Baby

Beside the snack street in the quaint neighborhood of the city, there is a home-cooked noodle restaurant with a good reputation and flavor.The owner of the noodle shop is honest and honest. He is about 40 years old and has good cooking skills.People in the community are already familiar with the owner of the noodle restaurant. I heard that he used to be a chef and returned to his hometown to open this noodle restaurant after his son was born.I usually guard this small shop with the proprietress. In a blink of an eye, my son is almost 17 years old and is in high school.

Today, the boss is running a small business as usual.Today is a working day, there are many customers in the store, and the boss has no time to take care of other things.When the peak breakfast period was over, the boss was sitting on the seat and taking a rest while blowing on the electric fan. The lady boss suddenly squeezed beside him and pushed his arm: "Hey, Lao Fang, look at the door."

The boss looked at the door of the store suspiciously. There was a boy standing by the tree not far away. He was not yet 20 years old.

The boss was stunned for a moment, and the lady boss asked him in a low voice: "Could it be that you are here to cheat the donation?"

The boss frowned and shook his hand: "If it's true, he should have come in a long time ago. I don't think so."

"Could it be... a beggar?"

"It doesn't look like it, a young guy."

"That……"

The boss sighed and didn't take it too seriously. He just said, "It's nothing, my son. Maybe I'm hungry these days. Go ahead and get some fruit for him in a while."

The proprietress nodded and went back to settle the accounts.The boss just sat down and didn't rest for a long time, and the rush hour for lunch came again.The boss was so busy cooking vegetables that he forgot about the kid at the door for a moment.When he remembered again, it was already 12:30, and his son had just returned from high school.

When the boss saw his son coming, he took the time to make a bowl of noodles for his son to eat first, and was busy going to class after a while.The son sat aside with a bowl and took a few mouthfuls. He suddenly pulled the boss and asked, "Dad, who is that person at the door? Why is he standing at our door all the time?"

The boss was stunned, and looked in the direction his son was pointing at. The boy was indeed standing at the door.There was no expression on his face, and his back was motionless.

After the lunch rush was over, the boss picked a few fresh and delicious apples and bananas, put them in a bag, and walked towards the boy at the door.The boy was aware of the approaching footsteps and at first looked alert.But after seeing the fruit in the boss's hand, the expression on his face turned to doubt again.

The boss didn't think the boy looked like a bad person, but rather like a confused child who had run away from home.He handed him the fruit in his hand: "Son, are you hungry? Come, eat some fruit."

The boy muttered, his eyes showed eagerness for a moment, and he subconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.He was so thin that his face turned pale, but in the end he still trembled and didn't accept it.

The boy shook his head, but bowed apologetically to the boss.His voice was a little hoarse: "...I'm sorry, I'll be leaving right away..."

Seeing the boy turning around and moving his steps to leave, the boss couldn't bear it, sighed and stopped him: "Hey, wait!"

The boy stopped in his tracks, and the boss walked up to him again, and smiled gently: "You misunderstood me, I didn't mean to drive you away."

The boy lowered his head, clenching his fingers uneasily.

The boss asked him softly again: "Son, where is your home?"

The boy's clothes were ragged, his hair was unkempt, and he was limping.Looks like it's been a rough few days.Hearing the boss' question, the boy fell silent, perhaps because he didn't know how to answer.

The boss thought for a while and asked again, "Do you have any money?"

The boy still didn't say anything.

The boss sighed softly, turned around, went to the shop and took out a folding stool, placed it under the tree, and invited the boy to sit down.The boy shied away a few times, but the boss smiled and said, "It's okay, I think you're tired too, just sit down for a while. I'll go to the store and make you a bowl of noodles. After you eat, you'll feel better."

The boy finally sat down, but he still refused to accept the boss's fruit or noodles.The boss persuaded him several times to no avail, so he didn't force anything. He just went back to the store and continued to work.

At nine o'clock in the evening, my son came back from school by bicycle.As soon as I entered the door, I was surprised to find my dad complaining: "Why is that person still there!"

The boss himself was a little surprised. He just sat outside the door all day?As a result, when I went out, I saw that it was true. The boy was sitting under the tree without moving, with a drowsy expression on his face.

"You can't let him sleep on the street like this?" The proprietress showed a worried expression.

"Yeah," the boss frowned, "I brought him fruit at noon, but he didn't want it anyway."

After thinking about it, the boss decided to go out, gently shook the sleepy boy awake, and took him back to the store: "Son, let's finish eating the noodles first. I see you haven't eaten anything all day. My family's The beef noodle is the signature, you will like it."

The boy's face was flushed, and he was too embarrassed to speak, but he kept waving his hands and refused.The boss insisted on this, and said: "Don't worry, uncle won't charge you money. Come and try it, don't make things difficult for yourself."

The boy was brought into the shop by the boss.At ten o'clock in the evening, the noodle restaurant was sparsely populated, but the smell of beef offal wafted from the kitchen again.The boy sat primly at the table with his head bowed.In order to appease the child, the proprietress specially brought a glass of warm water.

The son who was doing his homework next to him suddenly saw another person in the store. After careful identification, he found that it was the boy standing at the door of the store.Looking young and unkempt, his facial features are very delicate and beautiful.

The son became interested and came over, looking at the boy with interest, asking questions like a series of cannonballs: "What's your name? Are you an adult? Where do you live?"

"My name is Tang Li..." The boy lowered his head shyly, "...my home is far away."

The beef offal noodles came, and the fragrance lingered over the small shop.The boy couldn't help gobbling it any longer, but unfortunately, he didn't taste much of the whole bowl of delicious beef offal noodles.While eating noodles, the boss sat and chatted with him.After such a simple conversation, the boss knew that the boy had left home to work, but he was beaten up and kicked out, and cheated out of his money. Now he is desperate and doesn't know what to do in the future.

The boss smoked a cigarette while thinking about ways to make a living for the boy.But before the cigarette butt was burned out, a group of noisy people suddenly came to the door of the store.

It's past eleven o'clock now, and there are not a few people who come to the noodle shop for supper at this time, so the boss didn't pay much attention to it at first, and just naturally asked, "What do you want to eat?"

Unexpectedly, as soon as he approached those men, a strong smell of alcohol would hit his face.The bald and shirtless man in the lead staggered as he walked, his cheeks flushed.The boss immediately became alert.

"Buffalo noodles! Hiccup—come five bowls. Hurry up!"

This group of people was quite drunk, and the boss didn't want to cause trouble, so he just nodded and said yes, and immediately went under the kitchen.The proprietress was also a little uneasy, but after all these years of experience, she just asked her son to go back to the second floor to wash up, and sat calmly by the counter alone without saying a word.

Those social youths sat down aggressively in the store, and soon the store was filled with men's laughter and insults.Five bowls of beef noodles were ready soon, and the boss came out with them. The man in the head looked down in a daze, and suddenly his face changed: "Isn't this fucking chicken noodles! Who are you fooling!"

The boss's face turned blue, and he picked up a piece of beef offal with his chopsticks and put it in front of the man: "Brother, you misunderstood, this is indeed beef offal, or you can try it—"

"Fuck, old man!" The man suddenly turned his face, and overturned the beef offal noodles with one hand, spilling the soup all over the floor, "How can you eat it with so little meat!"

The man turned his face, and the people around him immediately agreed.The scene was chaotic.The proprietress couldn't sit still anymore, she came out from the counter to apologize: "I'm sorry, if you think the meat is missing, we can go and add some for you..."

"Fuck you, why did you go so early!" The man violently pushed the proprietress in a rage, and pushed the proprietress to the ground, clutching his waist in pain.The boss got angry and threw his chopsticks: "Please get out! You are not welcome here!"

The man was reprimanded face to face, and his face became even more ugly. He simply smashed the pot and threw a stool on the ground: "Damn, I'm giving you shame! What a broken shop!"

Seeing this, several drunks around also yelled and smashed things in the store.There was a mess on the ground very quickly, the boss turned pale with fright, and quickly helped the proprietress to let her hide in the kitchen.When he came out again, he bumped into the domineering man head-on, and aggressively raised the folding chair and shouted at him: "Fuck, you still dare to hide? Get out!"

Just as the boss was about to stop him loudly, he suddenly saw a flying green beer bottle behind the man's head!

boom!

The beer bottle exploded beside the man's ear, and the fragments scattered all over the floor.The man covered his bleeding ears, his face was full of astonishment, he turned around and looked at Tang Li who was holding the handle of the beer bottle tightly behind him.

Tang Li gasped for breath, cold sweat covered his forehead.Jiang Ye didn't like him always using violence to solve problems, so he kept restraining himself obediently.But today, he really can't stand it anymore, he can't allow the kind boss who was still laughing and chatting happily with him just now to be insulted by these social dregs!

Before the man could react, Tang Li had already grasped the handle of the broken beer and stabbed it at the man's injured ear.The man's screams pierced the sky, Tang Li refused to let go, he raised the folding chair and quickly slapped the people who came behind him bravely.

Although Tang Li looked delicate and weak, he was unambiguous in his actions.The leading man was stunned by the beer bottle, and the people who followed were also hit head-on.But after all, they are still outnumbered, and they are about to become a disadvantage.

The boss was stunned and forgot to respond for a while.The son heard the noise downstairs on the second floor, and went downstairs to check in doubt, but was shocked by the chaotic scene.The boss quickly came back to his senses, pointed at the phone and ordered: "Fang Yangyi, call the police!"

The police took the drunks away, leaving a mess everywhere.The boss stood at the door of the shop with a sad face and watched the police go away, and then returned to the shop. The proprietress and her son were surrounding the injured Tang Li, rubbing the potion on him.

Fang Yangyi's face was full of admiration and affirmation: "Brother Tang Li, you are so handsome! I really want to thank you just now."

Tang Li blushed and didn't speak, and when he calmed down again, he regained his gentle appearance like a white rabbit, as if the lively little tiger just now was not him.

But fortunately, Tang Li stood up for them just now, so the situation would not develop in a worse direction.The boss looked at Tang Li's old injuries and added new ones, and felt more and more guilty.

He could feel the child's pure and kind heart, which made people moved.

"We should really thank you for your kindness!" The boss smiled and patted Tang Li on the shoulder, "Young man, you can be an apprentice in our shop from now on. Our family lives on the second floor of the shop, and I will help you Clean up a guest room, we will provide food and accommodation here, and we will give you another 1000 yuan as salary every month. From now on, you will be a member of our store, okay?"

The smile on Tang Li's face slowly bloomed, and the tears in his eyes were like a cluster of lights rising in the dark night.

"Ok!"

Amidst the joyful laughter of the proprietress and his son, he nodded vigorously.

Since then, Tang Li has worked in Boss Fang's noodle shop.Boss Fang is a gentle and loving Bole, while Tang Li can endure hardships, is diligent and capable.After he came to help, he contracted almost all the dirty work in the store, and the boss could have more time to study new recipes and add more attractive delicacies to the menu.Therefore, the business of home-cooked noodle restaurants is booming.Boss Fang naturally liked Tang Li very much, and was even willing to teach him his housekeeping skills.Fortunately, Tang Li's savvy is still very good, and he knows many cooking skills at a glance.

The pace of life in the noodle shop is comfortable and slow.Tang Li gets up on time at 05:30 every day, carefully prepares fresh ingredients for the boss, cleans the kitchen utensils, and opens the store to welcome new customers.After a busy day, he would secretly clean up the tables, stools and floors, marinate the beef with pickled peppers and arrange them neatly when everyone was free to watch TV and chat.When I have free time, I will go to the kitchen to listen to the boss's practice and teach him how to fry delicious meals.Such a daily cycle of regular and ordinary days is already the ultimate happiness.

I only occasionally meet young students who come to the store to eat a bowl of noodles. The child’s face is still green, and he is looking at the textbook intently while eating the noodles.Whenever Tang Li looked at the youthful students at this time, there would always be a look of envy on his face, but it disappeared quickly.

Four years have passed by like this.