Orange Quiet Forest looked at the man temporarily incapacitated by pain and began to think.
‘Call the police?’
Now that she was safe, Orange Quiet Forest didn’t want to make a big deal of it.
First, there was the family.
The Orange family had a certain standing in every industry—they could sniff out any disturbance faster than a hound.
If she called the police, the rest of the Orange family would probably know within half an hour.
Every branch put on a polite face in public, but behind the scenes they were anything but united—it was all scheming and backstabbing.
There were even people assigned 24/7 to dig up scandals from other branches, eager to tear off a piece of their flesh.
Even if they couldn’t make someone bleed, they’d at least enjoy using words to make them sick.
That included but wasn’t limited to taking an incident where someone was clearly the victim, twisting it into half-truths and exaggerated rumors, or spreading it through the relative grapevine to cause internal damage.
Ugh, so annoying.
If Orange Quiet Forest called the police, there was a high chance those people would find out.
The truth was that a creepy fan had harassed her, and she had fought back in self-defense, then called the police.
But what would happen after they knew?
No one knew how they’d fabricate the story, but as long as a young man was involved, they’d probably start rumors about Orange Quiet Forest’s purity.
After all, if it went to the police station, who knew what happened during the scuffle?
Spreading a rumor took one mouth; refuting one took running legs to death.
Orange Quiet Forest had seen it before in the Orange family: some rumors made it outside, spread by paid-off media.
By the time the victim frantically came out to clarify, the gossipers would just laugh and say, “Well, I don’t know if it’s true or not,” “If it’s being spread, it must be real,” “If you hadn’t explained, I’d have doubted it. But now that you’re so aggressively denying it, I know the truth.”
So irritating.
This was the sorrow of being born into a big family.
Sigh.
She didn’t even need to ask her mother to know: no calling the police, no making a scene.
Otherwise, it would definitely affect her own family’s business and investments, and the other branches would come to kick them while they were down.
Second, she was about to make her real-person debut soon.
Though being an idol wasn’t as big a deal as the Orange family issues, Orange Quiet Forest did have a sense of responsibility.
She didn’t want to affect other girls chasing their dreams, and she didn’t want to cause trouble for Orange Berry.
Of course, she also couldn’t rush to find the convenience store manager.
Now that she was calm, she realized: with something like this, the manager would definitely want to sweep it under the rug.
He’d subconsciously side with his employee to help them off the hook.
If that employee really got caught, the manager would have to take the blame and a pay cut.
Since this guy was already temporarily unable to move from the kick, she’d just stand here and wait for her mother and aunt.
Orange Quiet Forest looked down at the man still clutching his injured hand and moaning.
“Why did you have to secretly film me and keep chattering? That virtual streamer hasn’t even been streaming for long, has she?”
‘Even if he was a brain-dead fan, could they become this obsessive so quickly? She’s only streamed a few times.’
She saw the man’s evasive and resentful eyes.
Oh, she understood now.
He didn’t care whether she was a real idol or the performer behind that virtual streamer.
He had just happened to watch a few clips of Orange Quiet Forest’s streams and recognized her voice.
He wanted to use this “I know your real identity” leverage to scare and threaten her into submission.
In short, he saw she was pretty and got lustful.
Heh.
So despicable.
Finally, Orange Peach’s car arrived.
Orange Quiet Forest easily recognized the engine sound of her mother’s beloved car, and that trademark screech of a sudden brake.
She didn’t even need to check the license plate to know it was Orange Peach.
Before the car had fully stopped, Orange Peach and Orange Green Willow unbuckled their seat belts and hurried out, not even bothering to close the doors.
They had also brought bodyguards.
When they saw Orange Quiet Forest standing under the streetlamp, completely unharmed and even able to hop around, the two parents exchanged glances.
For a moment, they didn’t know whether to be worried or relieved.
The parents quickly walked over from a distance.
“Orange Quiet Forest! Are you okay?”
Orange Peach’s voice carried rare anxiety.
“I’m fine.”
Orange Quiet Forest clapped her hands, her tone light.
“He tried to get handsy, but I already took him down. He was trying to secretly film me, and I crushed his phone and kicked it down the sewer.”
Seeing Orange Peach, Orange Quiet Forest finally fully let down her guard and started walking toward her parents.
However.
Just as Orange Quiet Forest turned around and took a step, completely defenseless—
The man who had been lying on the ground, from somewhere in a pile of construction debris, silently picked up a thick plastic pipe.
His eyes were red, his face twisted.
Gripping the pipe with his uninjured left hand, he suddenly lunged up from the ground like a madman, charging viciously at Orange Quiet Forest’s back.
“Quiet! Watch out behind you!”
The approaching Orange Peach and Orange Green Willow saw the man raise the pipe to strike their daughter, and shouted in terror.
Hearing their voices, Orange Quiet Forest’s heart jumped.
Her brain started to react, but since her back was to him, she had no idea from which angle the man was attacking.
With a whistling of air, the man gritted his teeth and swung the pipe with all his strength, aiming for the back of Orange Quiet Forest’s head.
In that split second, Orange Quiet Forest relied on instinct—she dodged sideways just a little.
Thud!
A dull impact sounded.
The strike didn’t hit her head; instead, it landed solidly on Orange Quiet Forest’s shoulder.
“Ow!”
Orange Quiet Forest instinctively winced and cried out in pain, trying to dodge again.
But then, with that soft, pained cry, something bizarre happened.
The man felt as if his left hand had hit a steel plate.
The massive recoil numbed his palm.
He looked closely—the originally straight, thick plastic pipe had, upon impact with Orange Quiet Forest’s shoulder, bent into an exaggerated V-shape with a crack.
The man was stunned.
He didn’t believe it.
Eyes wide, he raised the now-bent pipe and swung it a second time, hard at Orange Quiet Forest’s arm as she turned.
Another sharp sound.
The pitiful plastic pipe, the moment it touched Orange Quiet Forest’s arm, snapped cleanly into two pieces.
One half clattered onto the asphalt road with a crisp rolling sound.
“…”
Orange Quiet Forest yelled angrily.
“What’s your problem? Once wasn’t enough, you had to go for a second time?!”