Xu Musen arrived in the room, and although it was a double room, it was still quite nice, with a pleasant view from the window.
But Xu Musen didn't even have time to catch his breath before the sarcastic voice of Yao Mingyue came from behind him.
"Brother~ do you want to eat first, take a bath, or start with me..."
As she spoke, Yao Mingyue gently blinked her phoenix eyes, despite her young age, she had a naturally alluring charm.
Xu Musen felt a bit troubled, "Can you behave? Where did you learn all of this nonsense?"
"From the hard drive of your computer during your adolescence."
Xu Musen felt his face heat up.
But then again, which boy hasn't watched those videos during his teenage years? Nine out of ten would have a few websites memorized and their own traditional sleight of hand tricks.
The last one is just pretending to be tough.
"Also, you even had a special category, what was it called again, 'Girl Next Door'?"
Yao Mingyue walked over with a smile, gently resting her hand on Xu Musen's shoulder, her eyes sultry like silk: "How about I give you a chance now?"
Yao Mingyue's gaze lingered on Xu Musen, just like those neighborhood big sisters who wanted to roll little lads under a big wheel.
Xu Musen pushed her hand away, paying her no mind.
It was around five or six in the afternoon, time for dinner.
Xu Musen placed his things in the room and turned to go to the hotel's dining room to see what delicious food was available.
By the lake, there would naturally be fish.
The dishes were served quickly.
Yao Mingyue picked a piece of fish, but noticing the many bones, she complained while picking at them, "What's this, it's said to be fish from Hongze Lake, but I feel it's no different from ordinary carp."
"Isn't it always ? In our area, every restaurant that sells fish claims theirs is the Yellow River big carp."
Xu Musen said shaking his head; if every fish really were Yellow River big carp, they'd have gone extinct from overfishing long ago.
It would be considered a conscientious merchant just to wash the fish in the waters of the Yellow River.
Xu Musen watched as she clumsily picked at the fish bones, almost mashing the fish meat into balls.
Yao Mingyue had been pampered since childhood, and when it came to eating fish, it was always Xu Musen who picked the bones for her before passing it to her plate.
"Clumsy, let me teach you how to pick fish bones. You have to follow the grain of the meat, one pick and they come right out..."
Xu Musen couldn't stand watching her any longer, and started teaching her as he picked up a piece of fish.
Yao Mingyue cupped her cheeks in her hands, watching his careful movements to remove the fish bones, softly murmuring, "You used to pick the bones for me before."
"In the future, you can find someone else to pick fish bones for you."
Xu Musen said offhandedly.
"Would you really let me find someone else?"
Yao Mingyue's lips curved into a smile, her gaze unwavering as she stared into Xu Musen's eyes.
Xu Musen didn't respond immediately; a myriad of thoughts flashed through his eyes in an instant, but he simply couldn't picture any other boy with Yao Mingyue.
"Xu Musen, just admit it, you're such a playboy!"
Yao Mingyue saw all the emotions hidden in the depths of his eyes.
Hmph, men are all big trotters, always looking at the next pot while eating from the bowl in front of them.
Xu Musen didn't respond. After all, as the saying goes, judge by actions not by thoughts, for if we only judged by thoughts, no one would be a saint.
Xu Musen looked at the neatly picked piece of fish in his plate, and noticed another clump of "fish ball" had been placed on his plate with another pair of chopsticks.
Yao Mingyue, having carefully picked the bones out of her fish, put it on Xu Musen's plate, her phoenix eyes gleaming softly.
"I don't know if I'll encounter someone who will pick fish bones for me in the future, but... I want to be the person who picks the fish bones for you now. After all, I'm so clumsy, I'll probably only learn to pick fish bones for one person in this lifetime."
Yao Mingyue spoke softly, yet in her words, there was a trace of a young girl's pique and sorrow.
Some people are greedy, always eyeing the next dish while eating the current one.
Not like her, who could only narrow-mindedly adore one person for a lifetime.
Xu Musen looked at the piece of fish that Yao Mingyue had placed in his plate. It was indeed clumsily picked, hardly appetizing to look at.
But this was also the first time Yao Mingyue had picked fish bones for someone else.
Xu Musen silently watched her and eventually sighed.
He picked up the fish he had just prepared and placed it on her plate.
"Alright, let's eat quickly."
As he spoke, he picked up the piece of fish Yao Mingyue had placed in his plate and ate it in one bite.
The presentation might have been lacking, but the taste was still the same, most importantly, although it didn't look nice, she had made sure to pick out every single bone.
It was akin to his life in the past; maybe Yao Mingyue didn't know how to manage a relationship gracefully.
She often made a mess of many things.
But indeed, she had given Xu Musen everything he could want.
Just piece of fish – unattractive yet guaranteed not to leave any bones stuck in his throat.
Yet at the end, she turned out to be that one lingering bone.
And now, that bone seemed to have slowly softened...
Xu Musen watched her, his heart gradually softening as well.
Yao Mingyue, seeing him eat it, squinted her eyes happily. Her gaze then turned to the crowd outside ice skating, filled with anticipation: "Xu Musen, can we go ice skating together later?"
Xu Musen also looked outside at the many skaters. Since they were here, they should definitely join in the fun, and seeing the expectant look in Yao Mingyue's eyes, he picked another piece of fish for her.
"Eat up if you want to play."
Yao Mingyue beamed with joy.
"Then I'll pick more fish bones for you..."