Chapter 73 Goodbye Lu Xiaoshuang

The boss looked at the money Zhou Yi put on the table and asked unhappily, "What are you betting on?"

"You go to the hospital for a check-up. I'll pay for it first." Zhou Yi pointed to the two hundred yuan on the table.

"If the investigation turns out to be flawless, then I lose. It means I'm not a skilled technician. I'm willing to pay this money."

"What if you win?" asked the boss.

Zhou Yi smiled and said, "If they find out there's really a problem, I win. If I win, you don't have to pay me back, but you have to provide me with mutton soup buns for six months. I might come here anytime during this six months to eat them."

Zhou Yi tilted his neck, nodded his chin and asked provocatively: "How about it? Do you dare to bet?"

The boss slammed his hand on the table and said, "Okay, if you win, I'll give you mutton soup buns for a year!"

Mutton soup steamed buns cost 1.8 yuan a bowl, so 200 yuan would cost more than 100 bowls. Even if you ate one bowl a day, it would take four months. Zhou Yi said half a year, obviously not trying to take advantage. Unexpectedly, the boss was even more straightforward and directly asked for a year.

Zhou Yi clapped his hands and said, "Okay, a gentleman's word is his bond."

The boss immediately replied, "It's hard to catch up."

The boss's wife quickly tried to grab the money from the boss's hand and said, "What are you doing with his money? Give it back to him."

The boss curled his lips and said, "It's a bet between the old men, so stay out of it, old woman."

As he said that, he stuffed the money into his apron pocket, walked to the back kitchen, turned around and said to Zhou Yi, "Come to the store on this day next week and we'll discuss the win or loss."

Zhou Yi shouted, "OK!"

He turned around and sat down to continue eating, but a smile of helplessness and relief appeared on his face.

"Aren't you afraid that your boss will cheat you?" Xu Nian asked.

Zhou Yi said calmly, "No, this kind of person has a stubborn temper, a straightforward personality, and is a bit chauvinistic. He wouldn't do such a thing as lying just for a win or two hundred dollars. That would be more painful than killing him."

Xu Nian chuckled and said, "So you deliberately provoked him?"

Zhou Yi glanced back, making sure the boss and his wife weren't paying attention. Then he whispered, "From what the wife said, we can tell that the boss won't listen. The more you try to persuade him, the more he resists. Besides being stubborn and arrogant, he also has a strong rebellious mentality. The most effective way to deal with people like him is to provoke them."

"You really are born to be a detective."

Zhou Yi smiled and said nothing. He had tried his best and could only leave it to fate as to what happened next.

He hoped that the boss's illness was not serious. He knew that the boss was a good man, and he didn't want a child to lose his father so early.

"So, you really understand Chinese medicine?"

"Cough cough cough," Zhou Yi, who was drinking soup, suddenly choked, "I know a little bit, I know a little bit."

"My dad also likes to study Chinese medicine. You can discuss it with him someday." Xu Nian said with a smile.

Zhou Yi was not sure how to respond when the proprietress came over and placed two cans of Jianlibao on their table.

"This is for you to drink." said the proprietress with a smile.

"No, no, we can just drink the soup." Zhou Yi put down his chopsticks and waved his hands.

"You're welcome. It's just a little gift from me. I've advised him to go to the hospital several times, but to no avail. Fortunately, young man, thank you so much." The proprietress said sincerely.

"Hey, I'm making a bet with my boss. I'm doing this for my own reputation, not for his. I really can't accept this."

"Please accept it. It's a small token of my appreciation."

The two declined for a few words, and when they saw the boss coming out from the kitchen, the boss's wife immediately opened the pull ring of the can and turned away.

Zhou Yi looked at the Jianlibao in front of him and smiled helplessly.

I picked it up and took a sip. Why didn’t I realize before that Jianlibao tastes so good?

When he looked up, he found Xu Nian looking at him with a smile in his eyes.

Zhou Yi's heart skipped a beat, and he pushed the other can over a little and said, "You drink too."

Xu Nian smiled and shook his head: "I never drink beverages, you drink it."

"Oh, drinks contain a lot of sugar, I understand." Zhou Yi lowered his head to eat, and no one spoke for a while.

After a while, Xu Nian suddenly asked, "Zhou Yi, do you have a girlfriend?"

The spoon in Zhou Yi's hand paused, without looking up, "No."

"So... do you have someone you like?"

"I just started working, so I haven't thought about this kind of thing yet. After all, I'm still young."

"Oh." Xu Nian pouted in disappointment.

After another moment of silence, Xu Nian and Zhou Yi suddenly spoke at the same time.

"What do you think of me?"

"What do you think of Brother Yan?"

Both of them were stunned by each other's question.

At this moment, there was a sudden noise coming from the opposite side. It seemed that someone was arguing and smashing wine bottles, which immediately attracted the attention of everyone around.

Zhou Yi picked up the Jianlibao and drank it while standing up and walking towards the door.

There is a barbecue restaurant opposite. The store is not big, but there are many tables, chairs and benches outside, so it can be considered a food stall.

Zhou Yi remembered that the food in this restaurant was pretty good, but it was mainly because of the atmosphere of the food stall that attracted many people who wanted to brag and drink.

It seemed that the customer and the store owner had an argument.

"It's those bastards again." The boss's voice sounded behind Zhou Yi.

"Boss, do you know those people?" Zhou Yi asked.

"Hey, a bunch of dropouts. They don't do anything serious. They like to extort students from nearby schools. My son was extorted by them. After drinking some horse urine, you can't tell your last name. They've been to many shops on this street, taking advantage of them and extorting money."

"Then why didn't you call the police?" Zhou Yi asked.

"They are all minors, under 18. What's the point of calling the police? What if they're locked up for two days and then come out and smash the store?"

The lady boss also said, "There's a girl working at the barbecue restaurant across the street. I heard she's a college student. These rascals have taken a fancy to her and have been causing trouble several times."

Zhou Yi's eyebrows stood up instantly. Are they so lawless just because they are underage? Do they really think no one can deal with them?

"Look, that's the girl. She's quite pretty." The proprietress pointed.

Zhou Yi looked in the direction the proprietress pointed and saw a skinny young thug with dyed white hair dragging a crying girl.

The next second, Zhou Yi's blood rushed to his head because that girl was Lu Xiaoshuang!

Zhou Yi rushed over without hesitation, and the boss didn't have time to pull him back.

The boss stamped his foot and said, "Oh no, it's broken."

The white-haired man had obviously drunk a lot of wine, his entire face was red. He tugged at Lu Xiaoshuang's clothes while swearing, "You little bitch, why are you pretending to be innocent? I'm going to kill you today."

Lu Xiaoshuang cried and held onto the door frame next to her, shouting for help, but no one came to help.

"Damn it, don't be shameless!" Seeing that he couldn't pull the man away, Baimao got angry and kicked the other person.

But just as he lifted his foot, a can of Jianlibao flew over from mid-air and hit him on the head with a "bang".