Xing Tian squeals in delight and continues to devour the food laid on the table. On the table is a dish that is made of pork ribs that is cooked in brown broth inside an old claypot.
She shovels some more rice and pork into her mouth. "I really like this Bak Kut Teh! It tastes like the one from my hometown." She said with her mouth full, before continuing her quest to eat her dinner.
Jace could only nervously watch her eat her 3rd bowl of rice and Bak Kut Teh. He meant it when he said this restaurant is one of the best the locals recommend. The owner and the cook came all the way from Malaysia, which helps the restaurant to keep the authentic taste.
Honestly, if there is no variety of food in Faunus it won't be what it is today.
Jace takes a sip of his beer while he continues to watch her eat her food. She was eating it at such a fast speed, he is afraid she might choke to death.
"Slow down, girl. The food isn't going anywhere" he said with a smirk. He is immediately met with a glare from her before she goes back to eating. Jace just smirks to himself again, for he found her rather cute when she glares at him.
She continued to eat for a few more minutes before finally taking a sip of her beer. With a satisfied sigh, she rubs her chest to smooth out any heartburn. She catches Jace staring at her with amusement. "Don't look at me like that. It's been four years since I last had any good Malaysian food!"
Jace just shrugged at her and took another sip of beer. "Eh. It's not bad" he said. "Although, I do think you're a little biased. Biased at the fact that you cannot accept foreigners cooking food from your home country better than your own people." He adds with a smirk.
"You're right. I am biased" she sighs as she rests her chin on her palm. "But you can't change my mind. Food that is authentically made by own people is still the best"
They stay silent for a moment before laughing out loud, ignoring the annoyed glares of other customers. The owner simply ignores the pair since there is no reason to stop them from being rowdy. The restaurant needs some noise anyway.
"So," Jace gets Xing Tian's attention, who is drinking a new can of beer. "What brings you to Faunus aside from the peaceful environment and animals?" Well, not so peaceful anymore since Glitch began to invade the city.
"Well, I was thinking of going to a more quiet place as my last spot for my journey before going home to start my college." She swirls the beer can slowly with a somber look. "And hopefully find out who I was."
Jace raises his eyebrow as she makes him curious. What does she mean by who was she?
"You get to read my report before officially joining your squad right?" Jace nods to confirm that. He and most of the higher ranking squad members were told to read her profile prior to her addition.
"From what I remember, you were found on a beach in Sarawak before being taken to the nearby hospital five years ago. Your medical report is mostly covered up because you want to keep it confidential, but we know you began travelling around the world on your sixteenth birthday."
"Yeah, that is right."
'So what does that have to relate to her finding who she was?' Jace thought. He can tell Xing Tian is a perfectly healthy girl with a constant positive energy. While she looks somber, he can tell she is not in a negative state of mind.
"I was hiding the fact that I was actually dying from a head injury, which results in amnesia."
Jace's eyebrows are raised quickly by the new information. So this is what she hid from most authorities by signing a classification form. He doesn't know the law well enough to judge whether this is illegal or not, but he has a new question surfacing in his mind.
"If that is the case, how did you know your own name or even have knowledge about the world anyway?"
He knows most media depicts amnesiacs as someone who only forgets parts of their lives and is able to recover them. However, real amnesia doesn't work that way. Once you forget, it's gone forever.
"Well, my name was given by the couple who took care of me in the orphanage and they were the ones who taught me everything I knew."
That made sense, since the girl has pretty much lost everything that is the logical solution for her. From what Jace can tell, Xing speaks fondly of the orphanage and her caretakers, so that means she lived quite the nice life.
"Then why leave the place? I mean I get that you want to find your memories but I doubt it could give you much information about your past." Not many people would leave a comfortable life just for something that is nearly impossible to be found. What got her so determined to do so?
Xing Tian reaches out to her pocket to reveal her wallet and takes out a photo. The photograph shows a stone tablet with unrecognizable texts. The interesting thing is the text looks like the Mokoto font covers the hieroglyphs that makes it harder to read.
"This was with me when they found me. No one knows what it meant but my caretakers had connections to archeologists to help me." She puts back the photo and continues talking. "The texts are not translated even today, but they have a clue on where they can be found."
Jace thinks about the texts for a moment before snapping his finger. "So that was what Discovery Channel has been discussing these days. They said that these texts have connection to the Glitches."
Xing Tian nods in agreement. "Exactly. The one that is in the photo was in Brazil. It took me an entire year to get ready before I began my travelling years."
Jace simply states, "And that is the reason why you come to Faunus, because there is a ruin here that contains it." Before he takes another sip of beer, only to realize it is empty. "Well, that's enough beer for the night." He mutters in disappointment despite knowing he should drink so much.
Xing Tian leans forward with a question and asks him excitedly. "Do you know anything about the ruin here? Any information is fine." She looks very hopeful in gaining the information, and Jace feels guilty about his answer.
"Sorry," he gives a wry smile and feels sad he has to say it. "I don't have any information about it except that the ruin does exist in this city."
He feels a small part of him died when the girl physically wilts, disappointed that she didn't get what she asked for. The man places his left hand on her shoulder and lightly rubs it to comfort the girl.
Jace continues his comforting action for a few actions before he feels a jolt when Xing Tian suddenly stands up with a determined expression. "It doesn't matter, I'm not giving up yet!" She declares loudly, which gets the attention of everyone in the restaurant.
"Someday I will find out who I was and nothing will stop me! So cheer with me Jace!" She raises her beer can in the air with a loud cheer and a clear flush on her cheeks. Jace ignores it and picks up a new beer can and has a toast with the drunk girl.
Both of them begin to chug the alcoholic drink then gasp for air when they emptied the content. They start laughing like mad people as they sit back down, clearly not caring about the surroundings anymore.
"Welp, I'm clearly not driving home now even if I'm not drunk." Jace burps loudly before starting laughing with Xing Tian who also finds it amusing. The girl, on the other hand, hiccups which earns more laughter between the pair. "Ah, I'm drunk." Xing Tian complains as she tries to keep her hiccup down.
Looking around, Jace could tell why the girl became so drunk. He could see there are at least a dozen cans on her side while he has 3 cans of beer, clearly showing he is trying to keep himself not drunk the whole time.
Jace could only be amused by the girl's drunken state and lifts her up with bridal carry. "Alright, let's get you home so you can sleep tonight." The man is momentarily surprised by her weight before restabilizing himself to get his balance.
"Okay big guy." The girl drunkenly speaks before hiccuping again. "I think I was staying at… whes hotel? No…" She keeps muttering under her breath about the hotel she stays in, consistently starting with the letter W. Jace thought of the possible hotels in Faunus as he helped the girl to mount his bike.
"Is it Whales Hotel?" The girl nods furiously with a toothy smile to confirm his assumption. When Jace finally mounts his bike, Xing Tian wraps her arm around his waist tightly like a koala. She mutters, "You're so nice to hug." before staying silent, still hugging the man.
Without a word but just a nostalgic smile, Jace kick started the engine before driving off into the night.