CHAPTER 348: CHAPTER 348: SHAOBING SHOP (PART 3)

A boss quietly pointed at the owner of the baozi shop, Li Yuan, and the other bosses immediately shut their mouths.

However, they kept talking in lowered voices.

"That Li Yuan must be livid!"

"Who’s to say he isn’t? He used to have the best business on our street, but now look, compared to Old Wu’s pancake shop, he’s done for!"

"Oh my, look at Li Yuan’s face, it’s so gloomy every day. I saw him the other day, staring at the pancake shop like he was about to shoot fire from his eyes."

"What can be done? Their pancakes are delicious, and the craftsmanship is excellent!"

"I feel like Li Yuan won’t be able to keep his shop open for much longer; he’ll have to close it down!"

"No way, I think his business is still quite good."

"Ha! You don’t know, but this Li Yuan keeps eyeing Old Wu’s business all day long. Even his own baozi don’t taste as good as before. His business is bound to collapse at his own hands sooner or later!"

...

Li Yuan, the owner of the baozi shop, stood inside his shop, gloomily watching the long queue in front of the pancake shop across the street.

He just didn’t get it; why do people love those crappy pancakes?!

His baozi are so delicious!

They have skin and fillings, sweet, salty, spicy!

His gaze landed on the smiling faces of Old Wu and his wife, and he spat in his heart. Of course, they should be laughing!

Selling so many pancakes, earning so much money, they’d nearly laugh their faces off! Pah!

"Boss, two chive baozi, two meat baozi, two mushroom and cabbage baozi, please."

A customer came to buy baozi, finished stating their order, but the boss did not move.

"Boss? Boss, I’m buying baozi!" the customer shouted loudly.

Li Yuan snapped back to reality, quickly forcing a smile, "Alright, alright, just a moment!"

He immediately grabbed a bag and started packing the baozi.

The customer took the baozi, looked down, and was angry, "I didn’t ask for spicy stuffing, why did you give me so many with spicy filling?

And this, I don’t like red bean paste filling, how do you do business like this?

So, you didn’t listen to a single word of what I just said about what filling I wanted!"

The customer directly threw the bag of baozi in front of Li Yuan, "Forget it! You must be crazy, if you can’t run a shop, don’t open one!"

Li Yuan looked at the baozi thrown at his feet, along with the ones rolling on the floor, his face full of rage, fuming with anger inside.

He grabbed the bag of baozi and viciously threw it into the garbage bin.

"Damn it!"

After cursing, Li Yuan shot a malicious look diagonally in his direction, then turned back into the shop to take a sip of water.

"Pff!"

Li Yuan spat out the water he had just drunk, "Damn it, even drinking water gets stuck in my teeth, so unlucky! Damn your mother!"

He smashed the cup onto the ground.

People who were about to buy baozi, seeing the boss looking so irritable, got frightened and ran away without buying any.

That night, due to Li Yuan’s angry, sinister demeanor, he only sold one steamer of baozi.

Late at night, seeing the other shops on the street had already closed one after another, the pancake shop diagonally opposite was already sold out and closed.

Li Yuan still sat alone in his baozi shop.

"Li Yuan, why haven’t you packed up and gone home yet?"

The proprietress of a shop on the same street, preparing to go home on her electric bike, saw Li Yuan still sitting there.

She glanced at the time, it was almost ten o’clock, who would come to buy baozi!

Li Yuan forced an awkward smile, "Sis, you’re going home, I’ll pack up soon."

Watching her leave, Li Yuan took a deep breath and moved his gaze back.

However, seeing the more than half-unsold baozi made him feel even more stifled.

He was so angry he wanted to smash all these baozi!

But even more so, he wanted to smash that pancake shop across the street!

Once the thought arose, it could not be contained.

Li Yuan looked across at the pancake shop, if he went over tonight and trashed it, wouldn’t they be unable to open tomorrow?

But then he thought, no, if he trashed the shop, they would clean it up quickly, and would definitely open within a few days!

What to do then?

While packing up his shop, Li Yuan pondered a solution.

He definitely had to drive away this pancake shop, or else he would have to close down.

After cleaning up his shop, Li Yuan finally thought of a solution.

If... someone fell ill from eating the pancakes from this shop, then the pancake shop would certainly not be able to operate!!!

Thinking of this, Li Yuan was instantly thrilled.

Yes, that’s it!

Li Yuan thought for a long time, buying medicine from the pharmacy, he could neither manage nor dare, afraid of being discovered.

His gaze fell on the rat poison in the corner...

A little past one in the morning, the entire street was quiet with no one around.

Li Yuan hurriedly took his tools and ran to the front of the pancake shop to pry open the door.

The police who had been monitoring the surveillance cameras perked up at the sight.

"Boss, someone’s really here!" a young officer said excitedly, looking at the figure in the monitor.

An older officer looked at the screen and said, "Tell Xiao Li and the others to hold back, don’t alert the target."

"Yes, sir!"

Li Yuan swiftly pried open the door, his heart pounding as he nervously looked around.

At the same time, excitement and thrill filled him.

Tomorrow! Tomorrow this shop would close!

He cautiously entered the shop.

Ten minutes later, Li Yuan quickly emerged from the shop, carefully shutting the door behind him.

Then, he rapidly returned to his baozi shop.

"Boss, should we arrest him?" an officer asked.

"Hold on."

After Li Yuan closed his shop and went home, the officers waiting in hiding emerged.

They swiftly opened the pancake shop door, entering with equipment.

Early the next morning, people who came for pancakes found the shop closed and not open.

No pancakes available, so they decided to buy something else.

But when they went to buy baozi, they found the baozi shop also closed.

Everyone had to buy breakfast elsewhere.

On the street, other shop owners looked at the two tightly shut shops in confusion.

"Why aren’t these two shops open today?"

"I don’t know, everything was fine last night."

"Let me call Old Wu, maybe something happened?" A concerned vegetable seller took out his phone to call the pancake shop owner.

"Old Wu, why aren’t you open today? What? At the police station? What happened?"

Hearing the words "police station," the surrounding shop owners and customers gathered around.

"What the heck? Li Yuan actually tried to poison someone!!!"

This shout shocked everyone.

Immediately, the crowd grew even larger.

...

With the matter resolved, Lin Xiaoyan and the others were already on their way to Jinling.

"Good thing we stopped there for a meal on our way, or else many people would have died today!" Xiao Bo remarked as he drove.

Nan Xi said, "That’s how fate works.

Our mission this time, everything depends on fate!"

Lin Xiaoyan nodded in agreement, "Indeed, everything depends on fate!"