Chapter 2332: Chapter 2396: Let Me Treat You to Noodles

The woman frowned slightly, but quickly said, "I just asked where you’re from."

"Oh, local!" Li Yifei said.

"No, you’re not local. Your dialect’s pretty good, but you’re not from here!" the woman shot back immediately.

"Alright then, I’m from the Northeast!" Li Yifei shrugged and answered, then pointed at the bag and said, "I’ve answered your question, you should pay up now, right?"

A woman suddenly taking an interest in him for no reason—Li Yifei would be an idiot not to be suspicious. What he was thinking at the moment was, did this chick recognize him? After all, he was an Internet Celebrity on Twitter and had even been on CCTV news. Even though that was back in Southern Sky, it wouldn’t be strange for someone to recognize him.

But Li Yifei looked down at himself. He was bare-chested, and because of the rain he was covered in either muddy water or fish blood, reeking of fish. His face was scruffy too—he hadn’t shaved for about a week, his beard over a centimeter long, his hair a bit grown out as well. He should look very different from how he appeared on TV.

"You’re from the North?"

"Yeah."

"How did you get these fish?" the woman asked again.

Li Yifei replied, "Caught them!"

"You went into the water yourself to catch them?"

"Yup!"

The woman nodded, as if she wasn’t surprised at all. On the contrary, she even looked a bit disappointed. Then she took out her wallet from the car, pulled out a stack of bills and handed it to Li Yifei. He took it without ceremony, counted it, and found there were five extra bills. The woman had directly given him two thousand yuan, so Li Yifei counted out five notes plus another five yuan, but he wasn’t planning on giving the change back. He just said, "There are five extra bills."

"Consider it delivery fee." The woman was still immersed in some weird mood and didn’t bother looking at Li Yifei, but he could feel that she seemed quite disappointed.

Why disappointed? Li Yifei wondered to himself. Still, the fact that she was this generous made him pretty happy. He couldn’t help but grin and say, "Thanks. If I catch more lobsters later, I’ll deliver them to you."

As he spoke, Li Yifei smilingly stuffed the money into his pocket, but when he slipped his hand in, he realized the pocket in his pants was torn. He shook his head, pulled the money back out, and handed it over to the still-stunned Chen Junxiao beside him, saying, "Your clothes have pockets, you hold the money!"

"M-me? Hold it?" It had been many years since Chen Junxiao had seen this much cash. Seeing Li Yifei hand her a thick wad of red hundred-yuan notes, the little girl was both shocked and scared. Her first instinct was to refuse, but Li Yifei just grabbed her small hand and shoved the money into the pocket of her pants.

Chen Junxiao’s hand seemed to freeze. Once the money was tucked into her pocket, she didn’t dare take her hand out. She was terrified she’d lose it. To her, this was absolutely a huge sum of money. If she went by what she made—one or two hundred a year—this was money that would take her many years to earn.

Uncle trusts me too... thought Chen Junxiao.

After making sure the money was secure, Li Yifei nodded to the woman and said, "Thanks for buying our fish!"

The woman still seemed lost in her emotions, acting like she hadn’t heard a word from Li Yifei. So he shrugged, turned back and swung his leg over the motorcycle. Seeing that one of Chen Junxiao’s hands was shoved in her pocket and she looked incredibly nervous, Li Yifei called out, "Girl, let’s go, get on."

"Ah... oh, okay!" It was like Chen Junxiao suddenly snapped out of it. She hurried over to Li Yifei, but because she was nervous she even messed up her steps. Li Yifei almost burst out laughing. When the little girl came over, he said, "No need to be so nervous, this is just the beginning. We’ll be making a lot more money in the future!"

"This is already... so, so much money!" Chen Junxiao clicked her tongue in amazement as she climbed onto the motorcycle, one foot on the peg. Her hand quickly dove back into her pocket and pressed down on the money, as if she were afraid it would run away.

Li Yifei said, "Sit tight, we’re heading out."

"Wait a minute!" The woman suddenly looked up and called out to the two of them. Li Yifei turned his head to look at her, and the woman said, "You two... haven’t had lunch yet, have you?"

Li Yifei nodded and said, "Nope. We just made money, so we’re going to town to treat ourselves at a restaurant!"

The woman hesitated for a moment, then said, "Then eat here. It’s boring eating alone."

Chen Junxiao was stunned again. This beautiful big sister was so rich, lived in such a big house, drove such a nice car, and yet she was inviting the two of them to eat?

That was definitely impossible. It’d be weird if the other party didn’t have some other motive. Li Yifei glanced down at his own body and thought to himself, No way she’s into this type, right? As the dignified Patriarch of the Li family, he could not sell his body for favors. Mm... under normal circumstances he couldn’t. Under "second-type" circumstances, it could be considered on a case-by-case basis.

So Li Yifei shook his head, grinned, showing a row of white teeth, and said, "Forget it, I reek of fish and I’m covered in blood, I’ll pass."

Chen Junxiao followed along and nodded, though she herself didn’t know why she was nodding.

"Then what are you two going to eat?" The woman didn’t seem inclined to give up, or maybe she’d already made some sort of decision.

This was really bizarre—some rich girl like her, could she actually be interested in him? Li Yifei replied, "We’ll just grab a bowl of noodles or something."

"Perfect, I know a noodle place, the taste is really authentic. I’ll lead the way up front, you two follow me." As she spoke, the woman tossed her wallet into the car, swung one long leg up, and she was already in the driver’s seat.

Her legs really were long. She wasn’t very tall, but her proportions were great. Of course, that "not very tall" was probably still about one sixty-five, which wasn’t exactly short.

The woman drove the Raptor around the courtyard once, revved the engine, and roared out. Li Yifei rode his broken-down motorcycle behind her, while Chen Junxiao kept one hand stuffed in her pocket, leaning up behind Li Yifei and saying, "Uncle, do you know this lady?"

"How would I know her? I was just about to ask you if you know this woman." Li Yifei said.

"Of course I don’t either, but... her family looks really rich."

"Yeah, she’s rich. But if I told you my family’s place is several times bigger than hers, maybe even ten times, would you believe it?" Li Yifei said.

After hearing that, Chen Junxiao immediately shook her head and laughed. "No way, Uncle, you’re always joking around. That pretty big sister’s house already looks almost bigger than our whole elementary school. How could anyone’s place be bigger than hers?"

"When Uncle goes home next time, you come with me, then you’ll know whether my place is big or not." Li Yifei said.

Chen Junxiao shook her head and said, "I’m not going, I..." When she heard Li Yifei mention going home, the little girl’s mood suddenly sank. Li Yifei couldn’t see her expression, so he just assumed she didn’t feel like talking.

The Raptor in front of them sped up and slowed down by turns; the driver’s mood was clearly not very steady. Luckily nothing happened. Li Yifei wasn’t worried she had any schemes against him. Right now he was just an ordinary fisherman—what was there worth plotting over?

If this woman did have any bad ideas about him, like wanting to **** him, craving his strong body, hehe, he absolutely wouldn’t give in to her either, Li Yifei thought to himself, and at the end he added another line: "My dear wives, your husband will definitely be worthy of you all!"

The noodle shop was on the other side of the small town. The Raptor and the motorcycle passed through the town one after the other and finally stopped in front of the noodle shop. It really was just a small place. The woman parked, got out with that little red purse in hand. Li Yifei also stopped his bike, pulled out the key, and waited until Chen Junxiao clambered awkwardly off before he got off himself.

He didn’t correct the little girl’s movements. To Li Yifei, that money was nothing more than the number two thousand, but to the little girl it might be several years of living expenses. She might even have been able to keep going to school these last two years if she’d had that money earlier.

"My treat!" Li Yifei said directly. The woman’s lips moved, but she didn’t say anything. She just walked in first, with Li Yifei leading Chen Junxiao behind her.

The little noodle shop was packed, people coming and going, bustling and noisy, with not a single empty seat left. That told Li Yifei the place had to be good—no way there’d be so many customers otherwise. The owner obviously knew this woman, because the moment he saw her come in, he set down what he was doing and walked over with a smile on his face.

"Miss, you’re here. The little room in the back, same as always!" The boss said, leading the way to the backyard, into the house where the shop owner himself lived. Inside it was clean and tidy, with a table. A waiter quickly came over to wipe it carefully and change out the condiments and such.

Li Yifei sat down calmly, and Chen Junxiao copied him, though she still remembered to say thank you to the woman.

The woman sat across from the two of them and said to the owner first, "The usual."

"Alright, alright!" The boss nodded, then looked at Li Yifei and the girl, feeling a bit puzzled. How come the Miss brought this kind of person here today? In the past, she always came alone, at most with a female friend. But today... the man sitting opposite wasn’t bad-looking, but he was way too scruffy and dirty, and there was blood on him, plus that overpowering smell of fish.

Noticing the owner staring at him, Li Yifei gave a chuckle and said, "Same as hers. Three of the same!"

"Make the kid’s a bit lighter, no spice." the woman added.

The boss nodded and said, "Miss, please wait a moment, I’ll go cook it myself!"

Li Yifei also seemed to realize the smell on his body was a bit much, so he called out to the boss, who was heading out, and asked him to bring a basin of water. The boss led him out to the tap, then turned to get some soap and the like. When he came back, he saw Li Yifei holding the hose, dousing himself from head to toe. The boss couldn’t help but pull a face, thinking this was a bit too rough and ready.

Inside the room, the woman didn’t try to make small talk with Chen Junxiao. She narrowed her eyes instead, watching Li Yifei through the window as he stood bare-chested under the tap, rinsing himself off. She seemed to really enjoy looking at him like that, gazing openly and brazenly.

As for Chen Junxiao, her palms were sweaty as she clutched that wad of money, a little dazed, fighting a battle in her heart, silently warning herself that this money was earned by Uncle himself. She absolutely couldn’t take it, and she couldn’t have any designs on it either.