Age of Heroes, 10-game winning streak

Bai Yu felt he needed to ask for clarification, so he turned to the old woman and asked, "The girl in the photo..."

"Why, are you attracted to her?" The proprietress said with a smile, "That's a pity, she's already married and has children. You're a little late."

Bai Yu choked a few times, took a mouthful of noodles awkwardly, and shook his head, saying, "That's not what I meant... What era is this? How can you fall in love at first sight just because of a photo?"

However, Bai Yu was so curious about where Nishino Xun had gone that he didn't even feel the flavor of the noodles anymore. He just wanted to ask a few more questions, but the old woman's eyes were full of mischief, which made him very embarrassed.

"Okay, I'll stop teasing you. Young people don't have thick skin." The old woman teased a few times and didn't pursue the matter. "The girl in this photo is called Nishino Xun. She is now..."

Just as he was about to speak, Bai Yu pricked up his ears and saw several people walk in, shouting "Where's the boss?"

The old woman went to meet him, but her expression changed when she saw the newcomer.

"What are you doing here again? I told you I've already paid all the compensation I owe you!"

There were three people standing outside the door: a tall, blond man, a woman with thin lips and high cheeks, and a young man with a bandage on his foot and a crutch, wrapping himself up as if he were an eighth-level disabled person.

Huang Mao yelled, "Boss, you can't do this. Last week, you hit my brother like this. If it weren't for you, would he have been hit by a car?"

The woman beside him shrilly chimed in, "My brother's a long-distance runner. Now his leg's broken. What's he going to do with the rest of his life? Just paying him some money is the end of it!"

The old woman said with a grim expression, "Nonsense! The hospital checked it out and it was just a minor scrape! And you're still trying to blackmail me!"

"Stop talking nonsense. If you don't pay the compensation today..."

"What do you want?" The old woman took out her cell phone and said, "I can call the police!"

"Not so good. We won't get any compensation, and you can forget about doing business."

The yellow-haired man sat aside and signaled with his eyes. The young man on crutches let out an "ouch" and lay down on the ground, starting to perform a biting show with all his strength. The woman next to him also started to curse. She also took a sip of mineral water to moisten her throat and brewed the swear words in her dantian.

The old woman's face turned pale when she heard the foul language.

Bai Yu observed while sipping noodles. He understood that this seemed to be well prepared. The proprietress had encountered a professional scam team.

The accident was deliberately created with the goal of extorting compensation.

Seeing that small businesses are easily threatened... ordinary citizens just have to pay some money and that's it.

However, the old woman was also stubborn and her face turned ashen, but she just refused to pay.

Bai Yu quickly finished a bowl of noodles, then stood up and walked in front of the group of people.

"What do you want to do, kid?" The yellow-haired man made an extremely arrogant expression.

Bai Yu smiled slightly, then kicked the young man on the calf who was lying on the ground and crying in pain.

Ouch ouch——!

This time he really cried out in pain, and the sharp sound almost broke through the glazed tiles.

The yellow-haired man's face changed drastically, and the woman's face also changed. They didn't expect to meet a young man who was brave enough to do something righteous... Everyone knows that ordinary old people are easy to deal with, but young people are definitely tough. Ordinary gangsters are not willing to provoke an adult.

The yellow-haired man immediately rushed over and grabbed Bai Yu by the collar, and started to speak in a traditional Chinese style: "You fucking..."

Bai Yu pointed to his feet and said, "Look down."

"What is that?" Huangmao looked down and saw nothing.

The woman suddenly screamed, "He, he has no shadow! He's a ghost!"

Huangmao's legs also went weak when he heard the scream.

Bai Yu pushed the young scoundrel and rolled his eyes. "I'm suffering from aphantasia now, and I probably don't have much time left. Do you want to try to punch me? If I really lie down and die, how much compensation do you think you should pay?"

Huang Mao was dumbfounded.

I probably thought to myself, "Fuck!"

The most they would do to extort money is pretend to have a broken leg, but here they directly come up with a terminal illness?

When did this industry become so competitive?

Why are you risking your life just to extort a few thousand dollars?

If you get hurt and end up in the hospital, wouldn't the compensation be enough to bankrupt you?

"Retreat, retreat quickly!" The yellow-haired man grabbed his younger brother who was still rolling on the ground and crying in pain, and rushed out of the store with the woman.

"What bad luck." Bai Yu sat down and continued eating noodles.

The old woman came to her senses only after she saw the other person leave. She looked at Bai Yu again with a look of surprise and emotion in her eyes. She opened her mouth and said, "I'm sorry to trouble you... I, I'll give you some noodles."

Bai Yu smiled and said, "How about adding an egg?"

"Okay, okay." The old woman smiled particularly kindly and gently.

With this little episode, the distance between the two people was shortened a little.

The old woman sat down and said that this group of people was not coming for the first time. Bai Yu asked why they didn't just give them some money.

The old woman sighed and said that her family had already given money once before, but they came again and even worse. This time she was unwilling to give money. There was a stubbornness in her tone, as if she had experienced many storms and did not mind the loss caused by the blackmail of a few little hooligans, nor did she think that this group of people had the courage to smash up the store.

Bai Yu asked again: "You just mentioned this girl, Xi Ye Xun, where is she now?"

The old woman laughed out loud: "You really care about this photo..." She stood up, took the photo down from the wall, wiped the glass, and held it up in front of her: "This girl, right here."

Bai Yu: "???"

The old woman seemed very pleased with Bai Yu's stunned expression. She raised her eyebrows smugly and said, "You didn't expect that I was so beautiful when I was young. I bewitched my husband so much that he was completely lost in thought."

Bai Yu: "..."

He was deeply shocked and found it difficult to connect the thin little girl with the strong proprietress in front of him.

"You are... Nishino Kaoru?"

"Yes, I am from Fuso."

"But your accent..."

"I've been here for over 30 years, so of course I changed it." Nishino Xun smiled and said, "I changed my name too. My last name is Wang now, just like my husband's."

Bai Yu looked at the photo and the old woman. The impact of the passage of time was shaking his worldview.

He found it hard to believe for a moment, because a beautiful girl in her twenties had become a woman in her fifties in the blink of an eye. This was really...

And it turns out that the old man died thirty years ago?

Bai Yu's scalp tingled. After a moment's deliberation, he asked, "Although this may seem a bit inappropriate, but... you're from Japan. Why are you here in your twenties?"

He asked knowingly, just to confirm.

Perhaps Nishino Xun hadn't anticipated this question, as her eyes revealed a hint of sadness and nostalgia: "...There was a very good person who persuaded me to come here."

"...He said Nanling City was a good place. If I couldn't stay at home any longer, I should run away. It was shameful, but it would be useful. I could escape to a place where no one knew me and start over... So I came here."

Bai Yu's voice was a little nervous: "Then what?"

"And then?" Her eyes brightened. "It's really nice here. I love it. I met my lover, have children, have a family, and now own a shop like this. Every day is fulfilling and happy."

Bai Yu looked at her bright smile, and his extremely complicated emotions settled down again and turned into a spring.

A sweet feeling wells up in my heart, nourishing my soul.

It seemed as if he had nothing more to ask.

The original uneasiness... turned out to be the uneasiness caused by worrying that I had changed someone's life too easily.

He was afraid that his words would cause her to suffer more misfortune.

But it didn't.

She is Nishino Kaoru, a girl from Japan. She is like a dandelion. Even if it is blown by wind and rain and blown away from her homeland, she will grow wherever she lands, growing tenaciously.

In the end, she got the happiness she wanted.

That's good, really good.

Bai Yu finished her noodles and felt very full. Her cooking skills were very good, after all, she had run the shop for many years.

He did not ask any further questions, nor did he linger any longer, but walked out of the shop and walked slowly outside.

He suddenly thought, if the old man saw her, he would wonder what kind of mood he would be in and what kind of words he would say.

He shook his head and walked away with a brisk pace.

……

In the corner of the intersection, three pairs of eyes stared at the boy's back as he left.

"Brother, why don't we just forget about it today... My eyelids keep twitching, it's a disaster."

"Bullshit! The person is gone, what disaster can there be?"

"I must get the compensation today, so stop talking nonsense to me."

After watching Bai Yu leave, the three figures from before sneaked back to the vicinity of the store again.

Chapter 12 But do good deeds

"Madam, compensation!"

"Pay compensation, you must pay compensation!"

"Ouch, ouch, my legs, my waist, my hands, my kidneys, my penis..."

The same scene as before was played out before my eyes.

The old woman had a solemn expression on her face and was too lazy to pay any attention to the three blackmailing hooligans.

I have encountered this kind of thing many times over the years of running the store. There are always various troubles in doing business.

In fact, she was already half accustomed to it. Ordinary people always encounter troubles of one kind or another. In the years before she learned the Daxia language, she suffered a lot of hardships and was rejected.

Although Daxia is relatively inclusive, there are conflicts and contempt chains between regions. Many locals look down on outsiders. If it is a foreign girl with an accent, she will sell you a bowl of noodles at twice the price. It is difficult to bargain if you are not good at talking.

When Nishino Xun first came to Nanling City, she encountered many setbacks. She thought that this place was not as good as the old man said.

Some people are xenophobic, and some people have bad intentions.

However, there are still kind people here after all.

Sometimes, as long as there is one person lending her a helping hand, those difficulties can be easily overcome. With the help of one person after another, she gradually gained a firm foothold in this strange city and strange country.

Compared with the broken families and deaths that I have experienced in the past, what are these sufferings?

Compared with the gangsters who extorted, made trouble and put on a show, and the cannibals who ate human flesh and blood... they were also hideous with a hint of funny stupidity.

But this is not a solution.

Fumio Nishino also practiced karate for a few years when she was young. She also enrolled in a martial arts school to protect herself when she went to a foreign country. Even though she was over 50 years old, she still maintained a very good physical fitness. She was not worried that this group of people would use violence. If they did, she would have a reason to teach this group of unethical young people a lesson. They had hands and feet but did not want to go to work, but instead started to skirt the law.

Just when she was having a headache and didn't know what to do, she suddenly heard a voice coming from the door.

"Give me a bowl of ramen, with firm noodles, barbecued pork, and a poached egg."

The person who spoke was speaking Fuso, with a very fluent and authentic Kyoto accent.

Fumio Nishino looked over in surprise. He didn't expect to meet a Japanese person in this place... You know, ten years ago, the sea fog and death tide blocked the sea area, and exchanges between countries had long been cut off. Except for the ghost fleet roaming the ocean, no one could cross the sea chart to reach another country.

The person who walked in was a tall middle-aged man with sharp and angular facial features, like a macho man who walked out of the JOJO comics.

"I've already ordered." said the middle-aged man.

"Okay, I'll go right away..." Nishino Xun looked at the middle-aged man and felt that he looked very familiar, but for a moment he couldn't remember where he had seen him.

"Go ahead, I'll clean up the trash first."

As the middle-aged man spoke, he bent down and picked up the howling man on the ground and the yellow-haired man beside him, one in each hand. The two of them weighed at least three hundred pounds in total. In his hands, they were like thin pillows. He threw them outside and the two men turned into rolling gourds. This time, they were really bruised and battered.

The yellow-haired man wanted to say something harsh, but the middle-aged man squatted down, stretched out a finger, poked a hole in the cement floor, and then inserted his finger into the side of his cheek in front of him, scraping the oily skin on his face.

"Listen up, you bunch of bastards, if you dare to cause trouble in this store again, I guarantee you'll have at least three legs broken..."

He spoke through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with undisguised threats.

This is exactly what works best against gangsters, because they know too well who they should not mess with.

Huangmao had probably never seen such a strong man in his life. He was so scared that he lost half of his soul. Just by exchanging eyes, he felt as if he had been cut into pieces by a thousand knives, as if he had died more than a dozen times.

That wasn't a rage at all, but murderous intent... This person definitely had a lot of lives on his hands...

He was so excited that he picked up his little brother and ran away without looking back. He fell three times in a distance of more than ten meters and did not dare to look back even with a nose bleeding.

The middle-aged man stood up, straightened his collar, and walked back into the noodle shop.