Liu Haisheng, accompanied by his four little followers, was happily preparing to eat glutinous rice balls for the Lantern Festival.
Shen Jingyan brought out five bowls of glutinous rice balls and said with a smile, "Please enjoy."
A number of people had already gathered around the stall, chatting amongst themselves in small groups.
Liu Haisheng was an uneducated and incompetent man who spent his days loitering on the streets, causing trouble. However, he had a brother-in-law who was an official, so no one dared to mess with him.
People saw that Liu Haisheng clearly had his eye on Shen Jingyan, and his words were full of frivolous flirting, so they all felt sorry for the young girl.
Shen Jingyan, however, did not take it seriously. She had a hundred ways to subdue these few troublemakers.
Seeing that Liu Haisheng and his henchmen had all picked up their chopsticks and bowls, she deliberately said loudly:
"You promised me you'd finish all the glutinous rice balls! I'm not going to leave with you if you don't!"
Liu Haisheng chuckled, his actions and words brimming with lewdness: "Don't worry, I'll make sure you eat it all up!"
"That's good." Shen Jingyan said with a sly smile.
Liu Haisheng and his henchmen, smelling the aroma of the glutinous rice balls, were already drooling and picked up their bowls to shovel large mouthfuls into their mouths.
The moment the glutinous rice balls entered their mouths, the five people's expressions changed drastically.
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Why is it salty?"
Shen Jingyan just sprinkled a whole half pound of salt into the pot; no wonder it's salty!
The salty and astringent taste quickly invaded the mouths of the five people, as if a large piece of pickled vegetable had been stuffed into their mouths.
Several people were vomiting while grimacing.
She pretended to be both aggrieved and heartbroken.
"Oh dear, my glutinous rice balls! Even if you don't eat them, don't waste them!"
Liu Haisheng was so sickened by the spiciness that he was like a dog, sticking out his tongue and looking around for water to drink.
Several henchmen started criticizing Shen Jingyan, saying, "Do you even know how to cook glutinous rice balls? Who puts salt in glutinous rice balls?"
Shen Jingyan blinked her big, watery eyes, looking so wronged she was about to cry.
"I...I didn't know it was salt, I meant to add sugar..."
Some people in the crowd began to complain indignantly: "Do you think it's easy for that young girl to sell glutinous rice balls? She's eating their glutinous rice balls for free and then giving them a hard time. She's being completely unreasonable!"
"People like them don't know how to reason. It's really unlucky for a young girl to run into them."
Seeing that they had all put down their bowls, Shen Jingyan made a gesture as if to shoo them away: "Since you don't like my cooked glutinous rice balls, then you'd better leave now!"
Liu Haisheng slammed his hand on the table, his small eyes wide open.
"Leave? Do you know what it means to invite a god but not send him away? We ate your glutinous rice balls, so you have to come with me!"
He adopted an attitude of "I'm the boss, I can do whatever I want," and immediately tried to grab Shen Jingyan's arm.
Shen Jingyan was not intimidated at all. With a flick of her arm holding the spoon, she poured a stream of hot soup onto Liu Haisheng's hand.
Liu Haisheng was scalded and jumped up and down, while his underlings hurriedly helped him wipe his hands.
A burst of laughter erupted from the crowd.
"Big brother, you just said that you would only go with you if you ate all my glutinous rice balls!"
Shen Jingyan said loudly, "Everyone heard and saw it. You wasted my Lantern Festival dumplings, and you still want me to go with you?"
Stared at by a pair of bright eyes, Liu Haisheng, even if he wanted to cheat, felt a little timid.
Liu Haisheng regretted his boast earlier that he would eat all the glutinous rice balls, and he had said it so confidently.
I thought the glutinous rice balls would be big, plump, and sweet, but they turned out to be salty!
"Your glutinous rice balls taste so weird, they're practically inedible!" he argued.
“Since you don’t like it, I won’t go with you,” Shen Jingyan said.
"You little brat..." Liu Hai scratched his ears and cheeks angrily.
"Brother Hai, why waste words with her? Just take her away, what else can she say?"
Several henchmen rolled up their sleeves, ready to snatch the man.
Liu Haisheng slapped each of the four men hard across the back of the head.
"What are you fighting over? Can't you see how many people are around? If word gets to my brother-in-law, we'll all be in deep trouble!"
He lowered his voice and scolded.
Although he abused his brother-in-law's name to do evil every day, he always took advantage of others secretly and warned them not to talk about it.
His brother-in-law warned him repeatedly to behave himself, especially during the Chinese New Year period when the authorities were cracking down hard. He warned that if he got into trouble, his whole family would suffer.
Although he was a petty thug and had harassed many young girls, he didn't have the guts to snatch a young girl away in front of so many people.
If things were to accidentally reach his brother-in-law's ears, he would definitely lose a leg!
But he really couldn't bear to part with Shen Jingyan; her pretty little face made his heart itch unbearably.
He chuckled mischievously and coaxed her sweetly, "Little sister, I just want to invite you to dinner. It's a good thing, why don't you come?"
Shen Jingyan calmly pointed to the unfinished glutinous rice balls and said, "Once you've finished eating, I'll go eat with you."
Liu Haisheng: "..."
"Eat, eat!"
"You're usually so capable, how come you don't even dare to eat a few glutinous rice balls?"
Some people in the crowd let out mocking laughter.
There were too many onlookers. Even if Liu Haisheng had three heads and six arms, he couldn't possibly drag out and beat up every single person who was mocking him.
He roared angrily, "What are you laughing at? What's so funny?"
A few of his underlings laughed and said, "Brother Hai, maybe we should just forget about it..."
"Forget it, I'm not going to let the woman I've set my sights on get away."
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