When it was finally six, Ah Gui could officially end work. He continued driving that beaten-up Santana and drove everyone to the famous foot stall in town.
Though the place was small, and half the store was outside the sheltered area, the stall was full. Ah Gui reserved an empty table at lightning speed, before he ordered a duck soup hotpot and a few sides with much familiarity. After asking around, added two cups of juice to the order.
“I come here often, tastes good, the price is reasonable too. The boss here is good too, and the serving’s big and the foo tastes fresh.
Zhang Tong Hua looked around. This street was called the food street, but this is actually just an alley between two buildings that became filled with street stalls. The other restaurants around the area were expensive, and it’s not like they can survive on KFC forever, so this was the best choice.
Food was served fast. Because Ah Gui was a frequent customer, the enthusiastic store owner even gave them a free serving of bone soup. The three of them digging in without speaking much formed a sharp contrast with the buzz around them.
When they were nearing their limit, the speed at which they ate slowed down. Ah Gui and Zhang Tong Hua started chatting. Xuan Mo on the other hand having clearly indicated that she didn’t intend to return home so early sat and listened.
This was a fresh experience for Xuan Mo. This place wasn’t the cleanest, there were oil stains all around, the chairs and tables were sticky too. Their spoilt ventilator didn’t help that the place smelt of food mixed with cigarette smoke and cooking oil either. Despite so, they weren’t willing to let go of this location to set up their business. The smell of oil and cigarettes was particularly strong, and it got stronger. Soon, the people in the shop couldn’t take it anymore.
A few guys started getting annoyed at the situation, and shouted at the store tender, asking him why the smell was getting so strong. The boss came over to apologise, saying that their ventilator broke, and it’d take a while before they could get it fixed, so he suggested changing their seats for them to the seats outside.
“The hell! It’s freezing cold outside, you’re chasing us out now that we’ve had our share of warmth? Are you kidding? The very reason I came down so early was to get us a seat inside the store! You guys are still doing your business even though the ventilator broke? How are you going to compensate a person if they faint from all the smoke?”
“It’s not enough to make someone faint… we didn’t expect something like this to happen either. It’s mostly because the direction of the wind that’s off today, it’s blowing everything back in…”
“Then are you gonna just leave it as it is? C’mon, give it a smell, you wanna smell, I stink of the oil stench coming from your kitchen, people will think that a guy like me cooks if I head out like that! Look at this this is new! And now y’all ruined it!”
His words seem to be driving towards his agenda—to take advantage of the situation.
Xuan Mo’s table was situated outside, next door, so they can see what was happening if they stretched their necks. After spectating for a while, the three of them having understood the situation stopped looking; it’s the store’s fault for not carrying out their business properly, so they can’t blame the unsatisfied customer.
他们确是军人，七区，外星将军……但不是片儿警，也不是超人，犯不着为这种鸡毛蒜皮小事出头。
They were soldiers from zone seven, and a major from another planet… they weren’t the police, nor were they superheroes, so they needn’t interfere with such trivialities.
Someone by the side tried to dissolve the building tension: “Alright alright, this isn’t much, we can solve this easily, just get the boss to pay for cleaning your shirt and give a discount on your final bill or something.”
“Shut it! D’you know when was the last time I got a new shirt!? I haven’t even worn this for long hello, if this was you, you’d be ok?! Mind your own business or I’ll sue you!” The man was a little tipsy, so he got up and bellowed as he pointed at the other guy. Behind him, his tipsy companions echoed their support.
Seeing the situation, the man who was trying to mediate stopped talking and headed back to his table to continue eating. Even his female companion told him not to mind their business; he only gave a bitter smile in return.
If something like this were to happen in Scorpio, even if the latter person was a lot weaker than the former, he wouldn’t retreat after being pointed at and scolded in his face, they’d duel it out and sort it out in the arena, even if the latter got smashed into the ground. This wasn’t about ego or reputation. To a certain extent, Scorpio planet is infamous for her cruelty and heartlessness, so reputation and whatnot can screw itself. Such a reaction would be instinctive almost, that you should never retreat from a battle.
Hence, when spectators were looking at the man in disdain and unhappiness, Xuan Mo however was unhappy with the person who tried to resolve the issue. At that, she placed her chopsticks down so watch how the situation would play out.
The boss was already sweating. Hooligans who were in the right were the most difficult customers to deal with. Under the influence of alcohol, they’d be extremely eager to blow the issue out of proportion, and after which, take as much advantage of the situation as possible. Even if they weren’t doing it to rip the stall tenders off, this was an opportunity for them to let some steam off from the stress of life.
After all, it was the store’s fault.
This might even escalate into a fight. They peered into the store. What was surprising was that all the clerks inside were merely spectating, none actually called the police!
Seemed like the boss wasn’t particularly honest person either, seeing how even his workers didn’t mind seeing him getting beaten up. ♢ MY CLASSMATE IS TWO HUNDRED MILLIONS YEARS OLD, CHAPTER 73 is hosted at ZHAN LANN♢
“Sorry, what about this, I’ll pay, for your dry cleaning. As for your food, half price, half price, and, and we’ll give you another pot of soup for free, what about that?” This offer made their dinner seem almost free now.
“That can’t do! Even ten meals here isn’t enough to pay for my shirt! Look clearly! This is XXX brand, undiscounted, I bought it at full price! I could have worn it out for a while more like it’s brand new, but now this entire fiasco is going to ruin that!”
“Then, then how would you like it settled?” The boss has heard of the brand XXX, and their active wear could cost up to thousand, so he really didn’t have the gusto to say that he can compensate this customer for his shirt.
“Get me a new one! Or I’ll trash your store!”
“…”
Upon hearing that, all the customers in that food store shifted their feet towards the door.
Zhang Tong Hua and Ah gui on the other hand stood instinctively. Even if the people there were only threatening the store owner, the two of them needed to pay this situation some attention. If a criminal case were to come out of this, things would be alright if their higher ups didn’t know they were here. But if they did then they were screwed.
When Xuan Mo noticed that the mediator guy also shifted towards the door, she frowned, and became particularly displeased. She hated seeing people coming forward in full force before withering halfway through; these kinds of people were worse than those who didn’t step up in the first place.
Seeing that nothing was coming out of this, she knocked the table. “Boss, get the bill.”
Her voice was clear and loud. Though it wasn’t particularly quiet, it was loud enough for the boss to their hear her. At that, she heard two hums of acknowledgement. Not only did the store owner of the store she was at came out, even the unlucky guy from the store next door looked like he was gonna make the run of it.
This however pissed the tipsy man off. He grabbed the store owner’s collar and sent him a punch: “You wanna freaking run!? I’ll kill you!”
The store owner cried with a bruised face: “I, I thought that was my customer… I didn’t, wan’t gonna run.”
“Fk you, keep making things up! You still wanna get the bill? You’re store’s gonna be trashed and you still wanna get the bill?! Brothers! Trash this place!”
His companions froze for a moment before they frenzied up. They cheered in agreement and actually started flipped tables.
Chaos erupted. All the customers in fear of getting implicated ran off. Outside the store, spectators gathered to watch the commotion. The police was definitely called, but the store would be gone before the police could even arrive.
The store owner almost cried. At that, he grabbed the man and apologised: “I’ll get you a new one, I’ll get you one alright?!”
But that man didn’t acknowledge him. The gang of them got excited smashing everything, and even howled as they did.
The store owner took many blows before giving up and hiding at the side, as though he’d given up.
Upon seeing this Ah Gui and Zhang Tong Hua sighed in tandem. Their duties remain, even if this wasn’t directly under their jurisdiction, they were getting money out of the jobs there were doing, so they had to carry out their duties. The two of them left and entered the other shop unwillingly, before heading straight for the man in the lead. Zhang Tong Hua stretched his hand and grabbed the man crisply. The man’s reaction was surprisingly fast, and managed to slip out of Zhang Tong Hua’s grab. In turn, he took a beer can and hurled it at Zhang Tong Hua.
Zhang Tong Hua immediately dodged. A hand gripping the man’s hand, it became a contention of strength between the two of them.
Zhang Tong Hua wasn’t disadvantaged, but Ah Gui wasn’t in a good situation. He was immediately surrounded by the four burly companions of the man…
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