The journey from Yangcheng to Shangdu took twice as long as the trip from Beijing to Shangdu. Since Li Dongliang and Ge Jian had bought their tickets rather late, by the time they arrived at “Blue Phoenix,” they happened upon some troublemakers.

Li Dongliang was extremely excited.

He had been receiving a salary for so long without a single chance to take action—how could he just take money without doing any work?

Following the address to Blue Phoenix, Li Dongliang and Ge Jian hadn’t even met their employer “Miss Xia” when they saw seven or eight rowdy young men loitering at the clothing store’s entrance.

They stood there like harbingers of plague, pretending to browse clothes while scaring away female customers.

Who would be happy being stared at lecherously by a group of young men?

Not just female customers—even the young shop assistant Ma Wei was terrified.

Li Fengmei gathered her courage to ask what they wanted to buy. The young men responded with curses, pulling clothes off the racks and trying them on. They weren’t stealing—they just kept trying on clothes, touching everything in the store, disrupting Blue Phoenix’s business.

Li Fengmei was going crazy from these people. They weren’t here to buy clothes—they must have come seeking revenge!

She hadn’t offended anyone; were they here to collect protection money? Xia Xiaolan had said that if anyone came for protection money, they could pay if the amount wasn’t too large—better to lose money than invite trouble. But if it exceeds a certain amount, they should go straight to the police station.

Li Fengmei tentatively prepared a red envelope and handed it to one of the young men. He counted the money inside and spat his cigarette on the ground:

“Sister, you seem to understand how things work, but this isn’t enough to split between us brothers… If I take your money now and you turn around and report us to the police station, we’d all be finished, wouldn’t we?”

Though the young man was tempted, he threw the red envelope back at Li Fengmei.

If they wouldn’t even take money, they must be here to cause trouble.

Li Fengmei was furious, suspecting competitors were causing problems. But besides the department store, there weren’t any other clothing stores near Blue Phoenix—surely the department store wouldn’t be jealous of Blue Phoenix’s business?

If not harassment, who was seeking revenge against them?

Unless… it was the Fan family. Had Liu Fang told the Fan family that Xiaolan wouldn’t marry into their family, and now they were here to cause trouble?

If she wanted to report this to the police—well, they weren’t destroying the store or demanding money, and since they were open for business with men’s clothing on display, how could they refuse to let them in? These people were simply unreasonable. Li Fengmei was at a loss. Her mood had been good earlier—Liu Fen had said Zhou Cheng arrived yesterday and mentioned he held an official position. How could she not be happy that her niece had found such a good match?

Now this—encountering these hooligans, what about today’s business?

Would they only come today or every day? If they stood outside Blue Phoenix for a month, the clothing store would have to close down.

Just as she was worrying, two men walked in. One had a familiar face—she had met Li Dongliang before. When they went to Yangcheng, the tall, thin Li Dongliang and another short, stout man had picked her and Xiaolan up at the train station.

“Hello, Miss Xia sent us a telegram to come to Shangdu.”

Li Fengmei wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but the man who shared her surname seemed to be suppressing excitement. People from Yangcheng were quite fashionable—Li Dongliang used the term “Miss Xia.” Li Fengmei thought that “Miss Xia” was studying in the library right now, and if these troublemakers were sent by the Fan family, they couldn’t let them know where Xiaolan was.

“Comrade Dongliang, you see the situation in the store now…”

How could they let their employer be troubled? Li Dongliang turned to call out to Ge Jian:

“Watch out, don’t damage anything in the store, and keep things measured.”

Hit to hurt but not cripple, cripple but not kill—that’s what Li Dongliang meant by “measured.” To solve their employer’s troubles without adding pressure, they couldn’t even cripple these people. The difference between amateurs and trained martial artists—Li Dongliang let his junior demonstrate properly.

When the young man who had thrown back the red envelope tried to speak, Ge Jian was unhurriedly kicked out. Though the young man saw the kick coming and tried to back away, he couldn’t dodge it, watching as the foot connected with his abdomen. He was kicked out of the store, clutching his stomach and kneeling outside the door as if kowtowing in apology.

Li Dongliang grabbed two people by their collars, like picking up chicks.

He threw them all outside, but they couldn’t fight in front of the store—it would be bad for business. There was a space between Blue Phoenix and the department store; Li Dongliang and Ge Jian dragged the seven or eight men there to beat them.

They were too weak—after a short while, they all lay unconscious on the ground.

Li Dongliang and Ge Jian dusted off their hands as if they had barely exerted any effort.

In the department store, Liu Fang tightly covered her daughter Liang Huan’s mouth. “Don’t shout, someone might hear.”

Liang Huan’s little face turned red from holding her breath. She nodded vigorously before Liu Fang released her hand.

“Mom, what do we do now?”

Liu Fang didn’t know what to do either.

After much thought, the only ones who could help Xia Xiaolan were Liu Yong and his wife. Who was backing Li Fengmei, supporting her to open this store? Liang Bing’an didn’t want to act rashly—he had been careless before, not knowing Xia Xiaolan’s true character. Thinking it over, wondering where Xia Xiaolan got her confidence from, Liang Bing’an wanted to force out Blue Phoenix’s behind-the-scenes boss.

Liu Fang had heard her husband wanted to cause trouble for the clothing store, and she thought it would be a good way to vent her anger.

Though the store didn’t belong to Xia Xiaolan and her mother, when Liang Huan said Xia Xiaolan had locked her in a small room, her aunt had been there too. Li Fengmei hadn’t locked up Liang Huan, but she hadn’t stopped it either, so Liu Fang hated her sister-in-law as well. Causing trouble for Li Fengmei would let Liu Fang vent her anger. Besides, if this trouble was brought by Xia Xiaolan, after a few days of chaos, how could Li Fengmei still favor the trouble-making Xia Xiaolan?

Not only would they stop giving money to Xia Xiaolan, but hopefully, they’d fire Liu Fen from working at the store too.

Liu Fang didn’t know that Xia Xiaolan was another owner of the clothing store. Though this approach wouldn’t cause Liu Fen to lose her job, it could indeed affect the store’s business. Liang Bing’an, being an official, truly understood the art of pushing boundaries without crossing them—no smashing or stealing, just browsing clothes, taking a bit more time, bringing more people, not verbally harassing women, let alone getting physical—just making people uncomfortable with their stares.

The police station couldn’t just arrest them.

Liu Fang wanted to bring her daughter to watch and feel vindicated. It started well enough—she could imagine how anxious Li Fengmei must be.

But the men they hired had only been in Blue Phoenix for two hours before being thrown out. Two men beating seven or eight people—it was like adults bullying elementary school students; these people could not fight back! Liu Fang covered Liang Huan’s mouth, afraid the two fierce men might notice them and harm them.

They couldn’t show themselves—if they did, everyone would know the Liang family had hired these men.

Liang Bing’an and Liu Fang had planned it all—they wanted Xia Xiaolan to misunderstand that these people were sent by the Fan family, to let her see Fan Zhenchuan’s “methods”! Fan Zhenchuan himself wouldn’t be so mild in his approach. Liang Bing’an was now in a difficult position, seeking survival in a tight spot, naturally having to be careful in every way.

When fighting broke out at Erqi Square, the police station responded quickly.

The leader was Zhuo Weiping, and when she heard people were causing trouble at Blue Phoenix, her first thought was that Fan Zhenchuan had sent them.

Arriving at the scene to find many people lying incapacitated, Li Fengmei saw Officer Zhuo arrive and was about to speak, but Li Dongliang rubbed his hands and jumped in to answer:

“Officer, they stole my wallet. I was trying to get it back and accidentally knocked them down.”