With a "smack," Ye Mei knocked the scallion pancake out of his hand. "The ink on the newspaper is so heavy, you don't care about appearances at all, yet you call that showing off your strength? I think you're the best at eating scallion pancakes, always eating so many. Today, eat less and leave more for the children."

"What a fussy thing to do!" Su Ming muttered.

Despite his grumbling, under Ye Mei's piercing gaze, he had no choice but to obediently go into the kitchen to wash his hands.

"Mom, you're too harsh on Dad," Su Xiaonuan said with a smile.

“I’ve been good enough to him, why are you yelling at him?” Ye Mei said irritably. “Look at him, he’s getting more and more concerned about his image. Before long, he’ll be calling his friends to eat at those branch restaurants.”

"It's okay, Mom. As long as Dad is happy, it's fine if he takes his friends out to eat every day."

"See, my daughter still loves me the most." Su Ming said, waving his hand as he came out.

"Dad, from now on, whenever you eat at any of those branches, just put it on my tab. Order whatever you want. Since we're treating our friends, of course we should order a few of their signature dishes," Su Xiaonuan said generously.

"Is it really possible to do this?"

"Sure, these branches pay me a management fee every month, and they get their ingredients from me, so you don't have to worry, you can eat whatever you want."

"That's wonderful!" Su Ming clapped his hands. "From now on, Jiuya Restaurant will be my mobile kitchen. I can have delicious food wherever I go. I'm so lucky! I'm going to explore every nook and cranny of the city. Anyway, if I get hungry, I can always find a ready-made meal."

"Look how pleased you are with yourself," Ye Mei said, pouting.

"Look, I've washed my hands." Su Ming walked up to her, waved his palms at her, then grabbed a scallion pancake with his right hand and put it in his mouth, chewing and mumbling. "Mmm, delicious. My Mei's scallion pancakes are so good you could open a franchise."

"Even food can't shut you up." Ye Mei glared at Su Ming.

"Mom, is Dad trying to please you?"

"They act like this when there's good food." Ye Mei instructed her daughter. "Xiao Nuan, go and bring out the porridge and dishes from the kitchen. I'll go call the children in for dinner."

"Dad, eat slowly, don't choke!" she said, watching Su Ming wolf down his food. "Mom made so many scallion pancakes, that's enough for us."

"No, I have to eat two more pieces. When the kids come in, they'll each have two pieces, and then I won't have any left." Su Ming loves this kind of food and has never gotten tired of eating his wife's scallion pancakes for decades.

When Su Xiaonuan went to the kitchen, she found not only millet porridge and three side dishes, but also pickled radish, boiled eggs, and steamed dumplings.

There were many people, so every dish was served in large portions.

Just as the food was served, Xiao Moran returned.

"Xiao Nuan, look what I found over there!" Xiao Moran hurriedly walked over and opened her clenched fist to him.

Su Ming also came over, "Let me see, what did you find?"

"A button?" Su Xiaonuan reached into his palm and picked up the somewhat familiar glass button. "I feel like I've seen this button somewhere before?"

Ye Mei arrived with a group of people. She glanced at the button in Xiao Nuan's hand. "These glass buttons are everywhere. Of course you've seen them. Clothes these days all like to use these kinds of buttons. What's so special about them? Maybe some guest dropped them on the floor while eating."

“Mom, this wasn’t left by a guest,” Xiao Moran said. “I found it near the storeroom. Guests wouldn’t go to that area except for our own people. This button might have been left by the arsonist.”

“These are all buttons from women’s clothes.” Su Ming shook his head. “The arsonist is definitely not a woman. Women are timid and wouldn’t do such a thing. Ask the female employees in the store and see if they dropped the buttons.”

“None of our female employees’ clothes have these glass buttons,” Zhong Ling said. “Before, we could wear whatever we wanted and maybe have buttons like these. But then the boss made us wear uniforms, and we wear work clothes every day. The buttons on our work clothes aren’t like these.”

"Look, there's this too." Xiao Moran took out a dark-looking object from the paper bag.

"What is this? It's all blackened from burning." Ye Mei looked at it. "Why are there still matches stuck in it?"

Upon hearing this, Su Xiaonuan reached out and took the charred black lump of stuff, then forcefully broke it in two.

A crisp, cracking sound rang out.

"Oh dear, it's only pitch black on the outside, but it's still raw inside!" Ye Mei exclaimed in surprise.

"Are you stupid? If it were really burned to this state, would you still be able to see the matches stuck in it?" Su Ming snorted. "It would probably have been burned to ashes long ago, so how could you see the matchsticks? It's obviously filthy like this."

Su Xiaonuan understood. "Mo Ran is right. The arsonist was a woman. Look, this is a raw sweet potato. It's possible that she first poured the gasoline and then threw the fire source from a distance. With a bit of force, she accidentally broke the button and it fell to the ground."

"The outbuildings burned down, so why did the matches go out before they finished burning?" Xiao Moxi asked in surprise. "And these sweet potatoes were raw too, they didn't turn into roasted sweet potatoes."

“This might be a failed attempt to throw the ignition source,” Su Xiaonuan said. “Since it was a woman who started the fire, her strength was limited, and she couldn’t have thrown it in one go. Perhaps she only managed to throw it in the first place on the second attempt. This failed attempt to throw the ignition source actually left us with clues. Combined with this glass button, it’s certain that the arsonist was a woman.”

"A woman?" Moxi exclaimed. "Could it be Li Chunxiang and Lanyin?"

"It's possible," Aunt Chen said. "They must be jealous of your shop's good business to do something like this."

“We can’t rule out that possibility.” Su Xiaonuan nodded. “But without evidence, let’s not speculate. Let’s leave it at that. Let’s just consider this person as having demolished the illegal structure for us for free. The government will demolish all the illegal sheds sooner or later. In this light, it’s even saved us the cost of hiring workers.”

"Eat, eat, it's getting cold, hurry up and eat." Ye Mei invited everyone to sit down and eat the sumptuous breakfast she had prepared.

Sure enough, scallion pancakes became a hot commodity; people would eat one and then immediately grab a second.

At the dinner table, only the Tie Zhu brothers were the most reserved.

Zhong Ling and Xiao Hong, on the other hand, were more relaxed and could choose whatever they wanted to eat.

Xiao Tian and Xiao Li were even more unceremonious than when they ate at home. At home, they had to watch their wicked stepmother's face, but here they didn't have to. There were many people around, so they ate with the most enjoyment.

While Xiaotian and Xiaoli were eating, they made sure to put food in Aunt Chen's bowl first. They would put everything in Aunt Chen's bowl before eating their own. Seeing such thoughtful children, Aunt Chen was moved to tears.

It was truly worthwhile to have raised these two children for nothing.

Seeing that the Tie brothers were too polite, Ye Mei had no choice but to give them some scallion pancakes and steamed dumplings in a bowl, otherwise, the two brothers would have been too embarrassed to even pick up their chopsticks.