"You have a young face," Alex told her as he went to jump down from the horse.
"No, I don't," Heidi said as she put her hand on Alex's arm to stop him from climbing down. Her sleeves were rolled up revealing a strange marking on her forearm. His eyes became fixated on it for a moment.
It was a small red mark and Alex instantly knew its meaning.
He said incredulously, "That's a shougong sha mark?"
Shougonsheha was an ancient Chinese symbol of a woman's chastity. It was said that the mark couldn't be washed off but would disappear immediately if the woman lost her virginity.
He had read about it once in a world history book. But he had never imagined he would see it on a modern girl in the US.
He was puzzled and wanted to go back to Debbie. He was starting to feel uneasy about the mysterious girl and thought there was more to her.
"Are you going?" Heidi saw that Alex was about to leave but didn't want him to go. "I want to ride some more, will you come with me?"
"No, I'm going," Alex replied and looked around for Debbie.
"Please. It's so boring to ride on my own. If you go, I'll have to go too. Will you at least come with me to the office to pay?" Heidi whined.
She looked so pathetic that Alex hesitated. He frowned, unsure what to do.
He looked at Debbie beside him and was surprised when she indicated that he should continue to help the girl. So, he took Debbie's hand and they went with Heidi to the riding school office.
"I need to pay," Heidi told the cashier. Then she yelled impatiently, "How much money is it? Hurry up, we have to go."
The cashiers at the riding school were usually young women. But today, oddly, the cashier was a young man with bright blonde hair called Micky Perkins.
Micky smiled and said to Heidi, "Hey gorgeous, how are you doing?"
"Fine, I'm leaving now and I want to pay for hiring the horse. Hurry up. I have something else to do." Heidi didn't seem to be surprised to see Micky in the office.
He walked up to the computer and messed around with it for a long time. He didn't appear to know what he was doing and kept pressing the wrong keys. Finally, he looked at Heidi and said, "Miss, you've had the horse for six hours. That's one of the best horses in the country. It's five hundred dollars for one hour, so a total of three thousand dollars. For you, let's say two thousand."
"What?" Heidi's beautiful eyes widened with surprise. She couldn't believe that she had heard him correctly.
"Yes, two thousand dollars," Micky reiterated.
"That's daylight robbery! It's a ridiculous price. How can you even think about charging that much?" Heidi demanded angrily.
Alex and Debbie were also surprised. It did seem an incredibly high cost to ride a horse in the fields.
"Why don't you say anything?" Heidi roared at Alex. She was clenching her fists and looking at him for help.
Alex didn't want to get involved. He shrugged and turned his head away, pretending that he didn't know that she was talking to him.
When she saw Alex ignoring her, Heidi became even angrier. She looked back at Micky and yelled, "Oh, I see. You think you can bully me because I'm a woman. You think you can exhort money from me. Well, don't think you can push me around."
"Ha ha." Micky chuckled, lit a cigarette, raised his eyebrows, and said, "If you can't afford to pay, you shouldn't have hired the horse. We're clear about our prices and they're the same for everyone. I'm not trying to cheat you." He pointed to the wall, where all the hire prices were written. He seemed to be telling the truth.
Heidi was speechless. She had a good memory and she knew that when she looked at the price list when she first arrived, the numbers were much lower. It had been altered. How could the prices increase by so much in such a short space of time? She tried to work out what was going on.
"Are you ready to pay now, Miss? You can see the prices for yourself." Micky said, inhaling a mouthful of smoke.
"Don't call me miss. Don't be so presumptuous." Heidi hated the word "Miss". She held her chin up proudly.
"Okay, Ma'am, but please settle the bill." Micky smiled and blew the smoke into Heidi's face.
"I know you're trying to cheat me. I'll go to the police to complain about you." She wasn't going to give in.
"I wouldn't do that if I was you. We will win," Micky replied as he pulled a knife out from under the desk. He rolled his shoulders, settling into a rather menacing stance.
"Are you going to pay or not?" he asked flashing the knife in front of her face.
Heidi looked anxious but she said adamantly, "What will you do if I don't pay?" She was courageous and determined not to give in.
"What? Do you dare not to pay?" Micky didn't have any pity for her. Instead, he held the blade up to her throat and repeated, "I asked you, are you going to pay or not?"
Heidi suddenly burst into tears. She quickly looked at Alex for help. She had seen him on TV. Wasn't he a hero and a martial arts expert? Surely, he would step in for her.
However, Alex was trying to ignore what was happening, which he felt had nothing to do with him.
"I'm telling you, when you find out who I really am, you're going to have to apologize to me," Heidi sobbed.
She continued, "I am the eldest granddaughter of the Reels family. My name is Heidi and my father is Dr. Benedict Reels, who I'm sure you've heard of. Put down the knife now and your life will be spared."
"Ha, ha, ha." Micky burst out laughing raucously. He couldn't contain himself as he rocked back and forth. Finally, he caught his breath and said, "Heidi Reels from Reels Pharmacies? Dr. Benedict Reels? Ha, ha. Is daddy here with you, little girl?"
When he finally stopped laughing, Micky's face settled into a meaningful expression. "I don't care who your father is or what kind of family you're from. If you hire one of our horses, you have to pay me and I decide how much you have to pay."
Debbie was a compassionate person. When she saw the cruel expression on Micky's face, she nudged Alex and indicated that she wanted him to help Heidi. She couldn't stand to see a young girl being treated so abysmally.
She didn't expect Alex to just continue holding her hand and ignoring the situation with Heidi. But while Alex would always protect Debbie, he wasn't necessarily willing to get involved with every other person around him who happened to get into trouble.
He also thought that Heidi was rather suspicious. He had noticed a few odd details during their ride together. He didn't quite trust her, so he wanted to see how she would handle the situation on her own before stepping in.
Suddenly, dozens of thuggish men rushed in, all of them looking aggressive.
Alex still just stood and watched. He was curious why so many hard men were needed to take on one small girl and he wanted to know what happened.
Even more remarkably, from their movements, he could tell that all the men were trained martial arts fighters, not ordinary thugs.