Lin Feng had barely begun to speak when another voice came from behind. “What kind of woman worth so much money? I’ll have to take a look at her myself!” Everyone’s gaze traveled to another young man. The newcomer had almost the exact same physique as Lin Feng, although he did not know who the newcomer was. But the group of four were immediately terrified to see him! The newcomer gave a yawn and shouted, “Are you fighting? Count me in! It’ll be a three-way elimination brawl, eh?”

Unbeknownst to Lin Feng, the newcomer was a half-local of the vicinity. He lived just about six or seven miles away and spent almost every second of his time at the bazaar as a parochial hoodlum that ran a racket engaging in coercive commercial and fraud activities, as well as the usual violence and terror-inducing disorders with a band of lackeys.

There was once when he was caught by the police for causing trouble at the bazaar. But when he was thrown into the lockup, the impudent crook stole a pistol from one of the officers! The reckless and brash ruffian even dared to wave the barrel of his gun in the faces of horrified officers that a detachment of armed police had to be summoned from the local headquarters to quell the riot. Still, as if all the disciplining and reformation in lockup were mere child’s play to him, the thug returned back to his days of menacing the local community! But he had learned through a painful experience that the locals helped each other whenever they could! There was twice he provoked a fight with a local, and to his dismay, the local resident was helped by other locals and they drove him off together. Since then, this bully learned to never pick a fight with any local natives. He did not know that Lin Feng was a native from the vicinity, since Lin Feng had never stayed in his hometown since his teenage years. But the cook of the roadside stall recognized him. He had actually intended to come to Lin Feng’s aid when he came out of his stall with his meat cleaver. Seeing as the group of thieves and swindlers still in talks with Lin Feng, he came out and went to his cart instead.

The thug stood proudly before the group of four which dwindled into three; the female thief had slunk furtively to the back of the thug. The trio of swindlers immediately wore a meek expression like a gentle lamb. The leader spoke hastily to the thug, saying that the name of the thug was well-known to everyone in the vicinity and they would humbly admit defeat! With that, they handed to him one of their leather briefcases. The female thief, realizing an opportunity to slip away, took a few wary steps backward before she broke into a run! But she had failed to remember: this was a busy market! Before she could disappear, the thug caught up to her and yank her back effortlessly, dragging her back to where Lin Feng and the group of swindlers were still waiting, muttering under his breath, “The girl is hardly a beauty! How could it be possible that she is worth so much money?” He shoved the girl violently towards Lin Feng. “Do you still want this trollop of a woman?” He barked at Lin Feng, “How about half of the previous offer? She’s yours for two hundred and fifty thousand!”

Lin Feng stared at him coldly. He said nothing, merely walking directly towards the thug! The hawker stall cook reached for his meat cleaver and followed behind Lin Feng. Everywhere around them, the thug realized something was wrong! A peddler came forth, holding a sturdy-looking rolling pin, while another store proprietor came forward with a steel pipe and another too entered the fold with a wooden stick in his grasp!

These were all locals. The thug gasped to himself at the stirring crowd around him. Lin Feng stepped in front of him, with a pounce and a quick Twin Kicks, he threw the thug off his feet, crashing to the ground helplessly. Lin Feng that yank at the cuffs of his shirt and dragged him up like a ragdoll and gave him to loud smacks on his cheeks that he almost spun on his heels! Bewildered and dazed, the thug staggered as he struggled to maintain his balance. After a few seconds, he blinked his eyes several times, as if he had come out of a trance, and slowly moved to pick up the briefcase he had dropped. He took it and came to Lin Feng, handed him the briefcase respectfully, before he quickly disappeared among the crowd.

The trio of swindlers was agape with disbelief and shock. The man who they almost picked a fight with had effortlessly dealt with a local ruffian that they knew! Lin Feng turned his glare unto them and the leader, so frightened that his knees almost buckled, quickly swooped upon his last remaining briefcase and handed it to Lin Feng before fleeing away with his two minions. Watching them diving into the midst of curious onlookers, Lin Feng scoffed. Such pitifulness, he thought. Even the brigands of Inner Mongolia had more backbone than all of them put together! The likes of small-time ruffians and swindlers were nothing to Lin Feng since our adventures fighting against highwaymen that were armed to the teeth with no qualms in killing innocents!

Lin Feng turned his gaze unto the last person remaining in the empty square: the female thief. She was trembling with fear, stuttering incomprehensibly, “D-dear Sir… P-please…” Lin Feng instantly recognized her voice and accent! She was from the North-Eastern regions! He shot a finger at a stall selling douhua (beancurd pudding) and snapped, “Go! Ask for some large plastic bags!” The female thief scuttled like a mouse to the stall. But the proprietor of the stall, a feisty woman, barked at the thief, “I can give you a plastic bag if you’re a customer here! But you’re not!”

The female thief returned sullenly back to Lin Feng. “The woman says no!” she told him skittishly. Lin Feng pointed to the hawker stall from which the large, beefy cook came from. “Ask that stall!” he barked again. The woman went to the hawker stall. “Do you have large plastic bags?” she asked the cook, “Can you spare me a few?” The cook bawled in a loud voice, “Of course! Of course!” He plucked a handful of black plastic bags and gave them to her. The woman went back to Lin Feng. The latter opened the briefcase and said sharply to her, “Fill the plastic bags with this money!” “How much?” she asked. “Fifteen handfuls apiece,” said Lin Feng.

The woman filled the first plastic bag with money and Lin Feng motioned towards the cook. “Give it to him!” He instructed. The woman scurried over to the cook and presented to him the bag full of money. The cook paused from his chores and told a worker of his to get his car. He had to go to the bank to deposit the large bag of money! Lin Feng ordered the woman to fill another plastic bag. He waited as the woman worked, his eyes closed as if in deep thought. He pointed to another man and barked, “Give the bag to him!” The woman went to the man and gave him the plastic bag. Like the cook earlier, the man immediately hopped onto his bicycle and pedaled as hard as he could to the bank! One after another, the woman repeatedly filled plastic bags full of money and gave them to other hawkers and peddlers around them; Lin Feng was giving the money to those who were readying themselves to help him earlier! When they came to the last plastic bag, Lin Feng snorted as if he was being annoyed with the sluggishness of the woman. He took the final briefcase and tipped everything into the bag! He pointed to one last person and grunted, “Give it to him!” Unknown to everyone, the last man was in fact Lin Feng’s cousin. When everything was done, Lin Feng tossed the leather briefcases into a large ditch before he grabbed the woman by her hair and thrust her into his car and drove away.

When he had left, the crowd began to disperse. A few local hoodlums jeered at the stingy woman proprietor of the douhua stall, “Just how many bowls of douhua do you have to sell to earn 150 thousand yuan! If only you had given him your plastic bags, he would have given you a bag too! Heh heh heh!” The mocking remarks plus the derisive glances from the rest of the hawkers and onlookers were enough to overwhelm the woman that she nearly crumbled into tears!

Lin Feng took the woman to his grandfather’s house where his relatives began asking who she was. “She’s a distant relative!” Lin Feng replied, albeit disdainfully. Interestingly, none of them mistook the woman as his girlfriend. Nevertheless, the woman’s modest look had discouraged any of that notion; her appearance seemed as if her age was on par with Lin Feng’s, if not older. His relatives were all the more convinced that she was not his sweetheart, especially when they could see that he treated the girl as good as how he treated a dog! Lin Feng stepped outside to make a call and waited. An hour later, a car arrived the gates. An elder woman, looking around fifty of age, stepped down the car with a young man following behind. The woman was the student of Uncle Quan’s teacher’s wife, his god-aunt! The young man behind was her nephew who was formerly a fellow medium, the one from the North-Eastern region whom we had helped before! The aunt and nephew came indoors. At the sight of the female thief waiting timidly aside, Lin Feng’s god-aunt immediately rushed to her and smack her twice on her face! Lin Feng waved her off and said, “Please, God-aunt. Discipline her if you must, but not here! It’s hardly appropriate here; this is my relative’s home!”

The female thief that Lin Feng took back with him was the wife of his God-aunt’s nephew! The wife of the former medium! Lin Feng had more or less recognized her when he first had a good look of her, and he was even more certain when he heard her voice! Birds of a feather, he muttered to himself under his breath. “How about dinner together before you leave, God-aunt?” Lin Feng asked the elder woman, but she declined. “I have to make arrangements to have this two mangy curs banished back to where they came from!” Lin Feng warmly saw her off, watching her car drove out of the village before he went back into the house.

Lin Feng returned to the Center a few days later and we went, as usual, for barbecue skewers that night. To our surprise, the occupants at the table just beside us were chatting excitedly about Lin Feng’s story. They did not know his name, but news of what he did that day at the bazaar had reached Wu Zhong County! Through a swig of beer, Yuan Chongxi muttered, “Dumb fool! One million yuan! I would have kept the money for myself and enjoy it all on barbecue skewers! Hmph!” “Heaven forfend that you should be visited with such a fortune, knowing that you have only barbecue skewers in your mind!” I scoffed. Yuan Chongxi was about to retort me when I explained, “Think about it: the money came from ill-gotten means! That is dirty money! For all we know, the entire briefcase of money was being traced by the police! The person could have had trouble with the police if he decided to keep the money! By giving it away, he could deny the money was his even if the police does indeed find him!” Yuan Chongxi wore a blank look on his face; clearly still confused over what I just told him. “So those whose money was being swindled…” he murmured, “They’d lose the money for good?” “Only rich people have so much money to lose! There’s no need to worry about their welfare!” I quickly raised a hand to him, gesturing for him to not reveal himself. Instead, Yuan Chongxi rose to his feet, eyeing Lin Feng incredulously, “It was you…” Swiftly, we dragged him away quickly…

We found a few days later that word of Lin Feng’s noble heroics spread further and wider, all thanks to Tencent News network. Among the comments we saw on the Internet, some praised him as a folk hero, while some remarked that Lin Feng could have been a kingpin of the local underworld! We could only laugh at the imagination and flair of the derring-dos of the netizen that recklessly tendered their opinions without remorse nor regret. But it was fortunate that the entire incident was not recorded by anyone there, else Lin Feng would have literally taken a leaf out of his father’s book and appeared on television!

Hence, another week passed uneventfully, and finally, we heard from Zheng Shuang…