Jiang Yeqian thought about it for a while. He said, “I’ll pass. You take the children with you and have hotpot with them.”
Si Jin had no choice but to take the children over to the room next door, leaving Jiang Yeqian alone staring at the brazier.
Jiang Yeqian wanted to eat too, but he would have to take his mask off when eating with such a large group of people.
Both Lu Yan and Heir Pei knew him. His identity would definitely be exposed then.
And so…
Si Jin relayed Jiang Yeqian’s words to Qi Qingyao. “Jiang Bai said he won’t be eating.”
Qi Qingyao said, “He might not like hotpot much. It’s fine, we can eat without him.”
They made their way to the dining hall, which was already warm and cozy when they arrived. Four braziers were set down in the room, warming the room up.
It was only then that Heir Pei noticed that Horse-face, who had taken his mask off, had a face that resembled a ceramic doll.
He could not help praising him, “This Horse-face you have here has a… very pretty face.”
He paused for a moment before continuing, “Do you pick your servants based on their looks?”
Qi Qingyao deliberately chose not to reply.
She neither replied nor denied his words and left other people to guess and think whatever they wanted.
The children were particularly excited because they were going to have hotpot.
One year ago, when they were still living with their grandparents, the family had had hotpot once. They were too little and had no right to sit at the table, so they could only wait till everyone else had finished before they could boil vegetables in the flavorful meat broth and have a taste.
It was so delicious…
Heir Pei was generous in his spending. Soon, all the short tables in the dining hall were laden with all sorts of ingredients, both meat and vegetarian.
In the middle of the dining table was a special bronze pot.
It was divided into two boxes that were filled with spicy soup and seafood soup respectively.
After the soup was poured inside, the pot began to boil.
The pot looked like a Yin-Yang sign, with one side colored red and the other side white.
The children were already waiting with their small bowls. Qi Qingyao set plates of sliced meat in front of herself, looking as if she was ready to add meat into the soup at any time.
Heir Pei did not know what to feel at the sight.
When the spicy soup reached boiling point, Qi Qingyao started to drop sliced meat into the soup, saying, “Sliced mutton in hotpot is the best thing ever!”
Heir Pei continued, “Especially in this cold winter.”
After that, Heir Pei turned to Lu Yan, who was waiting with a small bowl in his hands and asked, confused, “I recall that Master Lu rarely eats outside.”
Everyone in the capital knew that Lu Yan had his strange quirks; one of which was quite possibly mysophobia.
Lu Yan never ate outside because it was dirty.
He did not like it when other people touched him because it was dirty.
Aside from account books, he never accepted whatever other people handed to him.
He would never do what he was doing today, which was to eat hotpot with everyone.
It was… unthinkable!
Lu Yan did not reply.
As Heir Pei and the children cooked the ingredients in the seafood soup, he reached over toward the seafood soup as well.
He tried hard to steel himself mentally.
High temperatures could kill germs!
Everything should be clean!
Only Qi Qingyao was adding ingredients into the spicy soup happily, having the spicy soup all to herself.
Heir Pei looked at Qi Qingyao, who was eating spicy soup, with jealousy. He thought, ‘If only my body was fully recovered… Pity… My digestive system now definitely can’t handle the spice. If I ate some, I would be bedridden for days.’
He could only have the seafood soup.
Heir Pei discovered that the young boy who wore the Horse-face mask had not reached for the soup at all, although he had accompanied Qi Qingyao here to have hotpot. The boy was holding a bowl of rice and eating hungrily.
It had only been a while since the meal started, but he had already eaten four bowls of rice.
That was quite a lot.
“Don’t you want to have some sliced meat?” Heir Pei asked.
“I like white rice more!” Si Jin smiled. He held the bowl and ate rice, looking satisfied.
Heir Pei shook his head. This preference of his was too monotonous and so easy to satisfy. Qi Qingyao had picked up a treasure.
Lu Yan furrowed his brow. He scrutinized this young boy with a pretty face, and fell deep into thought…
…
Alone, Jiang Yeqian sat cross-legged on a cushion in front of the brazier, meditating.
Li Qing came over to add charcoal to the brazier. This man wearing the Ox-face mask was meditating so calmly, so Li Qing said with admiration, “Master, you’re really elegant. You didn’t go over to have hotpot with them, but chose to meditate here alone.”
“…”
Jiang Yeqian opened his eyes.
His stomach inadvertently rumbled.
In this warm and quiet room, the sound was extremely loud.
The air became stifled for a while.
Li Qing: ???
The man was hungry, yet he did not go over to have hotpot. Then…
Li Qing thought about it for a while and quickly said, “You’re with Miss Qi, which means that you’re our guest. We can’t let you go hungry, so if you don’t like hotpot, just tell us what you want to eat and I’ll have the kitchen prepare it for you immediately.”
Jiang Yeqian said, “I’m not hungry!”
Li Qing was speechless.
