Lu Xueping was arrested by the police station!

That day, Fang Xiaotong came over to eat rice noodles, and Lin Minjun learned the news from her.

She was stunned for a second and asked in surprise: "Why? Did she break the law?"

"No, it was said that he was released not long after being arrested, but he lost his job. Today our school even called all the faculty and staff to a meeting. I heard about it from others." Fang Xiaotong thought for a moment before speaking.

The last time she came here, she noticed that Fang Xiaotong and Lu Xueping were having some conflicts. Today, she happened to come here to eat rice noodles and said something casually.

Lin Minjun was quite curious and wanted to continue asking questions, but Fang Xiaotong only knew this much.

"Lu Xueping? Are you talking about Lu Xueping? How do you know Xueping was taken to the police station?" Aunt Cao's loud voice suddenly rang out.

Lin Minjun then remembered that Aunt Cao was somewhat related to Mother Lu, and she must know more.

Just when Lin Minjun didn't know what to say, Fang Xiaotong raised her head and glanced at Aunt Cao silently: "Don't you know? Lu Xueping always came here to pick a fight. She has some grudges against Xiaolin."

After hearing this, Aunt Cao's eyes rolled around. One was a distant relative with whom she had already become estranged, and the other was her current breadwinner, the boss who never delayed paying her wages every month and was especially generous with bonuses. She immediately sorted out who she should be close to and who she should be distant from.

Seeing that there were not many people in the store, Aunt Cao pulled Lin Minjun to a corner and asked, "Xiao Lin, are you really not getting along with Xue Ping?"

"I guess so. We had a fight." Lin Minjun didn't want to talk about what happened between her and Lu Deping, so she said vaguely.

Aunt Cao slapped her thigh and said, "You should have said it earlier. I know everything about this. Xue Ping was indeed taken to the police station because she instigated students to fight in school and was expelled from school."

"Oh..." Lin Minjun was a little speechless for a moment and didn't know what to say.

Fortunately, Aunt Cao's familiarity took care of everyone. She began to explain: "Xiao Lin, don't get me wrong. I have some relatives with the Lu family. Didn't I take a leave two days ago? The son of a relative in my hometown got married, and I went back to attend the wedding banquet and ran into Xue Ping's mother. Her mother said it herself at the banquet."

Since Aunt Cao couldn't get any advantage from Mother Lu, she stopped having any contact with her. In addition, ever since Grandpa Cao was put in prison, Aunt Cao felt contempt and disgust from Mother Lu, as if since Grandpa Cao had done such a thing, Aunt Cao should also be despised. After a long time, the two of them stopped having any contact with each other.

Aunt Cao also told Lin Minjun: "At first, Xueping's mother didn't explain the reason at the table. She just said that her daughter was cheated and slandered in the newspapers, and then she started a fight with the person who made the gossip."

"But all my relatives know the reason. It's because Xue Ping didn't live up to her expectations. She had a grudge against someone and went to the reporter to trick him. In the end, the reporter didn't fall for it. Later, Xue Ping even found underage students to help her fight in school. How could the police not care?" Aunt Cao sighed: "If you ask me, Xue Ping was also corrupted by her mother."

Instigating underage students to fight?

Lin Minjun finally understood the whole story. She widened her eyes and sighed in her heart. Lu Xueping had been confused in her previous life. Why did she seem even worse this time?

Lin Minjun asked: "Aunt Cao, what is your relationship with the Lu family?"

"We don't have any contact. I'm still the matchmaker for Lu Xueping's parents. Now Xueping's mother looks down on me whenever she sees me. It's disgusting." Aunt Cao said.

Lin Minjun was completely relieved.

Fang Xiaotong finished her rice noodles, wiped her mouth and left. The store became temporarily deserted. Lin Minjun cleaned up while chatting with Aunt Cao. They talked about all sorts of things and it was quite interesting. In the past, I always felt bored when I was alone in the store, but I no longer felt that way after Aunt Cao came. Aunt Cao loved chatting with people and could talk about any topic.

As they chatted, somehow Aunt Cao started asking about Yunnan.

Aunt Cao said, "I've always heard that you Yunnan people like to sing folk songs. Do you know how to sing?"

"I don't sing well and I can't sing folk songs." Lin Minjun smiled embarrassedly, but in order to satisfy Aunt Cao's curiosity, Lin Minjun cleared her throat and tried to sing a Yunnan folk song.

She learned this from her little sister in her hometown. Her little sister was luckier than her, she had both parents and was the apple of her family's eye. When she was old enough, she met the person she liked and they had already got engaged. When they worked together, Lin Minjun always heard the little sister humming songs.

She sang a passage softly, and Aunt Cao clapped her hands after listening to it. "This song is nice, but I don't understand the lyrics. What is it about?"

Lin Minjun chuckled: "It's about the girl waiting for the prince, waiting for her beloved brother!"

"The songs you guys sing are so bold." Aunt Cao exclaimed, her eyes falling on Lin Minjun.

"Aunt Cao, don't look at me like that. I don't have a lover!" Lin Minjun widened her eyes.

Aunt Cao: "I know you don't have one. I've been thinking about it too. Is there any suitable young man around me who I can introduce to you?" Her greatest hobby in life is to be a matchmaker and pair up single girls and young men. It's a hobby that ordinary people can't understand.

Lin Minjun is no longer opposed to dating or getting married, but she doesn't believe in Aunt Cao's judgment!

The two of them laughed and chatted for a while, and Lin Minjun turned around suddenly and saw a person standing in the dark at the door of the store. She didn't know how long he had been standing there.

"Oh my God! I'm so scared." Aunt Cao was shocked and thought it was a thief, so she hurried to get a spatula.

Lin Minjun looked carefully and said, "Don't shout, it's Brother Yan Li, why are you here?"

Yan Li walked out of the darkness.

He originally wanted to come over and ask Lin Minjun if there were always people coming to the store to cause trouble and whether he should solve the problem himself.

He also wanted to come over to see if Lin Minjun's mood was affected.

But when he reached the store entrance and heard the clear and soft singing, he stopped involuntarily. Not only did he stop, he listened to the whole song quietly.

Hearing Lin Minjun calling Yan Li "brother", Yan Li clenched his fists unconsciously. For the first time, he wanted Ah Jun to add another word after the word "brother" and call him brother.

Lin Minjun waved her hand in front of him and asked curiously, "Brother Yan Li, what are you doing here?"

There was a slight blush on her face when she said this. She had just had a fight with Aunt Cao, and her eyes were watery. Yan Li could even feel the breath she exhaled being carried to him by the wind, carrying a faint fragrance.

Yan Li was no longer worried. She didn't seem to be in a bad mood at all, so there was no need to bring up the matter again to make her upset.

"I just came to see how you are doing here. If you encounter any problems, you can go directly to the police station to find me, or let Erwa come to find me. He knows what to do." Yan Li quickly said, "I'm here to find Erwa."

"Nothing happened." Lin Minjun didn't take Lu Xueping's picking on her seriously at all. In her opinion, it was too trivial and not enough to cause trouble to Yan Lige.

Lin Minjun: "Erwa hasn't finished school yet, but he will be here soon. Please sit down first. I will cook some rice noodles for you. You can eat while you wait. Erwa will also need to eat when he comes."

"Don't say you don't want to eat, or ask for money, or I, as your younger sister, will get angry with you. Erwa helps me with the accounting and cleaning whenever he's free. You usually don't want to collect rent, saying that as a family we don't care about these things. Why do you start to care about money when it comes to me?"

Then he walked into the kitchen and started cooking rice noodles.

Aunt Cao had no involvement in what happened back then. Her husband and son had kept it a secret from her and had fooled her like a fool. But when Aunt Cao saw Yan Li, she felt inexplicably guilty and ran to the kitchen as soon as he came in.

Lin Minjun cooked the rice noodles and put a large piece of pork elbow on top. The pork elbow was soft and sticky, with skin and meat. When it was served, the marinated pork skin was shaking and filled the whole pot. "You are tired from work, always running around to catch thieves, so you need to eat nutritious food."

Yan Li looked at the big pot of rice noodles and didn't know where to start.

Lin Minjun brought him another plate of side dishes.

Today was a good day, and there seemed to be a lot more familiar faces coming into the store. Lin Minjun turned around and saw another familiar face standing outside, looking at her.

Lin Minjun walked out in surprise: "Director Su!"

The person standing at the door turned out to be Director Su. When Lin Minjun first arrived in the capital, she excitedly ran to the Lu family to ask for money and was almost cheated by Lu's mother. Fortunately, Director Su was there and forced Lu's mother to pay back all the money.

If it weren't for Director Su, Lin Minjun might not have been able to get the money herself, and of course there would have been no stalls set up later.

Director Su suddenly smiled, walked in and continued to look at me, saying with a tone of surprise: "It's me. I saw an article in the newspaper. It looks like you. Is it you?"

"It's me." Lin Minjun felt a little embarrassed. She could accept compliments from strangers without blushing, but when people she was familiar with praised her, like Erwa and Yan Lige, she would feel embarrassed and think that the compliments were too much and that she was not as good as what was said in the newspapers.

Director Su: "That's great. I'm so happy for you. I saw you setting up a stall before, but I didn't expect you to open a store in such a short time."

Lin Minjun: “It was all my friends who helped me.”

Director Su immediately said, "Don't be so modest. You can't do such a good job in such a short time just with the help of your friends. And that reporter can't be your friend. This is all your own ability."

Lin Minjun's face suddenly turned red. She invited Director Su into the store to talk and poured him a cup of tea. "Director Su, what's the matter with you? How is your daughter's illness?"

When Lin Minjun was still setting up a stall on East Street, Director Su came to see her once through Zhao Ning, hoping to ask Lin Minjun to help make contact and see if he could buy some more medicinal herbs.

Lin Minjun agreed immediately. Just when she opened the store, she needed to buy some things from her hometown, so she asked her sisters to help her buy some and bring them back together. After she gave the herbs to Director Su, she never thought about it again. But when she saw Director Su coming, she suddenly remembered it again.

Director Su nodded: "It's much better, a lot better, but it's impossible to cure a disease that you were born with in your mother's womb all at once. At least it's much better now. I can go out and walk often, and I think my mood has improved a lot too."

"That's good, that's great!" Lin Minjun was happy for her.

As they were talking, Erwa came back with his schoolbag on his back. He looked at them curiously. Lin Minjun stood up and said, "Your brother is here too, and he's waiting for you. Please take a seat first, and I'll entertain the guests."

"Okay." Erwa skillfully threw his backpack on the counter and opened his notebook to do his homework.

Lin Minjun said to the kitchen, "Auntie Cao, cook a bowl of tofu rice noodles for Erwa."

"Okay." Aunt Cao's voice came back from afar.

Lin Minjun sat back and continued to talk to Director Su. Director Su found that Lin Minjun also had a cooking assistant in the restaurant, and the smile on her face became even bigger. She got straight to the point: "I came here for another thing today. I want to ask you to cook a meal, a table of Yunnan-style dishes, which is equivalent to a banquet. Is that okay?"

"Banquet?" Lin Minjun asked.

"Yes, it's a dinner for us, with home-cooked meals from your place."

Lin Minjun agreed immediately, "Sure, when? At your house? Or at my restaurant?"

Director Su knew Lin Minjun had misunderstood as soon as he heard it. "No, no, it wasn't at my house, it was someone else's. It wasn't me who treated them, it was someone else. They wanted to eat Yunnan cuisine, and I thought that since you are from Yunnan and can cook, you must cook the most authentic food. I came to ask you for help, so I paid you anyway. Have you been to those big hotels? The chefs in some hotels cook delicious meals, and those who have money will invite the chefs to their homes to cook for them, and then they will pay them, it's the same as what you are doing."

Lin Minjun began to hesitate. She just thought that they were going to Director Su's house, and she agreed to do it because she wanted to help Director Su. But now she was told that they were going to someone else's house, and a stranger's house at that. She felt a little timid and didn't dare to go. She was afraid that she would not cook well and the other person would not be happy after eating. She was also worried that she would feel uncomfortable going to a stranger's house. Besides, she ran a rice noodle shop, not a hotel chef.

Director Su probably saw Lin Minjun's worry, and he quickly explained: "Let me explain it to you clearly. He is my old superior. He used to work in Yunnan Cadre School. He is older now. This time, it is his grandfather's birthday, and he wanted to let old friends taste the flavors of Yunnan together. That's why he thought of asking someone to cook for him at home. I thought of you, so I came to ask you. I will definitely give you a lot of money. You don't have to worry about it. If you want to go, go. If you don't want to go, don't go."

Lin Minjun was still hesitating, but out of the corner of her eye she saw Erwa winking at her, asking her to agree.

She thought of a lot of things at once, from setting up a stall to opening a store. Erwa gave her a lot of suggestions, and these suggestions were very useful and helped Lin Minjun a lot.

At that time, Lin Minjun knew that Erwa was much smarter and more adept at doing business than herself.

She thought about it and encouraged herself, "Okay, I'll give it a try. I can't guarantee that I can satisfy people when it comes to cooking. I only cook home-cooked dishes, not those more beautiful dishes. I can guarantee the taste, but the presentation will be what it should be. It can't be as beautiful as in a hotel."

"What we want is good taste. We are family, so presentation is not that important." Director Su said, "As for the remuneration, they said it would be 188, a lucky number. They will provide the dishes themselves. You just need to tell them the ingredients, and they will find someone to buy them."

"So much?" Lin Minjun took a breath of cool air.

When her store first opened, she could make six or seven hundred yuan a month. Later, after she was featured in a newspaper, her business got better, but the costs also increased. All in all, she made more than seven hundred yuan a month. This money was not easy to earn. She had to get up early and go to the market to buy vegetables, select vegetables, and clean up the store. She and Aunt Cao often felt overwhelmed.

Now, just by making a meal, which can be finished in one lunch, I can earn the store’s income for ten days.

Lin Minjun was only then surprised and glad that she had agreed to it. She also secretly thought in her heart that she must prepare this meal well and properly so that others would enjoy the meal and feel that the money was well spent and not wasted.

It’s more than a hundred each time. In the future, I can also go to other people’s houses to host banquets. Maybe I can pay back Brother Yan Li’s money earlier.

So the two of them started to make appointments and agreed on a time to come over to cook, and Director Su would take her there in advance.

By the time they finished discussing this matter, it was already completely dark. Director Su looked at his watch and said, "It's so late. I have to go home quickly."

Lin Minjun wanted to keep her for dinner, but Director Su waved his hand, got on his bike and left.

By this time it was completely dark. The capital at night was not like it would be a few decades later, always brightly lit and bustling with people. There were still many employees here, and they had to go to work the next day. They would go home soon after work and go to bed. The streets were empty.

Lin Minjun estimated that no one would come to eat rice noodles tonight. Erwa and Yan Lige were there, so she said, "Auntie Cao, let's start packing up. We'll close the shop and go home with them."

Aunt Cao responded and started packing her things quickly.

After packing up, Lin Minjun took Erwa and said, "Let's go. You take my car and we can have a good chat along the way. We have been too busy recently and haven't talked much."

Erwa had just finished eating rice noodles and was helping to clean up. Suddenly, he glanced at his brother standing not far away and smiled slyly: "Forget it, sister, let's talk about it tomorrow. I want to go home with my brother today!"

Since his brother came home, Erwa has been close to his sister for a while, but it is impossible for two boys to be really close. Erwa prefers to go home with his sister. At night, he sits on the back of his sister's tricycle, feeling the evening breeze and listening to his sister tell about the interesting things that happened in the store during the day. It is very interesting.

Lin Minjun's hand fell in mid-air, and she suddenly felt strange. It had only been a short time, and Erwa was getting close to his brother again?

Besides, why did she feel that his smile was so cunning?

The author has something to say:

I don’t know if it was my period or not, but I had menstrual cramps yesterday even though I never had them before. I even forgot to get up and ask for leave.

I have been resurrected with full health today. In the new year, I will challenge myself to update daily until the end!