Ch 55: Guide to Feeding a Villainous Husband

“You folks at this restaurant are unreasonable. Why would I deliberately put a bug in my own food?” Ermao shouted.

“To frame our establishment,” Qin Xia calmly replied.

Qin Xia, having worked in the restaurant business in his past life, was no stranger to these kinds of scams. He had seen such tricks many times before, and his first suspicion was that these two were hired by a rival restaurant to tarnish his reputation.

However, he found it odd that, according to Yu Jiuque, these two had been sitting and eating for quite a while. If they were planning to cause trouble, why didn’t they do it when the place was busier? Now, there were only two tables of customers left, so even if there was a bug in the food, not many people would know about it.

After reconsidering, Qin Xia ruled out the idea that they were hired to sabotage the restaurant and instead concluded that these two were likely just trying to extort money.

Ermao had no idea that Qin Xia had already seen through his little scheme. He had always believed that this trick would never fail. When Qin Xia countered him, Ermao raised his voice even more.

“You won’t admit there’s a bug in your food, and now you’re accusing me of framing you!”

As he said this, he pretended to have a stomachache, while continually giving Lian Wu meaningful looks.

Lian Wu remembered Ermao’s earlier instructions, but he wasn’t cut out for this kind of scam. His mind went blank, and he forgot everything he had rehearsed. Seeing Ermao groaning for a long time, Lian Wu reluctantly asked, “Ermao, are you okay? Should I get a doctor?”

Ermao was furious at his incompetence. How could they bring a doctor into this? That would expose their scam immediately.

Ignoring Lian Wu, Ermao pushed past Qin Xia and staggered to the restaurant entrance. Leaning against the doorframe, he shouted to the street outside, “Come and see! This Qin Family Restaurant is a black-hearted business! Their food has bugs, and they won’t even admit it. They’ve made me so sick!”

He then started acting as if he was in great pain.

In the middle of his performance, he turned to the table of burly men and said, “Gentlemen, I advise you not to eat here. You might end up with a bad stomach like me! You should demand compensation right away!”

From the moment Ermao shouted about the bug, the men at the table had already put down their chopsticks. When they heard his warning, one of them, with a bushy beard, spat on the ground and muttered, “Damn it, now I really don’t feel like eating anymore.”

The problem was, if the food here were bad, they wouldn’t have cared. But it was so delicious!

Before they started eating, they hadn’t even bothered to look closely; they just stuffed the food into their mouths. The pig’s head meat was fatty but not greasy, the braised pig’s ears were crispy and chewy, and the braised pork trotters were tender and flavorful—unlike in some places where the food was either too salty or the pig skin was too tough to chew.

They had devoured a whole plate of five large pork trotters, leaving their mouths covered in oil, forgetting when they last had such a satisfying meal.

But now, hearing that there might be a bug in the food, the meal didn’t seem as appetizing. With the way they had wolfed down the food, there was a good chance they had already swallowed a bug!

“Big Brother, we worked hard for this money. We can’t let this shady place cheat us. I’m going to demand compensation right now!” one of the men said, getting ready to stand up and confront the owner.

But the oldest man at the table, clearly more experienced, gently pressed him back down and shook his head, signaling him not to be impulsive.

“I’ve told you before, control your temper, or you’ll get us into trouble sooner or later. Sit down. I don’t think this situation is as simple as it seems.”

The younger man grumbled but obeyed, sitting back down.

Meanwhile, Xing Yiming, who had been eating in a private room in the back, heard the commotion and came out to see what was happening.

“What’s going on out there?”

Qiu Chuan quickly explained the situation. Xing Yiming shook his head.

“Who’s foolish enough to come here and cause trouble at the Qin Family Eatery?”

He knew that Qin Xia, even back when he was just a street vendor, had managed to get a local thug, Liu San’er, thrown into jail.

“Did your shopkeeper say anything? Do you need my help?” Xing Yiming asked, thinking that if Qin Xia knew he was still in the store, he might ask the staff to relay a message if there was something he needed assistance with.

Qiu Chuan shook his head. “The boss said when he went out, ‘Leave this to me, I have a way to handle it.'”

Hearing this, Xing Yiming decided to wait and see how things unfolded, thinking it would be unwise to interfere and potentially disrupt Qin Xia’s plan.

Not far away, just outside the main door, Ermao’s loud shouting had attracted a crowd of passersby, who were now gathered at the entrance of Qin Family Eatery, chattering among themselves.

First, it was broad daylight, and such commotions were rare, so everyone was eager to take a look. Second, Qin Family Eatery had been doing so well recently that anyone living nearby or passing through regularly knew about it. Upon hearing that something had gone wrong at Qin Family Restaurant, people naturally flocked to see what was happening.

Yu Jiuque whispered, “Husband, that bug…”

Qin Xia responded with a silent “Don’t worry,” which reassured his companion somewhat.

However, contrary to what Yu Jiuque expected, Qin Xia didn’t rush to prove where the bug came from. Instead, he walked to the front, facing the crowd, and asked Ermao, “Sir, with so many people watching, why don’t you just tell us what you really want?”

Ermao, thinking quickly, avoided giving a direct answer. “What do you mean, what I want? Your shop owes me compensation!”

Qin Xia followed up, “And what kind of compensation are you looking for?”

Ermao hesitated for a moment, thinking the shopkeeper was being cooperative, and immediately said, “First, you have to waive the cost of our meal. Then, since I’ll need to see a doctor, you should also cover my medical expenses!”

It seemed Qin Xia had been waiting for this. He raised an eyebrow calmly upon hearing Ermao’s demand.

Lian Wu, who had been watching from the side, suddenly had a bad feeling about this.

Then, the crowd heard Qin Xia’s tone shift. “I don’t know where you learned to be a scoundrel, but if you’re going to pull a scam, at least learn what kind of bug would be found in which vegetable.”

By this point, Yu Jiuque had already brought over the dish with the bug. Without needing a prompt, he knew what Qin Xia intended.

He carried the dish outside and made sure the gathered onlookers could clearly see what was inside.

Some people, upon seeing the bug, screamed in fright. Others, braver, leaned in for a closer look and then showed puzzled expressions.

Ermao, observing their reactions, became increasingly unsure of Qin Xia and Yu Jiuque’s intentions. His anxiety grew, and he momentarily forgot to hold his stomach in pain.

“What are you trying to do? The evidence is right here! If you don’t admit it, I’ll report you to the authorities!” Ermao blustered.

At that moment, an elderly vegetable vendor, carrying a load of produce, happened to pass by. The old man, clearly from a nearby village, wore a straw hat, and his face was tanned dark red by the sun.

Seeing the road blocked, making it impossible for him to pass with his carrying pole, he called out loudly, “Excuse me, please make way, let me through!”

This caught Qin Xia’s attention. “Sir, would you be willing to do our shop a small favor?”

The old man looked at Qin Xia warily. “What kind of favor? I’m just an old farmer who grows vegetables. I don’t know what help I can offer.”

Qin Xia politely replied, “You don’t need to worry. I just want to ask you to take a look at this bug in the dish.”

Hearing this, the old man’s interest was piqued. “A bug in the vegetables? Now that’s something I know a lot about.”

With that, he stepped forward with his vegetables, and the crowd made way for him.

Yu Jiuque presented the dish to the old man, who took one glance and immediately said, “This is just a caterpillar from leafy greens. They’re common in vegetables; when you find them while washing, you just toss them out or feed them to the chickens.”

Qin Xia continued, “May I ask, sir, would you ever find this kind of bug in cauliflower?”

The old man shook his head repeatedly. “No way! The bugs you find in cauliflower don’t look like this!”

After speaking, the old man bent down and rummaged through his vegetable basket, pulling out a head of cauliflower to show everyone present.

“Look here, this kind of bluish bug is what you’d find in cauliflower! When it’s alive, it’s this color, and when it dies, it turns black. That big green bug you’ve got there belongs in leafy greens, not in cauliflower!”

Ermao broke out in a cold sweat and took the opportunity to glare angrily at Lian Wu.

Lian Wu felt wronged—how was he supposed to know the difference between blue bugs and green bugs? Ermao had told him to find a bug, so he caught a big one from his garden, and Ermao had even praised him for finding a good one!

The answer was now clear. Qin Xia once again turned to Ermao and said, “And if this bug wasn’t something you deliberately placed in the dish at the last moment to try to extort us, then it must have been there during the cooking process. But this is a dry-fried cauliflower dish—each piece of cauliflower is fried until slightly crispy. So why is this bug still green and intact?”

The spectators, who had gathered to watch the commotion, finally began to understand.

“That’s right! If the meat in the dish is cooked, the bug should have been cooked too!”

“I wondered what was going on—turns out it’s just a scam! No wonder he was so quick to demand money.”

“Qin Family Eatery is just unlucky to have run into such a scoundrel.”

With these two points laid out, even a child could tell that Qin Family Restaurant was not at fault.

Seeing that his scheme had been exposed, Ermao’s face turned pale. Now, he really did look like he had a stomachache.

He began to edge toward the door, hoping to slip away unnoticed.

But before he could take more than a couple of steps, there was a sudden cry from behind, and it was unmistakably Lian Wu’s voice.

Qin Xia and Yu Jiuque turned to see what had happened and were surprised to find that two of the burly men from the table had approached. One of them had grabbed Lian Wu by the collar, lifting him off the ground as easily as if he were a small chicken.

Ermao immediately started stammering.

“W-what do you think you’re doing?”

Before causing trouble, Ermao had hoped these burly men might support him. But not only had they stayed silent the entire time, now they had even grabbed his sidekick!

The big man let out a cold laugh. “What do you think we’re doing? We’re teaching you a lesson. I can’t stand useless scoundrels like you, who spend their days freeloading.”

With that, he tossed Lian Wu out the door, sending him tumbling over ten feet and landing face-first in the dirt.

Ermao didn’t get away either; he received a swift kick and ended up in a heap alongside Lian Wu.

Qin Xia hadn’t expected the man to take such decisive action and was about to speak, but the man beat him to it.

“They won’t be running away now, boss. Report them to the authorities.”