Phoenix looked at the road in front of her. There was a road with a row of tall green trees at its sides. The road was so narrow that a car wouldn't fit to go through it. She didn't see any building either at her front, back or her sides, only greenery and trees surrounded them.
After an hour's drive from City M, they arrived at the place, Ashton had parked his SUV in the clearing before the narrow road and opened the door for Phoenix and helped her to get out of his car.
Ashton was staring at Phoenix from the side, seeing Phoenix dress up beautifully with some makeup on to go out with him made his heart flutter, he wanted to smile in satisfaction but he held himself back. When Phoenix turned to look at him, he tried to school his face into seriousness.
'Where is the restaurant?' Phoenix turned to Ashton with a questioning gaze.
Ashton was donning casual clothes today. He had navy pants on, and was wearing a white-collared shirt under his brick colour sweater and loafer shoes. He looked really dashing in those get up.
"We need to walk a little bit before we arrive at the restaurant. As you can see, we can't drive through this road."
Phoenix nodded in understanding. She looked at her feet. She was wearing medium high wedges that strapped on her feet. She was reaching for her ankle length brown booth when Mia stopped her and made her wear the wedges that they made her buy before. Hopefully, she could survive walking on this road with these wedges. 'Ashton didn't secretly want to pay her back by making her sprained her ankle, right? Is he?'
Ashton was amused seeing Phoenix's apprehensive face, thus he walked closer to Phoenix.
"The road is even, and is being taken care of properly by the owner. But if you are worried that you might have tripped, you can hold on to my arm and let me guide you on this path to the restaurant."
"I think I'll be fine." Phoenix politely rejected Ashton. She was uncomfortable being too close to Ashton. He felt like there were a thousand butterflies flying in her stomach.
Without waiting for Ashton, she headed to the narrow road.
They walked side by side while listening to the sound of the woods and the chirping of birds. Phoenix was treading her steps carefully to not fall off, while Ashton matched his steps with her so he could be prepared if any accident might happen.
every so often, Ashton's eyes darted towards Phoenix's hand and he had the urge to take that hand and keep it in his.
'What are you thinking, Ashton? Snap out of it.'
Not long after walking on the path, a white, gorgeous farmhouse welcomed them at the end of the road. At one side of the farmhouse, the wall was made of glass, showing the inside of the house and an open porch at its side that overlooked a huge pond. The other side was surrounded by greenery.
"We are here. What do you think?" Ashton asked for Phoenix's opinion. They had walked to the farmhouse and stopped in front of it.
"It's beautiful." Phoenix's eyes sparkled and her lip tilted slightly to form a smile.
Ashton felt that he had unlocked an achievement when she saw Phoenix's reaction.
"Shall we?" With his palm facing upwards, Ashton gestured to Phoenix to walk into the farmhouse.
They went to the patio and they looked at the calm water of the pond, and entered the house from the side glass door.
"Welcome to Lin's Farmhouse Restaurant."
A couple was standing by the door and welcomed them.
"Are you Mr Qin?" the husband asked while looking at Ashton for confirmation.
"Yes. I am."
The man smiled and put his hand forward for a handshake.
"I'm Mike Lin and this is my wife, Theresa Lin."
"I'm Ashton Qin and this is Phoenix Li," Ashton took the man's hand and shook it while introducing Phoenix.
"Welcome to our farmhouse. Is this your girlfriend? You both looked good together." Mrs Lin, the wife, asked while she looked at them with a big smile, making her eyes turn into a crescent moon shape.
"Thank you. But I'm not his girlfriend," Phoenix politely said.
Mr and Mrs Lin looked at each other, then turned to look at Ashton and Phoenix. They saw that Phoenix was only stating a fact while Ashton's bright countenance before was suddenly dimmed a little.
"Sorry for my quick assumption, come in and have a seat first," Mrs Lin said and gestured towards a table.
"Do you want to order dishes that are currently available on the menu, or would you like to have the full farmhouse experience?" Mr Lin asked while secretly glancing at Ashton.
"The full farmhouse experience? What's that mean?" Phoenix asked in interest.
"Well.. the full experience is you can feed the farm animals in the barn, fish your own fish from the lake and pluck your own vegetables and fruits from the back garden."
'Interesting,' Phoenix said silently.
"So, what do you think? Did you want to simply order the available food or do you want the full experience?" Ashton looked at Phoenix's face and asked.
"What do you want, Mr Qin?" Phoenix sent back the questions to Ashton. 'He is the one who is dying to eat here. Did he come for the food or the experience that they offer?'
"Honestly, I want to have the full experience," Ashton said without a doubt, 'So that I can spend more time with you.' He added in his mind. "But it is fine if you are not up for it."
"No. it's okay. We can go for the full experience." Phoenix quickly agreed. She had never come to this kind of restaurant, and wondered if people enjoy doing this kind of thing.
"If that's your choice, please follow me." Mr Lin said and walked through the house to get to the other side.
Ashton and Phoenix followed Mr Lin closely so as not to get lost.
"Ms Qin, Ms Li, you both can wear this boot, and place your shoes in the shoe cabinet." Mr Lin placed two different sizes of rubber boots in front of them and showed them where the shoe cabinet was located.
Ashton took off his shoes and put on the boots, and helped Phoenix with hers like a proper gentleman.
He took both of their shoes and placed them side by side in the shoes cabinet.
They followed Mr Lin to the farm barn that was painted red and saw chickens, ducks, goats, geese and rabbits in the barn. They spent a few minutes feeding and patting the animals.
While Phoenix enjoyed herself with the animals, Ashton secretly captured a few pictures of Phoenix but was caught by Phoenix, who had a sharp sense of her surroundings.
"What are you doing?"
Ashton rubbed her nose in awkwardness when Phoenix caught him.
'She is so sharp.'
Ashton searched for an excuse in his mind to give to Phoenix. "For remembrance. It's not every day that we come and do these things," Ashton finally said.
"Owh. Okay. Do you want me to take your pictures, too?"
"How about I take pictures of both of you with the animals?" Mr Lin interjected by offering to take pictures of Ashton and Phoenix together.
"Yes. Please." Ashton handed his phone to Mr Lin and stood beside Phoenix. They make a few poses and continue feeding the animals and let Mr Lin capture the moments.
A photograph is the pause button of life and every picture has its own story to tell.
Years later, they will look at this picture and reminisced about the experience of their first 'meal' together.
Once they had finished feeding the animals in the barn, they proceeded to the pond and Mr Lin gave them some fishing equipment. They set their bait and waited for the fish to catch on the bait.
"Are you okay? or do you feel hungry?" Ashton asked Phoenix.
"I am fine, Mr Qin." Ashton scrunched his forehead, hearing Phoenix still call him with his surname. 'I have to work hard. She is still so distant.'
Not long after they started fishing, Phoenix bait was caught by a fish and she skillfully pulled the fish out of the water.
"Wow, you can fish." 'Is there anything you can't do?' Ashton was mesmerised by Phoenix. It seemed like this girl can do anything and everything and didn't need his help at all. All that he can do was help unhook the fish and put it inside the bucket.
They spent a few more minutes in the pond just sitting in silence until Ashton managed to catch a fish and that was more than enough for their lunch.
After handing the bucket of fishes to Mrs Lin to be cleaned and cooked, Mr Lin took them to the back garden to pluck some vegetables to pair it with the fish that they had caught and some fruits that they could eat while waiting for their meals to be cooked.
If at the pond they were sitting in a comfortable silence to not scare the fishes away, in the garden, they were having fun picking on the vegetables and fruits while talking about random facts about vegetables and fruits. Ashton was surprised that Phoenix had a vast knowledge about these topics and had some experience eating exotic fruits and mushrooms.
Their entire experience from the barn to the garden was captured through Ashton's phone camera by Mr Lin.
With all the activities done, they enter the farmhouse and clean their hands and feet and take a short rest while waiting for the dishes to be cooked.