Carry on, I Didn't See a Thing!

Lin Zhe had eaten plenty for dinner that day.

A heaping plate of egg fried rice, a bottle of ice-cold Coke, and a large fuzzy peach Auntie Wang from the kitchen had brought when she came to work.

But young people had fast metabolisms, and by now, there wasn't much left in his stomach.

Perfect. Lin Xiaomeng's dumplings would make a nice late-night snack.

"Come on in. Let's eat inside."

As Lin Zhe spoke, he stepped aside from the doorway and invited Lin Xiaomeng in.

"Okay!"

Lin Xiaomeng nodded and happily carried the dumplings inside, closing the door behind her.

The standard rooms at the Fortunate Inn were simply furnished. Aside from a bed, there was a small table for belongings and a wooden clothes rack.

The little table could serve as a dining table, but without any chairs, they would have to sit on the bed.

Lin Zhe pulled the table over to the bedside, and Lin Xiaomeng set the food container on it. She had even thoughtfully brought vinegar.

"Try them, Zhe. Tell me how they taste."

Lin Xiaomeng opened the container to show off her handiwork, then looked at Lin Zhe expectantly.

The subtle expression on her face seemed to say, Praise me! Come on, praise me!

"Nice, very nice. For starters, Xiaomeng, you're really good at folding dumplings. They're just as pretty as you are."

Before even tasting Lin Xiaomeng's dumplings, Lin Zhe complimented her folding skills. He knew exactly what to say.

"Hehe, thanks for the compliment, Zhe. Hurry up and try them!"

As she spoke, Lin Xiaomeng picked up a pair of chopsticks and handed them to him, looking as though she couldn't wait.

"Hang on. Before we eat, let me take a photo and bombard my Moments feed."

Lin Zhe glanced at the room across the hall with a mischievous smile, picked up his phone, and snapped a few pictures of the dumplings on the little table before posting them to his Moments feed.

"All right, we can eat now. You have some too. There's no way I can finish this many."

Instead of taking the chopsticks Lin Xiaomeng offered, Lin Zhe picked up another pair, grabbed an ingot-shaped dumpling, dipped it in vinegar, and popped it into his mouth, chewing through it.

"So fresh! And the flavor's great! Fresh handmade dumplings really are so much better than those frozen ones!"

Before he had even finished his first dumpling, Lin Zhe gave Lin Xiaomeng a thumbs-up and showered her with praise.

"No problem, absolutely no problem. These dumplings definitely deserve a spot on our menu."

"I'm sure once customers try them, they'll want them a second time, then a third!"

For these three-delicacy vegetarian dumplings, Lin Xiaomeng had used ordinary supermarket eggs from hens raised on a regular poultry farm, yet they already tasted this good.

If she used the stat-boosting eggs he obtained from checking in, the flavor would surely rise to a whole new level. They would definitely be a bestseller once they hit the menu!

"Hehe, with your approval, Zhe, I can relax. I was pretty nervous on the way over."

Lin Xiaomeng chuckled sheepishly, revealing her small, pointed canine tooth. It gave her a charm all her own.

Splat!

Suddenly, the second dumpling Lin Zhe brought to his mouth shot out a jet of broth like a little squid.

By sheer bad luck, the broth landed right on Lin Xiaomeng's long, fair neck, around her throat.

The dumplings had still been hot when they came out of the insulated container, hot enough to sting his mouth as he ate. The broth inside was even hotter.

"Ow!"

Feeling the burning heat against her upper chest, Lin Xiaomeng instinctively cried out and reached up to touch the spot.

"Quick, let me see if you got burned!"

As the culprit, Lin Zhe naturally noticed that his dumpling had squirted broth.

With one hand, he pulled a wet wipe from the box on the table.

With the other, he moved Lin Xiaomeng's hand away from her throat to inspect the damage.

Fortunately, the broth inside the dumpling wasn't all that hot, probably only forty or fifty degrees Celsius.

There was just a fingernail-sized red mark on Lin Xiaomeng's throat, with no sign that the skin had been burned.

Only then did Lin Zhe let out a long sigh of relief.

If he had burned such a delicate, fair neck, he would have felt terribly guilty.

"Ahem, it's okay, Zhe. It only felt a little hot at first. I can't feel anything now."

"I get splashed with oil all the time when I'm cooking. This is nothing."

Before Lin Zhe could apologize, Lin Xiaomeng reassured him instead, her smile innocent and a little goofy.

Creak!

As soon as Lin Xiaomeng finished speaking, the room's door was pushed open from outside. Dan Teng, who was staying across the hall, barged in uninvited.

"Lin Zhe, you jerk. In the middle of the night, you..."

"Holy crap!"

"What's going on with you two?"

"Why didn't you lock the door this late at night?"

"Sorry, sorry..."

"Carry on, carry on. I didn't see a thing!"

Dan Teng had barely gotten one leg through the doorway and hadn't even finished his sentence before he noisily backed out again.

It wasn't entirely his fault for getting the wrong idea. Lin Zhe and Lin Xiaomeng were sitting face-to-face on the edge of the bed, with a wipe in his hand. It was easy to imagine something adult going on.

Lin Xiaomeng might have been innocent, but she wasn't stupid. Hearing Dan Teng's words, her fair face instantly flushed bright red.

Brother Dan clearly thought Zhe and I were doing something naughty. This is so embarrassing!

"You fat bastard, don't you know to knock before coming in? You think this is your house?"

Lin Zhe cursed, but he didn't really take it to heart. He had nothing to hide and hadn't done anything wrong.

"Xiaomeng, don't listen to Brother Dan's nonsense. Nothing decent ever comes out of his mouth."

"Ahem, mm-hmm, it's okay. It's not like I can't take a joke."

Blushing, Lin Xiaomeng brushed back her hair. Just thinking about Dan Teng seeing her and Lin Zhe in such a suggestive position...

The "little Xiaomeng" in her head was so embarrassed that her toes could have dug out an entire three-bedroom apartment.

Knock, knock, knock!

The knocking broke the awkwardness in the room.

This time, Dan Teng knocked before pushing the door open, then checked with them again, wearing an eminently punchable expression.

"I really didn't interrupt anything, right?"

Lin Zhe gave him a disdainful look. "Either get in here or get lost. Stop standing in the doorway. Your choice."

"I'm coming in, I'm coming in."

Knowing Lin Zhe as he did, Dan Teng figured that if he really wanted to get up to anything with Lin Xiaomeng, he wouldn't have been careless enough to leave the door unlocked. That was why he had come back.

"Haha, Xiaomeng, your Brother Dan just likes making harmless little jokes. Don't take it personally."

"Just don't go home and write some long post about me on Little Black Book, calling me a creep or whatever."

Laughing, Dan Teng plopped down on the bed opposite Lin Zhe and Lin Xiaomeng.

"What's Little Black Book?"

Lin Xiaomeng tilted her head and looked at Dan Teng. She rarely went online, and this was the first time she had heard of Little Black Book.

"Oh, nothing. It's better if you don't know. Good girls don't go to places like that. Did you make these dumplings, Xiaomeng? They look delicious!"

Dan Teng smoothly shifted the subject to the dumplings, his eyes gleaming like a hungry wolf's as he stared at them.

"Mm-hmm, I just made them. We're planning to put them on the dining hall's menu tomorrow. Try them, Brother Dan, and tell me what you think."

"These chopsticks haven't been used yet. You can use them, Brother Dan."

Lin Xiaomeng smiled sweetly as she spoke and handed Dan Teng a pair of chopsticks.

"Absolutely! Your Brother Dan is a famous foodie here in Rao City, you know. I've got a picky palate."

"You've come to the right person to taste-test a new dish. Let me give you my expert opinion."

Shamelessly singing his own praises, Dan Teng picked up a dumpling with his chopsticks and put it in his mouth.

"Great, great, great! Absolutely great! The flavor's fantastic! Put them on, put them on, put them on! Don't hesitate!"

"These dumplings are definitely going to sell like crazy. If they don't, you two can twist my head off and kick it around like a ball!"

After finishing one dumpling, Dan Teng also gave Lin Xiaomeng a thumbs-up and showered her with praise.