F{h*F 5/( V hapter 45 Great Harmony Restaurant
“Uncle, as a grown man, how can you have such thick skin?” Faced with the menacing middle-aged man, Xuexue wasn’t afraid at all and even started to shout loudly.
“You little brat, can’t you speak properly? Is it wrong to want a taste? Why can others have a taste, but I can’t?” The middle-aged man argued with complete conviction, growing more indignant as he spoke, his face puffing up with anger.
“Those who ask for a taste only eat one or two river snails at most, and there you go, grabbing a lotus leaf to fill up? Is that how you ‘taste’? Are you not blatantly bullying us?”
He had thought to take advantage of the fact that they were just a woman and a little girl, assuming they would be too timid to resist and he could get away with some cheap gains. Unexpectedly, this little girl was so sharp-tongued and managed to publicly expose him, leaving the middle-aged man feeling somewhat embarrassed.
“Everyone, don’t you think this ‘uncle’ here is bullying us?” Xuexue deliberately asked the crowd waiting in line to buy river snails and clams, raising her voice loud.
The crowd nodded in agreement, all saying that the middle-aged man was really behaving poorly. They sympathized with the woman and her daughter, braving the cold to sell at the market and struggling to make even a few Copper Coins.
“You…, do you know who I am?” Embarrassed by the pointing fingers, the middle-aged man was getting annoyed. Stiffening his neck, he tried to retrieve some face with his status.
In her past life, Xuexue had been timid and weak, rarely venturing into town, so she truly didn’t recognize the man before her.
“I don’t care who you are. You need to pay when you buy things.” Xuexue glanced at the man, indeed not recognizing him.
“I am a cook at the Great Harmony Restaurant. Would I covet a few rotten river snails? It’s laughable.” The middle-aged man held his head high, nostrils flaring with arrogance.
The Great Harmony Restaurant was the largest restaurant in town, usually patronized by wealthy citizens. It was beyond the reach of ordinary folks.
“Pfft! I thought you were some Wealthy Master Old Master! Just a cook.” In her past life as the Crown Princess Consort, Xuexue had even met The Emperor. Hearing the man’s declaration, she involuntarily snorted, thinking: What’s there to be so haughty about being a cook?
The middle-aged man, having used his usually impressive status thinking it would intimidate Xuexue into handing over the river snails, was taken aback when she showed outright disdain. Angrily narrowing his eyes, he glared at Xuexue, threw the lotus leaf on the ground, trampled on it a few times in a fit of pique, and turned around to walk away in a huff.
Seeing this, the crowd queuing for river snails started advising Xuexue…
“Oh my! Little girl, why offend him over a few river snails?”
“True that. I’ve heard that being a cook at the Great Harmony Restaurant means you have connections. You don’t seem well-off, little girl, how could you compete with him?”
The crowd could see the patches on Xuexue’s cotton clothes, clearly indicating she came from a poor family.
The auntie selling jewelry next door, also kind-hearted, saw the middle-aged man had walked away and hurried over to Xuexue’s stall, speaking earnestly, “Do you know who that man was just now, little girl?”
“I know, a cook from the Great Harmony Restaurant,” Xuexue replied absently.
“You know and you still offended him?”
“So what if I did? He does his cooking, I do my small business; we don’t interfere with each other.” Xuexue kept on working as she spoke, continuously packing river snails for the customers.
The auntie wanted to say more, but Xuexue put down her spoon, looked up at the still queuing crowd with a smile, and announced, “We’ve sold out of river snails and clams for today. Next time, come a bit earlier.”