Chapter 96: Paying the Price
The stall owner didn’t dare answer the question at all.
He tried to dodge, to protect the collar of his shirt, but Xu Youyou’s bodyguards moved faster. They stepped forward and grabbed him in an instant.
“What are you doing?! In broad daylight, what are you trying to do?” the stall owner shouted in frustration.
Even as he spoke, the bodyguards had already pulled open his collar, revealing an empty neck. There wasn’t a single copper coin, let alone a red string.
“If you finally got your Yongzheng Tongbao back, why aren’t you wearing it? Don’t you want to stay safe anymore?” Xu Youyou mocked.
The stall owner stammered, unable to respond.
The child hiding behind Xu Youyou felt his eyes sting again. Earlier, no one believed him—only Xu Youyou did. And she even helped him seek justice.
With growing confidence, Xu Youyou demanded, “Give the child back his Yongzheng Tongbao!”
The stall owner’s eyes darted around. He really didn’t want to return the coin, so he argued, “This kid has been hanging around my stall all day. Who knows how many coins he’s taken? Why should I return anything to him?”
Xu Youyou hesitated for a moment.
But the child immediately said, “I just want my coin back. Anything that isn’t mine, I’ll return! I’m not a thief!”
As he spoke, he turned out all his pockets. They were completely empty.
“Impossible! He must have hidden something! Don’t be fooled by him!” the stall owner insisted.
“I was only here looking for my coin! I searched everywhere and couldn’t find it—then you grabbed me!” the child argued.
“I don’t believe it! A thief like you wouldn’t care about honesty,” the stall owner sneered.
Xu Youyou retorted, “If anyone’s a thief here, it’s you! Stealing from a child—have you no conscience?”
The image of the stall owner’s empty neck was still fresh in everyone’s minds. Whether or not the child had stolen anything was uncertain, but it was clear that the stall owner had taken advantage of him.
“That’s right! You should reflect on yourself first.”
“He’s just a scavenger kid, struggling to survive, and you still do this? How heartless!”
Hearing the crowd’s murmurs, the stall owner’s face flushed red. But he still gritted his teeth and said, “I don’t believe it! He must have stolen from me!”
The child stood firm. “I didn’t steal! If you don’t believe me, search me!”
He was so eager to prove his innocence that he seemed desperate for an immediate inspection.
The stall owner immediately agreed. “Fine! I’ll search him myself!”
But the child flinched and took a step back.
“See? He’s guilty!” the stall owner said triumphantly.
Xu Youyou instinctively trusted the child. “Who said you get to search him? What if you plant something on him?”
“She’s right!” a middle-aged man in his forties chuckled. “Why don’t I do it? I’m just a bystander, completely neutral.”
But even after hearing this, the child still looked uncomfortable and hesitant.
The stall owner became even more excited. “Look! He’s afraid!”
Xu Youyou’s eyes filled with confusion. She leaned down and asked softly, “Is there something you’re not telling us?”
The child whispered, “Big sister, I’m a girl…”
The moment she heard this, Xu Youyou immediately understood. She scanned the crowd and landed on two middle-aged women with gentle expressions.
“Could I trouble you two to check if this child has any copper coins on her?” Xu Youyou asked.
The people around them quickly grasped the situation, and their gazes toward the child softened with sympathy.
Xu Youyou turned back to the stall owner. “If she doesn’t have the coin, you must return two Yongzheng Tongbao coins—double the compensation! Otherwise, this won’t be settled today!”
By now, this was no longer about a financial loss but a battle of dignity. The crowd cheered in agreement.
“That’s right! Make him pay!”
“Tricking a child—how despicable!”
The stall owner gritted his teeth and said, “Fine! But if she did steal, you owe me 2,000 yuan!”
“Deal! I’ll pay if she’s guilty,” Xu Youyou said loudly.
The body search was quick. The two women checked the girl carefully and then looked at her with pity.
It was easy to see why. The child was small and thin, but up close, she was even more malnourished than she appeared. Her entire frame was skin and bones, and her hair was dry and brittle, clear signs of long-term hardship.
“There’s no copper coin,” the women said in unison.
As they spoke, one of them reached into her bag, pulled out 200 yuan, and tried to hand it to the child. “I don’t have much cash on me, but take this, dear.”
The child shook her head. “Thank you, Auntie, but I don’t need it. I can support myself by scavenging.”
Hearing this, the woman’s eyes turned red.
The sympathy in the crowd deepened.
Xu Youyou turned to the stall owner. “She doesn’t have the coin. Now return two Yongzheng Tongbao coins!”
The stall owner’s face turned ashen. He wanted to argue that the women were biased or that the child had hidden the coin elsewhere, but the surrounding crowd shut him down with scornful remarks.
Left with no choice, he begrudgingly reached into his iron box and pulled out two Yongzheng Tongbao coins.
Xu Youyou took the coins and handed them to the child.
The girl took them, but her expression changed slightly. After a moment’s hesitation, she spoke up.
“Sister… this isn’t my coin.”
Xu Youyou was surprised. “What do you mean? Isn’t this the one you found?”
“My coin was darker. It had a blackened area, and I even scratched a tiny character ‘女’ (meaning ‘female’) on it,” the girl said quietly.
Xu Youyou hadn’t expected her to be so particular.
Before she could say anything, a middle-aged man wearing black-rimmed glasses suddenly stepped forward.
“Child, let me see those coins.”
The girl handed them over.
The man examined them closely, his expression darkening. He then glared at the stall owner with fury.
“The surface texture is rough, and the patina is artificial—these are fake copper coins!”
The crowd, which had only just begun to disperse, immediately erupted in outrage.
“You tried to pass off fake coins?!”
“First, you stole from a child. Then you tried to pay them back with counterfeit money. How shameless can you be? Your whole stall must be full of fakes!”
A burly man, likely a father himself, was especially enraged. “Brothers, let’s smash his stall! Teach him a lesson!”
The stall owner panicked. He hadn’t expected to get caught.
“I was wrong! I was wrong! I’ll compensate properly this time!” he shouted, hurriedly rummaging through his pocket and pulling out two genuine Yongzheng Tongbao coins.
One of them was the exact coin he had taken from the child.
The girl’s face lit up as she took it. “This is mine!”
