Volume 4: Chapter 20 – An Invitation to Dinner
‘This is bad! The old man noticed me.’ He grinned and walked directly towards me. Mu Zi was so frightened she didn’t dare look up.
‘If I get caught by him, I’ll be in great trouble! What should I do? It’s too late to hide the notes. Since I’m dead already, I’ll use my ultimate move!’
I calmly sat upright and looked at the teacher. I placed the slip of paper in front of my nose and blew my nose really hard, which resulted to the paper to land into a corner of the classroom. The teacher glared at me, but didn’t dare to pick up the evidence that I was cheating.
He just turned around and walked away. I let out a long breath and thought. ‘That was extremely close !’ Mu Zi who was sitting beside me giggled uncontrollably as she laid her upper body on the table.
I whispered, “Make sure you don’t get saliva on your paper.” Mu Zi then forced herself to stop laughing. She raised her head to continue answering the test questions.
I looked at my paper. Since I’d copied quickly, I’d answered seventy percent of the questions. I would at least pass. I absent-mindedly answered the rest of the questions, then leaned back in my chair and waited for the papers to be collected.
The lesson finally ended. After the test papers were collected, I happily said to Mu Zi, “There should be no problem this time. Haha. Thank you so much for your help. How about I treat you to lunch today?”
Mu Zi replied, “Your reaction earlier was really fast. The teacher should be terribly angry with you this time. He obviously knows that you were cheating, but can’t get the evidence.”
I complacently smiled and said, “Of course! I am a counter expert! Are you or are you not going to have lunch with me?”
Mu Zi thought for a moment. A hint of cunningness flashed through her eyes. “Alright! However, I don’t want to eat at the academy’s canteen. I want to leave the academy to eat.”
I generously said, “No problem! You can pick where to eat. After classes today, let’s go and eat.”
Mu Zi said, “You’re the one who said that! You’ll need to bring lots of money as I can consume lots of food.”
‘Can your ability to eat even compare to mine? I am the famous White Rice Bucket. Heh heh. I want to see who will win.’ I couldn’t possibly tell her that, instead I said, “Relax! I promise I’ll let you eat until you’re satisfied.”
Mu Zi smiled. “Great! It’s been some time since I last had a good meal. I want to eat a lot of delicious food.”
‘This was the first time the morning lessons have ended without her being furious with me.’ After school, I followed her out of the academy. I followed for a long time, but we still hadn’t reached the destination.
I curiously asked, “Hey little missy, where are you bringing me?”
Mu Zi mysteriously smiled at me. “What? Are you scared that I’ll kill you for your money? You were the one who said you wanted to treat me to a meal so stop asking so many questions.”
I hurriedly said, “Alright! I’ll just follow you.” I’m a Magister! I fear no one.
We reached the destination, but it couldn’t be a restaurant! Mu Zi had brought me to a place filled with gold and jade splendor. It really looked as if it could even be compared to a palace, although I had never entered a palace before. The title of the place was, in huge golden words, Ascending Jade Tide. The maître d’hôtel at the entrance came and greeted us. “Mister and young lady, are you here for a meal?”
Mu Zi nodded her head. “We want a quiet table for two.”
The maître d’hôtel smiled and replied, “Understood. Welcome to the restaurant!” The service was excellent . That, however, made it a costly establishment . We followed the maître d’hôtel and entered the Ascending Jade Tide.
Wow~ The inside was even more luxurious. On the floor was a famous and valuable carpet, and gold and jade ornaments were everywhere. The maître d’hôtel brought us to a window seat on the second floor and even helped pull the chairs back for us to sit. “Please wait a moment. A waitress will come to take your orders.”
As expected, in a moment, a young and beautiful waitress came and gave me a menu. To show the elegant demeanor of a gentlemen, I didn’t even look at the menu and gave it to Mu Zi, gesturing for her to go for it.
Mu Zi wasn’t modest and took the menu from me. She turned to the first page and skimmed through it, and then looked at the second page. After looking, she returned the menu to the waitress. “I want a set of all of the dishes on the first two pages of the menu and a liter of Ascending Jade Tide.”
The waitress looked shocked as she stared at Mu Zi. “So much? Can you two even finish all of them? We do not allow withdrawal of any orders in this restaurant.”
Mu Zi frowned. “You just need to serve us the dishes. How could you know that we can’t finish them?” The waitress agreed and withdrew with the menu.
I asked, “What is Ascending Jade Tide? Isn’t that the restaurant’s name?”
Mu Zi replied,”You don’t know? Ascending Jade Tide is an extremely famous beverage. The restaurant became famous due to that beverage so the boss of the restaurant also changed the name of the restaurant to be Ascending Jade Tide.
So it was like that. “You seem to be familiar with this place. Do you come here often?”
Mu Zi replied, “That’s right. I often came here to eat, but I used up all of the money that I had brought from home. I had no choice but to eat at the academy’s canteen.”
I asked, astonished, “You love the food here so much that you spent all of your money on it?” Even though I love to eat, it’s not to her extent.
Mu Zi bashfully smiled. “That’s right. I take great pleasure in eating, especially your human race’s food. It’s amazing!”
“Our human race? You aren’t human!?”
Mu Zi looked as if she had divulged something and mockingly scolded, “You’re the one that isn’t human! Since we’re already here for the meal, why are you asking so many questions? You don’t feel like paying?”
I immediately surrendered. “Ok! Ok! I’ll just stop asking.”
The dishes came. I then knew why the waitress was afraid that we wouldn’t be able to finish the meal previously. Mu Zi had ordered so much it couldn’t fit on one table. Another server pulled over another table and filled half of the other table with dishes.
I asked in shock, “So many dishes? It’s bad to waste food!”
Mu Zi pouted. “Who said we’ll waste food? Quickly eat! If the food becomes cold, it won’t taste good.” As she said that, she started to eat some prawns with her chopsticks. She ate it with relish. “Yummy! It’s been a long time since I last ate here. This’s just too wonderful.”
‘Since I was the one paying, it wouldn’t be worth it if I didn’t eat any.’ I picked up the jade green colored Ascending Jade Tide and had a sip. It gave me a really fresh and cooling feeling. The cold juice instantly permeated my entire body. It felt a little cold and sweet. It was pretty good!
I said, “I’ll eat as well.” I started to bury myself in my food. The dishes looked, smelled and tasted almost perfect. When I was eating, I even almost swallowed my tongue together with the food. It was just too delicious. Mu Zi really knew how to pick a place. The dishes in front of us were rapidly being wiped out.