woman wearing irish linen shirt

"Is this the way?" asked Miss Pender.

I nodded: "It's not that kind of delicate restaurant, it's actually only about this wide." I gestured.

"In the food court?"

"Yeah." I looked at her.

She didn't know if it was forced, or if she really didn't mind, she just smiled and said: "Now I know why you want to stop me from wearing this."

"And it's even an open food court." I smiled half-smile, "Do you regret it? We can move to another place at any time. I have a few options."

"I don't want to miss the food that can satisfy your taste buds." She walked a little ahead of me, paused, and waited for me again, "Maybe I'll let you go ahead."

I couldn't help laughing low.

"Beach Road." As if to divert the topic, Miss Pender read the street signs, with her usual expression—I dare say she was faking—and asked, "How do you say 'Beach Road' in Mandarin?"

Just as I was about to open my mouth, she raised her hand again: "Don't say anything."

I took a silent breath.

She is happy.

It can be seen that Miss Pender is trying to describe the "beach", frowning and thinking hard, and her hand is still trying to hold something, which reminds me of myself who is trying to distinguish the part of speech in German.I looked through the catalog of her textbooks, and I'm pretty sure that the words related to "sea" will only appear in the next issue of the third volume, and she is still far away from there-maybe she can say something like "water's edge"?

But that doesn't make much sense either.

Because this road is called "Meizhi Road" in Chinese.

While Miss Pender was deep in thought, I led her to the left and hesitated whether to praise her later.Complimenting people also needs to pay attention to skills, even if a child can't praise indiscriminately, let alone she is an adult, I can't help but appear superficial and careless.

However, my understanding of the difficulty of learning Chinese is quite limited. Her current level is not as good as that of a two-year-old child, and she is still singing the number songs that are "popular" and "everyone in the forum can sing". Focusing on precise compliments is a bit of a challenge.

Miss Pender touched the back of my hand: "How do you say 'Beach Road'?"

The look on her face melted my heart.

I wanted to touch her face, but through the mask, it would seem strange to do such a gesture, so I raised my hand and brushed her hair by her ear lightly, and said, "It's 'Beauty Road'."

She then repeated: "Meizhi."

I quickly added: "'Meizhi' does not mean beach, beach is another pronunciation, I think it should appear in your textbook soon."

"Then what is 'Meizhi'?"

I thought about it, and found that I didn't know how to say Ganoderma lucidum, and I couldn't tell whether the "zhi" in "Zhilanzhishi" was Baizhi or some other herb.But I was pretty sure it was a transliterated name, so I said, "Maybe in Hokkien or Cantonese, the homophony of 'beach' is pronounced like this. The Chinese characters mean 'beautiful cheese'."

She got that weird, hesitant look again, and said, "Well, 'Beautiful Cheese' sounds like a creative and punchy name."

"Okay." I sighed, "I don't know why it's called that."

Miss Pender suddenly laughed.

I have long forgotten that I was still teasing her in my heart just now. First, I laughed at her ignorance, and then I was puzzled by her music taste. Now I have completely become the material for her laughter.Thinking that this smile was made for me, I felt a little less embarrassed for no reason, and said, "What makes you so happy?"

"You know." She moved her eyebrows, but she still wanted to move forward.

I turned my head toward the entrance of the food court on the left: "This way, my lady."

She turned a ninety-degree turn in a calm manner, her movements were extremely natural, pretending to be familiar with the way.

It's still early, we're the only ones at the table now.Next to the chicken rice stall is a drink seller, and the price here is much lower than that of the food courts around my house and hers. The price of a large glass of freshly squeezed juice is only one-third of that at her house.With curiosity in her eyes, Miss Pan quietly looked at the playing cards put aside by the store, with the price description in Chinese characters painted in red paint, and the rice bucket with some lo-mei color on the side of the playing cards.

When I paid the money and came over, she whispered, "Yao, aren't your Chinese characters beautifully written?"

I laughed dumbfounded: "It's okay."

"What about this kind?" She lowered her voice and gave the card a look.

"This kind of handwriting can observe the writer's proficiency in Chinese characters, but from an aesthetic standpoint, I would say there is still room for improvement."

Miss Pande took off her mask and curled her lips, obviously dissatisfied with my implicit evaluation, but she couldn't find fault.It's always cute when she does this kind of childish action, and I can remember it for a long time.

I asked, "Didn't you practice calligraphy when you were learning Japanese?"

She shook her head.

The chicken is now chopped.

I waited for Miss Pender to take her first bite.She opened the oiled paper for the takeaway package I wanted, and she seemed a little surprised to see the plain light brown rice grains and the unremarkable boiled chicken stacked on top of it.The Hainanese chicken rice sold in the restaurant is usually served with some fancy things. After all, it is a traditional food of the Nanyang Chinese. The selling points of each old shop are different. Many shops have chicken as their signature, and some of them are served with chicken rice. Some refreshing vegetables.

Seeing her holding a disposable plastic spoon, I couldn't help but said, "The sauce is a bit spicy, maybe you can consider trying the rice first."

Miss Pender followed her words, staring at me, and put half of the spoon into her mouth with some warning and some provocation.

Her eyes widened, she looked at me, and took another spoonful.

I laughed and said while she was eating: "It's not an orthodox concept, but I always think that the essence of chicken rice lies in the rice. The choice of rice is a big difficulty, and the balance of taste is also very important. Some The store will use plump and large-grained rice, I think it should be—er, japonica rice.” I don’t know how to say “japonica rice” in English, so I simply used Chinese, but she didn’t seem to notice this foreign language that was suddenly inserted Vocabulary, "Combined with a heavier flavor, which in turn sets off the rice fragrance and a wonderful elastic feedback that the teeth get when chewing the rice..."

She nodded.In just a few words, Miss Pan De's chicken rice has lost a whole corner.

This is normal. When I come here alone, I usually buy three servings, eat two at the store, and take one back with me.However, seeing her like it so much, I still have a sense of satisfaction in my heart.

The boss who can make such delicious chicken rice should be happy every day, right?

"Chicken is of course also a difficulty. I don't know about the situation in India, but have you found that the organic chicken in the United States is really good?" I continued, "I have been to all the famous chicken rice restaurants here— ——Actually, SCC’s chicken rice is also famous, but if you didn’t take me there, I’m afraid I wouldn’t have the chance to enter that club——In short, if you are a person who has high requirements for meat quality and has a picky tongue People, it should be easy to detect the fishy smell in the chicken cooked in this way.

"The chicken in this store hardly has this problem, and because of the special sauce and rich rice, it is really difficult for you to judge what quality chicken it uses. Considering the cost, I would say it is a superb A vivid expression of culinary skills, because the quality of ingredients is invisible in cooking."

Miss Pan De raised her head: "We can eat SCC's chicken rice anytime, as long as you are free."

I took a breath: "Did you hear what I just said?"

"I know, you said it's delicious." Miss Pande put another spoonful of rice into her mouth, and her rice was already less than half, and the chicken only moved two pieces, "Why don't you start eating?"

I couldn't help laughing, paused for a few seconds, and said, "Once I start, I may not have time to talk."

Miss Pender settled her portion of lunch very quickly.I offered to have a second one, but she looked very torn, torn between two eyebrows, and finally said, "I really want to have one, but I can't. I can't eat too many complex carbs." Or something salty."

"I understand." I checked again to see if she needed an extra drink, and got up to buy myself a second order of chicken rice.

For some reason, I feel that Miss Pender looked at me with a little trace of sadness and hatred.

But she can't hate me.

I opened the oiled paper wrapped in chicken rice with peace of mind.

"Speaking of which, before the 'circuit breaker' was implemented, I suggested that we could go to SCC for afternoon tea." Miss Pan De folded her arms, "Why have you never asked me out?"

I put the spoon down: "I thought you were just mentioning it casually. You know, our personal contact was limited at the time, and in our work relationship, there was really an over...overly tense atmosphere."

She frowned: "I will drive to your house to pick you up, meet you alone, play ball together, and have dinner together!"

I pursed my lips.

It's over, the reaction is slow.

Miss Pande gave me a sideways look: "So you asked me out at the time just to get information."

"Hmm..." I dragged my voice out.

"Forget it, I'm not surprised anyway." She put one hand on her hairline and pulled back the broken hair. "Honestly, it's really a good place to relax. Maybe some weekend?"

"Of course." I said quickly, with my most sincere smile when I spoke, "I'm always willing to share my weekends with you."

Miss Pande narrowed her eyes, she didn't blame too much after all, she seemed to be planning to forgive me.

At this time, a bird with black feathers and yellow beak jumped onto the next table.This is very common for food courts that are not fully enclosed and surrounded by greenery. I didn't take it seriously——

The person across the table suddenly raised his hand, his muscles and skin tensed, and he immediately stood up, two meters away from me.

I've made a new discovery: Miss Pender is afraid of birds.