Mob almost lynches Wuxi Expat

Thor Lyndon, a Wuxi Expat from America, was forced to run for his life from a mob bent on hanging him.

Lyndon had gone to to meet some other Expats at a lesser known pub in the 1912 Bar District.  What began as an evening of drinks and chat nearly became deadly as the group, Lyndon was with, became enraged at him.

Lyndon had taken part in a commercial for an English Training Center he was working for.  The day of the commercial shot, Lyndon came to school with messy hair and bloodshot eyes.  Saying he hadn't been informed of the recording, Lyndon said he would have turned out properly otherwise.  As it was, he was embarrassed by his appearance and vowed to never watch the commercial.

The commercial had been shown for a few days in Wuxi, when Lyndon went to the pub in the 1912 Bar District.  The other Expats, at the bar, had seen the commercial and made jokes about Lyndon's messy hair and bloodshot eyes.  Lyndon told the WCE blog that he expected this and thought that he would have to stand the ribbing and kidding for a few days.

Said Lyndon: "Our mob was its friendly old self.  Everyone was insulting everyone else, but it was all in good fun and we knew that no one really meant it!  But then the mob took on a different frame of mind.  The ribbing became serious.  One person said I had embarrassed myself.  Another then said I had embarrassed all Expats in the eyes of the locals.  The next thing I knew, someone pulled out a noose, and I was forced to run away from the clutches of arms trying to hold me down so as to put the noose around my neck."

Lyndon fled the pub with the mob on his tail.  He was fortunate that just as his stamina was flagging and the mob was catching up to him, Wuxi China Expatdom Police Officer McNulty came on the scene.  Said Lyndon "He saved my life!  When the mob saw McNulty they fled, and I knew that as long as McNulty was around, I had no need to worry about further retribution!  I thanked McNulty and said to him, "You save my life!"  McNulty then said, "That should be You saved my life punk! and he dealt me his eccentric brand of divinely sanctioned rough house full contact body slam justice!  Going to the doctor later, they told me that the edition of Fowler's English Usage will be permanently embedded in my forehead for a while, but it is a small price to pay for having McNulty save my life.  Usually, he looks at me contemptuously!"