"So scary!" Little Chongchong's wide, frozen eyes showed that his tiny heart had taken a critical hit.
"Big bad guy!" Little Yuanyuan pointed angrily toward the direction the brute had left. "Sister, beat him up next time!"
"Beast!" Leng Siyu's pale little face turned even whiter with anger. She glared at Xia Pengfei and his brother. "See? This is how awful you men can be!"
Xia Chongchong quickly hid behind Yuanyuan, his eyes clearly saying: This has nothing to do with me.
Xia Pengfei protested innocently, "This has absolutely nothing to do with us. Plenty of men care about women. What you're doing is generalizing—logically wrong and emotionally extreme."
Yuanyuan immediately shielded the brothers. "Pengfei-gege and Chongchong are good people!"
Xia Pengfei turned to Hao Xiaoli. "Do you… still want to keep living with that guy?"
"I've wanted to divorce him for a long time! But he threatened me… he said he'd kill me if I dared…"
Xia Pengfei snorted. "Please! Men who hit women are cowards. He doesn't have the guts."
"What… what should I do?" Hao Xiaoli asked helplessly.
"What else? Leave him! Kick him out in minutes!"
"That's right, kick him out!" Yuanyuan stomped her little foot and clenched her tiny fists, furious.
Chongchong frowned. "But gege, people say 'always advise to stay together, never to split them apart.' You're telling her to break up?"
"That kind of scumbag—leave early, heal early! Chongchong, remember: boys' fists are for protecting girls, not hurting them!" Xia Pengfei's words instantly won the approval of Siyu and Yuanyuan; the icy look in Siyu's eyes melted a little.
Chongchong nodded hard. "Okay! I'll protect Yuanyuan! I won't hit Yuanyuan!"
Xia Pengfei rubbed his head. "Why is it that the moment Yuanyuan is involved, you mature so fast?"
The abused adult woman, Hao Xiaoli, turned instead to the underage Siyu for advice. "Should I really divorce him?"
"You must. Otherwise he'll torture you your whole life—he might even take your life someday!" Siyu advised firmly. "Go to your local community office, ask the women's federation for help, and then file for divorce in court on the grounds of domestic violence."
Xia Pengfei added, "If you want the legal process to go faster, you need solid evidence. Besides your injuries, do you have anything else? Like a video of him hitting you?"
"No… who can film while being beaten?" Hao Xiaoli said bitterly.
"Isn't that easy? He just hit her right here. The store has security cameras," Siyu said.
Greatly encouraged, Hao Xiaoli's voice grew firmer. "I'll get a divorce! I can't keep living like this, I… but…"
Mid-sentence, she suddenly remembered something. The light in her eyes dimmed.
"Is there another problem?" Siyu asked.
"I… I'm a full-time housewife. If I leave him… I don't know if I can survive on my own…"
Seeing her trapped in fear and uncertainty, Xia Pengfei thought for a moment. "I can give you a job."
Hearing this, Hao Xiaoli gasped, and even the Leng sisters looked at Xia Pengfei in disbelief.
After all, in a country this large, human resources are never in short supply. Every year so many bright, capable university graduates can't find work—how could a long-detached-from-society housewife easily get a job?
Xia Pengfei said casually, "Since auntie is a full-time homemaker, helping me take care of the golden retriever and handling household chores shouldn't be a problem. Bring your ID card—you can sign the contract and start today."
Hao Xiaoli's face lit up. "Really? My ID is right in my bag!"
Chongchong asked, "Don't we already have Sister Lan?"
"She can't handle everything alone… besides, she's young. She shouldn't waste her youth taking care of us," Pengfei replied.
He immediately called Lanlan. "Sister Lan, could you come to 'Lady's Boutique' on Wolong Road right now…?"
After hanging up, he said to Hao Xiaoli, "We'll wait here for a bit."
Hao Xiaoli felt reborn. Tears filled her eyes as she said to Pengfei and the Leng sisters, "You're all such good people… I can finally escape this misery!"
…
When Leng Siyu returned to the store, the boutique owner, He Guizhong, told her, "Leng Siyu, you're fired."
She didn't ask why or defend herself. She simply requested her wages up to today, used the USB drive on her keychain to copy the surveillance footage, changed clothes, and walked out holding Yuanyuan's hand.
"My sister got fired again!" Yuanyuan announced the moment they stepped out. "But this isn't the first time."
"There's surveillance footage in here—you'll need it," Siyu said, placing the USB into Hao Xiaoli's hand. "I live right below his apartment."
Xia Pengfei looked at Siyu with solemn sincerity. "If you need help, I can also—"
"No need." Siyu cut him off before he finished. She picked up Yuanyuan, gave a brief nod to Hao Xiaoli, and strode away—leaving behind a proud, sharp, unrestrained silhouette. Yuanyuan, slung over her shoulder, kept waving at the three of them…
"What a good girl… If I had even half her ability, I wouldn't have ended up like this…" Hao Xiaoli murmured as the pair disappeared around the corner.
Since the ban on standalone villas had been issued, such architectural plans were gradually removed.
But where there is policy, there is work-around. Developers, driven by profit, always find new ways to satisfy the upper class's desire for luxurious living. Thus came mixed-height buildings, duplex villas, and townhouses.
Feihu District, on Elite Road in northern Zixu City, is such an area—rows of luxurious commercial-residential duplex villas.
Xia Pengfei's mother, Tan Ruomei, lived in one of these villas.
Her villa was built adjacent to the one next door, owned by Liu Yun. The two villas had nearly identical structures: three-sided lighting, south-facing main doors, fenced courtyards with swing sets, neat flowerbeds, and small swimming pools. Vast lawns surrounded the area, and less than two kilometers away stood a full golf course.
When Xia Pengfei returned with Chongchong in his arms, he happened to run into Liu Xudong coming home.
Liu Xudong ran over excitedly and slapped Pengfei's shoulder. "You hardly come home once every ten days or half a month. Your mother must've issued a royal decree to drag you back, right?"
Pengfei shot back, "And you're no angel. As if no one knows you sneak out all the time. If you're so capable, stay home and study like a good boy!"
While they bantered, the golden retriever in the west yard and the husky in the east yard began a two-dog duet—one high pitch, one low.
Chongchong patted Pengfei's shoulder. "Gege, let's go in—our baby came to pick us up!"
Liu Xudong reminded Pengfei, "Hey, Pengfei—this afternoon we're going to 'Oriental Pearl' for karaoke. Some pretty girls will be there!"
Pengfei only replied, "Okay, got it," then put down Chongchong and opened the gate.
The moment Chongchong stepped into the yard, the purebred golden retriever with big ears and amber eyes pounced on him. Chongchong couldn't hold his balance and fell straight backward.