Chapter 94: Quickly give it to me
Everytime he goes out with Mo Qianni, it would be to some weird place.
The first time was to a hoodlum company, the second was a roadside stall with spicy food. This time was the third, and Yang Chen was mentally prepared, but when they arrived at their destination, he was still stunned.
“Zhong Nan Engineering Construction Corporation”……. It was a company, but the place that they were at wasn’t where the company itself was located, it was instead a construction site handled by that company.
The brown steel beams, ash gray cement, and various types of rock fragments were at the side. The air was dusty, causing the area to look hazy under the sunlight.
The surroundings were filled with construction workers wearing yellow helmets; many of them were working topless, exposing their bronze muscles. Their thick sweat also made their trousers wet, and their faces were all muddy and dusty. You would think that they were crying when they smiled at you.
People often say that the city is built on the peasants’ sweat, but why don’t they say that the skyscrapers are built on the construction workers’ sweat?
“Erm, Miss Mo, are you sure we’re at the right place?” Yang Chen looked at Mo Qianni who was in a beautiful attire carefully walking on the bumpy road, and doubted her heels would last much longer.
Mo Qianni rubbed away the sweat on her forehead, and unhappily said, “I asked you to follow me, don’t speak rubbish!”
Yang Chen leisurely smiled, he didn’t take those words to heart.
Mo Qianni ignored him, and continued to walk forward. She approached a middle-aged foreman wearing a blue Zhong Nan Corporation uniform who was directing the workers to transport the cement.
“Hello sir, may I ask where the office for this construction site is?” Mo Qianni politely asked.
The foreman looked at her astonished, he was puzzled as to why such a pretty girl would come to this filthy construction site, and even look for their office. He guessed that she was an employee of one of the government’s departments, so he welcomed her with a smile and straightforwardly told Mo Qianni where their office was located.
The so called ‘office’ was a temporary shelter, but a large construction company like this naturally had decent facilities. Other than it being a little empty inside, it wasn’t much different from a real office, there was air conditioning and a TV.
There was only a single large wooden table in the office, a fat middle-aged man who wore the gray suit of an inferior brand was currently in the middle of an argument on the phone in a different dialect. When he noticed Mo Qianni and Yang Chen enter, he was first startled by Mo Qianni’s good figure, then looked at the two like he just thought of something.
He quickly put down the phone. Afterwards, the fat man revealed what seemed to be a candid smile, went up to Mo Qianni and stretched out his hand, “May I know what you need help with, Miss?”
Mo Qianni ignored the man’s hand in a natural manner, and indifferently said, “Where’s Zhang Fugui? I’m here to pick him up.”
The fatty didn’t get a handshake, but didn’t feel awkward by it, when he heard the name “Zhang Fugui” he squinted his eyes, to the point it was almost invisible, “You are Zhang Fugui’s daughter?”
Mo Qianni creased her eyebrows, but still nodded, “Yes.”
Yang Chen who stood behind looked at this scene with curiosity, he never thought that Mo Qianni’s father would be here, and it seemed as if something bad had happened. He remembered that a while ago, Mo Qianni said to him that her father was dead, which meant that this Zhang Fugui was likely her stepfather.
Yang Chen didn’t breathe a word, and quietly watched. He leisurely lit up his cigarette and smoked in silence.
“Did you bring the money?” It was as if the fatty changed faces, as he now looked at Mo Qianni haughtily, as if he became superior to her in an instant.
Mo Qianni taciturnly reached into her small handbag and took out a bunch of red notes, it was obviously no small amount with a glance, and she said, “This is five thousand Huaxia dollars, release him.”
“Five thousand?” The fatty laughed out loud, “Five thousand was the amount earlier, from the time your gambling addict of a father called you till now, quite some time has passed, and it’s now more than five thousand!”
“What!?” Mo Qianni’s expression turned ugly. She forcibly resisted her anger and asked, “He lost again!?”
The fatty snorted several times, held a long cigarette in his mouth, and pointed at the room next door, “You should go in to take a look yourself, and see how much he lost.”
Mo Qianni turned and left the office like the wind, walked to the neighboring room, and fiercely opened the door.
A pungent scent of smoke and alcohol came out from the room, Mo Qianni immediately choked and coughed twice from this disgusting smell. She now was able to see the state of the room.
There was only several tables and benches in this room. On the table were messy poker cards, pai gow, and mahjong tiles. The cement floor was covered with cigarette butts and empty beer bottles. Two swaying incandescent light bulbs illuminated the room with a faint light.
At this moment, there were eight men in leisure clothing surrounding the largest table in the room, and there were two men, one at each end of the table.
A long faced man wore an unbuttoned white shirt, with combed up hair and a cigarette in his mouth and rested one leg on the bench, looking very relaxed.
On his opposite side, the other figure was trembling, he wore a yellow short-sleeved shirt, with a dejected expression. The corners of his eyes and his forehead had many wrinkles, while his face was so skinny that his cheeks looked as if they were protruding.
The people in the room noticed the door was being opened and turned to look over. When they realized the one opening the door was a lovely lady, their eyes were all shining.
Only the scrawny middle-aged man with dispirited eyes revealed incredible happiness when he saw Mo Qianni, as if he was being pulled out of the mud and into the clouds. He immediately rushed towards her, and grabbed her shoulders with force, “Ni-zi! Quickly give me money! Quickly give me money! I want to stage a comeback!! Quickly give it to me!!!”
Mo Qianni felt pain from having her shoulders grabbed, but didn’t struggle free of it. With red eyes, she said with a grieved smile, “How much money do you want?”
“Give me everything you have! I want to stage a comeback!!” The man yelled, as if he had injected stimulants into him.
At this moment the other men all understood what was going on, the man with combed up hair maliciously smiled and said, “Little girl, you should be Zhang Fugui’s so-called daughter. Your father Zhang Fugui still owes me, Dajun a twenty thousand gambling debt, you should pay up for him before letting him gamble with me again.”
Zhang Fugui’s face flushed in anger, he turned back and shouted, “Don’t be complacent, Dajun! I will gamble with you again after I take the money! When the time comes you’ll owe me twenty thousand!”
“Twenty thousand……” Mo Qianni’s face turned pale, she looked at the deranged Zhang Fugui from the back and said, “In a mere half an hour, your losses turned from five thousand to twenty thousand? Do you know what you’re doing!?”
“I……” Zhang Fugui turned back, and saw that Mo Qianni was already misty-eyed. He finally realized that something was off, so he clenched his teeth to muster up his courage and said, “I slipped up for a moment earlier, don’t worry about this, Ni-zi, I will swiftly win it all back!”
“Slipped up for a moment? Has the time you spent slipping up been short? How many years has it been? How much money have I given to you?! Do you know that all that money would be enough to buy a flat in Zhong Hai!?” Mo Qianni finally couldn’t resist lashing out at him.
Zhang Fugui wanted to get angry, but thinking about how he had no money, and still needed to rely on his nominal daughter, he could appear meek and subservient with a smile, “Ni-zi, you can’t say such a thing, people always have their unlucky times. You shouldn’t cry, it’s useless even if you cried! If the money is gone, then we just need to win it back!”
“You told me that you came to Zhong Hai to work! You told me you came to the construction site to be a cement maker! But not a single day has passed and you’ve already started gambling!!”
Zhang Fugui was reprimanded without any words to refute, and had no choice but to raise his voice, “Shut up! Quickly take out the money!!”
“I’m not giving it! Even if I gave it to you, you would use it to gamble, you can take care of this yourself!”
Mo Qianni was raging, she shook Zhang Fugui off, and turned around to leave.
Zhang Fugui panicked, he violently pulled on Mo Qianni’s hand, then began to snatch Mo Qianni’s handbag, and frantically shouted, “Quickly give it to me!”
“You! Let go of me!!” Mo Qianni was after all a woman, how could she possibly compete with a man in terms of physical strength? The handbag in her hands slowly inched away from her, and she was nearly unable to hold on to it.
The men in the room watched this scene, and all laughed out loud, rejoicing in watching others’ misfortune.
“Zhang Fugui you’re truly incapable, even your daughter won’t listen to you!”
“Even your daughter refuses to save you, you deserved it you old gambling addict! Haha…….”
Zhang Fugui’s fury went up a level, he lost money and lost face, he immediately became hot-headed, he raised his hand and was about to give Mo Qianni a slap!
Mo Qianni also realized that Zhang Fugui wanted to slap her, but she refused to let go of the bag, so she could only lean her head to a side in an attempt to dodge this slap. Terrified, she closed her eyes, with a face of pain and grievance.
Right at this moment, Zhang Fugui’s arm couldn’t swing, as it was caught in mid-air, and he found it difficult to move an inch forward.
“Hey, it’s not like your daughter took your money, what are you beating your daughter for?” Yang Chen stood by Mo Qianni’s side, it was unknown when he moved to stop Zhang Fugui’s action.
Zhang Fugui was stunned, he panted heavily and asked, “Who are you?”
“Who I am isn’t important, what’s important is that you can’t hit her, and you can’t snatch away her money.” Said Yang Chen.
“This is my family’s matter, I want to take money from my daughter, what does it have to do with you!? On what basis can’t I hit her when she’s my daughter!?” Zhang Fugui arrogantly yelled.
“You’re so powerful, why don’t you fight with that bunch? Furthermore, according to what I know Mo Qianni isn’t actually your daughter, you’re merely her father in name, don’t overestimate yourself.” Yang Chen coldly spoke, and exerted some strength into the hand he used to grab Zhang Fugui with, and with a push he caused Zhang Fugui to retreat several steps.
Mo Qianni who was prepared to receive a hit earlier now raised her head, what she saw was Yang Chen standing in front of her. This figure whose back wasn’t considered broad allowed her make a sigh of relief, she felt warmth in her heart.
However, when she thought about this stepfather of hers who gambled like it was his second nature, had been so boorish to her and even wanted to beat her, Mo Qianni felt grief. She felt as if her heart was bitten by countless ants, and the accumulated ill treatment from the past overflowed, she couldn’t restrain herself from sobbing.
Yang Chen looked at this woman who was sobbing without a word, and could only wipe her tears. He finally understood why Mo Qianni dragged him here with her; this was a battle that no woman would dare fight alone!