Overbearing City Inspector Fell In Love With Me - Chapter 1

Editor: Jacey

Proofreader: Lazybug

The reason why Lājī street was called as such wasn’t only because it was full of wrapping papers thrown by the diners after eating, but also because of the said low-grade snacks that were too inferior to be shown in public, so the name spread.
(TL note: Lājī street means Garbage street and it exists in China)

The street becomes prosperous in the city only after the night falls. In the evening, the food stall owners rush in from all directions of the city, in their own electric tricycles or vans. After a while, the off-duty workers and the students would come to eat some delicious and inexpensive snacks to fill their bellies and until midnight while the street continues to be popular, especially the Malatang* and barbecue, they were always the favorite of the night people.
(TL: Málàtàng is a hot spicy soup sold in the street stalls.)

Frankly speaking, Lājī street was a snack street jointly guarded by dozens of unlicensed stall owners!

It was rumoured in Jianghu that a new spicy hotpot stall has recently opened in the west of Lājī street. It tasted so good that it incurred the greatest popular indignation. Therefore, the passenger flow of other spicy hotpot stalls on the Lājī street plummeted, causing a strong dissatisfaction among the stall owners.

The diners who had tasted the spicy hotpot claim that the happiest thing in life was to sit on the busy Lājī street after work and take a fragrant bowl of spicy hot pot from the young and beautiful landlady. Smelling the fragrance that stimulate one’s appetite, looking at the owner lady’s smiling face and being indulged in all of it, the beauty’s nice and cute voice could be heard, “It totals up to ￥11.50 and the disposable chopsticks are on the table.”

There were people who swore that only after eating the malatang from this restaurant, would you know what kind of person would be able to live up to the legend of the “Malatang Xishi*”. For the sake of this “Malatang Xishi”, the construction workers, who just got off work, made a special trip over. Although most of the stalls there didn’t have signboards, there was a stall where most people were dining. It’s probably the famous new malatang stall.
[TL: Tang is soup. Xishi is the name of one of the four beauties in Ancient China, it also describes beautiful women {beauty}.]

“Take what you want from the freezer. There is a small basket next to it, ¥ 1 for vegetables and ¥ 2 for the meat.” The young woman stood in front of a big pot, ladled a spoonful of soup and poured it into the bowl on her hand. As she looked up, a strand of hair slipped off from behind her ear. She pursed her lips and smiled softly, making the diners’ hands hang in the air, forgetting to take a bite.

Her fingers were white and slender, the sleeves of her white shirt were neatly rolled up, and she had a black apron on. The “beauty” was born with a beautiful face*, she had her hair done in a neat ponytail, and a slightly raised nose bridge stained with sweat, only revealing the delicate outline of the side of her face. Seeing her actions, the cement little brother worker looked at her move skillfully to pick up her chosen skewers, and with a stroke of chopsticks, the dish fell into the pot.

The little brother near them looked a little dumbfounded. When he saw such a clean person for the first time, he couldn’t help picking up his mobile phone and taking a picture. This beauty simply didn’t lose to last year’s milk tea sister! No, the milk tea sister and the manager of Jingdong*, compared to the “Xi Shi” of the Malatang store, would have been flung several streets behind in terms of beauty
[TL: Milk tea sister, I think, is a beautiful worker in a milk tea shop in a nearby street while spicy hot sister refers to the MC]

Yu Guang, one of the construction workers, secretly looked at the uncle selling Chinese egg pancakes in the next stall. The street lamp was shining on his big hands where his fingernails were full of mud. There were no guests in front of the stall. The uncle spread the dough in preparation, then breathing in the smoke, he raised his head and sneezed. Between the light and shadow, he saw some spittle fall on the skin of the dough.

Feeling a pang of nausea, Yu Guang looked away and continued to stare at the lady boss in front of him. He guessed she was not much older than he was, twenty-five years old at most, with a neat ponytail and a face that was… that face… pretty much like how others described it… The phrase was “a feast for the eyes” or something, right?

“Say… what is your name?” The little brother summoned up his courage and asked, while his colleagues applauded

“All call me Xiao Man*.” The woman looked away and turned a blind eye to the group of people in front of her.

“Ah* Feng, the slightly spicy one is done, which table is it for?”
[TLN: ‘Xiao’ means little. ‘Ah’ is a prefix used before given names to indicate kinship and familiarity.]

“I’ll do it.” Ah Fang, the helper, brought the bowl of spicy hotpot to the destined table, then returned and sent the group of people who had been paying attention to Xiao Man to an empty table.

“What are you looking at me for?” Xiao Man prepared the ingredients and asked Ah Fang, who had been staring at her.

“That table called you Spicy Hot Xi Shi.” Ah Fang pouted with a look of disdain in the direction of the men
Xiaoman snorted, “Sorry, not sorry.*”
[Editor: she kind of means that they must be bored to talk about her beauty.]

Ah Fang raised her face and looked with disapproval at Xiao Man, “I’m not worse than you. Why don’t they call me Xi Shi?”

“If you like it, you can call yourself Xi Shi .” She didn’t care what other people called her. It was only after another two bowls of spicy hotpot that Xiao Man handed it to Ah Fang. Just as she did so, she heard an outbreak of noises from the other side of the street.

With shrill cries, the ear-piercing screeching of cars mixed with all sorts of voices, Xiao Man couldn’t figure out what was going on ahead.

On the other side, chinese egg pancake uncle hurriedly got ready to close his stall. Seeing Xiao Man in confusion, for the sake of them being neighbours for the past few days, he hastily reminded her, “Xiao Man, quickly close your stall! The City management officers… The City management officers are coming!”

The uncle was panting very nervously.

What were three main branches of the city? The City management, Public Security and the Demolition team! One of the most terrifying was the city management officers; beating, smashing and looting! How was it easy to wake up early and make tons of egg pancakes by yourself before retiring at dusk? The city management officers would ruthlessly drive them all out, sparing no one and making them go out business.

It was rare for the city management officer to come to clean up* Laji street. It was well known by everyone that the working hours of the officers were from 8:00 A.M. till 6:00 P.M. with occasional overtime. Whenever the officer came, the scene was said to be extremely tragic. But Xiao Man just arrived here a few days ago, so naturally, she didn’t know how dangerous the city management officers were.
[TLN: Clean up as in clean the small (illegal) business and not the literal meaning.]

“No more talking, I’ll leave first, ah!” The uncle’s stall was small so he just had to put away the gas tank, hop into his car and soon disappear around the corner.

“Xiao Man, you should close the store as soon as possible.” Ah Feng was anxious as she folded the plastic stools one by one and complained, “I’m telling you, you ought to hire a male helping hand. How can the two of us females move so many things here?”

The scene was so chaotic that Ah Fang’s words couldn’t be heard clearly. Xiao Man bent down to tidy the pots when several figures hurried past her. She picked up the ladle and strode to catch up with them, “All of you stop! You want to leave without paying for dinner?”

“Xiao Man!” Ah Fang pulled her back, “I’ve already collected the money, so get that damn pick-up truck and let’s pull out.”

“The city management officers are beating people! The officers are beating people!” There was another commotion. Seeing that it was not far from where they were, Xiao Man and Ah Fang joined forces to lift the fridge onto the car. Not long after, a group of people stood in front of their stall in a fierce manner.

Ah Fang was in her early twenties this year and was too timid to even breathe as she watched the group of people in azure uniform.

“Who told you to set up your stall here?*”

The man who supposedly looked to be the leader, had a bulging belly and greasy face. Before he could open his mouth to make a sound, he was stopped by the person next to him. It was obvious that he was embarrassed but he immediately managed to return to his normal color, with a fiercer face.

Xiao Man had such a momentary dissociation. To think the incisive and cold voice came from the mouth of a woman, was it a female city manager? This was rare. There were a row of crowds standing in front of them, all who remained calm and composed. Xiao Man took a bit of time to distinguish that the female city manager’s body was blocked by the fat man.

The woman’s delicate body didn’t look like the one to have the confidence to speak with such a tone, but there was only one female city management officer here so who else could she be? With the fat man blocking the street lamp light and the distance between them, Xiao Man couldn’t see the woman’s face clearly.

But she knew that the female was very domineering!

“Everyone is setting up a stall here.” Xiao Man moved another folding table to the car and dusted off her clothes. Ah Fang, who was by her side, gently tugged at the corner of her clothes, beckoning her to stop talking.

“You are operating your business without a license, encroaching on the road while disrupting the cityscape. You come with us to make a statement.” Those people were already being unreasonable and were trying to make a scene, the fat man was provoked until he ran out of patience. He had only the thought of finding someone to take back, in order to give an account to the higher-ups. It wasn’t hard to see that he was being a rogue as he tried to bring them to report to the leader to conclude his mission.

“Zhong squad, I think it’s enough to put away her tables and chairs, take this point back to make a statement…” the woman once again spoke out. Seeing that the fat man was still silent, she went forward to confiscate the tables and chairs that Xiao Man had yet placed in her pick-up truck, into their city’s law enforcement car.The other city management officials also went forward to confiscate Xiao Man’s things, but some that had already been put into the truck weren’t taken away from her.

“You! What gives you the right to take my stuff?!” Xiao Man fiercely glared at the woman who was coming to take the stool in her hands. Now that she could clearly see her features, the woman was just about as tall as she was, with her long hair coiled into a bun but had a rather delicate face filled with arrogance and willfulness.

Those tables and chairs weren’t expensive to buy; they only cost around 100-200 yuan but Xian Man was very angry and said something about enforcing law on them for the citizens….pei*! There was also a law against stealing other people’s stuff!

The woman found Xiao Man’s exasperation amusing. Since they were in front of her colleagues, the woman just leaned over to her and said with a smile, “I’m a civilized law enforcement official, thank you for your cooperation.”

“Civilized, my foot!” Xiao Man yanked back the chair with such great force. The woman hadn’t expected her to be so strong so the whole person was taken together with the chair.

And so a bizarre scene was born, with Xiao Man lying on the floor while clutching a chair, the woman’s hands on both sides of her body, and the two of them staring up and down at each other, only being separated by a large red plastic chair.

“I’ll tell you what…” Xiao Man couldn’t say her next words, she didn’t know why she was blushing. She wanted to tell the woman righteously but didn’t have the courage to look at her directly.

“Huh?” The woman raised an eyebrow.

Laughing again! Xiao Man felt more upset. Did she look that funny in her eyes? Look at her! She also said that she was a law enforcement officer but when she came out to enforce the law, she put on light make-up and wore earrings. This was exactly to blind the stall owners!
But no matter how well-dressed the other party was, it wouldn’t change her determination to make a righteous deal with that person!

“I want to make sue you…..” Xiao Man seriously said.

“Young Lady Long!” The other city management officers noticed the two and quickly went to help.

“Xiao Man!” Ah Fang didn’t dwell on caring about the furniture anymore. They would be robbed even if they tried to fight back. She ran over and helped Xiao Man.

Young Lady Long…… Xiao Man mocked it in her heart — what kind of a name was that? Did the woman wanted to become the Little Dragon Maiden*?
[TLN: Long means dragon in Chinese.
Xiao Long Nu – Little Dragon Maiden…”Yang Guo and the Little Dragon Girl” is a film produced by Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers Film Company in 1983. It is adapted from Jin Yong’s famous work “The Legend of Condor Heroes”, directed by Hua Shan and starring Leslie Cheung and Weng Jingjing. –Baidu Translate.]

Xiao Man handed the chair in her arms to Ah Fang and asked her to put it in the car. Then, she squinted at the arrogant female city manager and raised her face slightly, “Are you called Miss Long?”

The female city manager glanced at Xiao Man unconcernedly and turned to the others as she ordered, “Are you finished? Let’s go.”

“Hey, hey!” Xiao Man shouted anxiously but no one was willing to step forward to help her. Seeing that the things that she uses to support her family being taken away by the city management, Xiao Man’s heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys were all in pain*.
[TLN: Exaggerated way of saying that she felt heartbroken and sad, I guess.]

In the urgency, she firmly grasped the woman’s wrist and the person looked back at her in surprise.

In fact, the woman was quite good-looking this way, with sharp corners on the corner of her lips and dimples when she smiled… It was a pity that the city management uniform on her body was incomparably ugly!

If she knew what that woman was going to say, she would have wiped off all the pity she held for her.

“My name is Long Jia and I work in Chengxi Chengguan Squadron*.” She slowly broke away from Xiao Man’s grip as her tone slightly rose with arrogance, “Do you want to sue me?”

The author’s note:
Without personal freedom, I was forced to sleep and then I rushed to write some more.
Be sure to leave a comment to let Uncle know if you like it!
I wonder if there are any girls who like to read grounded writing without the CEO!
We’re gonna go catch insects tomorrow, I’m in a hurry today.

The name of this literacy? Yes, that’s right! It’s spicy!
If you like this article, be sure to bookmark it, yo, and even more so if you love hot and spicy food.

Translator note: Hey, Kin here with her second project. This novel is 12 chapters long and I’ll be dividing it into 2 parts.
Be sure to wash your hands frequently, wear a mask while going out and have a hand sanitizer with you ALWAYS. Wear glasses too, if possible. Be safe.

^ The “beauty” was born with a beautiful face*, [Editor: i think it meant she looked like Xi Shi. Xi Shi was, according to legends, one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have lived during the end of the Spring and Autumn period in Zhuji, the capital of the ancient State of Yue. In traditional stories, Xi Shi was named Shi Yiguang.]

^‘…Chengxi Chengguan Squadron’ means the ‘city management in the west of the city’ squadron.

Translated by Confuzzled Kin.