Chapter 12

Who doesn’t like flowers, especially girls?

Zhou Zhou was indeed a regular customer at this dim sum shop.

As soon as she entered, the owner ran over.
“Director Zhou, are you here for dinner?”

Zhou Zhou smiled and nodded,
“I brought a friend with me.”

The owner then led them to a small private room next to the main hall. The room wasn’t big — just a rattan table in the center, enough for three or four people.

“This is the menu, you can also scan a QR code to order. What do you want to eat?” Zhou Zhou asked.

“I’m not picky. I’ll eat whatever you like. You order what you like, and I’ll follow,” Cheng Yaran said. He picked up the teapot on the table, asked the owner if the tea was hot, and poured a cup for Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou didn’t say much more,
“Okay, I’ll order on my phone. Boss, you can go do your work now.”

After the owner left, Cheng Yaran quietly asked,
“Does the boss know you? I heard him call you Director Zhou.”

“Not originally. Around the National Day holiday, Mayor Xu visited the flower market next door for research. I was there too. The boss saw me and found out.”

She didn’t want to be stared at while eating, but she couldn’t always order delivery either. She always ordered and paid by phone and behaved properly, so she didn’t mind anymore.

“By the way, the flower market is right next door. Do you often buy flowers there?” Cheng Yaran asked as Zhou Zhou mentioned it.

“Sometimes, when the weather is good, I like to go and look around. Which girl doesn’t like flowers?”

Germany is not only the world’s largest beer producer but also the biggest flower producer in Europe and the biggest importer of flowers. Germans love all kinds of flowers. You can see large fields of flowers everywhere. When they visit friends or family, they often bring a bouquet of beautiful flowers as a gift.

During the years Zhou Zhou spent abroad, she often went out and saw blooming flowers everywhere, which was very enchanting.

In southern Germany, there is a small town called Bamberg. It has a history of over a thousand years and is known as the “City of Flowers.” Most houses there are old German half-timbered buildings, with balconies full of flowers—red like fire, pink like clouds, white like snow. From far away, the flowers look like they are growing in mid-air.

Cheng Yaran relaxed and smiled, thinking,
“My mom likes to put two bouquets of flowers in the living room. She says seeing them makes her happy.”

“Then your mom must be very young at heart,” Zhou Zhou said while scrolling on her phone.

“The shrimp dumplings here are very fresh and tasty. One order isn’t enough. Let’s order two,” she said.

“Okay,” Cheng Yaran replied softly.

“You don’t have to ask me. I really don’t mind. Order whatever you like,” he repeated.

“Alright.” Zhou Zhou stopped paying attention to him, and with her delicate fingers, she ordered on her phone.

Cantonese portions are small, so she ordered a lot: two orders of rice rolls, two shrimp dumplings, two bowls of soup, one sticky rice chicken, one steamed chicken feet with black bean sauce, one rice noodle roll, and one barbecue pork bun.

Cheng Yaran added one Cantonese egg tart at the end.

Most of these dishes were steamed, so the owner quickly brought the food, filling up the small rattan table.

Zhou Zhou pushed the rice rolls and shrimp dumplings meant for Cheng Yaran toward him, joking,
“Boss Cheng, today you can only eat snacks, don’t mind.”

Cheng Yaran didn’t mind at all. Before this afternoon, he never thought he’d have the chance to eat dinner with Zhou Zhou. Coming to a small restaurant like this felt very warm. At times, it even made him feel like they were dating.

“Zhou Zhou, everything smells so good. Thanks to you—I didn’t even know there was a place selling Cantonese dim sum here.”

“That’s right. I remember Chen Jing said you also just came back from Singapore this year.”

Cheng Yaran picked up a piece of rice roll,
“Yes. We had a technology cooperation there, so I stayed for two years.”

He saw Zhou Zhou adding chili oil to her rice rolls and couldn’t help but ask,
“Aren’t you afraid of spicy food?”

How could someone like both sweet and spicy? That egg tart was something he specially ordered for Zhou Zhou.

Zhou Zhou said casually,
“Well, I can’t eat very spicy food, but food that is too plain is boring. Hehe.”

Cheng Yaran smiled gently and shook his head in a caring way. Then he ate another shrimp dumpling and praised,
“These shrimp dumplings are really good, not worse than some five-star hotels.”

“Of course,” Zhou Zhou said. “My best friend Chi Yao and I like to search online for small restaurants. Some little hidden places actually taste great.”

Chi Yao was her close friend. Cheng Yaran vaguely remembered the name — she was a top student, just as smart as Zhou Zhou.

He asked,
“Chi Yao? Has she come back yet?”

“She’s building rockets in the northwest. She only comes back sometimes.”

Only sometimes? That means she doesn’t get many chances to go find good food.

Cheng Yaran remembered there were many small old restaurants in the old city. They were run by masters with decades of experience. But now, he couldn’t remember any store names. He wanted to talk more about this but felt nervous and tongue-tied. He secretly decided to find time to go back to the old city, walk through the alleys, and collect some stories to share. And if possible, invite Zhou Zhou to eat out again.

Just then, a group of lively university students walked past outside. Zhou Zhou looked out the window and said,
“Young people are great—they don’t even feel cold.”

Cheng Yaran looked out and saw some girls wearing only long-sleeved dresses, and some in short skirts showing their legs. Then he looked at Zhou Zhou and saw a little sadness on her pale face.
“You look about the same as them, and you have a lot of grace.”

Youth is beautiful, but beauty that comes from experience is even more moving.

Besides, her youthful image was always deeply painted in his heart, never fading even a little.

After hearing this, Zhou Zhou laughed brightly,
“See? We’re all grown up now. When we used to ride bikes to school, you hardly talked. Now you’re Boss Cheng, and your words sound nicer.”

“That’s because Chen Jing talked so much before. If I talked more, it would be too noisy,” Cheng Yaran laughed too.

Zhou Zhou knew he was close to Chen Jing, so she took his teasing lightly.

She never dieted. After finishing one order of rice rolls, she moved on to shrimp dumplings and buns.

Cheng Yaran saw she was eating happily. He wasn’t very hungry at first, but suddenly he felt like eating more. The two of them talked and laughed and finished all the food they ordered.

Night was falling. Outside, the snack street filled with more people, noisy and lively. The smell of barbecue smoke mixed with the scent of flowers from the flower shops, creating a strange but unique smell.

The smell reached Cheng Yaran’s nose, and he thought it smelled strangely nice.

With a beautiful woman beside him, his heart, which had wandered for more than ten years, finally stopped drifting. At that moment, it finally found its home.