Chapter 186 - Sold Out and Closing
“Then do you wanna have barbeque at Tang Yin’s house or do you wanna have it now?” Lin Yi asked.
“Okay… Tang Yin’s house……” Xiaobo muttered.
Twelfth graders went through exams almost every day, and just the mornings alone were half-filled with quizzes. Lin Yi may have entered this world as a bodyguard on a mission, the casual, laid back attitude he approached everything with had engulfed him- he was now a part of the school, the class, and most importantly, he was now his age…
He felt a lot younger now, and had started to use the perspective typical of a student his age. He grew to like chatting and bullshiting with his newly made bro, joking around with pretty girls…
He grew to like the school, the class, and… Tang Yin- the cute, prideful girl who got mad easily… But how long would all of that last?
Was it a few days, or a few months before he returned to his original life, losing everything he had right now?
Having experienced the joys and pleasantries of life, Lin Yi found himself looking back at his old life in disdain and exhaustion… There was nothing but anxiety and killing there, no passion, joys, or pleasantries whatsoever, just numbness whenever he confronted an enemy.
Perhaps it was time to have a talk with his old man? Perhaps this was the life his direction should be headed in?
Lin Yi and Xiaobo left the classroom at noon, having been kept in with the other students of class five because of the quiz they just had. Most of the other students had left the building already.
Mengyao and Yushu went to the second floor of the cafeteria, as usual, not minding the late release too much- they didn’t need to queue upstairs anyway.
The food street, on the other hand, was bustling with tenth and eleventh graders, who had much more leisure time than the twelfth graders under constant stress.
The food here wasn’t particularly clean, nor was it particularly tasty, but it was much better than what the school canteen had in both quality and price.
Mrs. Tang’s barbeque stand was extraordinarily packed today, completely surrounded by customers. That was how things were in this school- both good and bad news spread like wildfire, as could be seen from the whole love letter incident with Tang YIn.
It was the same thing with the barbeque stand- the first students falling in love with the food and aroma only attracted more customers, resulting in a very filled stand. After all, more customers meant better food.
As excited as Mrs. Tang was, she found the popularity a bit too much for her to handle- the ingredients would run out before noon. She probably had to go back home for more.
“Still wanna go?” Lin Yi said with a bitter smile at Xiaobo. “It’s so packed- we can’t really go and ask Tang Yin about going to her house anymore. You think Tang Yin’s gonna be able to answer?”
Xiaobo understood what Lin Yi was saying- Tang Yin was afraid of people suspecting her relationship with Lin Yi in the first place, and it wasn’t hard to imagine what sort of scenario would take place if they went up and asked something like that. The worst case scenario would be Tang Yin getting pissed off at the situation they pushed her in and call off the entire weekend plan.
“Then…… Should we wait for a while?” Xiaobo asked after a pause.
“Let’s go to the bookstore a bit- I wanna buy something.” Lin Yi nodded. “We’ll come back later, when there’s less people.”
Xiaobo didn’t know what Lin Yi wanted to buy, but his admiration towards Lin Yi was pretty much at its peak already- it was only natural that he’d agree to anything the guy said without thinking about it.
Lin Yi picked up a Xu Shihan concert CD and paid for it at the counter, much to Xiaobo’s surprise. “Boss, you like Xu Shihan too?”
“Oh… Uh……” Lin Yi wasn’t sure how he should answer the question. “A little, I guess……”
“A little?” Xiaobo blinked- the guy had come all this way for the official CD!
“It’s actually for a friend.” Lin Yi explained, not much of a choice left.
Fortunately for him, Xiaobo had moved on from the topic to Shihan already. “Boss, I like Xu Shihan too! They say that she’s one of the few maidens in the entertainment industry……”
Maiden? Lin Yi curled his lips, remembering the amount of maidens being proven otherwise? This superficial side of things simply couldn’t be trusted.
The two got themselves some beef noodles near the bookstore before walking back to school.
They were quite surprised to see Mrs. Tang’s stand gone already. The other stands were still running, however, meaning that there hadn’t been any officials getting rid of them or anything, which shouldn’t be the case in the first place- the stand owners most likely all had permits.
Lin Yi was troubled. “Xiaobo, was that the spot?” Lin Yi asked, pointing at where Mrs. Tang’s stand should’ve been.
“Yeah, but how come it’s not here anymore? Wait for me boss, I’ll go ask around.” Xiaobo said before running to the closest barbeque stand. “Mister, where did the Tang Barbeque stand go? Wasn’t it here just a while ago?”
The owner of the stand looked at Xiaobo coldly, seemingly a little salty. “Sold out and closed! It’s the same barbeque at my stand!”
“Nevermind then. Yours don’t taste good.” Xiaobo said swiftly before turning back to leave.
“Fuck!!” The owner cursed, very pissed off indeed- The Tang Barbeque stand had robbed him of almost all his customers! He had lost two thirds of his usual supply of students, and it was something that infuriated him.
He’d never paid the Tang stand much attention before when it wasn’t that successful, but couldn’t help but hate them in jealousy at this point. After all, he was a full fledged veteran in this food street- it was also why he had the frontmost spot on the street!
The veteran losing to a newbie like Mrs. Tang, naturally, put a very sour taste in Zhang Biaogan’s mouth. Some student even came to his stand looking for Tang’s, on top of that! He even said that his barbeque didn’t taste good!!
The point here was that this was the first day- who knew what sort of chaos it’d develop into in another couple of days, when news spread even further? Biaogan felt that it was time for action.
After all, his barbeque had been the best selling one when all of a sudden Mrs. Tang pulled out a new recipe out of nowhere!
With a solemn, pissed off expression on his face, Biaogan made his way to another barbeque stand. “Yo, Old Wang. How’s business today?”