After leaving Juxing Tower, I looked at my watch and saw it was ten minutes to one-thirty.
I thought there was still some time before the appointment at "three o'clock" on the note, and I happened to be a little hungry, so I turned to Hua Muling and asked, "Would you like to go get something to eat?"
Hua Muling looked at me, frowned slightly and said, "You ate so many pastries in there just now, are you still hungry now?"
I smiled and said, "You also said they were pastries! How can pastries be eaten as food?"
Hua Muling also smiled and said: "You!... Fortunately, I'm not very hungry. What do you want to eat?"
I thought for a moment and said, "I know there is a good mutton-shabu restaurant near here. Would you like to try it?"
Hua Muling said, "Okay!"
…
Baodequan is a shabu-shabu restaurant hidden in an alley. It’s not big, but the taste is definitely outstanding.
The freshly cut lamb front leg meat has no blood on it and does not fall over when it is placed on the plate. Although the price is 50 yuan per plate, the weight of one plate is no less than 7 taels.
Although the sauerkraut developed by the boss himself is not as sour as the ones in the northeastern countryside, it still has its own unique taste.
The soul of his family is the mahjong prepared by the boss himself, which is full of fragrance. It is no exaggeration to say that if you stand at the entrance of the alley and lift your nose and smell it, you can smell the aroma of his mahjong.
Paired with freshly fried chili oil, which is called a bite of crispy chili oil in Qinxing, which means it is freshly fried and crispy with a bite. Add a little chopped green onion and coriander, and a small piece of soybean curd. It is no exaggeration to say that Even though the house at home collapsed, I didn't even feel sad.
When I went there, I happened to catch up with the restaurant. There were only ** tables in the two rooms inside and outside Baode Quan, and it was overcrowded.
Fortunately, I am familiar with the boss here, so Special Case set up a table for Hua Muling and me in the kitchen.
After a while, the hot copper hot pot was brought up.
I was not polite, picked up the plate and put the whole plate of hand-cut meat into the pot.
The charcoal fire in the copper pot was very strong, and soon the soup started to bubble.
I took out a chopstick of mutton, covered with mahjong, and stuffed it into my mouth. The aroma of the mutton mixed with the aroma of sesame sauce exploded in my mouth instantly.
I let out a long sigh of contentment and said, "That's what it tastes like!"
After saying that, I turned my head and glanced at Hua Muling, and found that she was just holding her chopsticks in a daze, as if she had something on her mind!
I looked at Hua Muling and asked, "What's wrong, you damn girl? No appetite? Or is there something on your mind?"
I asked twice in a row before Hua Muling came back to her senses. She symbolically added a chopstick of mutton, dipped it in some sesame sauce and put it in her mouth. After chewing it for a few times, she looked at me and asked slowly. Said: "Don't you think this is a bit strange?"
After I swallowed the mutton in my mouth, I wiped my mouth and asked, "Strange? What's so strange?"
Hua Muling said: "What a coincidence!"
I asked in surprise: "Coincidence? Where is the coincidence?"
Hua Muling first threw a piece of frozen tofu into the pot, and then said, "Don't you feel as if all this has been arranged in advance?"
I asked, "How do you say this?"
Hua Muling said: "Look! As soon as we came back from Tibet, my friend who I hadn't seen for many years suddenly contacted me! I didn't feel anything at the time, I just thought it might be that I hadn't contacted him for too long and I suddenly missed him. But now that I think about it, during the conversation, she always mentioned Professor Li, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally."
I stuffed the two large pieces of mutton in the bowl into my mouth, chewed a few mouthfuls, and then said slowly: "Do you think your friend is leading us by the nose?"
Hua Muling shook her head and said, "I don't think it's her! She was just used as a pawn. There should be a bigger force behind this. By the way..."
When Hua Muling said this, she suddenly looked up at me and asked, "What's going on with that photo? Why haven't I heard you mention it?"
I shrugged and said, "I was at Starbucks before, and a lady brought it to me before you came! I was going to tell you about it, but then I was distracted and forgot about it. I didn't remember it until I saw that girl. It’s about the photo.”
I took a big mouthful of sauerkraut, and then asked the boss for two bottles of Arctic Ocean. After taking a sip, I slowly continued: "These things seem to be separate from each other, but now it seems that all the things They all seem to be inseparable. So what does that guy who has been hiding behind the scenes want to do? "
Hua Muling shook her head and said, "This is what I can't figure out the most!"
I smiled and said: "As the saying goes, don't think about things that you can't understand. People are like iron rice or steel. If you don't eat a meal, you will be hungry. Let's not worry about those things for now. Eat a meal in peace and contentment, and the rest will be done. Let’s look into the matter later.”
Hua Muling nodded and said, "You're right! So what are your plans next?"
I looked at Hua Muling and said, "First finish your meal in peace, and then go to Liulichang!"
Hua Muling was stunned for a moment and said, "Liulichang? Where are you going and what are you doing?"
I smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm not going on a date! I'm going to check out the situation!"
With that said, I took out the note from my pocket and put it in front of Hua Muling.
Hua Muling looked at the note, and then asked in surprise: "Who gave it to you?"
I said: "The girl who led us in from the Juxing Building!"
Hua Muling asked: "The girl who led us in? Did she invite you to Liulichang?"
I shook my head and said, "It's probably not her! Juxing Tower has strict rules. As the foreman on the third floor, she has no ability to run out in broad daylight. As expected, she is probably just a messenger."
Hua Muling frowned, put a piece of frozen tofu into a bowl, played with it for a long time, and then said to me, "Are you really planning to go?"
I added a chopstick of mutton and said, "Well! Let's see what kind of medicine this man is selling in his gourd?"
Hua Muling looked at me and said, "Then I'll go with you!"
When I heard what Hua Muling said, I smiled and shook my head and said, "No! Fourth girl, you have other more important things to do!"
Hua Muling was stunned and said, "Is there something more important? What is it?"
I looked around and then waved to Hua Muling. Hua Muling put her ear towards me knowingly.
I leaned forward and whispered something softly into her ear.
After saying a few words, Hua Muling's already frowning frown became even tighter.
She looked at me for a while and then asked word by word: "Do you really plan to do this?"
I nodded and said, "Of course!"
Hua Muling looked at me with a heavy face and said, "But... in this case..."
I smiled and said, "It's nothing! As the saying goes, if you can't bear the child, you can't trap the wolf; if you can't bear the wife, you can't catch the gangster!"
Hua Muling looked at me for a long time, as if she had made a lot of determination, reluctantly nodded twice and said, "Okay! Then be careful!"
After saying that, Hua Muling stood up and walked out.
Seeing that she was about to leave, I hurriedly pointed to the copper pot in front of me with my chopsticks and said, "Why don't you eat? Take two bites before leaving!"
Hua Muling sighed: "You! You are still in the mood to eat! I'm not hungry, so I won't eat it yet. You can eat it! Eat more, don't leave anything behind!"
After saying that, Hua Muling strode out of Baodequan's door.
I looked at Hua Muling walking out and couldn't help but sigh and said, "I don't want to eat such good meat! I really don't know how to enjoy it!"
Having said that, I waved to Boss Bao Dequan and shouted with a smile: "The boss is bringing me four plates of hand-cut mutton!"
When the boss heard this, he smiled and said, "Okay, please! Please do it!"
…
When I arrived at Wanfu Tea House in Liulichang, it was already 2:50 in the afternoon.
Wanfu Teahouse is the first one opened in Ermao Hutong on the east side of Liulichang. Its name sounds domineering, but in fact it is a very small teahouse.
Or maybe it’s not really a teahouse at all.
There is a very shabby blue cloth curtain at the entrance of Wanfu Tea House, as if it has not been washed for many years. Although it is blue, it has a faint black color.
I opened the curtain and strode in. I found that the inside was only about thirty square meters at most, divided into two rooms, front and back.
The inner room is the kitchen, and there are three tables in the outer room, with a large thermos placed on each table.
Besides me, there were two other people in Wanfu Teahouse at this time.
A man, a woman.
The man is a thin man about fifty years old.
Looking at this man, I saw that he was wearing a yellowed white shirt, decent suit pants, and a pair of leather sandals with black socks underneath.
Looking further at this man's face, he saw that his thin cheeks were covered with stubble, his eye sockets were sunken, and his dark circles were heavy, as if he hadn't slept for a long time. But even so, this man's eyes were still as sharp as an eagle. .
The man didn't speak or look at me. His attention was focused on the cup of tea in his hand. He didn't drink it, but just watched quietly.
I looked away from the man and looked at the woman next to him.
This is a very fashionable woman, wearing a complete set of Gucci sportswear and a pair of white Nike sneakers on her feet.
These Nike shoes look very ordinary, but in fact they are a limited edition co-branded pair. I remember the market value is at least five digits.
This girl looks young, in her mid-twenties, but has an extremely mature look, and looks a bit like Fan Bingbing between her eyebrows.
What is more mature than her appearance is her figure. A pair of proud white rabbits made me deeply understand what it means to be "big with breasts".
