Chapter 158: Counterfeit?

Hearing Wang Qiang's panicked words, Qin Feng sneered inwardly, thinking that it was finally time.

"What are you panicking about? Even if the sky falls, I'm here to hold it up!"

Qin Feng gave a low shout to signal Wang Qiang not to panic, then turned to Elder Li and said, "Elder Li, please go to the back and rest for a while. Leave this to me."

Although Elder Li was advanced in years, he had experienced plenty of storms and naturally understood that there must be something fishy going on. He nodded and led Li Xiaoxiao into the inner room.

Qin Feng then instructed Wang Qiang, "Go and call Zhang Hao for me. Tell him someone is here making trouble at Jade Pavilion."

"You got it!" Wang Qiang acknowledged and scurried out like a puff of smoke.

Qin Feng walked unhurriedly to the entrance, only to see that the outside of Jade Pavilion was already surrounded by onlookers.

In the center of the crowd, a heavily painted and flashily dressed woman was pointing at the clerk's nose and cursing fiercely. Her shrill and ear-piercing voice sounded just like a pig being slaughtered in a vegetable market.

"You bunch of heartless merchants selling fake goods to swindle money, is there still any justice left! If you don't give me an explanation today, I'll smash this damn shop of yours!"

"That's right! Heartless merchants, swindling people's money, you'll die a horrible death!"

Following close beside the woman were several burly and fierce-looking ruffians who now joined in the clamor, looking ready to smash, loot, and burn.

The clerk turned pale with fright at this display and stammered, unable to utter a word.

Qin Feng pushed through the crowd, walked up to the woman, and looked at her with a half-smile: "My good woman, you say our shop sells fake goods, but do you have any evidence?"

Seeing Qin Feng, the woman's eyes rolled, and she pointed at his nose and cursed, "And what onion are you? Is it your turn to speak here? Call your boss out!"

Qin Feng crossed his arms and said with ease, "I am the owner of this Jade Pavilion. Whatever you have to say, tell it directly to me."

The woman looked Qin Feng up and down. Seeing that he was young and dressed in cheap street-stall clothes, she felt even more disdain. She sneered, "You, the boss? Haven't even grown your hair fully, have you? Stop putting on an act here. Hurry up and call the adults out. This lady has no time to waste with a little punk like you!"

"You..." The clerk's face flushed with anger, and just as he was about to retort, Qin Feng stopped him.

"Whether I am the boss or not doesn't seem to have much to do with you being scammed, does it?" Qin Feng said calmly.

"You say our shop sells fake goods? Fine, bring out the evidence. As long as your proof is solid, let alone compensation, you can have whatever you want. But if you can't produce evidence, then I will sue you for defamation and for slandering the reputation of our Jade Pavilion!"

The woman clearly did not expect Qin Feng to be so sophisticated in his speech despite his youth. For a moment, she was bluff-shocked, but she quickly recovered, pointed at Qin Feng's nose, and cursed, "Don't try that crap with me! This lady spent hundreds of thousands buying a jade bracelet, and it cracked in less than three days. If it's not fake, what is it?"

"Oh? Is that so?" Qin Feng smiled non-committally. "Then where is the bracelet? Take it out and let me have a look."

The woman pulled out a brocade box from her bag and opened it. Inside lay a jade bracelet broken into two halves.

"Look at it yourself!" The woman shoved the brocade box toward Qin Feng. "This bracelet looks like cheap merchandise at first glance, and yet you actually dared to sell it. Have you no conscience?"

Qin Feng did not reach out to take it, but merely glanced at it indifferently, a playful smile curving the corner of his mouth. "This bracelet doesn't seem to have been sold by our shop, does it?"

"You're talking nonsense!"

The woman's expression changed, and she retorted sharply, "I bought it from your shop three days ago. How could it not be sold by your shop?"

"Three days ago?"

Qin Feng feigned surprise. "My good woman, I'm afraid you remembered the wrong date. Our Jade Pavilion wasn't even open yesterday!"

The woman was instantly at a loss for words.

"You... stop chicaning here!"

The woman grew somewhat flustered, but she still argued stubbornly, "I don't care, anyway this bracelet was bought from your shop. If you don't compensate me today, I'm not leaving!"

"Oh? Not leaving?" The smile on Qin Feng's lips grew deeper. "What do you want to do? Call the police?"

"Call them then, who's afraid of whom!" the woman shouted with a fierce expression, though her eyes flickered evasively.

Just at that moment, a commotion suddenly broke out outside the crowd.

A burly man with a fierce look and a face full of flesh parted the crowd and walked in, followed by a gang of underlings. They exuded a menacing aura, looking at first glance like bad news.

A burst of disorderly footsteps approached from afar like a pack of wolves entering a sheep pen, mixed with a few arrogant and despotic curses, making the already flustered woman instantly feel as though she had grabbed a life-saving straw.

"Brother Kun! Brother Kun! You're finally here! If you had been a moment later, your little brother would have been beaten to death right here!"

A sharp-mouthed, yellow-haired youth scrambled in, threw his arms around the lead brawler, and wailed with snot and tears streaming down his face.

The newcomer was none other than local tyrant Zhao Kun, who had previously been disciplined by Qin Feng.

As soon as Zhao Kun entered the shop, he spotted Qin Feng standing in the center of the crowd.

The arrogant momentum on his face was instantly doused as if by a basin of cold water. His face became plastered with a ingratiating smile, and he bowed and scraped as he greeted Qin Feng, "Oh, Mr. Qin, why are you here? What a coincidence, what a coincidence!"

Seeing Zhao Kun arrive, the woman acted as if she had seen her savior. Disregarding the tear tracks on her face, she scrambled over to Zhao Kun and pointed at Qin Feng, crying out in grievance.

"Brother Kun, you must seek justice for me! This punk is bullying me, saying I bought fake goods, and he even broke my bracelet..."

"Slap!"

Before the woman could finish her sentence, she was knocked to the ground by a slap from Zhao Kun, blood instantly seeping from the corner of her mouth.

"Stinky bitch, don't even look at what kind of trash you are, daring to spout nonsense in front of Mr. Qin!" Zhao Kun scolded angrily, his eyes filled with ferocity.

The woman was stunned by the blow. She covered her face and looked at Zhao Kun in disbelief, seemingly unable to believe that Brother Kun, who usually obeyed her every whim, would actually hit her today for the sake of a young punk.

Qin Feng watched all this coldly without stopping them.

Zhao Kun had long been wondering how to make amends. After being taught a lesson by Qin Feng some time ago, he went back and inquired around, only to realize that he had provoked someone he couldn't afford to offend.

The fact that Qin Feng hadn't come looking for trouble with him was already being generous. Today, having stumbled upon this opportunity, he naturally wanted to put on a good performance.

"Mr. Qin, please don't lower yourself to her level. This bitch is just blind; I apologize to you on her behalf!" Zhao Kun said, casting another fierce glare at the woman. "Hurry up and get over here to apologize to Mr. Qin!"

Terrified to her core, the woman trembled all over, scrambled on her hands and knees in front of Qin Feng, and kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy: "Mr. Qin, I was wrong. I was blind and should not have provoked you. I beg you, in your great magnanimity, to spare me this once!"

Qin Feng looked down at her from above with an indifferent gaze, showing neither joy nor anger.