That evening, as promised, Song Nanxing treated Qiao Yimian to a lavish dinner at one of the top-ranked five-star hotels on Linchuan’s food list.
Whether the food itself was expensive was beside the point. The fact that they had taken a taxi more than twenty kilometers just for this meal showed more than enough sincerity.
Song Nanxing said that a few days earlier, he and another reporter had interviewed someone at this hotel. Apparently, the chef who specialized in Beijing cuisine had descended from a long line of imperial chefs and possessed extraordinary culinary skills. Many people came specifically because of his reputation.
If they hadn’t had an interview that day, Song Nanxing said, he would have wanted to try the food then and there.
The two of them ordered six dishes. If Qiao Yimian hadn’t stopped him, there probably wouldn’t have been enough room on their four-person table.
Looking at the feast spread before her, each dish a perfect combination of color, aroma, and flavor, Qiao Yimian couldn’t resist taking out her phone to snap some pictures.
“If I don’t post this to my social feed, we’d have come all this way for nothing…”
She photographed each dish from its best angle and carefully adjusted the lighting. The moment she posted them to her feed, Qiao Yimian nodded in satisfaction.
“Mm. A little late-night food torture. Let me make all those girls who keep shouting about dieting jealous.”
The corner of Song Nanxing’s mouth twitched.
“Sis, you’re really… quite different in private from how you are at work.”
Qiao Yimian raised an eyebrow, a smile dancing in her bright, sparkling eyes.
“Oh? Can I take that as a compliment?”
“Mm-hmm, that’s exactly what I meant!” Song Nanxing scratched his head and gave a goofy grin. “Let’s eat, let’s eat! The food will get cold!”
Even though they’d been working together for several months, every time Qiao Yimian looked at him with those bright, clear eyes, he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous.
He always had the feeling that this older sister looked harmless enough, but in reality, she was genuinely “toxic”—the kind that made you willingly get addicted to her and then find it almost impossible to quit.
Of course, Qiao Yimian had no idea he thought of her that way.
They’d known each other for several months and had eaten together plenty of times, so she didn’t feel the need to worry about appearances around him.
And with such delicious food in front of her, she had no time to chat anyway. Filling her stomach came first.
Her phone began chiming repeatedly with notifications. She guessed immediately that her social-media post had provoked a reaction.
Sure enough, as she scrolled through the screen with one hand, several friends were already complaining in their little group chat about how “absolutely vicious” she was.
Qiao Yimian smugly sent back a few replies.
Mission accomplished.
Meanwhile, in a private dining room, the Governor was bored to death listening to several middle-aged men flatter and curry favor with him.
“Governor, how do you find these dishes? The hotel manager said they hired this chef from Jing City at a very high salary. Apparently, his ancestors were imperial chefs!”
“We thought that since you’d come here from Jing City, you’d surely be familiar with the flavors of your hometown, so we specially invited you here to give us your opinion.”
Li Yao’s gaze swept across the dishes on the table, most of which had barely been touched.
The presentation was exquisite, and the ingredients were of excellent quality. The taste was decent as well. In particular, the carved garnish depicting *Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl* was incredibly lifelike, a clear demonstration of the chef’s impressive knife skills.
But to call him a descendant of imperial chefs…
*What a joke.*
Li Yao picked up a warm towel and wiped his hands before tossing it onto the table, showing them at least a little courtesy.
“Passable.”
The men across from him exchanged glances.
One of them cautiously asked, “Is it not to your taste?”
Li Yao looked at him indifferently, a hint of mockery in his voice.
“When you’ve eaten the same things your entire life, even the finest food becomes boring.”
With that, he exchanged a glance with Zhou Heng beside him, stood up, and headed for the door.
Zhou Heng immediately understood. He rose with a smile.
“The Governor still has official business to attend to, so let’s call it a night. If any of you have work-related matters you’d like to report, please organize the relevant documents and send them to me.”
He nodded politely to everyone before turning and hurrying after Li Yao, leaving the officials from Linchuan staring at one another.
They had gone to considerable trouble to invite the Governor to tonight’s welcome banquet. Their original plan had been to flatter him, curry some favor, and get an early sense of what was happening at the higher levels of government.
Instead, the distinguished guest had spent a grand total of five minutes at the table after entering the room—and had sat there silently with a cold expression for four and a half of them.
Who knew whether he’d simply been born that indifferent, or whether he’d arrived carrying some pent-up anger with nowhere to vent it…
Li Yao, however, had no interest in what the people in that room might be saying about him.
The moment they stepped outside, he expressed his dissatisfaction to Zhou Heng.
“Don’t arrange pointless welcome banquets like this again. They’re a waste of time. I’d rather buy a ticket to the circus.”
Zhou Heng’s mouth twitched, but he good-naturedly replied, “Understood.”
The two walked into the elevator one after another.
Li Yao took out his phone and idly fiddled with it.
He had very few friends on WeChat. Aside from family, there were only a handful of close friends, so he could scroll through his contact list from top to bottom in no time.
His finger hovered over the chat window labeled **Little Reporter Qiao** for several seconds.
But he didn’t open it.
Instead, he moved down and opened his Moments feed.
His mother’s posts continued to dominate the screen. It was either a gorgeous selfie or carefully tended flowers and plants in her greenhouse. There seemed to be no end to them.
*This isn’t a social feed. It’s practically a documentary about her life.*
Li Yao silently complained as he absentmindedly scrolled down.
Then his finger stopped on a photograph.
A table overflowing with delicious dishes filled the picture, accompanied by a caption that was every bit as mischievously cute as its owner.
**[Little Reporter Qiao]**
*Late-night food poisoning—I shall eat first in everyone’s honor.*
Li Yao lowered his eyes, his thick lashes concealing the flicker of light beneath them.
For some reason, he could almost see those delicate, alluring features and the smug little expression she must have been wearing after successfully tempting everyone with her food.
At work, she was mature and composed.
In private, however, she was an adorable and clever young woman.
The corners of Li Yao’s lips lifted slightly.
But in the next instant, the image of that yellow sports car flashed through his mind.
His gaze returned to the photograph.
It wasn’t difficult to guess who she’d had dinner with.
The relaxed expression that had just begun to soften tightened once again, turning cold and stern.
Li Yao locked his phone, slipped it into his pocket, and stepped out of the elevator without a trace of emotion on his face.
He had only taken a few steps when Zhou Heng, following behind him, suddenly exclaimed,
“Huh? Aren’t those Little Reporter Qiao and Little Reporter Song?”
Li Yao stopped.
His gaze landed precisely on a certain spot, as if guided by a built-in detector.
After eating to her heart’s content, Qiao Yimian leaned back in her chair and leisurely sipped her tea.
Song Nanxing called a waiter over to settle the bill, only to be told that it had already been paid.
“Huh? Who paid?” Song Nanxing looked at Qiao Yimian.
She shrugged.
“Not me.”
Confused, Song Nanxing scratched his head.
When he looked up, he happened to see two men walking toward them. His eyes immediately lit up.
He hurriedly waved at them, but with quite a few other diners nearby, he didn’t dare call out loudly.
Only after they came closer did he happily say,
“Governor! Secretary Zhou! You came here to eat too? What a coincidence!”
Zhou Heng nodded.
“Mm. We happened to have a dinner engagement here too.”
He then looked at Qiao Yimian, who had also stood up to greet them, and discreetly glanced at Li Yao before smiling.
“Little Reporter Qiao, did you drive here?”
Zhou Heng had left early and didn’t know that Qiao Yimian hadn’t mentioned her car afterward, hence the question.
Qiao Yimian briefly explained what had happened, looking somewhat helpless.
“I’ll have to go back again in a few days.”
She had actually wanted to ask whether these two men had paid their bill, but when the question reached her lips, she swallowed it back down.
If they had, then fine.
But if they hadn’t, asking would only make things awkward.
As she was wondering what to do, she suddenly heard the Governor ask in a deep voice:
“Where’s your boyfriend?”