Chapter 40
This year, National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival were celebrated together, making the city center quite lively.
At Wang Ma's request, the group of five reluctantly went to the city to shop, but after strolling around the commercial street for a long time, the atmosphere gradually eased.
"Who wants milk tea?" Yuan Li asked, biting on a juice straw as he stood in front of a milk tea shop.
"Big sister, you haven't finished your drink yet, why are you drinking again?!" Yuanli couldn't help but complain, and got a hard slap on the head from his sister.
"How can they be the same?! They're not even the same brand..."
Bai Nan instinctively covered the back of her head; she had just been about to ask the same question. It's no wonder they asked that; along the way, whenever they encountered a milk tea shop that Yuan Li hadn't tried, she would go in and buy a cup.
The main problem is that she couldn't possibly drink that much; the rest had to be finished off by the rest of them. Now, with every step they took, their stomachs churned, and their mouths were filled with a sickeningly sweet taste.
Seeing their resistance, Yuan Li immediately used the same tactic: "Waaah, you won't even grant me this small wish? I just want a cup of milk tea, not some expensive bag. Waaah, although this place doesn't have any luxury goods..."
She deliberately lowered her voice for the last sentence, and many passersby only saw a petite and cute girl expressing her little wish in a very aggrieved voice.
After hearing this, the passersby looked at Bai Lu and his group with accusing eyes, staring at them until their ears turned red and they were embarrassed.
"Truly an ancestor..." Bai Lu and Yuan Li were the first to be defeated, followed closely by Bai Nan. Xu Xin barely managed to hold on for another minute, but the four of them were eventually routed.
Yuan Li entered the milk tea shop with a happy smile, took a number, waved her hand, and led everyone to the next battlefield.
The four people, their faces ashen, were playing rock-paper-scissors on the street. After two rounds of fighting, Bai Nan and Xu Xin started playing rock-paper-scissors.
"Rock, paper, scissors!"
Xu Xin threw stones, Bai Nan threw scissors, and the two people next to him immediately gloated.
"Oh ho! Congratulations, Xiao Di! You've become Yuan Li's professional ox and horse again! Be careful when you get the milk tea later, don't spill it like Yuan Li, or we'll have to take a sedan chair back again~" Bai Lu's sharp tongue has reached a new level these past few days.
Yuan Li then said with a smile, "Bai Di, you're so unlucky. The three of us combined didn't even get as much as you did by yourself."
Do you need to remind me how unlucky I am? Bai Nan forced a smile, though there was a chill in that smile.
She seemed calm, but she was really at her wit's end. All along the way, Yuanli and his group would take a number and continue shopping. When the number calling device vibrated, they would have to send one of them back to get the milk tea, and seventy percent of the time, that person would be herself!
She silently looked at Xu Xin, her light-colored eyes gazing at him pitifully, which softened his heart.
However, he was rejected again.
Bai Nan coldly surveyed the three boys, inwardly scoffing, 'Men really aren't reliable at all!'
As he brushed past Xu Xin, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "It's not that I don't want to help you, but you look really happy, Nan Nan."
Bai Nan quickly smoothed the smile from the corner of his mouth and walked forward with an air of heroic sacrifice. However, after only a few steps, his heels couldn't help but sag.
She was indeed quite happy.
After all, she hadn't worried about such small, ordinary, and simple things for a long time, which gave her a down-to-earth sense of happiness.
The beauty of life comes from these simple and genuine moments.
However, the cruelty of life often appears in the next beautiful moment, and Bai Nan felt this malice the instant he pushed open the glass door.
Many customers were gathered around the cashier in the store, and behind the cashier stood a man in a store manager's uniform. He was angrily berating a girl, while another girl covered her face and cried.
Upon suddenly seeing them, Bai Nan stood there stunned until the shop manager raised his hand, ready to strike, before she finally reacted.
"stop!"
She shoved the crowd aside with such force that several customers were knocked away. After she passed, they all cast condemning glances at her.
"What's going on? Are you blind? Can't you see there are people in front of you? Apologize to me right now!" One of the girls who was bumped into quickly grabbed Bai Nan, but after seeing her eyes, she suddenly let go.
However, Bai Nan was ultimately stopped, and in that brief moment, the shop manager's slap landed squarely on Bai Di's face with a loud 'smack,' silencing the entire room.
No one expected the slap to be so loud. Even the shop manager himself couldn't believe it, and his hand, which had delivered the slap, began to tremble uncontrollably.
Why was he so angry just now? And why didn't she dodge?! I didn't mean to hit her! She just kept talking back! She insisted on answering one question after another! She wouldn't do what I told her to do first! That's when he got so angry he accidentally...
He turned his head in a daze, and after seeing the phones held up by the onlookers, he suddenly turned around and fled into the back warehouse.
Seeing that the crowd was growing, the shop assistants quickly stepped forward and asked everyone to step back and queue outside.
Most customers were quite cooperative, and soon only the uniformed staff remained on site, making Bai Nan, who wasn't wearing a uniform, stand out even more.
"Hello, customer, please wait outside the store. We'll call your number, then you can come back to pick it up. Thank you very much." A clerk noticed her and quickly stepped forward to persuade her to leave.
Unfortunately, Bai Nan had no eyes for anyone but Bai Di and Li Ling.
Yes, the person who was slapped was Bai Di, and the person standing next to him crying was Li Ling.
"Hello? Could you please queue outside first? Thank you for your cooperation."
The shop assistants were still trying to dissuade Bai Nan, but their voices had turned cold. She was very annoyed. For some reason, the manager had suddenly lost her mind. Usually, if they made a mistake with a drink, they would just scold them a few times, but this time she had hit her, and this happened during a holiday when there were the most customers, in broad daylight!
And that girl Lingling brought is the same. She's been here for three days, clumsy and always knocking things over, and she even talks back after doing something wrong! I'm so unlucky to be in the same class as her!
Her gaze shifted again, and the customer in front of her only irritated her more. She had said all the nice things she could think of, so why wasn't this person leaving?!
Bai Nan naturally couldn't hear the shop assistant's inner complaints; she only knew that Bai Di's condition was very strange, as was Li Ling's.
She was eager to get the two of them away from there, but the shop assistant in front of her kept blocking her way and saying something, which made her feel annoyed.
"Could you please show me your receipt? I'll check how long it will take, and then you can come back in to pick up your food..." The clerk pleaded until the customer finally looked at her.
However, this was not good news, because the customer said to her, "Excuse me, could you move aside?"
After saying that, the customer stretched out his long arm, quickly braced himself on the counter with one hand, and then leaped into the air with both feet.
The shop assistant gaped; if she hadn't known this wasn't a film studio, she would have thought Jackie Chan was shooting a new movie.
That move was absolutely awesome!
Unfortunately, not many people got to see it; besides her, only Bai Di and Li Ling behind the cashier were left.
Bai Nan grabbed Bai Di's arm with her left hand and Li Ling's wrist with her right, leading the two into the warehouse.
When they entered, the store manager was smoking at the junction of the warehouse and the back door, leaning against the back door alone, looking worried.
He looked surprised when he saw the three people, and quickly put out his cigarette the next second.
“Apologize,” Bai Nan said to him.
The store manager frowned, a struggle etched on his face. He had probably never been treated like this by a group of high school students before, and his adult pride was desperately pulling at his sense of morality.
"Who are you? This is a warehouse, no unauthorized personnel allowed!" After muttering a few words, he chose to put on the armor of an adult to deal with the situation.
Upon receiving this answer, Bai Nan narrowed his eyes, released the two of them, walked up to the store manager, and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Guess if you get fired for smoking in the storeroom?"
The store manager glared at him: "You're threatening me? Do you have any evidence? And you ignored my warnings and barged into the warehouse. I can call the police to arrest you, do you understand?"
Besides, do you even know our boss? You're just spouting nonsense.
Having worked in countless bubble tea shops, Bai Nan was not easily intimidated. She pointed to the security camera in the corner: "You should know whether it can be filmed or not, or have you lost your mind to this extent?"
"You!" The store manager was so angry that he couldn't speak, glaring at Bai Nan.
"I said I apologized!"
Bai Nan didn't want to make things difficult for him. Seeing the struggle on his face when he smoked in the warehouse, she had some guesses. Li Ling's attitude of not stopping him from beginning to end also indirectly confirmed the answer.
—This was probably Bai Di's mistake first.
Under Bai Nan's threats and moral judgment, the store manager finally temporarily abandoned his so-called 'decency' as an adult and took the initiative to apologize to Bai Di.
But Bai Di did not accept it, or rather, he did not listen to what they were saying at all, but instead lowered his head and immersed himself in his own world.
Bai Nan frowned as he looked at Bai Di.
Five minutes later, the store manager settled their daily wages, and then Bai Nan led them out of the store.
When the customers who were still queuing in front of the store saw them come out, they started whispering among themselves, and one of them even blatantly took pictures of them with his mobile phone.
Bai Nan stepped forward, covered his phone camera, and said in a very sincere voice, "Please respect the victim's wishes, thank you."
While he was still in a daze, she turned to the side and deleted the relevant videos and photos from her phone before bowing and leaving.
On the taxi that took Li Ling home, Bai Nan called Xu Xin to briefly tell him what had happened. She didn't care much about the reaction on the other end of the phone and hung up after a few words.
When Li Ling returned home, Bai Nan wanted to talk to her more, but she shook her head wearily: "Next time, Lingling."
After saying that, he ignored Li Ling's stunned expression and resolutely turned around and went downstairs.
The taxi was waiting for her downstairs. After getting in, she coldly said to Bai Di's face:
"Driver, to the First Affiliated Hospital, please hurry."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
