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Chapter 49: 闹事 (Causing Trouble)
“Ouch, ouch, my stomach hurts!”
Outside the “Quite Delicious ” restaurant, an unattractive, wretched looking man and the two men sitting next to him ‘muttered’ about something, not knowing what they were talking about. Suddenly, he fell to the ground while covering his stomach and started rolling around.
“This big brother, what’s wrong with you?”
“Big brother, where are you not feeling well?”
“My stomach hurts, I just ate something from their shop.” The man rolled all over the floor.
The people around him scattered noisily.
“What? Is there a problem with his family shop’s food?”
“I’ve eaten a lot of it. Could I be like this too?” The crowd murmured.
“Ei? Isn’t that Er Lai Zi from North Street?” Someone immediately recognised the man who had been rolling around. He spoke in a voice raised an octave by surprise, so basically everyone else heard him and asked, “Who are they?”
“The two rascals from Northwest Street, very famous. Of course, don’t get me wrong, he’s famous for his notoriety, for imitating the dog and stealing chicken, vandalism and being untrustworthy. He did everything. On North Street, everyone detests their existence.”
[偷鸡摸狗 ( 偷雞摸狗 )tōu jī mō gǒu :
to imitate the dog and steal chicken (idiom) / to pilfer / to dally with women / to have affairs]
“Oh ……” The crowd looked like ‘I see!’, as they said in their heart, ‘We’ve been eating at ‘Quite Delicious’ for a long time, so why suddenly there is a problem? So here comes the trouble!’
“Where’s the boss? Come out and treat my big brother!” One of them, called Lao Er (the trio’s private ranking) yelled loudly.
[Tl notes:
Lao Da (The Big one or The Oldest one)
Lao Er (The Second)
Lao San (The Third one) ]
“That’s right, come out quickly! Otherwise, we’ll smash up your shop and see how you’re still in business!” Lao San said.
“What’s going on?” Zhao Zheng’an and the others pulled away from the crowd, looking at the person rolling on the ground.
“What’s going on? Your food it’s causing people who eat it to die!” Lao Er said aggressively, his eyes glazed over and looking fierce.
[Tl notes: probably it won’t make sense in english, in mandarin tend to use ‘to death’ as an exaggeration, ex: eat something to death, laughed out loud to die,angry me to death]
“Eating something that causes people to die? Who died? Where’s the corpse?” Zhao Zheng’an begged him in confusion.
“What corpse? You curse us to die huh? Can’t you see that my big brother is hurting like this.”
“Look, you said it was ‘eating food that causes people to die’ and now, you’re saying it’s not dead. You can’t even speak human words!” Zhao Zheng’an shook his head.
“Who are you calling as not human? Are you looking for a beating!” Lao San thought back on Zhao Zheng’an’s words, and immediately realized that he was indirectly calling them not as a human being!
“Shhh!” Zhao Zheng’an put his hand on his lips and squatted down to ask the man who had been screaming “ouch, ouch, ouch”: “Brother, where do you hurt?”
“My stomach hurts!” The man covered his stomach in pain, but his voice was loud.
“Oh, the stomach hurts! Zhao Sheng, go and get a doctor to take a look.”
“I’ll go.” Zhao Sheng dumbly answered and ran out. Not to mention him, even Big Uncle Huang, Zhao Amu and the others that had never encountered such a situation before,straightly went numb.
Zhong Ziqi’s brow was also wrinkled into one knot. He was so busy these days, he almost forgot one of the cliche plots that often appeared in TV dramas. That is — the local scoundrel’s looking for blackmail.
“Looking for a doctor? By the time the doctor gets here, my big brother will be dying, so hurry up and say what should we do about this?” Lao Er, who at first glance was clearly the brain-damaged type ( the moron type) was particularly diligent in tearing down the stage, not looking for a doctor, then telling the crowd that you had come here to cheat, although everyone had already unspokenly done so.
Lao San kicked this unreliable comrade.
Soon the doctor came. Zhao Zheng’an respectfully invited the doctor over: “Doctor, take a look, don’t let me go to jail if he accidentally really die.”
“Don’t worry, I will take a good look.” The old doctor was also a regular customer of Zhong Ziqi’s place, so he naturally knew whether his place was clean or not.
“This little brother, give me your hand then I will take your pulse.” The doctor knelt down and said.
But the man said, “Aiyo, Aiyo,” as if he couldn’t hear him. Impossible, how could he really show him? He was not sick in the first place. He gave a wink to the two men standing next to him. The two men went to make a mess of it. They were stopped by, one by Zhao Zheng’an and one by Zhao Sheng
The old man saw that he was not cooperating so he was in a difficult position.
“Uncle Huang, help me hold him down, it’s urgent to help people.” Zhong Ziqi said in a cold voice.
Immediately, Uncle Huang held the man who was tossing and turning on the ground. Although he lived in the town, he was also a crop farmer, so the scoundrels who loitered every day were certainly no match for his strength.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!”
The doctor on one side took advantage of his struggle and grabbed his wrist as quickly as possible then released it in a moment.
“How is it Doctor?” Zhao Zheng’an asked.
“He’s fine. Just eat too much food.” The doctor wiped his hand on his shirt in an old-fashioned manner.
“What? Not sick?”
“Surely, it’s a scam.”
“I told you, the food here is so good, how can there be anything wrong with it?” There was a lot of chatter and finger pointing from the onlookers.
The three of them got a little anxious. The man who was lying on the ground sat up, pointed at the doctor’s nose and shouted:”You quack, my stomach hurts like hell.”
“Oh? You’re in pain and you still have the strength to shout? I think you’re just here to cheat, aren’t you? What do you all say?” Zhong Ziqi shouted.
As if in response to Zhong Ziqi’s words, a pile of rotten vegetable leaves flew over from nowhere in the crowd, hitting the trio precisely on their bodies and heads.
“Who was it? Who threw that? Let me catch you and absolutely cripple you.” The man on the ground was beaten by the rotten vegetables and was so ashamed that he simply stopped pretending and got up.
“Who is it? Have the guts to throw yet no guts to stand out ah?”
Zhao Zheng’an surveyed the three men and sneered: “How about it? No more pretending? Your stomach doesn’t hurt anymore?”
“No more pain, I’ll make it clear to you today. Hurry up and get the money ready for me or this shop ……”
The man scowled: “I’m not sure if it will still be intact.”
“Yeah, let’s see if we don’t smash it to pieces.” Lao Er and Lao San stood toe to toe behind the oldest.
“Oh? How much do you guys want then?”
“How much… money, big brother… how much do we want?” Lao Er asked the elder brother in a small voice.
“Ten taels of silver, not a wen less.”
“Yes, not a single wen less.”
“What should we do? We really can’t get the money.” Zhao Zheng’an was in a difficult position. They couldn’t earn ten taels of silver even if they worked for ten days.
“You can’t get it? Brothers, smash it for me.”
When Lao Er and Lao San got the order, they immediately picked up the chair beside them and tried to smash it on the table.
“Ah!!!”
Suddenly out of nowhere two ‘Xiang Ba Lao eggs’ flew at the two men’s faces hitting them with such force that they spun around. The egg stayed on their faces for ten seconds before it fell off, leaving a dark mark.
Zhong Ziqi and the others’ heartbeat which was raised a moment ago, finally were relieved. But Zhao Zheng’an’s face was not surprised at all.There was even a hint of verification, to have his own way on his face.
Why was he so calm? In fact, from the beginning he was also nervous. But then, out of the blue, a pile of rotten vegetable leaves appeared.It was impossible for businessmen or ordinary people to store rotten leaves. So the question was, where did the rotten leaves come from? In a flash, Zhao Zheng’an remember that they had a rubbish bin in front of the shop so all the rubbish and rotten vegetables were thrown into it.
The first thing he did was to look at the entrance of their shop and he saw a familiar figure.It was the expressionless servant man who was always beside the man called Shen Yu Bei.
By his accuracy, he could tell that this man was definitely an expert, although he had never seen what an expert looked like, but that did not stop him from guessing.
As the conflict became more and more intense, the man stood at the door again, watching the situation as if he was ready to strike to help at any moment. He put his mind at ease, somehow knowing that the man would not let these three get away with it.
Of course, he wasn’t doing it for his sake, he was doing it for his wife’s sake.Although, he was quite thankful for him, it still irritated and annoyed him.
“Who the hell is it? Dare to come forward? Let me see!” The rascal boss shouted fiercely as he surveyed the surroundings to check out the suspect.
There was dead silence around, everyone wanted to see who it was and whether they dared to come out.
At that moment a low voice rang out, especially conspicuous in this silent street, “Hong Ying, you go and let him have a look.”
“Yes.”
Hong Ying’s face was expressionless as he walked into the crowd.
The Rascal boss, after all, had been spilling his guts in Qing Shui Town for so many years, so he had more experience than his two newly recruited minions. He could see that this man was not ordinary, his face was expressionless yet he looked very imposing.
He was a person that bullied the weak and feared the strong. He wanted to retreat, but the words had already been said so how could it be possible for him to run away like that? How could he lose face? How would he be able to take on more little brothers in the future? How would he be able to scare others?
At this point, he just had to put on his thick-skinned face: “Did … Did you do it?”
“Yes I did.”
“Good … how dare you! You must apologize today and I’ll pretend nothing has happened. Or else …I…” The Rascal Boss was a bit speechless, the man was looking at him as if he was an idiot, as if what he was saying was all nonsense.
“Just what? Boss?” Lao San asked.
“Just beat him up!” The Rascal Boss was a little annoyed.
The men were silent ……
The Rascal Boss had no choice but to command the two juniors,”Go! Beat him for me!” After saying that he took one step back, but the two minions stupidly rushed forward.
Unfortunately, this time, they had met a real expert. They were sent flying by him, one man got one kick, before they could even touch him then they remained unmoved on the ground for half a day.
Seeing that things were not going well, the Rascal Boss tried to slip away. Unfortunately, the men didn’t give him the chance. With a shout, The Rascal Boss realized that the man, who had been some distance behind him, had been in the air. In one fell swoop, he flew over his head.Then, a large foot appeared in front of him. As he felt a pain in his face and a lightness in his body.He flew right up next to his two little followers.
“Step aside! Get out of the way…!”
Before the crowd could regain their senses, five or six officials dressed in court clothes pushed their way through the crowd, looked at the scene before them and asked loudly, “What’s going on? Who is gathering and causing trouble? All of you, follow me back to the magistrate’s office!”
Zhao Zheng’an pulled out a purse from his pocket and walked over to the officer in charge. He walked up to the leader of the officers and explained the situation to him angrily, but in his hand, he slipped the purse into the man’s hand when he wasn’t looking.
The man’s face, originally cold, relaxed a little before he ordered his men behind him: “Take them back to the court.” Then he looked at Zhao Zheng’an: “You have to come with us and tell us what happened again.”
“Okay, okay.”
“Zheng’an!” Zhong Ziqi stepped forward worriedly.
“It’s okay!” Zhao Zheng’an gave him a look, “The official is just looking for me to find out what’s going on. I’ll be right back.” Then he went away with the officials.
With no more hilarity to watch, the crowd dispersed in twos and threes.
“Is Zheng’an going to be alright?” Zhao Amu asked as he looked worriedly at the distant Zhao Zheng’an.
“Supposedly.” Zhong Ziqi shook his head, he was sure he (zza) could handle it since he was not a reckless person.
Zhong Ziqi took a breath, thus he walked towards the men who were still sitting in the shop and hadn’t come out, “I really thank you two for today. Otherwise, I don’t really know what to do!”
“It’s nothing more than a very slight effort. it’s not worth mentioning.” Shen Yu Bei smiled gently.
“How can that be? Otherwise, how about this, in the future, if you eat at my place, I won’t charge you, you can eat whatever you want.” The reason Zhong Ziqi said this was not because he was generous, but because he was clear that this man did not belong to this place and would not stay for long.
“Then how can I accept this?”
“No need to be polite about it. Then, It’s settled.”
Me: Ah! This chapter must be easy to translate.. A lot of dialogue
Several minutes later
Me: ….
Not easy at all. Why the dialogue sound so weird in English?