How well protected Zhou Yi had been by the Zhou family! Without exceptional mental fortitude, anyone would break down in such circumstances. Even with a powerful family background, it would be of little help here in America – the Zhou family might not even be able to catch the criminals!

Zhou Yi’s muffled cries for help echoed from the alley. She must have struggled too intensely, as the sound of firm strikes followed. Her resistance weakened… the sound of tearing fabric became audible.

Why did I come back? Ye Xiaoqiong asked herself repeatedly.

Even if she had returned, she could have delayed… Zhou Yi’s resistance had already weakened so much. If she had just waited…

Trembling, Ye Xiaoqiong pulled out a small pistol from her bag. “Zhou Yi?”

Zhou Yi couldn’t respond – she had been silenced and struck unconscious.

“Zhou Yi!” Ye Xiaoqiong suddenly raised her voice.

“Get lost! Mind your own business!” came the angry response.

Ye Xiaoqiong entered the alley. “Zhou Yi, is that you?”

Zhou Yi whimpered, trying to speak. Ye Xiaoqiong aimed her weapon at them. “Let her go! Or I’ll shoot!”

The two men now clearly saw Ye Xiaoqiong. This wasn’t what had been arranged earlier – were they being played?

One man laughed harshly. “You can stay too – perfect for both of us! As if you’d shoot-“

“BANG!”

The recoil made Ye Xiaoqiong’s arm go numb.

She had fired!

At such close range, the shot struck the man in the abdomen. He collapsed, groaning.

The other man released Zhou Yi, uncertain whether to attack or help his companion. Ye Xiaoqiong aimed at his head: “Now you know I’ll shoot! Get out of here!”

The man helped his partner up, cursing repeatedly. Ye Xiaoqiong remained vigilant, waiting until they were gone before checking on Zhou Yi.

Zhou Yi’s hair was disheveled, her clothes torn, her face swollen with a split lip, tears streaming down her face. Even when she had run away with Yuan Han to that remote village, she had never looked this devastated.

“Zhou Yi, it’s me! You’re safe now, they’re gone!”

Zhou Yi’s gaze was unfocused. Ye Xiaoqiong carefully fixed her clothing. “Come on, we can’t stay here. What if they come back…”

Zhou Yi shuddered. “Joan?”

It was Joan. Zhou Yi couldn’t process why Joan had returned – she only knew that Joan had saved her!

“Joan! They-“

Like a drowning person grabbing a lifeline, Zhou Yi clutched Ye Xiaoqiong’s arm, sobbing uncontrollably. Ye Xiaoqiong’s emotions were incredibly complex.

Zhou Yi wasn’t truly a bad person. Narrow-minded and somewhat selfish – that was Ye Xiaoqiong’s assessment of her. But such people, in their ignorance, didn’t realize how much harm their self-centered actions could cause others… which made them even more detestable!

So why had she come back?

Ye Xiaoqiong couldn’t answer this question herself.

“To make Zhou Yi trust me more.”

She convinced herself, helping Zhou Yi up. “Let’s leave first. Can you walk?”

Zhou Yi’s eyes were swollen like walnuts, her face puffy, but she nodded frantically.

Blood stains marked the ground, but Ye Xiaoqiong wasn’t worried – would those men dare go to the police?

Zhou Yi should be the one reporting this.

Would Zhou Yi report it?

Ye Xiaoqiong frowned. “Do you want to go back to your dorm like this?”

Thinking of her ill-tempered Middle Eastern roommate, Zhou Yi shook her head vigorously.

“Then come with me to a hotel.”

Ye Xiaoqiong hailed a taxi and helped Zhou Yi in.

The heavyset man approached from another direction. He had pursued the two men and taught them a lesson, retrieving the stolen money.

“Chinese people are strange,” he mused.

The woman called Joan had initially sought out these two criminals, but when they were about to harm Zhou Yi after the robbery, Joan returned.

Was it to gain Zhou Yi’s gratitude?

Or perhaps another scheme altogether.

The heavyset man also hailed a taxi:

“Follow that car.”

The driver would say nothing – driving night shifts in New York meant witnessing many crimes. Drivers themselves could become robbery targets.

As long as passengers weren’t trying to rob the driver, they’d do whatever was asked!

They followed them to a hotel, watching as Ye Xiaoqiong helped Zhou Yi inside.

When a man takes a woman to a hotel at night, certain things are bound to happen.

When a woman takes another woman to a hotel, both will be safe.

The heavyset man got out and found a phone booth, dialing an apartment number.

…”Hello?”

Three knocks came through the line, and Xia Xiaolan immediately understood:

“Jim, it’s you.”

“Of course it’s me! Xia, that Baby you asked me to watch had some trouble tonight…”

Jim related everything he had witnessed to Xia Xiaolan.

From how Ye Xiaoqiong had picked up Zhou Yi at the language school entrance, to their dinner at the restaurant, to Ye Xiaoqiong leaving alone to find two thugs on the street.

“You told me to only intervene in crises and hoped this Baby would learn a lesson, so I didn’t stop the robbery.”

Jim still explained himself.

Xia Xiaolan was a generous employer, and Jim didn’t want her to misunderstand him.

After Xu Zhongyi had actively sent Grandmother Yu a message, Xia Xiaolan, worried about disrupting Xu Zhongyi’s plans, had Jim continue his investigation but more discreetly.

Jim was no longer stationed in San Francisco. Seeing him idle, Xia Xiaolan simply gave him a new assignment – watching Zhou Yi.

Jim joked that Xia Xiaolan was wasting talent, using New York’s best detective to babysit.

Xia Xiaolan found this surveillance useful – otherwise, they wouldn’t have known about tonight’s events.

“When the thugs were about to harm Zhou Yi, Joan returned by car, shot one of them, and stopped the assault?”

Joan had a gun!

This surprised Xia Xiaolan the most.

America’s gun control was lax – with money, obtaining a gun wasn’t difficult.

But who would buy an unregistered gun?

Usually only those premeditated crimes.

One could argue that Ye Xiaoqiong wanted it for self-protection… but this comrade had changed dramatically. On the train, she couldn’t even handle traffickers, but now she was bold enough to shoot criminals.

Ordinary people wouldn’t even know how to operate a gun’s safety – Ye Xiaoqiong must have trained!

The Ye Xiaoqiong who had reconnected with Xia Xiaolan had prepared thoroughly for revenge.

Jim couldn’t understand Ye Xiaoqiong, and truthfully, neither could Xia Xiaolan.

Did she deliberately let Zhou Yi get robbed, and then heroically save her to gain trust?

Or had she initially planned for Zhou Yi to lose both money and dignity, intending to use American criminals to thoroughly destroy Zhou Yi?

If the latter, Ye Xiaoqiong was truly despicable.

Xia Xiaolan herself believed that so-called “purity” was a feudal ethical construct meant to oppress women – worthless compared to human life. But most women didn’t think this way. Regardless of sexual openness, the psychological trauma of assault could torment victims for life.

“Jim, next time, intervene earlier!”