Seeing Chen Ziqi curled up in a chair, holding a hot water bottle, and almost unable to open his eyes due to sleepiness, Chen Xu said, "It's closing time, hurry up and help."

"Um?"

Chen Ziqi raised his head in confusion, then reacted, threw down the hot water bottle in his hand, helped to move the tables and chairs in, and said, "Isn't there someone else?"

Chen Xu said, "You are so sleepy. I just asked you to go back, but you insisted on staying."

"Do you think I'm such an ungrateful person? It's your first day opening, so of course I have to stay and help." Chen Ziqi said, his hands moving quickly.

"Actually, you don't dare go back alone."

“…”

Chen Ziqi said she didn't want to talk.

There were only a few tables, and the two of them quickly cleared the table. Chen Xu pulled the door down, locked it, and sent her back to her rental house.

"Chen Xu, you sold a total of six bowls of noodles tonight, each bowl for 15 yuan, and the turnover is only 90 yuan. Let's calculate your profit as 50%, which means you only earned 45 yuan. The rent is 133.3 yuan a day. Your net loss is 88.3 yuan."

Chen Ziqi calculated the numbers for him as he walked, and finally said, "Listen to me, make some barbecue and sell it. Otherwise, if you continue like this, you will lose more than 7,900 in three months. Why bother?"

"You don't have to worry about this. You should focus on your studies."

"What study? I'm skipping school now, okay?"

Seeing that she was being stubborn, Chen Xu didn't expose her and said, "It's good that you can understand what is most important at this stage. The third year of junior high school is a critical period, don't let down your guard."

"I don't know what you are talking about." Chen Ziqi turned his head away and soon arrived at the rental house.

After Chen Xu waited for her to go in, he was about to close the door when he suddenly heard her say, "Chen Xu, how about you go to work during the day and I'll help you look after the store, but you have to pay me."

"I can't afford to hire you. You'd better stay at home." Chen Xu said with a smile, "Also, go to bed early."

With a bang, he closed the door and smiled at it.

After getting to know her more, he felt that this cousin was not actually that annoying, and was much cuter than his other cousins.

…………

The next day, Chen Xu worked overtime again. When he returned to his rental house, it was already past eight o'clock. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a pair of resentful eyes.

Chen Ziqi was huddled in a chair, saying pitifully, "Chen Xu, if you don't come back, I'll starve to death."

Chen Xu was surprised, "Didn't I order takeout for you? It shows that it's already been completed."

Chen Ziqi pointed to the table and saw a bag of takeout there, which had not been opened.

"Why don't you eat?" He was even more puzzled.

"I want noodles."

Chen Xu frowned and said, "You're so grown up, why are you still picky about food? Besides, if you buy food but don't eat it, it's such a waste of food."

"I don't care. I just want to eat noodles."

Chen Xu didn't want to argue with her, so he said, "Okay, okay, next time when I order takeout, I'll just order noodles for you, okay?"

"No." Chen Ziqi still shook her head, "I want you to do it for me."

Chen Xu was stunned for a moment before he realized that she was addicted to it. It was a little funny, "You live here, it's okay for me to cook for you, but what about when you go home?"

Chen Ziqi's expression turned serious, as if he realized the problem.

Chen Xu just said this and went into the kitchen to cook noodles. After a while, he came out with two bowls of steaming noodles.

Chen Ziqi sat up straight, picked up the chopsticks, and said, "Or, I'll transfer to this school and live with you."

"Don't." Chen Xu laughed. "If your father heard this, he would be heartbroken. Is he not as good as a bowl of noodles?"

"What do you know?"

Chen Ziqi said seriously, "Only my little brother and delicious food can't be wasted."

Chen Xu nodded and said, "Yes, I like to hear that. Call me little brother a few more times and let me hear it."

…………

After eating, the two walked towards the store.

Chen Xu said, "I've already told you that I don't need your help today. Why don't you just stay at home and sleep?"

"What do you care about me? I've been staying in the rented house for a whole day and I'm almost suffocating. Can't I come out for some fresh air?"

"I was just saying, it's so windy today, your nose is frozen red."

"I just have a cold." Chen Ziqi said, and suddenly saw a person standing in front of the store, and hurriedly changed the subject, "Hey, there's someone at the door."

Chen Xu looked over and saw a man whom he recognized immediately. He was the man from the first pair of customers who came to the store yesterday.

The other party also saw them and rushed over immediately, shouting, "Boss, why are you here at this time? What time is it?"

That angry look scared Chen Xu and the other man.

Chen Xu subconsciously blocked Chen Ziqi behind him and asked, "What do you want to do?"

"Boss, I've been waiting for you for a whole day." The man was Yan Qing, looking at him with almost tearful eyes.

Seeing that his face was pale from the cold, he was sniffing and looked a little embarrassed. He must have been waiting for a while. Chen Xu felt a little sorry for him and said, "You want to eat noodles, right?"

"Yes, yes. I want to pack two copies, as soon as possible."

"You're buying it for your girlfriend, right? Okay."

As Chen Xu spoke, he took out the key, opened the door, went in and turned on the fire, intending to make two servings for him first.

Chen Ziqi was moving tables and chairs by himself. Seeing Yan Qing standing there motionless, he said unhappily, "Hey, what are you doing standing there? Come over and help me."

"oh."

Seeing that she was a little girl, Yan Qing couldn't refuse, so he stepped forward to help move the tables and chairs. At the same time, he asked, "No, why are you open so late today?"

Chen Ziqi said, "We are a late-night snack shop, so it's normal to be open at this time."

Yan Qing was stunned when he heard this, "You guys opened a noodle shop and only do midnight snacks?"

"What do you know?"

Chen Ziqi heard the doubt in his words and was unhappy. She said, "This is called differentiated competition. The whole street is full of barbecue restaurants, but we want to be different from them and have our own characteristics, so we open a noodle restaurant."

Are you kidding me? Yan Qing opened his mouth and wisely swallowed the words back. I just felt that I was wronged. I made so many trips in a day and waited here for almost half an hour. I dared to invite them to open at night.

Chen Ziqi asked, "Did your girlfriend ask you to come over?"

"Well, she has a stomach problem. She has no appetite for anything except your noodles. She only ate some porridge the whole day." Yan Qing said, and couldn't help sighing.

Chen Ziqi looked at him with some sympathy, which made him feel a little confused.

"Your noodles are ready." At this time, Chen Xu came over with the packaged noodles.

After Yan Qing paid the bill, he ran home as fast as he could and woke up his girlfriend who was lying on the bed, "I got the noodles back."

Liu Bing jumped up, ran to the living room, opened a portion and started eating. After two bites, he suddenly asked him, "What are you doing?"

"Eat noodles." Yan Qing answered after having opened another bag of noodles.

"release."

"ah?"

“I think one serving might not be enough.”

"Uh--" Yan Qing felt depressed. He had been waiting in the cold wind for half an hour but didn't even get to taste it.

"Be good, go eat instant noodles by yourself, ah."

(End of this chapter)