Chapter 3

Endless jabs rained down on me like drops of rain. I gripped my phone tightly and steadied myself. "You're the one who sizes people up to price-gouge, always charging me twenty-five dollars. Today you didn't recognize me and charged me eight, and that's when you let it slip. It's only right that I ask for my money back."

The crowd paused for a moment, going quiet for the time being.

Seeing that things weren't going her way, the stall owner narrowed her eyes, twisted her lips, squeezed out a few tears, and dialed up her performance:

"A young lady like you, looking so fresh and clean, ought to speak with a conscience. I know I'm from the countryside and can't compare to you glamorous city folks, but I do my work honestly, with a clear conscience!"

An older woman, moved by this, reached out and helped her up. "Don't be scared, honey. We're all right here. As long as you're in the right, let's see who dares bully you today!"

The old man snorted hard through his nose and said in a snide tone, "The world really is going to the dogs. It's only that conditions these days won't allow it, otherwise I'd have you in the stocks and paraded through the streets today!"

"Right, otherwise there's no curing that filthy, mouthing-off habit of yours. We've been too soft on you young people."

"Back when we were young, society was so stable, and your generation has wrecked it all!"

"Look at you, all grubby and shabby. You're a disgrace to the neighborhood and the whole city. It'd be embarrassing just to live next to you."

"They say your looks come from your heart. A dark mind shows itself as a sloppy appearance, doesn't it?"

"Who knows what schemes she's cooking up to hurt people in private!"

"So arrogant over some tiny scrap of profit. Give it a couple more days and she'll be out killing people in the street. You need to be taught a lesson before you'll straighten out."

...

The stall owner shrank back behind the crowd, chiming in with a word of support now and then, playing the part of someone completely above it all.

Seeing the woman in front of me getting more and more heated, I pushed down a hand that was about to reach at my face, and stated my position before she could glare and bristle:

"I know you elders probably aren't familiar with this noodle stall, and you mean well. But these days, whose kid doesn't grab something from a street stall now and then? Helping this owner cheat me out of my money does you no good—it might even hurt your own family!"

Was it worth playing the good guy for nothing, or cutting down an unknown menace?

The moment I said that, the crowd's energy visibly dropped, and the faces around me showed people weighing it over.

The stall owner shoved through the crowd from the back and blurted out, "Open your mouth and out comes filth."

Then she turned to the crowd and made a few morale-boosting gestures. "Young people these days only know how to say pretty, useless things. Don't let yourselves be fooled by sweet talk!"

The old man who'd been chasing after the stall owner immediately fell in line, pretending to have seen the light and declaring righteously, "So that's it! Trying to fool us too! A repeat offender, just as I thought. We older folks have a duty to teach you black sheep of society a lesson!"

I gave a cold laugh and tapped my phone screen awake. "Sweet talk? Talk is cheap—seeing is believing. I can show my evidence. Can you?"

The stall owner's face went white in an instant!