Li Shijie compared the two sets for a long time, and finally maintained his original choice and ordered a fillet steak set. After muttering a few words about how uneconomical the black pepper steak set was, he handed the menu to Zhu Zhuo, who was sitting at the small long table next to him, and stood up with the plate in his hand: "Brother Qin, let's go choose the dishes together?"
"You go first." Qin Shen sat back, "I'll wait."
Li Shijie said "oh" and laughed: "Waiting to go with my little junior sister?"
Qin Shen glanced at him indifferently.
He immediately gave in, saying "I'm leaving, you two can chat slowly" and ran away with the plate. The huge contrast between the two made Xu Man laugh. "Is he always this interesting?"
"Yes, he is the funny guy in our team, the happy guy." Qin Shen smiled, sat on the sofa for a few seconds, then stood up and invited her, "Let's go, let's go choose some food together?"
The refreshing smile was completely different from the lazy smile he had just given her, but it still moved Xu Man's heart. She lowered her head, smiled, and gently agreed.
This buffet restaurant is very large, separated by a dining room and a dining room. There are six long dining tables in total for diners to choose from, and two revolving dining tables, which can be considered luxurious. Qin Shen took Xu Man for a walk and looked around, stopping from time to time to ask her what she wanted to eat. Occasionally they would meet colleagues from the detachment and walk together for a while. However, whether it was a coincidence or for some other reason, the two of them never met Guan Shuiyun.
After walking around for most of the night to choose a restaurant, Xu Man added three items to her plate one after another, as well as a small bowl of ice cream. She usually ate little at night, and when she thought about the pasta that would be served later, she stopped choosing food. Qin Shen knew how much she ate, so he didn't say anything. He just asked her if she wanted to go back first. When she shook her head, he continued to stroll with her.
When passing by the fried rice counter, he smiled with some interest: "They also provide staple food here? It seems that there is no need to order the steak just now. Just eating these is enough."
Xu Man watched him pick up the plate to get the food and asked in confusion: "Captain, don't you like Western food?"
"I don't hate it. But if you look at the places I took you to in the past month, you will know that I prefer Chinese food, especially noodles."
"Is that so?" She was surprised. "I thought..."
She stopped talking halfway and didn't continue. She lowered her head to tidy up the hair around her ears.
But Qin Shen's curiosity had been aroused by her. After spending almost a month together, he had almost figured out the habits and personality of this junior school girl. He knew that lowering her head to get her hair done was a typical concealing behavior of hers, either because she was feeling guilty or embarrassed. Now, seeing her suddenly shut up in the middle of a sentence and making this gesture, he knew what she was trying to cover up again, and naturally, he wanted to know what the second half of the sentence she swallowed was.
"Why?" he asked, jokingly, "You don't think I can afford to treat you to a Western meal?"
"Of course not." Xu Man said quickly, but stopped halfway through, pursed her lips awkwardly, lowered her eyes, and whispered, "It's just... I didn't think about it in this way before, and I only noticed it after hearing what you said just now."
If Qin Shen couldn't tell that she was lying, then his position as the captain of the criminal investigation team would be in vain. However, he didn't want to force her. Seeing that she really didn't want to talk, he didn't continue to ask. He smiled and changed the subject: "Would you like some fried rice?"
"No need." She shook her head, still with her eyes downcast, her eyelashes trembling like butterfly wings, making people want to kiss her. "I don't eat much at night, this is enough."
Qin Shen knew, of course, that she had already had enough food, and it was not his intention to ask her to have more. After being rejected, he smiled and continued walking forward, thus moving past the previous topic.
Xu Man followed with the food tray, feeling relieved but also a little disappointed.
In the past month, Qin Shen took her to eat almost all the famous delicacies in Mingzhou, from noodle shops to dumpling shops, and from porridge shops to teahouses. Without exception, they were all Chinese food, and the taste was light, without any trace of oily or spicy food, let alone Western food. She thought he had taken her allergic constitution into consideration, but she didn't expect it was just a simple taste preference... She was overthinking again.
Her expectations were dashed again. It would be a lie to say that she was not disappointed, but Xu Man quickly put it aside. She had seen how good Qin Shen had been to her these days. To find fault with him and accuse him of not taking care of herself in every possible way would be completely nitpicking.
She cheered herself up, quickened her pace to catch up with Qin Shen who was walking in front of her, and continued to walk around the hall with him to choose dishes.
…
The restaurant served the food very quickly. When Xu Man came back with Qin Shen after choosing the dishes, the steaks ordered by the four people had already been served on the table. The ones ordered by Li Shijie and Guan Shuiyun had been opened, and the remaining two were still covered because they were not there. They called the waiter to open the lids of the plates when they came back, revealing the steaks and macaroni grilled on the iron plate.
The aroma spread in an instant, accompanied by hot bubbles bubbling from the juice, floating into people's stomachs. Li Shijie sniffed twice exaggeratedly, and cursed three times in pain: "What should I do? I regret choosing my premium fillet steak set meal just now. Brother Qin, how about you switch with me? My steak is higher quality than yours, you won't lose out if you switch."
Qin Shen responded with a sneer and a look to signal him to give way.
Sitting back in his seat, he did not pick up the knife and fork, but said to Xu Man: "Would you like to eat my pasta?"
Xu Man was spreading a tissue on the edge of the table when she suddenly heard him say this. Her fingertips trembled and she almost dropped the tissue to the ground. "No, no, this portion is enough for me."
"You don't have to be polite to me. I don't eat pasta, so it would be a waste to let me go."
"I……"
Just as she was about to refuse again, Li Shijie interrupted excitedly, "I'm welcome, Brother Qin, you don't want to eat pasta? That's great, the pasta is mine."
As he spoke, he raised his fork to roll up the noodles, but Qin Shen slapped him open and said, "Go eat your premium steak."
"Really, no need. Thank you, Captain." Xu Man smiled awkwardly. Her heart was already pounding because of his sudden suggestion. She was nervous and at a loss, not to mention that there was a pair of eyes staring at her from the side, which made her even more uneasy and uncomfortable. “This is enough to fill me up.”
Qin Shen wanted to say more, but Guan Shuiyun put down the drink cup in her hand, smiled and said, "Don't worry, Captain Qin, there will be no extra charge if you can't finish the first steak. You will be charged extra for the two subsequent meals." The implication seemed to be that Qin Shen wanted to share the pasta with Xu Man in order to avoid leftovers.
But Qin Shen looked at her and rejected her words directly, "It's not because of this. She is allergic to beef and can't eat steak, so I want to give her this pasta so that she won't have enough."
Li Shijie said "Ah?", put away the exaggerated smile on his face, and looked at Xu Man: "You are allergic to beef? Why didn't you say so earlier?"
"It's not serious." Xu Man smiled delicately, "It's just a slight reaction. It won't be a problem even if I eat it, but the doctor said it's best not to touch it."
"Have you been to the hospital for a checkup?" Guan Shuiyun also looked at her. "Has this allergy been there since childhood, or did it break out all of a sudden? Did you not use desensitization therapy?"
Xu Man: "It came out all of a sudden. I have a body that is prone to allergies. Desensitization therapy is not very suitable for me, and the doctor does not recommend it."
"Then what should we do with your steak?" Li Shijie glanced at the steak on the plate in front of her, "Wouldn't it be a waste?" The eager look in her eyes clearly said, "Give it to me, give it to me, I'll help you with it."
Xu Man was amused by his performance and was about to give him the steak when Qin Shen said calmly, "It's okay, just give it to me."
Her heart skipped a beat.
They had gone out to eat together so many times, but this was the first time that the other party asked to exchange food. Although she understood that this was because she was allergic to steak and not for any other reason, she still felt an uncontrollable blush and heartbeat.
She held the tissue in her hand, sitting there at a loss, not knowing how to respond to Qin Shen. Li Shijie, who was sitting across from her, was either trying to join in the fun or to muddy the waters, wailing, "Brother Qin, you're too cruel, aren't you? You ate it all and didn't even leave me any?"
Qin Shen said impatiently: "This restaurant allows three refills, okay? I'll give you the second helping of steak. If you can't finish it, you can stay here to wash the dishes."
"Ah?" Li Shijie was stunned for a moment and then nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, "Okay, Brother Qin, this is what you said! Don't deny it later!"
"Admit what? Admit that you were the one who broke our brother Chen's brick by knocking it to the ground that day?" Several members of the team stood up from the table next to them and surrounded the table where four people were sitting. "Fuck, why haven't you touched anything? The steak is cold. Eat it quickly!"
"Eat shit, if you're a man then come and have a drinking contest! Come on, toast our birthday boy with a bottle of wine, let's drink from each other..."
The atmosphere became lively. After Li Shijie was forced by Zhu Zhuo to drink a glass of wine, the situation began to get out of control. The detachment members surrounded him one after another and opened more than a dozen bottles of wine for a round-robin battle. During the battle, Li Shijie wanted to drag Qin Shen into the water, but was forced back by the latter's eyes. He could only fight alone and was beaten by the crowd.
Xu Man was not used to the noisy atmosphere, mainly because someone would come over and force her to drink after she had taken a few bites. Li Shijie struggled desperately, and the dishes on the table were inevitably affected during the tug of war, making it difficult for her to eat peacefully. After trying several times, she finally gave up, put down her cutlery, and sat aside to watch the fight quietly.
Guan Shuiyun beside him frowned a few times, raised her voice and scolded them to go somewhere else to drink. But once people get excited, they will never listen to others. She still dragged Li Shijie to make trouble. Later, when she saw that he really couldn't drink anymore, she let him go and looked for the next target.
The original target was Qin Shen, but perhaps because of his prestige as the captain, after Qin Shen made it clear that he wanted to drive back and had no intention of having a drinking contest, everyone looked like they wanted to force him to drink but didn't dare to. They reluctantly changed their target and went to get the latest unlucky guy, Zhu Zhuo, drunk. God knows Li Shijie also tried to use this excuse to escape, but unfortunately he failed and was forced to drink.
Later, I don't know which one of the brave ones, probably because he was drunk, actually stuffed a bottle of beer into Xu Man's hand. Of course, he didn't ask her to drink, but to instigate her to pass the bottle to Qin Shen and let the other party drink it. But it was such an action that made them seem even more courageous and fearless of death.
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