My wife and I are both time travelers.

Chapter 87 Scrambling and Crawling
Amao rolled around on the ground, clutching his head, his head throbbing with pain. He had been badly hurt by Lin Ying's blow.

Fortunately, Lin Ying was a woman and lacked strength; if it had been Zhou Jiye, he could have smashed a hole in her head in one go.

Even so, Ah Mao, who had lost all resistance for a moment, couldn't get up at all. Faced with Lin Ying rushing towards him like a madwoman, he was so frightened that he rolled and crawled on the ground, urgently calling for his two henchmen to come to his rescue.

Before his two underlings could even make a move, Old Wen rushed over as well.

Old Wen reacted a beat too slow. By the time he came to his senses, Lin Ying had already knocked Amao to the ground with a single blow. Seeing Lin Ying rushing forward to fight, Old Wen was afraid she would get hurt, so he grabbed half a brick that was used to weigh down the tarpaulin and charged at her.

With a whooshing sound, Lao Wen swung the brick in his hand, telling Lin Ying to get out of the way while cursing A Mao and his two companions. "How dare they play this trick on us? Today we'll teach them a lesson they won't forget!"

Old Wen's fighting ability is actually not strong, far inferior to Zhou Jiye and Xu Guoqing. But fighting is not about who is tall and strong; the key is who is willing to go all out.

In terms of sheer strength, neither Lao Wen nor Lin Ying could match A Mao and his gang. However, A Mao had already crippled Lin Ying with a single blow, and his two henchmen were being suppressed by Lao Wen's desperate stance, causing them to lose the initiative for a time.

"How could this happen? This shouldn't be!"

Taking advantage of the moment when the two generals dodged left and right, A Mao covered his head and staggered to his feet. Perhaps he was still confused from being hit and couldn't understand why this had happened.

According to his original plan, shouldn't he have been relaxed and at ease? How did he end up in such a hurry and stumbling state?

The pain in his head enraged Ah Mao; he had never suffered such a loss in all his years of life!

He had actually been hit like this by a woman. He had lost face big time. If word got out, how could he ever face anyone again?
"Damn it!"

Despite the pain, Amao jumped up and down in a fit of rage, roaring, "Beat them! Kill them!"

When the eldest brother gave the order, the two generals naturally had to obey. After dodging Old Wen's brick-throwing attack a few times, they figured out the pattern. Just as the two of them stabilized their position and prepared to switch from defense to offense, the situation suddenly changed.

A burly man, over 1.8 meters tall, appeared out of nowhere and arrived at the side of the group that was fighting fiercely in the blink of an eye, like a gust of wind. Without saying a word, he stepped forward and kicked one of the two henchmen, sending him tumbling to the ground. Then, he opened his palm, as big as a fan, and slapped the other man directly on the head.

That slap was quite forceful. Before the guy could even react, his head lolled to the side and he collapsed to the ground, his eyes closed, clearly unconscious. The burly man then ignored the unconscious man, rushed forward, grabbed the other guy who had been kicked down and couldn't get up, and slapped him as well. That guy's eyes rolled back, and he instantly passed out too.

"Are you okay?"

Having dealt with the two people swiftly and decisively, Zhou Jiye turned to Lin Ying and Lao Wen with concern.

"No...it's nothing..."

Old Wen was panting heavily. Despite how impressively he had wielded the brick earlier, he was exhausted in just a short while. Fighting is not a physical activity. Although the fight was brief, the adrenaline surged, and the feeling of exhaustion after the initial excitement was uncontrollable.

Looking at the two unconscious men lying on the ground, Old Wen asked worriedly, "What happened to these two? Did you hit them too hard? Don't hurt them."

"Don't worry, she's perfectly fine, she just fainted." Lin Ying stepped forward, squatted down to check on her, and stood up as if nothing had happened.

Old Wen finally breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, Zhou Jiye returned at the right time. If he had arrived a minute later, he and Lin Ying would have suffered a great loss.

Thinking of this, Lao Wen suddenly remembered another guy, Ah Mao, who had hit Lin Ying with a stick. He quickly looked towards Ah Mao, who had just been shouting that he wanted to kill them. He saw a person standing next to Ah Mao. This person had a cold face and gleaming eyes. One hand was on Ah Mao's shoulder, and the other hand was on Ah Mao's waist. Ah Mao's face was pale, and his legs were trembling involuntarily. He barely managed to stay upright.

"Brother Wen, what's going on?" Xu Guoqing asked Old Wen after regaining control of the situation.

Old Wen briefly told Xu Guoqing and the others what had just happened. After hearing Old Wen's account, Xu Guoqing's anger intensified. He and Zhou Jiye had only gone back to get some goods and left for a short while, and this had happened at the stall? Where did this idiot come from? How dare he play this trick on them?
"Is what my brother said true?" Suppressing his anger, Xu Guoqing reached out and slapped A Mao's face twice. Although the force was not great, the sound was extremely crisp.

Amao's face flushed red and then turned pale. Xu Guoqing's actions made him feel incredibly humiliated. But now his two henchmen were finished, lying motionless on the ground, and he himself had fallen into the hands of this ruthless man of unknown origin. Feeling the fear of the sharp object pressing against his soft flesh, Amao subconsciously swallowed and nodded weakly. "We did it, but we didn't rob, we bought! We just didn't bring enough money today, so we'll owe you..." Even now, Amao still tried to argue, correcting Lao Wen's use of "rob."

"You little bastard, do you think I'm stupid?" Xu Guoqing slapped A Mao's face twice more without any politeness. "Owe? How dare you ask for credit? Do you think I know you? Or your mother? If you're going to rob someone, you're robbing them! Don't talk about owing! If you're going to be in this business, and you don't even have this much sense of responsibility, what kind of business are you?"

Amao's face turned as red as a monkey's bottom. If he hadn't been held hostage by Xu Guoqing, he would have crawled into any crack in the ground.

People who have made their way in the world value their reputation the most, but today his reputation has been trampled underfoot. Now, many people are watching him from all sides, giving him meaningful looks and discussing what just happened.

I admit defeat!

Amao had no choice but to admit defeat and said dejectedly, "Friend, I admit defeat, okay? I was blind and offended the wrong person today. I am Amao from the old street. We all run into each other in the underworld. Friend, please let me off the hook today. In the future, I, Amao..."

"You're the one who's in the underworld, I'm on a completely different path from you, my foot! And what's this about the future?"

Before A Mao could finish speaking, Xu Guoqing gave him a light slap across the face: "Where do you get the nerve? You think I'll let you off the hook? Dream on! Are you from the old street? Why are people from the old street running around in the west district instead of staying in the east?"

"Come...come play..."

"Come to play? Is this how the people of the old street play? That's really something! You're really making the old street proud!" Xu Guoqing sneered. After what happened today, he couldn't let A Mao off easily. Otherwise, if any dog ​​or cat could cause trouble in the future, what business would they be able to do?

"Make way, make way! Stop crowding around, everyone make way!"

Just then, a serious voice rang out from the outside, and the crowd of onlookers instantly parted to make way for several people wearing red armbands to walk in. The middle-aged man in the lead glanced at the two groans, Heng and Ha, who were lying on the ground and had just woken up, and frowned immediately. Then he looked towards Xu Guoqing and A Mao.

"What's going on? What's happening? Does anyone know?"

The man demanded an explanation, but Xu Guoqing had already hidden the boning knife in his sleeve, concealing it carefully.

He grabbed A Mao by the collar, dragged him towards the other party, and said when they got there, "Comrades, you've come at the right time. These three hooligans not only tried to rob people but also assaulted them. We, the passersby, couldn't stand it anymore and bravely apprehended them. We're about to take them to the police station."

"Yes, yes, yes! This comrade is right. Three grown men not only robbed a young girl, but also beat her up. If we hadn't intervened, it would have been a huge disaster." Zhou Jiye quickly chimed in, then shouted to the surrounding crowd, "Everyone saw what happened! Am I right? These three hooligans tried to steal something and then beat someone up, didn't they?"

"That young man is right, I just saw it!" a righteous old woman shouted, then spat at A Mao and his two companions, cursing them for being young and capable but doing nothing, failing to rob and then assaulting people, and that they should all be sent to eat peanuts!

Then several passersby chimed in, saying they had all seen it too. Just now, Lao Wen was protecting Lin Ying and fighting with A Mao's two henchmen. A Mao was jumping up and down behind them, shouting that he wanted to kill the other party. They saw and heard it all clearly. If it weren't for the two "righteous" young men, Zhou Jiye and Xu Guoqing, arriving quickly, they didn't know what would have happened next.

As these uninformed people took the lead in expressing their opinions, some stall owners in the vicinity also confirmed that this was the case.

Although Zhou Jiye and his group dealt a harsh lesson to people on their first day setting up a stall here, to be honest, after getting to know them over the past few days, everyone felt that they were not bullies or thugs. They were usually polite and courteous, and when they were free, they would offer a cigarette to the nearby stall owners and chat with them. They never played tricks when selling things and did business in an honest and upright manner.

As for Zhou Jiye's intervention to teach that guy a lesson, that was the guy's own fault. Who told that this kid to be so blind? He not only tried to overturn their stall right away, but also swore and insulted their mother.

We all see each other all the time, and we do business here every day, so we're practically acquaintances. Besides, what happened today was just a deliberate attempt by A Mao and his gang to cause trouble. They bought things, took them without paying, and tried to leave. Let alone Lin Ying, who among them could tolerate that?

If we let such a person off lightly today, what if they come to our stall and do the same thing again? Then everyone will be out of business.

Whether for public or private reasons, no one would side with A Mao and his gang. They all condemned A Mao and his two companions for stealing and assaulting people. As for Lin Ying hitting A Mao with a rolling pin first, everyone seemed to have completely forgotten about it.

(End of this chapter)