Mu Yingchen sat at the head of the table and glanced over the menu indifferently before slapping it onto the table with a snap.
One by one, the dish names left his mouth, his luxurious magnetic voice making those elegant names all the more vivid.
However, Su Wanxia felt a bit uneasy; he had ordered all her favorite dishes. Wouldn't he order even one dish that he liked himself?
Somehow, she blurted out the names of two dishes to the waiter—the ones she had oddly remembered clearly when she'd glanced at the menu earlier.
In an instant, Mu Yingchen was stunned, a strong sense of pleasure suddenly burgeoning within him; a barely visible surprise flickered in his obsidian eyes as he looked at Su Wanxia with an increasingly intense gaze.
Only then did Su Wanxia belatedly realize that the dishes she'd just named were Mu Yingchen's favorites.
Her ears suddenly felt on fire; she wished she could burrow into a hole and hide.
Her seat was right next to Mu Yingchen's, and she could clearly feel his gaze lingering on her.
Feeling like she was on pins and needles, anxious and flustered, she decided to brazen it out and carelessly ordered two more dishes before she felt some relief. But Mu Yingchen's gaze still did not shift away.
Just when she was embarrassingly at a loss for what to do, Yan Yirou and Kang Xiaolan walked in with a laugh.
"Yo, Boss Mu is here too, wow, what a rare occasion!" Kang Xiaolan, who was quite familiar with Mu Feng and Ji Hua, couldn't help teasing when she saw Mu Yingchen.
Mu Yingchen, in a good mood, casually replied, "Why, is there a problem?"
"No problem at all, how could there be," Kang Xiaolan said with implied meaning, not forgetting to glance at Su Wanxia.
"Alright, Xiaolan, better keep an eye on your husband, don't cry in the corner if someone snatches him away," their arrival diffused the awkward air that had just enveloped Su Wanxia.
"Wanxia, what are you talking about? If you keep this up, I'm going to get mad at you!" Kang Xiaolan lost her composure, considering there were already plenty of people chasing after Mu Feng, and here she was, speaking nonsense. Then she sat down beside Yan Yirou.
Su Wanxia laughed, "Just kidding, let's quickly decide what to eat."
Mu Yingchen looked at everyone around the table, the corners of his mouth slowly curling up as if he were back in those wonderful days at school.
No matter when or where, as long as she was there, he was content.
During the meal, Ji Hua, Mu Chuyang, and Yan Yirou shamelessly started competing over who had the fastest hands, with Kang Xiaolan and Mu Feng eagerly joining in.
The rule was like this: everyone targeted the same dish, and each could only take from it once to see who could get the most.
Su Wanxia had wanted to join in, but as soon she looked up and saw Mu Yingchen disdainfully watching Mu Chuyang and the others, she dismissed the idea.
At Ji Hua's shout of "go," they scrambled like bandits who hadn't eaten in eight hundred years.
Su Wanxia's eyebrow twitched; it seemed her decision was wise.
After the first round, Ji Hua had the most in his plate, though not by much. Yan Yirou's plate was embarrassingly empty.
Mu Feng, Mu Chuyang, and Kang Xiaolan's plates weren't too sparse either.
Yan Yirou glared at Mu Chuyang with resentment, exclaiming, "Mu Chuyang, you have no shame!"
With a hehe, Mu Chuyang grinned, "The food you fight for is the tastiest..." He then grabbed some food and put it in his mouth, "Mmm, delicious, so delicious."
Seeing his shameless behavior, everyone burst into laughter.
Then they simultaneously locked onto the next dish and started a new round of frantic grabbing. Just as their chopsticks were reaching for a plate of food in front of Su Wanxia, about to succeed, suddenly a hand swiftly lifted the dish away.
"Hey?" The crowd voiced their confusion.
Looking up, they saw Mu Yingchen staring at them with a poker face.
"Big brother, do you have to be so stingy," Mu Chuyang complained.
Ji Hua curled his lip: "Aww, isn't this Wanxia's favorite?"
"Hmm, but when we've eaten together before, big brother seemed to like it quite a bit too," Mu Feng joined in the teasing.
Upon hearing this, Mu Yingchen's gaze involuntarily deepened. Indeed, when had it started? Whatever she liked to eat slowly became his favorites too. Even the things she disliked, no matter what they were, he began to loathe. Had he fallen too deeply?
Shaking off his thoughts, he placed the dish back in front of Su Wanxia, "Eat more."
Su Wanxia's face instantly flushed red.
"Alright, alright, let's switch to the next one, the next one," Ji Hua deliberately raised his pitch, making Su Wanxia feel more and more embarrassed.
After dinner, everyone suggested going to a karaoke bar. Mu Yingchen's mood was good all evening since Su Wanxia remembered the dishes he liked, and he didn't object.
The group drove to the largest entertainment club in C City—Yemei.
The exhilarating DJ music enlivened everyone, and stylish men and women were weaving through the crowd searching for their next 'target.'
The staff respectfully escorted Su Wanxia and the others into a VIP room.
Once in the room, Mu Yingchen silently sat in a corner, elegantly drinking without showing any intention of singing.
Ji Hua and Mu Chuyang engaged in a singing battle, Yan Yirou and Kang Xiaolan started playing dice, while Mu Feng sat alongside, smiling with a glass of wine in hand.
It seemed like everyone tacitly ignored Su Wanxia and Mu Yingchen…
Su Wanxia felt so frustrated that she picked up a glass of alcohol from the table and moved it towards her lips. The moment her tongue touched the rim of the glass, it was snatched away by someone, and a glass of juice appeared before her in an instant.
"You're better off drinking this," Mu Yingchen said with a teasing tone.
Su Wanxia looked at the juice in front of her, then back at Mu Yingchen, who had a smile hanging on his lips.
"Why?" She stubbornly lifted her head, meeting his gaze for the first time.
Thump... Thump... The moment she locked eyes with those obsidian-like pupils, Su Wanxia's heart uncontrollably quickened. She had always known that he had mesmerizing eyes—eyes that seemed magical, capable of sucking one's soul into their bottomless depths, leaving no chance to escape.
Mu Yingchen found this version of Su Wanxia very charming and adorable; the smile at the corner of his mouth deepened.
He leaned close to her tender ear and whispered in a voice so gentle and magnetic, "Because I'll be very tired if you get drunk..."
Mu Yingchen purposely imbued the words 'very tired' with a suggestive and ambiguous tone.
Su Wanxia, for some reason, let her thoughts drift in a certain direction—drunken mischief? Pouncing on a handsome man? The more she thought about it, the hotter her face burned, knowing full well her terrible tolerance for alcohol.
Mu Yingchen watched Su Wanxia's face grow redder, and couldn't help but laugh softly.
Su Wanxia snapped back to reality and glared at Mu Yingchen, full of embarrassment and anger. Forgive her for being someone with high IQ but low EQ, an honest person—amen!