Chapter 293
Chapter 293
Li Zhiwei and Cheng Qingli arrived at the East Street and stopped in front of a restaurant with its doors tightly shut.
Looking at the restaurant, Li Zhiwei asked in confusion, "This restaurant looks like it has been here for years, why would it suddenly stop operating?"
"Speaking of which, the owner of this restaurant was originally the landlord of this shop as well." Cheng Qingli sighed with emotion when she thought of Qin Dong, the owner of the restaurant.
"It seems there is a story here," Li Zhiwei said with a smile.
"They say every family has its own difficulties. Uncle Qin, the owner of this restaurant, was a great cook. Later, he opened the Qin Restaurant. In the past, this Qin Restaurant was one of the best in the capital." Cheng Qingli still remembered that when she was a child, she had dined here with her parents.
At that time, the Qin Restaurant was always packed with no empty seats.
Later, when she passed by the Qin Restaurant again, she saw that there was not a single customer inside.
She was very curious at the time. With Master Qin's excellent culinary skills, why were there no customers?
At that time, Uncle Qin, the manager of the Qin Restaurant, was sitting in the hall, sighing heavily.
"Manager, are you not receiving guests today?" Cheng Qingli asked curiously.
"Little girl, why don't you go to another place?" Seeing the brightly dressed little girl, Qin Dong kindly advised her.
"Isn't your restaurant open to welcome guests? I'm here today, so why don't you serve me a few of your signature dishes?" Cheng Qingli found a table, sat down, and waited for Qin Dong to serve her some dishes.
"Little girl, we are not open for business today. Please go back." Qin Dong carefully persuaded Cheng Qingli while looking nervously outside the door.
It seemed he was waiting for someone.
"Is the manager afraid I can't afford the meal?" Cheng Qingli took out ten taels of silver, placed it on the table, and signaled the manager to hurry up and cook for her.
At that time, she hadn't thought about why the manager and the chef of the Qin Restaurant were the same person. However, in her impression, Qin Dong was the head chef of the Qin Restaurant; as for the manager, she couldn't remember.
"Yo, I say, Old Qin, didn't you say you were out of money?"
Before Qin Dong could persuade Cheng Qingli to take the silver back, a man walked in, grabbed the silver on the table with both hands, and weighed it.
Then he stuffed it into his own pocket.
"Wang Er, this is not my silver!" Qin Dong said anxiously.
"If it's in the Qin Restaurant, whose is it if not yours? Qin Dong, I advise you to hand over the silver quickly, otherwise, it's uncertain whether Qin Minghao can come back." The man called Wang Er spoke in a slippery and arrogant tone.
Although Cheng Qingli didn't know Wang Er, her intuition told her that this Wang Er was definitely not a good person.
Besides, he had taken her silver.
Thinking of this, Cheng Qingli stood up directly and reached out her hand to Wang Er, "Give me back my silver!"
Cheng Qingli looked at Wang Er with cold eyes.
Wang Er was taken aback for a moment, and only then did he notice that such a delicate and pretty little girl was sitting in the Qin Restaurant.
"Qin Dong, where did this pretty little girl come from? If you don't have the silver, using her to pay off the debt wouldn't be a bad idea, huh." Wang Er sized up Cheng Qingli with wretched eyes, while gesturing for Qin Dong to use her to settle the account.
"Wang Er, this young lady and I don't know each other at all. Don't mess around!" Hearing this, Qin Dong nervously blocked Cheng Qingli.
"Miss, you should leave quickly," Qin Dong advised Cheng Qingli.
"Your name is Wang Er?" Cheng Qingli ignored Qin Dong. Instead, she pulled him aside and stared fixedly at the man in front of her, who was half a head shorter than her.
Looking at Wang Er's pockmarked face and the buckteeth on his pointed face, Cheng Qingli couldn't understand how there could be such an ugly man in the world.
"Yo, little girl, have you taken a fancy to me? Don't worry, as long as you follow me, I promise you will eat well and live luxuriously!" Wang Er saw Cheng Qingli staring at him.
He was still imagining a drama in his heart where this beautiful young lady had fallen for him.
"Get lost!" Disgusted enough, Cheng Qingli scolded.
"I don't know how, why don't you teach me?" Hearing Cheng Qingli's words, Wang Er was not angry. Instead, he looked at Cheng Qingli even more wretchedly. He was even calculating how he would explain to his superiors why he didn't get the job done after taking Cheng Qingli back later.
After all, his master was targeting the Qin Restaurant.
As long as the Qin Restaurant collapsed, the business of his master's Yue Restaurant would definitely boom.
"Throw this man out for me! Beat him up severely." With Cheng Qingli's order, the guards hiding in the dark dragged Wang Er out.
Qin Dong, who was watching from the side, was dumbfounded. Could things actually be resolved like this?
"Manager, can you serve me my food now?" With the annoying person gone, Cheng Qingli looked at Qin Dong and asked.
"Little girl, the kitchen didn't prepare any dishes today. If you don't mind, let me cook a bowl of noodles for you!" Qin Dong said somewhat uncomfortably.
He actually wanted to go out and buy some ingredients, but his money had all been scraped clean by those people.
That day, Cheng Qingli ate the first bowl of noodles in her life, and it was also the best bowl of noodles she had ever tasted.
"Miss, after you finish eating, leave quickly. Those people are reckless and will definitely bring helpers. You are just a little girl, so don't clash with them head-on," Qin Dong said to Cheng Qingli with a smile.
"Why are those people looking for you?" Cheng Qingli thought to herself, even a simple bowl of noodles is so delicious. If he cooked a proper dish, it would definitely be even more amazing. But why didn't such a chef have any business?
"It's because I failed to teach my son well. That rebellious son of mine learned to gamble at some point. Not only did he lose all the family's land, but he also gambled away everything of value in the house. Now, only this ancestral restaurant is left. Today, the restaurant has no business, and I'm afraid it will also fall into the hands of those people." Speaking of this, Qin Dong let out a long sigh.
"Are those people from the gambling house?" Cheng Qingli asked in surprise.
"Yes! You should leave quickly! When those people go crazy, they won't show you any mercy just because you're a little girl," Qin Dong said, afraid that Cheng Qingli wouldn't want to leave.
"If they come, is your only option to hand over this restaurant to pay off the debt?" Cheng Qingli looked at Qin Dong and asked.
"I am useless. I can't even protect this little bit of ancestral property!" Qin Dong didn't directly answer Cheng Qingli's question, but his tone was filled with endless sorrow.
"Rather than letting your restaurant fall into their hands, why don't you sell it to me?" Cheng Qingli didn't know what she was thinking at the time, but she just said this to Qin Dong.
"But if you do this, those people won't let you off!" Qin Dong said with a frown.
He already knew who the mastermind behind the scenes was. They simply wanted to seize his restaurant.
"That's not something you need to worry about." Cheng Qingli looked at Qin Dong, feeling that she was really being nosy.
"Boss, it's that bitch who had me beaten!"
Before Qin Dong could say anything, he saw Wang Er storming in angrily with another man!