CHAPTER 700: FOOD STAND WITH FRIENDS

As Xiaoyun arrived at the destination in the text, he was a little surprised to see a group of people all standing right next to an apartment building.

They were all gathered around a tent shop, walking in and out with a small paper bag full of fried food.

"What’s happening here?’

Upon closer inspection, Lily was taking orders from the customer in line, with two other girls deep-frying various kinds of food from a container.

"You just came here today? This place has deep-fried squid! I haven’t eaten that for so long."

As a nearby person in the line answered his question, Xiaoyun decided to line up as well, choosing not to disrupt her work right away.

After waiting just three minutes, it was already his turn.

"Welcome, sir! How may I take your order... X-Xiaoyun?"

Despite Lily standing there frozen in place, he continued ordering his food as if he didn’t recognize her.

"I would like to order the... Squid special and one wings box with mild spice. Here’s 20 NRC... Hello?"

"Y-Yes, y-your order number is 216. Please wait until your number is called."

Lily quickly wrote down Xiaoyun’s order on a piece of paper, walking over to attach it right above the makeshift kitchen table.

As she went back to the cashier position to take the next order, Xiaoyun waited on the side and started examining their setup.

He could clearly recognize the two girls in the back working in the kitchen as Lily’s friends.

The dumb girl Wang Shihan and the tall girl Chen Xuewei.

The two of them were doing dirty work, with Shihan prepping the ingredients by dipping them into powdery starch, doing the first dip before letting it rest.

Xuewei did the second dip in a much hotter oil, so hot in fact that she had to constantly move it out and take it out to be packaged.

Meanwhile, Lily’s job was only taking orders from the customers, writing them down before going over to the kitchen to attach them.

"Order 216!"

Xiaoyun quickly approached Lily to take his order. He could see the nervousness on her face as she handed him the bag of food.

"Have a nice meal."

After taking the food, he didn’t look back as he headed back over to his car, opening the door and sitting right by it.

Opening the paper bag, the golden texture and the strong smell instantly hit him. It was a rich, sizzling aroma, along with hints of spices.

"When was the last time I ate fried food?"

As he took a small bite of the squid, the crispy, salty taste instantly made his taste buds overflow with flavor.

"Shit, this thing is hot."

Xiaoyun quickly created a bottle of Coke, popping the lid open before chugging it down as the cold, sweet smell temporarily blocked the spiciness.

"It can’t be that spicy... There’s no way I’m bringing this home with Leyan already cooking dinner."

With no hesitation, he opened the bag all the way, revealing the wing box that contained three fried wings with the exact red and black dots splattered all over it.

"Oh boy... I can do this. Come on, Xiaoyun. It’s only mild. Don’t be scared of mild. That would be the biggest cowardly move."

As he took a bite of the wings, the fried chicken skin alone shocked him. The savoury meat was even better as it overshadowed the spiciness for a second.

"Fuck fuck fuck, it’s hot."

This time, Xiaoyun wasn’t complaining about the spiciness. Rather, the literal food temperature forced him to chug down a sip of the Coke again.

"Oh, hey, Mr.Governor! Surprise to see you here. You eating the fried chicken from the food stand over there?"

The voice instantly made Xiaoyun look over to the right as it was no other than the host from Midnight Current, Liang Han.

Camera crews were all standing right behind him, seemingly to be recording live on air as Liang Han held onto a microphone.

"Ahem, is this live on air?"

Xiaoyun cautiously asked as he quickly put all the food underneath his car seat before getting out of the car.

"No, this is just a recorded segment. It’s a special show called ’Exploring the Everyday Lives of Citizens.’"

"Edit this out. I don’t want to be on camera."

"Um, okay. No problem, sir... Post production team, don’t forget to cut this out."

As Xiaoyun and Liang Han went back and forth, more and more people were starting to notice the camera crew that was walking nearby.

More importantly, some of them were starting to reconganize Xiaoyun. At least the one who cares about seeing him.

"Ahem, you guys should probably go back to record something more interesting."

"Of course."

With Liang Han and the camera crew walking away and towards the food stand, Xiaoyun could finally let out a sigh as he closed his car door this time.

"Time to finish this..."

---

After waiting for twenty minutes in the car, the camera crew was long gone as the food stand was starting to close.

The crowds of people had disappeared as well, leaving only the three girls to clean up and close up their shop.

"How’s your secret job, Lily?"

Xiaoyun curiously asked as he approached the food stand, which instantly caused all three of them to turn around to look towards him.

"I-I was only here to m-make up for Yajing. This isn’t a job or anything, I’m not getting paid. I-I only came here to help them."

"Relax. No need to be so nervous. I’m not going to punish you or anything. You’re already an adult."

Seeing her still looking a little nervous, Xiaoyun added one more line.

"Where did your confidence go? You were chatting with the customers perfectly fine just a few minutes ago."

"Lily? Are you all shy because your brother Xiaoyun you’re talking to?"

"Shut up! I’m not shy in front of Xiaoyun!"

The nervousness on Lily’s face instantly vanished, returning to her usual self as she tried to elbow right at Xuewei’s stomach, only to hit her on the legs.

"Yeah, yeah, you can go home with your sweet boyfriend now. We can clean up the rest on our own."

As soon as Xuewei said the word boyfriend, Lily froze in place, her face blushing red as if she had just returned to her shy self.

"Lily, let’s go. Leyan is going to get mad if we are so late getting home."

She finally unfreezes, silently walking over to Xiaoyun before grabbing onto his shoulder as they head back to his car.

"Xuewei, you jealous?" Shihan suddenly asked as she took over the area that Lily was wiping earlier.

"J-Jealous? Why would I be jealous? I already have a boyfriend. I’m just weirded out by something."

"Weirded out by what?"

"Look at their height differences... Don’t they look more like daughter and father based on this sunset?’

Shihan fell into silence. It really gave off the vibe of a parent and kid walking off into the sunset as their shadow overlapped the sunlight.

At the same time, she couldn’t help but get offended as she looked at her own shadow, which was only slightly taller than Lily’s earlier.

"Are you trying to say short people can’t get a boyfriend?"

"What? When did I say that? Actually, who’s talking to me? Weird. I can’t see the person talking to me——"

"You’re going to regret this!"

As Xuewei pretended to be unable to see below her, Shihan quickly ran over to start tickling her right on the stomach.

"Okay, okay! I’m just joking!"

---

As Xiaoyun and Lily arrived in the garage and exited the car, they were instantly greeted by Leyan as she opened the door for them.

"Welcome back!"

"Hey."

"What took you guys so long? The food is almost cold waiting for you guys." Leyan grumpily murmured.

"Lily’s friend was showing her about an interesting game. I got too into it as well and only realized we needed to head back after a while."

"Yeah! It was super fun! You wouldn’t believe how addictive the game is. It deserves the game of the year!"

Lily instantly answered, backing Xiaoyun up as they headed from the living room to the kitchen.

"Yeah, right."

"Finally, you guys decided to show up."

As soon as the three of them stepped towards the dining table, everyone started eating as they didn’t even wait for them to sit down.

"You guys don’t have to wait for us next time," Xiaoyun murmured as Leyan handed the two of them a bowl of rice.

"Tradition is tradition. You’re the man of the house. No one is getting to eat until you get back home."

Xiaoyun didn’t try to argue back any further, as he knew it would be nearly impossible to get her out of the whole traditional mindset.

"Sniff sniff... Xiaoyun, did you eat something before coming home?" Tianci suddenly asked as she happened to sit right next to him.

"Just happened to walk past a BBQ shop on the way to pick up Lily. You would be surprised to see how many people open their food stands outdoors."

A sweat appeared on his forehead as he didn’t expect her nose to be that sharp, as he could barely smell it after standing in the wind for a bit.

"Food stands? Do they even have permits?" Yuqi questioned, her face looking a little annoyed as if it was a thorn on her side.

"Maybe. Probably time to put out some regulation on it or something. Definitely need food inspection——"

"No more talking about work at dinner."