After a while, it suddenly quieted down outside the shop. Then, Guo Daixuan led the way in, followed by a tall young man. Gan Lan couldn’t tell exactly what he looked like because his face was currently beaten into the same bruised mess as Guo Dacheng’s had been earlier.
Gan Lan guessed this was Jiang Zizhen, the one who had arrogantly referred to himself as her granddaddy. He certainly deserved the beating. Daring to pull rank like that on such a hot-tempered woman was practically playing with fire.
The next person was also tall, boasting an excellent, curvy hourglass figure. However, one of her eyes sported a bruised black ring, making her look a bit battered.
Then came the third, fourth, and fifth. All of them were exceptionally tall, and all bore varying degrees of injuries. Oh, no, they weren’t really injuries—more like peculiar makeup.
Looking at their heights, Gan Lan fell unusually silent. It reminded her of the indescribable feeling she got back at school when surrounded by all those long legs. Especially when someone mentioned a "dip" in the crowd—that dip was inevitably her.
Still, there were plenty of short people around nowadays. Shrimp was one, Yuanyuan was another, and with her added to the mix, she felt a lot better.
Gan Lan stood up and fetched a few sturdier-looking chairs for the three men and two women.
The group had quieted down upon entering, but the more they thought about it, the more indignant they felt. One of them looked around the run-down place and was just about to make a sarcastic remark when he accidentally spotted Mr. Guo, who was happily peeling and eating Ugly Shrimp. He instantly shut his mouth.
The other four spotted Mr. Guo as well and went over to greet him in unison. "Hello, Uncle Guo!"
Mr. Guo nodded calmly at them, then pointed to the Small Treatment Device sitting on another table. "Go get yourselves treated."
"Thank you, Uncle Guo." The group bowed in unison and lined up to fight over the Healing Device. They even almost came to blows again over who would use it first, smashing three chairs and a table in the process.
This left Gan Lan feeling utterly drained. They had only just arrived, and they had already broken three of her few remaining chairs. Were they going to collapse her entire shop later? She felt an urge to kick them out; these were not the kind of customers she wanted.
"Gan Lan, don’t just stand there, hurry up and serve them! Each and every one of them keeps saying I lied to them. Don’t go crying later!" Guo Daixuan waved her hand, urging Gan Lan to bring out the spicy and garlic Ugly Shrimp she had already prepared. Then she added, "Bring them ten crates of beer, too. Multiply the price by a hundred for them."
"Who said we were going to eat? We just came over to see what the hell you’re up to. Once we’re done looking, we’re leaving!" Jiang Zizhen, the one who had been beaten the worst out of the five, immediately retorted loudly.
"Leave if you want, but I’m not leaving!" Meng Chuyun, the woman whose eye had been punched into a smoky-makeup look earlier, chimed in instantly. She nudged the young woman standing next to her. "Qiao Jin, do you smell that? It smells so good!"
Qiao Jin nodded reservedly, then carefully sat down on a chair.
In truth, the chair looked so rickety and close to falling apart that she didn’t dare put her full weight on it, terrified of embarrassing herself if it shattered beneath her.
Aside from Jiang Zizhen, his four companions all found their seats and sat down.
Seeing his four friends prove with their actions that they weren’t leaving, Jiang Zizhen abandoned his casual posture, swung his arms in exasperation, and found a seat as well.
Gan Lan set them up at a single table. It was the biggest and sturdiest one she had—or rather, it used to be the sturdiest. But after Guo Daixuan had slammed her hands on it twice, it now wobbled slightly. She wasn’t entirely sure if adding a few more plates of Ugly Shrimp would be the final straw to break it apart.
Just to be safe, Gan Lan wedged a few pieces of wood under the table as makeshift supports. It made the setup look even shabbier and uglier, but it seemed stable enough now.
The five people, who had never eaten in such a dilapidated environment before, were speechless. Couldn’t this shop owner just buy a new table and chairs? She was simply too stingy and cheap!
She had Shrimp set out bowls and chopsticks for them, told them to eat and drink well, and then left them to their own devices.
"Will you be full just eating shrimp? Should I cook some porridge and stir-fry a couple of side dishes for you?" Gan Lan asked Mr. Guo, the oldest person at the table.
"Sure, just cook today’s vegetable porridge. You can figure out the side dishes yourself. You might as well make a couple of plates for them, too; after all, young people have big appetites, and they just got here. It’s not like us, eating from morning till afternoon." Mr. Guo chuckled as he spoke. He hadn’t expected to actually eat from morning till afternoon without his mouth ever stopping. This was truly a first in his life.
He suddenly felt that going to a bustling street to eat Ugly Shrimp tomorrow might be quite a novel experience. Thinking of this, he decided he would go as well. At worst, he could just wear a mask or put on some makeup to perfectly solve the embarrassment of showing his face.
Otherwise, would a dignified and authoritative dean of the Research Institute really have to sit on the street eating Ugly Shrimp for people to stare at? He couldn’t afford to lose that much face just yet.
He would have to dress his children up properly tomorrow, too, trying to make sure they wouldn’t be recognized. Otherwise, if people saw his children and he was sitting right next to them, anyone familiar with him would recognize him at a glance.
"Um, are there no gloves?" Meng Chuyun asked weakly.
"No, just grab them with your hands. Don’t you see we’re all using our hands? Using your hands is better. You can lick your fingers so the sauce doesn’t go to waste!" Guo Daixuan hurriedly educated her fair-weather friends on the benefits of not wearing gloves, and demonstrated how to peel the shrimp and the most delicious way to eat them.
"Is it really that good?" Qiao Jin was a bit skeptical. The Red Demon Star had once seen a craze for eating Ugly Shrimp, but while the texture of the dishes made by those master chefs was quite amazing at first, it became mediocre after eating too much. They only ate it for the novelty, and then hadn’t touched it for a long time afterward.
Seeing the Guo family eating with such relish that they couldn’t even lift their heads made her doubtful. Could this shop owner’s Ugly Shrimp really be tastier than a master chef’s?
Raising her eyes to observe her surroundings again, Qiao Jin realized this was the most dilapidated place she had ever seen in her life. On top of that, they had to eat at this wobbly table on rickety chairs, and they didn’t even have gloves. She felt a twinge of regret; if she had known, she would have just gone back with Jiang Zizhen.
Wait a minute. The person sitting opposite her—the one expertly peeling and sucking the juices out of the Ugly Shrimp with a face full of excitement—wasn’t that the same guy who kept insisting he wasn’t going to eat and had only come to look? Why had the person who seemed the least accepting of it suddenly embraced it the fastest? It was truly incomprehensible.
The other companions all started digging in. Old Guo had warmly urged them to eat, and they were too embarrassed to refuse. One by one, they picked up a shrimp and imitated the others, using their hands to snap off the heads, suck out the juices, and peel the shells.
After struggling to finish just one, their eyes were rimmed with red, and they couldn’t stop gasping, "HISS, HAAH." It was truly spicy and incredibly satisfying. Who knew Ugly Shrimp could taste this good?
Guo Daixuan saw them grab another one as soon as they finished, which was exactly what she had expected. She had been in their shoes once, too.
She smiled brightly at them. "Delicious, right? Isn’t it incredibly good? By the way, we’re having an event tomorrow. Do you guys want to come? It’s all-you-can-eat Ugly Shrimp!"
"I’m in!" Jiang Zizhen was the first to sign up. Originally the one who disdained Ugly Shrimp the most, he now treated the dish on the table as his absolute favorite. An all-you-can-eat buffet was a massive temptation; he would do anything for it!