Chapter 91 - Advanced Paymen (1/2)
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Brother Six keenly caught the brief expression that flickered through Xiaocao’s eyes. It looked like she was surprised? He barely restrained his desire to rub at the scars on his face and a feeling of confused doubt settled into his heart. Didn’t they already meet each other yesterday afternoon? At that time, the little girl had been so frightened by his facial scars that her face had turned ghost white. How come her reaction today to his face, which was scary enough to make any little kid weep, was simply surprise? He must have misinterpreted her expression!
He briefly glanced at Xiaocao and thought about saying something. In the end, he decided to stay silent and turned around to slowly walk towards the area where people were selling breakfast. Xiaocao looked around her and noticed that not a soul was in sight and quickly followed behind him. She definitely didn’t want to stay in that area by herself. If that group of scoundrels suddenly came back looking for blood, then she was dead meat in their hands.
Since Xiaocao was gone for a long time, Yu Hai was starting to get antsy waiting for her by the noodle stand. When he saw his daughter coming back with her tail between her legs next to a stern and ferocious looking man with facial scars, his first thought was that his beloved daughter was being bullied. He quickly limped forward and pushed his daughter behind him. He looked at Old Six warily and said, “Don’t be scared, daughter. Father is here and I definitely won’t let anyone bully you!”
Xiaocao simultaneously felt touched and tickled by his protectiveness. She smiled apologetically at Brother Six, pulled her father back to the stool to sit down, and explained, “Father, Brother Six wasn’t giving me problems. On the contrary, he had just saved me from bullies!”
After that, she broadly sketched out what had happened during that heart-pounding scenario to her father. Yu Hai pulled on her hand and inspected her from head to toe. Only after he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary did he slightly relax a bit and say, “The docks are very chaotic, so in the future you’re not allowed to wander around randomly! Brother, I was rude to you earlier, but thank you very much for saving my daughter!”
Brother Six’s face was as expressionless as before, and he only lightly nodded his head in reply. He opened his mouth for the first time to speak to Old Liu, “I’d like a bowl of noodles in soup without any bean flour noodles…”
Old Liu quickly ripped a piece of dough from a small bowl and skillfully rolled and cut the dough into sections. Within a short period of time, a bowl of delicious noodles was done.
At this moment, Yu Hai hastily took out a portion of braised pig head meat and a portion of pickled fish from the basket. He then placed them both in front of Brother Six’s bowl and said, “Brother, eat these two dishes with your noodles. Take them as a token of my gratitude for saving my daughter’s life earlier.”
Brother Six slightly raised his eyebrows but didn’t refuse the offer. However, when he finished eating and left, he had placed two copper coins on the table. When Yu Hai noticed the coins, he wanted to chase after the man to return the money but was stopped by Xiaocao who said, “Father, let it be. He doesn’t lack these two copper coins. Get ready, it’s almost time for the dockworkers’ break to eat their meals!”
Sure enough, when they looked towards the direction of the wharf, they saw a group of rough, old men chattering and laughing as they walked over. A few people who were more impatient walked briskly the whole way and started calling out to Xiaocao from far away, “Xiaocao, give me two portions of braised pig head meat, I want the fatty portions!”
“Xiaocao, Xiaocao! I want a portion of the pig intestines and one of the tripe…”
“Do you have any of the fish from yesterday? I want two of those!”
…
Despite having heard his son describe the situation over and over to him, Yu Hai was shocked when he saw it in person.
However, Xiaocao had become accustomed to this and calmly dealt with the crowd while also advertising her new product, “Old Uncle Hao, today I also made a new type of food. This is called blood sausage, do you want to buy a portion to try?”
“You have another new type of braised food? Give me a portion of blood sausage!” hollered a young fellow. He was behind the crowd of people surrounding her, and, despite his attempts at jumping around to get to the front, he was unable to squeeze through.
“Give me a portion to try, too!”
“Those of you in the front, don’t buy too many at once and leave me a portion of the blood sausages, ah! I absolutely believe in Xiaocao’s cooking skills!”’
…
The father and daughter pair worked together to receive the money until their hands started cramping from the effort. They were busy for over an hour without any chance to take a quick breather or break. The crowd gradually dispersed when the basket had about a tenth of the original amount of braised food left.
At this point, Old Liu’s noodle stall was also full of people at the tables eating noodles. The father and daughter pair could only find a rock at the side of the road to sit on to rest their feet. Grandma Liu was busy but sent the two of them each a bowl of steaming hot noodle soup. She smiled and said, “Yu Hai, Xiaocao, you two must be thirsty, right? Drink a mouthful of noodle soup and let it wet your throats.”
“Thank you, Grandma Liu. There’s no need to wait on us, I’m sure you have other things to do right?” Xiaocao took the two bowls from the old woman and gave one of them to her father. The other one she held in her hands as she drank in small sips from the bowl.
At this time, Xiaocao noticed that her Eldest Uncle, Liu Pei, Second Uncle, Liu Han, and her oldest male cousin, Liu Zhiwei, were at a nearby congee stall eating food. She put down her bowl of soup and took out a portion of pickled fish, blood sausage, and braised pig head meat to take over there.
“Eldest Uncle, Second Uncle, Oldest Cousin, you are all eating breakfast right now…Second Uncle, did you come to the docks to find work today too?” Xiaocao greeted the men warmly. In the previous two days, she had only seen Eldest Uncle with Oldest Cousin in the area. This was the first time she had seen Second Uncle at the docks.