Chapter 60: The Western Restaurant

Gritting her teeth as she brought Xiao Yao over to the roller coaster, Ye Jiaying still held onto a sliver of hope. She was unsure whether these thrilling rides had age restrictions; since Xiao Yao was only seven, he might not be allowed to ride if such rules existed. However, reality was cruel. Ye Jiaying specifically ran over to read the notices posted in front of the amusement ride and discovered that there was only a height restriction, with no age limit at all. Participants were required to be at least 1.3 meters tall. Xiao Yao consciously stepped over to the height measurement line next to the sign to check himself. He stood at around 1.34 or 1.35 meters, exceeding the minimum requirement by a few centimeters.

After a single ride on the roller coaster, Xiao Yao felt completely fine, but Ye Jiaying’s legs were already trembling and feeling somewhat weak. Seeing Ye Jiaying stubbornly putting up a brave front, Xiao Yao felt too embarrassed to drag her toward any more overly thrilling attractions.

In his past life, Xiao Yao’s family had modest living conditions when he was a child, and looking at it in retrospect, that was over a dozen years ago when such numerous amusement parks simply did not exist. Therefore, once Xiao Yao cast aside the intention of deliberately teasing Ye Jiaying and began choosing amusement rides like a normal seven-year-old boy, he truly experienced a wonderful time of joy that he had never known in his previous childhood.

Stepping off the roller coaster, a light-footed Ye Jiaying led Xiao Yao with indomitable spirit toward another extreme thrill ride called the "Wind and Fire Wheel," only for Xiao Yao to change direction midway and pull her toward the bumper cars instead.

"Didn't you want to ride the 'Wind and Fire Wheel,' the 'Speed Racer,' and the 'Angel's Wings'?" Ye Jiaying asked.

"I do want to ride them, but I never said we had to do all of them in a single day. If I actually end up making you throw up, I won't get any benefits out of it anyway," Xiao Yao replied matter-of-factly.

Only then did Ye Jiaying realize that Xiao Yao's previous words were purely meant to scare her. Although this child was mischievous, his heart wasn't bad at all. Any lingering thoughts of spite vanished from Ye Jiaying's mind, and she spent a thoroughly pleasant entire day with Xiao Yao.

When the two of them finally emerged from the amusement center, the sky had already grown dark. They had only eaten a simple fast-food lunch at the park, so Ye Jiaying naturally intended to treat Xiao Yao to a proper, substantial dinner.

It was a Michelin-starred French restaurant in Beijing. Ye Jiaying brought Xiao Yao here not to show off, but because the food was delicious, the environment was pleasant, and at least she wouldn't have to worry about being recognized and surrounded by curious onlookers, allowing her to take off the sunglasses she had worn all day and enjoy a meal in comfort.

This restaurant had dress code requirements for its diners. Both of them were dressed in casual wear, and although they had freshened up slightly after leaving the amusement center, Ye Jiaying's makeup was far from exquisite. Fortunately, Ye Jiaying was a member here, and her casual attire could not conceal her rather extraordinary temperament, so the waiter did not turn them away at the door. However, the gap between their outfits and the high-end, designer-clad patrons inside was still quite noticeable, leading the waiter to seat them in a somewhat inconspicuous corner table.

Ye Jiaying did not mind this at all. After all, they were here to eat, not to show off, and where they sat was completely immaterial.

"Do you need me to help you order?" Ye Jiaying asked Xiao Yao, handing over the menu provided by the waiter.

Xiao Yao opened the menu in his hands and took a look. He found that the main body of the menu was in French, with smaller English translations underneath and no Chinese at all.

"I want to eat meat, steak for the main course, and you can help me order the rest," Xiao Yao said, closing the menu. It wasn't that he couldn't read the menu, but rather that he was genuinely unfamiliar with Western cuisine and didn't know which dishes were good.

"Alright." Ye Jiaying didn't decline, skillfully ordering several dishes before finally instructing the waiter, "Children shouldn't eat things that are too rare. His steak should be medium-well, and mine can be medium."

The waiter nodded with a smile and left. Soon after, the food began to be served one after another. Ye Jiaying was originally considering whether she should help Xiao Yao cut his steak, but to her surprise, Xiao Yao held the fork in his left hand and the knife in his right, cutting with great fluency and smoothness.

"I didn't expect you to be good not just with chopsticks, but also quite adept with knife and fork. Do you often eat Western food?" Ye Jiaying asked the boy sitting opposite her. When she took Xiao Yao to a private-kitchen restaurant the previous night, she had already witnessed his proficiency with chopsticks, which was no less than an adult's, but she hadn't anticipated his skill with cutlery to be equally practiced.

"I often eat fast food, but this is my first time having formal Western cuisine," Xiao Yao said with a smile. "As for the knife and fork—well, if I can use chopsticks, what's so difficult about a knife and fork?"

The two of them chatted as they ate. The environment was wonderful, and the corner table made it unlikely for anyone to disturb them, so they quickly finished most of their meal.

Unfortunately, it being unlikely for anyone to disturb them did not mean it was absolutely impossible. Just as they were about to finish eating, a rather unpleasant voice rang out from directly behind Xiao Yao.

"Oh, if it isn't the newly crowned Best Actress of the Feitian Awards. Why would you dress like this to eat at a place like this? Aren't you paying a bit too little attention to your image?"

Xiao Yao turned his head to look and saw a woman in her thirties standing behind them. She was quite pretty, but the expression on her face and the tone she had just used made Xiao Yao extremely displeased.

Ye Jiaying was dressed in casual wear, with simple makeup and a bare neck and wrists—which looked indeed rather casual compared to this woman's light blue, off-the-shoulder semi-evening gown, silver high heels, and the glittering jewelry adorning her neck, ears, and wrists. However, Ye Jiaying said with a calm expression, "If my attire is inappropriate, it should be the restaurant manager or the waiter pointing it out. It doesn't seem to be any of your business, Sister Xu."

"Oh, look at you saying that," that Sister Xu covered her mouth with a slight giggle. "Aren't I just concerned about you? With an outfit like this, when I first saw you, I thought I had mistaken you for someone else. For a celebrity, image is very important. As a colleague, I'm just kindly reminding you."

"Thanks for the reminder," Ye Jiaying replied, her expression remaining lukewarm.

This Sister Xu had obviously come to make things unpleasant for Ye Jiaying. Seeing that her provocation hadn't achieved its intended effect, her eyes darted, and she shifted her target to Xiao Yao sitting nearby, acting as if she had just noticed him. "My, why are you even bringing a child along? I must say, even if you are a star who can't bear children of your own, you shouldn't satisfy your urge to play mother by using someone else's kid. Whose child is this anyway? Why doesn't he know how to greet people? He has so little manners."

Ye Jiaying had once suffered an accident while filming, resulting in damage to her uterus that made her chances of conceiving extremely slim. Thanks to strict confidentiality measures, the media and the public knew nothing of this, yet it was inevitably leaked to a few gossips within the inner circle. Clearly, this woman was one of those who knew the truth.

As soon as the woman uttered those words, the color in Ye Jiaying's face unmistakably changed.

Xiao Yao had originally only glanced at the woman once before withdrawing his attention to quietly eat his food. He could tell at a single glance that the woman was simply looking for trouble with Ye Jiaying for no good reason. Being a child, he thought it best not to get involved and simply watch them tear into each other from the sidelines. But now, not only had this woman dragged him into it, she was also using him to brutally jab at Ye Jiaying's deepest, most sensitive wound, and he could no longer sit idly by.

"Mom, who is this old hag?" Xiao Yao ignored the woman, looking up at Ye Jiaying and asking.

"Huh?" Ye Jiaying was left dumbfounded by this sudden question.

"Little brat, what nonsense are you shouting? How could she possibly be your mother?" The woman also asked with a look of astonishment.

"She's my mother, not yours. What the hell is it to you?" Xiao Yao slanted a glance at the woman. "You've been standing here chattering on for ages. Aren't you annoying?"

"Little brat, she can't even give birth, so she can't possibly be your mother. Could it be that a single Western meal has bought you off? You really are a little country bumpkin who has seen nothing of the world," the woman said with an expression of absolute certainty. "And is that how you talk to adults? Not only are you uncultured, lacking in class, manners, and upbringing—only someone like you would go around recognizing her as a mother."

"Xu Lili, you've gone too far!" Hearing the woman speak to Xiao Yao in such a manner, Ye Jiaying finally lost her temper.

"Auntie, are you suffering from senile dementia? Who told you that someone who can't give birth can't be a mother? Is calling you 'Auntie' inappropriate? Should I call you 'Granny' instead? Furthermore, whether I have class or upbringing—first, is it any of your damn business? Second, is it up for you to decide?" Xiao Yao remained quite calm, holding up two fingers as he spoke, yet every word out of his mouth nearly drove Xu Lili to the point of fury.

"You little bastard, you—" Xu Lili said with a furious expression.

"Look, who is the one lacking class and upbringing right now?" Xiao Yao spread his hands toward Xu Lili. With that, he turned to Ye Jiaying and said, "Mom, I've got a gift for you."

"A gift? Right now?" Ye Jiaying asked in confusion, looking at Xiao Yao's empty hands; she hadn't seen him buy anything back at the amusement park.

Xiao Yao hopped down from his chair and walked toward the center of the restaurant. In the middle of the dining hall stood a performance stage holding a black grand piano, where a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white female pianist dressed in a floor-length gown was seated and playing.

Seeing Xiao Yao walk onto the stage, the pianist stopped playing and looked with curiosity at the little fellow who had suddenly appeared beside her.

"Good evening, madam," Xiao Yao gave a slight bow and greeted in French. He had read in a book that the French possessed a pathological sense of pride and national vanity, and if foreigners spoke a few words of French when conversing with them, they would invariably be met with great warmth. In a genuine French restaurant like this, regardless of whether the owner was French, they would undoubtedly have a deep understanding of French cultural background. Therefore, the pianist placed in such a prominent position in the center of the hall, regardless of her actual nationality, was virtually guaranteed to understand French.

Sure enough, the beautiful pianist smiled and said to Xiao Yao in French, "Hello, my little gentleman. Is there anything I can help you with?" She was indeed speaking French.

"It's like this: my mother brought me here to dine today, and the delicious food and wonderful environment have given us a thoroughly pleasant experience. Thank you," Xiao Yao said.

"It is our pleasure. So—" the beautiful pianist smiled. She knew Xiao Yao had not come over merely to express gratitude—expressions of gratitude belonged with the restaurant manager, not the pianist—so she waited for him to continue. She had already roughly guessed his intention, though given Xiao Yao's young age, she wasn't entirely certain.

"My mother loves me very much, and I love her too. So I would like to dedicate a piece of music to her here to express my gratitude and love for her. Would that be alright?" Xiao Yao pointed at the piano before them.

"Of course." The female pianist stood up. Although she didn't hold high expectations for his piano-playing technique given his age, she agreed immediately and without hesitation upon hearing such a request. Regardless of how well he played, for the sake of this heartfelt gesture alone, she as a woman could never refuse a son's desire to express his gratitude and love to his mother.

"Thank you." Xiao Yao bowed slightly once more, this time placing his left hand behind his back while extending his right hand flatly outward.

The pianist paused slightly, then smiled and placed her left hand onto Xiao Yao's small, outstretched palm.