She looked at each of them once and said, "You came here with tools because you wanted to force your way in. You used words like fairness because you were afraid to say stealing out loud. Now you are trying to hide your shame behind your sex. That is not protection. That is cowardice." One of the men swore under his breath and lifted the hacksaw again. "You really think you can talk to us like this?" Bai Li said, "Yes." The answer was simple and made the man even more furious. He felt humiliated in front of the others, and his pride twisted that humiliation into anger. The building manager tried to calm him, but the man was already past listening. "Teach her," he snapped to the others, and then the whole little group rushed at once, not in any organized way, just in that ugly messy way people attack when they are too embarrassed to keep pretending they are civilized.
Bai Li had already expected that. She did not step back. She simply moved.
