure flashed past her at incredible speed, nearly making her stumble.
What was that?
“Robbery! Someone help!”
Two people hurried after the fleeing figure, shouting anxiously.
Meng Yao immediately realized that the person who had just rushed past her was a thief.
Without hesitation, she ran after him.
At the same time, from the other end of the street, a tall and agile figure also began chasing in the direction the thief had fled.
Stealing clearly required a great deal of stamina.
More importantly, the thief was extremely familiar with the area.
Meng Yao followed him through several alleys. Had she not kept close behind him, she would have lost him long ago.
“Stop! Stop right there!”
The thief had not encountered such a troublesome, self-righteous busybody in a long time.
After luring her into a dead-end alley, he immediately stopped.
He turned around and looked at the slender Meng Yao, revealing a sinister smile.
“You think a woman like you can get the stolen goods back? You’re overestimating yourself.”
Before he finished speaking, Meng Yao sensed several figures slowly approaching from behind her.
She turned her head and saw that they were his accomplices.
Meng Yao was neither frightened nor angry.
She simply stared calmly at the vulgar bald man in front of her.
“Do you believe that not only will I recover the stolen property today, but I’ll also beat all of you until you kneel and beg for mercy?”
Before she had even finished speaking, laughter erupted all around her.
“Hahahaha!”
The men laughed so hard that they bent forward and backward, as though they had heard the greatest joke in the world.
Meng Yao ignored them and calmly stretched her muscles, preparing to fight.
Seeing her take what appeared to be a proper fighting stance, the thieves looked at her with even greater contempt.
“You’re only a woman, yet you think you can teach us a lesson?”
“Today, we’ll let you experience what it feels like to be dealt with by real men!”
The men reached out their filthy hands and prepared to pounce on her.
Before they could get close, just as Meng Yao was about to strike, the lecherous man suddenly cried out in pain and dropped to his knees at her feet.
The pain seemed so intense that he groaned loudly. His ugly face twisted into an even more terrifying expression.
The alley fell silent.
The bald man’s companions were completely stunned.
What had just happened?
Before they could ask, a deep and clear male voice sounded from behind them.
“A group of lowlife thieves dares to bully a woman? If no one teaches you a lesson, you’ll forget that law and justice still exist in this country.”
The men nervously stepped backward when they saw the tall man who had suddenly appeared.
It was not that they were cowards.
The stranger had knocked the bald man down with a single kick and left him unable to straighten his body.
That meant he was clearly a trained fighter.
Their frightened voices trembled.
“Where did this brat come from? This has nothing to do with you. Get lost!”
The tall man did not answer.
Following the principle that action was better than arguing whenever possible, he immediately swung his powerful arms and gave them a brutal beating.
Meng Yao watched with great interest and was instantly impressed by his fighting ability.
This man was not merely trained.
His movements appeared highly professional.
Every punch landed solidly, yet he deliberately avoided vital areas and precisely struck the most painful spots.
The men screamed in agony.
They only knew a few crude fighting moves and were no match for the tall man.
Within moments, they all dropped to their knees and begged for mercy.
“Hero, spare us! We were wrong! We truly know we were wrong!”
“The bag is right here. We’ll return it completely untouched!”
“Stop hitting us! Please stop! Boohoo…”
Meng Yao took the bag and swept a cold gaze over them.
“You have hands, feet, and perfectly healthy bodies, yet instead of doing honest work, you choose to commit filthy crimes.”
As she spoke, she swung the bag and struck them several times before finally venting her anger.
The tall man sighed softly.
“Let’s go. We’ll take them to the public security bureau.”
The thieves’ faces turned deathly pale.
They were going inside again?
They had already been arrested three times that month.
No.
They had to find a way to escape.
Meng Yao seemed able to read their minds and immediately understood what they were thinking.
“Wait.”
She forcibly stripped off one man’s outer garment and tore it into long strips of cloth.
She tied tight knots around the three men’s wrists, leaving the longest strip between them as a lead.
The scene now made it look as though Meng Yao were walking a group of dogs.
The tall man smiled helplessly.
“She’s quite clever…”
Meng Yao, who was walking behind them and pulling the criminals along, did not clearly hear his praise.
She quickly asked,
“What did you say?”
After walking for quite some time, they finally arrived at the nearest public security bureau.
The bound thieves looked bitter and refused to enter.
The tall man showed no mercy and kicked them from behind, forcibly sending them through the bureau’s entrance.
At that moment, the lobby was crowded with a large group of people who were arguing fiercely with the police officers.
Jiang Jun, the captain of the criminal investigation brigade, pressed his temples with a headache and struggled to squeeze his head out of the crowd.
He had just intended to find a quiet place when he turned around and saw Meng Yao and the others.
He stared at the tall man in surprise.
“You… Why are you here?”
The tall man’s expression remained indifferent.
“I happened to see these men stealing private property in the street while I was on my way home. I brought them here to remove a public nuisance.”
As he spoke, he kicked the thieves again.
They all lowered their heads. Their faces were bruised and swollen, and they were covered in dust and dirt, not daring to speak.
Jiang Jun looked at them with disgust and rolled his eyes.
“How many times have you been arrested already? You still refuse to change, and you had to choose today of all days…”
The lobby was so noisy that the shouting almost drowned out Jiang Jun’s voice.
The tall man looked puzzled.
“Why is it so lively here today?”
Jiang Jun hesitated, looking troubled, as though he could not explain the situation clearly in only a few words.
Curious, Meng Yao listened carefully to the argument.
“You’re supposed to be relatives, yet you specifically chose to cheat your own family. If this hadn’t been discovered, the child’s entire future would have been ruined.”
“How wicked! You impersonated someone else’s child so your own son could attend university. Aren’t you afraid of divine punishment?”
“If Xiaoxia hadn’t felt wronged and revealed everything herself, we would have truly believed that she had failed the entrance examination.”
“Exactly! This is outrageous. He even harmed his own niece, and she called him Uncle for eighteen years.”
The man being criticized was named Wu Mingli.
He had a thin, bony body beneath a sharp and calculating head. Combined with his gold-rimmed glasses, he looked like a perfect example of a refined-looking scoundrel.
With both hands in his pockets, he shouted self-righteously,
“Zhifa is my younger brother, and he only has a daughter. My family has a son. We’re brothers, so shouldn’t he naturally give way to me?”
The family members standing behind him immediately agreed.
“Exactly. Why does a girl need so much education?”
“It’s only a family matter, yet you had to bring it here and embarrass everyone. Zhifa, what you did today was truly unreasonable.”
“Whose fault is it that you couldn’t produce a son? You should prioritize your own brother!”
Wu Zhifa, who had been standing hunched over and suppressing his anger, immediately changed expression after hearing those words.
His face flushed red as he exploded.
“Bah! So this is how you treat us simply because my child is a girl?”
“Your whole family has bullied us for years. I tolerated it again and again, but you only became worse.”
“Now you even dare steal my daughter’s university admission!”
“I’m making myself clear today. Unless you go to the school, explain everything, and return my daughter’s academic registration, our relationship ends here!”
Then they would sever ties.
This concerned his daughter’s lifelong future.
Both sides remained locked in confrontation, and neither was willing to back down.
Meng Yao could no longer tolerate the domineering behavior of Wu Mingli’s family.
She forced her way through the crowd, climbed directly onto an office desk, picked up an empty wooden board, and slapped it hard against the tabletop.
“Everyone, be quiet and listen to me!”
Jiang Jun found the scene amusing.
Even he, the brigade captain, could not control this crowd.
What could a young girl like her possibly accomplish?