Chapter 55: Dine and Dash
For the first time in her life, Anji was witnessing something incomprehensible. Lizi and the old couple argued heatedly, yelling at the top of their lungs, but the onlookers who had gathered in the small residential area merely laughed and placed their bets. Gu Ying stopped Anji from getting involved in the adults’ fight, forcefully carrying Anji in her arms. The bodyguard appeared ready to dash at any moment.
"Gu Ying, I heard that dining and dashing was a common crime, but we’re offering to pay for the meal, aren’t we? Does it still count?"
Yan Ping wisely remained silent. She did not think Anji would get to witness such an embarrassing thing on her first trip down the mountain. All she wanted to show the little girl was the beauty of life and also the harshness of it. When she entered the Mystical Qilin Sect, her family would no longer be able to protect her. Even Lizi would not be able to accompany her. Gu Ying might be the only exception, but Anji had to count on herself for everything besides martial arts.
"Not all dining and dashing are considered crimes," Gu Ying whispered lowly as Lizi shoved a pouch of silver nuggets into the elderly couple’s hands.
With speed not befitting of an elderly man, Grandpa Wang grabbed hold of Lizi’s wrist with the perfect teamwork from his wife, who shoved that same pouch down Lizi’s collar.
"I said it was five coppers for each bowl. Do you think I’m blind?" she snapped.
Unfazed, Lizi wrestled the pouch and tossed it into the broken house, but Grandpa Wang still had a firm grip on her wrist. Grandma Wang quickly hobbled to pick up the pouch, intending to return it.
"The cost of flour has risen by at least fifty percent in the last thirty years," Lizi struggled to break free without hurting the old man. "It makes no sense for each bowl to cost only five coppers! At least make it twenty coppers!"
Despite struggling with calculations in her Math lessons, Anji knew the price for each bowl of chilli dumpling noodles cost more than five coppers. The herbs children picked from the mountain were paid more than this bowl of delicious noodles. Not to mention, the dumplings were stuffed with a lot of meat. How could it only cost five coppers?