CHAPTER 301: 301

Wow! Five hundred, people lining up to pay sucked in their breath when they heard this amount, looking at the elderly lady with different eyes now. Five hundred yuan! In an era where both average consumption and income are low, five hundred yuan is a sky-high price! Some poor families don’t even make that much in a year! This old lady really dared to ask for it!

"Old lady, this is really unreasonable of you. You’re asking for five hundred yuan right off the bat... This...," Having worked hard at the construction site these days, he had indeed saved up quite a bit of money, but paying up five hundred yuan in one go, right after paying another fee, was something else. He was honest, but not foolish! He hadn’t even realized how he had bumped into this elderly lady. All he saw was her falling to the ground and screaming, then frantically grabbing onto him, not letting go. He still couldn’t understand what had happened!

"No money, no money—let’s take it to the Police Station then." The old lady glared, covering her old waist with her right hand as she stood up, pulling Wei Jiaqiang’s hand, ready to walk out. Emboldened by the fact that her son worked at the city Police Station, she was confident as she dragged this young man to the Police Station, prepared to have her son detain him for a few days if he refused to pay.

Police Station?! Wow, the surroundings burst into an uproar again. Everyone was dumbfounded, watching the spectacle with no one daring to come forward and intervene, despite some people seeing that the old lady was intentionally extorting. But no one dared to speak up on his behalf. What if they offended someone?

"Old lady, you can’t be unreasonable! How I bumped into you, I don’t even know, yet you immediately demand that I pay five hundred yuan. I, who work moving bricks at a construction site, where would I get so much money to pay you? Can’t you ask for a little less...?" Wei Jiaqiang suddenly seemed less confident, worrying about having to go to the Police Station to argue his case! He was explaining but didn’t dare to struggle too much, afraid that any force he used might hurt the elderly lady again.

"I don’t care whether you have the money or not. You injured me today, and you must pay. To say that I am unreasonable, I think you’re the unreasonable one here, bumping into someone and then having the audacity not to pay. Come on, let’s go to the Police Station to argue this out." The old lady angrily pulled on Wei Jiaqiang’s collar.

Wei Jiaqiang was instantly dragged into a rather sorry state by the old lady, his honest face full of anxiousness.

"Wei Jiaqiang, just accompany the old lady to the Police Station! Let the fair and strict police judge the rights and wrongs of this matter. If you really did bump into the old lady, you should pay and not be careless about it; if you didn’t bump into her and someone is intentionally extorting," Xu Jingjing said while her eyes shifted around the old lady with a dangerous feel, channeling the true essence of Xu Xiuxiu in her aura at that moment, "then you should just go to the Police Station without worry. The old lady mentioned her son works there, right? If her son dares to engage in corruption, I’ll have my second sister contact the city’s newspaper reporters to help expose the conduct of Soup City’s Police Station." Xu Jingjing, carrying an empty bone soup box, stepped forward and blocked the fervently excited old lady.

"Jingjing." When Wei Jiaqiang saw the newcomer was Xu Jingjing, a light flashed in his eyes, and his courage greatly bolstered.

It was no wonder he had no doubts about the truthfulness of Xu Jingjing’s words. After all, as a construction worker in Soup City, he was somewhat aware of the treatment and the attention given by the government. His coworkers often talked about Xu Xiu’s capabilities at the construction site.

Even on several occasions, reporters from the F province newspaper specifically came to the site for reports and interviews, seeming to maintain a good relationship with the female boss. If it was up to the female boss, she indeed had the means to contact those newspaper reporters.

"Alright, grandma, I’ll go to the Police Station with you. Rest assured, I won’t run away. Just tell me where you got hurt and how much medical expenses you need, and I’ll compensate you accordingly," Wei Jiaqiang said as he saw Xu Jingjing step forward to speak for him and noticed the old lady’s guilty look. He immediately seized the opportunity.

He figured out what the old lady’s problem was.

"..." The old lady’s hands, which had been tightly clutching Wei Jiaqiang’s collar, began to slacken, and her drooping eyelids also quivered. There was hesitation in her eyes, as if judging the truthfulness in Xu Jingjing’s words. However, seeing Xu Jingjing, who was dressed in modern clothes and spoke confidently and openly, the old lady knew she was in trouble. If this were really taken to the Police Station, what would happen to the job her son had finally managed to get through connections?

"Who are you trying to scare? Do you think you can just contact those reporters from the provincial newspaper whenever you want?" Despite her hesitation, the old lady still tried to talk tough.

Xu Jingjing raised an eyebrow, "Heh, don’t worry about it, grandma. Let’s go to the Police Station and discuss the compensation for your injury."

"Let’s go, grandma, let’s go to the Police Station and argue this out," Wei Jiaqiang proactively invited the old lady to the Police Station.

Originally, the situation was clearly not in Wei Jiaqiang’s favor, but suddenly it changed, and those who had been watching the whole incident from behind began to whisper among themselves. Although it was just whispering, the volume was enough for many nearby to hear.

"I saw everything just now, that young man didn’t touch the old lady at all!" said a middle-aged woman, clearly one who enjoyed watching the commotion unfold. She had been silent, but seeing that the old lady was clearly in the wrong, she decided to speak up to the people behind her.

"Really, that old lady was just trying to scam him. How can she do something like that? It’s not easy to earn money these days! And she had the nerve to come to the hospital to extort money from an honest person?" Another middle-aged woman behind her suddenly looked enlightened, and her expression towards the old lady turned wary and disdainful.

After all, this was not a time when scamming the elderly was common. Encountering such a situation, people naturally had a strong aversion to it, and within a short time, the bustling payment area was filled with people pointing and talking.

The old lady also felt extremely embarrassed. She had come to check on her waist today, and while her husband had gone to get her medicine, she came to the payment counter. Heartache over the cost, she saw the bill listing hundreds of dollars and just when it was almost her turn to pay, a young man ahead turned around dizzily to leave. She leaned forward to see the payment situation and was slightly brushed by Wei Jiaqiang. Losing her balance, she fell right onto the floor.

She got up cursing and saw that the other person was a simple rural man, clearly uneducated, and then she got the idea to try and extort some money for her medical expenses. After all, the young man did brush against her, but who knew things would turn out like this.