CHAPTER 384: CHAPTER 384 A FATHER

The sun had shed its final rays, yet the world did not plunge into darkness.

A bright moon hung high in the sky, and the whole city was brightly lit.

"Wow, wow, wow..." Dou Dou was the first to burst into exclamations.

After all, Coconut City, being the capital of Qionghai, had infrastructure and other facilities unmatched by Bin Hai, except, of course, for hotels.

Bin Hai’s hotels are nationally ranked as it is a tourist city; even if it lacks in other areas, the hotels are essential.

"Don’t make such noise, it’s deafening."

Duoduo immediately reached out to pinch her small face.

Affected by Dou Dou, Duoduo had become much livelier.

Seeing Duoduo reach out to pinch her, Dou Dou opened her mouth to bite.

"Roar~, Roar~, I am a big monster."

Dou Dou imitated the evil from the Netherworld, growling aloud.

Duoduo quickly withdrew her hand, yet Dou Dou, unwilling to show weakness, pounced to bite her.

But she felt a tightness at the back of her neck, someone had grabbed her from behind, she turned around, and who else could it be but Sister Xiao Yue.

"Hehe, sister..."

She flashed a sycophantic smile.

"Don’t be naughty," said Xiao Yue.

"It’s all Duoduo’s fault. She wanted to pinch me, to pinch me to death," Dou Dou immediately pointed at Duoduo, who had moved aside.

Duoduo, stomping her little foot, said, "Who asked you to babble incessantly, and I didn’t mean to pinch you to death, I just wanted to pinch your cheeks."

"You hear, you hear, she wanted to pinch my cheeks to death..."

Xiao Yue: ...

"Let’s go," Shen Siyuan called out from ahead.

"I’m coming."

Dou Dou immediately trotted to catch up, then reached out to hold Shen Siyuan’s hand.

"Guo Guo, where are we going?"

...

Duoduo: "I’m so angry."

Xiao Yue nodded, "I can understand, I also feel like hitting her."

The two continued talking while catching up.

Then Duoduo took the initiative to grab Shen Siyuan’s other hand.

Xiao Yue, seeing this, snorted softly; she was the older child and wouldn’t stoop to such childishness to compete with them.

"Does that place look tasty?"

Dou Dou saw a seafood stall and immediately started salivating.

Duoduo immediately said, "They all look the same, why do you think it’s tasty?"

"Because I think so," Dou Dou said self-assuredly.

Duoduo: ???

She was momentarily dumbfounded, not understanding what Dou Dou meant.

However, Shen Siyuan didn’t indulge Dou Dou’s wishes but instead walked into a nearby restaurant named Big Pot Stove.

This name was clearly for a Northeastern cuisine, and since there were many people from the Northern region in Qionghai, having a Northeastern cuisine restaurant was quite normal.

Sure enough, just as they sat down, a woman approached, her speech tinged with a thick Northeastern accent.

"Big brother, what would you like to eat?"

"What’s available?"

The woman handed over a menu.

"What’s the key meat, pork stew with vermicelli, trio of earth treasures, chicken stew with mushrooms, etc., all the Northeastern specialty dishes you can think of were available, including seafood, of course. Without selling seafood, you couldn’t really call yourself a restaurant in Qionghai."

Shen Siyuan ordered one of each.

"Big brother, let me be honest with you. You’ve ordered a bit too much. Our place serves authentic Northeast cuisine. For one person, ordering two dishes is enough; any more would be wasteful."

The lady from the Northeast was quite kind-hearted.

"It’s okay, I have a big appetite. Just bring them on." Shen Siyuan said.

Seeing his insistence, the lady couldn’t say much else and went straight to place the orders, letting the kitchen start cooking.

It was then that Shen Siyuan began to carefully observe the restaurant’s interior.

The small shop was not large, with only eight tables in total. One of those tables was piled with sundry items, leaving only seven available for use. This indicated the level of business at the small shop.

At that time, only one table had customers. There were five people sitting at a four-person table, drinking, smoking, and loudly calling out to each other, radiating an air of arrogance.

Judging by their appearance, they seemed to be in their thirties or forties, each with a fat face and big ears. Two of them had tattoos on their exposed arms.

Shen Siyuan only glanced at them briefly before shifting his gaze to the table behind them.

An old man sat alone at that table observing them. To be precise, he was looking at Dou Dou and the others, as the old man himself was also a ghost.

It was unclear whether the old man was related to the restaurant or to the five robust men who were eating there.

However, the old man seemed surprised when he noticed Shen Siyuan looking at him.

Then he got up and walked directly towards Shen Siyuan.

"Is the young sir Ma Daxian?" the old man asked immediately as he approached.

At his words, Shen Siyuan understood that the old man must be related to the restaurant.

Because the "Ma Daxian" he referred to means Emerging Immortal.

And Emerging Immortal is actually a term used in Northeast shamanism, similar to witch, divine man, or Water Master.

Shen Siyuan nodded as a form of acknowledgment, then gestured for Dou Dou to move to the side.

Dou Dou was very obedient and quickly squeezed next to Duoduo. Though the two often argued, they were actually quite close.

"My apologies for disturbing you, young sir."

The old man sat down politely, his demeanor and speech carrying a hint of scholarly refinement, reminiscent of a learned old gentleman from the past.

"Do you have a connection with this restaurant?" Shen Siyuan asked curiously.

The old man smiled and pointed at the woman busy behind the counter, saying, "She is my daughter."

This woman was the same one who had greeted Shen Siyuan earlier.

Her figure appeared somewhat bulky, not because she was fat, but because people from the north naturally had larger frames. A little bit of flesh made her look exceptionally robust, which was not uncommon for a woman from the Northeast.

Shen Siyuan withdrew his gaze and looked back at the old man, noticing he was trim and slim, which was rather uncharacteristic for northerners.

"Where are you folks from?" Shen Siyuan asked.

"Yingkou," the old man replied.

Speaking of the Northeast, cities like Erbin, Shenyang, and Changchun usually come to mind—major cities. In fact, the Northeast consists of three provinces with thirty-six prefecture-level cities.

But speaking of Yingkou, there was hardly any notable impression, and Shen Siyuan was no exception; he knew nothing about the place.

"Did your whole family move to Qionghai to settle?"

In Qionghai, although there were many northerners, most were like migratory birds, coming here to spend the winter and returning north in the spring, with the elderly being a majority.

"Nope, Ni’er just ran off here with a man. I haven’t seen her for many years, only came to visit her once," the old man said.

Shen Siyuan glanced over at the woman behind the counter, his face showing some surprise.

The old man seemed to guess Shen Siyuan’s thoughts, chuckling as he said, "It’s all in the past, nothing too serious."

"How so?" Shen Siyuan was interested.

With the dishes still on the way and nothing much to do, he could listen to the old man’s story to pass the time.

"It’s just that the family arranged a match for her back then, and she didn’t agree, so she ran off with someone. She hasn’t returned for years. After I died, I kept thinking about this matter, so I came to see how she’s getting on... It looks like she’s doing alright..."

The old man recounted in a lighthearted manner, his gaze toward the lady filled with tenderness.

From what the old man implied, it seemed the lady might not even be aware that her father had passed away.