Chapter 1770 Ramen Master

The van turned from the street into a relatively remote and narrow alley with black smoke. The engine coughed like a broken bellows of a patient with advanced tuberculosis and finally stopped with a "pop", announcing that this durable Toyota Hiace car had finally died. It was carried forward by inertia for a short distance and finally stopped. The alley fell into silence.

Only half of the window of the van was lowered. Lu Mingfei leaned out of the window and glanced at the place where they were now. The alley was dark and no human figures could be seen. Two black crows, which are common in downtown Tokyo, jumped on the edge of the ditch in the corner. The red pupils reflected that the van parked in the alley was not afraid of this steel monster that had died.

"We seem to have gotten rid of them." Lu Mingfei finally breathed a sigh of relief after confirming it again and again, and slumped in the passenger seat.

In the past, he thought it was ridiculous that the protagonist in the "GTA" series of games only needed to secretly park the car in a remote corner of the city for a while after committing a crime to get rid of the star. As a result, he now realized that "GTA" is actually a realistic game!

The door of the van was opened, and several people got out of the van with dusty faces. Among them, Lin Nian was wrapped in a coat and a warm blanket, probably to avoid being seen. After all, the cracks on his skin were too scary.

"What is the radio navigation for us? Is this still Tokyo?" Lu Mingfei glanced left and right at this nameless alley. They came here completely according to the guidance of the bad woman on the radio. This was also out of helplessness. Being chased to that situation, they could only bet that the bad woman would not cheat them.

"We just passed by Koishikawa Gate. This should be Hongo 3-chome in Bunkyo Ward. Go north to Ueno Park, and next to it is the University of Tokyo." Lin Nian said in a low voice. He had to lower his voice. He had just used the Word Spirit too much, and his strength, which he had finally recovered, was running low. Now he coughed even when he spoke loudly.

Caesar and Chu Zihang gradually relaxed, because if Lin Nian had not taken the wrong road, they were indeed in a safe area. Hongo 3-chome in Bunkyo Ward is the academic heart of Tokyo. In addition to the University of Tokyo, it also gathers the Tokyo campus of the University of Tsukuba, Ochanomizu University and other universities. It is considered a university town. Gangsters and lawless elements are rarely seen here. It is an absolute rule of law area. After all, no one can guarantee whether future members of parliament or even the Prime Minister of Japan are still studying hard in the school here.

"What should we do next? Find another car to take back to Shinjuku and go back to the room to sleep?" Lu Mingfei reached out and touched the bullet hole on the van with a sigh. Although he had not known this car for a long time, he had already vaguely felt some comradeship with this big guy by looking at its weathered appearance.

"Now the Metropolitan Police Department and the Eight Snake Families are still looking for us outside. We can only wait until the wind is weaker in the second half of the night before trying to find a way to go back. If we go back to Shinjuku tomorrow and are held accountable by the Inuyama family, we will unify our statements and say that we don't know what happened tonight. They can't directly accuse us without evidence." Chu Zihang suggested.

"What should we do now? Go back to the car and take a nap?"

"Didn't you say before that you would find a place to have a midnight snack? If Lin Nian wants to speed up his self-healing, he should also need to consume a lot of calories, right?" Caesar said.

"I'm fine, I don't necessarily have to eat food." Lin Nian said lightly, and then in front of everyone, he broke off a piece of glass from Lu Mingfei's comrade and stuffed it into his mouth, chewed it and swallowed it.

Lu Mingfei's mouth twitched, but he didn't say anything. After all, he had seen Lin Nian eat even more outrageous things. When he was fighting with him, this ruthless man ate the red-hot lava on the ground because he was short of calories. Lu Mingfei will never forget the look of the evil ghost holding the burning lava in his mouth and staring at him with his molten eyes. It must have scarred him psychologically. It's a pity that he doesn't have such an iron stomach. If he eats the wrong expired rice ball from the convenience store, he will have diarrhea for three days.

"Is your stomach coated with tungsten carbide?" Caesar looked at Lin Nian. Since he had cooperated deeply with Lin Nian, he really gave him a little surprise every day.

"But we can't eat glass. We do need to replenish calories after fighting." Chu Zihang turned his head and looked near the alley. "Are there any 24-hour stores around here?"

He scanned the alley and could only see many old bookstores and cafes that had closed down. Occasionally, there were a few hidden izakayas. He could imagine the scene of female college students dressed in youthful and fashionable clothes meeting behind the glass windows to eat the same sundae together during the day.

There are many alleys like this in Japan, so you don't have to worry about safety issues. If you go in with your eyes closed, you can always find some strange little shops in the corners. Those are small shop owners who are forced to set up stalls in the corners by the high rent on the main street outside - but you can't do this in the United States or Europe, because most of you will only have a pair of underwear on your body when you leave the alley, and it even depends on whether your underwear is branded.

"Even crows are as thin as toothpicks in this place, where can we eat anything." Lu Mingfei was a little depressed. He should be the most hungry now. Every time he released a lunar eclipse, he felt that he could eat three cows. "Do you think there are leftover pork elbows and pickled potatoes in the cafeteria of Tokyo University?"

"I think you should try the things in the college cafeteria besides the free dishes. Not every university cafeteria provides pork elbows and pickled potatoes." Caesar said.

"If you really want to have a midnight snack, there should be a shop that is not closed here." Lin Nian said, he looked up and pointed to the deeper part of the alley, "I smell the aroma of soy sauce burning over there."

"Really?" Although he was questioning, when Lin Nian spoke, Lu Mingfei's eyes lit up and he walked towards the direction Lin Nian pointed. He had absolute faith in Lin Nian's five senses.

"Are you hungry? Have a midnight snack. After the midnight snack, take a rest and we will send you back to Genji Heavy Industries. Maybe you have to go back earlier tonight." Lin Nian looked at Eri who had been keeping quiet obediently and said softly.

Eri wrote on the notepad:

"It doesn't matter. I had a lot of fun tonight."

For the underworld princess, a car chase is indeed very novel, but it is only novel and not even exciting. Perhaps in Eri's eyes, the chase just now is more like a real experience of the plot that she has always seen in movies and animations? Except for the sudden kingship of Genji, there is really nothing that can really hurt her.

Lu Mingfei, who ran faster in front, walked deeper into the alley and actually found a ray of light in the deepest place. It was from behind the curtain of a stall placed in the most remote corner of the alley. Strictly speaking, it was not a store, but a mobile stall.

This kind of human-powered cart is called "Ramen House Cart" in Japan, which is designed for selling ramen noodles in the streets. The window is opened to form a canopy, and there are two wooden benches under the canopy. Customers sit on the wooden benches to eat noodles, and the ramen chef operates in the car. Although the sparrow is small, it has everything. The soup pot and ingredients are neatly placed on the chopping board. After the customers sit down, the dark blue cloth canopy can just cover their upper body, creating a private environment.

Compared with the "famous ramen" in the store, the environment and taste of this tavern are a little worse, but the price is also much cheaper. Most of the people who come here to eat noodles are poor students from Dongda. They can't compare with those rich ladies and sons who can spend money in the coffee shops and izakayas at the corner of the alley. Poor students who are even stingy with their living expenses prefer this stall that doesn't even have a name to solve their food and clothing problems.

Lu Mingfei has just arrived in Japan and has never eaten any "Yoshinoya" or "famous ramen". What's more, he is so hungry now that everything tastes delicious. He just wants the chef to bring the soup pot to the bottom as a bowl. Japanese ramen has a strong taste of oil and salt. You have to add white rice to eat it. It is just suitable for him, a coolie who is used like a donkey every day.

I walked to the stall excitedly. The faded warm curtain was printed with "The Best in the World". There were many oil and soup stains on the cloth. I think many people used it as a hand towel. After eating noodles, they wiped it and burped before leaving.

Lu Mingfei was about to lift the curtain to go in, but he stopped abruptly when his hand touched the curtain, because his amazing hearing (actually it didn't need to be amazing) heard a woman's panting behind the curtain and the gurgling sound of the ramen soup forming a weird duet.

This ramen shop owner is too life, right? Lu Mingfei was shocked. Although he knew that Japan's sexual culture was very open, even the ramen shop owner could order a call girl to come to his door when he was lonely late at night? You should at least find a cheap hourly room. What's the situation of doing it directly behind the curtain?

When Lu Mingfei was hesitating whether to leave and not spoil the boss's business, he suddenly heard the sound of pots and pans overturned inside. It was probably because the people inside found him standing outside and panicked for a moment.

Lu Mingfei couldn't help his vulgar heart when he heard the flurry of noise inside. He lifted the curtain and went in as if nothing had happened. Then he saw a ramen chef wearing a white hat holding a remote control and pressing the TV in the corner. The TV show was playing an unbearable scene, and the panting sound he heard before came from inside.

Ah, now Lu Mingfei completely understood it. It was a way for old men to masturbate at night. Men can understand each other.

Chu Zihang, Caesar, Lin Nian and Eri all walked to the ramen shop and heard the passionate voices inside. Caesar and Chu Zihang had some subtle expressions, while Lin Nian subconsciously covered Eri's eyes as she tried to explore inside, but unfortunately the girl still saw a very exciting scene on the TV and was stunned and motionless.

After a while, the panic inside ended and the TV series was turned off. Lin Nian and others walked in slowly and saw the elderly ramen chef inserting a disc with a housewife wearing a naked apron into the Bible.

No mistake, one song, one post, one content, one 6, one 9, one book, one bar!

If Lin Nian remembers correctly, the disc should be Teacher Yoshizawa Akiho. I have to say that this elderly ramen chef's taste is really retro. Shouldn't Teacher Yoshizawa have been out of fashion for a long time? Now it should be more popular to be new people, right?

“Irasshai!” The ramen chef hastily put on his hat and subconsciously shouted out the words he had shouted countless times. But when he saw the sneaky Lu Mingfei coming in, he was stunned for a moment, then immediately put on an apologetic face and said, “Sorry, sir, our store is closed. It’s very late now.”

"Money is not a problem." Caesar reached into his pocket, but found nothing. He remembered that he had given all the cash Lin Nian had given him to the driver of the van. Fortunately, Chu Zihang beside him took out the stack of 10,000 yen bills for him and put them on the table. He said in English in a gentle tone, "Master, we just want to eat a bowl of ramen. If there are any ingredients, please help us. We will never cause trouble."

"Uh, I, that English, I don't understand." The ramen chef tried to shirk, but the lackey Lu Mingfei beside him immediately acted as an interpreter and translated the Japanese completely.

The ramen chef was speechless. He looked at these strange guests who visited late at night, especially the scars on Lin Nian's body that could not be hidden, and their embarrassed appearance, including the blood on their bodies. His eyes stayed on Lin Nian and Eriyi for a long time, and his expression was tangled for a long time. Finally, he sighed and accepted the stack of cash on the table, "Sit down, what flavor of ramen do you want to eat?"

"Anything is fine. The only problem is, please wash your hands before making ramen." Lu Mingfei took a long breath and sat down.

Lin Nian and Eriyi also sat down together. He glanced at the cast iron table of this small shop. The grease accumulated over the years shone with an amber luster under the street lights. The faded warm curtains were softened by the steam. The chopsticks were casually inserted into the tube. I don’t know if they were washed and disinfected. However, customers who can come here to eat probably don’t care about these things.

The wooden partition inside the cart was transformed into a three-layer shelf. The top layer was piled with completely unrelated books such as "The New Testament", "S&M Sniper" and "Japanese Geology Magazine". The middle layer was filled with various seasonings and three-line recipes for different ramen soup bases. The bottom layer was piled with several thick stacks of pachinko shop scorecards and horse racing tickets that recorded the profits and losses of more than ten years.

This is a ramen shop with a very lively atmosphere. It makes people feel that the owner lives here on weekdays. It is probably a time-honored ramen stall in this university town. It is completely supported by the lunch and dinner money of those poor students. There is no need to pay store fees. If the reputation is good, life can still be very good. At least the money earned is enjoyable.

Seeing him humming the timeless folk song "Red Dragonfly" with his back to them in the cart, one can feel a sense of age much older than he looks. It feels like the alley outside is the new century Tokyo of the Heisei era with all kinds of alarm bells going off, while the time inside the alley is locked in the Showa period even earlier by this ramen stall.

"What's your name, Master?" Lin Nian suddenly asked, looking at the back of the ramen chef.

"Customers can just call me Master Yue." The ramen chef skillfully poured soup into the bowl and said casually.

"What's your last name?"

"I forgot it a long time ago!"