I'll Feed You

When all the food arrived, Wang Jingyuan was practically drooling from the delicious aromas. As much as she didn't want Mo Xian to splurge, she was dying to taste all of the food. There were sweet and sour pork, stir-fry beef with broccoli and carrots, honey barbequed pork, crab roe buns, marinated grilled fish, braised pork shoulder, white radish stewed with dried shrimp, minced chicken and golden bamboo shoots, and fried fish balls. And those were just the dishes she recognized.

Mo Xian watched her wide eyes dart from one dish to the next. He smiled to himself. He knew Wang Jingyuan was a foodie; after all of their time together on the road, he knew what she liked and didn't like.

"Here, eat some sweet and sour pork. Try this glazed shrimp. Take this honey barbequed pork." Mo Xian began picking out all the foods that Wang Jingyuan liked and put them in her bowl. Soon, she had a heap of assorted foods in front of her.

"Childe Mo, you eat too. My bowl can't hold anymore food." Wang Jingyuan looked at the empty bowl in front of Mo Xian.

"Alright. Let's dig in together." Mo Xian dropped one last piece of chicken into her bowl before taking another piece for himself.

Heeding the doctor's advice, Wang Jingyuan carefully tried using her chopsticks in her right hand like usual. The brace did not give her fingers much flexibility, and if she tried bending her fingers too much her wrist began to hurt. Darn it, why did her hand have to be disabled when Mo Xian ordered so many appetizing foods?

Wang Jingyuan had a stroke of brilliance. She took her chopsticks in her left hand and stabbed them into a piece of pork. Ta-da! Using chopsticks like a fork wasn't ideal, but it let Wang Jingyuan pick up food and bring them into her mouth—and that was good enough for her.

Pretty soon, Wang Jingyuan had devoured all of the food in her bowl. She turned her attention back to the dishes on the table in front of her and began to try the ones she wasn't able to fit in her bowl the first time.

"Mmm! This braised pork is really good. Here, try it, Childe Mo." She stabbed a piece with her chopstick and delivered it to Mo Xian's bowl. "This tofu is good too! And this roast duck! Ooh, this fish ball has a salty filling!"

Wang Jingyuan spotted a plate of pork ribs. She loved ribs so much. She stabbed one with her chopsticks, but it slipped off when she tried to bring it back to her bowl. It was too heavy. Undeterred, Wang Jingyuan tried again. This time, it slipped off halfway between the plate and her bowl and dropped into a plate of beef.

"Here, Miss Wang." Before Wang Jingyuan could stab it a third time, another pair of chopsticks picked it up with ease. Mo Xian held it up to Wang Jingyuan.

"Thanks, Childe Mo." Wang Jingyuan wondered why he didn't just put it in her bowl, but she tried to stab it with her chopsticks to take it from Mo Xian.

"I'll hold it. You eat." Mo Xian held the rib closer to her mouth.

"What?" Wang Jingyuan blinked, her chopsticks frozen in midair.

"Say aah," Mo Xian brought the rib right up to her lips.

Not knowing what else to do, Wang Jingyuan opened her mouth and took a bite of the tender meat. "Childe Mo, I can just hold it with my hand," she said, somewhat embarrassed.

"No, Miss Wang, it'll dirty your fingers. I should have realized sooner that you couldn't use chopsticks with your right hand. I would have fed you everything." Mo Xian held the rib steady with his chopsticks. He held it still until Wang Jingyuan ate off all the meat from the rib, before putting the bone aside. "Would you like another one, Miss Wang?"

"Um, no, it's okay." Wang Jingyuan did, in fact, want another rib, but she felt bad about having Mo Xian feed it to her. Her eyes scanned the dishes again before it landed on the fried fish balls.

Before her chopsticks could stab one through, Mo Xian's chopsticks snatched one up and brought it to her mouth. Wang Jingyuan looked at his encouraging smile and could only eat it from his chopsticks. Stubbornly, she tried to get a piece of chicken by herself. Mo Xian's chopsticks were faster.

"Just tell me what you want to eat, Miss Wang, and I'll get it for you." Mo Xian's eyes were crescent moons as he watched Wang Jingyuan eat the piece of chicken with a huff.

"Okay. I want a piece of fish." Wang Jingyuan was a little miffed at how Mo Xian beat her to every piece of food she wanted. He wanted to feed her? Fine. She was going to eat a piece from every single dish on the table; let's see how long Mo Xian can keep it up.

"I want the bamboo shoots."

"The braised chicken."

"A crab roe bun."

"The honey barbequed pork."

"The beef. No, the other one."

"That fish over there."

"The seaweed."

"Some claypot rice."

Mo Xian smiled pleasantly as he got each food that Wang Jingyuan asked for. He saw right through her childish attempt to tire him out. His own childish stubbornness rose up. Oh, Miss Wang, we could be here all day…

They got through one iteration of all the dishes. Wang Jingyuan licked her lips and stole a glance at Mo Xian. He was waiting for her next order. Really? He's not tired or annoyed? Or was he just too nice to say so? Wang Jingyuan was beginning to feel bad for actually making Mo Xian feed her something from every single dish when he said to her, "Miss Wang, ready for round two?"

This Mo Xian! Wang Jingyuan understood immediately that he knew exactly what she was doing and was challenging her as well. All feelings of guilt disappeared right away.

"Of course, Childe Mo. I'm still starving."

* * * * *

"Fine, you win. I'm so stuffed I don't think I can even move." Wang Jingyuan ended up being the first to surrender.

Mo Xian tilted his head. His eyes laughed at her amusingly. "No more, Miss Wang? I can go for round four if you'd like. There's plenty of food left."

Wang Jingyuan rolled her eyes at him. "You can go for round four by yourself. You barely ate anything."

"No, I ate plenty. See, I ate all the spicy dishes." Mo Xian gestured at the empty dishes scattered around the table. "I know you don't like spicy food, so I ate all of them."

Wang Jingyuan was touched that he remembered she didn't like spicy food. She began to feel bad about having Mo Xian feed her again. "Childe Mo…thanks for, um, feeding me."

"No need to thank me, Miss Wang. I said this was my treat, so I'm going to make sure you actually eat to your heart's content." Mo Xian's smile widened. "Now that we've had lunch, what do you think about getting dessert?"

"Dessert?" Wang Jingyuan's eyes lit up. She imagined all the cakes and pastries she had seen in the small shops on their way here. "Oh, but I'm already so full…"

"Don't worry. By the time we walk over, you will have walked off the entire meal and be hungry again." Mo Xian pulled Wang Jingyuan to her feet. "My treat, Miss Wang."