Yao Heyan first brought her shopping before going to a restaurant. After all, any restaurant that they would go too would definitely have a formal dress code.
The dress that Yin Mei chose this time wasn't red, but a peacock emerald color. Although Yin Mei liked red, He Lanying was more suited to these deeper and darker jewel tones. Green and blues especially suited her very well, enhancing her dignified air. The dress was made out of a velvet material, with a collar around her neck and a V-line, her back revealed and the tight skirt stopping just above her knees.
Yao Heyan also took the liberty of buying a dark green suit to wear. Although it wasn't custom fitted, it still managed to look good, and clung to his figure just right. The two headed to a luxurious restaurant in town, one located on one of the top floors of the top hotel, Regalia.
(A/N: just came up with something random, don't know if there's actually a hotel called this)
"You don't need to come in with us," Yin Mei said to her chauffeur cum bodyguard before he went to go park the car, and went with Yao Heyan to the restaurant.
Actually, this date was also in part Yao Heyan trying to claim that He Lanying was his woman. The customers of this restaurant were all members of the upper class, of which had a fairly small social circle. In other words, if the two of them appeared together here, the result would be rumors quickly spreading to the rest of the wealthy families.
Lately, Yao Heyan was feeling more and more that if he took his eyes off Yin Mei for a single moment, then she would disappear. He felt that he had to quickly make her his, or he would lose the chance forever.
He subtly placed one hand on her waist and held her other hand as he guided her, a smile on his face.
Yin Mei didn't seem to realize anything, simply looking forward to the good food. Although normally this restaurant would be only be available by reservation, both He Lanying and Yao Heyan were VIP customers and granted priority seating. Plus, Yao Heyan had specifically chosen a restaurant that he knew would have available seats at this time.
They were quickly guided to their tables, with a few people recognizing their identities and whispering to themselves. After all, it was well known that the He family and Rong families were in negotiations for an engagement between their eldest daughter and son respectively, but He Lanying had actually come to the restaurant accompanied only by the second son of the Yao family? It was quite obvious that they were on a date, and were even wearing outfits with matching colors.
This was juicy gossip that they would have to tell all their friends as soon as possible!
Yao Heyan pulled out the chair for Yin Mei, who sat and the waiter pulled the chair out for Yao Heyan before handing over the menu to the two of them. He spouted a couple of recommendations before taking his leave.
"Is there anything that you particularly like?" Yao Heyan asked, as he looked over the menu. It was a French-style restaurant, and Yin Mei put on a difficult expression.
She firmly said, "Pasta," as she seriously considered each and every pasta dish on the menu. Yao Heyan smiled, thinking that this serious expression of Yin Mei's was really cute. Pasta was one of her favorite foods, and it was just so hard to decide which was better. In the end, she chose a dish with green noodles and a ground duck sauce.
As for Yao Heyan, seeing that Yin Mei had such difficulty deciding on what pasta dish she wanted, he also chose a different pasta dish so that they could share. It was a lobster pasta that was one of the more expensive dishes on the menu.
The waiter poured them two glasses of the house wine, while Yin Mei asked for a glass of iced water. Yao Heyan took note that including the wine, she also hadn't seemed to like the champagne for last night's dance either.
"You don't like alcohol?" Yao Heyan asked, while they patiently waited for the food to come out.
Yin Mei shook her head no. Champagne was still okay since it didn't really have the bitter taste of alcohol, but it was slightly sour, which she didn't like, and also carbonated... which she also didn't like.Yin Mei looked down, playing with the napkin on the table. "Uhm..." She glanced up, wanting to say something, but stopped in her tracks when her eyes met Yao Heyan's.
She always felt like she was missing something, when they spoke.
Even though Yao Heyan appeared similar to the demon king and the zombie emperor, because of the drastic differences in temperament, Yin Mei never thought the two were the same. But whenever she thought this, for some reason, a small part of her told her she was wrong.
"What is it?" Yao Heyan asked, tilting his head.
Why can't I remember? What happened that made me forget...? Such thoughts whirled through her head. She knew there was an important reason why she forgot, and why she didn't want to remember. But she also knew that along with the memories she didn't want to remember, she had forgotten something that was very important to her in the process.
"I feel like... I'm forgetting something important." Yin Mei finally couldn't help but say, tapping the water glass with her fork as she looked away. "Something very important, but very painful." She added on in a softer voice.
Yao Heyan tilted his head. He always had a sort of similar feeling, as well. It was similar, but slightly different? He wondered if they were perhaps lovers in a past life, haha. Admittedly though, he didn't even know how he had fallen for He Lanying, and it had seemed so sudden and quick as well.
And there was that ancient hanfu too. Yao Heyan had never believed in that sort of thing before, but could it really be they knew each other in another life?
"Maybe we knew each other in a past life?" He asked in a joking tone, but Yin Mei froze in place.
"What did you say?" She asked, and Yao Heyan looked at her slightly confused.
"Maybe we knew each other in a past life?" He still repeated it, wondering if he had said something so odd.
Yin Mei felt that this was familiar. This was really familiar. Hadn't he said something like this before? When was it? When had he said it?
She winced, her hand flying up to her head as a sharp pain assaulted it. Don't remember. Don't remember it. All you'll find is pain there.
"Are you alright?" Yao Heyan said as he saw the expression of pain flash across Yin Mei's face. Could he have said something wrong? But how could it have made her feel pain?
"I'm fine," Yin Mei said, the pain fading as she put her hand down, her expression also smoothening out and returning to normal. Alright, she decided that she wouldn't try and force it. The present was more important than the past anyways. If she couldn't remember... then so be it.
In the end, Yao Heyan steered the conversation away from that topic in fear that Yin Mei would find it painful again, and they talked about unimportant stuff, discussing the gossip in the upper class, or their student council duties.
When the pasta arrived, Yin Mei thoroughly enjoyed it, along with Yao Heyan's pasta. More murmurs came from some of the other customers witnessing this lovey dovey scene of Yao Heyan feeding Yin Mei his pasta.
Afterwards, Yin Mei immediately dragged Yao Heyan to a famous cafe and ordered a strawberry cheesecake and a strawberry parfait, two of her favorite types of desserts. "It's delicious~" She said happily, while Yao Heyan took note that she liked strawberries. A red fruit. He thought it was suitable for her.
Well, Yin Mei didn't like strawberries because they were red though. She had just always liked the taste of strawberries (as long as they were sweet and not sour) from a long time ago.
The members of the cafe felt that watching such a beautiful couple have fun together was definitely soothing on their eyes. The man was watching the girl happily eat with a warm expression. Mm, they shipped it!
Afterwards, Yin Mei and Yao Heyan walked around, simply window shopping and enjoying the warm spring sun. Yin Mei had her chauffeur wait in the car again, thinking that nothing bad was going to happen. And anyways, she still couldn't get used to being followed around by bodyguards while going places.
Plus, even Yin Mei had sort of realized that they were currently on a date... Although it was embarrassing, she was also a little happy. She had never had such an experience in any of her past lives either, not even her original life. And then the worlds after that... who would even have the time to go on a date?
Yao Heyan glanced at Yin Mei, before grasping her hand in his. Yin Mei almost tripped and fell at this sudden and embarrassing action, but was quickly supported by Heyan. "Wha-wha-wha-" she stammered out, trying to slip her hand away, but it was firmly grasped by the boy.
"You don't want to?" Again he activated the skill puppy dog eyes, which still had critical effectiveness on Yin Mei, who could not resist the demon king's face paired with those droopy dog like eyes! D*mmit!
"I-it's fine I guess?" She finally said, and stopped resisting.
Seeing this expression of hers, Yao Heyan felt he was practically going crazy. He tugged her into a small alleyway, where they came to an isolated area behind a building.
He gently pushed Yin Mei up against the wall, his arm at the side of her head. Yes, it was the legendary kabedon. Yin Mei wide eyed looked at his arm and then Yao Heyan, who was leaning in closer, his eyes dark.
Just as Yin Mei was wondering whether or not he was about to kiss her, her ears red, they were interrupted by three men, clearly delinquents.
Huh? What was this totally cliche plot development?
"Huh? What's up with these two well dressed kids doing here?" One of them said, as the group approached them.
"It can't be they about to get it on right?" The other callously laughed in an annoying manner.
"Wow! What a beauty!" The other said as Yao Heyan turned toward them with increasingly colder eyes, revealing Yin Mei.
"Beauty, don't get together with this weak *ss pretty boy. I bet we can satisfy you more than him." The same one from before said in a lustful manner as they approached closer.
Yin Mei's face was in shadow, and Yao Heyan had appeared to start to reach for the inside of his suit, when Yin Mei placed a hand on his arm, pushing him aside. "Lanying?" Yao Heyan said, remembering that there had been one time he had seen such an expression on He Lanying's face.
It had been a fine day. They were in their first year of middle school, and Rong Sheng had just become the president of the student council. Of course, Yao Heyan was the vice-president, and He Lanying had become the secretary, even though all of them were only first years at the time.
Rong Sheng had ran off and Yao Heyan had to chase after him, and the result was that they had dumped all the work onto He Lanying. When they had come back...
Let's just say that they thus resolved never to anger He Lanying again.
It was that same face of absolute disgust and rage that she was currently wearing.
Yao Heyan placed his hand down from the gun that he was about to grab, and watched as Yin Mei thus roundhouse kicked the first guy, who fell onto his butt, his hand on his cheek as he stared shocked at the girl, not even in a state to register the color of Yin Mei's panties - they were black though.
Yin Mei placed her foot on the man's chest, pushing him down so hard that his head hit the concrete floor and a disgusting crack sound could be faintly heard. She ground her stiletto heel into his chest, a scary expression on her face as she glanced at the other two, who both jumped in shock. Everything had been too fast for them to register.
Before they knew it, Yin Mei was in front of them, grabbing one by the face and slamming him into the ground as well, knocking him unconscious. And then she slammed his face into the ground again, and again, and again, blood flying everywhere.
The last person was completely pale in the face, before realizing his chance to escape. He scrambled to run away, but at this moment, Yao Heyan calmly drew his gun, even taking the time to put on a silencer before shooting the man in the back.
He then holstered his gun again, before walking over to Yin Mei, wrapping his arm around her waist and grasping the wrist of the hand she had been using to grab the man's head, raising it up as he whispered into her ear. "That's enough." He said, and Yin Mei blinked, as if she just realized where she was again.
She tilted her head as Yao Heyan helped her up, wondering what she had been doing again.
Oh no, that's right, wasn't Yao Heyan just about to kiss her? How embarrassing! But what was going on now? "Ah, ahhhh! Why is there blood all over me? Oh no, I got the dress you bought me dirty!" Yin Mei said, as she finally realized the state of disarray that she was in.
"Let's get you cleaned up," Yao Heyan said with a smile, as he set down the phone that he had been talking into before Yin Mei had realized.
"Mm," Yin Mei said with a sad expression, looking down she realized there were three bodies on the floor. "Huh? Are they dead?" She asked, tilting her head. Could this have been where the blood had come from?
"No, no, they're fine. I've already taken care of everything." Yao Heyan said with a smile, as he put his phone away and began steering Yin Mei back onto the street.
"?" Yin Mei let him do so, feeling that there was something odd about the situation. But for someone who had lived through the apocalypse, her sense of morals was definitely twisted and so didn't say anything, not even thinking to suggest calling an ambulance.
Well, since Yao Heyan said that he'd already taken care of everything, then there wasn't anything to worry about, right?