42 It’s hard to describe

◎Food comes first◎

Li He shrank her head in fear, holding Song Jinyi's sleeve tightly. She felt the sleeve being pulled out of her hand. She opened her eyes a little and saw her walking towards the white figure.

She watched Song Jinyi walk over slowly, and then?! She actually hugged the ghost-like woman.

The two stood on the deserted street, leaning against each other. Song Jinyi said in a hoarse voice, "Sister Ruolan..."

Song Jinyi asked, "What happened? Why are you so haggard? The store is also like this. How did it become like this?"

After a long while, Xu Ruolan just uttered "It's a long story" and was speechless.

She first took Song Jinyi and the other person into the residence through the back door.

Several candlesticks were lit in the dim room, and the blazing flames melted the red candles, leaving long wax tears.

Li He saw Xu Ruolan's face clearly in the candlelight. She had a pair of light willow-shaped eyebrows and eyes that were like a pool of clear water. However, there was a hint of sadness and sorrow in her eyes, as if her heart was filled with withered maple leaves in autumn, hiding a bunch of unspeakable worries.

Just now she mistakenly thought Xu Ruolan was a female ghost simply because she was too haggard, with no flesh on her cheeks and no blood on her face.

Xu Ruolan sat in the chair, not knowing how to start for a moment.

She lowered her head, not daring to look into Song Jinyi's eyes. Song Jinyi handed the shop over to her because he trusted her, but she messed things up. She really had no face to see Song Jinyi.

Seeing Xu Ruolan's troubled expression, Song Jinyi guessed what she was thinking, but she had no time to comfort her. She said sternly, "As soon as I received your letter, I rushed back without caring about anything else.

You only wrote a few words above. Although I don't know what happened exactly, when I came back and saw the appearance of the store entrance, I could roughly guess what happened and what you were worried about.

When I was leaving for Shengjing and handing over the shop to someone else, you were the first person I thought of, the only one I could rely on. Now that something's happened in the shop, I ask myself, if it were me, would I be able to handle it better than you? The answer is uncertain.

But what I can be sure of is that if something goes wrong, I will definitely try to find a solution first, rather than trying to shift the blame to someone else.

Now, of course, I won't let you bear the burden alone. Since I invited you to run this store with me, I have already decided to stick with you through thick and thin. You'd better tell me quickly so that I can work with you to find a solution."

Although Li He was not familiar with Xu Ruolan, after hearing what Song Jinyi said, he felt a burning sensation in his eyes and an inexplicable feeling of emotion in his heart, as if he was immersed in warm water.

She raised her hand and said, "And me! I am also willing to share the burden for Madam Song."

Tears welled up in Xu Ruolan's eyes, and she didn't know whether it was because of Song Jinyi's words or because of guilt.

"Riding the same boat" is a very important phrase, especially when Song Jinyi said it so solemnly.

Xu Ruolan raised her eyes and met Song Jinyi's gaze, and saw that her eyes were full of trust and expectation for her. Xu Ruolan, who was usually eloquent, was choked with sobs and speechless at this moment.

After a while, Xu Ruolan nodded, and a heavy "hmm" carried her gratitude to Song Jinyi.

She wiped away the tears with her fingertips, cheered herself up, sat up straight, and recounted the events of that day in detail.

Since Song Jinyi left, Xu Ruolan and the temporary waiter took on the burden of running the shop. She was not comfortable with letting outsiders interfere with the making of tea drinks, so she let the waiter be responsible for doing odd jobs.

Xu Ruolan had to get up at three or four in the morning to prepare the rest of the ingredients and the cooking.

Fortunately, winter is coming soon, so the taste of this fruit will not be affected even if it is cut and left for a little longer.

There are countless customers every day. Xu Ruolan keeps repeating the process of preparing ingredients, making tea, and collecting bills until closing in the afternoon. Such a dull and mechanical life was broken one afternoon.

"Hey...why isn't this fruit fresh?"

Xu Ruolan, who was busy preparing ingredients at the kitchen counter, immediately put down her work and went over to ask, "What are you dissatisfied with, my dear?"

The man said the fruit was soft and rotten, and he didn't know how many days it had been left. Xu Ruolan took a look and kindly explained, "This fruit tea is usually served at room temperature or cold, but you insisted on having it hot.

Not to mention the color change when placed with tea leaves, even fresh fruit will look stale if poured with hot water alone.”

The man immediately started yelling, "Is this my fault?"

There were many customers coming and going during the day. Xu Ruolan didn't want to start an argument, nor did she want to delay the customers who had placed orders, so she could only waive the bill for this customer and then wrote a special sentence on the tea menu: Fruit tea is only available at room temperature or cold.

Song Jinyi asked: "Just like that?"

Xu Ruolan shook her head and said, "Of course not."

The commotion that day led some passersby who were unaware of the situation to believe that the ingredients in Songji Sweet Water Shop were not fresh. This bad news spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred.

There is a problem with this reputation. At most, there will be no new customers. The food is drunk into the mouth, and tea drinkers know best whether it is fresh or not.

Xu Ruolan originally thought that this matter was over.

Who would have thought that a week after that incident, another big thing happened - all the tea drinkers had diarrhea!

After hearing this, the official from the Municipal Bureau came over and sealed the food without asking any questions. Xu Ruolan felt that there was nothing wrong with the food, and she was not afraid of being checked.

She had seen this kind of scene before when she was a helper. The next day, she took the silver to the municipal office to seek justice. The officer in charge asked for a bribe of ten taels of silver.

As a result, she waited and waited, but no investigator came, and the seal was never removed.

Xu Ruolan usually does things calmly, relying on her experience from traveling far and wide. This is the first time she has faced such a thing, and she can't help but panic.

He was at a loss for a moment and spent two days in a daze before he came to his senses and quickly wrote a letter to inform Song Jinyi.

After Song Jinyi finished listening, there was a moment of silence. She pursed her lips and sorted out her thoughts.

She always felt that there seemed to be some clue that could connect the two things Xu Ruolan said.

Song Jinyi asked Xu Ruolan if she had gone to the municipal office to ask again.

Xu Ruolan said that since the store was closed, she went to the municipal government office every day, but the officers there were either too busy to see her or said that the cause of the poisoning could not be found for the time being.

She had no evidence to prove her guilt, so they kicked her out. This went on for nearly half a month, and it was clear that they didn't want to care.

Song Jinyi patted Xu Ruolan and comforted her, "I understand the situation now. Since there's nothing wrong with our things, there's always a way to solve it."

Song Jinyi stared at Xu Ruolan's face, touched her sunken cheek, and asked, "Sister Ruolan, have you had dinner tonight?"

Xu Ruolan shook her head. "How can I have the mood to eat after something like this happened?"

"No matter what, you still have to eat. If you keep going like this, your body will be damaged. Li He and I just rushed back and haven't eaten a single bite yet. Don't go to sleep yet. Eat something later and then go to sleep."

******

Song Jinyi ran her fingertips across the pot. There was no dust and it was very clean. It seemed that Sister Ruolan had no intention of cooking, but she still had obsessive-compulsive disorder and could not stand the mess in the kitchen, so she took time to clean it up every day.

She walked to the vegetable jar in the corner and saw that there were only a few green leaves and eggs, as well as some green onions and coriander seasonings. Fortunately, there was still something else, otherwise even if she had divine cooking skills, she would still be unable to cook without rice.

Li He also followed Song Jinyi to help. He picked up a kitchen knife to prepare the seasonings. He chopped the coriander and green onion, smashed them, and added a few drops of sesame oil and a little pepper. Song Jinyi heated oil in a pan and poured the boiling oil into the seasoning, making a "sizzling" sound!

When the oil gradually subsides, pour in two spoons of light soy sauce, a spoon of vinegar and a pinch of salt.

Li He mixed the ingredients in the bowl evenly, dipped the tip of his chopsticks in the bowl and tasted it. His eyes lit up and he said, "Where did you learn this recipe, Madam Song? It's delicious."

Song Jinyi smiled and said, "This is my exclusive secret recipe. This bowl of condiments is not only delicious when used for cooking, but also tastes great when used to mix with cold dishes."

Song Jinyi cooked noodles in another pot. When the noodles were cooked, Li He was responsible for pouring the prepared sauce evenly over the noodles, while she quickly beat three poached eggs, one in each bowl.

Song Jinyi forcefully pushed the noodles towards Xu Ruolan and said, "If you really care about this, eat more. I made this especially for you. After dinner, we can work together to find a solution to the problem."

Xu Ruolan was absent-minded for half the night, her stomach was empty, and she only came back to her senses after eating the hot noodles.

She realized belatedly that Song Jinyi only brought back Li He, and Xie Wuyang was missing. "Why didn't Xie Wuyang come back with you? And who is this person?"

"It's hard to explain in a few words." Song Jinyi sighed and told Xu Ruolan what happened in Shengjing, telling her how Chun Sanniang attempted the assassination, how she escaped, and how she brought Li He back.

Xu Ruolan looked at him in amazement after hearing this. "I thought things were tough enough here, but I didn't expect you to have to go through such a dangerous situation in Shengjing."

Song Jinyi said, "Look, I've already been through all the ups and downs, so what am I afraid of? Tomorrow I'll go to the municipal office myself. I don't believe you can turn black into white."

******

The next day, Song Jinyi went to the municipal office at the perfect time, neither early nor late.

As a result, as soon as she stepped into the municipal office, the people inside heard that she came for the Songji Sweet Water Shop incident and immediately drove her out mercilessly.

Xu Ruolan was waiting for her outside. Seeing her stagger out, she hurriedly asked how she was. She didn't want Xu Ruolan to feel pressured, so she could only force a smile and said, "These people are just eating the emperor's food without working. We can't count on them."

Xu Ruolan knew there was no hope when she heard this. She lowered her head and said weakly, "Then what should we do?"

Song Jinyi stared at the bustling street in a daze for a long time. She suddenly held Xu Ruolan's hand and said, "Maybe there is someone who can help me. You go back to the yard first, and I'll give it a try."