Rebirth 90: The Long Road to Finding a Son

The last time they came to Mafang City, they came and left in a hurry. They ate a lot of special foods in Jiangyuan City. Now, Qian Jincai and his son want to try more special dishes of Mafang City, otherwise it will be difficult to come back after arriving in the provincial capital.

Several people went downstairs and left the hotel, and walked slowly along Zhanqian Street, where there were various restaurants and small vendors. When they were almost at the end of the street, they saw a sealed restaurant with its sign still hanging.

Old Mrs. Qian was shocked, thinking that the noodle shop owned by the second son and his wife should be here, so she hurriedly took them away. When they were alone, she told her family, "When you go out, don't tell others where you are from or your name. It will be troublesome if the second son gets involved!"

After saying this, the rest of the group also became nervous and no longer acted as arrogantly as before. The group found a restaurant in a very low-key manner, ordered a box lunch and a bottle of drink, ate in silence, and quickly returned to the hotel to rest.

When they got to the room, Qian Jincai said, "Mom, aren't you being too cautious? As long as we don't tell anyone about ourselves and eat and drink, who would know that we have a relationship with the second child?"

Old Madam Qian replied, "That's true. I've been having a lot of trouble at home lately and I'm scared. I'd better be careful. I'd better be careful."

Qian Jincai said nonchalantly, "Mom, why are you getting less courageous as you get older? You weren't like this when we went to Jiangyuan City a few days ago!"

Old Mrs. Qian still felt uneasy and explained, "We are out of town, who would know us? We are not out of town yet, and there are people from the village working here. What if we run into trouble?"

Qian Jincai curled his lips and said, "How can those people from our village who work in the city hang out all day? Besides, this city is so big, and there are only a few people. How can it be so easy to run into them? What can we do if the people in the village recognize us? We haven't committed any crime, and the police haven't arrested us. What can they do to us?"

Qian Longbin echoed, "Grandma, what my dad said is absolutely right. Just don't worry. We'll go out for a walk tomorrow and leave by car the day after tomorrow. What can go wrong?"

Mrs. Qian was finally relieved after being persuaded by the father and son. But she said, "Then how about this, you guys go shopping tomorrow, and I'll stay in the house to watch over the luggage. We brought a lot of valuables this time, and it would be terrible if they were lost. Bring me some delicious food. It's so cold, and I'm too lazy to go out!"

That was the deal, and after chatting for a while, everyone went to bed.

Qian Meijuan felt like she was dreaming. She lay on the bed and stared at the window outlined by the moonlight. She didn't know how long it took before she woke up. She slept soundly and dreamed that she was running freely in the wilderness in her new dress. She was in a good mood when she woke up in the morning.

In the morning, the family drank mutton soup and ate delicious and crispy sesame cakes downstairs of the hotel. They also asked the store owner what delicious restaurants and special snacks there were in the city.

The shop owner responded enthusiastically, "For snacks, there's a fried meat place that does great work, it's in XXX. For restaurants, there's a Huimin Restaurant that's opened in recent months, just inside the entrance of XX Hutong. It's affordable, the portions are large, and the food is delicious. If it weren't for the distance from where I live, I'd go there several times a month."

Several people wrote down what the boss recommended. Mrs. Qian was quite fat, and she had to rest several times when going up and down the stairs. She didn't want to go out, so she went back to the hotel after drinking the mutton soup. The others went out to eat and drink with the huge sum of 200 yuan given by Mrs. Qian.

The group had just come out of the mutton soup restaurant and were strolling around the area. They passed by a fried skewers shop and bought some fried skewers to share. Then they took a taxi and asked the driver to take them to the snack street in the downtown area, where there were more types of snacks and they were more authentic.

In the snack street, several people were dazzled by the sight and wanted to try everything, so they simply bought smaller amounts of each kind of snack, focusing on the idea of ​​"sharing everything equally".

With the presence of Qian Jincai and Qian Longbin, it was not a problem to solve the problem of food. Besides, rural people have a large appetite. The four of them spent 70 to 80 yuan just on snacks.

After eating and drinking, the group went to a free park that had just been built nearby. They strolled around the park and found that the lives of city dwellers were much richer than those of rural people.

Even in such a cold day, there were still many people in the park, some were taking a walk, some were walking their kids, some were playing badminton, and some were dancing the Yangko. It was really lively. They were so happy that they even danced with the old men and women for a while.

Then they went to the big shopping mall. Qian Meijuan was in awe as it was her first time in the city. The building was four stories high and she felt dizzy just looking at it. Inside the mall, there was everything for sale, including food, clothing, and daily necessities. The high-end goods were clearly marked with prices. Just looking at the price tags scared the people so much that they didn't dare to get close, fearing that they would get something dirty or damaged and couldn't afford the compensation.

After a stroll through the mall, I came out empty-handed and took a taxi to Huimin Hotel.

It was almost noon and the restaurant started to fill up. Fortunately, today was not the weekend, so there were relatively fewer customers.

After the Qian family entered the restaurant, they looked around, walked inside, found a square table for four and sat down. The waiter brought them the menu.

Now that the restaurant is on the right track, the workload in the kitchen is heavy and there are many meal queues, so it is inevitable that customers will have to wait a little longer.

In order to relieve customers' anxiety while waiting for their meals, after they sit down and order, a small snack including candy and melon seeds will be brought to the table.

The Qian family looked at the various tempting pictures of food on the menu and began to drool before they even saw the real thing. They wanted to try every dish. Finally, they decided to order one dish each.

Old man Qian likes to eat soft and tender meat, so he ordered a braised pork elbow. Qian Jincai liked the braised pork ribs in soy sauce. Qian Longbin has a strong taste, so he ordered a boiled fish. Finally, Qian Meijuan ordered a sweet crispy white meat. The regular version is fried with sugar, but now Huimin Hotel has launched a sprinkled sugar version, which children prefer. It is simple to make and is crispy and sweet.

The braised pork elbow and braised pork ribs took a long time to prepare, and they were prepared in advance. Soon, these two dishes were served. Not long after, the other two dishes were also brought up by the waiter.

The Qian family was so thirsty after eating so much that they opened a bottle of drink each. Qian Jincai and his son were not satisfied, so they ordered two more bottles of drink.

Although the dishes were large, it was no pressure for the Qian family to eat them. They devoured the food quickly and ate ten bowls of rice. When they finally paid the bill, the meal and drinks totaled ninety-five yuan.

The money of the Qian family is in the hands of Mrs. Qian. Recently, there have been many things going on at home, and a lot of money has been lost. Mrs. Qian knows that the men in the family spend whatever they have, so she has been crying poor recently and holding the money in her hands tightly. If she wants pocket money, she has to explain why.

Today, I thought that we had finally come to the city, so I generously took out 200 yuan for them to spend. But I didn't hold on to them and spent more than the money.

The fried skewers cost 15 yuan, the two taxi rides cost 10 yuan, and the snack street cost another 80 yuan. With today's meal at the restaurant, it just so happened that this was all the money they had left in their pockets.

But if they handed over all the money, they would have no money to take the bus back to the train station. Although they didn't know the roads in Mafang city, they knew it was far from the train station, and if they wanted to take the bus, they would have to prepare at least ten yuan.

This made them feel very troubled. Qian Jincai thought he had a handsome face and was very popular with women, so he asked the others to go back to their seats and negotiated with the cashier girl: "Girl, I spent so much money at your place, can you give me a discount? Not much, just ten or eight yuan will do!"

The cashier took a look at Qian Jincai, who was dressed in a well-dressed manner, and politely replied, "Brother, we do not bargain in this restaurant. You didn't bring enough money, so you should have taken it easy when ordering. There are four dishes and three main dishes..."

"Sister, please give me a favor. We will come to support you next time. Give me a discount so that I can be your repeat customer. You won't lose out." Qian Jincai continued to coax him.

A customer who came to pay the bill behind me was getting a little impatient and complained, "Can you still pay? If you don't have money, go to the side and find a way out. Don't block the way!"

He pushed Qian Jincai aside and added disdainfully, "Poor bastard!"

This sentence successfully aroused Qian Jincai's anger, but he was still timid when he was alone. Based on the principle of not picking fights when you are unfamiliar with the place, he was planning to pay the bill. But Qian Longbin had been paying attention to the situation here. When he heard the customer scolding his father for being a poor ghost, he immediately couldn't sit still.

He stood up and strode over to support his father, shouting at him fiercely: "Who are you calling a poor bastard? Call me that again if you dare!"

The other party saw that these people were not from the city. From the accent, they sounded like people from the villages and towns below. Therefore, they were not afraid and responded with contempt: "Poor bastards, poor bastards, if you can't afford to eat, don't come and embarrass yourself!"

How could Qian Longbin bear such humiliation? He raised his hand to punch the other party, but Qian Jincai stopped him immediately for fear of getting into trouble. Qian Longbin still did not stop, and shouted: "How can I not give you this little money? Do you know who my aunt is? She runs a big factory in the provincial capital. Let alone a meal, it would be easy for her to buy this shabby store!"

No one in the store believed this. Qian Longbin saw that everyone was questioning his boasting, so for the sake of face, he continued, "Jinfeng Garment Factory, that's my aunt's factory, my dear aunt!"