"Therefore, my clothes were ruined... From then on, through this bloody lesson and painful realization, I never dared to eat spicy hot pot while wearing white or light-colored clothes and pants again."

I was so regretful!

———Regret, but there's nowhere to cry.

"Hey...don't hot pot shops have aprons? Why don't you wear one too? That way you won't get wet." Yingbao knew exactly what was in her family's shop.

"Don't even mention it! It was my first time there, and I had no idea that a mala tang restaurant would offer such thoughtful things as aprons... Sigh, speaking of which, I'm puzzled. Wearing an apron didn't help at all. I wore one while eating the mala tang, but it still splashed up from every nook and cranny..." Lin Jiaojiao explained incredulously.

Yingbao was also surprised to hear this. How much must she have eaten? She couldn't help but give Lin Jiaojiao a thumbs up: "You're amazing!"

Wang Daniu also said incredulously, "I've heard of people making smacking noises while eating, but I've never heard of anyone smearing food all over their clothes even when they're wearing a protective cloth..."

You city folks are so awesome!

There are even more strange things happening in our village than in other villages. My son is just too ignorant!

…………

"Alright... let's hurry up and go. If we dawdle any longer, forget about getting hot pot; we might not even get to eat anything at all later." Yingbao glanced at her watch and realized half the time had passed, so she quickly interrupted the conversation.

…………

Ten minutes later, the group arrived at the entrance of Lao Ye's Skewer Hot Pot restaurant. Wang Daniu saw that the sign had the same surname as Yingbao and casually asked, "Yingbao, this isn't your family's shop, is it?"

Lin Jiaojiao was also surprised, and looked at Ye Ying with a questioning expression: "No way...really? Is it true?"

In surprise, he asked several identical questions in succession!

Ye Ying smiled without saying a word, raised her hand and pushed open the door to enter the store, followed closely by Lin Jiaojiao and Wang Daniu.

After some picking and choosing, everyone selected what they liked to eat.

Yingbao chose all kinds of meatballs... shrimp dumplings, fish tofu, fish balls, shrimp balls, romaine lettuce, bok choy... and so on.

Lin Jiaojiao chose thin rice noodles, wide rice noodles, sweet potato noodles... vegetables, and meatballs. She absolutely adores all slippery rice noodles!

Wang Daniu chose various kinds of noodles, vegetable noodles, carrot noodles, purple sweet potato noodles, hand-pulled noodles... plus three or five meatballs and a small amount of vegetables.

When it came time to pay, a disagreement arose. Lin Jiaojiao, being a generous young lady, insisted on paying for all three of them, but Wang Daniu argued that this was inappropriate, as everyone should do their own thing and bear the cost of their own meals.

It's easy to accept going from frugality to extravagance, but it's hard to bear going from extravagance to frugality.

“My mother told me that no matter what happens, you have to do your own things and not spend other people’s money. That’s not good. Over time, it will create a dependency and easily ruin friendships.”

Yingbao was about to offer to treat everyone to the meal, but after hearing Da Niu's words, she felt they made sense. Since Da Niu had said so, it would only cause unhappiness among the three of them if she and Jiao Jiao insisted on paying, so it was better to let things take their course.

Yingbao gave Lin Jiaojiao a wink, and Jiaojiao stopped insisting on paying. Then Yingbao deliberately went to pay first, mouthing the words "discount" to the clerk while gesturing with her hand to indicate the number five.