Chapter 358: A Crowdfunding Company
Qin Haodong laughed in disgust. Now a beggar was called a chairman. “You started a company. Then tell me what’s the kind of company it is?” He demanded.
The squat man called, “It’s a crowdfunding company. Do you understand? Crowdfunding!”
When he finished, the crowd burst into laughter. What a novel address! They call begging crowdfunding.
The pudgy man knew there was something shameless about what he said, so a flash of embarrassment flashed across his face. He pointed at Qin Haodong and swore, “Cut the crap! You bullied my wife and beat up my guys. You must pay us, or I’ll give you a piece of my mind.”
Qin Haodong retorted, “My daughter came to offer her love but met you cheaters. Now give us the money back and apologize. Or I’ll give you a piece of my mind.”
“Young man, I see, you’re here to make trouble today!”
The squat man waved his hand behind him and shouted, “Punch him, guys. First break his legs, and then cut the faces of the two women. Let them know what will happen to them when they offend us!”
After getting his orders, the gangsters swarmed Qin Haodong, Lin Momo and Tang Tang in the middle.
The crowd sympathized with Qin Haodong. Although they knew he knew some martial art, he could not have beaten so many gangsters alone.
However, although they sympathize with him, they were just ordinary people. Seeing these evil gangsters, they had to retreat one after another. Occasionally the two people hid in the side secretly and called the police.
“Go on, hit him hard.”
The squat man gave a loud, cocky shout, and a gangster brandished a saber to stab Qin Haodong. All of a sudden, the saber was in Qin Haodong’s hand. Then a big foot appeared in front of him. He was kicked away.
Seeing that their companion was defeat, the other gangsters pounced on Qin Haodong. But they were no match for him, who knocked them down in a couple of moves.
One of the gangsters realized that Qin Haodong was too powerful to beat, so he sneaked up on Lin Momo. He raised the steel pipe in his hand to hit Lin Momo in the head.
An exclamation rose from the crowd. Everyone thought that this beautiful woman was about to be hit, when suddenly a ray of cold light flashed. The dagger pierced the arm of the gangster, and his steel pipe fell to the ground with a thud.
It was Qin Haodong of course. His attention had been on Lin Momo and Tang Tang. How could he have let them get hurt by these gangsters. After piercing the gangster’s arm with the dagger, Qin Haodong then kicked him more than a dozen meters away. The gangster bumped into a lamp post nearby and vomited blood in great gulps.
The squat man was dumbfounded. Before he could close his gaping mouth, a dozen of his people were all knocked to the ground.
Qin Haodong came up to him and questioned, “Well, have you thought about it? Will you give us our money back and apologize?”
The squat man took two steps back, shouting nervously, “Don’t mess around. I tell you, I have hundreds of people coming this way.”
“You talk too much nonsense!”
Qin Haodong raised his hand and slapped him in the face, turning him around a few times. As a result, his cheeks were swollen and several of his teeth fell to the ground.
“Have you decided yet? Will you give us our money back and apologize?”
“Yes, I’ve decided!” The squat man knew that he had met a tough guy today. Then he turned his head and shouted at the woman, “Are you silly? Give the money back and apologize.”
At the moment, he really hated the woman. He complained in his heart that she should not have provoked such a tough man.
“I’m… I’m sorry!” Said the woman miserably.
In her eyes, the squat man was omnipotent. Now, however, he was scared of Qin Haodong, which made her instantly afraid of Qin Haodong.
Qin Haodong uttered coldly, “Give the money back to my daughter!”
“Okay, I’ll do it right away!”
The woman quickly pushed the wad of cash into Tang Tang’s hand.
“Tell everyone you’re a liar!”
“I…”
Looking at the crowd, the woman couldn’t say it after all.
Without speaking, Qin Haodong raised his hand and slapped the squat man in the face again. With a snap, the man fell to the ground.
The squat man covered his swollen cheek and scolded the woman, “Damn, are you a fool? We are liars. What’s so embarrassing about that? Speak quickly!”
Seeing the man’s fierce eyes, the woman shivered with fear and hurriedly said, “I’m sorry, I’m a liar. I lied to everyone!”
“Be more sincere.”
Worried that Qin Haodong wouldn’t be satisfied and hit him again, the squat man growled.
“I’m sorry. I lied…”
The woman fell to her knees with the kid in her arms.
The squat man looked up at Qin Haodong and said, “Young man, no, sir, is it okay?”
Qin Haodong nodded and said, “Barely. Let her get up!”
“Thank you! Thank you very much!” The woman was relieved and got up from the ground with the kid in her arms.
The squat man asked, “Sir, we have returned the money to you and apologized. Can we leave now?”
He had made up his mind that as long as he got rid of this trouble, he would leave Jiangnan City immediately and never see this man again.
“Not yet.” Qin Haodong then said to the woman, “Give me that kid.”
“It… it isn’t proper!” Said the woman, looking flustered.
The squat man echoed, “Sir, the boy is too young. It will be bad if he pees on you.”
Qin Haodong ignored him, shouting at the woman again, “I want you to give me the boy.”
“All… all right then.” The woman glanced at the squat man and, trembling, carried the kid to Qin Haodong.
Qin Haodong took the boy. Despite all the noise, the boy was still asleep and showed no sign of waking up.
He opened the quilt and exposed the child’s body. Although the boy looked nearly two years old, he was extremely thin and his face was gray. It was obvious that he was suffering from malnutrition for a long time. His little arms and legs were only a litter thicker than an adult’s thumb. He looked miserable.
Tang Tang ran over, looked at the baby and said, “Papa, he’s so pathetic!”
Qin Haodong picked up the boy’s little hand, felt his pulse, and then asked the woman in a sharp voice, “What did you feed him?”
The woman whispered back, “No-nothing, just milk… milk powder.”
Qin Haodong lifted his leg and kicked the woman to the ground, snapped, “Did you give him sleeping pills?”
He could already see that the boy was not well fed, and that the woman had added sleeping pills to the milk power to keep him from crying, which was why he never woke up. Giving sleeping pills to such a small child for a long period of time could have an effect on his brain and, in severe cases, could lead to dementia.
Hearing his words, the crowd understood why the child was so quiet. He didn’t cry or make any noise, but kept sleeping because he was fed sleeping pills.
“Damn it! She fed sleeping pills for such a small child? Is the woman mad?”
“How can there be such a mother? She’s giving her child medicine…”
“I don’t think he’s her child. They must have stolen the child from others. The beggars were shown on the news stealing children and pretending to be poor in order to get people’s sympathy…”
“lt sounds reasonable. No one is capable of hurting his own children. Who can be so cruel to their own children. She must have stolen the child from others…”
In an outcry, the woman shivered up. Qin Haodong asked coldly, “Tell me the truth, did you steal the boy from his parents?”
He could already tell that the boy’s aura was quite different from that of the squat man and the woman, so the boy must not be their child. The only thing that needed to be determined was where the child came from.
The woman opened her mouth, but did not dare to say anything. She turned to look at the squat man beside her.
Realizing that things were not going well, the squat man turned around and started to slip away. Unfortunately, Qin Haodong suddenly lifted his leg and kicked him to the ground.
“Tell me, where did the child come from?”
Qin Haodong asked, stomping on his chest.
“My son, this is my son!” Replied the squat man.
“Nonsense. Who would starve his son like that? The boy obviously hasn’t been well fed in a long time.”
“He’s obviously lying. Who will give his child sleeping pills?”
None of the onlookers believed that the boy was the son of the squat man.
“Did you hear that? No one believes you at all. Tell me where the child came from,” Qin Haodong demanded again.
“He’s my son. He’s really my son!”
The squat man was well aware that he could admit to other acts, but could never admit that he had stolen the child. Child trafficking was a serious crime, and in serious cases, the criminal could be sentenced to death.
Qin Haodong really didn’t want to talk to him anymore, so he directly used his Mind-manipulating. “Honestly, where did the boy come from?”
With a flash of confusion in his eyes, the squat man answered, “I asked my people to steal him…”
Soon the guy got all the facts straight. They belonged to a gang that lived by begging and called themselves the Beggar Gang. The squat man was the boss, with dozens of members. These people had a clear division of labor, some begging for money, some stealing, and some acting as thugs.
While begging, they also did many cruel things. For example, they seized some homeless people, mashed them, and then put them in the crowded place to play the poor, in order to consume people’s sympathy and earn a lot of money.
They also tried to steal children, who were more likely than adults to gain sympathy. The boy in the woman’s arms was stolen from someone else’s house.
Qin Haodong continued, “Why do you give this kid sleeping pills?”
“To save money,” the squat man replied. “Milk powder for children is very expensive nowadays. We want to save as much money as possible. And thin kids are better for us to make money. If we make him fat and white, he won’t look miserable.”
“But a child who doesn’t have enough to eat can be very annoying because he’s always crying. My wife came up to an idea— give him sleeping pills. Then he is much quieter.”
“Son of a bitch! How can you treat a child like that…”
“You beast. You stole children. You bastard! Your children will be…”
“Kill him! Kill these evil people…”
While shouting, the crowed could not control their anger, picked up the bricks, stones, bottles and other garbage at the side of the road and threw at the squat man and the woman.
For a moment, the two were beaten black and blue. Their heads were broken and bleeding and they screamed like a pig being killing.
Five minutes later, the two were close to death, appearing extremely miserable. If it went on like this, they would be beaten to death by angry people. If they died, things would get messy. Qin Haodong was about to stop when a siren sounded. Two patrol wagons came towards the crowd.
Nalan Wuxia got out of the car, glanced at the two dying guys, and asked Qin Haodong, “What’s going on?”