The hot pot restaurant wasn't crowded at midday, with only a few scattered tables, but the atmosphere was quite nice. A family was sitting there enjoying their hot pot together.
It was warm inside, even a little hot. Wen Mo took off his coat first and fanned himself with his hand. "Phew... I felt freezing just now, but it's so hot as soon as I came in."
We found a seat further inside, paid at the counter, and soon a waiter took away the pot and asked us what kind of broth we wanted.
"Half spicy and half tomato, make sure the spicy broth isn't too spicy, just a little bit spicy is fine, this girl can't handle too much spice," Wen Mo instructed.
Xia Lian sat opposite, looking somewhat at a loss, but more curious, and occasionally raised her eyes to glance at the shop's furnishings.
"Go ahead and look if you want, we've paid to watch as much as we want." Wen Mo laughed, her timid appearance was especially cute. "Now we can go get the food, come on, let's go get the food."
He greeted them briefly, then led Xia Lian to the vegetable stall, pointed to the beef on top, and took two plates of it first.
"Let's take more beef. It's really satisfying to eat as much as you want, and it's not frozen beef, so it's much more pleasant to eat."
This restaurant is more expensive than the hot pot restaurant across the street, for one reason only: the beef is all freshly cut, and they even have a dedicated meat cutter who cuts the meat openly, just to let diners know that their beef is very fresh.
Xia Lian was a little hesitant to take any meat. It was her first time eating at a buffet-style restaurant, and she kept glancing timidly at the owner behind the counter when she took some, as if she was afraid of being scolded for taking too much.
In the end, she only took two plates and jogged back to the table, her fingers twisting helplessly under her body.
Wen Mo watched her the whole time and couldn't help but laugh. "What are you afraid of? We've paid for it, so we can eat as much as we want, as long as we don't waste any."
It's a common problem for introverted people: when eating at a buffet, if the owner is nearby, they're always hesitant to take more than they need.
After saying that, Wenmo took several plates of beef.
He doesn't care about being shameless or not, as long as he can eat his fill.
"Also, this is the frog I was just talking about."
Xia Lian leaned her head forward slightly, just enough to see the clean white tiger frog in the plate.
"frog?"
"Yes, frogs."
Xia Lian blinked and reached out to poke the tiger frog's back; it was soft.
"But it's a frog."
"This isn't a frog! It's a tiger frog, also known as a field frog," Wen Mo quickly explained.
"Then why not call it the tiger frog?"
"I……"
After hearing this, Wen Mo was speechless, because he didn't know why tiger frogs were called field frogs, he only knew that everyone seemed to call them that.
"Two sentences really overheated my CPU."
What is a CPU?
"...It's alright, let's eat."
At this moment, the waiter brought over the pot base. The tomato and spicy broth were both bright red, looking very appetizing.
"Please, start eating."
Wen Mo called out and took Xia Lian's hand, guiding her step by step on how to eat the hot pot meat, not taking the opportunity to touch her hand.
The dipping sauce had already been prepared by Wen Mo, so Xia Lian could just dip it in and eat it. She carefully picked up a piece of meat, dipped it twice, and slowly put it into her mouth.
"Um……!"
She didn't know how to describe her current feeling, she only knew that she felt happy when eating meat, her mouth gradually filled with satisfaction, and she covered her cheeks and shook her head.
"Isn't it delicious? That's my dipping sauce, it's hard for it not to taste good." Wen Mo raised his eyebrows smugly and also picked up a piece of meat and put it in his mouth.
Although I couldn't see her expression, it was enough that my cousin seemed very satisfied with her meal.
Wen Mo's eating speed gradually slowed down. At first, he didn't notice anything was wrong until there was more meat in the pot. Only then did he realize that the girl in front of him had stopped eating.
"Why aren't you eating? The meat is almost overcooked." Wen Mo looked up at her and found that the girl had peeled a whole plate of shrimp without him noticing.
Xia Lian blinked, not feeling that she had done anything wrong. Instead, she obediently pushed the shrimp on the plate towards Wen Mo.
"For me?" Wen Mo asked in surprise.
Xia Lian stared straight at him and nodded obediently.
"...Thank you, but aren't you going to eat it? You've peeled so much."
Wenmo's forehead creased with annoyance. So he hadn't eaten any meat at all, he'd been busy peeling shrimp for me the whole time.
"But... Wenmo likes to eat shrimp."
Xia Lian tilted her head slightly, a hint of confusion on her pretty face.
At home, Wenmo loved to eat shrimp, and she remembered that.
Seeing that the food in the store was all-you-can-eat and there were so many shrimp, I forgot about eating meat for a moment, thinking that I could let Wenmo eat his fill.
In that case, Wenmer would definitely be very happy.
Seeing the girl's dazed expression, and feeling as if her words had touched a soft spot in Wen Mo's heart, he gripped his chopsticks tightly, feeling as if he had been kissed in the heart.
"Thank you, I love shrimp the most."
Wen Mo quickly put on a smile and started eating the shrimp one by one, until he had eaten half of them before realizing that it shouldn't have been like this.
Thinking of this, he picked up a shrimp with his chopsticks, dipped it in the sauce a few times, and put it into Xia Lian's mouth.
"well?"
"Hey, aren't you hungry after peeling for so long? Please, eat more." Wen Mo appeared calm on the surface, but inside he was in turmoil, feeling extremely distressed, and didn't care about the indirect kiss anymore.
Xia Lian didn't hesitate for long. She would do whatever Wen Mo asked her to do, and she opened her small mouth and ate the shrimp on her chopsticks.
She seemed a little happy, her ponytail swaying back and forth behind her head.
The couple at the next table also witnessed this scene and seemed somewhat provoked.
"I don't know why I feel this way, but have we been shown up?" the girl asked, covering her mouth, her eyes fixed on the cousin duo at the opposite table.
The boy scoffed, "So what? The competition has only just begun."
Not to be outdone, he picked up a piece of meat and gently fed it to the girl, deliberately calling out her pet name very loudly.
"Come on, Tingting~ Ah—"
"Mmm! I love it when you feed me~" The girl sweetly ate the piece of meat, her eyes full of love.
The series of attacks just now completely stunned Wenmo.
What, even feeding games can be competitive?
Look how well-behaved my little Lian is, she never does those things...
"Wenmo, ah—"
"Why are you feeding them too?!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
