The academy dining hall stood across from the Enlightenment Academy. Meng Anci had just stepped over the academy threshold when someone called out to him. He looked toward the voice and saw a senior disciple he did not recognize.
"Your name is Meng Anci, right?"
"How do you know me, Senior Brother?"
The man did not answer. "Your aunt is waiting outside the academy."
At the news that Jin Shanyao had come, Meng Anci's eyes lit up. The little tyke had been gloomy only moments ago, but now his eyes curved into a smile. He ran all the way to the academy gate.
Sure enough, Jin Shanyao and Meng Anzhi were sitting on the ox cart. His sister was holding two sugar paintings.
"Auntie, what brings you here?"
Jin Shanyao bent down, grabbed him under the arms, and pulled him straight up like a scallion from dry ground, lifting him onto the ox cart.
"Auntie's taking you two out to eat." She slapped the ox on the rump. "To the restaurant."
The ox cart swayed and rocked as it left the academy. Meng Anci turned his sugar painting this way and that. It was shaped like an ox and was bigger than his face.
Meng Anci could not bear to eat it. He leaned close and sniffed its sweet fragrance. "Sis, didn't you go back to Little River Village today?"
"No. Auntie helped Magistrate Yang catch a bad guy." Meng Anzhi leaned closer and whispered, "She earned fifty taels of silver, and she said she'd take us to see the world."
Meng Anzhi took a bite of her sugar painting, pressed her lips together, and smiled until her eyes curved. She turned to ask her brother, "What's 'seeing the world'? Is it tastier than spring noodles?"
Meng Anci shook his head and carefully licked his sugar painting. He was a little disappointed; it did not taste as good as ginkgo leaves.
"Whatever kind of noodles it is, it's fine as long as it fills us up."
"How are things at the academy?" It was Meng Anzhi's first time being apart from her brother, and she was a little worried.
Meng Anci remembered how stupid Shiyan had looked and snorted. "Pretty good."
Without looking at his expression, Meng Anzhi actually believed him. Just as she was about to ask more questions, the ox cart stopped outside the Top Scholar Tower.
The stable hand in charge of watching carriages at the Top Scholar Tower trotted over. "Honored guests, you can't park in front of the restaurant."
Jin Shanyao pointed at a row of carriages. "How come they can park here?"
The stable hand explained with a smile, "Those are our guests' carriages."
Meng Anci frowned slightly. Carriages again. Shiyan had laughed at him for being unable to afford a carriage and having to come in an ox cart. He had not expected the Top Scholar Tower to look down on ox carts too.
Jin Shanyao lifted the two little ones down from the cart and tossed the ox's lead rope to the stable hand.
Lifting her chin, she said, "We're here to eat too. Park my ox cart properly." With that, she took the two children by the hand and entered the Top Scholar Tower.
The Top Scholar Tower had two floors. There were around a dozen tables on the first floor, while the second floor had private rooms.
Meng Anzhi considered herself someone who had been inside the county yamen, so she stood with her back ramrod straight. She surveyed the restaurant. Though it was more luxurious than the yamen, it lacked the yamen's imposing grandeur. How petty!
After getting down from the ox cart, Meng Anci had been completely out of sorts. He kept wondering to himself how his aunt could ride an ox cart with the bearing of someone in a carriage.
Jin Shanyao picked a seat at random and waved to a waiter.
"Honored guest, what would you like?" The waiter had a white cloth draped over his shoulder and wore a brilliant smile. He did not neglect the three of them because of their simple clothes.
Jin Shanyao pointed at the wall. "Steamed lamb, steamed deer tail, roast duck, roast spring chicken, roast young goose, oven-roasted pork, oven-roasted duck, chicken in sauce, cured pork, preserved eggs, pork stomach..."
As she continued listing dishes, the waiter's face grew darker and darker. She was certainly showing off that she could read.
"One of everything."
The waiter was stunned. "What?"
Jin Shanyao moved her tongue around in her mouth. Had she said something wrong again? "Didn't you understand? I said one of everything."
At those words, everyone present sucked in a breath. Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci tugged frantically at Jin Shanyao's clothes, hoping to bring her to her senses.
The waiter, however, was cowed by her bearing and felt apprehensive. "Miss, everything on this wall would cost at least dozens of taels, and the three of you can't finish it all."
Jin Shanyao's head was full of question marks. ???
The book said waiters served dishes according to the customer. This one was unwilling to serve them any dishes at all!
Jin Shanyao gave a little huff. She was a well-read person, after all. How could she let a waiter get the better of her? Copying a passage from the Technique of Controlling People, she launched her attack on him.
She fixed the waiter with a lecherous stare, brought her thumb and forefinger to her upper lip, and traced a circle around her mouth, finally stopping at her chin.
Stroking her beard???
Jin Shanyao's fingers met empty air. Only then did she remember she had no beard. She skipped that step.
Onward... She had to lock her gaze firmly on the other person's eyes, press her tongue against her cheek, lift her chin, and whistle at him.
The people around them sucked in a cold breath, watching a girl of seventeen or eighteen flirt shamelessly with a man in his forties.
The waiter's expression was as miserable as if he had eaten shit. The girl looked perfectly respectable, but who would have thought she was a lecher?
The world was going downhill, and people's hearts were no longer what they once were. Each generation really was worse than the last.
At that moment, the shopkeeper came over carrying tea and asked with a smile, "You look unfamiliar, miss. Is this your first visit to our establishment?
"I don't mean to speak out of turn, but everything you ordered is one of our signature dishes. As for the price..."
Seeing the bewilderment in Jin Shanyao's eyes, the shopkeeper steeled himself and continued, "May I have a look at your purse, miss?"
It was Jin Shanyao's first time at a restaurant in the human world, and she did not know the rules for eating out. She pointed at the guests filling the hall and asked, "Do you look at their purses before they eat too?"
It was only a casual question, but the shopkeeper mistakenly thought Jin Shanyao was angry. He stood there awkwardly.
Remembering that a pleasant manner brought prosperity in business, he cleared his throat and told the waiter, "Tell the kitchen to serve the dishes."
With that, he smiled at Jin Shanyao and left, leaving her utterly bewildered. He was not going to look at her purse anymore???
The waiter did not dare linger. He ran to the kitchen in a panic and did not reappear before Jin Shanyao left the restaurant. Perverts were common, but innocence was not; he had to hold on to the bottom line of his dignity.
Looking at the table full of dishes, Jin Shanyao felt pleased with herself. Had she not said reading was useful?
"Eat."
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci held their chopsticks but did not dare reach for the food. Forget eating these dishes-they had never even seen them before, much less been to such a high-class restaurant.
"Auntie, are your fifty taels of silver enough?"
Meng Anci could not help asking. He even wondered whether the shopkeeper would agree to let him and his sister stay and wash dishes if they could not pay.
Jin Shanyao picked up a piece of roast spring chicken and put it in her mouth. "Mm, delicious. Much better than Auntie Li's cooking. Hurry and try some."
As she ate, she used her chopsticks to serve the two of them. The two little tykes exchanged a glance and sighed helplessly.
They might as well eat. There was no backing out now. At worst, they would wash dishes for a few more days.
Meng Anzhi picked up a piece of roast young goose and put it in her mouth. It was rich and savory, with crisp skin and tender, juicy meat. She could not think of those words and could only stare with round eyes.
She waved to Meng Anci. "Delicious, delicious..." Aside from the word "delicious," she could not get anything else out.
Meng Anci took a piece too. The flavor burst in his mouth. It was so delicious that he could not spare the time to speak. Unwilling to waste any, he gnawed at the piece of meat until not even the bone was left.
Jin Shanyao kept putting food in his bowl. "Take one bite of each dish. That way, you'll be full once you've tried everything."
Meng Anzhi and Meng Anci nodded. They ate while their hearts ached, savoring the delicious food and suffering at the same time.
The one adult and two children had never seen the world. Like nouveau riche, they sat in the middle of the main hall with their heads down, eating ravenously.
The dishes on the table were stacked into a mountain, and the two children's heads were no longer visible.
The expressions of the people around them as they watched were hard to describe.