"Just crying loudly isn't too bad," Chu Hengyuan said, ignoring the heart - wrenching sobs as he lowered his head to peel the crayfish. "When I was in school, I often went to the roadside barbecue stalls to eat barbecue late at night. I've seen quite a few people make a scene after getting drunk. The most impressive one was a guy who hugged a utility pole and wailed, shouting for God to bestow him game equipment. His friends tried to stop him, but they just couldn't pull him away. Later, his friends gave up and simply took out their phones to record videos."
He was also a game enthusiast back then. He recognized all the game equipment the drunk guy was shouting about. Coincidentally, he didn't have a single one of those pieces of equipment because they were all too expensive and he was poor.
"This story tells us that if you can't hold your liquor, never drink outside. If you get drunk and start making a fool of yourself, isn't that just creating a black mark on your record?" the little fox concluded seriously.
Chu Hengyuan nodded in agreement as if it were a serious matter. "That's right."
The drunk strong - man had come alone, with no friends to calm him down. The little girl stopped what she was doing, squatted beside the strong - man to comfort him, and then picked up the phone on his table. She wanted to call the strong - man's family and ask them to come and pick him up.
However, although the call was made, the strong - man's cries grew louder. Worried that the other customers in the store would find the noise annoying, she had no choice but to support the strong - man while trying to console him. She planned to take him outside so that he could catch some cold air and calm down a bit.
But a two - hundred - pound man was just too heavy for a fifteen - year - old girl. She held the man's arm, and her face turned red as she managed to take him one step outside.
Rong Lan watched for a while, then took off her gloves and wanted to help. But before she could get up, Chu Hengyuan spoke. "Lanlan, there's no need to help."
"Huh?" Rong Lan hesitated. "But that little girl seems to be struggling."
Chu Hengyuan slowly picked the meat out of the river snails. "If she can't handle it, she'll go and ask her family for help. But I think she can manage. After all, in the course of a day, she's probably seen all kinds of strange customers. If you go to help, she might feel embarrassed."
Rong Lan still wanted to help support the crying and noisy strong - man, but Chu Hengyuan's words made a lot of sense. Moreover... she didn't want to have too much contact with this family, fearing that the paranoid Chen Hong would trace her whereabouts and disrupt their peaceful life.
"Forget it. I won't go over," she said, putting away her excessive kindness after weighing the pros and cons, and putting on the disposable gloves again.
As it turned out, Chu Hengyuan was right.
The little girl managed to support the strong - man outside by herself. Although it looked very difficult, she did it. After helping the strong - man out, she came back full of energy to continue working.
"Right! I just remembered something!" the little fox had a sudden inspiration when the dishes were almost empty.
"What?" Chu Hengyuan asked.
"Brother, you must be extra careful when you go out recently! If possible, try not to go too far away." She was afraid that Chen Hong would target the people around her and use their safety to force her to keep quiet.
After all, Chen Hong had few opportunities to target her because she usually stayed with Si Mo during the day and her brother at night. She was alone only during her commute. She was worried that since Chen Hong couldn't find a chance to target her, she might target the people around her instead.
Chu Hengyuan raised his eyebrows. "Has Lanlan offended someone recently?"
"Um, it seems so..." Rong Lan waved her hand. "But that's not important! Just be careful, brother!"
Her cultivation was gradually recovering. If anyone dared to cause trouble for her, she would make them pay. There was no need to worry about Si Mo either. Si Mo was powerful in cultivation, and no one could bully him. In comparison, her brother was the most vulnerable one.
Chu Hengyuan nodded with a smile. "I know. Don't worry, Lanlan. I usually watch out for Chu Chuan in case he goes crazy and causes me trouble, so I'm very careful wherever I go. By the way, does Lanlan need a bodyguard? You're out all day. I'm worried about you."
Rong Lan shook her head. "No! I'm so powerful! No one dares to cause me trouble!" She thought Chu Hengyuan needed a bodyguard more, but she had no money now and didn't want to use the money from Chu Chuan, so she couldn't hire two reliable bodyguards to protect him.
She thought her next small goal could be to earn enough money to hire bodyguards.
The two finished off the remaining crayfish and river snails before paying the bill and leaving.
As they walked out of the small restaurant, Rong Lan looked back at the sign of the restaurant and let out a sigh of relief.
Chu Hengyuan didn't look back. Instead, he took the little girl's slightly cool fingers and put her hand into the pocket of his trench coat. "Are you reluctant to leave here, Lanlan?"
"No. I'm just a bit emotional." If Xie Feng had been raised normally by his biological parents, he might have had a personality similar to that sensible little girl, instead of being ruined by the Xie family like he was now.
It was just a pity that there were no so many hypothetical propositions in this world.
Ten days passed in a row. No strange people appeared around Rong Lan, and nothing strange happened either.
Just when she mistakenly thought that she had overestimated Chen Hong's audacity, she received a strange text message.
"Si Mo!" Rong Lan, lying on the wooden table with her arms as a pillow and being lazy, shouted.
Si Mo, wearing sunglasses and sitting in a rocking chair at the store entrance to soak up the sun, heard the little fox's voice. He took off his sunglasses and walked into the store. "What's up?"
Rong Lan held up her phone in front of Si Mo. "What does this mean?"
Si Mo read the text message on the little fox's phone screen carefully. "It's not hard to understand. Your father has been kidnapped."
Was it really that hard to understand such a short text message?
— Your father is in our hands. Bring one million to the abandoned factory on the South Street Road in the eastern suburbs of Kyoto before six o'clock this afternoon. Don't call the police. Only one person is allowed to come with you. Otherwise, we'll kill him.
There was no other way to interpret this text message, right? Was the little fox just half - asleep from her nap on the table?
Rong Lan shook her head. "No, no, no. It's impossible. The Bai Group has replenished its broken capital chain with the help of the Chu family. My father is holding a press conference. I just watched the live broadcast of the press conference."
If it weren't inappropriate to do so, Si Mo would have even wanted to touch the little fox's forehead to see if she was sick and couldn't think straight. "Have you forgotten something? Don't you have a biological father?"