173: Chapter 171: The Female Thief 173: Chapter 171: The Female Thief “Hmph, still trying to run?
I knew you were hiding here; now let’s see where you can run to.” Just then, a cold snort sounded, and the four who had left returned, with two blocking the door and the other two heading this way.
The proud beauty, who had been looking smug just moments ago, changed her expression in an instant when she saw the four return.
Fleeing in panic, she hid behind Tangyu, gripping his arm timidly and said, “Hero, you have to save me again.
If they catch me, I’m dead for sure.
I’m so beautiful and so young, you definitely can’t bear to see me suffer, right?
Please, save me, I will definitely repay you.” She was treating Tangyu as if he were her lifesaver.
Mo Xiaoqing glanced at the beauty, feeling an indescribable sensation in her heart, then looked at the four thuggish men making their way over with a menacing air that naturally made one feel intimidated.
Though Mo Xiaoqing knew Tangyu was capable, the sight of these thugs still filled her with concern.
“Step aside, this isn’t your business, don’t try to be a hero,” said the two thugs as they approached Tangyu’s table, with the leader addressing Tangyu in a harsh tone.
The beauty clung to Tangyu even tighter, almost leaning her body against his.
Tangyu could feel her desperation from the strength in her grip.
Although he was unclear about the specifics, since these were thugs, it didn’t seem like the matter could be too serious.
Besides, it wasn’t Tangyu’s style to ignore a beautiful woman actively seeking his help.
“You’re with Brother Hu, aren’t you?” Tangyu asked, looking at the two men.
The two men were slightly taken aback; the one who had spoken sized up Tangyu, finding him vaguely familiar but unable to place him.
Knowing Brother Hu’s reputation, Tangyu appeared to be no ordinary character.
The man said, “That’s right, we’re with Brother Hu.
May I ask who you are?”
Now that these men were identified as Brother Hu’s subordinates, things would be easier.
Tangyu smiled lightly and said, “My name is Tangyu, and I’m a friend of Brother Hu.”
At the mention of Tangyu, the two men suddenly realized who he was, and a look of respect immediately appeared on the leader’s face as he nodded to Tangyu, saying, “So it’s Brother Tangyu, I beg your pardon for not recognizing you sooner, our vision was too clouded.
Please, don’t take offense.”
They naturally knew of Tangyu; Brother Hu had already instructed them to treat Tangyu with the same respect as they would him.
Being Brother Hu’s brother, they were indeed very respectful toward him.
Moreover, some of Tangyu’s exploits had spread among them, and they were somewhat curious about the man who even Brother Hu treated with such courtesy.
What kind of person was he?
“No worries, what’s going on here?
Why are you chasing her?” Tangyu asked the man, glancing at the beauty.
The beauty, still holding on to Tangyu, also lit up with interest.
She hadn’t expected that her random act of desperation would turn out to be so fortuitous, even commanding respect from the thugs.
Could it be that this man was also involved in the underworld?
Curious, her gaze measured up Tangyu.
Not just her, Mo Xiaoqing was also somewhat curious, not knowing that Tangyu had such close ties with people from the underworld.
She had heard of Brother Hu, a local tough near Donglin University, and it turned out that Tangyu had a good relationship with Brother Hu.
The man took a look at the beauty and then said to Tangyu, “Here’s the thing, Brother Tangyu.
This woman often sets up a street stall outside our door.
We’ve told her repeatedly not to come back, but she persists, ignoring our warnings.
Just that alone would have been fine since Brother Hu is always very lenient with students.
But this woman has been using her stall to pickpocket.
No wonder people keep reporting lost wallets at our venue.
Today I caught her red-handed, so that’s why we chased her down to take her back to Brother Hu for punishment.”
“Pickpocketing?” Tangyu raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at the woman clinging to him.
A young and beautiful woman stealing?
That might seem unbelievable to the average person, as pretty women naturally have an advantage in gaining men’s sympathy.
A young, beautiful woman with an educated and refined appearance doesn’t seem like the type to stoop to such petty crimes.
To put it bluntly, why would such an attractive woman resort to theft?
Surely plenty of wealthy suitors would chase her; wouldn’t accepting just one be enough to live a comfortable life?
Tangyu found it difficult to accept this at the moment.
His gaze swept over the woman’s eyes, which held no sign of evasion, but instead, she shook her head and said, “I didn’t steal anything; they’re framing me.
How could I do such a thing?
Do I look like it?”
Though the beauty was trying hard to cover up—aided by her natural advantage, with quite impressive acting skills—some subtle changes in her eyes didn’t escape Tangyu’s notice.
It seemed that the beauty had indeed taken someone else’s belongings.
Tangyu found this quite puzzling, but it wasn’t the time to dwell on it; resolving the situation was paramount.
He could sense that the beauty’s intentions weren’t malicious; perhaps there were difficulties or reasons behind her actions.
“Yeah, could there be some kind of misunderstanding?” Mo Xiaoqing chimed in, as heroes pity heroes, and beauties pity beauties.
“There’s absolutely no misunderstanding.
We wouldn’t arrest anyone without confirmation.
You can’t trust her words,” the leader stated firmly.
Tangyu looked at the beauty and said, “Give the wallet back to its owner, and I’ll make sure they don’t catch you.”
The beauty blinked her eyes, looking at Tangyu with a puzzled expression, “What are you talking about?
What giving back?
I really didn’t steal anything.
I told you they are framing me, and you don’t believe me.
Oh, I get it now, you’re in on it with them.
You’re all falsely accusing me.
Humph, with your numbers, you gang up to bully a weak woman.
Now that I’ve fallen into your hands, you can say whatever you want; do as you please.”
Seeing that the beauty refused to admit it and was attempting to deceive everyone, Tangyu curled his lip and said, “Since you say you don’t have it, I’ll stay out of this.” Then he turned to the two men and added, “Handle it however you see fit.”
“Alright, Tangyu, then let’s take her back and hand her over to Brother Hu to deal with.
The wallet is on her, she can’t deny it,” the leading man said.
Seeing the two men coming to catch her, the beauty was scared and became somewhat frantic, clutching Tangyu’s clothes tightly and said, “Hey, I already called you a heroic hunk, and this is how you sell me out, with no sense of loyalty at all?
Are you really going to just stand by and watch me die?
If they take me, I definitely won’t have a good outcome.”
Tangyu looked at her indifferently and said, “Didn’t you say you were innocent?
I know Brother Hu’s character, if you really are innocent, he absolutely won’t hurt a hair on your head, I can assure you of that.
The innocent will clear themselves, and the guilty will reveal themselves.
If you really are innocent and wrongfully accused, then what are you afraid of?”
“I—” The beauty was startled, suddenly speechless, her eyes darting about as she thought of what to say, “I am innocent, it’s precisely because I’m innocent that I won’t go with them.
Going with them would be like tarnishing my own reputation, that’s absolutely not okay.
Besides, I know what kind of people they are, I don’t believe they won’t harm me.”
“Then I’m powerless to help,” Tangyu shrugged and said, “If they really do something to you, you can call the police, or shall I call the police for you?
You don’t trust them, but you should trust the police, right?”
“Why are you like this?” The beauty glared at Tangyu, somewhat exasperated.
“There’s no use wasting words with her, Tangyu.
Once we get to Brother Hu, she won’t be able to avoid telling the truth,” the leading man said.
“This is your last chance, if you don’t hand over the wallet now, I won’t deal with your matter anymore,” Tangyu said again.
The beauty’s eyes shimmered with a strange light, and then she said, “Wait, can you really guarantee that if I hand over the wallet, they will stop bothering me?”
“What I’ve said, I naturally won’t go back on,” Tangyu said.
The beauty still looked uncertainly at the two men when the leading man said, “Tangyu’s word is as good as Brother Hu’s.
Tangyu’s guarantee is our guarantee, we won’t trouble you any further.
You should feel lucky to have encountered Tangyu, otherwise, you wouldn’t have gotten off so easily today.
If we really took you to the police station, you wouldn’t want to consider the consequences.”
The beauty’s face showed a look of shock, and then, like pulling off a magic trick, she produced a bulging wallet from her body and threw it to the leading man, “Here, the wallet is returned to you.
Don’t bother me anymore, you guys better leave.”
The leading man took the wallet, checked inside, then said to Tangyu, “Tangyu, we’re going to leave first.
Drop by when you have the time.”
“Mhm, thanks, send my regards to Brother Hu, I’ll come by when I’m free,” Tangyu said.
“Let’s go.” The leading man gestured, and the four of them left.
Seeing the four men leave, the beauty finally let out a sigh of relief, patting her chest.
But her face quickly resumed its prior expression as she patted Tangyu on the shoulder and said, “Hehe, hero, thanks.
You really are a good person, so handsome.
I owe you one for this favor; I’ll find a way to repay you in the future.
I have things to attend to, so I’ll be going now.
We’ll meet again later.” With that, the beauty tried to leave.
“Wait,” Tangyu called out to the beauty.
“What now, are you not letting me go?
You couldn’t possibly want your reward now, could you?
I can’t give you that; I don’t have any money.
And if it’s my body you want, that’s even more off the table,” the beauty said, looking at Tangyu warily.
Tangyu shook his head and said, “Nothing much, I just wanted to give you a piece of advice.
Don’t do this kind of thing again in the future.
You are young and beautiful; there are better things for you to do rather than this.
If you get caught again, you won’t be as lucky as today.
Even if I come across you next time, I won’t get involved.
Take care of yourself, and don’t ruin your promising youth with your own hands.”
“Tch, you know nothing and you talk like this about me, I’m not the person you think I am.
Today’s incident—I can’t be bothered to explain to you, think whatever you want.
It’s just a favor I owe you, and I don’t need you to teach me how to live my life,” the beauty huffed and said before turning and striding away.
Tangyu merely shook his head lightly; she was very stubborn indeed.
There might be some story behind all this.
However, stealing was still a fact.
“You sympathize with her so much, might as well help her to the end,” Mo Xiaoqing suddenly said, it was unclear if she was joking or feeling a bit jealous.
Tangyu looked away, smiled, and said, “I wouldn’t say it’s sympathy, just something I can’t quite wrap my head around.”
“It’s not necessary to think too much about other people’s issues, but look at you, gaining a beauty’s heart again,” Mo Xiaoqing said.
“What do you mean again?
Xiaoqing, your words seem to have a deeper meaning?” Tangyu jokingly said to Mo Xiaoqing.
Mo Xiaoqing paused, then realizing the implication in Tangyu’s words, she couldn’t help but glare at him coyly, though there was an inexplicable sweetness in her heart.