Novel Full Old Mr. Xiao finished his water and then wanted to go to the toilet, but Xiao Baofeng had already gone to the counter at the front hall to write his homework.
It was noisy by the counter as all around were diners. Even if they were chatting noisily no one would come to disturb Xiao Baofeng in particular. Xiao Baofeng might as well just not worry about them.
Old Mr. Xiao was a little irritated. Still, he knew that it was dinner time, that everyone was busy and no one would serve him specially, so he went to the toilet by himself. However, he was old and still had a hangover and could barely even stand still. When he was about to get down to business his legs suddenly gave out and he fell straight into the toilet.
He was surrounded by a foul stench and suddenly sobered up out of fear. He hurriedly crawled outside and shouted, “Somebody help! I fell into the toilet!”
A diner happened to be looking for the toilet in the backyard. Seeing Old Mr. Xiao emerge smelling he went to the front to fetch help immediately.
Li Hongmei came out and saw that it was actually Old Mr. Xiao. She felt both annoyed and amused, asking Little Five and Little Six to come over and pour water over him. They poured several buckets of water before they got ride of the smell on Old Mr. Xiao.
Old Mr. Xiao stood in the middle of the yard shivering from head to toe. Li Hongmei then hurriedly asked Little Five and Little Six to help Old Mr. Xiao remove his clothes, to get him changed into clean ones and help him go to the restroom.
Little Five and Little Six helped Old Mr. Xiao to the toilet. When they came out the two lads could not help grumbling. “Why is the old guy so troublesome? Everyone’s working themselves to death out front but he still made a scene?”
“That’s right. Some customers were even scared away because of him.”
“…”
Old Mr. Xiao happened to have heard them all. Although he was pushy and domineering to his family, when he was now away from home, hearing the two young lads saying these things made him feel like useless loser. He was now rather homesick.
At this hour he would normally have dinner back at home but here the others had not yet eaten, so who would care about him? He could only wait.
He had no idea how much time had passed and after he crashed out and woke up again Baofeng came to ask him to have dinner.
“Baofeng, do you always have dinner this late?”
“It’s busy in the restaurant!” replied Xiao Baofeng. He did not want to chat much with this grandpa.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Old Mr. Xiao was already famished.
“I’ve got used to it,” said Xiao Baofeng plainly.
Old Mr. Xiao was not used to this and his stomach was rumbling. Maybe he had been starved for too long so his stomach began to ache while having dinner. He turned out not to have much of an appetite, so he did not eat a lot.
Meanwhile, the others at the table were all eating like hungry wolves. Just taking a look at them he could tell that they had been exhausted from their work and were ravenous.
Old Mr. Xiao shook his head. It seemed that the others were not ignoring him deliberately but this was their daily life.
…
At night, the backyard was not very quiet. So many dishes, woks, ladles and bowls needed washing and food waste needed to be dealt with. Although Old Mr. Xiao would not do it, he could not fall asleep hearing the banging noises outside.
He could barely close his eyes late at night.
He had been sleeping all day and was not very sleepy at night. Moreover, the sound of Little Five and Little Six snoring was loud and continuous which greatly annoyed Old Mr. Xiao.
Xiao Baofeng was alright. Although he was sleeping in the same room with Little Five and Little Six, he fell asleep the moment he lay down. The children’s ability to sleep was superb after all, so no matter how noisy the room was, Xiao Baofeng slept soundly.
Old Mr. Xiao felt like his ears were bursting. Finally he gave up struggling and lay there with his eyes open the whole night like a silly log.
When dawn broke everyone had to get up and get to work. There were banging noises again which drew Old Mr. Xiao from his bed out of worry that he would miss breakfast.
However, as he had not slept well he did not enjoy his breakfast either. He just had some congee and was then off to his bed.
Meanwhile, the schoolboy was going to school and the restaurant staff began tending to their business. The backyard finally became quiet. As soon as Old Mr. Xiao lay down he crashed and did not wake up until dusk.
During the day, Xiao Tieshu and Xiao Tongshu were patrolling the restaurant and once again they did not see Old Mr. Xiao anywhere. They began to wonder.
Old Mr. Xiao had been so quiet. Could it be that some accident had happened? Had they convinced him to behave? Or had Li Hongmei murdered him? No, Li Hongmei was too cowardly to murder anyone.
Xiao Tieshu was so tempted to go inside and ask but was afraid that Li Hongmei may ask him for the money he owed her, so he did not go inside.
Old Mr. Xiao had led a life of sleeping during the day and stayed awake at night for days. He had been wasting away since he came to town.
He had not enjoyed any kind of delicious food in town and was not in the mood for wandering around. After struggling for a few days he finally decided to go back to the village.
Still, Li Hongmei shed crocodile tears. “Pa, how come you’re going home so soon? You see, we’re all busy every day and haven’t got time to accompany you around town. Do you want to stay here for a few more days, so we can accompany you when we are less busy?”
What Old Mr. Xiao wanted the most was to go back to his quiet village. Life here in town was so complicated and he could not afford it.
Li Hongmei said again, “Pa, don’t you like the “Tipsy Princess”? Shall I fill another bottle for you to take home?”
Old Mr. Xiao did not dare drink anymore as he wondered whether the reason he had been suffering recently was because of that “Tipsy Princess”. He decided to never drink again.
Ye Xiaoxian then gave Old Mr. Xiao two jin of sundried meat to take with him and also asked Little Five to take him home.
After they sent Old Mr. Xiao away Li Hongmei drew a deep breath of relief. She went to the kitchen to talk to Ye Xiaoxian. “Little Ye, it’s actually thanks to your “Tipsy Princess”. If it weren’t for you being willing to give a bottle of that wine away, I don’t know how much we would have had to suffer from Baoshan’s grandpa.”
Ye Xiaoxian smiled. “You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.”
The old man was very simple and so easily tricked. It was an absolute breeze to deal with him.
Li Hongmei then said, “These days, I sometimes notice your two uncles passing by from time to time. I guess they wanted to see the result of this battle. If they knew what life their pa has had here they’d burst with anger.”
“They are asking for it, aren’t they?” said Ye Xiaoxian.
…
Xiao Tieshu and Xiao Tongshu did not know what kind of life their pa had in the restaurant and they were panicking. They were thinking of rushing into the restaurant if they still did not see Old Mr. Xiao. They did not expect to see him that night.
Both of them were rather surprised to find that Old Mr. Xiao had become skinny. “Pa, has the second household mistreated you? Tell us the whole story. If it’s true, we’ll go and get revenge for you.”
However, Old Mr. Xiao began to scold his two sons. “Get what? This is all your fault. You tricked me into drinking what you called nice wine. I’ve drunk that damn wine and it made me dizzy for a whole day. What’s more, I even fell into the toilet. You two cheeky things, I’ve been living well in the village and you had to trick me into going to the town, saying that you were sending me there to live a happier life, but…ah, but you made me suffer for quite a few days. You two and your wife, Wong, come here and I’ll give you a good kicking!”