Without saying a word, the fat man offered to take the fish back and remake it, making the other diners feel embarrassed: "We've almost finished the fish, aren't we taking advantage of them..."

Seeing this, the fat man simply waived the bill for the dish, thus getting away with the matter.

Then, because of this, they deducted 50 yuan from Lao Wang's pay without giving him any face.

At first, Lao Wang was a little unconvinced, but the next day he heard that the customer who found fish scales in his food yesterday had brought a large group of people over, ordered a huge table of dishes, and was bragging to others: "Why did we invite you to this place? The authentic food is a minor matter, the most important thing is that their boss is honest!"

This time, Old Wang was convinced. He was completely convinced and took the initiative to apologize to the fat man.

Therefore, everyone at Qili Pavilion has this awareness of providing proactive service. For example, if a customer asks the head chef to make a dish of stewed cabbage, they will take it back and make it again.

Liu Lan came in and complained for a while, but the fat man didn't take it seriously.

I took another cabbage. This time, the pork belly was cooked to perfection, the cabbage's bitterness was removed, and the glass noodles were added at the right time. Once it was done, I called Liu Lan to serve the dish.

Thinking that everything would be fine this time, he was surprised when Liu Lan came in again, her tone very unpleasant: "Fatty, here to cause trouble!"

The fat man looked at the stewed cabbage she was holding with surprise and asked, "What's going on?"

Liu Lan angrily slammed the plate on the table: "This is too much! You haven't even eaten a bite and you're already saying it doesn't taste right!"

The fat man picked up a pair of chopsticks, took a bite, and said, "There's nothing wrong with it. This tastes much better than it did back then. We didn't have this much meat back then; we just added some soybean paste at most."

Liu Lan retorted angrily, "What's wrong with it? It smells delicious!"

The fat man thought for a moment and said, "This guest is in the Saoxia Hall, right? I'll go see him."

As he went upstairs, the fat man secretly vowed that if he opened the door and saw Sun Honglei's face, he would smash the bowl over his head!

Let this kid know what it means to be a young man if you're not hot-blooded.

As soon as they went upstairs, Liu Jia rushed over to greet them: "Boss, this customer isn't trying to renege on their debt, is he?"

The fat man asked her, "Who are you?"

Liu Jia said, "It was a woman, very fashionable, wearing clothes I'd never seen before; and she had a child with her."

A fashionable woman from Guangdong who came to Beiping to do business?

I heard that they like to blanch everything and then dip it in soy sauce before eating. Is that why?

The fat man didn't think much of it and just pushed the door open and went in: "Hello, I am..."

"..."

Inside the private room, the two locked eyes.

The fat man casually closed the door, leaving Liu Jia, who was craning her neck to see the gossip, feeling turned away.

The woman, who was sitting in her seat, tried to stand up, but her legs suddenly wouldn't obey her. She tried her best but couldn't get up and fell heavily back into the chair.

The fat man looked like he'd seen a ghost: "Lou Xiao'e?"

Lou Xiao'e's glasses fogged up completely in no time, and she cried her eyes out, "It's me, it's me..."

Then she suddenly pounced on him again, punching him with her small fists: "You heartless fatso!"

The fat man silently endured Lou Xiao'e's fists until she got tired and stopped hitting him, then he asked, "How am I heartless?"

Lou Xiao'e retorted, "I asked you to make me a stewed cabbage dish, and you just gave me a runaround!"

"I swear to God, I really did make the second one."

"No, the taste is wrong, it's not the same as it used to be!"

"..."

The fat man finally understood what was going on.

Time really can heal all wounds. Only after we grow up do we try our best to make up for the regrets of our childhood, only to find that we no longer have that anticipation and joy.

Lou Xiao'e was the same way. Back then, she had only ever eaten the stewed cabbage that Fatty made, and that was one of her few memories.

After recognizing each other, Lou Xiao'e quickly pulled the handsome young man next to her to her side, pointed at the chubby boy and said to him, "Chen Xiao, quickly call him Dad!"

The fat man really wanted to cover his face; what was bound to happen had finally happened.

Lou Xiao'e still retains her magically fertile constitution from the TV series, making the fat man fall head over heels for her.

The sixteen-year-old boy was already taller than his mother...

In the TV series, when Lou Xiao'e first returned to the courtyard house, her child was only 12 or 13 years old, but that age is wrong!

The Lou family passed away in 1967, and it's now 1984. Seventeen years have passed, so it's reasonable for the child to be 16 or 17 years old.

Otherwise, it really would be hard to explain!

It wasn't until her second return, in 1988, that she finally reached the right age.

The fat man carefully examined Chen Xiao. Hmm, his eyebrows are like Chen Yan's, thin and curved; his eyes are like Chen Fang's, with wide and deep double eyelids and thin, slightly curved corners.

In other aspects, he was just like the fat man—handsome and dashing. His face was long, with arched eyebrows that reached his temples, and his hair was thick and black, reflecting a healthy, natural sheen under the light…

That's right, it's his child! He's a member of the Chen family!

While the fat man was carefully observing Chen Xiao, Chen Xiao was also looking at him curiously.

He couldn't explain why, but he felt a sense of closeness, an experience he had never had before.

The fat man waved to him, and Chen Xiao, who never liked to interact with strangers, inexplicably walked over and then timidly, like a newly hatched chick, slowly leaned against the fat man.

Lou Xiao'e stared wide-eyed...

This child has been introverted since childhood and is not very comfortable interacting with strangers. Especially after arriving in Beijing, where no one speaks Cantonese, he became even more hesitant to speak...

Unlike Sha Zhu's son He Sui, who is just like him when he was a child, a silly and bold boy who can quickly become friends with anyone.

He's incredibly audacious! He dared to go shopping with Xiao Dang on the very first day they met, isn't he afraid Xiao Dang will secretly sell him out?! Then, a thought might come to mind: "Serves you right for trying to steal my stupid dad from me!"

"..."

The fat man slowly said to his son, "Your father's generation all had single-character names. Remember, my name is Chen Kang. You also have three aunts named Chen Rong, Chen Yan, and Chen Fang, so you can't have a single-character name anymore. How about I give you a new name?"

Before the child could speak, Lou Xiao'e shouted, "Who agreed to this? Chen Xiao is someone I took one character from each of our names; it's very meaningful!"

Without hesitation, the fat man said, "Then let's name him Chen Mengxiao. I originally wanted to name him with the character 'Rong' (榕); 'Rongyin Guimeng Shifen Liang' (榕阴归梦十分凉), meaning his roots are not in Liangzhou, but here, in Beiping!"

Lou Xiao'e objected: "He was born in Hong Kong and has an ID card!"

It seems the Lou family eventually went to Hong Kong. In the TV series, Lou Xiao'e married a wealthy man, later divorced him, and received half of his assets. Could it be...?