Chapter 3 - Dressed up like this….. Are you here for the hotpot?

Editor: Jacey

Proofreader: Lazybug

Long Jia held the newly obtained review 1 in her hand, and her eyes swept over Xiao Man’s irritated look. Curving her lips, she deliberately slowed down her browsing speed.

Xiao Man didn’t believe it would take someone ten minutes to read a review of a few hundred words! What does this woman think she’s doing?

She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes at Long Jia. She was angry but she dared not express it.

Bear with it, and after I’ve taken back my things, I won’t have taken her attitude silently!

Long Jia looked at Xiao Man’s review with an appreciative attitude. Although she said she didn’t study much, she had a good handwriting. Otherwise, why would there be a saying that the way one writes resembles the person itself?

Thinking of this, Long Jia lifted her head and examined Xiao Man deeply. She then lowered her head and continued to skim through; she was more convinced of her own thoughts.

Xiao Man and Ah Fang were communicating with each other with their eyes, signaling the other party to be patient. When they turned back, they happened to encounter the smirk of Long Jia’s with her head down.

Such nerves…so you can even laugh while reading a review, huh! Xiao Man squinted with displeasure as she thought in resentment.

But she was smiling so beautifully just now… No! How can I think so?!

How could she think that Long Jia was good looking?!

How can I feel that a woman who thinks herself as a beauty is really good-looking?!

“Liu Manxiang.” Long Jia’s eyes finally slid to the last line of the review, but she didn’t let go of the paper. With her other hand resting on her chin, she smiled as she looked at Xiao Man.

It turns out that the Malatang lady-boss’s name was Liu Manxiang. It suited her very well. With a bit of archaic vibe, her personality was quite compatible with her own name.

But Long Jia’s smiling expression contrasted with what she was thinking. When Xiao Man heard her call her own name, her face sank, a line of words floated in her heart –DANGER! High-energy up ahead 2 !

“Why call out my name?” Xiao Man asked reluctantly.

“Can’t I just say it? it’s hard to do a favor these days, such an arduous and thankless task.” Long Jia dropped the review with an act of displeasure, lazily turning over the pile of information that Xiao Man had brought with her.

Maybe I’m just overthinking it… Xiao Man softened her tone and said, “Please hurry up, we have things to do later.”

Her elbow gently brushed against Ah Fang who was standing dazed beside her, and she immediately followed up, “Yes, something’s up, we have something important to do!”

Long Jia lifted the cup of tea and slowly took a sip, her gaze slanting over them as if she had read their mind for a moment.

“You said it was important, is it that you are rushing to open the stall?”

If she didn’t go over there early to set up her stall, her spot would be taken by other stallholders, and those regular customers would run off to eat spicy hotpot elsewhere as soon as they can’t find Xiao Man’s hotpot stall’s new location, leading to a huge loss of fortune.

Xiao Man had already made a plan in her mind; if Long Jia refused to return her things, she would have her pay for her missed fortune!

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But when she heard the other party’s words, Xiao Man was truly a bit guilty, but still denied calmly, “How could that be?!”

Long Jia just looked at her and laughed silently that even the person with the thickest skin would blush while lying to her, much less Xiao Man…

Xiao Man was flustered. She averted her eyes from Long Jia’s smiling eyes. She was sick of Long Jia looking at her like that, there was no dirt on her face, so what was there to look at?!

“Come with me.” After Long jia had seen enough, she got up and walked in front of Xiao Man. She took a few steps forward but found no response from the people behind her so she turned around and took Xiao Man by her wrist.

“Where are we going?” Xiao Man looked down at her hand and twisted her wrist, but Long jia didn’t let go. What does this woman want again?

“To get your stuff.” Long jia led her downstairs to a warehouse-like bungalow, followed by an unsuspecting Ah Fang.

Long Jia spoke to the older guard who was in charge of the warehouse and the guard opened the door with a smile on his face. Long jia leaned against the wall, watching as Xiao Man and

Ah Fang went in to get their furniture, put the things on the pickup truck that they drove over, and then clapped their hands off the dust as they prepared to go back.

“Aren’t you going to thank me?” Long Jia asked Xiao man when Xiao Man opened the truck door.

Xiao Man had retrieved her things, so she was refreshed and in a good mood that she even thanked Long jia.

“Let me ask you something.” Long Jia looked over at Ah Fang, who was already in the passenger seat, and beckoned Xiao Man to lean closer to her.

Since Xiao Man was in a good mood, she listened to Long Jia’s odd request and leaned in to hear her question, “What’s the relationship between that Ah Fang… and you?”

“She’s a fellow villager I hired to help me.”

Hearing the answer, Long Jia smiled, “Oh.”

“Why do you ask so much?” Xiao Man looked at her warily with a real smile on her face.

“No reason.” Long Jia said casually. Xiao Man made a sound of agreement and pulled the door open to get into the car when her wrist was tightly grabbed by someone again.

“Long Jia!” Xioa Man sighed helplessly and almost rolled her eyes, “You’re a civil official, don’t pull people like that.”

Long jia simply ignored Xiao Man’s ridicule. It was not like she would be pulling everyone’s arm like a string.

“You’re not allowed to set up the stall in the evening.” Seeing Xiao Man glaring at her, Long Jia explained without hesitation, “The last few days, the higher-ups have been strictly investigating, especially in the Laji street. We work overtime every night to patrol that street so you better be careful.”

“You’re not allowing me to go to the stall?” Xiao Man raised her chin in disbelief.

“Heh, don’t come back to me to claim your things if it gets taken away again.” Long Jia tightened her grip on Xiao Man’s wrist as she raised her eyebrows.

“Let go.” Who’s going to come back to her again?! Xiao Man huffed and squeezed out those two words. Still smiling with a straight face, Long Jia withdrew her hand and watched as Xiao Man turned around to get into the car.

“Hey, I’m serious,” Long Jia repeated, “Don’t open your stall for a few days. Not to mention the fact that there’s a shortage of manpower and a lot of hired temporary workers, so a lot of the stall owners won’t be able to get an explanation even if they are beaten up and their stalls destroyed.”

Xiao Man poked her head out of the window, “How many of the group that came to trouble me yesterday were temporary workers?”

“Except for me and the captain, they’re all temporary workers.”

“Oh.” Xiao Man got her head back inside and started the car.

When she looked back, Long Jia was still standing at the front gate staring at her. Xiao Man had a feeling of uneasiness growing inside her and couldn’t figure why.

Disliking the dreary atmosphere in the car, Ah Fang turned on the radio which was coincidentally playing a song she very much liked.

“ Wife is first, husband is second ……”

Ah Fang listened and hummed subconsciously, She was somewhat mesmerized by the melody.

The pickup truck was bought by Xiao Man at a second-hand car market, and was driven for several years with the stereo equipment destroyed beyond recognition. The broken radio with the square dance tunes were noisy, which certainly added fuel to Xiao Man’s upset mood.

“Turn it off, it’s so noisy.”

Ah Fang saw Xiao Man’s dark face and spoke cautiously, “Xiao Man, are we still going to open the stall later?”

“No,” Xiao Man said thoughtlessly.

“You are afraid of Long Jia?”

“Who’s afraid of her?!” Xiao Man rolled her eyes, her reaction was beyond Ah Fang’s expectation.

Ah Fang gripped the car seat and steadied herself, stuttering as she spoke with such a fright, “Then you’re afraid…”

With a red light ahead, Xiao Man braked sharply. She stared ahead with eyes full of reluctance as she spoke in a very ferocious manner, “I’m afraid of those temporary workers!”

Xiao Man wasn’t actually afraid of those extras, she just didn’t want to admit she’d listened to Long Jia.

Since they weren’t opening the stall tonight, Xiao Man gave the night off for Ah Fang, who happily went on a date with her boyfriend. Xiao Man lay on bed and remembered Ah Fang telling her her wish to marry her boyfriend soon. So every time she heard “Wife is first, husband is second”, Ah Fang’s mind was filled with a wonderful vision of her future.

What about my wishes? Xiao Man looked at the yellowed ceiling with one hand cushioned under her own head. She thought a little harder. She hadn’t been in a relationship before so she didn’t have any ideas in that regard. Speaking of other aspirations… it would be to save up money to open a spicy hotpot restaurant so that she wouldn’t have to be afraid of being arrested by the city managers.

The phone placed on the pillow vibrated and in a daze, Xiao Man opened the new text message she received.

It was a text from an unfamiliar number: ‘I just got off work and now I’m a little hungry. You said you’d treat me to a spicy hotpot before, so where should I come?”

Who was this person? How many acquaintances did she have in the city? It’s almost eleven o’clock at night so thinking that it must have been sent to the wrong number, Xiao Man threw her phone away.

It’s already midnight now but Ah Fang was still not back. Xiao Man became drowsy and was about to fall asleep when her phone vibrated again. This time it was a phone call from the same unknown number.

“Who are you?” Xiao Man rubbed her eyes, her tone was a little unhappy at being disturbed from a good dream.

‘It’s me, Long Jia.”

It was actually her! Xiao Man immediately lost her drowsiness, “Where did you get my number from?”

The other side disapprovingly said, “The information you turned in had your phone number on it.”

“So?” Why are you calling me at this hour?

“I’m hungry…” said Long Jia pathetically, “I went to Laji street for patrol again today, and got yelled at…”

“You deserved it. Who asked you city managers to take away people’s stuff?!” Xiao Man said, but her voice softened after a while, “Where are you?”

“Just got home from work. I was waiting for you to get back to me.” Long Jia heard that Xiao Man had agreed to her request. She smiled as she spoke.

“Do you know the Xingguang District?” Since I can’t open the stall for a few days, the food in the freezer will go bad if it sits for too long. It’d need to be thrown away anyways, so let’s just have Long Jia come over and eat some of it.

“I know. So what? You’re inviting me to your house?”

Xiao Man gripped her phone. Hearing Long Jia’s teasing tone, she didn’t want her to come over anymore, but since the words were out of her mouth, she had to admit, “If you don’t want to come then, forget it.”

“Come on, of course, I’ll come. Just wait for me for a bit, I’ll call you when I reach there.” Long Jia hung up the phone immediately. Xiao Man put the phone down, she was unable to understand what the other was so anxious about.

After a few more minutes, Xiao Man was again drifting off while watching a silly show on TV when Long Jia called again.

“I’m at the front of the block, but you didn’t tell me your building floor so how can I get there?”

“Wait there, I’ll come to find you.” Xiao Man shuffled down the stairs in her pajamas and slippers. From a bit far from the neighborhood’s front gate, she saw a thin figure standing under the streetlight, her shadow was long on the ground.

The woman had her back facing Xiao Man. She had waist-length curly hair, wore a slim-fitting dress and a pair of stiletto heels that accentuated her slender figure.

Xiao Man wasn’t sure whether that woman was Long Jia or not, she took a few steps closer to her in the dim light, “Long Jia?”

Turning around as she smelt a faint aroma, Xiao Man stared at the person in front of her. The corners of her eyes were raised upwards due to her painted eyeliner, her delicate eyebrows were slightly curved and her lips shone seductively with lip gloss.

Long Jia had taken off her work uniform…and now seemed less obnoxious.

“Xiao Man.” Long Jia, who was carrying a satchel in both hands, smiled at the sight of Xiao Man and stepped forward as she took her arm.

“ You dressed up like this….are you here to eat spicy hotpot?” Xiao Man stiffened, her face full of disbelief. This Long Jia… could it be that she really was mentally ill?

Long Jia smirked and leaned close to her ear and asked in a low voice, “So what…?” .

Author’s note:

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About the plot… I don’t want to say anything…I know you guys will get it when you see it.

So got any thoughts on what would happen next?

Don’t forget to bookmark this and leave a comment to give me the motivation to work harder~

By the way, have you seen the cover? I got Bao’er to do it, isn’t it awesome?! It’s so cool! Please praise it!

Mua mua~

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Footnotes

TLN: review as in written self-criticism. TLN: it’s a slang used when something is going to happen.