Eating with a large group of people makes the food taste better; adults and children alike find it delicious.
DouDou and GuoGuo ate more than usual. They wanted to eat whatever XiaoTian and XiaoLi were eating, as if they were having an eating contest.
"Eat slowly, you two, be careful not to choke!" Ye Mei looked at her two darlings with concern.
"Mom, you eat your food, don't mind them," Su Xiaonuan said. "They're just attention-seekers."
“Yes, he’s a show-off,” Moxi said. “He was like that back in my hometown too. He would go crazy whenever a guest came, and sometimes he would cry and make a fuss. I remember a few times, my mom would put a bamboo basket on their heads and hit them with a stick.”
"How could you do this?" Ye Mei was heartbroken. "What if you hurt them?"
“Auntie, it won’t hurt,” Xiaohong said. “We have a similar saying in our village. That tapping is just for show; they won’t really hit you. It won’t hurt at all. I was tapped like that by adults when I was a child.”
Ye Mei breathed a sigh of relief, thinking to herself, "There are so many different ways people talk about things in the countryside. Which child isn't like that? It's normal to be happy when guests come over, and it's understandable to get carried away when you're happy. Is it really necessary to do this?"
Ye Mei fell into deep thought. She wondered if her parents and Mo Ran's mother would get along well in a few days when Mo Ran was going to pick up his mother.
"What are you thinking about?" Xiao Nuan nudged her. "If you don't eat soon, your porridge will get cold."
Ye Mei then picked up the bowl and drank two mouthfuls of millet porridge.
"Auntie, your breakfast is so delicious." Zhong Ling looked up after taking a sip of millet porridge. "From now on, I'll give you ten yuan a month for breakfast, and you can have lunch and dinner at the shop."
"That's too much," Ye Mei said honestly.
“Auntie, it’s not much. We live here, and we have to pay for water and electricity too,” Xiaohong said. “I also give you ten yuan every month, but we don’t eat ready-made meals every day. We help you cook in the morning.”
"Then my brother and I will each contribute thirty yuan a month." Tie Zhu didn't want to take advantage of the landlady, even though she wasn't short of money. "My brother eats breakfast and dinner at home, and lunch at school."
Xiao Moran and Su Xiaonuan exchanged a glance. They really didn't want to accept money from the children. If they didn't accept any money at all, it would make the children feel embarrassed. So, they whispered to each other.
Xiao Nuan concluded, “Since you’re going to pay for living expenses, ten yuan is a bit too much. It’s not like you’re eating three meals a day. Five yuan each per month is enough for my mom. Five yuan is enough for you to buy breakfast outside.”
"Boss lady, can the breakfast outside compare to what we make at home?" Xiao Hong asked. "Ten yuan isn't much, let's keep it at ten yuan."
"Listen to me, five yuan each, no more arguing," Su Xiaonuan said sternly. "You're not just eating and living here for free; I saw you helping with chores this morning."
“Okay, we won’t argue anymore,” Zhong Ling said. “Then let’s help out more at home so that Auntie doesn’t have to work so hard.”
...
As soon as Xinhua Bookstore opened, Su Xiaonuan went in and bought books and stationery. She also went to the department store to buy a schoolbag for Tiesuo. She drove it to school herself and gave it to the teacher, claiming to be Tiesuo's parent.
Tiesuo is a child with low self-esteem, and her mother doesn't want her child to be bullied at school.
After that, she drove to the restaurant.
It was not yet ten o'clock, and the shop owners and employees were busy running around, while the customers who wanted to eat had not arrived yet.
This is a famous food street in the provincial capital. People who go shopping don't come here for breakfast; they come here for lunch and dinner.
A large crowd had gathered in front of Jiuya Restaurant; they were all restaurant owners and waiters from this street.
They all knew about the fire at the food street last night.
After Xiao Nuan and the others put out the fire and left, some people rushed over after seeing the flames, but by then the fire was already out.
These neighbors were already familiar faces to her. Su Xiaonuan parked her car and waved to them. "Good morning, everyone!"
"Boss lady, have you found the cause of the fire?" someone asked her anxiously as they approached her. "Luckily you put out the fire in time. If it had caught fire, our whole street would have been burned to the ground."
Not yet.
“The fire brigade came to inspect your store yesterday, and the fire broke out right after they left. I hope there wasn’t anything wrong with that?” Another shop owner was also worried. “Our street has always been quite good at fire prevention. Even fire inspections are conducted regularly, never like this, which is a surprise inspection.”
"It has nothing to do with the fire department, so please don't make wild guesses." Su Xiaonuan raised her hand and pressed it down. "It's probably because someone was jealous that they did this. Luckily, we found out before it caused any major damage. It only burned down the storeroom. On the contrary, thanks to the fire department's reminder, the employees who were temporarily staying in the shop moved out. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unimaginable."
As she spoke, her eyes scanned the crowd like radar.
She remembered the changes in everyone's faces.
I wanted to find some clues on these people's faces.
Hearing her say that, everyone started whispering among themselves.
"Boss lady, could it be that a competitor set the fire out of jealousy?" someone asked.
“Impossible,” someone retorted. “If it were a competitor doing this, they would be courting death. If they burned down Jiuya Restaurant, all the restaurants on this street would follow suit. Nobody would do something as stupid as killing a hundred people and hurting themselves a thousand.”
“Yeah, I also think it can’t be someone from the same industry.” Someone else said loudly. “Boss lady, could it be someone you have a personal grudge against? I’m sure this fire wasn’t started by us merchants. On this point, we are all in the same business chain.”
...
"Then think about it, were there any suspicious people around yesterday?" Su Xiaonuan said. "The bigger the tree, the more the wind blows. My shop has been in the newspapers several times, as you all know. The human traffickers' hideout was raided, and it was also related to my shop. Think carefully, were there any suspicious people around yesterday or in the last few days? If they wanted to burn down my shop, they would definitely have come to scout it out beforehand."
She's trying to mobilize the masses to solve the case.
"Boss lady, if the arsonist came to scout the place, he'd be coming to your shop anyway."
"That's not necessarily true." Su Xiaonuan looked around and pointed to the shops next to her own. "The neighbors on the left and right are good places for them to scout out the area, and those two-story buildings, where they can sit up and see everything clearly from here, are also the best places to scout out the area."
Mr. Zhu, the owner of the Grand Hyatt Hotel, had been silent until he heard this. He then pushed his way to the front and said, “I remember now. Last night, two women were eating at a table by the window upstairs in the Grand Hyatt.”
"When?" Su Xiaonuan's heart was in her throat.
"It was when the fire brigade came to your store," said Mr. Zhu. "The two of them were eating in my store, but their eyes kept staring at your store, and they were saying bad things about your store. At that time, I didn't hold back and said a few words to them, which ended up making things a bit unpleasant."
"Thank you, Boss Zhu, for providing me with this important information," Su Xiaonuan said to everyone. "Go back to the shop and get back to work."
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