Li Xiqing could see that Shao Yan was exhausted. This whole day must be too exciting for her. She was quiet on the way out of the suburb.
"Where do you live? Can you keyed in your address here?" he handed his phone to her. He already had the map application opened and all she had to do was to enter her address.
She took his phone silently and obediently started typing. After a while, it synced to the GPS in the car, and Li Xiqing followed the route.
"Are you hungry?" he asked Shao Yan after she returned his phone to him. "It's pretty late now, I remember there was a good beef noodle soup near your place. I think they open until midnight."
Shao Yan didn't think she was hungry. But as he mentioned beef noodle soup, Shao Yan could feel her mouth salivating. She nodded and said, "Sure, I think I know which one you meant. Is it the one by the corner near the school? Let me treat you this time alright?"
And before he answered, she added, "Don't fight with me on this." Shao Yan smiled cheekily as she was using his exact words to her from this afternoon.
Li Xiqing just helplessly smiled and didn't say anything.
It was already pretty late. Traffic was not crowded but it was still more than usual because they were heading to the city.
Li Xiqing drove to her neighborhood and true enough, the noodle shop was still opened. They parked and entered the shop together. This was a small shop and so the menu was limited.
Li Xiqing and Shao Yan already knew what they wanted, so they ordered right away.
"Auntie, one spicy and one not spicy, please". Li Xiqing started to order. Shao Yan was surprised that he knew she couldn't eat spicy. "How did you know that I couldn't eat spicy food?" she asked.
Li Xiqing also ordered a plate of tofu and mushroom dumplings and sat down with her.
"I kept adding chili oil to the dimsum this afternoon, while you didn't even touch it. At first, I thought maybe you just didn't like it."
Li Xiqing tore open bamboo chopsticks packet for her and started to clean the teacup with warm water on the side.
"And then, while we were walking around the market, you didn't even pay any attention at the stalls selling spicy snacks, but only looked at those selling non spicy food".
He poured tea for her and handed her the cup before pouring one for himself, "But I think I know your favourite food should be tofu." he smiled, "You ordered a lot of tofu dishes at the dimsum."
"... Oh" Shao Yan only managed to say that and then she went silent.
This guy!!
Why do you have to do this to me!!
I have already decided not to have any mess in my life!
She could feel her face blushed so hard. With those statement, was he trying to tell me that he had been watching over me the whole time?!
Li Xiqing was not aware of this argument inside her head. He was now cleaning the saucer to put the dumpling soy sauce.
Shao Yan silently looked down and started to eat the dumplings to distract herself. Li Xiqing put a soy sauce plate in front of her, and he added sliced chilli to his own plate.
There were only few people inside the shop at this hour. Li Xiqing and Shao Yan occupied the table near the exit. There was an uncle sitting alone near them. And then there was another young couple sat on the back.
The beef noodle soup came quickly. Shao Yan was actually not a big fan of soup because it's too hot for her. But she loved beef soup. So she ate extremely slow. Li Xiqing found this very cute, as he tried to match her speed.
Shao Yan managed to pay for the meal this time. They went back to the car and Li Xiqing started to drive to her apartment.
She directed him to her parking garage. Li Xiqing parked next to her car and Shao Yan quickly got down and open her car hood to help him.
They worked together. Meaning that, he did most of the work, and she would just stood to the side watching and tried to remember everything.
When he was done, he asked Shao Yan to try to start the car. She went inside and tried it successfully. Shao Yan was so relieved now.
Li Xiqing checked everything once again. When he was done, he closed the car hood and Shao Yan noticed that his hands became so dirty. Some stains would not went away even though he had wiped it.
She was debating with herself for a while, but then she decided it would not be a big issue, so she decided to just invited him to her place to clean up.
"Umm.. If you don't mind, since I just live upstairs, would you like to come up to clean your hands?", she asked hesitantly.
Li Xiqing didn't expect this from her. But he accepted her offer right away. He locked his car and walked together with her to the elevator.
While they were waiting for the elevator, another couple also just came back.
The girl kept looking at Li Xiqing, while the object of her fascination was busy replying to text messages. His phone had been ringing non-stop since lunch time, but he only had been looking at them every once in a while.
Her boyfriend seemed to be aware about this, and purposely moved and stood in between them to block her view.
The young girl realized what she had done, and tried to pacify him, acting spoiled and poking his arm. "Don't think by doing this I'm not angry anymore? Don't you see that he already got a girlfriend there? She's that pretty, he wouldn't even look at you!"
He reprimanded her while trying to keep his voice down, "Didn't we saw them earlier, he was fixing her car? You see, he's willing to be that dirty for her sake, you stop dreaming already!"
Since it's already late at night, and only four of them were around, Shao Yan could hear everything, and definitely, Li Xiqing also had heard it.
Shao Yan unknowingly claimed a guy who she just met for two times as her boyfriend!
She felt so embarrassed, she wanted to hide away like a turtle!