"Why won't you give it to my son?"
Xiao Pangzi's parent, Zhao Lili, questioned loudly in the group chat.
Next to her stood a little tyke with tear-stained cheeks.
"What are you crying for? It's just a little food. Is it really worth being so spineless?"
Zhao Lili admonished her son while keeping an eye on the group chat.
"Waaah, waaah, waaah, I don't care! I want braised lion's head. If I don't get it, I won't eat anything else."
Xiao Pangzi cried louder and louder, plopping down on the floor, flailing his arms and legs, "They all ate it, but I didn't..."
"Who ate it? Tell me!" Zhao Lili was furious after hearing her son's words.
This was clearly bullying!
"Liu Jiajia, Li Mingliang, Wang Ziwen, Liu Yiyi, Su Ping'an..."
As Xiao Pangzi reeled off the names, Zhao Lili tagged each one in the group chat.
"I just want to ask, since everyone is in the same class, why didn't my son get any?"
"You have to give me an explanation today. They're all children, what's wrong with sharing a little with my son?"
"Eating alone at such a young age, not knowing how to share, who knows what they'll turn out like when they grow up."
As soon as these words came out, Liu Jiajia's mother couldn't sit still.
"This parent, your words are a bit too harsh, aren't they?"
"It's just a little food, is it really necessary to make such a big deal out of it?"
"What, is your child an emperor, does he have to have a share of everything?"
Zhao Lili's temper flared even more when she saw these words, "I'm just asking why my child didn't get any, why are you so anxious?"
"And you call yourself a mother, with such a bad temper."
"My temper is bad?" Liu Jiajia's mother was instantly enraged by this sentence, "Truly, what kind of parents, what kind of children."
The two of them argued back and forth in the group chat.
After a while, the other parents who had been tagged surfaced.
Wang Ziwen's mother: "Oh dear, what's going on here? Let's not argue over such a small matter. We're all parents, we can't set a bad example for our children."
Liu Yiyi's father: "Exactly, exactly. Harmony brings wealth. Both parents, please calm down."
Seeing someone step forward, Zhao Lili thought for a moment and replied, "I don't want to make a scene in the group either. I just want to ask why my child didn't get to eat. My child cried as soon as he came back, and it made me, as a mother, feel terrible, so my tone was a bit urgent, a bit harsh."
"We are all parents, you should be able to understand my feelings, right?"
Upon seeing this message, Liu Jiajia's mother was speechless.
The other two parents were also silent for a moment.
At this moment, Li Mingliang's father surfaced.
"I just asked Mingliang about what happened. The braised lion's head was something he bought with money."
"Mingliang's mother got a meal card from Su Ping'an's father, and he gets an extra meal every lunchtime."
"His family opened a Small Restaurant, and Mingliang says the food is pretty good."
"Right, right, I just asked Yiyi too, her grandma also got a meal card for her." Liu Yiyi's father added.
Wang Ziwen's mother also explained, "Ziwen and Ping'an get along quite well. When the Small Restaurant opened a couple of days ago, he went to try it out and found the taste was very good, so he dragged his dad to get him a meal card."
At this point, the situation was clear.
"My family also got a meal card for the Small Restaurant." Liu Jiajia's mother retorted unhappily, then said sarcastically, "Of course there's a difference between paying and not paying. Making a big fuss in the group without understanding the situation, you really have a brain for nothing."
"Who are you calling brainless!" Zhao Lili angrily replied.
Xiao Pangzi's crying still echoed in the living room.
It gave her a headache.
Zhao Lili turned and glared at her son, shouting loudly, "Cry, cry, cry, all you do is cry, aren't you ashamed?"
"If you cry again, I'll send you to Grandma's house, and you'll pick up trash on the mountain every day."
Xiao Pangzi immediately covered his mouth, scared.
He definitely didn't want to go to Grandma's house.
It was old and dilapidated, even the roads were muddy, and there were no games to play. The TV channels were always the same few, and it was utterly boring.
"Hurry up and go back to your room to do your homework." Zhao Lili shouted again, looking at the now obedient Xiao Pangzi.
Then she lowered her head and looked at the messages in the group chat.
Many parents were already discussing the Small Restaurant opened by the Su Family.
"Really? Is it that good?"
"Su's Little Dining Table seems to be near the kindergarten, right?"
"My child is begging for a meal card, I wonder if it's expensive?"
"Ping'an's dad, how much is a meal card for your Small Restaurant?"
A parent directly tagged Su Haoze in the group chat.
"Eight hundred yuan a month, calculated at twenty-six meals, with meat and vegetables, and different dishes every week."
"Unused meals can be carried over to the next month and still be used."
"But not for more than half a year."
Su Haoze arrived late, skipping over the previous hundreds of messages, and replied.
Eight hundred yuan!
Are they robbing people?
Kindergarten only costs five hundred yuan a month.
Are they crazy for money?
Zhao Lili couldn't help but complain in her heart, but her typing on the phone was much more subtle: "I remember the kindergarten's food fee is only five hundred yuan a month. Ping'an's dad, isn't your price a bit..."
"This price is indeed a bit expensive. My family will just stick to kindergarten food."
"My family too..."
"Actually, I think if it's delicious, eight hundred yuan isn't a problem."
"If it's delicious, then eight hundred is eight hundred."
Seeing that some parents in the group were tempted to get a card, Zhao Lili quickly sent two messages, feigning concern.
"It's just, I don't know if it's good to eat."
"After all, what do children know about good or bad food? You just give him a piece of candy, and he'll say it's delicious."
These words were echoed by several parents.
"Indeed, children are young and can't distinguish much."
"Actually, kindergarten food is already very good."
"Right, right, extra meals aren't necessary."
"I'll just wait and see."
Zhao Lili showed a satisfied smile, watching as everyone started to back down.
Unexpectedly, Liu Jiajia's mother suddenly popped up again.
"Why talk so much? Wouldn't you know if you just went and tried it?"
"Besides, don't let another child cry because they're craving it."
As soon as these words came out, the group chat fell silent for a while.
Zhao Lili gritted her teeth in anger.
What did the other person mean? Wasn't she implying her family?
It was just a Small Restaurant, she didn't believe it could be that good.
The next day, as soon as she got off work, Zhao Lili rushed into Su's Little Dining Table.
There were only seven or eight scattered customers in the store, most of whom were middle school students studying nearby.
It seemed business wasn't that great.
Zhao Lili sneered, then looked up at the menu on the small blackboard.
braised lion's head with rice was sixteen yuan, and a vegetable and shrimp roll was eighteen yuan.
She shouted to the busy Su Haoze, "Boss, one braised lion's head with rice."
Nowadays, the stewed meatballs in Small Restaurants are basically all starch, not authentic at all. How good could it be?
Zhao Lili thought dismissively, with no expectation in her heart.
Soon, the braised lion's head with rice was served.
A strong aroma wafted over, instantly making Zhao Lili's stomach rumble.