During the afternoon business hours, most of the people who came to eat were local residents. The first floor was not even full, so Xu An asked Xu Kang and Xu Le to go upstairs to play with jigsaw puzzles.
In the midst of their busy work, a few people suddenly walked in. One of them paused when he saw Xu An, and whispered to his companion, "Why is there a new boss? Where's Boss Jia?"
"So you didn't listen to what I told you before, just like Qiangzi, you went in."
"I've been drinking too much lately, so my brain isn't working too well. How did Qiangzi end up in jail? Now I have to pay for everything myself when I go out to eat and drink. If only Qiangzi were still here."
These words made the others sigh as well. Ever since Qiangzi went to jail, their spending habits had plummeted.
In the past, when the weather was too hot, we could go to a KTV, rent a private room, enjoy the air conditioning, and play cards. Now, we can only find a cool shady spot under a tree to squat and play cards.
After a few words of reflection, the group took out sixteen yuan and handed it to Grandma Xu, then took two plates to get their food.
When getting food, we shamelessly took two extra bowls, and the four of us carried two plates of food up to the second floor to eat.
Seeing that only Xu Kang and Xu Le were on the second floor, they immediately felt relieved and put down their food to eat.
"The food at this restaurant tastes good and the portions are large. Two servings of rice are enough to fill up the four of us."
"This shouldn't be made with expired or near-expired meat, right? I heard that Qiangzi got arrested because of this."
The man who was speaking was slapped on the head and almost choked on his food. He couldn't help but shout, "Am I wrong? It's so cheap and the portions are so generous. Can't you even question it?"
"You didn't recognize these two small business owners? They used to sell boxed lunches across from the construction site."
"Speaking of boxed lunches, I heard the other day that someone found a cockroach leg in their boxed lunch. After reporting it, the restaurant compensated them ten times the cost of the meal. They really made a fortune."
As soon as he finished speaking, the other three looked at him and asked in unison, "Is this true?"
"I think it should be true." The person speaking didn't dare to make a guarantee and said hesitantly, "After all, it's just something I heard, so I don't know if it's true or not."
The four people's eyes met, sparks flying, and they instantly understood each other's meaning; they were thinking the same thing.
Looking around, they found that there were only the four of them and two children playing with puzzles on the entire second floor, which was a good opportunity.
The four men huddled together and whispered, "How about we give it a try? Ten times the compensation. This meal cost eight yuan, so ten times that's eighty yuan. That's enough for us to live it up for two days."
"I don't have any bugs on me!"
"I don't have any either."
"I only have a handful of sand in my pocket."
"Sand is fine!"
The group scooped up a large mouthful of white rice, then randomly sprinkled a few grains of sand into the rice. Afraid of being discovered as the ones who threw the sand in, they even stirred it with a spoon.
"Uncle, why are you throwing sand into your food?" Xu Le asked curiously when she saw them doing this. She put down the puzzle she was working on and walked over to their table, blinking her big eyes at them.
"No, no, little friend, you've mistaken something." The person closest to Xu Le quickly covered the rice with his hand to prevent Xu Le from seeing it closely.
"Yes! I saw it too, uncles. You took sand out of your pockets and threw it into the rice!" Xu Kang walked over and retorted loudly.
Xu Kang's voice was loud enough for Xu An, who was busy downstairs, to hear. Puzzled, Xu An headed straight for the stairs.
The four of them were completely bewildered by Xu Kang and Xu Le's question, and quickly lowered their voices to say, "Kids, you're mistaken. What the uncles were just sprinkling was sugar. Yes, sugar. The uncles love to eat sweet rice."
Hearing this explanation, Xu Kang was somewhat skeptical. Xu Le rolled his eyes and lowered his voice as well, saying, "Then, uncles, can you take a bite and show us? We want to know if rice with sugar tastes good."
As the four of them looked at each other in bewilderment, Xu An had already come upstairs. As soon as he got upstairs, he saw Xu Kang and Xu Le standing in front of the guests' table.
"Kang Kang Le Le, what are you doing?"
When the two saw that it was their older brother, they quickly went over and pulled him over, saying as they walked, "Brother, the uncles are so strange. They like to put sugar in their food. Does putting sugar in the food make it taste better? I want to try putting sugar in my food too."
Rice with sugar added?
Xu An subconsciously glanced at the rice on the table and found that all four of them had their hands tightly covering their bowls, looking at him with tense expressions.
"No, brother, they didn't put out candy, they put out sand. I saw it, it was sand, they took it out of their pockets." Xu Kang insisted on his opinion, convinced that they had put out sand.
"Heh, heh heh, ha, I was just joking with those two kids. I didn't put anything in, I didn't put anything in," one of the four explained dryly.
Xu Kang got angry when he heard this, feeling that they were questioning his eyesight. He stretched out his little hand to try to pry their hands off the rice bowl, but Xu An stopped him.
"Sorry, my younger brother and sister are a bit naughty." After saying that, Xu An picked them up, one in each arm, and carried them downstairs.
The two girls, still quite indignant in Xu An's arms, huffed and puffed, "Brother, don't you believe us? We saw it!"
"I believe you, brother."
"Then brother, can you tell them to take their hands away? We want to know if they put candy or sand in there." The two were still arguing about this.
"How about your brother gives you food with candy?" Xu An could roughly guess what had happened, but he didn't want to argue with the two children, so he immediately tried to distract them.
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