As soon as you step into the restaurant, you are greeted by a wave of warmth, keeping out the biting cold air.
Neatly dressed, uniformed waiters greeted the staff with smiles and enthusiastically recited their slogans:
"Welcome to Liyue Restaurant."
One of the elegant waitresses approached and politely asked, "Did you two make a reservation in advance?"
Xia Shizhao glanced at the personal terminal and showed it to them.
The waiter announced: "Room A501."
"Please come to the VIP room, both of you."
Another waiter bowed slightly and, following the gesture of walking this way, led Xia Shizhao and the others slowly toward the elevator.
As Xia Shizhao entered the private room, a rich aroma of hot pot wafted out. He glanced around the room casually; it was clean and tidy, indeed a good place to take photos.
Moreover, the private room has a great location, with the table right next to the floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, large, fluffy white snowflakes are falling, which looks beautiful and idyllic against the night sky. Below is a scenic area specially created by the restaurant, which is perfect for taking photos and checking in. It's quite an attractive spot.
Since the scenic area is free to enter, many people gathered together to have a snowball fight, and some young couples squatted down to build a snowman.
"The snow is so heavy today. It's the first time I've seen heavy snow in all this time in interstellar space, and it just so happens to be the first day of my holiday."
After speaking, Xia Shizhao gazed serenely out the window, quiet and peaceful.
Hearing her words, Ye Qiuling glanced casually out the window and said, "Meteorite Snow is also very heavy. Although it's a poor planet, the scenery when it snows is very beautiful. If you want to see it, we can go together. It's not far from here, only four hours away."
"That's not... never mind, if you want to go, I'll go with you, just let me know in advance."
After Xia Shizhao finished speaking, she took out her phone and took a picture of the scenery outside the window. Suddenly, she turned the camera to Ye Qiuling, who looked bewildered. She raised her eyebrows, tilted her head slightly, and smiled at her, saying, "Come on, just say something. This year is almost over, let's record it."
Ye Qiuling smiled and said, "It's not too late to record it when we get back. I'm still Qiuli for now."
Xia Shizhao thought about it and nodded, then stood up and handed her the phone, saying, "Then take a picture of me, and make sure it looks good."
If you take an ugly picture of me, I'll cricket at you, and then I'll take ugly pictures of you every day.
Her eyes flickered slightly, as if she had thought of something, and Ye Qiuling nodded seriously, indicating that she would take good care of the filming.
Ye Qiuling initially intended to make Xia Shizhao look bad, but upon seeing the smiling face in the camera lens, she abandoned that idea and took many photos of Xia Shizhao from good angles.
Xia Shizhao took the phone and nodded in satisfaction, giving a thumbs up. "Not bad! I've never seen you take photos before. How come your skills are so good?"
“When I first joined the Third Organization, I worked as a detective,” Ye Qiuling said, touching the tip of her nose. “But I didn’t do it for long and ended up working as a thug.”
Lowering his eyes, Xia Shizhao felt conflicted. He reached out and ruffled her hair, unsure of what to say. He pursed his lips and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
Ye Qiuling had her head down, so Xia Shizhao couldn't see her expression. He thought she was angry and was thinking about how to coax her. But then Ye Qiuling raised her head, a smile on her lips, and her eyes were like a vast galaxy. Xia Shizhao was stunned for a moment, quickly withdrew his hand from his head, and awkwardly covered his mouth as he sat down.
What? Why are you laughing so happily?
Feeling inexplicably hot, Xia Shizhao fanned himself with his hand and muttered to himself while looking at the snow scene outside the window, "The air conditioner is a bit hot, I'll turn it down a bit."
Ye Qiuling on the other side nodded, then stared at her intently.
In an instant, the private room fell silent except for the bubbling sound of the hot pot.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, this is our restaurant's dessert, Snow Mochi Rabbit Ice Cream."
The enthusiastic voices of three or four waiters suddenly broke the silence in the air, and Xia Shizhao and the other person looked at the waiters who brought in the dishes.
They maintained their pleasant smiles and quickly arranged the dishes under the silent gaze of the two people.
One of them, who was pouring drinks, stood nervously to the side, introducing the dishes to the two people.
"This dish is..."
She was interrupted halfway through her sentence by Xia Shizhao with a smile. She didn't want to hear the introduction. She took the sterilized tableware that Ye Qiuling handed her and said to the waiter, "Thank you. We'll take care of the rest ourselves. You can go now. Thank you for your hard work."
"It's no trouble at all, I hope you enjoy your meal."
The waiter picked up the plate and immediately left the room. The atmosphere just now was so eerie; the quiet, unannounced staring was terrifying.
The duo, completely unaware of the frightening situation, happily began to eat.
"Eating hot pot while watching the snow is so enjoyable!"
Xia Shizhao happily rested his chin on his hand, picked up his drink, and said, "Cheers, wishing us peace."
Ye Qiuling picked up her cup and gently clinked it against hers, making a crisp 'ding' sound. She softly said, "Peace and safety."
After finishing his hotpot, Xia Shizhao wiped his mouth, turned on his buzzing personal terminal, and found that it was a text message from Principal Wu.
Xia Shizhao stared at the message and asked in confusion, "Fiftyth birthday? Did you receive the message?"
At the same time, Ye Qiuling's personal terminal vibrated. She waved it and said, "Here it comes."
Sure enough, when I opened the message, it was an invitation to a birthday party, three days from now.
Xia Shizhao, standing to the side, pouted slightly, a little annoyed: "We only have a couple of days off in the dead of winter, and we still have to go to a banquet."
"There's nothing I can do. Just be careful then. Don't touch anything at the banquet; it's hard to say if it's meant to target you."
After saying this, Ye Qiuling's brows furrowed with displeasure, but there was nothing she could do. Unless she found real evidence to send him away, she could only feign compliance and maintain a facade of harmony.
"We're done eating, let's go home!"
When I went downstairs, I found that the snow piled up to about half a calf high.
Xia Shizhao watched silently for a while, then bent down, picked up a large clump of snow, kneaded it, and quickly threw it towards Ye Qiuling. Seeing that Ye Qiuling raised her hand to block it, Xia Shizhao immediately took off running as fast as she was making a snowball.
Ye Qiuling chuckled and shook her head, then quickly caught up with Xia Shizhao and threw the snowball in her hand at her back.
Of course, she missed; Xia Shizhao dodged it with a quick movement and also threw her a snowball.
The two ran and fought at the same time. Finally, because it was too cold and they had run too fast, they got into the car panting. As they got in, they looked at each other and burst out laughing at the same time.
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