Chapter 232
Chapter 232
The commotion in the restaurant soon drew the manager over.
The pet restaurant had been in business for years, and its manager had seen just about everything.
Even so, his heart sank when he heard the young woman’s command.
The difference between a Doberman and a tiny white-patched puppy went far beyond size. In terms of fighting strength, it was a complete mismatch.
As the clearly well-trained Doberman lunged in for a killing bite, the manager’s heart leaped into his throat.
Just when he thought the situation was about to spiral out of control, someone pushed through the crowd and came to the rescue.
With one hand, the man seized the Doberman and flung it aside.
The manager first breathed a sigh of relief, then stared in astonishment.
Dobermans were fierce dogs. What kind of god among men could subdue an attacking Doberman with one hand?
When he looked at the Doberman that had been thrown aside, he saw that it was unhurt. Yet instead of flying into a rage, the dog was trembling in fear.
The manager couldn’t help studying the newcomer. Then he sucked in a quiet breath.
Damn, what a handsome man. He was half as handsome as the manager himself.
After shamelessly admiring himself in his head, the manager stepped forward to play peacemaker.
That was when the Doberman’s owner let out a shriek.
Taking a closer look, he saw the tiny white-patched puppy dangling from her ankle.
Rather than being afraid of the larger dog, the little puppy had picked its target with remarkable precision and sunk its teeth into the woman’s ankle.
The manager’s stomach dropped. Now that someone had been bitten, this would be much harder to settle.
He quickened his pace.
The woman kicked her leg, trying to shake Wangcai off.
“You filthy mutt! Let go!” she cursed.
She would have been better off keeping quiet. Wangcai hadn’t been biting hard, but at her insult, its tiny eyes flared and it prepared to bite down in earnest.
At the critical moment, Han Lie intervened again.
“Wangcai.” He crouched down, cupped Wangcai’s plump little belly, and gave it a quick squeeze, forcing it to release its jaws.
Once Han Lie had scooped Wangcai away, Thunderbird Jinbao, who had been circling overhead, chirped twice and swooped down to perch on his shoulder.
“I’m sorry. Are you hurt?” Han Lie asked with a slight frown, his apology neither warm nor cold.
Thunderbird wasn’t an ordinary bird. It was highly intelligent and would never tease someone for no reason.
After hearing what the woman had said earlier, Han Lie was even more certain that Thunderbird must have had a reason for teasing her.
The woman twisted around to examine her ankle. The skin wasn’t broken; only her stockings had torn slightly.
Then she looked at the bird droppings on her clothes and stamped her foot in fury.
Only Han Lie’s handsome face took some of the edge off her anger.
She didn’t vent that anger on him, however. Instead, she turned on the innocent restaurant manager who had come to mediate.
Pointing a finger at his nose, she launched into a tirade. “What kind of business are you running here? Look at my clothes! They’re the latest style!”
“You couldn’t afford to replace them with three years of your salary!”
The manager was baffled by the barrage of abuse.
But that was the misery of service work: no matter what kind of beast stood in front of you, you still had to apologize.
Forcing a smile, he said, “We’re very sorry. Our restaurant failed to provide proper service.”
Before he could say anything more, a soft laugh came from the crowd.
“Still putting on such airs, I see.”
Qin Ying emerged from the crowd with her arms folded.
The young woman’s face turned ashen when she recognized her, as if she had swallowed three iron weights.
“Qin Ying?”
Her shrill voice grated like fingernails on glass, making every sharp-eared animal in the restaurant turn its head.
Qin Ying clicked her tongue with a mocking smile. “You rude little thing. Is that any way to greet your older cousin?”
The woman before her was none other than one of Qin Ying’s headache-inducing relatives.
Qin Ying had two uncles on her mother’s side, and they were polar opposites.
Qin Ying’s eldest Uncle was an upright man. Her second uncle, on the other hand… was the stereotypical profit-obsessed merchant.
He schemed tirelessly, but was never clever enough to get his calculations right.
As long as the profit was high enough, there was nothing he wouldn’t sell.
Qin Ying had been raised by her grandmother. Her second uncle saw her as nothing but a burden and constantly made snide remarks about her.
With parents like that, their children naturally followed their example.
If Qin Ying had been more mild-tempered, their bullying might have left her scarred for life.
But she wasn’t. She had always been the type to repay every slight.
As a child, she dealt with the younger cousins from her second uncle’s family using her fists.
Whenever they ran their mouths, Qin Ying answered with a beating.
Eventually, the two sides became all but irreconcilable.
Qin Ying’s grandmother was heartbroken by the state of the family, so she eventually decided they were better off living apart and rarely seeing each other.
They managed to coexist peacefully for years, until Qin Ying came of age and her idiot second uncle tried to treat her like an asset by setting her up with a Second Generation Heir.
That day, her second uncle, Qin Zhizhou, received a threefold beatdown.
Armed with a baseball bat, Qin Ying smashed Qin Zhizhou’s house to pieces.
That bat was still kept as a collectible in the utility room at home.
After that incident, the two sides openly fell out.
But Qin Zhizhou refused to give up. When Qin Ying’s grandmother passed away, he heard from somewhere that the Old City might be slated for demolition and came back to claim a share of the estate.
Unfortunately for him, Qin Ying’s grandmother had already left a will bequeathing the old family home to Qin Ying.
From the perspective of Qin Zhizhou and his children, that was favoritism taken to the extreme.
But so what?
Qin Ying’s grandmother knew perfectly well that Qin Ying had paid the entire cost of rebuilding the old house. It rightfully belonged to her.
Now, meeting again after a year, her younger cousin Qin Yuan looked at Qin Ying as if she were her mortal enemy.
“What are you doing here?”
Her voice rose so high it nearly shattered the glass.
They had fought since childhood, so Qin Ying knew exactly how to handle her.
The more agitated Qin Yuan became, the calmer Qin Ying acted.
She walked over to Han Lie, took Wangcai from him, and stroked the dog’s head.
Then she leisurely rubbed the Thunderbird’s tiny forehead.
“The gate was wide open. Why can’t I come in?”
“What business is it of yours?”
Qin Ying beamed sweetly, infuriating Qin Yuan so much she nearly exploded.
Qin Yuan saw the dog in her arms, the bird perched on her shoulder, and the handsome man standing protectively beside her. How could she not understand?
“That damn bird of yours crapped on me?”
“And that damn dog bit me!”
“Qin Ying, did you do this on purpose?”
Qin Ying hadn’t known anything about it, but at this point, denying it would do her no good.
She might as well admit it and make Qin Yuan even angrier.
“That’s right. So what?” she replied with complete confidence despite having none of the facts on her side.
The brazenly arrogant way she smiled and stroked Wangcai’s head only made Qin Yuan angrier.
“I knew it! You did it on purpose!”
Qin Yuan had never once gained the upper hand against Qin Ying.
Tears of fury welled in her eyes. Turning her head, she spotted the Doberman she’d brought and unceremoniously kicked it with the toe of her shoe.
Intimidated by Han Lie, the Doberman had been cowering off to one side. It whimpered when she kicked it.
But Dobermans were an inherently loyal breed. Even after being treated that way by its owner, it showed no sign of turning around to bite her.
The smile faded from Qin Ying’s face.
She sneered coldly. “You’re still the same useless coward, always yapping and taking your anger out on something weaker than you.”
“Let me guess. Were you bad-mouthing me? Is that why you got showered in bird crap?”
“What underhanded scheme are you cooking up this time? You’re your father’s daughter, all right.”