He ran out, following that somewhat familiar scream.

The one screaming was Meimei, carrying a fish and about to take it to the kitchen.

Beside her were five or six children dressed just as poorly, all a little younger than she was. But apart from Meimei, they were trembling with fear and sobbing.

Standing beside them were three burly, vicious-looking men, their hair covered by gray turbans, like Indian men.

“You little brats said you wanted to buy it, so the three of us went to all that trouble and hauled it here out of the goodness of our hearts. And now you’re saying you don’t want it?! Hmph. Too late, brats. I’m telling you now: you’re buying this pot whether you want it or not!”

The man in the middle, with three knife scars across his face, pointed at the large pot nearby. His face was all muscle and menace, as if he wanted to eat the children alive.

Faced with such a vicious man, the already frightened children cried out even louder.

Seeing the children sobbing before him, the scarred man didn’t back down. He only grew more brazen, his gaze turning even more vicious.

He exchanged a look with the two other men beside him, who were just as bad as he was. The three of them pressed the children, step by step.

Faced with their threats, Meimei stood as the children’s pillar of support. Her legs were shaking with fear, but she still bravely stepped forward and shielded the others behind her, doing her best to look strong. She replied:

“We already paid you. What more do you want?”

“Pah! How could your two copper coins possibly be enough?”

Beside the scarred man, a man with a mole on his face flung four or five copper coins to the ground. He pointed at the coins, then at the large pot nearby.

“That little bit of money would barely buy you a pound of it. Who do you think you’re fooling?”

“Who sells pots by the pound? Besides, you never said that was how you were selling it!”

“Who says we didn’t? Ask those brats if we told you or not!”

The men glared at them with hungry hawk eyes. Faced with the villains’ menacing presence, the children didn’t dare speak up, even though it hadn’t happened that way at all.

All they could do was sob and cry behind Meimei.

“See? You bought it without asking for the details. How’s that our fault?”

“B-but you…”

Meimei didn’t know what to do. She was the children’s pillar of support, the oldest among them—but she was only ten.

She was still a child herself. She’d already done everything she could…

She held the crying children tightly.

“Then what do you want?”

“Pay up. Once you’ve paid, we’ll pretend none of this ever happened.”

“W-we don’t have any money…”

Meimei lowered her head, timid and uneasy. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Hmph. No money? Then I guess you’ll have to pay off your debt with yourselves.”

The three men exchanged smiles. Then the two besides the scarred man reached toward the children beside Meimei.

“Sister Meimei!”

The children clung to Meimei in terror, crying their eyes out.

Meimei’s eyes were filled with tears too. Her arms trembled helplessly around the children, and fear left her unable to speak.

In despair, she squeezed her eyes shut. And then…

Smack—

“My eye?!”

??????

A sound sliced through the air. In an instant, the man with the mole was crouched on the ground, clutching his right eye in pain.

The two men beside him immediately went on guard, looking all around.

After searching the area, they froze in surprise at the sight of Lin Ge approaching from up ahead, looking lazy and yawning as he walked.

The scarred man flew into a rage and pointed at Lin Ge, cursing him out. But…

“You…”

“What do you mean, ‘you’? Sure, I’m handsome, charming, and a real catch, while every one of you is so ugly you make people sick just looking at you. But don’t be so desperate that you go after kids! Don’t you know pedos deserve to die?”

“Go after what?”

“All right, hurry on back, everyone. If you ever run into creepy, perverted old guys like that again, just ignore them.”

“……”

The scarred men stared at him, completely dumbfounded.

Lin Ge didn’t give them a chance to reply. By the time they came to their senses, he’d already gathered the children and led them off, out of sight.

“Where’d this little punk come from? You dare steal from under my nose? You’ve got a death wish!”

Once they recovered, the scarred men immediately rushed forward and surrounded Lin Ge and the children.

The children hid behind Lin Ge, too afraid to speak as they looked at the scarred men’s vicious faces. Only Meimei, the oldest, tugged at Lin Ge’s sleeve. She timidly leaned out and gave him a worried look.

Lin Ge smiled without saying a word, then gently patted her hair.

Next, he looked at the three men’s… faces. He touched his own, then sighed with a look of worry and sympathy, shaking his head helplessly.

He felt deeply sorry for them.

“This kid…”

Even without a word, they could tell from Lin Ge’s look that he’d insulted them again.

Their sharp canine teeth showed as they raged. Blue veins bulged along their muscular arms, and the men cracked their knuckles. In their eyes, Lin Ge was already as good as dead.

Lin Ge wasn’t intimidated. He gave them a mocking smile and said:

“Hey, hey, hey. Can’t compete on looks, so you’re gonna settle this with brute force? What a simple-minded way to solve things. Guess that’s what you’d expect from… beastfolk, huh?”

The three men: “?!?!”

All three froze at once, instinctively reaching up to touch their heads.

“Relax. Your fox tails aren’t showing. They’re all tucked away nicely.”

Lin Ge picked his nose, looking bored.

The three men, led by the scarred one, didn’t dare act recklessly now. They swallowed, fixed Lin Ge with a fierce glare, and, instead of answering right away, gave him their first proper look.

He had skinny arms and short legs, with a delicate, frail build. He didn’t look strong at all. His clothes were relatively clean, but plain; he certainly didn’t look rich. In short, aside from his face, he was useless.

Seeing this, the scarred man found his nerve again. He crooked his mouth and spoke with a defiant air:

“Hmph. I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re legitimate merchants with permits. Even if you were the city lord, you’d have no right to interfere with our business.”

“Fine, fine. Whatever you say.” Lin Ge figured they wouldn’t admit who they were so easily, and didn’t press the point. “But… is scaring children what you call doing business?”

“You’ll have to ask the kids. They wanted to buy this pot, so we hauled it over. Now they’re saying they don’t want it. What do you think we should do about that?!”

“That’s not what happened. They tricked us.”

Seeing them turn things around and blame the children, Meimei immediately grabbed Lin Ge’s hand and hurriedly explained:

“They said the pot would only cost three copper coins. But after they brought it over, they said it was three copper coins per pound.”