"Didn't you not want it?" Yu He asked in surprise.
"I suddenly want to eat it again," Qin Beiting said.
Then, as if to provoke Mo Chao, he ate one in a few bites. He then snatched Yu He's chopsticks, picked up the half-eaten one, and put it into his own bowl.
Mo Chao:!
Yu He was speechless and had to pick up another one from the plate. However, Qin Beiting simply took the entire plate away.
Mo Chao:!!!
Yu He: "Qin Beiting! Can you stop being so childish?!"
"You eat your noodles first," Qin Beiting pushed the bowl of noodles towards her. "This was made by his mother for her daughter-in-law. You're not marrying him, so you can't take someone else's food. I've already arranged for it to be flown in from the south. You'll have it by noon."
"..."
Tsk, this jealous man just won't let it go!
"Then what about the one you just ate?" Yu He teased. "Were you planning to be his daughter-in-law? Or were you just snatching food?"
Qin Beiting: "..."
Mo Chao:!!!
"I don't want to marry him!" Mo Chao immediately bristled and chattered at Qin Beiting. "Don't think this means you can be my Mo family's daughter-in-law! I'm telling you, I don't like men! I will absolutely not marry you! Don't be delusional! Give me back the qingtuan! My mother made it for the fairy sister!"
Saying this, he went to grab the plate, but Qin Beiting didn't let him. He turned and offered the remaining qingtuan in the plate to the little pet pig. "Pig, your mother-in-law made this for you."
The little pet pig curiously sniffed it and then turned away in disgust.
"See? Even a pig won't eat it! It means it's unwilling to marry you," Qin Beiting said coolly.
Yu He: ...
So childish!
You're definitely sleeping on the sofa tonight!
Mo Chao:!!!!
The harm was small, but the insult was huge.
Finally, after Yu He finished her noodles, she managed to eat the qingtuan while Qin Beiting was out making a phone call.
"Fairy sister, does it taste good? Do you like it? If you do, I'll have my mother make more and send them over," Mo Chao asked with great anticipation.
Yu He slowly finished eating and nodded. "It's delicious, but please don't trouble your mother. I just wanted to try it."
"It's no trouble. My mother likes to make all sorts of pastries when she's bored. You don't have to be polite, I..."
"Let's look at the medicinal herbs you brought," Yu He interrupted his chatter, changing the subject.
"Hehe, okay." Mo Chao grinned and went to open his suitcase.
The 32-inch suitcase was completely filled with medicinal herbs: harshamah, dried soft-shelled turtle, cuttlebone, and white snail shells – the four herbs Yu He needed, all of top quality.
Yu He accepted them all without ceremony. "Thanks."
"Hehe, you don't need to be polite with me. If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have earned an extra hundred million. Oh, right, I'm planning to enter the northern market. From now on, I'll supply all the medicinal herbs for your clinic," Mo Chao said.
"No problem. Have you collected the payment for the goods?" Yu He asked.
Mo Chao understood that she was referring to the payment for Qiao Qiao's goods.
"Not yet. She only paid a ten-million-yuan deposit. The remaining balance of one hundred million is still due. The contract states that the remaining balance must be paid in three installments within a month. Today is the agreed-upon date for the first installment," he said.
Before Yu He could speak, he grinned and continued, "Hehe, don't worry, Qiao Qiao will pay."
Yu He glanced at him. Despite his cheerful smile and seemingly naive demeanor, it was merely a facade.
He was involved in the underworld in the south.
---
On the other side.
Qiao Qiao endured the swelling pain between her legs and got out of bed, heading to the bathroom to shower.
She looked at herself in the mirror, her body covered in marks from their tryst, with hardly any intact skin. She cried aggrievedly.
"Ding~" At that moment, a message arrived from an unknown number.
【Today is the final deadline.】
Qiao Qiao immediately wiped away her tears, got dressed, and carefully went out. She glanced at the man snoring on the bed, then picked up the hundred-yuan bills scattered on the floor and also took a bag of money from beside the bed.
An hour later, Qiao Qiao arrived at the place where she had borrowed the usurious loan and placed the handbag on the table. "I'm here to repay the debt."
"This amount isn't enough for a hundred million, is it?" the one-eyed man, sitting in his boss's chair, said while smoking a cigar.
Qiao Qiao swallowed nervously. She didn't know how much money was in the bag. "Have someone count it first, and you'll know."
The one-eyed man gave a signal to the subordinate behind him. The subordinate understood, took the money, and began using a counterfeit money detector.
Qiao Qiao stared intently at them running the money through the detector, afraid they might try to trick her.
"Please note, this is counterfeit money." After verifying two hundred thousand yuan, the counterfeit money detector suddenly sounded an alarm.
The subordinate dumped all the money from the bag and ran it through the detector. Apart from the initial two hundred thousand, the rest was repeatedly flagged as counterfeit.
"How can this be?!" Qiao Qiao was shocked.
"Are you f\*\*\*ing playing us!" The subordinate threw the fake money in her face.
Qiao Qiao ignored the pain and picked up the money that had fallen on the ground. The poor quality of the paper, even without the detector, told her these were all fake bills!
Her mind went blank.
She had sold her body, worked hard, and all she got was counterfeit money?!
Feng Feng, how dare he!
"You're tired of living, daring to trick even us! Get me a knife! If we don't teach her a lesson today, she'll think we're pushovers!" The one-eyed man grabbed Qiao Qiao's hair and slapped her.
Hearing the word "knife," Qiao Qiao trembled all over. She knelt on the ground and desperately begged for mercy, clutching the one-eyed man's leg.
"I'm sorry! I, I didn't know it was counterfeit money, someone tricked me! Please, give me another week, consider the two hundred thousand as interest. I promise I'll get the money for you in a week!"
The one-eyed man kicked her away. "Chop off one of her toes! You have another month. If you still can't repay it, it won't be this simple!"
"No! No—ah!"
No matter how much Qiao Qiao struggled, she couldn't resist the strength of the men. Her left little toe was cut, and she fainted from the pain.
When she woke up, she was already thrown outside the usurious loan shop, in a small alley. Her left foot was only crudely bandaged, enough to stop the bleeding.
Qiao Qiao cried for a while, blaming Yu He and the Qi family in her heart. Then, wiping away her tears, she called Feng Feng. "Feng Feng, you gave me all counterfeit money!"
"The two hundred thousand I gave you was real. As for what I didn't give you, how would I know if it's real or fake?" Feng Feng said on the other end of the phone.
Qiao Qiao was speechless. Was he implying that she took too much on purpose and deserved it?
"You said you would help me pay off all my debts!" she said through gritted teeth.
Feng Feng: "Yes, I promised. But you've only been with me for three nights. Fifty thousand per night, that's the market price for escorts. The extra fifty thousand was a bonus because it was your first time, no one else gets that. Be good, don't be angry, stay with me, and I'll help you pay off the debt."
Qiao Qiao almost spat blood upon hearing this. He actually called her an escort!
Worth only fifty thousand!
In a fit of anger, she hung up the phone.
But after hanging up, she regretted it, because she had nowhere to go.
She couldn't return to the Qi family, and she didn't have money to stay in a hotel, plus her foot was still hurting.
In the end, she had to return to the Medicinal Cuisine Hall to treat her wound.
However, as soon as she arrived at the Medicinal Cuisine Hall, she was stopped by several men in black.
"Miss Qiao, I am a debt collector from Huaxia Herbal Company. It's time for you to pay the first installment," said the leader.