Chapter 41 Do You Consider This Pestering?

Since playing fair didn't work, they were resorting to dirty tricks now, were they?
Very well, then they couldn't blame him for what came next.
Instead of dodging, Du Yu walked right up and inspected the plastic bags in the hands of the women.
The red plastic bags had clearly been used as an outer layer on purpose. The fish inside were as dead as dead could be; the natural color of the scales combined with the red tint of the bags cast an ugly, dark hue, and a pungent, rotting stench emanated right through the plastic.
Wang Xiaowei took one look and furrowed his brow deeply. "Those fish look nothing like they just died."
Indeed. Anyone with eyes could see right through it.
Yet these middle-aged women simply refused to acknowledge the obvious, standing firmly with their hands on their hips right in the doorway.
"We bought these right here from you! We wouldn't have come if we hadn't heard your reputation was good. Who would have thought this is how you do business?"
"Pay for the damages! Otherwise, this matter isn't over today!"
Seeing the glint of triumph in a couple of pairs of eyes within the crowd, Du Yu knew his opportunity had arrived.
He reached out, grabbed one of the women's plastic bags, and hoisted it up.
The woman grew somewhat defensive. "What are you doing? Trying to destroy the evidence?"
Du Yu shook his head. "No, no, you've misunderstood. I'm not that petty of a person. Besides, with so many eyes watching, I couldn't pull any tricks even if I wanted to. What kind of fish did you just say you bought from me?"
Without missing a beat, the woman blurted out, "Yellow croaker! Large yellow croaker!"
Du Yu narrowed his eyes, gestured for Wang Xiaowei to bring over an empty plate, and emptied the contents of the bag directly into a basket right in front of everyone.
At a glance, the volume in the bag seemed adequate, but once poured out, even the largest specimen was barely longer than a palm—it didn't even meet the standard size for small yellow croaker!
"A tiny thing like this doesn't even match the smallest fish in our shop. How could anyone pass this off as a large yellow croaker?"
A clear look of embarrassment washed over the woman's face.
She had simply been paid to do a job; she hadn't even bothered to look inside the bag!
"Xiao Yue, with all the fishing our boats have been doing these past few days—only going out and bringing nothing back—how long has it been since we last had any yellow croaker?"
Ma Yue pulled out the ledger with a serious expression. It clearly detailed the daily accounts and transactions, including the exact species of fish sold.
"The last yellow croaker was sold the day before yesterday morning, for a total of fifteen yuan."
Du Yu could barely suppress his smile. "Even if this fish really was bought here, coming back to demand a refund for something purchased the day before—if that isn't extortion, what is?"
The louder those women had been shouting just moments ago, the more docile they suddenly became.
Wang Xiaowei watched the scene unfold with absolute glee.
Trying to shake them down with a setup? Well, they had finally run into a brick wall!
The sheer arrogance with which these women had yelled earlier was now matched only by their profound discomfort.
They looked so mortified they could probably dig a three-bedroom apartment into the ground with their toes.

"Boss Ma, what do you think we should do about this..."
Du Yu turned his gaze toward Ma Yue.
Ma Yue was a picture of pure confusion.
Du Yu was entirely capable of handling this situation on his own; why did he need to involve her?
Nonetheless, maintaining a stern expression, she picked up her phone. "Damaging a business's reputation is no small matter. We need to call the police."
Sure enough, as soon as those words left her mouth, the expressions of the culprits shifted instantly.
The very women who had moments ago been screaming for compensation now bolted toward the far end of the street with the speed of champion sprinters.
To their dismay, Du Yu had no intention of letting them escape.
Even before Ma Yue had finished speaking, he had motioned to Wang Xiaowei, and the two of them blocked the shop's entrance.
"What’s the rush, ladies? We haven't finished discussing the compensation yet."
The color drained entirely from the woman's face.
She forced a flattering, ingratiating smile. "Ah, perhaps I came to the wrong place after all. I should hurry back and have a proper word with my daughter-in-law!"
A sharp, icy glint flickered deep within Du Yu's eyes.
"You can misremember which shop you bought fish from, but can you misremember what kind of fish it was? Bringing a tiny fish like that to cause a scene in my shop—if that isn't attempted extortion, what is?"
Wang Xiaowei immediately seized the opening to chime in. "Extortion is a criminal offense that can land you in prison."
Well, look at that—the kid hadn't been following him around for nothing; he could even toss out legal terms like extortion now.
There was truly a lot of truth to the saying that practice is the best teacher.
If these people had still retained even a shred of confidence just moments ago, Du Yu's combination of verbal pressure and intimidation, amplified by a subtle aura of authority, completely shattered their psychological defenses.
"Young man, it really wasn't us who wanted to shake you down; someone else put us up to this..."
The woman's eyes darted anxiously toward the crowd.
Realizing things had gone terribly wrong, Zhao Qinqin and her sister-in-law spun around to flee.
Before they could take a step, the woman pointed a finger directly at them. "It was those two!"
With that, the women hastily dug five-yuan bills out of their pockets, shoved them into Du Yu's hands, and shouted toward Zhao Qinqin, "We can't do this job! This has nothing to do with us!"
This time, Du Yu made no move to stop them.
The women dashed toward the other end of the street at a hundred-meter sprint pace and vanished from sight in a flash.
Du Yu strode over to where Zhao Qinqin and her sister-in-law stood.
The sister-in-law was stammering incoherently, still desperately trying to invent excuses to justify her behavior.

"Xiao Yu, regarding this..."
"Xiao Wei!"
"Coming, Brother Yu!"
Wang Xiaowei, who had been watching the spectacle from the sidelines, had been itching to get involved for a while. Though he had plenty of energy and hadn't known how to help earlier, he finally had a useful task to perform.
"Escort my sister-in-law inside for a cup of tea."
Du Yu felt that the expression currently plastered across his face closely resembled that of a villain in a television drama.
A smile hiding a dagger!
Wang Xiaowei understood instantly.
"U-um... tea won't be necessary, I have things at home... Hey, hey, don't drag me!"
Wang Xiaowei was undeniably Du Yu's most reliable pair of hands.
Whatever Brother Yu told him to do, he did without hesitation. Wasn't it just pulling someone into the shop? What was difficult about that?
Having cleared the sister-in-law out of the way, Du Yu turned his attention to Zhao Qinqin and let out a long sigh.
Being caught red-handed was entirely outside of Zhao Qinqin's calculations, and standing before Du Yu now, she was utterly speechless.
"Well now, you're a young woman; how can you be so utterly shameless?"
Zhao Qinqin had been frantically racking her brain for a response, only to be completely stunned by Du Yu's blunt remark.
Before she could recover, Du Yu added another blow.
"There is zero possibility between the two of us. For you to go out of your way to thrust yourself into my presence like this—do you realize that constitutes harassment on my part?"
Zhao Qinqin shrieked in indignation, "What are you talking about? When have I ever harassed you?"
"If it isn't harassment, why do you keep popping up in front of me again and again?"
Du Yu narrowed his eyes. "Is this malicious harassment, or is it malicious provocation? Why don't you pick one yourself?"
Seeing that Zhao Qinqin couldn't squeeze out a single word after a long moment, Du Yu pointed a finger at the basket filled with dead fish. "You paid people to ruin my reputation. How do you propose to compensate me for that?"
Du Yu's gaze swept over her like a pair of sharp little blades. Flushing a deep, furious red—whether from panic or rage—Zhao Qinqin stammered, "What kind of compensation do you want?"
Du Yu fell into a thoughtful silence.
"How about this. Two hundred yuan, and we'll call it even."
"How much?!"
Zhao Qinqin's eyes widened in disbelief. "Du Yu, have you lost your mind? Are you really worth that much?"