“How did I speak for her?
Didn’t I tell you two to sit down and talk it out?”
Bres retorted.
“You, you…”
The red-haired youth looked at the open door behind Bres, his eyes shifting.
“You just came out of their church! You’re clearly with them, just pretending to be an innocent citizen to speak for her!”
At this, the crowd behind stirred, murmurs rising.
Suddenly, a voice came from the back of the group: “They’re in cahoots too! Don’t hold back!”
Those words ignited the crowd instantly.
People shoved and shouted, chaos spreading.
Qiao Anni was about to step in and separate the arguing Leila and the red-haired youth when she saw a shadow fly overhead.
“Huh?”
She recognized what it was.
A color paint ball.
Bang!
The colorful paint exploded above the crowd, and a riot erupted.
Someone at the rear shouted, “They’re shooting from the dark! Fight back!”
And that became the spark that escalated the conflict.
Seeing this, the leading red-haired youth immediately put on an indignant face.
“See? They’re together! They’ve got accomplices hiding in back, shooting from the dark!”
As he spoke, he swung his fist at Bres.
The troublemakers behind him pushed forward, and in an instant, the situation turned into a brawl.
Bres sidestepped the man’s feeble punch, then grabbed his arm.
“Huh?”
The man blinked, not yet reacting, before his body was lifted off the ground.
Then came a rapid fall.
“Ah!”
With a scream, the man was slammed heavily onto the ground.
Without a moment’s rest, Bres yelled to Qiao Anni, “Something’s wrong! Find the instigat—”
Before he finished, the next emotionally charged youth, seeing their leader knocked down, came with a fist whistling through the air.
The crowd instantly surrounded Bres, and for a moment he couldn’t break free.
“Are you okay?”
Qiao Anni nimbly dodged one person’s attack, kicked another’s knee hard to make him fall, then called out to Bres in the sea of people.
“I’m fine! Find— Dammit!”
With that brief curse, Bres disappeared from view.
On the other side, the figure of Nun Leila had also vanished, but occasionally one or two people screamed and flew high into the air from within the crowd.
Considering this wasn’t a concert venue and there was no beloved celebrity present, that had to be Nun Leila’s handiwork.
“Instigators, instigators…”
Using her small size to her advantage, Qiao Anni began weaving through the crowd, searching for the troublemaker Bres had mentioned.
Soon, she spotted a target.
During her search, Qiao Anni noticed that most of the people present weren’t professional agitators.
She could tell from their clothes, appearance, and what they were holding.
Most were ordinary citizens in everyday attire, carrying items like rotten vegetables or paint balls—things that would only deal a psychological blow to their victims.
Occasionally someone had a rock, but that was probably just a handy object they’d grabbed from the street in the heat of the moment.
From time to time, someone tried to push or kick Qiao Anni, but she dodged them all and delivered a fierce stomp to their feet.
She advanced through the crowd, accompanied by a steady stream of screams.
Before long, Qiao Anni spotted someone who stood out.
Amid countless worn-out, dusty sneakers, boots, and sandals, she saw a pair of brand-new sneakers.
His clothes were typical Lower City District attire, but those shoes caught her attention.
She moved her gaze upward.
The man’s right hand was pressed tightly against his waist, a glint of cold light peeking through his fingers.
‘Just as Mr. Bres said, some of these agitators have ulterior motives.’
Qiao Anni quietly approached the knife-wielder and reached for his waist.
“Who?”
The moment she touched the back of his hand, she was discovered.
The man warily pulled out a knife—the standard kind used by thugs in a fight.
That was the final piece of the puzzle for Qiao Anni.
She grabbed hold of him.
The man shook his wrist violently, trying to break free, but couldn’t.
‘That’s why I always say controlling your strength is the hardest part.’
Qiao Anni applied pressure.
The man’s wrist let out a cracking sound.
Especially when he couldn’t use his dominant hand.
He let out a short scream.
The knife fell from his hand and landed in Qiao Anni’s grasp.
Qiao Anni didn’t stop.
After stomping hard on his little toe, she ducked down and searched for the next target.
“Got you.”
It was a pistol.
Qiao Anni suddenly lunged forward, like a fish leaping out of a raging current, and pounced on the man.
“What?”
The man, standing at the back of the line with multicolored hair, wore a panicked expression when he saw Qiao Anni coming at him.
He instinctively raised the muzzle—
And aimed at Qiao Anni, pulling the trigger.
Bang!
The first shot whizzed past as Qiao Anni sidestepped.
The bullet left a shallow crater in the ground.
The noise of the crowd died down at the sound of the gunshot.
Seeing the first shot miss, the man pulled the trigger again.
Tch.
Click.
Nothing happened.
The man realized his pistol was much lighter.
He looked up.
The magazine and the bullet that had been in the chamber were now lying quietly in Qiao Anni’s palm.
Qiao Anni smiled at him.
Then she clenched her hand into a fist and punched him square in the face.
Qiao Anni had found the instigators, and with the deterrence of that gunshot, the crowd quieted down.
“Listen to me! Just now! My assistant found some malicious thugs among you!”
Bres yelled, clutching his ribs.
Some bastard had punched him right in an old injury.
“I hope everyone can tell right from wrong and solve problems in a reasonable way, instead of being incited by people with ulterior motives!”
Qiao Anni dragged the groaning instigators and the red-haired leader and threw them in front of the crowd, along with the weapons.
The crowd stirred uneasily again.
Bres shouted at the top of his lungs, “So, do you know these guys?”
“…No!”
“Never seen ’em!”
“Alright, are they from this neighborhood?”
“No!”
Bres clenched his teeth and yelled, “Then why did you follow them and make a fuss?”
Dead silence.
After a moment, a voice came from the crowd: “I dunno. Someone handed out stuff and said there was something fun to watch, so I came. When they started shouting, I just followed along.”
“Yeah.”
“Right.”
Bres felt like he might need to get his blood pressure checked.
“Alright! There’s nothing to watch now! If you really want to protest, go to the city government or the people in charge around here! Scatter, scatter!”
The crowd immediately dispersed, leaving only a handful of curious onlookers and the two instigators lying on the ground.
Looking at the instigators, Bres cracked his knuckles with a series of pops.
“Alright. Will you talk on your own, or do I have to make you open your mouths?”