Chapter 89: Each One More Ruthless Than the Last.

Keeping a dog is not the frightening part; the frightening part is when the person keeping it has no brains.

One day, you could be walking down the street and get bitten for no reason by some dog. Even if nothing comes of it, no one wants to suffer that kind of senseless misfortune.

The pit bull barked once.

“It’s still barking. I say we beat it to death and be done with it,” Xia Shangxu said with some irritation. “Shou, beat it to death and throw it out. A few thousand bucks? I can afford to pay.”

Shou shot him an unhappy look. Who are you ordering around? Still, truth be told, he wanted to beat this dog to death too.

Qin Yunkai said, “Why throw it out? If we’re killing it, we might as well butcher it and make dog meat hotpot.”

Qin Fei didn’t like dog meat, but she liked this dog even less. She nodded fiercely.

Qin Hongfei thought for a moment. “No need to be so brutal.” After a pause, she continued, “If you’re going to hit it, go find someone at the market to do it. They can handle the meat at the same time, and don’t make a mess of my floor.”

These people were a frightening bunch: two of them could act at once, and the rest were even more ruthless than the last.

Li Xin was thoroughly frightened. Terrified they might really make a move, she hurriedly said, “Qin Hongfei, Qin Fei, do you really dare? I only scared you a little, didn’t I? I’ll make it up to you, all right? How about this…”

“Your shop doesn’t have much business anyway. I brought my electric fan here to be fixed, so I’ll give you this business and we’ll call it even. How does that sound?”

She thought the Qin sisters’ repair shop barely had any customers; one job would be enough to equal Qin Hongfei’s daily income. Surely they should agree now.

Hearing that she wanted to talk business, Qin Hongfei grew a little interested and no longer rushed to beat the dog. She simply lifted the sign hanging beside her and tapped it.

Repair fee: five hundred, minimum!

Even an airhead like Li Xin knew a brand-new fan cost only fifty yuan. A five-hundred-yuan repair fee? That could buy ten fans. The Qin sisters must be crazy if they thought that was reasonable. She cried out sharply, “You’re ripping me off! Who would come to you for repairs? Fine, if you fix it, I’ll give you ten yuan. Don’t say I’m being unfair.”

Qin Hongfei probably did not even have ten yuan of pocket money in a month, Li Xin thought haughtily.

Then she suddenly heard the enthusiastic voice of Old Zhang next door. “Hey, little brother, what are you here to fix this time?”

The young man walked straight past Old Zhang’s repair shop and tossed off a line: “Not yours. Your skills are no good.”

He headed straight for the Qin family’s repair shop. The moment he rushed in and saw Qin Hongfei there, his face lit up. “Good, you’re here. Hurry up, I need you to fix something.”

The second before, Li Xin had just said no one would come to the Qin family for repairs; the next second, someone had shown up. She felt slapped in the face. “Are you an idiot? Her repair shop is famous for ripping people off! Why don’t you go next door?”

The young man looked at her as though she were cracking a joke. How was this young comrade’s skill a rip-off? It was amazing, all right?

The pit bull let out a roar.

“...Damn.” The young man glanced at the dog, sprang backward, and hid himself right behind Qin Fei.

Qin Fei was stunned.

Are you even human?

I’m a girl, you know?

And you hide behind me?

Qin Yunkai felt that move looked oddly familiar.

“Li Xin, control your dog.” Qin Hongfei slowly lifted a screwdriver. The sharp edge flashed in the sunlight as she pointed it at the dog, and she said coldly, “If it scares my people again, I don’t mind having dog meat hotpot tonight.” Then she looked at the young man. “You’re here to sell a computer?”

It was the same young man who had asked Qin Hongfei to repair his computer last time, and the one who had sold her her first secondhand computer.

“I’m not selling a computer. Can you recover computer data?” Glancing nervously at the pit bull, the young man said in a rush, “I’ve been coming to find you these past few days, but your lousy shop was never open. I’ve been looking for you for days, and finally found you.” His eyes were full of desperate hope.

“What data?” Qin Hongfei asked casually. “Did the computer backup disappear, or did you restore the system, or was it swallowed by the recycle bin?”

“Well... it was saved, but the computer suddenly broke, and after restarting it, it was gone, I think.” The young man didn’t really understand it either, but he could tell Qin Hongfei understood what he meant. At once he rushed forward and grabbed her hand, startling everyone there into silence.

Qin Hongfei looked at the hand gripping hers, expressionless, and pulled it back. “If you want to talk, talk. Keep your hands to yourself.”

Xia Shangxu shouted, “Hey! What are you doing, punk? Don’t take advantage of my little grand-niece.”