"My surname is Mu."
"May I ask if the last two digits of your phone number are 0 and 5?" the waiter asked.
"Yes."
"Please follow me," the waiter said as he picked up two menus and led the way.
The waiter led them to a table by the window. He then said, "Our maximum meal time is two hours and thirty minutes. I hope you will enjoy your meal."
"Let's order first. For the specialty Miyagi hot pot, we want the base of the mandarin duck hot pot." Mu Ziyu ordered the dishes with ease. He was familiar with their menu.
"Okay. Would you like to order a set meal or a single order?" he asked as he jotted down their order.
Mu Ziyu looked at Shuishui. "What do you want?"
She browsed through the five set meal options and preferred the traditional seat meal. "I've looked at it. There are many types of set meals. A single order might be too much for both of us. Let's order a set meal then. We'll order the traditional set meal."
When Mu Ziyu checked the menu again, he smiled. It was indeed what Shuishui would choose. The set had one vegetable, white radish, and the rest were all meat.
"Please give us sour plum soup and sesame paste. When we finish our meals, please serve a fruit platter." Mu Ziyu felt that he had to order fruits for a balanced meal.
As she browsed through the menu, Shuishui saw something she wanted to try. "Wait a moment. I'll have a side dish. Please give us iron plate pork skin."
The waiter was a little embarrassed. He said, "The iron plate pork skin is a little big, and very greasy. The traditional set meal is for three people. I wonder if you would like to reconsider?"
Shuishui was adamant. "No need. That's it. Place the order."
The pig skin dish was very enticing. It was stated in the menu that what made it special was its secret sauce. Pig skin was roasted and placed on an iron plate. The iron plate was heated, and the sauce was poured over it. It would always be served with broccoli. Shuishui had looked at the picture and thought it would be good to try it. Although it was a greasy dish, it was also a collagen-rich food.
Mu Ziyu looked at Shuishui lovingly. "You are a big eater. However, it's also great that you're not picky with food."
"I am also picky. However, under normal circumstances, as long as the food is delicious, I am okay with it. I wonder if they are here already? Zilin did not call yet." Shuishui looked at her phone. She was a little confused and was considering whether to call him. At that time, they should have gotten off the plane already.
"They're already here. Dad sent me a message when they got off the plane. They should be tidying up the house by now," Mu Ziyu said. Actually, there wasn't much to do. They were simply cleaning up the house. He had a lot of things to do, which was probably why he didn't have time to call.
"Won't you help?" Shuishui asked Ziyu when she realized that they were sitting leisurely at the restaurant while the Mu family was cleaning up back at home.
She felt that he would be scolded if they found out he was busy eating out.
"Why? I've already cleaned up my room. The rest is up to them. They can actually just hire people to help them clean up the house. However, there are some personal things that they wouldn't want to be moved or touched. It's more convenient for them to do it themselves," Ziyu explained.
Shuishui could imagine the rest of the Mu family back at their home. "How unfortunate. I predict that Mu Zilin will do almost everything. Right now, he's the only strong man there."
Mu Ziyu placed his bag on the side of the seat for safety.
Ten minutes later, their hot pot was served. The other dishes were also served. Mu Ziyu thoughtfully heated the pot and prepared the ingredients.
At the big table next to them, a group of women was observing them. Coincidentally, it was the woman who wanted to buy Shuishui's coat. She did not take the initiative to speak to them. After all, she had only met them by chance. Her companion was suddenly excited. She said, "That man is so handsome. He's even more handsome than our school's best-looking student." She looked back at her friend and said, "Is she his girlfriend or something? She's quite beautiful, but she looks a little young. Is she actually young or just young-looking? There's nothing special about her."
"What's the use of being good-looking? He's an ungentlemanly man," the young woman said unhappily. She deeply resented the fact that Mu Ziyu was unwilling to give her the coat back at the clothing store. She was not impressed.
"Are you annoyed because he didn't give you the coat? It was a natural response because he wanted to buy it for his girlfriend. He wasn't being proud about it anyway. It's simply natural. What do you think? I wouldn't want to date a guy who was friendly with everyone," the companion said as she looked over to Ziyu and Shuishui.
Shuishui looked at the pig skin, which was still sizzling. She picked up a piece, blew on it, and put it into her mouth. "Hmm. It tastes pretty good. It's a little spicy. It feels less greasy because of the spiciness."
"Let me try it." Mu Ziyu also took a piece. "It's not bad," he said.
"It's up to you." Mu Ziyu used his hand to wipe the sauce from the corner of Shuishui's mouth.
Shuishui raised her head and let him wipe it. "Put that beef down," she said.
"Okay, okay. Don't worry." Mu Ziyu continued to be busy.
He regulated the temperature of the hot pot and let Shuishui try it. The taste of the base soup was most important. "Come and try the sour plum soup," Ziyu said.
Meanwhile, at the other table, the girls had been observing them. "I'm so envious. He dotes on his girlfriend so much," one of them said.
The long-haired girl who had begged Ziyu for the coat was still unimpressed. "So what?" she snapped. She didn't want to admit that she was feeling envious as well. "I'm here for the party today. It's rare to get a reservation in Miyagi."
"Yeah. He's not my boyfriend. No matter how you look at it, he can't be my boyfriend." The girl didn't think too much about it. After all, they didn't know Mu Ziyu. They were all strangers to him.
Mu Ziyu and Shuishui had not noticed any of the girls at the other table. When the fruit platter was served, Shuishui was still busy eating the meat dishes.
Mu Ziyu looked a little worried. "Can you still eat? Don't eat too much if you're already full."
"Not really. I can still eat some fruit," she said as she picked up a watermelon slice and ate quietly.
Bang! Someone from a nearby table knocked over a bottle of beer.
The hot pot restaurant, which was very noisy earlier, suddenly became quiet. Everyone looked over and saw that a brawl broke out between two boys.
Shuishui covered her mouth and said, "No way."
The two boys were violently scuffling, and one of them leaned towards where Shuishui sat. Shuishui saw that the hot pot in front of her could topple over. If she directly bumped into it, not only would they be injured, but she might also be affected. She stood up and slightly bent her body to intervene between the two men. She forcefully separated the two of them, and with one foot, the men fell on their backs and walked away from their table.
Shuishui clapped her hands and said, "All right. Fight outside. No one will care about you. You're disturbing everyone inside. Also, there's burning charcoal here. If it had burned someone because of your scuffle, would you have taken accountability for it?"
The two men looked at Shuishui. They were surprised.
Mu Ziyu stood up and asked, "Shuishui, are you all right?"
"No. If they had fallen here, we might have gotten hurt." She hated the brainless, irresponsible young boys.
"Then let's go. There's no need to waste time our time on them," Mu Ziyu said. They were finishing up anyway. They were very annoyed.
The other customers saw that Shuishui and Ziyu almost got hurt because of the fight. They were simply eating. The others thought that if they were seated near the two young boys, they could have gotten hurt too.
The manager walked over to the young boys and sternly said, "You have to compensate for the broken bowls and chopsticks."
The manager turned to look at the other customers and bowed to apologize. "Sorry. Security in the restaurant is not yet as tight as we'd hoped it would be. That's why today's incident happened. We are sorry to disturb everyone's dinner. To make up for this disturbance, each table will be served with a cold dish, free of charge."
Some customers will still afraid. "It's okay, but those young people are dangerous. The hot pot here in Miyagi is different from the other restaurants. It's more complex. We have to be extra careful here," said one of the customers.
"I'm sorry. We are to blame for this. We failed to stop them immediately." The manager apologized sincerely.
The two boys felt awkward and embarrassed. They felt bad when they realized the other customers were glaring at them and giving them cold stares.
They realized that the woman who stopped them was really strong. She even kicked them. She was young and beautiful. They saw that she was with her boyfriend, who walked up to pay for their meal.
The other customers also felt that they could not stay any longer. They have lost their appetites and were no longer in the mood to stay. As soon as the fighting started, they wanted to leave.
Before leaving the restaurant, Mu Ziyu put Shuishui's coat around her shoulders. "Wait for me at the door. I'll bring the car around," he said.
Shuishui nodded. "Okay. You go ahead."
She waited at the door and walked back and forth with her head lowered. After more than ten minutes, Mu Ziyu called. "Shuishui, wait for a while. There are a lot of people leaving the parking area too."
Shuishui was not worried. "It's okay. Take care of yourself."
The boys who had caused trouble earlier walked out of the restaurant.
On their way out, one of the customers said, "Who do you think you are? We spent a large amount of money to eat here, only to be disturbed by you. You ruined the evening just when we were starting to enjoy ourselves."
"Yeah. You fight and end up brawling just because of a disagreement? How old are you?"
The two young boys could only lower their heads.
On their way out, the customers passed by Shuishui, and they were even more embarrassed. They remembered how she had separated the two men and stopped their fight.
The two young men were not very calculative. If other people had been involved because of their misbehavior, they would not have known what to do.
The red-haired boy took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Shuishui. "My friend, I'm sorry about what happened earlier."
Shuishui shook her head. "It's nothing."
Shuishui found the boy familiar. The young man stared at Shuishui and also wondered why she was familar to him. After a moment of silence, the red-haired boy continued, "Are you waiting for your boyfriend?"
"Yes."
"You two are a good match."
"Thank you."
The boy simply turned his head in another direction.
Shuishui felt that their conversation could not continue because they had nothing to talk about. Shuishui's expression was also very cold.
The red-haired boy took out a pack of cigarettes and said with a sharp tongue, "Ah Qing and I will go and drive. You guys can wait for us here."
Shuishui glanced at the red-haired boy again. She then turned her gaze away and looked elsewhere. However, the long-haired girl from the clothing store earlier walked over to Shuishui's side. "As expected, that white coat is still the prettiest. That model is already out of stock," she said to Shuishui.
"It's not bad." Shuishui did not find it very pretty. She did not really like white.
The long-haired girl couldn't respond.
Her attempt to strike up a conversation was fruitless.
Mu Ziyu's car soon arrived. Shuishui got into the car while the others watched.
"He is clearly rich. No wonder he wasn't willing to sell it," the long-haired girl muttered.