Chapter 21 – Childhood Friend

It was around 7 am when Xiu Mei received a call from Lu Shao. She was informed that Lu Chen and Lu Shao took an early flight to London due to some emergency in the London office. It must’ve been a very serious case that the CEO had to leave such an early flight without leaving any instruction to her first.

Without the emperor CEO, Xiu Mei had to go to work early to delegate the sudden tasks that was instructed by Lu Shao. She had her assistant disseminate the tasks and she herself had to take over the CEO’s workload and Lu Shao’s workload for the day.

It was a real hell work day.

In Xiu Mei’s opinion, it was actually better that Lu Chen wasn’t here for the day. Thinking about what he had confessed yesterday, she wasn’t ready to face him nor give him a reply. His sincerity… it wasn’t something that she could reply halfheartedly.

“Miss Xiu,” A cup of chamomile tea suddenly appeared in front of her sight. She looked up and saw her assistant giving her a gentle smile as she served her a calming tea. She quickly gave her thanks and looked at her watch.

She was too engrossed with her work she didn’t notice that it was already hours past lunchtime. Knowing that she’ll be busier later, she quickly finished off what she was currently doing while sipping the drink. An hour later, she stood up and grabbed her wallet.

“I’ll be having a quick lunch outside.” She had exclaimed before going out.

A few blocks away from the office was a traditional family restaurant. The servers have been very familiar with her visiting every now and then thus, they had immediately assisted her to a vacant private room where she could eat in peace.

“The usual, Miss Xiu?” One of the servers had asked. He had handed over the menu for her to skim through in case she wanted to order differently.

Xiu Mei opened the menu and skimmed through it. Finally feeling that nothing seemed to be appealing for her that day, she just ordered the usual set.

A few minutes later, she heard a knock before the door slid open revealing a tall, lean man in chef’s uniform. From afar, anyone would be instantly attracted by his looks but upon a closer inspection, any girl would feel more envious instead. His looks was almost similar to a woman- plump lips, big doey eyes, long eyelashes, tall nose and a small face. His hair was kept longer compared to other men which he usually puts up in a ponytail. His body wasn’t very muscular, but he wasn’t too thin either.

Basically, the guy could be considered the enemy of all women in the world being blessed with all the features any woman would ever want.

“Kei!” Xiu Mei made a sound of surprise as she stood up from her seat to greet the said man.

“It’s really nice to see you again, Mei.” Kei smiled gently on the woman infront of him. They both gave each other a hug before they sat on the opposite side of the table.

“When did you come back from France?” Xiu Mei was quickly elated upon meeting Kei whom she hadn’t seen for almost two years.

“Just a week ago.”

“And you didn’t tell me!?”

Xiu Mei gasped in surprise before pulling an annoyed face at him. Kei let out a laugh seeing her pouty expression like he had betrayed her.

Playing with food was bad but Xiu Mei couldn’t stop herself from throwing a piece of cuc.u.mber at him to show him how she was feeling. “How dare you not tell me! Are we still even friends?!”

Kei effortlessly caught the poor piece of cuc.u.mber that was sacrificed in battle as he replied to her, “We are best friends, childhood friends, hmm, soulmates?” He jokingly listed out their relationship status.

“Tsk, this friendship is over.” Xiu Mei clicked her tongue while crossing her arms, glaring at him. Kei just laughed at her reaction ignoring what she had said.

“Come on now, when we were kids, you said that we’ll be together forever?” Kei grabbed another piece of cuc.u.mber from the small plate before casually eating it.

Narrowing her eyes at her childhood friend, she kicked him underneath the table successfully hitting his shin.

“Ow!” Kei jumped in reflex after feeling a sudden pain in his leg. He rubbed the area that was kicked by Xiu Mei. “Hey, that hurts you know!”

Xiu Mei rolled her eyes. “That was the idea.”

“You!”

Before Kei could continue his protests, the door slid open once again. The food finally arrived and was immediately served at her table.

“How’d you get a food for yourself?” She wondered as she saw one of the servers place a different set of food in front of Kei. It was vastly different from the one she had noticeably seeing the difference in food presentation.

His was presented quite lavishly, and he was actually served three more main course meals instead of just one.

“Well, I am the owner of this restaurant of course.” Kei quickly dug his spoon into the meal, not even bothering to wait for Xiu Mei to start eating.

“I know, Captain Obvious. I was asking when did you have the chance to order your own food.” She said as she took a bite from the dumplings.

“Oh, I just told them I’ll be here with you and to serve whatever food they have.”

“….you’re testing them again, huh.” She pointed out, staring at the beautifully plated foods.

“They’re relaxing too much from my absence.” Kei nonchalantly replied as he continued to chew on the food he was tasting. “Enough of myself, how are you so far?”

“Me?” She looked up and made eye contact with Kei. Confusion was written on her face, not understanding what Kei was implying.

“How are you coping up? Today is THAT day you know.” Kei reminded her, which instantly brought down her mood. Xiu Mei placed the spoon and fork on the edges of the plate as she avoided eye contact with her childhood friend.

“I know. I’ll visit her later.” Xiu Mei’s voice was laced with sadness and longing as she replied.