Chapter 91 - Advanced Payment
Brother Six keenly caught the brief expression that flickered through Xiaocao’s eyes. It looked like she was surprised? He barely restrained his desire to rub at the scars on his face and a feeling of confused doubt settled into his heart. Didn’t they already meet each other yesterday afternoon? At that time, the little girl had been so frightened by his facial scars that her face had turned ghost white. How come her reaction today to his face, which was scary enough to make any little kid weep, was simply surprise? He must have misinterpreted her expression!
He briefly glanced at Xiaocao and thought about saying something. In the end, he decided to stay silent and turned around to slowly walk towards the area where people were selling breakfast. Xiaocao looked around her and noticed that not a soul was in sight and quickly followed behind him. She definitely didn’t want to stay in that area by herself. If that group of scoundrels suddenly came back looking for blood, then she was dead meat in their hands.
Since Xiaocao was gone for a long time, Yu Hai was starting to get antsy waiting for her by the noodle stand. When he saw his daughter coming back with her tail between her legs next to a stern and ferocious looking man with facial scars, his first thought was that his beloved daughter was being bullied. He quickly limped forward and pushed his daughter behind him. He looked at Old Six warily and said, “Don’t be scared, daughter. Father is here and I definitely won’t let anyone bully you!”
Xiaocao simultaneously felt touched and tickled by his protectiveness. She smiled apologetically at Brother Six, pulled her father back to the stool to sit down, and explained, “Father, Brother Six wasn’t giving me problems. On the contrary, he had just saved me from bullies!”
After that, she broadly sketched out what had happened during that heart-pounding scenario to her father. Yu Hai pulled on her hand and inspected her from head to toe. Only after he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary did he slightly relax a bit and say, “The docks are very chaotic, so in the future you’re not allowed to wander around randomly! Brother, I was rude to you earlier, but thank you very much for saving my daughter!”
Brother Six’s face was as expressionless as before, and he only lightly nodded his head in reply. He opened his mouth for the first time to speak to Old Liu, “I’d like a bowl of noodles in soup without any bean flour noodles…”
Old Liu quickly ripped a piece of dough from a small bowl and skillfully rolled and cut the dough into sections. Within a short period of time, a bowl of delicious noodles was done.
At this moment, Yu Hai hastily took out a portion of braised pig head meat and a portion of pickled fish from the basket. He then placed them both in front of Brother Six’s bowl and said, “Brother, eat these two dishes with your noodles. Take them as a token of my gratitude for saving my daughter’s life earlier.”
Brother Six slightly raised his eyebrows but didn’t refuse the offer. However, when he finished eating and left, he had placed two copper coins on the table. When Yu Hai noticed the coins, he wanted to chase after the man to return the money but was stopped by Xiaocao who said, “Father, let it be. He doesn’t lack these two copper coins. Get ready, it’s almost time for the dockworkers’ break to eat their meals!”
Sure enough, when they looked towards the direction of the wharf, they saw a group of rough, old men chattering and laughing as they walked over. A few people who were more impatient walked briskly the whole way and started calling out to Xiaocao from far away, “Xiaocao, give me two portions of braised pig head meat, I want the fatty portions!”
“Xiaocao, Xiaocao! I want a portion of the pig intestines and one of the tripe…”
“Do you have any of the fish from yesterday? I want two of those!”
