“No problem, please wait for a moment. I will send in your orders right away.”
The waiter briskly brought the list of their orders into the kitchen, leaving the four maidservants to explore the room and its contents.
Not to mention when they were in the Prince’s Mansion, even if it were in the palace, they could follow their master to go around and gather experience from it.
The truth was that a tastefully decorated place like this was rare to come by.
“Master, what kind of a person do you think the owner of the Furong Restaurant is like?”
As Baiji looked around the place, she could not help but sing praises about it.
Although it was not exactly lavishly furnished, every item in the room was apparently carefully picked.
She, though uneducated, found every item interesting.
“I can’t say what kind of person he or she is, but I can safely say that he or she is definitely a sophisticated person.”
Lin Mengya commented indifferently while she leaned on the window and looked out into the street below with people going to and flow.
Furong Restaurant was at the turning of a cross-road junction.
At the angle where she was, she had a good view of the building surrounding the area.
This was rich men’s area as she could see the various courtyards of the mansions.
The view was not at all boring.
The weather was fine just a moment ago, but in the twinkling of an eye, dark clouds were looming and the rain was impending.
Lin Mengya continued leaning on the window until she saw streaks of rain start to beat on the greenish-grey roof. In an instant, the sight of the world before her eyes became obscured and simultaneously her mood was dampened.
“Here comes your ‘boiled crispy meat’, ‘seven connections elbows’, and a pot of honey fragrant tea. Please enjoy!”
The waiter was swift in serving them the dishes they ordered.
“Boiled crispy meat” was prepared using the clean water from the hills outside the city. Apart from some spices, there were no other additional ingredients. For this reason, the meat, which was prepared in this manner, was crispy on the outside and soft on this inside, so much so that it melted in the mouth.
The “seven connections elbows” was even more interesting. The dish derived its name from the fact that the meat on the elbow was connected to the bones at seven places.
Once it got picked up by the chopsticks, the meat separated from the bones the moment it was given a shake.
Out of curiosity, the lasses gently shook their chopsticks after picking a piece of the meat and immediately, the bone fell out of meat, clean and smooth.
“Wow! It’s truly ‘seven connections elbows’! How did they achieve this?”
Baizhi exclaimed in great pleasure, as she began to stuff her mouth with the meat.
The other three lasses shot her envious looks as they witnessed her hearty appetite.
However, they were careful not to take on Baizhi’s fervent invitation.
“Look at the perfect knife skills. It looks like the person was extremely sharp and precise with the way he cut the meat.”
They were completely unaware of when Lin Mengya had walked up to their back. At that instant, she picked up the bones from the table using a pair of chopsticks.
“I told you, Miss. I had the feeling that the chef here was an amazing chef.”
Of course, Baizhi would keep singing praises as long as she had food to eat.
However, Lin Mengya seemed to have discovered a great finding.
Logically, the chef must have used the knife to slice part of the meat off the bone before cooking it.
Even as a medical research student, she might not have mastered such sharp and precise knife skills.
The bone was free of any remnant meat remaining on it.
Who exactly was the chef?
Lin Mengya’s curiosity towards the chef of Furong Restaurant was sparked.
Just when she was about to send for the waiter, the noise of hard-knocking sounded from outside the room.
“Who’s that outside the door?” cried Baishao.
The noise did not seem like it was coming from Furong Restaurant’s waiter.
“Are you lonely, the five beautiful ladies? I have brought along my servants to keep you accompany. How do you like that?”
A frivolous voice sounded from outside, followed by a burst of laughter.
Lin Mengya frowned. Why were there even ruffians in such a tasteful restaurant?
Shaking her head, Lin Mengya indicated for Baisu, who was about to dash out, to ignore the group of people outside.
As long as the door was shut, it was impossible for whoever was outside to barge in.
“Yo, looks like the beautiful ladies don’t know how to appreciate favors! Men, break open the door.”
Immediately, the sound of people trying to break the door ensued.
The commotion upstairs had obviously alarmed the waiter who instantly ran upstairs. Smiling, the waiter said, “Sir, the room is occupied by a noblewoman and her company. I can totally understand your appreciation of beautiful women. However, you would be tarnishing your good name if you offend the lady.”
“Who do you think you are? Get lost!”
It sounded like the man gave the waiter a kick because what followed was the sound of the waiter’s groaning.
“What a blind dog. Master, let me teach him a lesson!”
Having heard all the offensive words, Baisu was fuming.
The wooden door was almost coming off by now. Lin Mengya nodded, and Baiji and Baishao opened the doors simultaneously.
“I wonder which family this young master is from. Please come in to have some tea since you’re here.”
Lin Mengya was still seated on the head seat. At this moment, she had gracefully lifted the cup to her lips and took a sip of the fragrant tea.
Why did this tea taste like—
Before she could figure out the familiar taste of the tea, a young frivolous man in green entered the room.
“At least this lady knew how to appreciate me. Let me return you this favor. My surname is Du. You may call me Mr. Du or Sir Du. Whatever suits you.”
The man surnamed Du had a pair of beady eyes, making look like a cunning and deceitful man.
There was a ruthless look on his face, which, at this moment, was filled with an extremely repulsive evil grin.
He was not especially big, which might be a result of overexerting himself. As a matter of fact, he looked even more wretched.
Lin Mengya did not even lift her gaze to look at Mr. Du, having totally disregarded him.
“Say what you want to say quickly, lest I lose my patience.”
Lin Mengya did not want to trouble. Today was meant to be a shopping trip with her maidservants. She was not even interested in teaching this ruffian a lesson.
“Haha, what a hot lady! Today, I shall have a taste of your hotness!”
He reached out in an attempt to touch Lin Mengya’s face.
With a smirk and a turn of her hand, Lin Mengya grabbed the indecent man’s hand, plucked the hairpin from her hair and stuck it into his hand.
“Ouch! You stinky woman!”
The sharp pain shot up from his hand. He was completely unprepared for Lin Mengya’s brutal attack.
Without showing any mercy, the jade hairpin had completely pierced through his hand and pinned it onto the tabletop.
“Didn’t anyone inform you that it may cost your life if you take liberties with me?”
Although Lin Mengya spoke with a smile on her face, her words set him off perspiring in cold sweat.
“How did she know I had actually been incited by someone else to do this?”
“What do you… you mean?”
By now, his forehead was dripping with cold sweat from the pain coming from his hand that had been pinned on the table.
He gritted his teeth to combat the intensive pain while his followers were getting restless.
“The rest of you better behave yourself, otherwise your master’s dog paw would be paired.”
Lin Mengya spoke coldly. She supposed that these men were used to acting like a tyrant. Nevertheless, they were apparently frightened by this uncanny lady.
Now it seemed to them a bad idea to go up against her.
“You… you’ve misunderstood, my eyes must have been blinded by lard for me to take liberties with you, Madam.”
He seemed to have decided not to reveal the mastermind behind this. However, Lin Mengya was not ready to let go of the matter.
Baisu, being sharp-witted and alert, would have sensed his furtive eyes.
Lin Mengya had exchanged looks with Baisu earlier on but she had an ignorant look in her eyes.
Perhaps someone had found out her whereabouts and sent these ruffians to take advantage of her.
“Get lost. Go back and tell whoever sent you that if anyone dares provoke me, he would die a tragic death. Don’t let me see you again, otherwise, by then, your life would not be spared.”
Lin Mengya withdrew her hairpin in one quick motion as the man let out another cry of agony, while the rest of the men gazed at Lin Mengya with fear in their eyes.
Gritting their teeth, they were resigned to their misfortune.
“Let’s go!”
Despite knowing that they might provoke the anger of their master, they knew this woman was too formidable for them to trifle with.
“Wait! You’ve broken the things in my restaurant, beaten up my waiter. Worst still, you’ve provoked the lady in my house to anger. Do you think you can simply walk off?”
At the sound of a clear, light voice with a cold tone, Lin Mengya’s eyes lit up.
She opened her eyes wide with disbelief as she dashed out of the room to see the young man she was so familiar with.
“Why are you here, Qinghu?”
The man was none other than Qinghu, whom she had sent away to gather information for her. Although she had not seen him for some time, as usual, he was wearing that sly smile on his face.
“Naughty girl, why did you go places without telling me? I had a hard time looking for you.”
Qinghu was clad in a white coat, which made him look flirtatious.
What remained the same was the doting look in his eyes.
“Sly fox, who asked you to be gone so for so long? There was no one to come to my aid when I was being bullied.”
Somehow, Qinghu was the only one in the world who would stand by her without demanding any explanation from her.
As a result, Lin Mengya had instinctively treated him as someone from her parent’s family.
Disregarding the eyes of the people looking on, Qinghu strode up to Lin Mengya and scrutinized her from top to bottom.
“Eh? You seemed to have lost weight, lass? Did Long Tianhao starve you? Come, serve the best dishes from the restaurant right now. The other customers can wait.”
This was how tyrannical Qinghu could be. He would pick Lin Mengya over god anytime.
“Alright, boss, just a moment, please.”
The waiter who was playing dead, lying on the floor, sprung up immediately and ran into the kitchen.
“This—”
As Lin Mengya pointed at the waiter who ran downstairs, Qinghu was all smiles, as he pushed her back into the room.
“Don’t worry, that guy has nine lives. He won’t die.”
The five ladies exchanged puzzled looks as they wondered what had happened.
“When did you come back? Why didn’t you return to the prince’s mansion? How’s the progress on your investigation on the Yues?”
Lin Mengya blurted out a series of questions while seated on the heated brick bed.
However, Qinghu had pulled a long face as he looked at Lin Mengya with plaintive eyes.
“What a heartless girl! I’ve only just returned and still covered with dust from the journey, barely taken a breath, and there you are with a series of question for me?”
Qinghu tapped his fingers gracefully on the spot between Lin Mengya’s brows as he complained.