Translator: SJade, Editor: Dj22031
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“But…but I am not good at drinking!” Yong Ruo struggled desperately against the temptation of silver and business cards.
“Miss, you can drink tea. I ordered a lot of dishes, and you can also taste the cooking skills of the chef in this restaurant.” Feng Liao’s smile became more reserved, and his eyes regained calmness.
After ordering a lot of dishes… Yong Ruo surrendered and decided to stay for a good meal.
It’s just a meal and a chat, and he didn’t ask her to do anything wrong! What can’t she accompany him? Didn’t she accompany clients enough in her last life! Anyway, the brown rice porridge she drank at dinner had long been digested, and she was hungry!
“In that case, I’d rather obey and be respectful.” Only food and love should not be let down!
“Miss, please!” Feng Liao still put one hand behind his back, and stretched out the other hand towards the table, with a more gentle and perfect smile on his face.
There was a large round table in the middle of the elegant room.
At this time, there were eight cold dishes on the round table, including candied dates[1], fried peanuts[2], cold-mixed black fungus[3], cold-mixed bamboo shoots[4], as well as sausage slices[5], bacon[6], smoked chicken[7], and smoked rabbit[8]. Four meat dishes and four vegetarian dishes, just looking at them made people salivate.
Since she decided to eat and chat with him, Yong Ruo put the basket aside and sat down at the table unceremoniously, with her back to the side wall and the window on the right.
Feng Liao sat down opposite her with a smile on his face. He actually picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for Yong Ruo himself.
Yong Ruo was flattered and thought to herself: How many people had Mr. Feng poured tea for since he grew up? She could see that he was not very skilled in pouring tea, but his hands were very steady and there was no accident of tea spilling on the table.
After pouring the tea, Mr. Feng poured himself a glass of wine.
The noble young man was very polite. Except for his unskilled actions in pouring tea for others, his other every move was as smooth and natural as flowing clouds and water, with a kind of classical implicit beauty, which looked pleasing to the eye. But if she had to play this set of etiquette with him, Yong Ruo would feel uncomfortable – “I just want to wolf it down and eat it with relish, I don’t want to pretend to be a lady at all”!
So, without waiting for Mr. Feng to raise his glass or pick up his chopsticks, she directly picked up the chopsticks, picked up a piece of sausage and stuffed it into her mouth, closed her eyes and chewed, and her mouth was immediately full of the aroma of meat and oil.
Wow… She sighed in her heart with satisfaction: It’s so delicious that it makes me want to cry!
She transmigrated last winter, and she hadn’t tasted meat for a long time!
Seeing her pick up the chopsticks and eat directly, Feng Liao was obviously stunned.
But seeing Yong Ruo’s satisfied look, he found it interesting again, so he simply folded his hands casually in front of him, sitting there looking very upright and elegantly, watching her eat with a smile.
Yong Ruo finished a piece of sausage, picked up another piece and put it in her mouth, chewed it carefully, and swallowed it slowly, and her sense of happiness rose sharply.
Looking up at Feng Liao’s posture and expression, she took the opportunity to say while picking up the dishes: “Mr. Feng, do you find it strange? I speak very elegantly, why don’t I even know the basic dining etiquette?”
Feng Liao’s lips curled up slightly, a smile flashed in his eyes, and he humbly asked her for advice: “I have exactly this question. And you didn’t call yourself ‘little girl’, but started saying ‘I’.”
Yong Ruo picked up a piece of bacon and smiled lightly, with an unfathomable smile: “The existence of etiquette has its own value and reason. However, in essence, etiquette is also something that binds people. Why should we be restrained all the time?” She put the bacon in her mouth and chewed it carefully.
Feng Liao leaned forward slightly: “What do you mean by that?”
Yong Ruo slowly swallowed the bacon in her mouth, then smiled and said: “This can only be understood, not expressed in words. My dear young master, you have condescended to look at a mere flower girl. I am very grateful in my heart, so I am telling you the truth. My dear young master is intelligent and wise, and he cherishes the weak and the poor. Why do you have to ask a mere young woman to explain this to you?” After that, she continued to eat. It was a consensus in modern society that feudal ethics restricted and destroyed human nature, but she would never dare to say those words of “no king, no father, and great treason”.
Feng Liao looked at her puzzled for a while, then frowned and fell into deep thought.
Yong Ruo continued to enjoy the food and tasted the remaining cold dishes carefully.
The proprietress brought the waiter to serve the hot dishes, and Young Master Feng was still in a daze.
The hot dishes were served one by one. The proprietress read out the names of the dishes one by one: Kung Pao Chicken[9], Crispy Duck[10], Jar Meat, Squirrel Sea Bass[11], Stir-fried Shrimp[12], Braised Lamb[13], Drunk Yam with Fermented Rice Wine[14], Mapo Tofu[15]; in addition, there were Pigeon Soup[16], Radish and Minced Pork Congee[17], Three Fresh Dumplings[18], and Mushroom Lamb Buns[19]. The table was full of delicacies, including those that fly in the sky, run on the ground, swim in the water, and grow in the soil.
Yong Ruo sighed in her heart: What a sin! How can two people finish so many dishes!!!
She glanced at Feng Liao, who still hadn’t come back to his senses, and thought: Can I take away the unfinished ones?
She was a little thirsty, so she served herself a bowl of pigeon soup, and drank it slowly while observing Feng Liao’s expression.
Feng Liao was obviously in deep thought. The tip of his right index finger unconsciously drew circles on the back of his left index finger; sometimes he nodded gently, sometimes he shook his head slightly; his eyebrows sometimes wrinkled, sometimes he spread out… Yong Ruo smiled in her heart: This Mr. Feng is really a good student who is diligent in thinking! His little action of drawing circles with his fingers is also quite cute.
Yong Ruo finished a bowl of soup and tasted all the hot dishes again. They were so delicious that she almost swallowed her tongue.
Then she saw Feng Liao’s face gradually showing a look of sudden realization, and finally, as if he had been enlightened, he clapped his hands and said: “Good! Well said!” His expression and tone were very excited. He stood up and bowed to Yong Ruo solemnly, “Miss, what you said is really deafening! I have learned a lot!”
Yong Ruo smiled and stood up and returned the greeting: “You are polite, young master!” As expected of a noble young master, he was so polite!
Feng Liao’s excitement had not yet subsided, and he continued, “Miss, you are right. This can only be understood, not expressed in words. Haha…”
After saying this, he suddenly burst into laughter, looking like he couldn’t help laughing. After laughing, he picked up the wine glass and raised it to Yong Ruo: “Just for this, I will make it clear!”
Yong Ruo smiled politely, picked up the teacup, clinked it with his wine glass, and took a sip: “Sir, you are too polite! I am ashamed to accept it.” This Mr. Feng was so excited. Did he really figure it out, or did he accidentally think wrongly?
Feng Liao looked at her teacup with regret: “Miss, are you really not going to drink a little?” He pointed to a small wine pot on the table, “The pot contains plum blossom wine, which is specially made for female guests. It is not so intoxicating.”
Yong Ruo firmly declined: “Thank you for your kindness, sir. I am really not good at drinking.”
Feng Liao did not force it.
He drank the wine in his glass, and while pouring wine for himself, he looked at Yong Ruo with a smile: “Miss, since you said ‘Why should I be restrained all the time’, why do you call yourself ‘little girl’ instead of ‘I’?”
Yong Ruo said: “Caring about calling myself ‘little girl’ or ‘I’, is a restraint in itself.” Just like in the modern society of the previous life, ordinary people called themselves “I”, “this palace”, “I”, who cared?
Feng Liao paused in pouring the wine, then nodded and continued to pour the wine: “That makes sense!” He held the pot in one hand and raised the glass to Yong Ruo with the other hand, and then drank the wine in the glass. Then he no longer sat upright, but leaned back in the chair with ease, and put his hands casually on the armrests.
“If you don’t drink, eat more dishes!” he said.
Yong Ruo nodded and picked up the Mapo tofu to eat. After eating, she picked up another piece…
Feng Liao looked at her for a while and asked her: “Miss, do you like tofu?”
Did she like tofu[20]? Yong Ruo was embarrassed by the connotation that popped up in her mind and almost choked. She quickly swallowed the tofu in her mouth and said seriously: “It’s okay. In fact, I like to eat all delicious food. I always pick tofu to eat because I have a little trick…”
“What trick?”
Yong Ruo showed a bright smile: “Mr. Feng, if these dishes are not finished, can I pack the rest and take them home?” In this era, there were no fast food boxes or food bags, and no one knew what to use to pack, so naturally she picked the leftovers that were easy to carry.
Feng Liao was puzzled and asked, “What are you going to do with the leftovers? For…” Suddenly, he paused and changed his words hesitantly, “…you want to bring them to…others to eat?”
“Yes!” Yong Ruo admitted generously, “Mr. Feng, this is part of the suffering of the people! And it’s not for others to eat, it’s for my family to eat. Do you know how long our family hasn’t eaten meat? More than three years! Tonight, I have cooked the last bit of brown rice in the house, and everyone got a bowl of thick porridge with a little pickled vegetables, which can only make them half full. And this…is already our holiday meal.” Just thinking about it made her sad!
Mr. Feng was silent, imagining such a situation, and after a long while he said, “What does your family do? Why did it end up like this?”
Yong Ruo thought for a while: If I tell him about the situation, will he seek justice for my family and get some compensation? She inherited the memories and skills of her predecessor, so she knew very well about the decline of the Yong family. After just a little thought, she quickly made a decision: gamble!
Winning the bet would be the best, but losing the bet would not be a big loss.
“Our family used to be doing well…” She poured herself a bowl of pigeon soup and took a sip, “but nearly three years ago…”
Yong Ruo felt that this Master Feng was well versed in the principle of hitting the snake at its weakest point, and when she saw that the situation was not right, she attacked his vital point!
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[12]
[13]
[20] Tofu is a slang for skinship in China.