Sure enough, no sooner had that thought crossed her mind than she saw Xie Fangzhu, who had originally been standing behind her, suddenly appear in her line of sight, casually walking toward the two men.
The next moment, his fist flew out.
With a loud bang, the burly man who had called Shen Yingying a slut was sent crashing to the ground like a battered sack.
The man had never imagined that Xie Fangzhu would suddenly make a move. He had been completely unprepared, which meant he took the full force of Xie Fangzhu’s punch.
The inside of his mouth filled with the metallic sweetness of blood, and the pain made him feel as though his entire face had split open.
After all, he was a man with some fighting spirit. Instinctively, he tried to scramble to his feet and fight back, but Xie Fangzhu gave him no chance whatsoever. Before the man had even figured out what had happened, Xie Fangzhu had already planted his foot on his face.
“Heh.” Xie Fangzhu let out a cold laugh. He cracked his fingers until they popped loudly, then, as though grinding out a cigarette butt, maliciously twisted his foot against the man’s face. “Wasn’t that mouth of yours running pretty smoothly just now? Say it again. Let me hear it.”
The burly man’s vision had already gone blurry. He struggled desperately to get up, but Xie Fangzhu’s foot felt as though it weighed a thousand jin. No matter what he did, he could not break free.
In no time at all, every trace of his masculine bravado vanished. With great difficulty, he begged for mercy. “Brother Xie… Brother Xie… I was wrong… You’re a great man with a generous heart. Please spare me…”
“Heh.” Xie Fangzhu sneered. “Pathetic. Trash.”
He lifted his foot. Just as the man thought he had escaped disaster, Xie Fangzhu jerked his chin toward Shen Yingying.
“Go apologize to my Wife. If she forgives you, I’ll let you go.”
That single move had terrified the man so thoroughly that he crawled and stumbled his way to Shen Yingying.
His apology was exceptionally solemn. The moment he reached her, he dropped to his knees and gave Shen Yingying a deep formal bow.
“Sister-in-law! I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry! I’m nothing but a bastard! I’ve got a filthy mouth that only spits nonsense. Please don’t take it to heart. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!!”
As he spoke, he repeatedly slammed his forehead against the ground several more times with loud thuds.
From the day she was born until now, Shen Yingying had never before received such an extravagant display of respect. Her eyes widened involuntarily in astonishment.
But in the very next moment, she felt absolutely exhilarated inside.
Although she was overjoyed inwardly, not a trace of it showed on her face. She lowered her eyes and simply looked at the man without saying a word.
The man’s fear only deepened at her attitude. Terrified that she would refuse to forgive him, he slapped himself across the face several times with loud smacks.
“Sister-in-law! Please spare me! I swear I’ll never dare do it again! If I ever do, then Brother Xie can beat me to death!”
Only then did Shen Yingying’s expression soften a little. She looked toward Xie Fangzhu and said: “Forget it.”
Hearing that, Xie Fangzhu withdrew his gaze and swept his eyes over the crowd watching inside the canteen. “There’s still one more.”
His voice was calm and flat, without the slightest rise or fall, yet his expression was as cold as frost, and the sinister darkness in his eyes was unmistakable. He looked nothing like the easygoing Xie Fangzhu everyone usually saw.
The chaotic canteen gradually fell silent, and some people suddenly remembered.
Although Xie Fangzhu was friendly and helpful to everyone in the mining district, and in front of his wife resembled nothing more than a spineless weakling.
In reality, however, Xie Fangzhu was nowhere near that pathetic. He was highly capable, an excellent fighter, and his methods were even more formidable. His masculine spirit was beyond question, except when he was in front of his wife.
He had once accomplished some truly legendary feats in the mining district.
It had happened several years earlier. The Wife of one of the miners had caught the eye of a local tyrant from a neighboring village. The local tyrant had brought villagers to the mine to make trouble, insisting on taking the young Wife away by force.
The young Wife’s husband cried and pleaded in despair, but the villagers were descended from bandits. They were crude, savage, and utterly unreasonable. Even something black could be beaten into white with the weapons in their hands.
They came to the mine every single day to cause trouble, threatening that if the woman was not handed over, no one in the entire mining district would know another peaceful day.
The young Wife’s husband had no way to deal with them and could only ask the mine’s Security Team for help.
The Security Team Section Chief first tried reasoning with the neighboring village’s local tyrant peacefully.
In the end, the other side refused to listen to reason at all. They arranged for the young men of the village to charge forward wielding weapons and unleashing all eighteen martial techniques, frightening the Section Chief into beating a hasty retreat.
Later, the Section Chief lost his temper and resorted to force.
The other side was not afraid in the slightest. They had the elderly men and women of the village lie down in the mining district, crying with tears and snot streaming together, complaining that this hurt and that hurt, while accusing the enormous mining district of bullying poor, helpless common folk.
The Security Team Section Chief developed a splitting headache. He was completely helpless against those barbarians and wished that a heavenly general would descend from the skies to deal with the monsters from that village.
In the end, someone truly formidable did appear, and that person was Xie Fangzhu.
He volunteered to take action. Carrying his weapon and leading the brothers from the tunneling team, he headed straight for the opposing village.
Although Xie Fangzhu usually appeared refined and gentle, he was actually a ruthless man whose true abilities remained hidden. Not only was his combat strength astonishing, but his methods were even more shocking.
The young men of the neighboring village were savage, so they became even more savage, beating them until they had no chance whatsoever to fight back.
The elderly men and women of the neighboring village refused to behave reasonably, so they became even more unreasonable, forcing those unreasonable old men and women to huddle trembling in the corners.
They did not even spare the children of the village. Every child they caught received a beating. For several days, the neighboring village echoed with the cries of children. Whenever they saw people from the mine, they reacted as though they had seen the god of plague.
The people of the neighboring village had never imagined that the well-dressed, respectable-looking people from the mining district would actually be even more shameless than they were. They had absolutely no sense of fair play and were shameless beyond belief.
In the end, they could not win in a fight, nor could they outdo them in shamelessness. How could the neighboring village’s local tyrant still dare covet that beautiful young Wife? He could only tuck his tail between his legs and flee with his followers in utter disgrace.
With that single intervention, he not only solved the leaders’ biggest headache but also resolved a problem that had plagued the mining district’s residents for a long time.
Before that, the neighboring villagers would occasionally sneak into the mining district to steal coal from people’s homes. After this incident, they no longer even dared set foot in the mining district.
The mining district’s residents could leave their coal outside their homes, and even after several days it would still be sitting exactly where they had left it.
That was how Xie Fangzhu’s image grew larger than life in the mining district. Courageous and resourceful, he was practically the mining district’s hero. Everyone admired and respected him.
It was also because of that that, even after Shen Yingying had put countless green hats on him, he still did not dare utter a single harsh word to her, and no one in the mining district considered him cowardly. On the contrary, they all thought he was deeply loyal and affectionate, while Shen Yingying simply failed to appreciate what she had.
After all, with Xie Fangzhu’s capabilities, if he truly became serious, how could Shen Yingying’s tiny frame possibly stand a chance against him?
Even so, no one dared speak ill of Shen Yingying in front of him. At most, they would tactfully offer a few words of advice.
After all, judging by the way Xie Fangzhu babied Shen Yingying, how could he possibly tolerate anyone speaking badly about her?
If someone made him unhappy, they would not have a pleasant outcome.
The reason everyone dared discuss it openly today was entirely because what had happened between Xie Fangzhu and Shen Yingying yesterday had been far too outrageous.
The woman had run off with another man, yet today he was still treating her like a baby and bringing her out for a meal. People were furious on his behalf, frustrated that he refused to stand up for himself, and even more disgusted by Shen Yingying’s shamelessness.
While everyone in the canteen was breaking out in cold sweat, secretly thankful that they had not spoken too loudly earlier, otherwise the unlucky one would now be themselves, a fat man in a sleeveless undershirt hunched his body and tried to use the crowd as cover to sneak out of the canteen.
What had happened to his companion had scared him out of his wits.
Although he was covered in fat, he certainly could not withstand a beating.
However, the enthusiastic onlookers did not let him off. After Xie Fangzhu finished speaking, as though afraid that even standing beside the fat man would bring them trouble, they scattered like startled birds and beasts.
In an instant, everyone around the fat man had dispersed, exposing him completely to Xie Fangzhu’s line of sight.
The fat man: “…Holy shit!”