"Her! Yes, it's her, Long Mer's wife, she is Long Mer's wife!" A group of about ten young men, each armed with various makeshift sticks, rushed to the table where Gu Han and Wen Meiyun were sitting. One of the leaders pointed at Wen Meiyun's head and shouted loudly.
"Filthy woman, you can afford to eat Chanel when you have money, but you can't pay us back when you don't? We finally caught you today, pay up, give us the money!" The leading man shouted first, and then the young men behind him started demanding money, their aggressive stance making Wen Meiyun pale with fear. She hugged her daughter and shrank against the wall, wishing a hole would suddenly appear in the wall for her to escape through.
"What are you doing? What are you doing? Do you know where you are? Get out, all of you, get out!" The manager of the Chanel store reacted quickly, leading several security guards with electric batons to the scene. This was a company under the Hengshan Sect, the eighth most powerful sect in the world, and in the entire Yuzhang City, they could at least walk straight without any trouble. A group of people who looked like country bumpkins daring to cause trouble in his store was a death wish.
There were over ten young men, each armed, and they were unaware of the power behind Chanel. They were not intimidated by the few security guards, thinking they were hired by Wen Meiyun to deal with them. They turned around, eyes glaring fiercely, and the situation was about to explode!
"Tian Lei, stop it! All of you, stop it!" At this critical moment, an old man, who looked to be in his seventies, rushed to the group of young men and slapped the leader. "You brat, who gave you the right to cause trouble outside? Don't you know this is the place of the Hengshan Sect's elders? How many lives do you have to cause trouble here?"
The old man first scolded his own people, then, with a humble face, said to the manager, "Sir, you don't know, these young men are used to living outside the city and are not familiar with the rules here. Please, for the sake of my old face, don't take it to heart. They were just impulsive."
"They are from outside the city!" Gu Han, who had been watching coldly, was surprised. Those who could survive in the outskirts, where monsters roamed, were not easy to deal with. However, they rarely had conflicts with people inside the city. Wen Meiyun looked like someone who had always lived in the city, so how did she get involved with people from outside?
"Hmph! Considering you are an elder, I will let this go for now. Now, throw your sticks into the trash and all of you get out of Chanel!" The manager, having saved face, did not press the issue further. Unlike in some novels, he did not want to use his influence to ruin the lives of these people over such a small matter.
"This won't do... If we leave, what if this woman runs away?" The leader of the young men protested. The old man hit him on the head again. "Shut up!"
"Sir, you may not know, this young man is owed hundreds of thousands of RMB. He finally caught the person, so he rushed in. You are a great man, you understand the hardships of people from outside the city. Without this money, we can't even survive. Please, let us handle this here. I promise, we won't touch anything or damage any property, or we will pay ten times the cost." The old man's face was full of sorrow as he spoke.
"Alright..." The manager hesitated for a moment. "If it's just a negotiation and no fighting, I won't stop you. But you can't all stay here. Only two of you can stay, the rest must leave and wait at least a hundred meters away from the store, so as not to affect our business."
"Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!" The old man bowed repeatedly, then whispered a few words to the other young men, who left Chanel, leaving the old man and the leader, Tian Long.
"Mrs. Long, we meet again. I apologize for Tian Lei's rashness. But you have been hiding from us for three months, and we had no choice but to come in!" The old man said to Wen Meiyun. Although the majority of the young men, who looked very intimidating, had left, Wen Meiyun still clung to her daughter, crouched in the corner, head down, and said nothing.
Seeing Wen Meiyun's reaction, the old man sighed and kicked Tian Lei's leg. "Kneel down!"
"What?" Tian Lei looked at the old man in disbelief. "Dad, what are you doing?"
Tian Lei, a strong man in his twenties, called the old man, who looked to be in his seventies, "dad"... Could this old man have had a late child?
"I said, kneel down!" The old man said, then knelt down himself and scolded Tian Lei, "Your father has already knelt down, you brat, kneel down too!"
"Dad, why should we kneel to this woman who owes us money? Feng'er is still..."
"I said, kneel down! Did you hear me?" The old man shouted, and Tian Lei, with no choice, knelt down with the old man in front of Gu Han and Wen Meiyun.
This scene was very interesting to Gu Han. At first, he thought these people were after Wen Meiyun for her beauty. Later, he realized they were here to collect a debt.
Debts must be repaid, but Gu Han never expected that these people, who had the upper hand in both force and righteousness, would kneel to a weak woman. There must be more to the story, and more that Wen Meiyun had not told him. This made Gu Han reconsider whether to sell the citizenship quota to her. At least, he would not do so until he understood the full situation.
"Gu Han, who are these two? Why are they kneeling? Do they owe us meat?" The little crocodile, Qingpin, who had just finished the last piece of Dongpo pork, noticed the two kneeling men and asked Gu Han curiously.
"Hey, I knew you were hiding, Mrs. Long. Your husband's body is not even cold, and you do this. You really bring shame to your husband!" Tian Lei, who had been forced to kneel by his father, was already annoyed. Seeing Gu Han, he felt a surge of jealousy and lashed out at him.
"Do you want me to cut your mouth off!" Gu Han replied calmly, but the killing intent in his voice made Tian Lei shiver involuntarily. "This man has seen blood! He is not someone to mess with!" Tian Lei's years of experience outside the city told him this.
"Don't talk nonsense! I have no dirty relationship with Mr. Gu, and I have not betrayed my husband!" Wen Meiyun finally spoke up, refusing to let her honor be tarnished.
"Mrs. Long, you finally speak. Well, without evidence, I, Wang Tianlei, won't say more. Now, I, Wang Tianlei, am kneeling before you. Please, be kind and return the 800,000 RMB you owe us. I will kowtow to you ten times. My sister Feng'er is waiting for this money to save her life!"
"Another 800,000!" Wen Meiyun was angry, but in her anger, she looked particularly weak. "Didn't I already give you 600,000? Now, all of my husband's assets are sold, and the three properties have been reclaimed by the bank. Where do I have 800,000 to give you?"
Wen Meiyun's card clearly had one million RMB, which Gu Han could see clearly. He did not point this out, but his opinion of Wen Meiyun worsened.
"Mrs. Long, you did give us 600,000, but that wasn't enough to compensate the other three brothers. My sister is in the hospital, urgently needing limb regeneration surgery. If we delay, her limbs will never recover!" As he spoke, a few hot tears rolled down Wang Tianlei's eyes.
Through the subsequent conversation between Wang Tianlei and Wen Meiyun, Gu Han gradually pieced together the whole story.
It turned out that Wen Meiyun's husband, Long Mer, had opened a pork farming base outside the city and hired fearless people from outside the city to guard the equipment and pigs. For the first few years, everything was fine, and Long Mer made a lot of money, allowing Wen Meiyun and her daughter to live a happy life.
However, life is unpredictable. Opening a farming base outside the city was a very risky venture. Although the monsters within a hundred miles of the city had been mostly cleared by the swordsmen, occasionally, some monsters would still sneak into the area and attack the people working outside the city. These people from outside the city were literally risking their lives for money.
When Long Mer first opened the farming base, he specifically considered this risk and took out a large loan from the bank to purchase advanced unmanned farming and security equipment. With just five people, he could control the entire pig farm.
A year ago, the equipment malfunctioned, and Long Mer, along with a technical specialist sent by the equipment manufacturer, went to the farm to repair it. Tragically, while the equipment was being repaired, a group of monsters infiltrated the farm. By the time the nearby swordsmen arrived, Long Mer and three others were already dead, and a cook had been eaten by the monsters, losing her hands and feet but somehow surviving. The farm's equipment was also destroyed, becoming a pile of scrap metal.
Since the equipment was bought with a bank loan, all of Long Mer's assets were seized by the bank and auctioned off to repay the loan, leaving Wen Meiyun with less than 100,000 RMB.
This only repaid the bank loan. The compensation for the three dead people from outside the city still fell on Wen Meiyun. She gathered the dowry from her family and the money from Long Mer's secret stash, totaling 1.6 million RMB.
The compensation for the three dead people was straightforward, with 200,000 RMB per person, as suggested by the council. Wen Meiyun quickly paid 600,000 RMB to the families of the three dead. However, the problem was the one whose limbs were eaten, Wang Tianlei's sister.
Wang Tianlei insisted on getting his sister a limb regeneration surgery, which was very expensive. The 800,000 RMB was just for the surgery, and the total cost, including post-surgery care, would be at least one million RMB. So, Wang Tianlei asking for 800,000 RMB from Wen Meiyun was somewhat reasonable.
After understanding the whole story, Gu Han lost all interest in getting involved. With one million RMB in her card, were two citizenship quotas really less important than a girl's limbs?
"Ms. Wen, take your time to deal with these matters. Our deal is over. This meal is on me. Goodbye!" Gu Han put Qingpin back into his chest pouch and left.
"How could this happen!" Wen Meiyun, seeing Gu Han leave without looking back, slumped in her seat.
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"Hey! Song Hama, lend me 10,000 RMB. I'll pay you back when I sell my equipment in the game!" Gu Han walked away confidently but was frustrated when it came to paying the bill.