Chapter 98 Star Effect

  The old lady was secretly happy for less than a minute, and then she couldn't stand it anymore, because she heard an old man next to her asking on the phone who Anna was, and then something strange happened, just as this old man had hung up the phone, he immediately left the team and rushed towards the screaming fans.

  The old lady's mouth was so surprised that she could stuff a boiled egg in it: with this figure, she also squeezed with others, and wasn't afraid of straining her waist. The old man's movements made her even more curious, tiptoeing to look, but saw nothing except for a crowd of people. She withdrew her gaze and happened to see another old lady who was also curiously tiptoeing, with an equally bewildered expression.

  The old lady asked: "Sister, what are they rushing for? They're in such a hurry."

  "What did you say? Say it again!" Another old lady pointed at her own ear and shouted loudly: "I'm hard of hearing."

  An old man nearby suddenly chimed in, "Maybe it's a salesperson selling something. I heard there's a health product called An-something that often holds events and gives away small gifts. I don't know if it's that one."

  "I get it." The old lady suddenly realized: "No wonder those people who were lined up nicely suddenly ran away in a hurry, they must have gone to grab the gifts. How can I miss out on such a good thing?" After finishing speaking, she also squeezed forward: "Make way, make way, you young people should respect and care for the elderly, why are you squeezing? Let me through..."

  Another old lady hesitated at the critical moment, looked at the porridge stall and then at the crowd, entangled in thought. Suddenly, she stomped her foot and squeezed forward: "I think I'm the oldest here, it's right to respect the elderly, this scramble is too chaotic, I suggest lining up by age!"

  Pang Guang's eyes widened in shock, he knew Zhang Xiaoting was a star, but he had never thought that she could drive people crazy to this extent. She had just appeared for less than five minutes, and the crowd of people waiting to buy congee early in the morning suddenly surged towards Zhang Xiaoting like they had been injected with chicken blood.

  Pang Guang looked at the crowded porridge shop and knew that he couldn't miss this opportunity. He rushed over, handed the money through the small window: "Boss, I'll have four bowls of porridge." Pang Guang had calculated that including himself, Lin Junyun, and Zhang Xiaoting, they needed a total of four bowls. Since Zhang Xiaoting had helped divert the people in line, it was only natural that she would also help them buy porridge together. He thought to himself that Zhang Xiaoting had only come to verify the promotional effects of various media outlets recently, and her intention was not to buy porridge at all. It just so happened that she ran into Pang Guang buying porridge and added a small episode to the scene.

  Pang Guang saw the boss's wife staring blankly at Zhang Xiaoting, ignoring him, and her eyes shining with the same light as an 18-year-old girl chasing stars. He sighed and shook his head, repeating: "Boss's wife, give me four bowls of porridge." After finishing, he immediately added: "One bowl without scallions." He remembered that Lin Junyun didn't eat scallions, so he reminded the boss's wife, saying something that even he himself found strange - how did he suddenly become so considerate? All along, it was others who cared about what he didn't like to eat, and his mom would accommodate his preferences when cooking. Just overnight, he had changed, and for the first time, he was concerned about what someone else didn't like to eat.

  The boss's wife was so surprised that she forgot to do business, and Pang Guang called several times before she came back to her senses. "Four portions, one without scallions, a total of eight yuan."

  "Good!" Pang Guang replied.

  The boss's wife opened four cylindrical fast food boxes, used a long spoon to scoop one into each, then picked up the lid and covered them. Every time she did this, her eyes would glance over at Xiaotian for most of the time, and each time they did, her eyes would shine with an extra light.

  "Boss's wife, why don't you put scallions on it?" Pang Guang reminded.

  The boss's wife brought her gaze back and asked in puzzlement: "Didn't you say no scallions?"

  "A dish without scallions, everything else is wanted."

  "I told you so!" The landlady gave Pang Guang a dissatisfied look, grabbed a handful of scallions from the basket and sprinkled them into the porridge.

  "Ah……leave one bowl, don't sprinkle……" Pang Guang looked at the boss's wife, who was distracted and sprinkling scallions, and immediately reminded her, but it was too late. Before he could finish speaking, the four bowls of porridge were already adorned with small green dots, alternating between white, yellow, and green, looking very appetizing, but in vain for Pang Guang's first attempt at showing concern for someone else.

  The boss's wife looked at the crowd of people, with a look of anxiety and impatience. "Buying porridge is so troublesome, can't you just not eat scallions when you don't want to?" Although she was grumbling, her hands didn't stop moving, starting to fill another take-out box with porridge. When she put the ladle back after filling it up, she accidentally knocked over the porridge, and in an instant, the scalding hot porridge flowed down the table and onto the floor, splashing everywhere. The boss's wife was scalded like a cat, jumping around frantically.

  Pang Guang's eyes were wide with wonder, what magic did Zhang Xiaoting have on her body? It was understandable for young people to be crazy, but even a middle-aged woman like Xu Niang was also crazy to this extent. Her mind was elsewhere, and she had turned the business that she had mastered into such a mess.

  In the past six months, Pang Guang has been fond of thinking with his brain. Seeing the boss's wife's clumsy appearance, he thought to himself: "Zhang Xiaoting is so impressive, she can attract everyone's attention as soon as she appears. I, Pang Guang, am not bad either. With just one sentence, I can make the boss's wife, who has been running this hundred-year-old shop for ten years, lose her hand once. Assuming this shop has been open for ten years and sells only 100 boxes of congee per day, with one scoop per box, that's 36,500 times she's made the motion of scooping congee in ten years. And yet, such a familiar action was messed up because of my one sentence. Right, if Zhang Xiaoting wants to show off later, I'll use this as capital."

  Just as Pang Guang was silently counting the thirty-sixty-five thousand times to see how many zeros there were, the boss's wife had already re-cooked a box of porridge, packed it in a plastic bag and handed it over to the windowsill.

  Pang Guang handed over the money, and the boss's wife took it. Suddenly, she heard a commotion from Zhang Xiaoting's side, and her eyes were immediately drawn back there. It wasn't until Pang Guang reminded her impatiently that she should be making change that she apologetically returned the money to him: "Oh, I forgot to make change."

  Pang Guang held the money in a daze: "Boss lady, why are you returning the money to me?"

  "What?" The boss's wife merely glanced at Pang Guang.

  "Why did you say I should return the money?"

  The boss's wife understood and waved her hand: "Don't pay the money, help me take a look at the store, I'll go ask for an autograph and come back right away." After finishing speaking, she didn't care whether Pang Guang agreed or not, and directly walked out of the door behind the small window. Pang Guang was stunned on the spot, thinking that the boss's wife was really trusting, actually leaving such a big store to a stranger without even knowing who he was.

  In an instant, Pang Guang saw the boss's wife running out of a small door on the left side of the window, without even looking at Pang Guang, and rushing straight into the crowd.

  "Ah...... Ah...... Don't go......" Pang Guang shouted, but the boss's wife couldn't hear him anymore. She ran frantically, her mind preoccupied with Zhang Xiaoting, afraid that if she was late, she wouldn't be able to see Zhang Xiaoting again.

  "How can there be such a person." Pang Guang was extremely annoyed: "I'm not very familiar with you, why should I help you watch the store and waste my time?" After finishing speaking, he prepared to leave, but then thought that he couldn't be so irresponsible. What if he also walked away and a thief suddenly came in to steal things?

  His rough but kind nature made Pang Guang hesitate for a moment, he decided to wait, after all, Zhang Xiaoting's porridge was still in his hands, and he had bought it for her, so he had to hand it over to her before leaving.

  Just as Pang Guang was having a hard time making this decision, the boss's wife suddenly came back and said with a painful expression: "It's still one step late, if we had closed the shop earlier, it would have been better."

  Pang Guang was delighted to hear that, fortunately, you didn't make up your mind early. Only he, an insider, knew that all of this was Zhang Xiaoting's deliberate plan. Creating such a big commotion wasn't just about using the star effect to skip the line and buy congee? The people in line ran away, which was part of the plan. If even the owner of the congee shop had closed up and run away, that would have been beyond Zhang Xiaoting's control.

  Pang Guang couldn't help but burst out laughing at the thought of Zhang Xiaoting's reaction if such a result were to occur.

  "What are you laughing at?" The boss's wife said gruffly: "I remember that you didn't pay, a total of five boxes of porridge, ten yuan in total."

  After arguing with the boss's wife for a while, Pang Guang followed Zhang Xiaoting's previous order to "meet at the entrance of Zhongshan Park after buying porridge" and carried the porridge towards Zhongshan Park.

  Fortunately, the porridge shop was not far from Zhongshan Park. Pang Guang walked for about five minutes and arrived at the entrance, where he saw Zhang Xiaoting's Cayenne car parked in an empty space at the park entrance.

  Pang Guang walked up and looked inside through the car window, confirming that it was Zhang Xiaoting inside. He then opened the car door.

  It's completely unnecessary for him to do so, Dongcheng District is a small county town, the cars running on the road are almost all mid-to-low-end sedans, and high-end cars like Kadi have hardly been seen before. Pang Guang also only had a little understanding of it through online introductions.

  "You were so cool just now." Pang Guang handed two boxes of porridge to Zhang Xiaoting, with a look of admiration that didn't need to be said.

  Zhang Xiaoting showed a hint of surprise and smiled slightly: "You even helped me buy it?"

  "Of course I'll help you buy it, you're busy dealing with those crazy fans, where's the time to shop?"

  "Oh, thank you?" Zhang Xiaoting looked at Pang Guang and felt that although he had a childish face, he was actually quite cute. So she said: "Then come into the car to have breakfast together, although it's not very spacious inside, at least there's a place to sit."