Facing the thick, heavy hand reaching out to grab her shoulder, Hong Meiling didn't move a single muscle.
Just as the man's fingers were about to make contact with her suit, she executed a swift, fluid sidestep, drifting past his momentum like a mountain breeze.
Deprived of any physical resistance to lean on, the heavy middle-aged man stumbled forward off-balance and crashed face-first onto the gravel path, landing in a completely ungraceful heap.
"Wow! Is this what they call the 'Platinum Faceplant (Platinum Ab Roller Fail)' on the internet?"
Before the rest of the vandalizing group could even register what had happened, Flandre's innocent, ringing mockery echoed clearly in everyone's ears. They didn't know what she meant but it sounded offensive enough.
After a brief, stunned silence, a younger woman among the remaining tourists let out an ear-piercing shriek: "How dare you hit my dad!"
With that screech, she raised her heavy, flowering plum branch with both hands, swinging it violently down toward Hong Meiling's head.
Hong Meiling was thoroughly speechless.
"Me? Hitting your dad? Believe me, if I actually made a move, you'd be crying out 'Daddy-chan' right now~"
Facing the incoming branch, Meiling casually reached up with two fingers, caught the wood in mid-air, and gave it a gentle, swift tug. The momentum yanked the woman completely off her feet, causing her to shriek in panic as she tumbled into the roadside snowbank.
At this sight, the two young men acting as her 'knights in shining armor' couldn't hold back their temper any longer. Roaring in frustration, they rushed forward simultaneously, reaching out with bared fists to grab Meiling.
In response, Hong Meiling effortlessly turned the very plum branch she had just snatched from the woman into a disciplinary rod, lashing out at the two men like a stern mother disciplining unruly children.
Thanks to Meiling's immaculate control over her martial energy, even though both men were clad in thick winter coats, every precise strike—driven by the crisp snap of her whip-like wrist movement—penetrated straight through their padded armor without tearing the fabric, landing directly upon their nerves and muscle tissue.
Within seconds, she had thrashed them until they were rolling on the ground, howling in agony.
Standing nearby, Komeiji Koishi covered her ears with both hands, taking two steps back with a look of visible disgust.
Seeing Koishi's reaction, Flandre remarked from the side: "Don't you think they sound like two giant toads? There are plenty of them over at Misty Lake, especially during spring and summer—they make such an annoying racket."
Hearing Flandre's comparison, Koishi tilted her head as if contemplating the imagery, then burst into a bright, happy laugh.
Just then, the fallen father and daughter managed to regain their senses.
The middle-aged man, finally realizing that Meiling was an absolute martial force not to be trifled with, instinctively intended to back down and apologize. But before he could utter a word, his daughter scrambled up from the snowbank, pointed a trembling finger at Meiling, and let loose a torrent of vulgar Yan profanities.
Hong Meiling narrowed her eyes, a rare flicker of cold anger surfacing within her.
It really was true that birds of a feather flock together; the father possessed a reckless, arrogant temper, and the daughter's character was equally appalling.
Before Meiling could react, the woman turned her verbal abuse squarely toward her two fallen companions. In her uneducated eyes, Meiling was merely a thin, dressed-up woman holding a fragile tree branch she had snapped off herself. How could two grown men wearing thick winter coats be howling so pitifully from being hit by a mere twig? To her, it was obvious they were putting on a pathetic, cowardly show!
Hearing her shrill screeching, Hong Meiling walked over with a soft, cheerful smile, holding the plum branch loosely in her hand.
Fwip! Fwip!
"Ah~!" x2.
Following two crisp, light snaps through the air, both the father and the daughter instantly joined the ranks of the fallen, squirming on the path as agonizing muscle spasms racked their bodies.
"Oh ho~ Now it's a complete toad quartet!" Flandre declared, crossing her arms and nodding with immense satisfaction.
Hearing the updated count, Koishi decided that the screaming wasn't quite so noisy anymore, giggling happily as she watched the four tourists roll around in unison.
Naturally, the loud, continuous wailing soon drew the attention of nearby pedestrians. Someone quickly sprinted to the estate's security post to report a violent altercation.
Before long, an Operator from the Lungmen Guard Department stationed at the Flower Village outpost rushed over to the scene at top speed.
Upon arriving, the Operator froze in surprise. Standing by the side of the trail was Flandre, her arms crossed as she chatted happily with Koishi. A few steps away, a tall woman in a sleek black suit was holding a plum branch, casually swatting at four tourists writhing on the ground.
From their clear posture and dialogue, it was instantly obvious that the woman in the suit was acting under Flandre's direct orders.
This gave the LGD Operator a massive headache.
After all, Flandre was not only an honored guest of Governor Wei, but she had also served as an guest instructor at the Guard Department academy; her functional standing was far higher than theirs. Arresting her or her entourage would be like smearing soot onto the Governor's face—a disastrous case of shooting oneself on the foot. Yet, with so many onlookers watching, they had to handle the situation strictly by the book.
Bracing himself, the Operator walked straight up to Flandre, standing at attention. "Instructor Flandre, good afternoon!"
Flandre looked up, eyeing the LGD Operator. She didn't recognize this specific officer, but given how massive the Guard Department's personnel roster was, that was hardly surprising.
However, since he addressed her as Instructor, he must have attended one of her tactical lectures at headquarters. She nodded politely, pointing her small hand toward the quartet on the ground. "You're here because of them, right?"
The Operator nodded, respectfully asking for a summary of the situation.
Flandre concisely recounted the entire sequence of events—from observing the four individuals holding freshly broken branches of prize wintersweet, to Meiling stepping up to question them, and how Meiling had been forced to retaliate only after the tourists initiated physical violence and verbal abuse.
"Hiss..." The Operator scratched his cheek, whispering carefully, "Instructor Flandre, that's just verbal testimony for now. What if they try to turn the tables on you later, filing a formal complaint claiming your bodyguard intentionally inflicted grievous bodily harm?"
The Operator fully believed Flandre's account. After all, looking at her clear, open expression, there was zero reason for her to lie about minor park vandalism. Besides, no sane person would believe Flandre had gone out of her way to pick a fight with random middle-aged tourists just to beat them up.
Hearing his concern, Flandre simply pointed her small finger toward a tall pole near the garden intersection. "Look over there!"
The Operator followed her finger, and his eyes instantly lit up. Mounted right atop the pole was a high-definition security camera.
To be precise, while the seasonal gardens around Flower Village spanned vast open land, they saw heavy public foot traffic. To guarantee guest safety and protect her investments, Swire had mandated full, seamless surveillance coverage across every main pathway when she funded the estate's construction.
It just so happened that this specific camera possessed a direct, unobstructed view of the entire path where the confrontation had unfolded.
With the raw footage secured, any chance of the vandalizing group fabricating a legal case later was completely extinguished. The video would clearly show the tourists attempting to physically assault Meiling first, establishing that Miss Hong Meiling had acted entirely in self-defense.
As for why she didn't stop striking them after they fell, the legal defense was equally straightforward: as a lone woman protecting two young children, maintaining physical suppression over four aggressive adults to prevent them from getting back up and threatening the children was standard, lawful self-defense procedure.
Besides, how could a single wooden twig cause any actual structural harm to four adult humans wearing heavy winter gear? If they claimed to be crippled by a small stick, the magistrate would likely conclude they were staging an insurance scam for the camera!
As for whether outsiders would accept that physical logic, Flandre was entirely confident. Given Hong Meiling's absolute mastery over her physical strength, she could inflict excruciating, paralyzing nerve pain without leaving a single external bruise or drawing a drop of blood.
"Meiling, stop for now!" Since an official officer of the LGD had arrived, Flandre decided to show proper administrative courtesy, calling her gatekeeper back.
The four tourists lying on the gravel finally let out a long, shuddering sigh of relief as the swattering stopped.
However, Flandre wasn't done yet. She turned to the Operator, her voice dropping into a serious tone:
"What about the flowering wintersweet branches they snapped off? Even though spring is approaching and the wintersweet season is coming to an end, every single tree here was transplanted by Sister Beatrice using real capital. I heard she even paid a massive fortune to hire a top Agricultural Master from Great Yan to tend them. Doesn't breaking these prize branches count as intentionally destroying high-value commercial property?"
Hearing Flandre frame the issue so sharply, the Operator instantly caught her intent. He straightened his back, answering firmly:
"I will immediately contact Master Bai from the Agricultural Bureau to come assess the monetary value of the damaged flora. If the property destruction exceeds the legal threshold, we will certainly prosecute them under full economic crime statutes!"
Hearing this exchange, the middle-aged man on the ground managed to push himself up slightly, pointing a trembling, furious finger at Hong Meiling:
"What about her?! She just thrashed the four of us with a stick! Aren't you Guard Department officers going to arrest her first?!"