"And this box of pastries—"
The waiter snatched the melt-in-your-mouth bean from the burly man's hand.
"This thing cost fifty coins, so I can't give it to you. I have to give it to the shopkeeper."
We'll discuss your benefits after things are settled.
"Alright, alright, as long as the benefits don't slip away!" Standing before the waiter at Yikousu, the one with the obsequious smile was none other than the poor, stingy man who had come from the Paradise Dessert Shop!
The waiter weighed a box of melt-in-your-mouth snacks in his hand, grinned, and said, "Perfect timing! My boss wants to try what the stuff from this pastry shop tastes like!"
Just how exceptional must it be to fetch such a price as gold!
"Cousin, do you really think this can bring down Paradise Dessert Shop?"
"Hmph, even if I can't, I can at least ruin its reputation!"
The next morning, the door of Paradise Dessert Shop was smashed open. Anle was still half asleep when she heard the noise outside the courtyard.
"Why is it so noisy?" Anle got out of bed, opened the window, and craned her neck to look outside. She saw An Ding and An Yi washing up by the well.
"Second brother, third brother, what's going on up ahead? Why does it sound so noisy?"
An Yi, still half asleep, glanced towards the eaves of An Le's house.
"I don't know, I haven't gone to see it yet."
Dad and Mom rushed over to open the door, and Auntie went over too.
"With your aunt here, you can rest assured."
When Anle heard that Liu Xiaoqiao was there, she immediately felt relieved. She glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was five o'clock!
I can sleep for another hour.
Just as Anning lay down on the bed, ready to take a nap, she rushed back from the shop in front of the window and hurriedly peeked inside.
"Little sister, little sister, wake up! Get up quickly, something terrible has happened!"
Anle blinked her sleepy eyes, yawned, and calmly sat up in bed again.
"What serious incident has occurred?"
An Ning, her face flushed and pale, scrambled in through the window, using both hands and feet.
"A guest ate our pastries and got sick."
Anle jumped off the bed with a start, "Fourth Sister, what did you say?"
"Our family's pastries have made people sick!"
They're causing trouble in front of our shop right now, demanding an explanation.
"Come on, let's go take a look." Anle hurriedly grabbed a coat and rushed out, but stopped abruptly as soon as she opened the door—
Then, the expression on that anxious little face immediately calmed down.
He walked out the door slowly and calmly, picked at his ears, and spoke in a gentle tone.
"Fourth Sister, how many families are causing trouble outside this door?"
How exactly did the food make people sick?
Did they eat something that upset their stomach?
An Ning was stunned.
"This... there's only one place. It seems like they got food poisoning."
I saw the child lying on the ground, his face pale, clutching his stomach, groaning softly.
Anle raised an eyebrow. "Just one family? Just one child? Do you know which household the child belongs to?"
An Ning scratched her head and frowned.
"It's not from any particular household. Judging from his clothes, he doesn't seem to be from a wealthy family. His clothes even have patches on them."
A family that wears clothes patched upon patched must be an ordinary farming household.
"Patches upon patches?" Anle raised his voice, then paused for a moment.
An Ning's words, "patches upon patches," suddenly reminded An Le of He Yusheng's words from yesterday.
[Good heavens, with such a poor appearance, his clothes patched upon patched, he actually came here to buy pastries and eat this expensive stuff? It's just unbelievable!]
Anle's lively deer eyes darted around, and the corners of her mouth slightly lifted as she smacked her lips.
"Hehe, patches upon patches? Interesting. Let's go take a look."
She had roughly figured out what was going on. It seemed that there was something fishy about the poor, stingy man who came to her door to buy pastries yesterday.
After all this roundabout stuff, is she trying to scam money from her family? Or what's going on?
There are basically two possibilities: either they're coming to her house to extort money from her, trying to scam her out of some cash.
Or they're deliberately trying to ruin the reputation of her Paradise Dessert Shop.
The first point is a minor matter. The second point is probably that someone wants to clean up Her Paradise Dessert Shop.
If it's the second point, then I'm afraid that poor, stingy man from yesterday was acting under someone's orders. If we investigate further, there's a lot more to it than meets the eye.
As soon as Anning and I entered through the back door, we heard a woman wailing loudly at the front door.
Stepping out of the front door, the first thing you see is a woman wailing and holding a baby on the ground, with the same poor, stingy man who came to the amusement park dessert shop to buy pastries yesterday standing next to her.
A crowd of onlookers had already gathered in front of the entrance, pointing and commenting on the dessert shop in the amusement park and the children on the ground.
"What a pity! It's not easy for poor families to have such a precious treat."
The child finally managed to get a bite, and it made them sick.
"If you ask me, this child is destined to be poor and unable to enjoy life."
"No matter how you look at it, the food in this Paradise Dessert Shop is no good."
We've never even seen those colorful things before.
How can you eat something you've never seen before?
Look, didn't this make someone's child sick?
"Good heavens! These haphazardly made pastries have made people sick. Who knows what kind of poisonous stuff they put in them?"
"..."
The onlookers chattered amongst themselves, creating a noisy scene reminiscent of a market, while Liu Xiaoqiao argued loudly and forcefully.
"Hey, hey, I'm telling you, don't block my shop entrance! Blocking my shop entrance like this is bad luck!"
Why do you two claim that you got sick from eating our pastries?
Why didn't you get sick from eating something else?
Just as Qiao Qiuniang and An Mancang were at their wits' end, Anle emerged from the front door and stood before the woman.
"Auntie, this child is in such a state, why don't you take him to see a doctor first? If you block my shop, will your child be saved?"
The woman paused in her sobbing, looked up at the smiling baby face in front of her, and then her wailing intensified.
"You need money to take your child to the doctor. If I don't get an explanation from the person in charge, how am I supposed to get my child medical treatment after I've taken the money?"
Anle's smile turned cold. "Auntie, so you're saying this family is the one who's in charge?"
The woman wiped away her tears with a flowered handkerchief.
"Where else could it be if not here?"
My child had an accident after eating something from your place yesterday.
This kind of thing never happens when we eat at home.
They've been eating coarse food and wild vegetables for six years, and they've been perfectly fine ever since.
If I had to pick out something new and interesting to eat, it would only be the pastries from your shop.
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