However, Granny Jiang still understood what she wanted to say and shook her head helplessly:
"Originally, there were some regular customers in this store...but now they have all gone to another store."
"Another store?"
Gu Qingjiu had a familiar and bad premonition in her heart.
"About a week ago, a new snack street suddenly opened in front of me for some reason. The food on the snack street is cheap and has many varieties, which attracted all my customers away..."
Grandma Jiang couldn't help sighing as she spoke:
"Without those customers, now my business is only taken care of by the student unions here."
Gu Qingjiu recalled the scene when he first arrived here. Those children looked like they were only in the third or fourth grade. With their consumption level...:
"Then those kids just now...are they here to buy things too?"
"Ah? You're talking about them..." Grandma Jiang was stunned for a second or two before she realized what was happening. When she mentioned them, a kind smile appeared on her lips again:
"They are not. When I cook in the restaurant every day, I always have some extra ingredients, so I make some snacks in different ways every day and give them to the primary school students around here."
"Most of the people who are still willing to come to my place now are middle and high school students from nearby schools. They come out to have a meal or something at noon."
"So that's it..." Gu Qingjiu remembered that she first heard the children shouting, "I want to eat this today, I want to eat that tomorrow..." So that's what it meant.
"But if you give it like this every day, wouldn't it be a loss?"
"How much can a few little babies eat?" Grandma Jiang mentioned them with kindness in her eyes:
"I was born in the countryside and didn't read much. Whenever I see these little dolls, I can always think back to my past self..."
It would be great if there was someone like her who could help her former self.
As if remembering some unpleasant memories, Granny Jiang's smile dimmed a little.
"Oh, let's not talk about this... Girl, you haven't told me yet, why are you here?" Granny Jiang swept away the original gloom and held Gu Qingjiu's hand.
"Aunt Jiang, it's like this..." Gu Qingjiu explained everything to Granny Jiang in detail, from the time she was holding a clothing exhibition to the time her gold belt was stolen.
Hearing this, Granny Jiang couldn't come back to her senses for a long time. In the end, she could only sigh: "Jiang Zhe, this silly kid..."
How could you not tell her when such a big thing happened?
Then she patted Gu Qingjiu's hand generously:
"Girl, you need the Glazed Stone, right? Come with me to get it—"
Before she could finish her words, there was a clanging sound at the store door.
Several gangster-looking people stepped in, and the leader shouted loudly:
"If there is anyone in charge, please come out!"
Granny Jiang was aroused by this sudden behavior. Gu Qingjiu reacted immediately, patted her hand to calm her down, then stood up, protected Granny Jiang behind her, faced the gangster leader and said:
"Excuse me, what are you doing here?"
"If it's for eating, the sign outside the store has been clearly hung, and the word "Closed of Business" is clearly written on it. If it's for other things, we won't send you away.
The gangster leader looked Gu Qingjiu up and down with a dirty look, whistled at her, and then exchanged a knowing look with the gangsters behind him, turned around and looked at Gu Qingjiu again, with a look on his face.
Obscene smile:
"Hey, I never thought there was a little beauty here?"
Gu Qingjiu frowned and looked at their teasing with cold eyes without any reaction.
The gangster leader thought that Gu Qingjiu was scared, so he took a few steps towards her as if he didn't recognize his relatives:
"Don't be afraid, little beauty. Brother and I are here today just to cause trouble. Then you just listen to our brothers and I guarantee that we won't hurt you."
Even though Granny Jiang was still in shock, she understood that they were going to do harm to this girl. Even though her heart almost jumped into her throat, she still tried tremblingly to protect Gu Qingjiu behind her:
"Don't be afraid, girl, you little brats... bullying me, an old man, to open a store, don't you know who my son is?"
Several gangsters looked at each other and laughed:
"I know, isn't it Jiang Zhe from Wubai Martial Arts School! But so what?"
They have more or less connections in the black market, so they naturally know that people who can open a shop in the black market are not easy to mess with.
From the first day he bought this store, Jiang Zhe had already taught a bunch of gangsters in the neighborhood a lesson, in order to prevent them from daring to cause trouble to Granny Jiang.
But today is different from the past. They are paid to do things. Even if Jiang Zhe from the black market is personally involved, he may not be able to match the status of the financial backer who hired them.
With a backer behind them, these little gangsters naturally became more confident. What's more, they had been beaten up by Jiang Zhe, so they naturally wanted to take revenge.
The higher ups issued an order for these scoundrels to close down all the restaurants nearby, so naturally they first came to find Jiang Zhe's family, who had an enemy with them.
"Old lady, you can't blame us for this." The leader saw that the other party was an old man, and was afraid to make a move. When the other party got excited, he was sent to the hospital, so he could only coax him with a few words:
"The only thing to blame is that your store opened in the wrong place and offended a big shot. Now that big shot paid us to clear the place. So what do you think - what should we do?"
Gu Qingjiu caught the key words in his sentence.
It's not a place that's opened...big people pay for it...
Since they said that, it must be that the person who hired them wanted to clear out all the competing stores in the area. Without competition, the effect of monopoly would be achieved.
So who would regard an inconspicuous small restaurant as a rival?
Gu Qingjiu looked at the direction of the food street that Granny Jiang mentioned just now.
It just so happened that these people came not long after the food court opened. It is hard not to think of them together.
But for now, we still have to solve the current troubles.
Granny Jiang was facing this group of gangsters and her nerves were tense. Naturally, she had no time to think about these things. But when she saw Gu Qingjiu looking in the direction of the food court, she immediately had some thoughts in her mind.
"Hmph, tell the person behind you that there are no customers in my store now. They are all attracted by the food street in front. They don't pose a threat to you at all, so why do you need to kill us all?"
