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"The mighty Divine Dragon from the Nine Heavens, afraid of a local tyrant?" Yan Xiaobao turned his wrists with an air of arrogance. "Doesn't matter how many, I'll handle them all!"
"Bragging without even drafting it first!" Zheng Xiaoyu rolled her eyes at Yan Xiaobao in annoyance. "Zhao Erhu, nicknamed Brother Hu, has dozens of underlings. You think you alone can fight off dozens of people?"
"What's the big deal?" Yan Xiaobao nonchalantly curled his lips. "Forget dozens, even hundreds or thousands, I wouldn't flinch. I'm the most formidable man on earth."
Zheng Xiaoyu immediately retorted, "I think you're just the best at bragging."
"Alright, that's enough. Shut up and let's cook. I'm exhausted." Xia Rou massaged her temples, looking drained.
The matter with Sun Peng was, aside from her younger sister Xia Yan's illness, the biggest concern weighing on Xia Rou's mind. As she ate, she mulled over whether she should just take a few more days off to avoid trouble.
Lost in thought, Xia Rou instinctively reached for food with her chopsticks but found empty air; the three dishes were all empty.
Earlier, Zheng Xiaoyu had gone out to buy groceries but ended up running into Sun Peng causing trouble, so she didn't manage to buy any. They had to make do with scraps, which Yan Xiaobao cleared out completely in less than three minutes.
Staring at the empty plates, Yan Xiaobao looked disgruntled. "The food is so bad and doesn't even fill me up… Rourou, you don't care about me…"
Zheng Xiaoyu shuddered, her skin crawling, unable to muster any kind response.
Xia Rou said apologetically, "Let's go out to eat then."
Yan Xiaobao was a guest she had invited to help treat her sister's illness. Plus, he just chased off Sun Peng, which counted as lending her a hand. Serving leftovers to him felt a bit inappropriate. She just hadn't paid attention in the moment because her mind was preoccupied.
"Sure!" Yan Xiaobao immediately stood up, beaming. "Rourou, let's go eat some lobsters!"
"Do you know how expensive lobsters are?" Zheng Xiaoyu immediately grumbled in dissatisfaction.
"Expensive?" Yan Xiaobao was oblivious to the price levels in the Yanhuang Empire.
"Although Binhai is a coastal city, lobsters aren't widely distributed in our seas." Chen Long explained, "The high-end seafood restaurants mainly import lobsters from Australia by air, and they cost hundreds of bucks per pound."
"Hundreds of bucks? That expensive?" Yan Xiaobao looked puzzled. He had never used money, but occasionally on the island, he overheard his junior brothers discussing money—always in the millions or billions. Something costing a few hundred bucks felt almost like it was free.
"Talking big is bad luck!" Zheng Xiaoyu gave him a disdainful look, scanning Yan Xiaobao's simple casual outfit without brand logos. "You don't look like someone with money. If you think it's cheap, why don't you treat us to a lobster feast?"
"Sure." Yan Xiaobao nodded naturally, then spread his hands. "But I don't have any money now. When I left home, my junior brothers told me that when they ventured out, they always started from scratch. I'm their senior brother, so I must be better than them—so I didn't bring any money."
"Let's go. If lobster is off the menu, then little lobster it is."
Xia Rou made the final call, ending Yan Xiaobao and Zheng Xiaoyu's verbal spat and taking the group of three to the street behind Binhai University to eat little lobsters.
Summer vacation was the peak season for little lobsters. At the food street, there were countless open-air stalls selling little lobsters lined up like a dragon.
Luckily, with the sun still high and the heat lingering, there weren't too many customers yet. If it were nighttime during supper hours, finding an open table would be almost impossible.
The four of them—Xia Rou ordered six pounds of spicy little lobster. She figured one pound each for Zheng Xiaoyu and herself would suffice. Yan Xiaobao and Chen Long, the two men, had already eaten half-full at home, so two pounds each should do.
Fresh off the stove, the steamy, fragrant platter of spicy little lobsters was served up. Zheng Xiaoyu stopped bickering with Yan Xiaobao, focusing instead on diving into the food alongside Chen Long, sweating buckets and yelling "spicy!" while eating on in exhilaration.
Yan Xiaobao tried one spicy little lobster, scrunched his mouth, and said, "These lobsters are too small, plus they've been out of the water for three days. Not very fresh."
"I used to catch lobsters to eat myself all the time." Yan Xiaobao said matter-of-factly.
Though his voice wasn't loud, the food street was still relatively quiet at this hour, so the owner of the stall overheard him.
The stall owner, a burly man with a butcher-like demeanor, shirtless and covered in muscle, walked up looking displeased. "Buddy, you can eat nonsense but don't speak nonsense. Everyone in Binhai knows my lobsters are the freshest and tastiest. You call my lobsters not fresh—trying to tarnish my 'Lobster Liu' brand, are you?"
"Who are you calling 'buddy'? Me? I don't even know you, so why would I be your buddy?" Yan Xiaobao replied with a baffled look.
Next, he glanced at the greasy sign outside the stall with the words "Lobster Liu," wrinkling his nose. "Your sign is so dirty, breaking it would only dirty my hands. If you want to break it, do it yourself."
Lobster Liu let out a cold snort. "Kid, sounds like you didn't come here genuinely to eat. Fine, go somewhere else! I'm not serving you!"
Normally, businesses prioritize harmony to attract customers—this behavior was out of the ordinary.
But Lobster Liu wasn't merely a night market stall owner. He worked for the local tyrant Zhao Erhu, often using his patron's power to suppress nearby competitors, so he didn't worry about losing customers.
The infamous bullying of suppliers and big businesses was plain behavior like this.
Initially, Yan Xiaobao didn't particularly care for the spicy little lobsters here. Eating or not wasn't an issue for him. But Lobster Liu's attitude—especially the "get lost" remark—wasn't something he could accept.
"I've never had to 'get lost' since I was born, so I don't know how. Why don't you give me a demonstration first?" With that, Yan Xiaobao kicked Lobster Liu square in his gut.
Lobster Liu's massive body immediately curled up into a ball, rolling like a gourd from the stall onto the street outside.
The owners of nearby stalls, who had long endured Lobster Liu's tyrannical actions, secretly cheered but kept calm faces and quietly observed.
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