Chapter 916: You Secretly Filmed My Wife While She Was Bathing

He stood on the wall with complete focus, his phone pointed in that direction.

But at that very moment, a tremendous force came from his left side.

That force sent him tumbling straight to the ground.

Taken completely by surprise, he fell, and his phone went flying out of his hand.

"What the hell..."

Jiang Ran scrambled up, wanting to see what was going on and which bastard had shoved him.

To his shock, he discovered it was the gaunt middle-aged man he had been secretly filming.

"You?! Why are you here?!"

His eyes bulged wide, pupils filled with shock and disbelief.

The gaunt middle-aged man ignored Jiang Ran entirely and strode quickly to where Jiang Ran's phone had fallen.

He snatched it up and slammed it viciously against the ground.

Smashed wasn't enough. He stomped on it several times, completely destroying Jiang Ran's expensive phone, grinding it into pieces beyond any hope of repair.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Jiang Ran stared at the shattered wreckage of his phone on the ground, fury blazing inside him.

He picked it up and found it wouldn't even power on. The front screen was completely cracked, and the glass back was shattered to pieces as well.

"What am I doing?! You're the one secretly filming my family, and you think you're in the right?"

A wave of cigarette smoke wafted from the gaunt middle-aged man's mouth.

Jiang Ran was livid: "Me secretly filming you? You know exactly what you people did!"

The gaunt middle-aged man said, "Oh really? Then tell me, what did we do?"

Jiang Ran: "You had your son slash our car tires."

The gaunt middle-aged man: "Nonsense. Got any proof?"

Jiang Ran froze, staring at his own shattered phone.

He said, "You're asking me for proof? Then let me ask you, do you have proof I was filming you?"

The gaunt middle-aged man: "I saw it with my own eyes."

Jiang Ran sneered: "Well, I saw your son slash our car tires with my own eyes too."

The gaunt middle-aged man: "My wife and kid can testify that you were filming us. Do you have any witnesses that my son slashed your tires?"

Jiang Ran was stunned. He really didn't have any witnesses.

Sophistry. Pure sophistry.

Jiang Ran said, "Even if I was filming, that doesn't give you the right to smash my phone! This phone cost me several thousand yuan!!!"

The gaunt middle-aged man sneered: "What? Want me to compensate you? Let me tell you something. You were the one filming us. You were filming my wife taking a shower, so I smashed your phone to protect my wife's dignity!! So why the hell would I pay you anything?!"

"Not only should I not pay you, you should be paying us!!!"

"That's right, you were filming me taking a shower!"

The middle-aged woman leapt out from the courtyard gate, joining in the mudslinging campaign.

Even though she had just come out and hadn't fully grasped the situation, she had a rough idea of what was happening.

Jiang Ran was so furious he laughed: "What a silver tongue you have. Fine then, call the police!"

"Since you claim I was filming your wife taking a shower, then call the police!"

"Let them thoroughly check whether there's actually any video of your wife showering in my phone?!"

The gaunt middle-aged man stared at the phone and sneered: "The phone's destroyed like this. How could they possibly check it?"

Jiang Ran sneered back: "Even though my phone was stomped to pieces, the storage chip inside should still be intact. They can still retrieve the data."

The gaunt middle-aged man's expression turned cold. Clearly, he didn't know much about phones.

Just then, an elderly man of about sixty or seventy passed by.

People in this village tended to look old for their age.

This old man was no exception.

The old man happened to walk past, saw the commotion, and came over to follow the gossip.

The gaunt middle-aged man struck first with his accusation: "Old man! This kid here was secretly filming my wife taking a shower, and I caught him red-handed! I smashed his phone, and now he's demanding I pay him back!!!"

"Tell me, does that make any sense?!"

The old man turned to look at Jiang Ran: "Young man, you're clearly from the city, here with that internet celebrity or whatever, right?"

"But even you city folk can't just go around secretly filming us country people in the shower!"

"This is definitely not right on your part!!!"

Jiang Ran remembered this old man. When he and Zhang Xue and the others had come to deliver rice, flour, and cooking oil, Jiang Ran had even chopped firewood for him.

Jiang Ran's face turned cold: "I did not film his wife taking a shower. This is slander."

The old man looked at the gaunt middle-aged man, then back at Jiang Ran: "Young man, if you filmed, you filmed. A man owns his actions. Don't deny it."

Jiang Ran: "Wait, you don't believe me?"

The old man: "Why should I believe you? That boy Dahai grew up right before my eyes. He's been honest since he was a kid, never tells a lie. So it must have been you who did the filming."

Jiang Ran: "Old man, you may know a person's face but not their heart."

"Besides, I came with Zhang Xue to deliver rice, flour, and cooking oil to you. You can't just side with your own villagers over what's right."

The old man: "Young man, that's not how you talk. The rice, flour, and oil, sure, you delivered them. But how much are those things even worth?"

"Besides, I've always sided with what's right, not with who I know."

Jiang Ran was speechless.

This stubborn old man.

And this man and woman standing before him.

"Old man, he filmed my wife. How do you think we should settle this?"

The gaunt middle-aged man looked at the old man who had just delivered the perfect assist.

The old man stroked his graying beard: "He definitely needs to pay compensation. This kind of thing is too shameful. Both sides lose face, so I suggest settling it with money."

The old man looked at Jiang Ran, then back at the gaunt middle-aged man: "Dahai, what amount do you think would settle this between both sides?"

The gaunt middle-aged man held up five fingers: "At least 5000 yuan. This is about my wife's reputation, after all!"

The old man nodded: "That's a fair price. So young man, pay up! That settles this matter."

"And it won't be spread around."

"It's good for both sides."

Jiang Ran kept his head lowered, thinking to himself, these people from this small mountain village are truly crooked!

Crooked beyond belief.

If he paid that 5000 yuan, he'd be an even bigger sucker than Zhang Xue and Gao Yang.

After all, they only got ripped off for parking fees and water and electricity bills.

The amount wasn't as high as his.

But if he refused to pay, he'd face the same situation as Zhang Xue.

They'd smear his name everywhere, saying he filmed someone else's wife taking a shower.

He'd become famous too.

Too bad...

"Heh, do whatever you want. I'm not an internet celebrity, and I don't make a living off my reputation. Do your worst."

Jiang Ran looked up, a deep disdain curling at the corners of his mouth.

The gaunt middle-aged man and the old man both froze for a moment, but quickly composed themselves.

"Young man, it seems you want to spread this matter after all?"

"Fine then, let it be spread."

"Once it spreads and the whole village knows, the Village Chief will surely step in to uphold justice for us. After all, you did film someone's wife taking a shower."

"And when that happens, it won't be just 5000. You'll be paying at least ten thousand or more."

The old man spoke with an earnest, well-meaning tone, as if he was looking out for Jiang Ran's best interests.

Jiang Ran laughed coldly: "Film her? With the way his wife looks, how desperate would I have to be to film her?"

The middle-aged woman flew into a rage: "Hey! How dare you talk about me like that?!"

Even a rural woman wouldn't want to be called ugly to her face, even though Jiang Ran's words didn't contain the word "ugly."

But the implication was unmistakable.