The incident happened too suddenly, catching Luo Yang off guard.
With his reaction speed, avoiding it entirely would have been no problem at all, but if he dodged, the pregnant woman's electric scooter would have crashed into the lamppost on the side of the road. That woman's belly was already huge, and that would have been far too dangerous.
It was precisely because of this hesitation that the electric scooter collided with Luo Yang, and his trousers ripped with a sharp tear. Immediately following that, the woman riding the scooter lunged at him, and without a single thought to anything else, he absorbed the impact of the electric scooter head-on and reached out to wrap his arms around her waist.
The electric scooter fell to the ground, and the woman crashed straight into Luo Yang's arms, forcing him to take two steps back to steady his footing.
Yet at that very moment, the woman suddenly shrieked at the top of her lungs, "Indecent assault! Pervert! Help!"
This was the peak of the morning rush hour, with plenty of cars on the road and many pedestrians on the sidewalk, and at the woman's shout, a large crowd stopped and looked over.
Luo Yang hurriedly released the woman and blurted out, "Don't talk nonsense!"
The woman feigned a loss of balance and toppled over onto the ground.
Luo Yang instinctively reached out to steady her, but then pulled his hand back just as quickly. With this woman framing him for indecent assault, if he touched her again, he would never clear his name.
The woman collapsed onto the ground, her face instantly twisting into an expression of pain, but she did not forget to frame him, once more screaming at the top of her lungs, "Indecent assault! Catch the pervert!"
Luo Yang said angrily, "You're talking absolute nonsense! What is wrong with you? I kindly caught you to keep you from crashing into the pole, and instead you're framing me!"
"You did grope me, and you even hit me! Ouch... My belly... My baby..." As the woman spoke, she began to wail dryly, her cries loud yet completely devoid of a single tear.
The gathering crowd of onlookers grew larger and larger, some pointing and murmuring.
"What kind of scum is there these days? They won't even spare a pregnant woman!"
"Have some human decency! The poor woman's belly is this big, and you still grope her!"
"This fellow looks so decent on the outside, I never expected him to be such a beast. A wolf in sheep's clothing for sure!"
Everyone was saying all sorts of things, and the words were harsh.
Luo Yang had no way to clear his name, but he only had one mouth-how could he argue against so many?
Just at that moment, a woman's voice rang out, "Please make way! Let me through!"
Luo Yang traced the sound and happened to see Bai Jing pushing aside a blocking middle-aged woman, forcefully elbowing her way in.
"Everyone, don't be like this. This is my sister-in-law, she just had an argument with my brother, and my brother asked me to find her." Bai Jing arrived by Luo Yang's side, pointed at him, and said, "This is my partner. How could he possibly grope my sister-in-law? My partner came looking for her too, and since she didn't want to go back, she claimed he assaulted her. How could that be possible?"
What kind of maneuver was this?
A chaotic jumble of feelings churned inside Luo Yang's chest, yet he knew very well that Bai Jing was bailing him out.
"What nonsense are you spouting? I don't know you! You-you're definitely in cahoots with this pervert!" The woman panicked.
Bai Jing walked over and reached out to help the woman up. "Sister-in-law, stop making a scene. If you won't think of my brother, at least think of the baby in your belly. You don't want the child to be born without a father, do you? Dear uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters, tell me, am I right or not?"
A fresh wave of discussion broke out around them.
"What is wrong with this woman? Trying to frame her own brother-in-law?"
"Exactly. This young lady is so pretty, while her sister-in-law has a big face and thick legs-why would the young fellow ever grope her?"
"The young fellow is quite handsome too. I doubt he'd lower himself to fancy his sister-in-law."
"I reckon that woman is no good to begin with. No wonder she fights with her husband."
The ones speaking up righteously for Luo Yang were mostly women, and the story Bai Jing fabricated merely acted as an accelerant; his face was the real key. When men see a pretty girl being bullied, most will rush to protect her, and when women see a handsome man being wronged, naturally they feel the urge to protect him as well.
"You-are you people even human? He groped me, and you're still taking his side! Call the police! Call the police right now!" the woman said indignantly.
Bai Jing said, "Sister-in-law, look at the surveillance cameras right outside the museum entrance. Everything that happened here was recorded. If you call the police and falsely accuse someone for no reason, you'll be committing the offense of false accusation and framing. At the same time, making a scene in a public place like this makes you suspected of the provocation and disturbance offense, so detention is definitely unavoidable." Then she added a final remark, "I hear the mosquitoes in the detention center are particularly fierce. Do you want to go in?"
"I..." The woman's eyes darted about, clearly growing a bit frightened.
Luo Yang suddenly realized he had misjudged Bai Jing; he never expected someone who looked so docile to be so fiercely capable. This pregnant woman had driven him to distraction, yet the moment Bai Jing arrived, a few sentences turned the tables from defense to offense, backing the woman into a corner.
"Everyone disperse now. Being late for work means getting your pay docked, and we're taking my sister-in-law to the hospital for a checkup right away," Bai Jing said loudly.
The crowd of onlookers began to disperse.
Bai Jing tilted the corner of her mouth toward Luo Yang, though her eyes were fixed on the electric scooter lying on the ground.
Luo Yang caught her meaning instantly, stepping forward to lift the scooter upright. He glanced at Bai Jing, his heart full of gratitude, but since the onlookers had not completely scattered, he was theoretically still Bai Jing's "boyfriend," meaning he couldn't say thank you or anything of the sort, lest their cover be blown.
Yet just as Luo Yang thought the matter was over, a group of people suddenly arrived. The leader was a thick-armed and stout young man, holding a wooden stick just over three feet long. The moment he arrived, he pointed that stick at Luo Yang and cursed, "Fuck your mother! You dare grope my wife! You won't even spare a pregnant woman-you dog-eaten bastard, you're utterly despicable!"
This group had clearly been lying in wait beforehand, or they wouldn't have appeared here so coincidentally. Moreover, these people carried a very distinct smell of aluminum alloy and paint, and quite a few of them were holding aluminum alloy pipes. They were likely workers from some nearby factory.
Luo Yang suddenly realized something, his gaze sweeping past the group into the distance as Spiritual Power surged forth from his Dantian, flooding his limbs, bones, and every single organ.
Ancestral Witch Spirit Body, Super-Sense State!
Very quickly, a black Mercedes-Benz G-Class entered Luo Yang's field of vision. That car was at least fifty meters away with its doors and windows tightly shut, yet his sight clearly captured the two people sitting in the driver and passenger seats-Zhang Bai and Yang Long.
The two old classmates watched the scene unfold, chatting and laughing.
The soundproofing of that Mercedes-Benz G-Class was excellent, and with such a great distance between them, Luo Yang was nevertheless able to capture the sound of their conversation.
"How's my idea? Look at Luo Yang being a total idiot, haha!" Zhang Bai laughed happily.
Yang Long's face was also filled with a morbid smile. "Luo City is my turf. What do they call it-there is a road to heaven yet he refuses to take it, there is no door to hell yet he crashes right through. I'm going to toy with him until he's dead this time!"
What was happening right in front of him instantly became clear.
A dozen or so people closed in around Luo Yang and Bai Jing.
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