Chapter 128 - Unladylike

"I heard that there's a good place in that restaurant," Yang Xian said in neither loud or low tone as he passed the officials.

Wei Liuying nodded. "Well, but I'm not that desperate in a broad daylight like this."

"You?" Yang Xian cast a sidelong glance. "You're still underage who's drinking his mother's milk. What use do you have for those?"

"Tsk, I'm not a little brat. You shouldn't spout nonsense!"

"I'm stating a fact."

The two of them continued walking like that. Manager Xin followed behind with a bitter smile. The two of them were acting so smoothly without even saying anything to each other about the role they would take. Their expression, body language, and even words perfectly matched with a role that they created in just split second.

He could see that the tired officials were suspicious when they heard what these two were talking about. Their eyes turned to look at the restaurant and one of them walked there.

Manager Xin smiled. These two specialty was truly scheming. Even though they didn't look like they have a hand in helping those young girls, they used borrowed hand to make sure that those girls would be just fine. This method made them look as if they were nothing more than passerby.

He's impressed.

"It's done."

Wei Liuying turned to look at the back and then looked forward once more. "Where should we go next?"

"There's a few others restaurant that you might want to see…."

The three of them strolled the street, but all the restaurant that Manager Xin showed to her didn't seem to be suitable. Wei Liuying knew that she would just seek trouble if she truly agreed with what Manager Xin offered to her.

"It's already lunch time," Yang Xian reminded. "How about if we stop to eat and rest first."

"It's still early."

"You need to eat in time if you wish to stay healthy."

Wei Liuying furrowed her brows, but she still agreed. They walked to the next street, which has fewer number of people walking around the area. It was less crowded, but it could still be categorized as bustling as many people were walking around.

Manager Xin brought them to the nearby restaurant.

"Welcome," a waiter greeted them with a smile. "For how many people? Private room or no?"

"Three. We'll sit on the first floor," Yang Xian replied.

"Right away."

The servant guided them to a nearby table. They sat down and started to look at the menu.

"Let's have some roasted meat duck and 3 bowls of chicken noodles," Yang Xian ordered after looking at the menu. It looked delicious.

"Ok."

Wei Liuying tapped the table while pondering. The restaurants that Manager Xin offered to her didn't seem that good. They would not last long even if the owner changed, and she was too lazy to take care from the bottom again. After all, she would only stay in the Capital City for a short period of time.

In a week's time at most, they would depart to the north.

The food didn't take a long time to cook. Soon afterwards, the food was served and the three of them started eating happily. Wei Liuying was satisfied with the food. It seemed that only in Wei Family Residence that the food was bad.

Outside, they were all really good.

This was how food should be.

"You should slow down a bit. The food is not going anywhere." Yang Xian didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he looked at Wei Liuying. "If you like noodle so much, I'll order the servants to prepare more tomorrow."

For the past few days, Wei Liuying's diet mostly consisted of vegetables and meat. After all, she had been lacking in nutrition, so he ordered the servants to prepare those that could grant her the most nutrition.

Wei Liuying held her chopsticks and nodded. She liked the chewy noodle. "Yes. Thank you."

Yang Xian smiled back in response. 

At this time, the door was suddenly banged open. Several large build men strode in with their weapon on their sides. Weapon was not that strictly regulated on the outer area of the capital city. There were some of them who could use it freely aside from the soldiers as long as they have some connection.

A man walked forward and slapped his hand on the counter. "Where's Manager Xia?"

"Master You, you're here," a manager hurriedly scurried forward. His face held fear as he looked at the large man before him. "Is there anything wrong? I have already sent the payment for this month."

"You lacked 10 liang of silver," the one at the front, Master You, replied lazily. He tapped the table. "We're increasing our protection fee rate."

Manager Xia's face turned pale almost immediately. He shook his head rapidly. "But you just increase the fee last month!"

"And we're increasing it again this month. You see, the business is not good lately."

Wei Liuying listened to their conversation and looked at Yang Xian. She had just finished the bowl of noodle after some time wolfing it down. "What's protection fee?"

"There are some local gangs around here who loved to extort money," Yang Xian replied. "There's not many regulations at this area, so people can freely try to extort money one way or another. This was only one of the few methods that people can use to extort money here."

"Is there no guards?"

"They didn't care. These are quite common for small business. They'll only interfere if it's owned by powerful person," Yang Xian replied. He didn't have the time to care for these small skirmish too. There were too many things that he had to do as the military strategist and Ji Sheng's right hand.

"I see."

Wei Liuying used her chopsticks and took a piece of duck meat. They hadn't finished eating yet because only the noodles were done. The meat was still on the table with some pieces disappearing to their stomachs.

Manager Xia's face turned pale. "That's impossible! I don't have that much money!"

"Do you really think that we care about that? There are fewer people lately, so we'll take our money now!" Master You said in strong voice. 

"I really don't have any!"

All the saving was already given for protection fee. The rest of the profit could only be used to buy the ingredients again to maintain the restaurant keep going. He was already in tights end lately.

Wei Liuying turned her head to look at Manager Xin. "Do you know about this restaurant?"

"Not really. This area is a bit far, but I know that the one who holds control over this area is Master You's gang. They did create some ruckus lately and since there are some other turmoil, their movements went undetected," Manager Xin replied in a low tone. He furrowed his brows. He was already quite aged and martial arts were definitely not his forte. He hoped that there would not be any problem here.

"You can't pay?" Master Xia asked.

"Yes."

"In that case, I'll take this restaurant as compensation. Men, Destroy this restaurant!"

"No! You can't do that!"

The customers who were eating were terrified. They quickly ran out of the restaurant without caring for their food. Who would have the mood to eat when their lives were being threatened.

Bang!

The tables were smashed and Manager Xia tried to stop them. "Please don't destroy the shop. If you destroy it, you won't get anything too."

"That's better if the two sides didn't get anything."

Wei Liuying furrowed her brows, but she continued to eat without caring for the chaos. Her chopsticks still moved to take the piece of roasted duck meat in front of her.

"Do you wish to stay?"

"This place is not bad," Wei Liuying replied.

Yang Xian nodded. The food is good and the manager didn't seem that bad. Since she took the fancy for this restaurant, he would sit back and watched the show unfolded. "In that case, the stage is yours."

"Thank you, Young Master Yang."

"My pleasure."

A hooligan came to them with a rod in his hand. He frowned when he saw the three of them were still eating leisurely. Aside from the old man looked worried, the two youngsters didn't seem to notice that they were in grave danger.

Or, were they?

"Get out!" the hooligan said.

"And if we don't want to get out?" Yang Xian asked back. He also used his chopstick to take the piece of roasted duck meat.

"I'll kill you! Get out of here, we're going to destroy the restaurant."

Yang Xian put the piece of meat to his mouth and chewed lazily. "Not going."

The hooligan was annoyed. He raised his hand and attempted to smash the table.

Tep!

The rod couldn't move any further. It was blocked by a slender hand, yet the grip was so strong that the rod wouldn't budge.

Wei Liuying's right hand was still holding onto her chopstick while her left hand grabbed the rod. She glanced up, looking at the astonished hooligan beside her. "Be quiet. I'm still eating."