Chapter 225: Etiquette
"Excuse me, did you serve the wrong dishes?" Lin Qiu pointed at the dishes on the table. "These are not what we ordered. We also didn't order ice cream or fresh fruit."
"Please wait a moment. I will go and confirm and then give you an answer." The waiter gave a standard smile and went straight to the front desk.
Soon, the waiter replied with a smile: "Sorry to have kept you waiting. This is what happened: the wine-fermented West Lake crab, Huadiao stewed sturgeon tendons, spicy abalone braised chicken, and ice cream and fresh fruit were given to you by a lady, and she has also paid for your table."
There are five of us in this family. You look at me, I look at you, all with confused expressions on our faces.
"Could you please tell me which lady paid for us?" Lin Qiu really couldn't figure out who this mysterious lady was.
If it were in Pengcheng, it wouldn't be strange to have friends send you groceries and pay for them, but in Hangzhou, it was the first time for the whole family to come here, and there were no relatives or friends here, so it felt a little weird.
The waiter continued to smile: "Sorry, we don't know either."
"What should we do then?" Lin Qiu looked at Wang Xiuren.
Wang Xiuren was also confused.
"Is that lady still in the restaurant? If so, could you tell us so we can go and thank her." Lin Ting interrupted.
"Sorry, the lady has already paid the bill and left."
"This..." This was the first time Lin Ting encountered such a situation and he didn't know what to do.
"Does the guest have any questions? If not, I will leave first."
Lin Qiu looked at the waiter who practiced smiling service to the end and shook his head.
“Okay, enjoy your meal!”
After the waiter left, the five people looked at the table full of dishes, motionless.
"Can we eat it?" Wang Shan looked at Lin Qiu, "Will we have to pay extra if we eat it?"
"That's not the case. Such a high-end hotel wouldn't resort to such tactics." Lin Qiu answered affirmatively.
"Well, if that's the case, let's get started!" Wang Shan raised her chopsticks. "Since we can't guess who sent it, let's just consider it as a lucky win!"
"Yes, let's eat first!" Wang Xiuren directly added an abalone for his father-in-law and mother-in-law, "Anyway, we have already asked the waiter."
"Is it really edible?" Zhou Qing was still a little hesitant to pick up his chopsticks.
"Eat!" Lin Qiu made the final decision. "The dishes are all delivered by the hotel, so there's no need to worry about anything going wrong. The worst-case scenario is that we have to pay for it ourselves."
After saying that, he picked up a piece of braised bamboo shoots with chopsticks and put it into his mouth, chewing it carefully.
"This bamboo shoot is delicious and refreshing. Have you tried it?"
Zhou Qing took a bite of abalone and picked up a piece of bamboo shoots. "The bamboo shoots are good, and the abalone tastes good too."
Wang Xiuren and his daughter Wang Shan were probably hungry, so they didn't say anything and just focused on eating.
The black truffle shrimp cakes are sweet and plump, the puff pastry eggplant is crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, the Huadiao sturgeon tendons are refreshing and fragrant, the wine-fermented West Lake crab meat is fat and roe-filled, and the Longjing shrimp is smooth, tender and juicy.
With a pot of Hupao Spring Matsutake Rice prepared by the waiter, the five of them ate so much that they leaned back in their chairs with bulging stomachs.
"I feel so full!" Wang Shan touched her belly and put ice cream into her mouth with a small spoon.
Wang Xiuren thought his daughter didn't want to waste it, so he quickly advised her: "It's okay if you can't finish the ice cream. Don't make yourself sick."
"It doesn't matter, ice cream doesn't take up too much space in the stomach." Wang Shan continued to scoop ice cream. The handmade black sesame ice cream was really sweet!
"You're just greedy and want to eat ice cream!" Lin Qiu directly exposed his daughter's little thoughts.
"Hehe..." Wang Shan smiled foolishly while biting the spoon.
"We haven't finished eating these dishes. Do you want to pack them up?" Zhou Qing asked habitually when he saw that there were quite a few dishes left on the table.
Lin Qiu shook his head, "No, there's nowhere to put it if I pack it up and take it back."
"That's right." Zhou Qing felt a little sorry. "That's the downside of staying in a hotel. It's such a waste!"
It's quite a waste, but there's nothing we can do about it.
Who knows if someone will deliver food?
"Let's go and take a walk to help digest the food, otherwise we won't be able to sleep tonight!" Lin Ting stood up and walked out first.
Wang Shan quickly put the last spoonful of ice cream into her mouth, grabbed a napkin and wiped her mouth as she walked.
When leaving the restaurant, Lin Qiu was still a little nervous, afraid that the waiter would stop him and ask him to pay the bill.
As a result, we walked out of the restaurant without any obstruction.
Wang Shan glanced at a group of goldfish swimming in the pond and hurried over.
I saw the gurgling water in the pond, the faint lotus leaves, and goldfish swimming under the lotus leaves, creating ripples.
The warm yellow lights on the shore cast the shadows of the trees onto the surface of the pond, interweaving with the lotus leaves.
Wang Shan was immersed in this feeling of indifference, comfort, tranquility and elegance, as if he was an old monk in meditation.
At this time, Lin Qiu and the other three stood behind her. No one made a sound, and they all accompanied her quietly.
Wang Shan came back to her senses only when she heard the sound of a musical instrument, jade beads rolling on a platoon, in the distance.
"Mom, you guys go for a walk! I'm going back to paint." Wang Shan had just caught a little inspiration and just wanted to put it on paper.
"Okay, we'll take you back first."
Wang Shan returned to the room, spread a piece of rice paper on the table, and started drawing with a pen.
Lin Qiu closed the door for her and went to meet Wang Xiuren and the other two who were waiting outside the building.
After reuniting, the four of them took a walk while admiring the West Lake at night, chatting in low voices from time to time.
"I know who it is!"
Lin Qiu said loudly as he walked past the place where Wang Shan had been painting in the morning.
Wang Xiuren and the other two were completely confused. This sentence without any context was really puzzling.
"I know who delivered the food to us and paid the bill for us!" Lin Qiu became more and more certain the more he thought about it.
"Who is it?"
"It's that old lady!"
"Is it her?" Wang Xiuren knew who his wife was talking about. After thinking about it, he also felt that it was her. "No wonder, how could I have forgotten about her at that time."
"Which old lady?" Zhou Qing pulled her daughter's sleeve.
"Mom, it was the old lady who wanted to buy Shanshan's paintings!" Lin Qiu explained, "She wanted to give money, but Shanshan refused to accept it. So when she saw us going to dinner, she gave Shanshan a gift in this way."
"Oh!" Zhou Qing suddenly realized.
"That makes sense." Lin Ting touched his chin. "I was wondering, we don't know anyone in Hangzhou, how come someone invited us to dinner? It turns out that this is all because of Shanshan!"
"If I had known this would happen, I would have eaten more confidently from the beginning. Maybe I could have eaten more." Zhou Qing is still thinking about the leftover food.
"If I hadn't walked into this area, I wouldn't have remembered this." Lin Qiu slapped his head.
"Why are you taking pictures of yourself? I've walked all the way here and I haven't thought about it." Wang Xiuren held Lin Qiu's hand. "You know what, this old lady really wants to buy our Shanshan's paintings."
"This old lady is a very particular person. Shanshan gave her a painting, and she didn't want to take advantage of it, so she treated us to a meal, which is considered a reciprocity." Lin Ting commented in a low voice.
"This meal tonight is not cheap." Lin Qiu sighed, "But at least I don't have to think about it anymore, and I can sleep peacefully."
"That's right, otherwise we would always be guessing who it is."
Everyone thought that this matter was over, but who would have thought...
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