She refused to give up and charged again, but her opponent lost patience, took up a vinegar bottle from the table, and smashed it toward Sun Lanlan’s head.
Sun Lanlan protected the bowls and dishes on the table and turned around to see the vinegar bottle enlarging before her eyes; it was too late to dodge.
At the critical moment, a figure rushed forward and punched the opponent, causing them to stagger. The vinegar bottle fell to the ground with a ’smack’ sound.
“Lanlan…”
“Sun Lanlan!”
Cai Jun rushed to Sun Lanlan’s side with a look of concern, asking, “Are you alright? Are you injured?”
Lin Chuxia swallowed the words she was about to say, looking towards Su Wensong who was scuffling with the man.
She hadn’t realized that Su Wensong could actually fight like this.
When she entered the door, she saw the scene that enraged her. If the vinegar bottle really hit Sun Lanlan’s head, it would have been disastrous.
Just as she was about to rush in, Su Wensong had already knocked down the person before her.
Sun Lanlan shook her head and saw Su Wensong had already subdued the person on the ground, kicked them, and said, “You robbers, to be smashing the things in our shop…”
Su Wensong had wanted to ask if Sun Lanlan was injured, but seeing Cai Jun following her closely with concern, he pursed his lips and swallowed his words.
He silently pinned down the person, not giving them any chance to resist, just to prevent them from struggling and hurting the girl again.
Originally three men and two women came to the Bun Shop. Facing Sun Bingnan, Cai Jun, and Sun Lanlan, they were arrogant as could be.
Now subdued, they wept and sobbed more pitifully than anyone else.
“Oh Lord, is there no King’s Law anymore, causing food poisoning and then beating people, it’s just bullying us common folks.”
“There’s a beating, someone’s life is at stake. Your Bun Shop caused food poisoning and still you beat people? Let us go…”
“Everyone come and see, this is what the Bun Shop has done, their buns have issues, they might be made from dead pig meat, caused food poisoning and then stop us from arguing, this is completely lawless…”
The men were even more shifty-eyed, struggling to break free from the restraint, “Let us go, if you dare, let us go. You rely on the majority to bully honest people, what kind of skill is that?”
Lin Chuxia walked up to them and observed their faces, “Bullying honest people because we’re the majority? When you guys ran over to my Bun Shop causing trouble, smashing things and hitting my staff, wasn’t that bullying honest people?”
“What’s wrong with coming over to argue? Who told you your buns have a problem causing people to get sick?”
“So you say my buns have a problem and they really have one? Where’s the evidence? I sell so many buns every day and never had any quality issues, so why did only you get sick after eating them?”
Sun Lanlan shouted loudly from the side, “Mr. Lin, they didn’t even buy buns from our shop, Granny Sun and I have never seen these people before.”
Lin Chuxia scoffed, “Tell me, who sent you? Want to ruin the reputation of my Bun Shop or what other purpose do you have?”
The man’s mind flashed with panic but he still stubbornly said, “No one sent us, we only got diarrhea from eating buns here. We just wanted to argue about it, but who knew you would be so unreasonable. Today is just our bad luck, let us go, we won’t ask for compensation.”
“Right, let us go, just take it as our bad luck.”
“We ordinary folks can’t afford to offend you, isn’t it alright if we just accept the misfortune?”
Lin Chuxia let out a soft laugh, “You accept your misfortune? You’ve trashed my shop and now you want to just walk away, trying to make me take the loss? Let me tell you, it’s not that easy. Today, regardless of who’s right or wrong, we’re going to clear things up before anyone leaves.”
She already saw Granny Sun calling Officer Sun over, along with several other officers.
Granny Sun immediately pointed out the damaged items in the shop to her son, slapping her thigh in exasperation, “Look, look, it was them who caused trouble in the bun shop and smashed things.”
Sun Hao wanted to side with his mother, but as routine, he had to ask, “What happened?”
The people being subdued completely panicked upon seeing the police, especially the two women, who started crying.
“We don’t know what happened either. We were just eating here and got stomach aches. We wanted to come over and discuss it, but then they hit us…”
“Officer Sun, these people never ate at our store. They came in clutching their stomachs asking for compensation and even damaged the store’s facilities. As for their claims of getting sick from our food, I think a hospital can provide a reasonable explanation.”
A few people were energetic and lively, hardly looking like they had diarrhea.
Sun Hao nodded, “We will investigate this matter thoroughly. Now, everyone follows me to the police station.”
Lin Chuxia had no objection; now that the police were involved, both parties naturally had to go to the station to give statements.
The other party’s faces turned pale. They didn’t want to go and even began apologizing to Lin Chuxia, asking her to let them go.
Sun Hao ignored them, waved his big hand, and took everyone to the police station.
On the way, Lin Chuxia quietly asked Jia Liang if he recognized the people.
At first, she suspected the food factory, but then thought if the factory was going to make a move, they’d more likely target bun shops in the county city.
Jia Liang shook his head, whispering so only the two of them could hear, “These people are not from the underworld.”
Lin Chuxia couldn’t think of who would be behind this.
Upon arriving at the police station, before they were even properly questioned, someone from the other party couldn’t hold back and confessed.
“A man not very tall, around 30 years old, gave each of us 5 yuan to cause trouble in Qin’s Steamed Bun Shop. After the job was done, he promised us another 5 yuan, and if we managed to shut down Qin’s permanently, we would get another 10 yuan each. We were blinded by greed, we know we were wrong, please, Officer, let us go…”
They had scouted the bun shop for half a day and saw that there were only an elderly woman, a young woman, and a young man, so they thought causing some trouble wouldn’t be difficult.
Little did they expect so many people to show up, let alone the police.
Now they were full of regret.
A man not very tall, around 30? Lin Chuxia and Su Wensong exchanged a glance, both thinking of the same person.
“Where did you meet this person?”
“By the machinery factory…”
After leaving the police station, Su Wensong headed in a different direction, and Lin Chuxia called out to him, “Where are you going?”
“I’m looking for Su Wenmao. If someone has an issue, come at me, what’s the meaning of discrediting the Bun Shop,” he had to have a word with him today.
“He might not admit it even if you confront him.”
Those people stayed in custody, but the loss wasn’t significant. They had already given Lin Chuxia the money they had on them as compensation, and they would be released after being detained for a few more days.
Even if those few people identified Su Wenmao as the mastermind, it wouldn’t necessarily hold up without evidence.
Su Wenmao would definitely not admit to it.
“We can’t just let this go,” Su Wensong now spoke of Su Wenmao with a face full of disgust.