Chapter 17 - 14

The restaurant Yu Yingyi entered to eat at was called Merchant's River House. The reason for the name was because the restaurant was owned by a merchant who lived in a house near a river, simple yet a catchy name.

It was a restaurant with not only lunch food, dinner food, but also breakfast. It was the best thing you could get, however, since the restaurant wasn't located in a decent area, the sales of the restaurant weren't high, and not many people visited.

How did Yu Yingyi know about this restaurant? She didn't, this restaurant was never mentioned in the novel, it was unknown until the author of the novel made a thread about a mini-series of the novel.

With the way the author was describing the restaurant, there was no way the food wasn't going to be good.

When Yu Yingyi entered the room, there was only silence except for the ring that signaled she entered the place.

Without a doubt, it was also as dead as the author stated.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Yu Yingyi called out.

"..."

There was no answer, Yu Yingyi guessed they must've been busy in the kitchen preparing ingredients cause that was all the chefs did since there was nothing else to do.

Yu Yingyi took a seat and waited for someone to come out. It was not until ten minutes later someone came out of the room, in Yu Yingyi's peripheral vision, there was a woman who seemed to be in her lower 20's with waist-length brown hair coming out with her hair tied up.

"Jeez, why do I have to stand here all day when no one is here." the woman muttered, it was loud enough for Yu Yingyi to hear.

"Ahem." Yu Yingyi made her existence known.

"Who-" the woman couldn't finish her sentence when she saw who she was looking at, it was none other than Prince Yingyi!

Her jaw stayed wide open, Yu Yingyi was getting worried that she might've broken someone with her existence.

"Um, hello?"

Yu Yingyi's words were able to snap the woman out of her trance.

"Hm? Oh! Yes!" the woman quickly recovered and made her way to Yingyi's table, and asked, "I am Mei Xiang and I'll be your waitress today, is there anything you'd like to order?"

Yu Yingyi was surprised at how quickly Mei Xiang recovered, it almost seemed professional. Yu Yingyi's eyes swept over the menu until something caught her eye, a food she hasn't tasted in a long time.

"Can I have 3 Steamed Buns along with hot tea?" Yu Yingyi asked.

"3 Steamed buns and hot tea..." Mei Xiang muttered as she wrote it down and asked, "Will that be all?"

"Yes, that'll be all." Yu Yingyi replied.

"Alright! Thank you for coming Prince Yingyi!" Mei Xiang exclaimed and bowed before taking off to where the kitchen was.

Yu Yingyi slightly chuckled at the interaction, the woman seemed sort of cute with her embarrassed face.

'Ahh...I forgot I'm married...it should be fine since I'm not attracted to girls anyway, besides Liya.'

What Yu Yingyi didn't know was that Mei Xiang was secretly peeking from the counter and admiring her handsome face with a bit of feminine beauty.

When the food was served, Yu Yingyi couldn't wait to take a bite of the Steamed Bun. Even the aroma coming off of it was alluring, it was making her mouth water.

Without wasting any time, Yu Yingyi took a bite of it and instantly entered heaven. The temperature of the bun was heated perfectly to where she could eat it without feeling any burns, even her bare hands were perfectly fine against the heat of the bun.

'This is too delicious.'

That was all Yu Yingyi thought of when she started stuffing herself with the bun. The past weeks have been tiring, so eating her favorite dish made everything better and brighter.

Mei Xiang was delighted when she saw Prince Yingyi eating her food with a delightful expression, it boosted her confidence by a lot. Although she knew she wouldn't get customers in the area the restaurant was located in, she thought her food wasn't good.

Since her father was on break fishing at the river near their house, Mei Xiang was the one to take over today. She complained a lot, but all of the hateful thoughts disappeared when Prince Yingyi entered the restaurant.

Just a single person could make everything better.

Yu Yingyi had no idea what Mei Xiang was thinking but something stood out a lot...it was that Mei Xiang was staring at her with...lovely eyes.

She was confused by what she was staring at.

'Perhaps she's hungry and wants to eat steamed buns too?'

Yu Yingyi looked down at her plate, there was only a half of the steamed bun left that she meant to save for a snack if she ever got hungry. Who knew she was going to give it to someone? She was simply too kind.

Sigh, there goes the snack.

Mei Xiang started panicking when Prince Yingyi started walking towards her, she had no idea what to do and her heart was beating uncontrollably.

However, all her imaginations crumbled when Yingyi said this.

"You seem to be staring at the steamed bun for a while, are you perhaps hungry?" Yu Yingyi asked.

Mei Xiang's mind blanked, of course, Prince Yingyi would be oblivious to the love around him, he was married to the princess! How could she forget? Moreover, if the princess found out, she would definitely be executed on the spot, there was no other choice than to go along.

"Haha! Yes, I am, since I'm the chef here, I'm now allowed to eat until break since it's a rule established for us here." Mei Xiang replied.

"I see, well you can have the leftover of the steamed bun. There doesn't seem to be any other customer other than me here," said Yu Yingyi.

"Ha...I guess that's true. Thanks a lot." Mei Xiang replied trying her hardest to keep her composure.

'PRINCE YINGYI JUST GAVE ME HIS LEFTOVER OF STEAMED BUN!'

Sure enough, Mei Xiang was already head over heels for Yu Yingyi.

"Oh yeah, before I forget, here you go." said Yu Yingyi as she placed two gold coins and said, "Extra because of how delicious the food is, thank you once again."

'KYAAAAAHHH!'

With that, Yu Yingyi left the restaurant with a full stomach and Mei Xiang's entire week was already made up.