NOVPUB
Chapter 77: Chapter 69: Dare to Stir up Trouble? (Seeking recommendations!)_1
At this point, the waitstaff at the restaurant, as well as Zhang Jing and others, had been warned not to call Tang Qing "young boss" and similar titles, to avoid arousing suspicion from Tang Qing’s aunts.
When Tang Qing and his group arrived at the restaurant, it was already packed. If they hadn’t sent a text message in the morning to reserve the largest private room, there would have been nowhere for them to sit. This afternoon, Li Kai even said that if they had sent the text message half an hour later, the room would have been booked by someone else.
At first, Tang Qing was very worried that his aunts would overthink things upon seeing Wang Yan, as Wang Yan had been quite open about her admiration for him in the past few days. In school, this was not a big deal. As a student, it was normal to look favorably on those who do well in their studies and nobody would bat an eye. But his aunts and cousins, who were extremely detail-oriented women, wouldn’t think so.
Without empathy, their thought processes were different from those of his classmates. To them, an ordinary female classmate and an attractive female classmate belong to two distinct categories of people.
However, after Wang Yan was introduced by a nervous Tang Qing, her behavior made him breathe a sigh of relief. At that point, Wang Yan had regained her initially icy demeanor, acting indifferent to everyone with an air of keeping others at a distance. Neither his aunts nor his two cousins thought much of it. With such a cold attitude, they couldn’t imagine Tang Qing being interested in Wang Yan.
Seeing Wang Yan’s performance, Tang Qing secretly gave her a big thumbs up behind her back. She was indeed a brilliantly clever actress, far more reliable than Li Kai, who seemed a bit stunned and out of place.
Throughout the time they were getting to know each other, Wang Yan was like a different person. She didn’t show any intimate feelings towards Tang Qing, barely even glancing at him, yet, nothing about her behavior seemed forced or artificial.
His older cousin, seeing how cold Wang Yan was being, tried to make small talk with her to lighten the mood. However, Wang Yan, being a terrific actress, portrayed a lack of interest, which managed to evade the notice of their aunts, but the men picked up on it right away.
Li Kai was completely baffled. Wang Yan’s gaze towards him at school might not be warm, but it had never been so cold before. Just now, she acted as if she didn’t know him at all, like he was just some stranger.
"Old Tang, don’t you think something’s off with Wang Yan today? Why is she being so cold to us?" The reality hadn’t yet sunk in for Li Kai as he whispered to Tang Qing.
But of course, who could guess what was going on without knowing the whole story. It was like a brain-burning drama series.
"I’m not sure. But don’t worry about it, maybe something has come up. Just remember not to ask too many questions, okay?" Tang Qing hurriedly advised, not wanting any complications if Li Kai decided to get to the bottom of the matter.
"Alright, it just feels weird." Li Kai, who was completely puzzled, agreed.
"Just keep quiet. Today’s mission is to eat. Speak less." Tang Qing was afraid Li Kai would voice his doubt. If that happened, everyone would be screwed. What a mess it would be. The detail-oriented women would definitely sense something amiss.
After a while, all the dishes were served.
"Alright, everyone, feel free to eat. We’re all family here, no need for formalities like toasting each other. The aim is to eat and be merry." As all the dishes were served, Qin Yugang started eating and spoke up.
Hearing this, everyone else nodded. As students, they should act like students. If they start acting like adults, exchanging toasts like they do, it would be ludicrous. Neither Qin Yugang nor anyone else wished for that. 𝓃𝓸𝓋𝓅𝓊𝒷.𝓬𝓸𝓂
Hearing his words, and being a foodie, Qin Shiqi immediately started to enjoy a bowl of braised fish head. She was obviously loving it. Qin Shiyu, as always, was unruffled, occasionally serving more food to Qin Shiqi and her aunt.
Qin Yugang sat at the head of the table, with Tang Qing and Li Kai on his left and his aunt and his two sisters, as well as Wang Yan, on his right. After taking a few bites, Qin Yugang couldn’t help but lean in to Tang Qing and asked "Why did you invite that girl today?"
After all, it was a celebration dinner. It would have been normal if he had invited just his classmates, or if it was just a family dinner. But bringing them together seemed a bit odd. If it had been Li Kai, it wouldn’t have been strange since he knew him. But having Wang Yan, who he didn’t know at all, at this dinner party made Qin Yugang a bit puzzled.
"Well, we had a bet earlier that whoever did well on the test would treat the other. I thought it wouldn’t be right for a girl to pay, so I figured we might as well combine it, so I asked her to join us." Tang Qing explained. He was starting to regret setting up this scenario. It stopped them from being able to relax and enjoy their meal.
"You can’t have any ulterior motives." Qin Yugang warned, frowning. Although he trusted Tang Qing, he still felt the need to remind him. This girl seemed strange to him, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on why. Though she barely glanced at Tang Qing, Qin Yugang’s years as a policeman gave him an intuition that Wang Yan’s behavior was somewhat abnormal.
"Rest assured, how could I possibly be disloyal to Jiaxue. She’s just a classmate. Please don’t overthink this, uncle." Tang Qing laughed, although his heart was pounding with apprehension. His uncle, being a policeman, was able to detect flaws even in an Oscar-worthy performance.
"Hmm, I trust you. But if you do anything to betray Jiaxue, I’ll break your legs." Qin Yugang said sternly.
"No problem, if that happens, I won’t forgive myself either." Tang Qing assured him.
"Good. Next Saturday is your aunt’s birthday. Invite Jiaxue and her family over for dinner, understood?" Qin Yugang said again.
"Understood. Just leave it to me." Tang Qing grinned. It was then that he remembered his aunt’s birthday was coming up. He made a mental note to prepare something special for it.
"I almost forgot that you’re a chef now. Alright, it’s all up to you then." Qin Yugang said.
"Okay, no problem." Tang Qing replied.
...
Just as he had barely begun to eat, Tang Qing’s phone rang. He saw that it was from Li Jianguo and frowned. Why would Li Jianguo be calling him when he was upstairs? It must be something important.
"Little Tang, there’s an urgent situation. Some drunken men from the society are causing trouble downstairs and attacking our customers." Li Jianguo’s anxious voice came over the phone.
As soon as Tang Qing heard, he immediately realized the severity of the situation and quickly stood up to say to the other people,
"You continue eating, I’ll step outside to make a call." He didn’t want his aunt and the others to worry. It was just a few hooligans, after all. He didn’t want to disturb their meal.
"Little Tang, what’s so urgent?" Qin Yugang asked.
"Nothing serious, I’ll be back shortly."
Once Tang Qing finished, he quickly got up and left the box. By now, Li Jianguo was already waiting for Tang Qing at the stair entrance.
"Uncle Li, did you call the police?"
"Already did. The police should arrive soon." Li Jianguo quickly replied.
"Alright, that’s good, let’s go down and take a look." Tang Qing said before quickly descending the stairs.
The victims were a couple who were playfully eating when the man accidentally splashed some of the hot sauce from his chopsticks onto the face of one of the ringleaders of the hooligans. The hooligan became instantly furious and, fueled by alcohol, started throwing punches.
The assaulted customers had already been shielded by the waitstaff and Li Jianguo had also immediately reacted. After all, they couldn’t just sit by and watch their customers get beaten. That would surely mean the end of their restaurant.
Not far down the stairs, Tang Qing began to hear a slew of curses.
"You son of a bitch, dare to splash sauce on my face, fuck, hand him over to me. Today, if I don’t vent this anger, I’ll smash this restaurant."
The waitstaff, of course, would not comply. As the patrons ignored him, the drunk ringleader charged, punching one of the waitstaff to the ground and even kicking him. The other staff was too scared to retaliate, after all, they were just waitstaff. The ringleader’s underlings stood aside, watching the spectacle and were just about to grab the beaten customer when a voice rang out.
"Big brother, for just a little bit of sauce, beating people up like this is over the top," Tang Qing, parting the crowd, said with a laugh.
"Who the fuck are you, kid?" The drunk didn’t care who it was and started cursing.
At these words, the smile on Tang Qing’s face vanished, replaced by a cold expression.
"Slap."
Tang Qing stepped forward and slapped the man to the ground. The speed of the slap was so fast that the man was stunned for a moment, shaking his head to realize he’d been hit. His face stung, he knew it was likely badly swollen. His underlings were also stunned, their mouths open in shock.
"Sober yet? Clean up your language, and don’t bring parents into it." Tang Qing said coldly.
"Fuck, you three get him, are you just going to watch me get hit?"
But just as he finished speaking, six or seven chefs rushed out from the kitchen, wielding rolling pins, spoons, and the like as weapons. Li Jianguo was not foolish either, if they dared to wield knives, they’d be in deep trouble, even with Qin Yugang upstairs, they couldn’t act so recklessly.
"You... what are you trying to do, does this shabby restaurant not want to stay open? Huh?" Seeing the many opponents and their weapons, the ringleader was suddenly less confident.
"Whether it stays open isn’t up to you. What do you do? Where are you from?" Tang Qing asked with a furrowed brow.
"Fuck you..."
"Slap."
Tang Qing delivered another slap turning the ringleader onto the ground. This time hitting the other cheek.
Seeing their boss in such a state, the three underlings swallowed nervously, not daring to take rash action. It wasn’t that they were afraid of Tang Qing, but the group of chefs. They all fought frequently, but who knew what would happen if they drove the opponents to bring out knives from the kitchen, that was what they feared most. After all, they weren’t desperate fugitives, there were various types of hooligans.
"Now you should be sober, if you talk back, I’ll hit each cheek once." Tang Qing said fiercely.
"Are you all dead men, get him." The ringleader climbed back up, covering his face and not daring to step forward. He angrily yelled at his underlings, his drunkenness now gone, but his head was dizzy from the slaps.
"Big brother, there are over ten of them and they’ve all got weapons. We definitely can’t win this fight. We didn’t even bring any weapons tonight. The police are likely coming too, it’s best we don’t escalate the situation." One of the underlings came over with a bitter smile. They were also trapped, given the situation they certainly couldn’t fight. Moreover, the odds were high that the other side had already reported them, so it was best to leave quickly.
"You... wait for it, I’ll have your restaurant closed down. Let’s go." The ringleader was also scared by the slaps. Thinking it was always better to avoid immediate conflict, he would call more people later and show the restaurant’s owner his power. Also, this young lad pretending to be a student, he was going to smack him dead.
PS: Today’s third Chapter is finished, everyone please recommend it!!!
