217: Chapter 15: Just Because I Glanced at You One More Time 217: Chapter 15: Just Because I Glanced at You One More Time “Captain Yan, this is Wang Yunxiao.”
“Do you have the passenger list from the Cosmos?
I want to look up two people.”
“There were a couple of sisters…
they might not actually be sisters, two young ladies, one of whom is a foreigner.
As for her name…
I really have no idea.”
“Nothing?
Are you sure?
I saw one of their bodies with my own eyes, yes, at the scene of the crime.”
“We saw them that morning, at the entrance to the cafeteria…
right, she was among them, with black hair and black eyes, very pale skin.”
“The other one?
I didn’t pay much attention to the other one, she looked…
alright?”
After hanging up the phone, Wang Yunxiao wanted to smack himself.
What does ‘looked alright’ even mean?
Indeed, it was frustrating as hell.
Yan Yu’an’s side actually had the passenger list from the Cosmos, but these young sisters couldn’t be found on it at all.
Wang Yunxiao had a deep impression of one of them, but that was only to the extent of “I’ve seen this person.” As for the girl beside her, he only remembered that she seemed to be wearing a Western dress too, with distinctly Han Chinese facial features.
As for what she specifically looked like…
he couldn’t recall at all.
There was no helping it, he wasn’t a robot after all, who could use his eyeballs as a camera, capturing real-time footage 24 hours a day.
“Do you have paper and a pencil here?”
“We really don’t have that…”
“Make an exception.”
Two cents were passed over, and the shop assistant immediately utilized his hidden primeval strength, bringing Wang Yunxiao a pencil stub and half a workbook.
The scribbled characters and numbers on it indicated that the original owner did not exceed the fourth-grade level of education and did not love to study.
Wang Yunxiao wolfed down a bowl of three-freshness noodle soup, only to find it filled him up by just a third.
He called the shop assistant over to add another bowl, and started to make a sketch with the pencil stub.
He hadn’t eaten at Mr.
Tong’s place.
On the way back to school, he randomly picked a restaurant with a phone on the counter and called Yan Yu’an.
The result was hair-raising.
Why was it so damn hard to find someone?
After several sketches that were far from satisfying, no matter how much he tried to dig into his memory, he couldn’t recall what the other girl looked like.
It was as if he had subconsciously failed to directly gaze upon her face.
Nevertheless, even a portrait of just one person was enough.
As long as he could confirm that they were shopping in Nanshi that day, he could ask around from door to door and eventually find some clues.
Casually modifying the sketch until even her own mother wouldn’t recognize her, Wang Yunxiao took the big bowl of noodles handed over by the shop assistant and continued to eat without saying a word.
Now that he had moved up in life, he could afford fancy noodle soups like these with three-freshness topping, complete with stir-fried shrimp.
Life was good indeed…
Wang Yunxiao thought to himself, if it weren’t for this damned case, he’d be back at the school, flat out and sound asleep, which would be even better.
“Shopkeeper, I’d like four portions of noodles to go, is that possible?”
“Sir, how are we supposed to pack the noodles for you…”
“You misunderstood, I mean I want to buy the raw noodles and take them home to cook.”
“Well…
alright then, which toppings do you want?”
“Anything is fine, a portion of each kind.”
Upon hearing the voice from the counter, Wang Yunxiao almost spit out his noodles.
Tianmen people’s way of eating noodles had its own local characteristics.
Noodle soup isn’t served with just a three-freshness topping alone; the topping is just the base, then each dish counts as an additional topping.
The proper way to eat is to have one big bowl of noodle soup with four hearty side dishes.
It’s similar to the Capital’s practice of serving a bowl of Zhajiangmian with over twenty side dishes, but still different.
If you want one of everything, are you planning to order the entire menu?
The shopkeeper, having seen the world, did not behave like the malicious side characters in online novels set in later times, who would point at someone’s nose and curse, “You wretch of a poor and despicable person also deserve to eat the 5A Wagyu Beef Noodle Supreme from my place?
Your presence alone pollutes my sight and dirties my establishment!
Guards, drag this scum out and beat him to death, then throw his corpse into the manure pit…”
Instead, he explained calmly, “Mr., you must have just returned from overseas, right?
The thing about our noodle sauce is this…”
Upon hearing the words “overseas,” Wang Yunxiao bit into a raw garlic clove and looked back discreetly.
Standing by the counter was a young man, dressed in a suit and looking every bit the gentleman, with a touch of refined, gentle smile on his face, appearing very cultured and seemingly easy to bully.
Familiar.
To recognize someone was to have seen them before.
After listening to the shopkeeper’s explanation, Mu Yuming hesitated for a moment.
He had just finished work at the company and was passing by in a rickshaw.
He was thinking about what to prepare for dinner to feed the group of ladies at home when he suddenly noticed a noodle house on the street side, with steam rising from a large pot at the entrance and many customers inside, which seemed to indicate a good reputation.
So, he decided to have noodles.
He would buy some freshly rolled noodles from there, along with some sauce, and he could have dinner ready once he boiled them at home.
Otherwise, what exotic delicacies could one expect a man who works until this time to prepare when he gets home?
He had no idea about the particular nuances involved in eating noodles by the Tianmen people, he couldn’t even distinguish between pounded sauce noodles and fried sauce noodles.
“Are there any flavors that women and children prefer?”
“How about a Tomato and Egg Noodle for you?”
“Okay.”
“I’ll also add Stir-Fried Shrimp, Braised Gluten, and Sweet and Sour Pork Ribs to make it four dishes.
How about I cut two pounds of fresh noodles for you, does that sound good?”
“That’s fine, just those.”
Mu Yuming thought for a moment and then asked, “Is there anything else that children love to eat?”
“May I ask if your child is a boy or a girl?”
“A girl.”
“The shop has Plum Juice and Sweet Osmanthus Fermented Rice…”
When the girl was mentioned, Mu Yuming instinctively glanced over but didn’t notice anything.
His gaze swept inconspicuously over every customer and shop assistant in the restaurant, finally resting on a young man hunched over his noodle bowl with his back to Mu Yuming.
“I’ll take two of each…
no, make it three servings of Plum Juice.”
After taking the food box from the shop assistant and paying, Mu Yuming walked out of the noodle house to the rickshaw driver waiting by the side.
“Sir, shall we…”
“Wait a minute.”
Mu Yuming placed the food box on the rickshaw, and crouched down to leisurely tie his shoelaces.
Then, as expected, another voice called out from the noodle house, “Shop Assistant, I’d like to pay the bill!”
“Let’s go.”
Having tied his shoelaces, Mu Yuming stood up and nodded to the rickshaw driver, “No hurry, I’m not in a rush.
You’ve also worked hard running such a long distance.”
The rickshaw driver grinned and said, “You’re joking, sir.
How could we in this line of work be afraid of a little exhaustion?
If you feel for me, just tip a bit extra when we arrive.”
Mu Yuming got into the rickshaw and nodded, “Alright, no problem.
If it’s convenient for you and you don’t mind the effort, how about I hire your rickshaw for a while during this time?”
The driver’s face lit up at the suggestion, “That would be great!
Rest assured, sir, I won’t have any second thoughts!”