January 3, 20XX (Thursday Lunch)Various Places
Mother Zhao had the most surreal morning in all the days that she has been living in this Manor. She was pa.s.sing by when she heard Mei Li knocking on a door while calling out the name of the person inside, "Yang!"
"Come in," Yang"s m.u.f.fled voice was a little weak, but she can still hear it even when she was a couple of meters away.
"Are you ready?" Mei Li said while opening the door and not stepping inside Yang"s room.
"Yeah, let"s go." Yang grabbed his small wallet and put it on the back pocket of his tailored pants.
Mother Zhao heard them discussing the ordinary things that she always hears them arguing about every time they go out. They usually debated which car Yang needs to use, and how much cash Yang should have in his wallet. Mother Zhao was surprised, though, when Mei Li had replied with a, "I told you that you don"t need to bring anything! It"s my treat today."
Mother Zhao smirked when her son s.h.i.+fted nervously and at the same time looked excited. She knew that with their stature and wealth, people usually think that they should be the one that always has to treat people. Because of that, it felt amazing to have people take their time and money from their wallet to treat them to anything with heartfelt grat.i.tude. Yang must be excited because of that. He must be nervous because he has never gone out without any cash or card with him. Mother Zhao snorted as if she would believe that Yang had not brought a card or two just in case.
"Where are you two going?" Mother Zhao interrupted them as she meets them on the stairs.
Yang touched his nose on habit and shrugged his shoulders helplessly. Mother Zhao"s eyes zoomed into Mei Li"s cheerful face. Mei Li merely smiled at her and whispered on Mother Zhao"s ears a soft, "Treating him on a vegan restaurant that opened two weeks ago."
Yang was very curious as to what Mei Li had said to his mother that made her laughed out loud with tears coming out of her eyes. He felt he was not going to enjoy this date that she had planned for them. Yang was debating if he should follow his instinct and stay at home or follow his heart and go with her.
Without any more hesitation, Yang realized that it was already an instinct that he had instilled in his core to follow Mei Li. She could steal billions from him with this state of blindness he is in, and he would not even complain. She was a danger to his heart too, but he likes living dangerously anyway.
Yang sighed with relief when he was permitted to drive his Maybach, which meant it was a place that had a parking s.p.a.ce and not public. Hopefully, it wasn"t. He drove with Mei Li directing where to turn and how long he had to drive straight. Yang felt slightly better when they reached the district that was full of fancy restaurants.
His eyebrows rose when Mei Li had asked him to turn left and into the parking lot of a new restaurant that has the largest sign that reads, "Kian"s Vegan Resto." If he were not driving, he would have touched his nose again. He felt that he needed to stop this habit of his because someday his nose will have nothing left with all the touching he does whenever he is with Mei Li.
Moments later, Yang sat in front of Mei Li with menus in his hands. Yang opened the booklet-like menu and was surprised to see regular looking pictures of food that looked like meat. Wasn"t this a vegan restaurant? He must be behind with the food industry because he had no idea that this was possible.
"Is these dishes on the menu all vegan?" Yang asked Mei Lil
The painter nodded with a smiled, "Yeah! Grandpa Zhao and I had an idea to take you to this place so you can see that vegetables and meat may taste different to you, but it doesn"t mean vegetables couldn"t be delicious too."
In his eagerness, he ordered one vegan burger and one serving of vegan spaghetti. He eagerly waited for the food to arrive and when it did, his eyes light up with happiness. He had been so worried when he saw the word vegan together with the name of the restaurant. Hopefully, these dishes will taste amazing because if it did, he"d bring Mei Li here whenever she likes too without complaints.
Mei Li giggled when Yang had eaten the food with eyes bright opened and lips smeared from the tomato sauce of the spaghetti. She took a tissue and wiped his messy lips with a shake of her head. For a thirty-one-year-old, sometimes he acts more like a kid than a four-year-old does.
Yang grinned at her before taking her right hand with his left hand and planting a kiss on her knuckles like he always does when he says, "Thank You."
Mei Li smiled at him and wiped another smear of tomato sauce in his lips not knowing that Yang was doing it purposely. He liked the feeling of Mei Li taking care of him. Yang smeared his lips again with red tomato sauce, uncaring about the image he had built as her white hands slowly wiped it off his lips.
With love, everyone is young.