Ruling the Historical Romance Novel as the Female Supporting Character-Chapter 192: Things Started to Connect

After taking a shower and changing into fresh clothes, they all felt revived. In the morning, they had a simple meal on the train and only boarded the minibus around nine. After taking a long shower, it was already five o’clock, and having missed two consecutive meals, everyone was famished.

Carrying their valuables and with the ginseng stored with Xia Weiguo, they headed to the local supply and marketing cooperative.

Although the small county under the city of Xiang City belonged to China, due to its proximity to the border, the streets were livelier. Many women carried small bamboo baskets, and it was hard to tell what was inside. They were trading items, like exchanging eggs for mushrooms, mushrooms for wild rabbits, and so on. Observing the mushrooms, Su Yijia’s mouth couldn’t help but water, but since everyone was rushing to the Yun State-Owned Restaurant, she decided to join in later. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

They anticipated the State-Owned Restaurant wouldn’t be too crowded since the area was impoverished. Everyone exchanged food but lacked money due to the absence of cultivated farmland; it was mostly mountainous. They typically relied on aid from other agricultural provinces, or countless people would starve.

However, when they arrived at the State-Owned Restaurant, they were startled by the crowded scene inside. Notably, there were not only townspeople but many farmers. They carried heavy lunch boxes, exiting with cheerful smiles. Several people crowded around the counter, fervently trying to hand money and coupons to the service staff, as if they were in a hurry, afraid of missing out on the good stuff.

"Is the food from this State-Owned Restaurant really that delicious?" Su Yijia asked, somewhat surprised. If she hadn’t seen these people giving money and coupons, she might have thought they were engaging in some kind of charity.

"It’s not really that great... The boss and I have eaten there before, and the taste is average. It’s not bad, but definitely not good enough to cause such a frenzy," Gao Huabin weakly answered Su Yijia’s question.

Someone passing by overheard their conversation and said with a smile, "Comrades, are you from another city? The dishes at our State-Owned Restaurant are just average, but the rice noodles are exceptional. It makes people want more after tasting it. It’s a local specialty, and you can try it."

The Guoqiao Rice Noodles were indeed quite unique. In her past life, Su Yijia had tasted it and found it quite tasty, and the extent of this praise seemed exaggerated.

Su Yijia immediately became interested. "Then let’s try it as well," she proposed to the people nearby. In fact, they were eager to try it as well after seeing this.

However, right after these words were spoken, there was a sharp sound in her mind.

[Host! Danger! Watch out!]

Where was the danger? Su Yijia immediately looked around.

The train’s arrival time was monitored in Xiang City, and now in this small county, it’s certain that they would be watched over. If the people who tried to target them at the train station before were unsuccessful, they might get impatient and now was the best time to target them. After all, there were so many people here, and there’s no avoiding it.

"Yijia, what’s wrong?" Xia Weiguo noticed Su Yijia’s sudden change in expression and asked nervously.

Several people immediately looked around anxiously. Then, 666’s voice continued.

[Something is wrong with the noodles here. They have been adulterated, and you mustn’t eat them!]

"666, can you please speak without sounding so anxious?" Su Yijia murmured in embarrassment.

Then, she raised her head and said apologetically, "It’s nothing. I just felt someone bump into me."

Hearing this, they looked around even more warily, making sure there was nothing suspicious, and then relaxed a bit.

"In that case, I’ll go order the noodles," Gao Huabin stood up and went to the cashier.

Su Yijia didn’t want to waste the money, but 666’s warning was a bit late. She couldn’t say anything but could already detect a strange smell in the air. She could only wait for the noodles to arrive, smell them once they’re hot, and then stop it.

After a while, Gao Huabin came back, pushing through the crowd.

"We still have over twenty orders ahead of us, and they’re still waiting." He wiped the sweat off his forehead, feeling that the State-Owned Restaurant was extremely stuffy. There were too many people, and even with several electric fans around, there was no relief. But there was no other way; they couldn’t just jump the line.

They waited for a full twenty minutes before their order finally arrived. Thankfully, they received eight bowls at once. Gao Huabin placed them in front of the group, and Su Yijia was the first to pick up the chopsticks. But just as she was about to taste it, her expression changed drastically.

"Don’t eat," she lowered her voice and cautioned in a tone only their table could hear.

"Is something added to this bowl of noodles, too? Seriously? Those people are really thorough!" Gao Huabin was so angry that he was grinding his teeth.

The two security guards put down their chopsticks, ready to take action. But then Su Yijia continued, "It’s not those people; it’s something in the noodles. There were so many people, the noodle smell covered it up, so I didn’t detect it at first. But with the steam hitting my nose, I just discovered it. I wondered how everyone is living so tightly, yet they were willing to spend money at the State-Owned Restaurant to buy noodles."

Her explanation was pretty clear, and everyone’s expression turned rather grim. Xia Weiguo was livid and wanted to slam the table.

"No, I need to immediately have this place closed! This is really harming people!"

But Su Yijia frowned, looking at Xia Weiguo with some disagreement, "Uncle Xia, we’ve already provoked enough trouble."

The place was the State-Owned Restaurant; it typically catered to certain kinds of people. Causing such issues couldn’t be explained merely as boldness. If there were others involved behind the scenes, they might not be able to leave alive.

"We have already provoked them," Xia Weiguo explained gravely. He then glanced at Qin Kaize, noticing his cold expression and consoled him, "Kaize, it’s not your fault. The issue started from the last mission, and the subsequent actions contributed to the chaos, giving us this illusion."

However, Qin Kaize’s gaze became even darker and more ominous.

He was especially irritated this time as he had done tasks in the past months and was assured the issues here were resolved. However, the rekindling of this problem took too much time and was more brazen than before. It proved that his leniency towards those people allowed them to become more and more audacious.

"That’s right, as Yijia mentioned, we can’t alert them prematurely this time. The situation here is more intricate than we anticipated. We must wait until everyone is assembled, evidence is gathered, and Kaize’s medications are ready. Before that, we can only conduct some private investigations," said Xia Weiguo, calming down gradually.

Unless they unearthed the entire chain of events behind the scenes, not only would they face greater risks, but it would also keep this matter burning endlessly, recurring like a never-ending cycle.