"Two bowl of shredded pork noodles."
"A bowl of pork chop noodles."
"A bowl of braised beef noodles with pork chop, vegetarian chicken, shredded pork, an egg, dried tofu, and noodles."
"..."
The four of them randomly found a seat in the noodle shop. The noodle shop was in a very remote location, far from the main road, and the signboard was dilapidated. However, the aroma of noodles wafting from inside could be smelled from a great distance.
It was already past 10 p.m, and Lin Qiye and his group were the only customers in the entire noodle shop. Instead of sitting inside the dimly lit shop, they sat down at a small table at the entrance.
In the quiet, dimly lit alley, the faint light emanating from the kitchen mingled with the colorful neon lights of the adult goods store next door, casting a unique glow on the gray tabletop. In this bustling city, it was quite a scene.
"You mean eating noodles...this is the kind of place you're talking about?"
Baili Pangpang looked around, then leaned close to Lin Qiye's ear and whispered his complaints.
"Given our current situation, do you think I can take you to a fancy hotel to eat?" Lin Qiye rolled his eyes. "We need to choose some secluded corner where no one comes so we can have a peaceful meal."
"I see. Qiye, you have a much broader perspective."
"Besides, I only have enough money to treat you guys to noodles here."
"..."
"Don't worry, although the shop doesn't look like much, the noodles taste absolutely top-notch," Lin Qiye added.
Before long, four steaming bowls of noodles were served on the small table. In the dead of night, the rich aroma of the noodles seemed so ordinary, yet so amazing.
"Boss, how much is it in total?" Lin Qiye took out his wallet.
"Two shredded pork noodles are 20 yuan, pork chop noodles are 12 yuan, and this young man's noodles are... 42 yuan, that's 74 yuan in total." The owner smiled and held out his hand.
Lin Qiye's hand suddenly stopped in mid-air.
"He'll pay for it himself." Lin Qiye took out a twenty-yuan note and two one-yuan coins from his wallet, handed them to the shopkeeper, and then pointed at Baili Pangpang.
Baili Pangpang's body trembled. "Qiye, didn't you say you'd invite me...?"
"I've changed my mind."
"..." Baili Pangpang hesitated for a moment, "Boss, do you accept credit cards here?"
"..."In the end, Cao Yuan took out a crumpled fifty-yuan bill and paid for Baili Pangpang's noodles. In exchange, Baili Pangpang had to cover his food and lodging for the next few days.
It wasn't that Lin Qiye was stingy; he only brought fifty yuan with him on this trip, thinking it would be enough for noodles, no matter how much he ate. He never expected…
Swoosh!
The four of them buried their heads in their noodles while discussing the battle they had just fought.
"So, you were ambushed directly? They precisely blew up the 90th floor?" Lin Qiye frowned as he listened to their description.
"Yeah, didn't you see I'm still wearing a bath towel?" Baili Pangpang pointed to the tattered bath towel and said with a wry smile, "But they must be using some kind of mass destruction weapon, not a firearm."
"Anyone capable of causing that kind of power must be at least at the 'Chuan' realm. Your strategy of jumping off the building to escape was correct. Once they catch a glimpse of you, you won't be able to escape at all and will only be drawn into the instructors' battle," Lin Qiye analyzed.
"You're staying in a rather conspicuous place," Cao Yuan interjected. "Checking into a hotel like this requires registration; anyone with ulterior motives could easily find your whereabouts with a simple check."
Baili Pangpang muttered, "I... I'm just used to it. When I'm in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, I always stay in better hotels than this."
"This is Cangnan, not your Baili family's territory."
"But I've been through at least eight hundred or a thousand assassination attempts in my life. This kind of assassination is nothing to me." Baili Pangpang waved his hand dismissively.
Cao Yuan shrugged. "It seems being a rich young master isn't so easy."
Just as the three were talking, Lin Xi Chen focused on eating, as she was quite hungry—having lost blood and needing to regain her strength since the morning, four more figures walked in from outside.
"Brother Shen...we've already had noodles for two meals in a row, and tonight...we're having noodles again?"
"What do you know? Noodles... noodles are a specialty of Cangnan. We rarely come here, how can we not eat them a few times?"
Shen Qingzhu, accompanied by Deng Wei, Li Jia, and Li Liang, swaggered in from outside. Before they even arrived, he loudly announced:
"Boss, four bowls of clear broth noodles."
"Oh, it's you guys again? You've had two bowls of clear soup noodles in a row, and now you're eating this again?" The owner asked in surprise when he saw the four of them.
"Right."
Shen Qingzhu walked to the shop entrance and was stunned to see the three people sitting there slurping their noodles.
"You?"
"Hey, you're here for noodles too, bro?" Baili Pangpang greeted Shen Qingzhu with half a pork chop stuffed in his mouth.
Lin Qiye and Cao Yuan nodded to him in response and Lin Xi Chen waved at him with her mouth full of the same as Baili Pangpang.
They were all comrades who had gone through half a year of Hell training together. Although they didn't interact much on normal days, their camaraderie still existed.
Shen Qingzhu hummed in agreement, his gaze falling on the three people's fragrant faces, and he pursed his lips.
Gulp.
Someone swallowed, and it was especially clear in the quiet alley.
Shen Qingzhu glanced back, and his three followers all lowered their heads. He looked up at the price list hanging in the center of the shop, a conflicted look in his eyes.
"Boss, please change it. Give us three bowls of shredded pork noodles and one bowl of clear soup noodles."
Shen Qingzhu sat down at the table next to Lin Qiye and called out to the shop.
"Okay, the shredded pork noodles are 10 yuan a bowl, and the clear soup is 6 yuan, that's 36 yuan in total."
Shen Qingzhu took out his wallet, took out a few crumpled banknotes, placed them on the dining table, and then quickly put the wallet away.
Lin Qiye scanned the wallet with his mental power and knew that it was completely empty.
He had calculated the price.
"Brother Shen, why are we having shredded pork noodles again?"
"After eating so much clear soup, you must be tired of it. Let me give you a change."
"And what about you, Brother Shen?"
"I just love clear broth," Shen Qingzhu said proudly, raising his head. "Simplicity and purity are the true essence of noodles."
The three henchmen exchanged glances and remained silent, heads bowed.
Shen Qingzhu seemed to have thought of something and turned to look at Lin Xi Chen, "By the way, are you alright with the injuries you sustained in the bus earlier?"
Lin Xichen looked up at Shen Qingzhu with a look of astonishment, her mouth agape; then, she gave him a thumbs-up and nodded vigorously. Lin Qiye smiled and spoke on her behalf, "She's fine, but she can't speak for the time being."
Shen Qingzhu hummed in agreement, hesitated for a moment, and then said, "Thank you so much back then. If you hadn't blocked those shards, we would all have been injured."
"Brother Zhai, when did you become so polite?" Baili Pangpang asked suspiciously.
"You fatso, I've always been clear about right and wrong, why would I be polite?" Shen Qingzhu glared at Baili Pangpang, then looked at Lin Qiye and slowly spoke.
"I know this holiday won't be easy. If you have any difficulties, you can tell me. For the sake of our comrades-in-arms, I'll definitely help if I can."
Lin Qiye raised an eyebrow, and an idea suddenly popped into his mind.
"So, I do have a business deal I'd like to discuss with you," Lin Qiye said.
"What?"
Lin Qiye pointed at Baili Pangpang and said, "During the holiday, he'll be under close protection."
Everyone present, including Baili Pangpang, was stunned.
"Him?" Shen Qingzhu's gaze fell on Baili Pangpang, his brows furrowing slightly.
"In exchange, he'll pay you a thousand yuan a day for protection, how about that?" Lin Qiye said.
Shen Qingzhu's body trembled. He stared into Lin Qiye's eyes, lost in thought...
After a long pause, he slowly spoke:
"Okay."
Then, he pointed to his three henchmen, "But this deal only includes me; the three of them don't count."
"Deal."