Chapter 1 Back to the Bookstore

Back at the shop, Zhou Ze also took a shower. He’d gotten quite dirty cleaning up the old place.

When he came out after his shower,

breakfast was already laid out on the table in the booth.

"Old Xu, that was fast."

He hadn't taken that long in the shower, had he?

"I prepped the ingredients yesterday."

Xu Qinglang explained.

"Ooh, that smells good."

Lawyer An, in a flashy wine-red suit, came downstairs, sat at the table, leaned over, took a deep breath, and pointed at a bowl of sauce in front of him, saying,

"Crab roe sauce?"

"Yeah, I bought some hairy crabs specially the day before yesterday, took the roe, and threw the rest away since you guys weren't back."

Xu Qinglang brought Lawyer An a bowl of noodles.

Lawyer An happily picked up his chopsticks and ate the noodles with the crab roe.

Crab roe noodles have been popular in the Su Nan area for a long time, but not many people have actually tried them, for one simple reason: they're expensive.

Authentic crab roe noodles are made with hairy crabs... and hairy crabs...

So, a bowl of authentic crab roe noodles costs at least a hundred yuan, and usually closer to two hundred.

Everyone's living conditions have improved, but spending two hundred yuan on a bowl of noodles for breakfast is still a bit of a luxury for ordinary people.

Lawyer An, on the other hand, was always one for extravagant living, so he was enjoying his meal today.

The old Daoist also sat down, took a napkin, and handed it to the little monkey sitting next to him, telling it to wipe its paws.

Xu Qinglang brought over two bowls of *hulatang* (spicy soup) and four *rou jia mo* (meat sandwiches) for the old Daoist.

The little monkey had been with the old Daoist for a long time, and its tastes had started to shift accordingly.

He took a bite of the *rou jia mo*.

The old Daoist's face lit up with delight.

"That's the taste! This braised pork belly is amazing!"

Lawyer An, who was eating noodles, suddenly looked up and said, "I went to Xi'an before, and the *rou jia mo* I ate there was beef, wasn't it?"

"Bullshit, authentic *rou jia mo* is made with pork. What kind of damn ghost told you it was made with beef?

In ancient times, it was illegal to slaughter and eat beef casually. Could you just eat it whenever you wanted?

Lamb and pork are fine, but I've never heard of authentic *rou jia mo* being made with beef."

Lawyer An shrugged.

"Go to fewer tourist traps in the future. The locals don't even go to those places."

When it came to his hometown's cuisine, the old Daoist was proud and assertive.

"I understand that. It's like Tianjin's Goubuli buns; the people of Tianjin don't even eat them."

Lawyer An flattered the old Daoist.

He finished a bowl of noodles

and was drinking the soup.

Zhou Ze dipped his *xiaolongbao* (soup dumplings) in vinegar and slowly ate them while drinking soybean milk.

His tastes were actually a bit lighter, especially after having the Lycoris Radiata oral solution. His dietary preferences had basically reverted to what they were in his previous life.

The little black girl also sat down at this time, without being polite or regarding herself as an outsider, eating noodles and buns without saying a word.

Lawyer An drank the last bit of soup, having eaten all of the crab roe sauce from the plate. He smacked his lips, satisfied.

He knocked on the table and reminded Zhou Ze while wiping his mouth with a tissue:

"I'll get that place next door in a few days. You give me a renovation plan, and hurry up and plant the Lycoris Radiata."

He couldn't eat or sleep well before and got used to the torment. Now that he could eat and sleep, he didn't want to go back to those days for even a moment.

Lawyer An was very concerned about the Lycoris Radiata.

"Okay."

The little black girl didn't say much and agreed directly.

She knew her role. To put it nicely, she was an employee, but in reality, her status was closer to that of a slave.

She felt that being able to sit at the main table to eat

wasn't because the boss here was kind-hearted,

but probably just because there weren't many people in the bookstore who actually ate. For example, those two zombies and the death proxy on her back didn't eat. The bosses probably just wanted the dinner table to be more lively, so they let her join them.

And that was indeed the case.

"Oh, you're eating."

Old Zhang in his police uniform walked in.

"Wow, this table is quite lavish. Don't waste it, don't waste it."

Old Zhang sat down and started eating as well.

"I say, Old Zhang, doesn't your Public Security Bureau have breakfast?" Lawyer An said with a laugh and a curse. "In the old days, people would even hold back their urine to go back to their own outhouses to fertilize the fields.

Eating one more bite of public food meant eating one less bite of your own. How come it's the other way around with you?"

Zhang Yanfeng just smiled and continued eating.

Zhou Ze stood up, thinking of reading the newspaper and basking in the sun for a while before going back to sleep.

But

as soon as he stood up,

Old Zhang grabbed his hand.

"Boss, there's something I need to..."

"Another dead person?"

Zhou Ze asked.

"Uh, not a dead person. It's about the student military training thing you promised me last time. I agreed with you, Boss, to bring the doctors and nurses from the pharmacy next door to the school to be stationed there during the military training."

"I promised you that?"

Zhou Ze frowned.

"You did."

"I don't remember. You must be mistaken."

Zhou Ze looked very certain that he was mistaken.

"Boss!!!!!!!!"

A mountain of flesh pushed open the door of the bookstore.

Fangfang stood guard at the door,

followed by the pharmacy staff who were already prepared, with the pharmacy's ambulance parked behind them.

"Boss, we're ready. Can we leave now?"

Fangfang shouted to Zhou Ze.

"See."

Zhang Yanfeng shrugged at Zhou Ze,

meaning that he couldn't deny it now, right?

………………

Zhou Ze really couldn't understand.

At this time, he should be lying in bed in the bookstore, with Yingying sleeping next to him, or drinking coffee and leisurely lying on the sofa with a neatly ironed newspaper.

But

he was actually sitting on a plastic stool now,

under a small tent,

surrounded by

the school's sports field.

Actually, Zhou Ze thought that this matter was over. After all, the National Day holiday was over, so the military training should have ended long ago.

Who knew that, apparently, because of the rainy days in Tong City a few days ago, the school leaders had actually postponed the military training.

This probably broke the hearts of many students who were praying for rain in the dormitories.

Fortunately, it was almost autumn, so it wasn't so hot anymore. Military training now was indeed much more comfortable than it would have been a month earlier.

There were many students on the sports field, in formations. The instructors were very young, but of course, there were also some older ones.

Zhou Ze thought that there probably weren't enough instructors,

because the two gatekeepers he saw at the entrance when he came in were actually wearing camouflage uniforms and were training in all seriousness.

The gatekeepers weren't old men, so they must have been soldiers before. The whole camouflage looked quite standardized when they stood there training.

Boss Zhou couldn't help but think that

if these students in military training were chatting and bragging to each other:

"Hey, our instructor said he's a second lieutenant."

"Our instructor said he's a first lieutenant."

"Ha, our instructor is a gatekeeper!"

Thinking of this,

Zhou Ze couldn't help but smile.

"Take it, draw a circle, okay, go!"

Next to the medical station was the water station. When a class ran out of water, they would send students to collect purified water barrels, which would be recorded first.

Fangfang had nothing to do sitting here.

She'd been hoping all morning to see someone have a heatstroke and faint,

but out of boredom, she simply ran to the water station next door to chat and help out.

With her build, carrying three water barrels at once wasn't a problem for her.

Sometimes the instructors in the nearby formations taught the students to sing.

They sang nothing more than "Unity is Strength" and "Returning After Target Practice,"

and of course,

"Green Flowers in the Military."

When the formation closest to them sang together, "The cold wind flutters the leaves, the army is a green flower..."

Fangfang also sang along at the top of her lungs.

You have to say that fat people really have an advantage when singing. Her breath was long, and Fangfang sang really well, attracting applause and cheers from the students in the neighboring formations.

Zhou Ze hadn't had much long-term contact before, and he didn't often go to the "Baixing Pharmacy" next door, which nominally belonged to him.

After this half-day of contact, Zhou Ze found that Fangfang was a very nice person.

Generally speaking, fat people, especially fat girls, face a lot of pressure from a young age, so it's not easy to be so open-minded and cheerful.

As for Zhang Yanfeng,

Zhou Ze was full of anger just thinking about him.

This guy had dragged him here early in the morning, but then he just left. These freshmen had military training during the day, and at night they would be taken over by local "police instructors."

They would talk about things like women's self-defense techniques, telecommunications fraud, and campus violence.

These things seemed like minor matters, but they were actually quite important, especially since there had been too many similar news stories about college students being scammed recently.

From this point of view, the leaders of this school were actually quite enlightened and knew how to be flexible.

In his previous life, Zhou Ze had also experienced military training when he was in college. In fact, in his opinion, the essential purpose of military training in most high schools and universities was just to have the student soldiers line up neatly for the final drill,

so that the school leaders could wave and inspect them, shout "Students, you've worked hard" and "Hello, students,"

and the entire grade would drill like idiots for ten days or half a month, just to let the school leaders have a bit of "fun."

"Hey, it doesn't look like anyone is going to have a heatstroke. I'm going back this afternoon. You guys stay here."

Boss Zhou was preparing to slip away.

They were all employees of his store, and no one would be foolish enough to accuse the boss of not being able to "share weal and woe."

Just then, two boys came to the water station to collect water. The water station was organized by senior students, and they were also responsible for registering it. After the military training was over, the water fees would be tallied and collected from each class. It seemed that they were all from the student union.

Two guys had come over earlier, seeming to be there to show concern. They were chatting happily, but this group of people helping with water acted as if they hadn't seen them.

Two freshmen came over, seeming to know the older students at the water station. After all, the school's military training was late, so everyone had time to get to know each other.

One of the students shouted to the guy standing at the table chatting happily with a girl next to him:

"Senior Yang Yi, we're here to collect water," the freshman shouted.

At this time, the face of the guy who was chatting with the female classmate suddenly turned cold.

A student union cadre immediately scolded the two freshmen sternly:

"Do you freshmen know the rules? Pay attention to your identity and the way you speak!

Are you worthy to call Chairman Yang by his name like that?"