Liu Xiaohua watched as Lin Chuxia ate the last piece of braised pork and even burped contentedly, then suddenly broke down crying and ran away.
Aunt Liu’s face turned dark with anger, but she was helpless and worried about her daughter, so she hurriedly chased after her.
The guy beside them shook his shoulders even more violently.
“If you want to laugh, just laugh openly. Your head is buried in the food bowl, aren’t you uncomfortable?” Lin Chuxia tidied up the lunch box and put it back into the bag.
As soon as the mother and daughter left, the brother raised his head, his smile deepening the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes.
Seeing Lin Chuxia seemed embarrassed, “Big sister, I’m really not laughing at you.”
“It’s okay to laugh. After all, I’m also helpless facing people like that,” Lin Chuxia shrugged.
The brother saw that Lin Chuxia was a straightforward person and became less restrained, “It’s just that I’ve never encountered such people. Only you, big sister, if it were me, I really wouldn’t know what to do.”
“When you’re away from home and can help, of course, you should lend a hand, but you also have to choose people. Like those two just now, they act as if everyone owes them something. Even if I gave them all the meat in my lunch box, they might not be grateful. Rather than making myself uncomfortable, I’d rather let them be miserable.”
Lin Chuxia is not the type who burns herself to light up others; she’s not that noble.
They say merchants value profit, but what she values more is the exchange of benefits. She absolutely won’t do things that are thankless.
The brother chuckles again, “That’s really true. I see that girl and you, big sister, are not much different in age…”
Clearly being of similar age, yet the aunt calls her a child. She herself plays the child, but she expects everyone to accommodate her?
The two then shifted the conversation. The brother’s accent was from the Northwest, and hearing that Lin Chuxia was heading there to visit relatives, he warmly introduced the local customs of the Northwest.
After a while, the mother and daughter pairs came back. Seeing Lin Chuxia and the brother laughing and chatting, the old lady glared at Lin Chuxia.
This train arrives at the station around 8 p.m., and some people would eat some dry food towards the evening.
Lin Chuxia initially planned to have a good meal after getting off the train, but seeing the mother and daughter opposite taking out pancakes to nibble on, she took out a bag of meat buns from her space using the cover of her luggage.
The plump and white buns exuded a meaty aroma as soon as the bag was opened.
The brother, who got along with Lin Chuxia in the afternoon said with a smile, “You are really well prepared, and these were bought from the State-Owned Restaurant too.”
Lin Chuxia handed two meat buns to the brother without answering his question, “I bought a lot, if you don’t mind, brother, I can share them with you.”
The brother did not prepare dinner, planning to eat after getting off the train, and was able to bear it until then. But now, smelling the meat buns, he felt hungry.
“Then I’ll give you money,” and he started to reach for his money.
“No need,” Lin Chuxia insisted, stuffing the buns into the brother’s hands.
Not for anything else, but to make the mother and daughter opposite envious. She dislikes seeing disdainful looks.
Sure enough, Liu Xiaohua saw the plump white meat buns given just like that by Lin Chuxia, but not to her. After all the sweet talk her mom said at noon, she didn’t get even a piece of meat, and her eyes turned red with anger.
Aunt Liu also stared at the meat buns, grinding her teeth in anger.
Holding the two meat buns, the brother seemed to understand Lin Chuxia’s intent and helplessly shook his head with a smile.
This girl, as forthright as she is stingy, but this temperament really suits his taste.
He bit into a meat bun, his eyes widening, “Hmm? Where did you buy these meat buns? They are really delicious. I’ve lived for more than thirty years, and this is the first time I’m eating such delicious meat buns.”
Originally, he wanted to complement Lin Chuxia with two meat buns, but this bite, all his sentiments were heartfelt.
“Oh, I bought this bun while transferring buses at a bun shop. I heard that the owner specially went to Qin’s Buns Shop in Ancheng County to learn the craft. Initially, I hadn’t heard of Qin’s Buns Shop. Only after the owner introduced it did I learn that an ancestor of Qin’s used to be a chef at Prince Mansion. With this skill in making buns, even the Emperor wanted to take him to become the Imperial Chef,” Lin Chuxia earnestly spun her tale.
Nowadays, people are poor, not to mention TVs, even semiconductors can’t afford one per household. The most widespread form of advertising is still word of mouth.
Her advertising principle is not to disdain small acts of kindness.
Although separated by thousands of miles, what if these words had some small effect? Without TV or radio, people love to gossip.
Her brother nodded in agreement upon hearing this, “No wonder they’re so delicious. I have my sister to thank for this, otherwise, I might never have tasted a bun made by the Imperial Chef of the Prince Mansion in my lifetime.”
“Brother, I love hearing that, here, have two more.”
“Two is enough to fill the gap. Keep the rest for yourself, sister,” her brother said, somewhat embarrassed to accept more.
“No worries, I bought plenty…”
As the two were politely declining, an old woman across from them spoke, “If you bought so many, give us two as well. We didn’t even ask for your braised pork at noon. Giving us two buns isn’t too much to ask, right?”
The two who were hesitating, stopped and looked at the old woman.
The next moment, her brother took the buns from Lin Chuxia’s hands, “Actually, two delicious meat buns like these are not quite satisfying. Four would just hit the spot.”
Lin Chuxia smiled quite contentedly, “Perfect, I have four left, let’s enjoy them slowly.”
With a yell, Xiao Hua ran away again.
The old woman looked furious, glancing at Lin Chuxia, then at the man next to her.
Were these two ganging up just to infuriate others? This was really bullying too much.
Lin Chuxia alone was hard to argue with, and now with a man added to the mix, it was even harder to outtalk or outfight them. She could only stare helplessly, also worried about her daughter, she couldn’t even dare to stare too long and hurriedly went to look for her daughter.
Watching the old woman’s aggrieved back, Lin Chuxia let out a laugh, and the man beside her also started to laugh.
This blatant infuriating feeling wasn’t too bad at all.
Until the train arrived at the station, the mother and daughter did not return, presumably really scared of Lin Chuxia.
Big brother was packing up his things, asking Lin Chuxia where she was heading. It was dark outside, and it wasn’t safe for a girl alone. On account of the four meat buns, he felt obliged to offer help if possible.
Lin Chuxia declined big brother’s kind offer. With her skills, she wasn’t worried unless it was an extremely vicious fugitive. If such a criminal were encountered, having big brother with her would only be a burden.
She directly found a guesthouse near the train station to stay at.
After settling in her luggage, Lin Chuxia planned to ask the attendant about the public bus to Qin Yang’s workplace the next day.
Just as she reached the lobby, she saw the mother and daughter talking to the attendant, evidently about something that made the attendant visibly impatient, who eventually shooed them away.
The mother and daughter didn’t go far and just sat at the entrance of the guesthouse.
Lin Chuxia diverted her gaze and inquired from the attendant about the public buses tomorrow, the schedule and the time of the earliest bus.
The attendant was quite friendly to Lin Chuxia, sharing everything she knew.
Lin Chuxia thanked her and was about to head back to her room when she heard the old woman’s voice behind her, “Hey, comrade lady…”