Whoever Backed Down Had Something to Hide

"Help!"

The five men rushed into the street in a panic. Dawn was breaking, and a few early risers were already out.

The bald man alone being knocked from the second floor by a stick and crashing onto the ground was enough to attract attention.

Then four more people ran out of the inn, shouting for help, and a crowd quickly gathered around them.

"What happened? What happened?"

"Why did someone jump from the building?"

The owner was a local. Seeing the surrounding villagers, he hurriedly said, "Someone was causing trouble in my shop. He smashed the place up, then beat me and my guests."

The bald man and the others quickly joined in, describing all of Mo Qiong's earlier brutality and unreasonable behavior.

They said all this because they were still concerned about the children upstairs. Those children couldn't withstand an investigation or questioning.

If they simply ran away, the children would be left unattended. The police would definitely investigate, and their crimes would be exposed.

Even if they escaped then, they would have to spend the rest of their lives on the run. The innkeeper would also have to abandon his business and hide.

So under normal circumstances, abandoning the children and fleeing was absolutely impossible. It would be no different from leaving the evidence behind.

But just now, they had been completely afraid to stay where they were.

The group had run outside because they feared Mo Qiong would beat them to death.

After all, Mo Qiong had deliberately provoked them earlier and made his temper seem frighteningly explosive.

They had spoken to him politely, hoping to endure the matter and let it pass, yet Mo Qiong had still been so aggressive.

Now that they had all attacked him with lethal intent, given the temper Mo Qiong had displayed, what would happen to them?

At the time, they had all been thinking: We're going to die. He'll definitely beat us to death! This reckless bastard will absolutely kill us!

Overcome by fear, they had even abandoned the children and fled in panic.

But after coming outside and seeing the villagers, a glimmer of hope suddenly rose in them.

If they could rally the villagers to help, they wouldn't need to run anymore.

They could beat Mo Qiong half to death, then move the children before the police arrived. After that, they could tell the story however they wanted.

"He's coming! There he is!" The innkeeper pointed at Mo Qiong as he walked out of the inn.

Mo Qiong naturally had no intention of letting them off. He still needed to question this group about Qin Liang.

"Don't worry. With so many of us here, what can he do?"

"Exactly. He won't dare attack us..."

The villagers had barely finished speaking when Mo Qiong slapped the innkeeper across the face, sending him sprawling two meters away.

In an instant, several people who had been eager to come forward and help deal with Mo Qiong froze in place.

They were stunned. Hearing about it had been one thing, but witnessing it with their own eyes made them feel that he was far too aggressive!

He actually dared to hit someone in front of so many people?

"Run? Do you think you can get away?" Mo Qiong saw the bald man and the others trying to slip through the crowd. He immediately strode after them, grabbing them one by one and dragging them back into the open.

"Fuck this! I'm going all out against you!" The man who had cursed at Mo Qiong earlier had the worst temper. Seeing that Mo Qiong was unarmed, he regained some courage and lunged at him.

Mo Qiong kicked out, sending the man flying and knocking down another man as well.

The bald man watched Mo Qiong knock them all down in a few quick moves, trembling. He knew they couldn't escape.

He probably hasn't realized those children aren't mine...

There's still a chance...

The bald man didn't know that Mo Qiong had already called the police. He still thought this was merely a street fight.

He hurriedly shouted, "Villagers, help us!"

Several hot-blooded men couldn't stand watching any longer. In their eyes, Mo Qiong was simply an unreasonable, brutal outsider.

He was beating people right in front of them. How could they just stand by and watch? They had to help.

Two men rushed forward, trying to pin Mo Qiong down. Mo Qiong spread both palms and shoved hard, planting them against the men's chests.

The two men staggered backward, taking seven or eight steps before crashing into a car across the road.

"Don't listen to their nonsense. Don't help blindly. These people have children upstairs..." Mo Qiong hadn't finished speaking.

The man he had shoved away furiously cursed, "Bullshit! I saw you hit people with my own eyes. I don't care what your reason is—hitting people is wrong!"

Mo Qiong raised an eyebrow and simply said, "Is that so? In that case, just surround them and don't let them escape. The police will decide who's right and wrong when they arrive..."

As soon as the crowd heard this, someone immediately moved to call the police.

"That's right! Call the police and have him arrested. He beat you in front of all of us. Once the police arrive, you won't have to be afraid anymore," someone told the bald man.

The bald man's face fell as cold sweat streamed down him.

Under normal circumstances, when faced with such a scene, everyone would help hold down the person who had attacked first, restrain him, and then call the police to wait for them to arrive.

That was exactly the opportunity he had been waiting for—a chance to buy time to hide the children.

But Mo Qiong was too powerful. He had easily shoved aside everyone who tried to help, and after hearing what he said, the crowd had suddenly changed sides and decided to call the police directly.

That would have been perfectly normal, except that these five absolutely could not afford to face the police.

"Don't call the police! Everyone, don't call the police!" the bald man hurriedly shouted.

The crowd called out, "Why not?"

The bald man shouted, "It's a misunderstanding! It's all a misunderstanding. There's no need to involve the police over such a minor matter."

The crowd exchanged bewildered looks. What the hell? Weren't they screaming for help just now? How did this suddenly become a minor matter?

Mo Qiong tilted his head and couldn't help laughing.

Then the bald man got up with a forced smile, his face swollen from the blows, and said, "Little brother, you're impressive. We're convinced. We're completely convinced..."

"Spare us now that you've made your point. Don't hit us anymore, and we won't call the police either... Let's just let this go, all right?"

Right now, he only wanted to send this plague god away as quickly as possible...

However, his words caused an uproar among the bystanders.

How cowardly could they be? Five people had been beaten like this by one man, and they still didn't want to pursue it?

"Why are you afraid of him?"

"Exactly! Call the police! You're the victims!"

The onlookers were baffled. In their eyes, these five men were completely innocent victims of an unexpected disaster, while Mo Qiong was a brutal thug who had beaten them over a trivial matter.

No matter where this went, the five men were clearly in the right. What did they have to fear?

The bald man and the others felt stifled too. They clearly had justice on their side. Mo Qiong had been the one to provoke them, and the conflict had simply escalated.

Yet now they had been brutally beaten and could only beg for mercy. They didn't even dare call the police...

That was guilt. That was what happened when people had something to hide. Even if they were in the right, they couldn't say a word.

"Let it go? Who said I'd let it go with you?" Mo Qiong slapped the bald man again, sending blood spraying from his nose.

"Stop hitting me... Stop..." The bald man covered his face with one hand, kneeling on the ground and trembling.

Mo Qiong then took out the Longevity Lock and dangled it in front of him. "Do you recognize this?"

"What's that? I don't recognize it..." The bald man glanced at it and answered.

Smack! Mo Qiong punched him again. "Look carefully! Think before you answer!"

"I really don't recognize it! I'll give you money! I'll compensate you! I'll pay you! Just stop hitting me!" the bald man wailed, pulling out a stack of cash.

Mo Qiong didn't even look at it. Instead, he said, "Even if you don't recognize it, I'll still beat you. You can call the police."

"Damn! He's too arrogant!"

"He's beating you like that, and you're still giving him money? Are you an idiot?"

The bystanders couldn't stand watching anymore. Mo Qiong seemed to be acting as arrogantly as humanly possible.

Just as several onlookers picked up whatever they could find and prepared to charge forward, the bald man shouted, "Don't trouble the police! Let's settle this privately... I'll add twenty thousand more! I'm convinced, all right? I really am! Please stop hitting me!"

The bystanders were genuinely convinced by the bald man's reaction...

Mo Qiong sneered. "Do you really know why I'm hitting you?"

"What?" The bald man was stunned, staring blankly at Mo Qiong.

Just then, the onlookers shouted, "The police are here!"

Sure enough, more than a dozen police officers entered from outside the crowd. There was a substantial force.

"It's him! He's the one attacking people!"

"He's too arrogant! I've never seen anyone beat people so brazenly!"

"So someone really did call the police. And so many of them came."

Everyone pointed at Mo Qiong, and the police turned to look.

They saw Mo Qiong catching up with two men who were trying to flee. The two had wanted to slip away after seeing the police arrive while Mo Qiong was beating the bald man.

However, Mo Qiong casually threw a stone, knocking one of them to the ground. Then he strode after the other, kicked him down, and dragged him over.

"Stop hitting them!" one of the officers shouted.

But when Mo Qiong heard him, he still attacked, knocking another man flat with a slap.

At that moment, all five men lay sprawled on the ground, trembling. Mo Qiong was the only one still standing.

"Don't move! You still dare hit people after seeing us?" the police officer shouted angrily at Mo Qiong.

The onlookers watched and felt that Mo Qiong was unbelievably brutal. He was still beating people even after the police arrived. Was he trying to get himself killed?

Unexpectedly, Mo Qiong smiled at the officers and said, "If I don't beat them down and restrain them, what happens if they run away?"

"The children are all on the second floor. Send them to the hospital for a checkup first. I saw that several of them were injured."

The officer froze and looked at him. "You are..."

"Oh, I'm the one who called the police. These five men on the ground are all child traffickers," Mo Qiong said.

The dozen-plus officers immediately stopped advancing on him. The officer in charge instead looked enlightened. "So that's what happened. We thought you were the trafficker..."

As soon as he said it, he realized that it sounded wrong, as if he were implying that Mo Qiong was too vicious.

He coughed twice, then asked, "What's your phone number?"

"The last four digits are 1440... Oh, right. I also know the parents of five of the children. I can help you contact them." Mo Qiong took out his phone, opened his number, and showed it to them.

"That would be excellent... Uh... You did hit them rather hard, though."

After confirming that Mo Qiong was the one who had called the police, the officers immediately became much friendlier.

But when they saw the injuries of the five men on the ground, they were also somewhat surprised.

"I had no choice. They nearly killed me on the second floor. They smashed an iron rod at my head. If I hadn't reacted quickly, I'd probably be dead. Oh, right, they also used knives. They're all upstairs," Mo Qiong said.

The officers nodded one after another. "That makes sense. You did nothing wrong. When restraining such vicious criminals, you absolutely can't hold back."

Hearing the police approve of Mo Qiong's actions, everyone was stunned.

"Aren't the vicious criminals supposed to be him? What... you mean the five people lying on the ground?" someone asked in confusion.

But there were also people who understood. "You still don't get it? These five are child traffickers! The children they abducted are upstairs. This guy wasn't beating people for no reason—he's the one who called the police!"

The crowd immediately understood why Mo Qiong had beaten them with such righteous confidence, while the men who had been beaten were acting as cowardly as possible and desperately trying to settle the matter.

"Damn! This inn has been open for so many years, and the owner was actually a child trafficker!"

"Disgusting! They even tried to twist right and wrong. They're the criminals, yet they accused someone else of being unreasonable?"

"And they had the nerve to scream for help! I almost helped them! If I'd known the truth, I would have beaten you to death!"

As they spoke, several people who especially hated child traffickers went over and kicked the men twice.

They had watched Mo Qiong beat them so enthusiastically earlier, and now that they thought about it, they wanted to get a few hits in themselves.

For ordinary people, there was nothing wrong with hitting child traffickers. Without the police holding them back, they might even beat them to death.

The bald man and the others lay on the ground, their faces ashen.

They had never expected Mo Qiong to realize that the children had been abducted. From his words, it seemed that he knew the children's parents—or had seen the missing-child notices they had posted.

Sure enough, while Mo Qiong called the five children's parents, he said to the police, "I only wanted to find somewhere to sleep, but they insisted that I was causing trouble. They even said I deserved a beating and were going to cripple me. We fought, and I chased one of them upstairs. That's when I saw the children. I had seen the information their parents posted on the Homecoming Network for five of them, so I recognized them as abducted children and knew these men were traffickers."

"After that, they were probably afraid I'd figured it out and tried to kill me. I had no choice but to go all out and beat them like this."

The bald man and the others burst into tears.

They were terribly unlucky. They had gotten into a fight over a trivial matter and ended up having their major crime exposed.

They no longer had the energy to point out the omissions in Mo Qiong's account. For example, they had actually been restrained and wanted to calm the conflict, but Mo Qiong had been too unreasonable and forced them to attack with lethal intent.

But could they say that? At this point, would it matter? Would the police listen? Would the public listen?

The crowd around them was already furious. Even the police merely held back the onlookers who wanted to kick the men again, showing no concern at all about how heavily Mo Qiong had beaten them while restraining them.

That was exactly why Mo Qiong had dared to deliberately cause trouble and force the group to reveal themselves by creating a disturbance.

The moment Mo Qiong saw those children with his own eyes, it was destined that these men would suffer that beating for nothing.

Even if he really had been causing trouble, could dealing with child traffickers be called a mere fight?

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