Extortion

“You’re not gonna give us your money?”

Ba Guan’s face darkened when he heard Qian Bei’s words. In his view, Qian Bei choosing to surrender the cash to him and his sidekicks was the right thing to do.

“How dare you refuse to give us your money? You want us to beat you to a pulp, huh?” Yong Gua spoke while cracking his knuckles with a dissatisfied expression.

He did not expect Qian Bei to still refuse to give up his cash, despite being caught in the middle of this gang of five. Others would have handed it over on a silver platter by now.

The other three thugs’ facial expressions were as unhappy as Yong Gua’s. They walked a little closer to Qian Bei.

One of them said threateningly, “Are you giving us the money or not!”

Qian Bei’s face went even paler. He was completely terrified of these people in front of him, but he still did not want to give up the money.

If he surrendered, he would not have enough cash to buy the action figure of Nami-chan from One Piece.

“I... I’m not gonna give you the money!” Qian Bei screamed. He started to find a way to escape by finding a gap in the circle. When he found one, Qian Bei bolted.

However, he could not get through. Ba Guan’s lips twisted into a cold smile as he stuck his leg out to block Qian Bei’s escape.

In the end, Qian Bei staggered and fell to the floor after hitting Ba Guan's leg. His glasses were covered in dirt.

“Ouch… that hurts!” Qian Bei screamed with pain. He hit the ground hard, both hands scratched and wounded until they reeked of blood.

“This bastard. You’re not gonna give us the cash and run? How simple-minded!” Yong Gua jeered and walked over to kick Qian Bei’s stomach. The unfortunate boy shrieked and curled up into a ball.

“A-aren’t you worried that I’m gonna report you to the teachers? Why are you doing this?”

Qian Bei tried not to cry out; he tried to speak instead. He looked up at Ba Guan and his gang with fear.

“Teacher? Which one? You think the teachers would believe you? There’s only one of you, but there are five of us. Where are you going to get your evidence from?” Ba Guan smiled faintly. He thought this four-eyed nerd Qian Bei was really dumb. “So, you’d better give us the money. That way, we’ll let you go.”

“You lot…” When he heard what Ba Guan said, Qian Bei was at loss for words.

The nerdy boy thought that what Ba Guan said was right. Even if he went and told on these thugs, the teachers would never believe it. The worst- case scenario would be the teachers accusing him of being a liar.

In the end, Qian Bei sighed. He was left without a choice. He really had to give these people his money. Otherwise, they would beat him to a pulp, which he clearly did not want. “How much do you guys want?”

Ba Guan, Yong Gua, and the others smiled. They were certain that their extortion would also be successful this time, because Qian Bei was not the first person they had done this to. There were many predecessors, and all gave Ba Guan's gang what they wanted.

“Give me 10,000 yuan then. Your family’s rich, after all. It’ll barely be a drop in the bucket for you.” Ba Guan’s lips curled up into his greedy smile.

Qian Bei’s eyes widened in panic. He shrieked loudly, “10,000!? Are you out of your mind!? How would I have that much money? I only have 500 yuan on me!”

“What? You’re thinking of giving us that 500-yuan petty cash? Boss Guan, let’s beat this bastard up, shall we?”

Yong Gua's heart pounded fast in his chest when he heard that Qian Bei had 500 yuan with him. This was because every time they extorted someone, they only got 50 to 60 yuan. The best they did was 80.

He only said what he had to scare the living daylights out of Qian Bei.

And Ba Guan’s demand of 10,000 yuan was, of course, a lie. It was his regular demand when extorting people, as it was really useful for getting other students to accurately reveal the amount of money they had.

“Five hundred yuan? Not bad at all!” Ba Guan could not help but feel pleased with his ill-gotten gains today. This was his best return since he established a gang with his sidekicks to extort other students.

Qian Bei sighed when he heard Ba Guan’s words of satisfaction regarding his 500 yuan. If these hooligans really wanted 10,000 yuan, it might be better if he just let them beat him up. There was no way he could have that much money.

Even though his family was really well-off, his daily spending limit was still 500 yuan.

Ba Guan’s other sidekicks did not say anything; they only smiled. It looked like today they were going to have many nice things from their ill-gotten gains.

Qian Bei slowly stood up and stuck his hand into the pocket of his trousers. He was about to give his money to Ba Guan when someone’s voice rang out.

“Robbing other students? Bro Guan, my friend, you must have a lot of free time.”

Everyone turned around to see who that voice belonged to. Ba Guan’s pupils contracted when he saw who it was. “Bro Chen?”

The owner of that voice was, indeed, Bai Chen. Now he knew what problems they were having. It could not even be called ‘their problems’, because the troublemakers were Ba Guan’s crew, who were trying to rob Qian Bei blind.

At first, he was fine with just observing. When things went downhill to the point of physical abuse and Qian Bei having to give up his money, he was no longer able to stand still.

If that was the case, his mission would definitely fail!

“It’s me. I’m gonna give you ten seconds. If you don’t hurry up and get out of my sight, you’ll definitely get your beating!”

Bai Chen walked over and stopped in front of Ba Guan. He spoke with confidence, which was rooted in his recent obtainment of the low-grade martial arts technique.

Without this martial arts technique, there would be no way Bai Chen could feel this self-assured. He would not be able to handle the five of them otherwise.

End of Chapter 17