Volume 3 Chapter 42: Feeding Play Again?
Lin Lin waited at the table for quite a while before Gao Liang finally came back. By that time, the little girl had already started cooking the food in the hot pot.
Gao Liang smiled and sat down. He looked at the girl, who was cooking slices of lamb, and asked,
“So, is the food we ordered enough?”
“Hmm, it should be enough, right?” Lin Lin turned her head and looked at the plates of meat, along with a few vegetables like enoki mushrooms and cabbage that were there just to balance it out. She could not help swallowing.
Wow, this marbled beef looked different from the beef she usually ate.
Anyway, it was quite expensive. When she saw the menu earlier, her heart skipped a beat. But Gao Liang did not even blink when ordering it.
He ordered so much… Now it was not about whether it was enough. It was about whether they could finish it all. And if they could not finish such expensive food, her heart would really hurt.
She just did not know how big Gao Liang’s appetite was.
Well…
Since the food was already in the pot, they had to wait a bit before taking it out. During that time, the girl and her rival looked at each other.
Then Gao Liang suggested, “How about we go mix some dipping sauce? We can’t just eat it plain.”
“Mm, that makes sense.” Lin Lin nodded. “This place lets you mix it yourself. The ingredients are over there. Let’s go!”
So the two of them went to the sauce area to prepare their own dipping sauces.
Gao Liang picked up two small plates. He kept one for himself and handed the other to Lin Lin—
Eh?
He blinked and reached out to give it to her, but Lin Lin did not react. Instead, she kept looking around the area.
After realizing that only small plates were available, Lin Lin quietly walked to the counter.
“Can I have a bigger bowl, please? Thank you~”
She stretched out her hand cutely. The staff member was in a great mood and immediately gave her a large bowl. The biggest size in the restaurant, the kind often used in northern restaurants.
She came back holding the big bowl. Seeing the size of it, Gao Liang swallowed nervously.
Oh boy… Lin Lin wasn’t planning to—
“Ah, this way I can make more at once and don’t have to come back again and again to refill it. Hehe~”
“Oh… I see.”
Gao Liang looked down at his own small plate.
Maybe he should get a bowl too?
“Well, if you use such a big bowl, you’d better mix it carefully. It’ll be hard to fix if the taste is wrong.”
Lin Lin agreed with that. She nodded and looked at the many different sauces and seasonings in front of her, falling into deep thought.
Uh…
“By the way, don’t people usually just eat sesame sauce? I feel like there’s no need to mix so many things.”
“W-What?”
Gao Liang twitched at her shocking opinion.
This…
“I mean, no matter how you mix it, sesame sauce is still the main flavor, right? They all taste similar. And sometimes the sauce is so strong that it feels like you’re just eating sauce instead of hot pot.”
She touched her chin and gave her serious opinion. Gao Liang immediately understood the problem.
So Lin Lin had been eating hot pot by mainly eating sesame sauce, and the meat was just extra?
“Well, actually… mixing sauce does require some skill,” Gao Liang said.
Lin Lin blinked in surprise. “There’s even skill involved?”
“Yeah. You shouldn’t eat sesame sauce directly. You should mix it with sesame oil or some water and stir it well. Depending on how salty the soup base is, you can add a little salt, MSG, chopped pickled chives, fermented bean curd, or oyster sauce. Some people like to add vinegar. Then you can add a little chili oil, but if you don’t eat spicy food, you can skip that. You can also adjust how thick or thin it is by changing the amount of water and sauce. It depends on your personal taste.”
Gao Liang talked for a long time and explained everything in detail. Lin Lin was completely confused. After a while, she nodded as if she understood, but actually it felt like she had just listened to something very difficult.
“Cough, cough.” After standing there in a daze for a long time, she finally came back to her senses.
Come on, after saying so much, isn’t it just adding some things into sesame sauce? Just mix whatever and it’ll be fine~
“Anyway, just mix it!”
At least Gao Liang did not talk about exact amounts or measurements.
So, following the idea of “just add whatever and make it a bit thinner at the end,” Lin Lin randomly added different ingredients under Gao Liang’s confused gaze. In the end…
She successfully made a big bowl of something that looked more like sesame paste porridge.
Gao Liang gave up trying to stop her. He turned around and calmly mixed his own sauce properly. After finishing, the two of them went back to their seats and also ordered two bowls of rice.
At that moment, the first batch of food Lin Lin had put into the pot was ready. She picked up her chopsticks, grabbed a slice of lamb from her side, dipped it deeply into her sauce, and swallowed it in one bite.
“Mmm…”
While she was chewing, Gao Liang watched her with interest and a smile on his face. Lin Lin was clearly unhappy that he kept staring at her.
“Hey—”
Before she even swallowed the meat, she already started speaking unclearly, “What are you looking at…?”
“Hehe, I was just wondering… how does it taste, Lin Lin?”
Gao Liang asked with a smile.
Lin Lin blinked and replied, “Uh… it’s… it’s okay? Well, it mostly tastes like sesame sauce. And some peanut butter flavor mixed in. And a bit of… a strange smell. It’s just…”
“It just doesn’t taste like meat, right?”
Gao Liang could not hold back his laughter.
Lin Lin blinked again. Then she realized what he meant. Her face instantly turned red.
This guy…
He’s not even hiding his teasing anymore? He’s mocking me right in front of me?!
“You—!”
“Cough, cough, don’t be mad yet, Lin Lin. Why don’t you try mine?”
Gao Liang laughed for a while before finally stopping. Then he asked in a bright and cheerful voice.
Lin Lin felt speechless.
So this was his real goal. He just wanted to show off his amazing sauce-mixing skills, right?
Fine. Since it’s already like this, I’ll just dip into his—
Eh? Eh?!
Suddenly, Lin Lin noticed something was wrong.
She saw Gao Liang pick up a slice of lamb with his chopsticks, dip it into his sauce, and then move the chopsticks toward her mouth.
Lin Lin looked at the prepared slice of lamb in front of her. Then she looked at the playful smile on her rival’s face.
This…
This is a trap!
So this is what he was planning from the start!
Lin Lin took a deep breath.
This… could this be…
Feeding play?
Again?!
She did not even dare to open her mouth. The memory of last time, when he suddenly stuffed bread into her mouth, was still very clear. For several days after that, every time she looked at Gao Liang, she felt like her throat was choking.
And now, that feeling came back all at once.
Not only that…
She suddenly felt her mouth dry.
Ah—what kind of symptom is this?!