A Stolen Romance - Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Wontons

“Wh-what are you doing?” Shi Yuning slurred, her cheeks still pinched.

She pushed Xie Zhaoran’s hand away and was about to continue the conversation when her stomach let out a loud, clear rumble.

Shi Yuning froze in embarrassment. She couldn’t really be blamed—she hadn’t had a good meal all day because of her mood.

After a whole night of climbing walls, running on rooftops, and fleeing for her life, she had expended a considerable amount of energy. It was only natural for her to be hungry now.

Still, her stomach making noise in this situation was a bit mortifying.

Shi Yuning’s face flushed. She pretended not to hear the continuous rumbling from her stomach after that first loud growl. She steeled herself and continued to ask Xie Zhaoran, “What do you plan to do about Prince Yu?”

Rumble, rumble, rumble— Her stomach seemed to be getting no response and, like a petulant child, it started to growl even louder.

This time, Shi Yuning couldn’t pretend she hadn’t heard it. Her eyes stared at her unceasingly rumbling belly in frustration. She was too embarrassed to look at Xie Zhaoran’s expression.

So she missed the smile that was overflowing from Xie Zhaoran’s eyes.

Xie Zhaoran slightly hooked her pinky behind her back.

“There is something very important that I need your help with right now, Miss Shi.”

Shi Yuning immediately looked up, her cheeks rosy, but her eyes were firm. “What is it? Don’t worry, even if you want me to report Prince Yu to the Emperor, I’ll do it!”

Xie Zhaoran nodded, her expression becoming more serious. “We can set that aside for now. There is something more important at the moment.”

“What?” Shi Yuning was confused. Was there anything more urgent than dealing with that scoundrel, Prince Yu?

…

“I’m hungry. Miss Shi, do you know of any stalls nearby where we can get something to eat?” Xie Zhaoran asked very seriously, trying to hold back her laughter.

She looked so sincere that Shi Yuning wondered if the stomach rumble she heard earlier had been hers, not her own.

“You’re hungry too?” Shi Yuning tilted her head. What a coincidence.

Xie Zhaoran nodded. “Extremely hungry. So hungry that my brain isn’t working.”

Shi Yuning completely understood that feeling. Her brain didn’t work well when she was hungry, either.

She looked around and, recognizing the area, smiled slightly. “Follow me. I know this place well.”

Shi Yuning led Xie Zhaoran down a narrow alley and around a corner, where they saw a small, mobile stall selling late-night snacks.

“Go ahead and find a seat. I’ll go ask the owner if he still has anything to eat.”

Shi Yuning smiled and walked toward the steaming wonton stall. These roadside stalls were usually very simple.

A small pushcart, a stove, and a few tables and chairs were all it took to get started.

The owner was tending to a simple charcoal stove. The lid of the iron pot on the stove would occasionally be pushed up, letting out puffs of white steam that were coated with a warm glow from the dim candlelight.

Seeing a familiar face, the owner greeted her enthusiastically. “Miss Shi, you haven’t been here in a while! The usual, a bowl of wontons and two pieces of dried tofu?”

Shi Yuning smiled and nodded. “The usual, yes. I brought a friend with me today. Give us two bowls of wontons and five pieces of dried tofu.”

“Alright! Have a seat, and I’ll bring it over when it’s ready.”

Shi Yuning turned to find Xie Zhaoran, but then she suddenly remembered something and turned back to the owner. “Oh, and老板, my friend doesn’t eat scallions. Please don’t put any in one of the bowls.”

“Alright, I got it. Go have a seat. It’ll be ready in a moment.”

The owner happily picked up the wontons to put in the pot. He then quickly put the seasonings in the bowls, making sure to add a handful of green scallions to one but not the other.

Shi Yuning saw that Xie Zhaoran had picked the table furthest to the side. She took a few steps and sat down to her right.

“You come here often?”

As soon as she sat down, Xie Zhaoran asked a question. She saw that Shi Yuning seemed to be very familiar with the place and the owner.

However, most of these late-night stalls didn’t set up during the day, so how would Shi Yuning know this place so well?

Shi Yuning didn’t hide anything. “I come here a lot. Hehe. I have nothing to do at night, so if I get hungry, I go out to find something to eat.”

What Shi Yuning didn’t say was that she had practically eaten her way through every stall in the capital, which was why she couldn’t save any money.

Xie Zhaoran slightly lowered her gaze and didn’t say anything else.

She had indeed underestimated Shi Yuning’s carefree nature.

Xie Zhaoran looked past Shi Yuning toward the wonton stall in the distance. The simple charcoal stove with a steaming pot on top looked like a warm harbor in the night.

No wonder Shi Yuning loved to come here. Even she felt that this scene was a beautiful sight in the night.

“What are you looking at? You still haven’t told me what you’re going to do about Prince Yu.”

Now that they were settled, Shi Yuning hadn’t forgotten the matter weighing on her mind.

Just thinking about the disgusting things she had heard that night made Shi Yuning feel sick. She wished she could stuff all the dirty and rotten things into Prince Yu’s foul mouth.

“What do you want to do about it?” Xie Zhaoran asked in return.

Shi Yuning’s gaze was heavy, and her brows were tightly furrowed. “We have to bring him to justice, of course!”

“Insufficient evidence,” Xie Zhaoran said, not directly denying her idea, but simply stating the current situation.

Shi Yuning was a little confused. “How is that possible? I’m a witness, and you heard it too. Isn’t that enough evidence?”

“Not enough.” Xie Zhaoran wasn’t trying to discourage her; it really wasn’t enough.

She spoke slowly. “It’s not just not enough; we could be turned on.”

Seeing that Shi Yuning didn’t understand, Xie Zhaoran explained the key points concisely.

“Before we even consider whether the Emperor would believe us, we need to think about how we found out about this. If we say we broke into Prince Yu’s mansion at night to eavesdrop, then before Prince Yu is punished, we would be arrested first and wait for our sentencing.”

Shi Yuning opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but she couldn’t think of anything.

She pursed her lips, thinking about what Xie Zhaoran said. That really was a problem!

“Then what? Are we just going to let it go?” Shi Yuning thought that if they did, she’d rather be knocked unconscious and be told it was all a dream and that everything she heard tonight wasn’t real.

Otherwise, she would be angry every time she thought about it.

“Why don’t you look angry at all?” Shi Yuning suddenly realized something was wrong. From the moment they were on the roof of Prince Yu’s mansion until now, Xie Zhaoran hadn’t shown a hint of anger.

Xie Zhaoran resisted the urge to pinch Shi Yuning’s angry little face again and answered her question seriously.

“Anger is useless.”

Shi Yuning was surprised. “But people have feelings. When they feel angry, they get angry. What does it have to do with being useful?”

Xie Zhaoran smiled slightly. “Then let’s just say you’re angry for me.”

Shi Yuning: “???”

Could you get angry for someone else?

“The wontons are here. Please enjoy.”

The owner brought over two bowls of wontons, interrupting what Shi Yuning was about to say.

He reached between them, placed the wontons and a plate of dried tofu on the table, and after exchanging a few pleasantries with a smile, he went back to serving other customers.

Seeing the wontons, Xie Zhaoran pushed one bowl to Shi Yuning and took one for herself. “Let’s eat first. You’ll have the energy to get angry once you’re full.”

Shi Yuning was unhappy. If they were just going to let it go, she wasn’t in the mood to eat.

“Are we really just going to let it go?”

Xie Zhaoran pursed her lips. This time, she couldn’t help but gently poke Shi Yuning’s chubby cheek. “How could we? That would be making you angry for nothing.”

“Huh?” Shi Yuning’s spirits immediately lifted. “You have a plan?”

Xie Zhaoran pushed the wontons closer. “Eat first. I’ll tell you after you finish.”

With that, she looked away. She was afraid that if she kept looking, she would have to use both her hands.

She wanted to cup that round, rosy face and rub it hard. Looking at those bright, shining eyes, she was like a little wild donkey—both stubborn and adorable.

She lowered her head, moved the wontons closer, and was about to scoop up a spoonful with her spoon when her hand was suddenly stopped.

Xie Zhaoran looked up at Shi Yuning in surprise. She was a little confused. Was this little wild donkey not going to eat and not going to let anyone else eat either?

“You took the wrong one. That bowl is mine.”

When Xie Zhaoran heard this, she looked down. They were just two bowls of wontons with no names on them. How could she have taken the wrong one?

“This bowl with scallions is mine.” Shi Yuning pointed to the wontons in Xie Zhaoran’s hand. She then pointed to the bowl in front of her. “This one without scallions is yours.”

Xie Zhaoran looked up at her words. There were two bowls of wontons on the table. One had floating green scallions, and the other did not.

Seeing her silence, Shi Yuning wondered if she had misremembered.

“You don’t eat scallions, do you?”

“How do you know that?”

“Qiangdi told me.”

“And you remembered just because she said it?”

Hearing Xie Zhaoran’s surprised tone, Shi Yuning raised her eyebrows. It wasn’t a very complicated thing. How could she not remember?

She directly switched the two bowls. “Hurry up and eat. It won’t taste good when it’s cold.”

With that, Shi Yuning lowered her head, scooped up a spoonful of the soupy wontons, and took a bite. The warm broth went down her throat and warmed her all the way to her heart.

She was so satisfied. She was so hungry that she didn’t have time to talk to Xie Zhaoran. She happily ate one wonton after another.

After finishing more than half a bowl, she finally felt herself recovering.

She saw that Xie Zhaoran was still stirring her wontons with her spoon, not eating them, just watching her with an unwavering gaze.

“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me? Eat.”

Xie Zhaoran let out a soft laugh. For some reason, her smile had a sweet, buttery feel to it.

“Hmm, it was a little hot just now.”

Although she knew Shi Yuning had probably just happened to remember it, Xie Zhaoran’s heart was still lightly scalded by her thoughtfulness.

Seeing Xie Zhaoran slowly start to eat, Shi Yuning smiled and said, “What do you think? I didn’t lie, did I? Isn’t this place’s wonton delicious?”

“Yes, it’s delicious.”

Shi Yuning was very happy to hear that. She felt as if her taste had been validated. She looked at Xie Zhaoran, who was eating her wontons with her head down.

Her movements weren’t slow, but they were graceful. The simple tables and chairs couldn’t hide her elegant demeanor.

The rough porcelain bowl only made her porcelain-white fingers, which were holding the rim of the bowl, look even more slender and beautiful.

Shi Yuning had a very surreal feeling. If someone had told her a month ago that she and Xie Zhaoran would be sitting together at a small roadside stall, eating wontons, she would never have believed them.

Her mind worked much faster now that her stomach was full. Shi Yuning thought about all the changes. It seemed as if the current situation was all because of Prince Yu.

It started when Prince Yu insisted on shooting her sachet at the hunting grounds and Xie Zhaoran helped her by shooting it back.

Then they went hunting together and were attacked by assassins. At the time, she didn’t know who the culprit was, but now she did—it was Prince Yu.

Because of these events, she went to the Eastern Palace to visit and learn riding and archery, which led to them investigating Prince Yu’s mansion tonight.

Shi Yuning’s eyes widened. So Xie Zhaoran had suddenly become so close to her because of Prince Yu?

“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Shi Yuning looked at her thoughtfully. “If someone had told me a month ago that we would be sitting here eating wontons together, I wouldn’t have believed them.”

Xie Zhaoran raised an eyebrow at Shi Yuning’s meaningful words. She put down her spoon, lowered her gaze, and waited for her to continue.

“You used to dislike me so much. Why did you suddenly change your attitude?”

The spoon in Xie Zhaoran’s hand suddenly clattered into her wonton bowl. “When did I ever dislike you?”

Shi Yuning found her question odd. “When did you ever like me?”

Xie Zhaoran’s expression became serious. “What made you think I felt that way?”

The two of them looked at each other, their eyes filled with confusion.

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