Sure enough, no sooner had that thought crossed her mind than Shen Yingying saw Xie Fangzhu, who had been standing behind her, suddenly step into view and casually walk toward the two men.
The next second, his fist flew out.
Bang—!
With a loud crash, the burly man who had called Shen Yingying a “slut” was sent flying like a torn sack and slammed heavily onto the ground.
The man had never imagined Xie Fangzhu would attack without warning and had been completely unprepared, taking the full force of the punch head-on.
The taste of blood instantly filled his mouth. The pain was so intense it felt like his entire face had split open.
Still, being a man, his blood heated instinctively and he tried to scramble up to fight back.
But Xie Fangzhu gave him no chance at all.
Before the man could even process what had happened, Xie Fangzhu’s foot was already planted firmly on his face.
“Heh.”
Xie Fangzhu sneered, cracking his knuckles loudly as his foot twisted against the man’s face like grinding out a cigarette butt.
“Wasn’t your mouth running pretty smoothly just now? Go ahead. Say another line for me.”
The burly man’s vision blurred.
He struggled desperately to get up, but Xie Fangzhu’s foot felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. He couldn’t break free at all.
In only moments, all the man’s masculine bravado vanished.
Barely able to speak, he begged:
“B-Brother Xie… I was wrong… You’re generous, please spare me…”
“Heh.”
Xie Fangzhu laughed mockingly.
“What a spineless piece of trash.”
He finally 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 this go.”
That single punch earlier had terrified the man completely.
He scrambled over on hands and knees toward Shen Yingying.
And his apology was unbelievably grand.
The moment he reached her, his knees bent and he practically performed a formal kneeling salute.
“Sister-in-law! I’m sorry, truly sorry! I’m garbage! My filthy mouth only spits nonsense. Please don’t take it to heart! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!!”
As he spoke, he repeatedly slammed his head against the floor with loud bang bang bang sounds.
From childhood until now, Shen Yingying had never received such an exaggerated apology before.
Her eyes widened involuntarily in shock.
But the next second—
She was absolutely thrilled inside.
Although inwardly ecstatic, none of it showed on her face.
She merely lowered her gaze and silently looked at the man.
Her silence terrified him even more.
Afraid she wouldn’t forgive him, he immediately slapped himself several times.
Smack! Smack!
“Sister-in-law! Please spare me! I’ll never dare again! If I do, Brother Xie can beat me to death!”
Only then did Shen Yingying’s expression soften slightly.
She turned toward Xie Fangzhu.
“Forget it.”
Hearing that, Xie Fangzhu withdrew his gaze and slowly swept his eyes across the cafeteria crowd.
“There’s still one more.”
His voice was calm and flat, without a trace of emotion.
But his expression was cold as frost, the dark menace in his eyes completely undisguised.
He looked nothing like the easygoing Xie Fangzhu everyone usually knew.
The chaotic cafeteria gradually quieted down.
And some people suddenly remembered something.
Although Xie Fangzhu was normally friendly and helpful around the mining district—and especially soft toward his wife, almost spineless—
In reality, he was far from weak.
He was capable, terrifyingly good at fighting, and his methods were ruthless.
His masculine ferocity was absolutely real.
(Except in front of his wife, where it mysteriously disappeared.)
Back in the mining district, he had once been something of a legend.
It had happened several years ago.
A worker’s young wife had caught the eye of a local thug from a neighboring village. The thug brought a group of villagers to the mine and caused endless trouble, insisting on taking the woman away by force.
The woman’s husband cried and begged helplessly, but the villagers were descendants of bandits—rough, savage, unreasonable people who could beat black into white with sheer force.
Every day they came to the mine to stir up chaos, threatening that unless they got the woman, the entire mining district would know no peace.
The husband had no way to deal with them and finally begged the mine security team for help.
The security captain first tried reasoning politely with the thug.
The thug refused to listen.
Instead, he sent young men from the village wielding weapons and showing off fighting stances, scaring the captain into retreating immediately.
Eventually, the captain lost patience and used force.
The villagers still weren’t afraid.
They simply sent elderly men and women to lie down in the mining district crying dramatically about pain everywhere, accusing the large mining district of bullying poor innocent villagers.
The security captain nearly lost his mind.
He had no way to deal with these shameless savages and practically wished heaven would send down a divine soldier to wipe them out.
And in the end—
Someone truly terrifying did appear.
That person was Xie Fangzhu.
He voluntarily stepped forward, shouldered a weapon, and led the tunneling team brothers straight into the neighboring village.
Though Xie Fangzhu normally appeared refined and scholarly, he was secretly a ruthless monster.
Not only was his fighting ability outrageous, but his methods were even more frightening.
The neighboring village youths were savage?
Then Xie Fangzhu’s group became even more savage, beating them until they couldn’t fight back.
The old men and women were unreasonable?
Then Xie Fangzhu became even more unreasonable, terrifying them into huddling in corners trembling.
He didn’t even spare the children.
If he caught one, he smacked one.
For several days, the neighboring village echoed with the cries of children. The moment they saw people from the mine, they reacted as though they’d seen demons.
The villagers had never imagined the seemingly respectable mining people could actually be even more shameless and violent than themselves.
In the end, unable to win through force and even less able to compete in shamelessness, the village thug completely gave up on the pretty young wife and fled with his tail tucked between his legs.
With that single operation, Xie Fangzhu not only solved the leaders’ problem but also fixed a long-standing issue for the mining residents.
Previously, villagers from next door would often sneak into the mining district to steal coal.
After that incident, they no longer even dared enter the area.
People could leave coal sitting outside their houses for days without it disappearing.
And from then on, Xie Fangzhu’s image in the mining district became enormous.
Brave, capable, ruthless—
Practically a hero.
Everyone admired and respected him.
Which was also why, even after Shen Yingying had effectively “cuckolded” him countless times, nobody thought he was pathetic for tolerating it.
Instead, they only felt he was loyal and affectionate, while Shen Yingying was ungrateful.
After all, with Xie Fangzhu’s abilities, if he truly got serious, how could someone as small as Shen Yingying possibly stand against him?
Still, nobody dared insult Shen Yingying directly in front of him.
At most, they’d cautiously offer gentle advice.
Because everyone knew perfectly well how fiercely Xie Fangzhu treasured her.
If you made him unhappy by speaking badly about Shen Yingying—
You wouldn’t end well.
The reason people dared gossip so openly today was simply because yesterday’s elopement scandal had been too outrageous.
The woman had literally run off with another man, yet today Xie Fangzhu still treated her like a precious treasure and brought her out for breakfast.
People were furious on his behalf.
Angry that he refused to stand up for himself.
Even angrier at Shen Yingying’s shamelessness.
At that moment, while cold sweat drenched everyone’s backs and they silently thanked heaven that they hadn’t spoken loudly enough to get targeted—
A fat man in a sleeveless undershirt suddenly hunched low and tried sneaking toward the cafeteria exit using the crowd as cover.
Seeing what had happened to his companion had scared him witless.
Sure, he was covered in fat.
But that didn’t mean he could survive a beating!
Unfortunately for him, the enthusiastic crowd had no intention of helping him escape.
The moment Xie Fangzhu’s words fell, the people around the fat man scattered like frightened birds, clearly terrified of being implicated.
In an instant, the fat man stood completely exposed in Xie Fangzhu’s line of sight.
Fat man: “…Holy shit.”