After the celebratory toast, everyone started eating.
Bai Yurou was the first to toss a piece of beef tripe into the white pot.
This was one of Lin Ye’s two favorite hot pot dishes; the other was shrimp paste.
For Lin Ye, the chewiness of the tripe had always been just right—crisp and resilient.
When his teeth sank in, it made a crunch, and the broth squeezed out from the fine pores, the numbing, spicy, fresh fragrance blooming layer by layer in his mouth with every chew.
Tripe was actually most authentic when blanched in a spicy pot base.
But she was weak and sickly now and couldn’t handle spice.
She’d just have to make do.
Bai Yurou thought this as she silently counted the time.
Tripe needed to be cooked for eight seconds before eating—this was the technique Ning Mu had taught her back then.
When the time was up, she scooped out the tripe and rolled it once in the oil dipping sauce.
It didn’t have the same stunning sensation as when she used to eat tripe before, since it was the white pot after all.
But it was still okay—the taste was decent enough.
On the other side, Ning Mu picked up the beef slices beside her, first pouring a few into the white pot, then dumping the rest into the red pot.
“Thank you,” Bai Yurou said softly to Ning Mu.
She knew Ning Mu never ate from the white pot; she was the only one at the table who did.
Those few slices of beef had been specially poured for her by Ning Mu.
Gazing at the beef rolling in the white broth, Bai Yurou suddenly recalled the scene of Lin Ye’s first time eating hot pot.
Back then, Ning Mu had also thoughtfully looked after the completely clueless Lin Ye, preparing his dipping sauce and teaching him how to blanch the meat.
Ning Mu really had always been such a kind person.
Bai Yurou secretly praised her in her heart.
“No need to thank me,” Ning Mu replied lightly.
On the other side, Cai Xiaotong and Zhao Dandan, seeing Ning Mu’s action, also followed suit, specially leaving a portion for Bai Yurou when pouring the dishes into the white pot.
“Thank you, everyone,” Bai Yurou thanked the other two as well.
The two smiled and responded respectively, both saying this was what good friends should do.
Everyone was chatting and laughing as they ate to the happiest moment when the hot pot restaurant’s door was opened again.
A tall, handsome, and cold-looking man in a suit who appeared to be in his twenties, along with a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties, also in a suit but with a haggard face, walked in together.
“We need a private room,” the man in the suit said in an icy voice to Sister Zhao at the front desk.
“No need, just the two of us. Eating in the main hall is fine,” the middle-aged man waved his hand, his tone casual.
The man in the suit didn’t say much more, simply following the middle-aged man’s suggestion and walking with the waiter toward an empty seat in the main hall.
That seat happened to be right behind Bai Yurou’s table.
Bai Yurou had been focused on blanching meat.
Strictly speaking, these two adults coming to discuss work had nothing to do with her, and she couldn’t be bothered to care—besides, she wasn’t facing the entrance, so she couldn’t see their faces at all.
However, when she heard that man’s icy voice, a person instantly appeared in her mind—her big brother, Bai Sihan.
This voice was exactly the same as that deeply sister-con domineering CEO big brother of hers.
It couldn’t be such a coincidence, right?
But would Big Brother really come to a roadside hot pot place like this to discuss business?
In her impression, didn’t Big Brother always arrange to meet the other party at high-end restaurants?
An ordinary hot pot restaurant like this didn’t match his status.
To confirm her guess, Bai Yurou turned her head—sure enough, her domineering CEO older brother Bai Sihan was sitting right behind her.
The two of them happened to lock eyes.
“Big Brother?”
Bai Yurou called out, her voice neither too loud nor too soft, just enough for her three friends at the table as well as Bai Sihan and the middle-aged man to hear.
“Rourou?”
Although Bai Yurou hadn’t taken off her cosplay yet, Bai Sihan still recognized his little sister immediately.
The tone of his response changed instantly—no longer the icy domineering CEO voice from before, but filled with undisguised tenderness and surprise.
Why is my little sister here?
Hasn’t she been staying at home recently?
He stood up and walked toward Bai Yurou’s table.
“Big Brother, I came out to play with my friends and had dinner while we were at it,” Bai Yurou took the initiative to explain before her big brother could speak.
Bai Sihan saw that everyone sitting with Bai Yurou was a girl and secretly breathed a sigh of relief—he had been afraid that his naive little sister had been tricked by some man.
He swept another glance over the girls at the table with his sister and found that they were all wearing cosplay outfits just like her.
Although he was a domineering CEO, he wasn’t some old fogey.
The moment he saw Ning Mu, Bai Sihan paused.
“Mr. Bai, we meet again,” Ning Mu took the initiative to greet him.
“So it’s Miss Ning. I didn’t recognize you for a moment, sorry,” Bai Sihan responded with a smile.
After all, she was wearing a cosplay outfit, and previously when dealing with the Ning family, he had always talked business directly with Ning Father and Ning Mother.
Ning Mu had only quietly stood behind her parents, so he really hadn’t recognized her right away.
However, wasn’t the adoptive son of the Ning family the life-saving benefactor of his own little sister?
When had his sister become friends with Ning Mu?
He clearly remembered that when they met at the funeral before, Ning Mu’s attitude toward his sister had been quite cold.
Hiding his doubts in his heart, Bai Sihan continued to ask:
“Is your body okay eating hot pot?”
“Don’t worry, Big Brother. I’m only eating from the white pot—it’s not spicy.”
Bai Yurou acted spoiled toward her big brother.
“Then as long as Rourou is having fun, that’s good. Does this hot pot meal need Big Brother to pay?”
Bai Sihan was clearly captivated by his little sister’s spoiled act and no longer cared about the topic of whether the food was healthy or not.
“No need, no need. This hot pot meal is my treat for Yurou.”
Before Bai Yurou could reply, Cai Xiaotong jumped in first.
She had just heard their conversation and naturally knew that the person in front of her was Bai Yurou’s older brother.
Bai Yurou was a young lady from a wealthy family, and her older brother was a domineering CEO—this made perfect sense.
She had no doubt that this man might suddenly say something like ‘Since my little sister likes it, I’ll buy this entire restaurant’ when paying the bill, which would fit his domineering CEO persona.
She rather liked this restaurant and didn’t want it to be bought out.
So in order to protect the hot pot restaurant she liked, she absolutely couldn’t let this domineering CEO in front of her pay for her.
On the other hand, the main reason was: since she had promised to treat them to this meal, she had to keep her word.
Was she, Cai Xiaotong, the kind of person who needed a friend’s older brother to pay because she was short on money for a meal?
Bai Sihan was interrupted by this loli, and seeing that his little sister showed no intention of opposing, he said, “I see. Then I won’t disturb you all. Wish you a pleasant meal.”
After saying that, he turned and returned to his own seat, no longer disturbing his sister.
Cai Xiaotong breathed a sigh of relief.
She had truly been afraid that her interruption just now would provoke that domineering CEO into a rage and make her “disappear from the mortal world” on the spot—didn’t the domineering CEOs in novels all do things like that?
Fortunately, Bai Yurou’s older brother should count as a law-abiding domineering CEO.
Seeing Cai Xiaotong’s expression, Bai Yurou knew she had been scared by her big brother’s icy expression and comforted her:
“Big Brother just looks a bit cold and scary. Actually, he’s a very good person.”
“Mm.”
Cai Xiaotong responded while shifting her gaze toward the table Bai Sihan was preparing to return to.
She saw a man cooking hot pot by himself.
He should be the one who came with Yurou’s older brother.
He looked like a middle-aged uncle with a haggard complexion, but he probably had nothing to do with her.
Cai Xiaotong thought this as she returned to the main storyline of eating.