"Don't be nervous, don't be scared. I just want to invite sister-in-law over for a meal and a chat. We're both parents, so we can discuss parenting. What's the big deal?" Lin Xiao said matter-of-factly. "Aren't we all hoping our children can grow up healthy and strong?"
"Parenting?"
Hearing this, Zhang Huan found it even stranger. Were these really words coming from Lin Xiao?
"Come, come, eat something first. You look a bit pale, must be low blood sugar. Your lips are even dry... Boss, a cup of soy milk, please." Lin Xiao immediately called out.
The owner of this rice noodle shop was a bald middle-aged man. As soon as he heard, he nimbly grabbed a cup of freshly ground soy milk and brought it over.
"And two bowls of spicy beef noodles, with eggs." Lin Xiao handed the soy milk to Zhang Huan and said, "Sister-in-law, drink."
"Mmm..."
Zhang Huan picked up the soy milk and took a few sips. She looked at the cup in her hand with surprise. "How much is this per cup?"
The boss, who was busy serving customers, turned back and said, "Two yuan a cup!"
"So cheap?" Zhang Huan couldn't quite understand. "I had the nanny at home make some before, and I remember it cost dozens of yuan a cup, right?"
"..."
Lin Xiao looked at her, unsure of what to say. "Soy milk for dozens of yuan a cup..."
"Yes, I remember they said it was organic soy milk, especially good for children's health or something." Zhang Huan was carefully thinking.
"...I can only say, you people really know how to spend money." Lin Xiao felt inadequate. Even when he was part of the Lin family and money was no object, he had never spent money like this!
"For the child's health, of course, we have to buy the best!" Zhang Huan immediately said. She seemed to have opened up and continued, "My Bingbing needs the best of everything. His milk is imported, all the vegetables he eats are organic and pollution-free, organic meat, and even his eggs have to be sterile, the kind you can eat raw..."
"So that's how it is..."
Lin Xiao finally understood where their money was being spent.
"I rarely come to places like this... Is the food here really edible if it's so cheap? Let me see these beef noodles... only fourteen yuan a bowl? Is this beef real beef?" Zhang Huan blurted out, looking at the price of the beef again.
Coincidentally, the boss's wife brought over the noodles she had just made. Hearing Zhang Huan's words, the boss immediately assured her, "This guest, please rest assured. This is absolutely real beef. I buy it every day from the fresh market next door. Old Huang, who sells beef there, knows me well. This beef is all top-quality yellow beef, carefully marinated by me."
The boss curiously sized up Zhang Huan. This woman did look quite wealthy, but… asking if his beef was real beef struck him as absurd.
"Yellow beef?" Zhang Huan looked at the bowl of beef noodles and seemed to lose her appetite instantly. "It's not Wagyu?"
"Wagyu..." the boss heard her and looked confused. "But... isn't Wagyu something from Japan? This is Longguo, isn't it?"
"But their..."
"Boss, ignore her. She's just being difficult," Lin Xiao quickly said.