Chapter 293 - Eating at a Buffet

Chapter 293: Chapter 300 Eating at a BuffetHalf an hour later, Li Yifei had already driven to the school gate to pick up Su Yiyi, in a company Mercedes. It was assigned to He Fangqing, as the Porsche was being used by Su Mengxin. The company had quite a few cars, but Xu Yingying was quite strict with the management of official vehicles, so Li Yifei couldn’t just take any car he wanted. Both Xu Yingying and He Fangqing had their designated cars, but as Li Yifei was going out to meet his girlfriend, borrowing a car from Xu Yingying would obviously be problematic, while He Fangqing was more accomodating.

Su Yiyi was with her two roommates when Li Yifei drove up to them, got out of the car, and greeted her. Her face flushed with excitement, she said, "Brother Li, you’re here."

Li Yifei naturally took Su Yiyi’s hand and smiled, "I said I would come, and here I am. By the way, aren’t you going to introduce me to your two roommates?"

Su Yiyi hurriedly introduced, "This is Song Xiaoli and this is Xiao Ning. There’s also Cao Yue, who you’ve met before, but she’s not here today because she had something to do."

Li Yifei smiled and greeted the two girls, "I’ve been telling Yiyi that I’d treat all of you sisters to a meal. But I’ve been tied up with work and only now have a chance. I hope you don’t mind."

From the moment Li Yifei appeared, Xiao Ning and Song Xiaoli had been sizing him up. Song Xiaoli then said, "He really does look the part; no wonder Yiyi mistook that guy for you the other day."

Li Yifei laughed, "Yiyi told me about it, I really have to see who resembles me that much someday."

"Yeah, we need to clear that up. It’s one thing to recognize the wrong person on the street, but in some particular places...that could lead to trouble."

Su Yiyi was immediately embarrassed and chided, "You’re teasing me again; I won’t talk to you anymore."

"Don’t be like that. If you don’t talk to us, who’s going to treat us to dinner tonight?"

Xiao Ning and Song Xiaoli chuckled, turning their attention back to the car. Song Xiaoli exclaimed with exaggeration, "Wow, a Mercedes! I say Yiyi, you’ve snagged a golden bachelor."

Xiao Ning added with envy, "Yeah, a Mercedes! This one must be worth around a million or so."

Li Yifei said with a smile, "This isn’t mine; I borrowed it. I don’t have that much money."

"Really?" Xiao Ning and Song Xiaoli looked at Li Yifei skeptically.

"Of course it’s true. Pretending to be richer than I am is not something I do. If something came up in the future and someone needed to borrow a car from me, and I couldn’t provide one, that would be even more embarrassing."

Seeing Li Yifei in a new light, Xiao Ning and Song Xiaoli looked at him with admiration. Sure, confident men can easily win over girls, but sincere men seem harder to find. Nowadays, the whole society is restless; those without strength try to show off as if they do. People like Li Yifei are rare but give a sense of security.

All three got into the car, with Su Yiyi sitting in the passenger seat and Xiao Ning and Song Xiaoli sitting in the back. Both girls, coming from ordinary families, couldn’t help but look around curiously at the interior of the car.

"Ladies, what would you like to eat tonight?" Li Yifei started the car and slowly steered.

"Can we eat anything we want?" asked Song Xiaoli with a mischievous smile.

"As long as my wallet can afford it, you can have anything."

Xiao Ning pouted and said, "Cheapskate."

Song Xiaoli kept up the playful tone, "So, how much money do you have?"

"I still have over two thousand yuan in my pocket; I wonder if that’s enough to treat you all?"

"Two thousand plus is plenty. Let’s spend just that," Xiao Ning no longer called Li Yifei stingy. To them, spending one or two hundred yuan on an outing was already a high expense.

Song Xiaoli suggested, "Let’s not spend it all; otherwise, he won’t have any money left to buy Yiyi anything. How about we go for a buffet? It’s economical and offers good value, and the food’s pretty tasty too."

Xiao Ning nodded in approval, "Let’s go to that Haizhongquan buffet restaurant. They have lots of seafood, and they also have all sorts of fruit salads. I especially love their fruit salad."

While Su Yiyi was usually reluctant to spend money, she had gone there once with her roommates. At ninety-nine yuan per person, it felt extravagant, but now with Li Yifei present, the cost for four wouldn’t exceed four hundred yuan. It was a deal that could satisfy her roommates without breaking the bank, and she felt it was quite economical.

Li Yifei saw that all three agreed to go there, so he naturally had no objections and drove them there.

At the entrance, they paid for four people, and then entered the self-service restaurant. The space inside was vast, quite crowded at the time, and the central air conditioning was on high. Even though every table had a hot pot going, the hall still felt quite cool.

Li Yifei had never been to such a self-service restaurant before. He couldn’t afford it when he was younger, and when he joined the army, the discipline was strict. After he was selected for the Flying Hawk Squad, he had seen many grand scenes, but because of important figures, no one went to self-service restaurants, so this was his first time eating at one.

Seeing Li Yifei looking like Liu Lao Lao entering the Grand View Garden, Song Xiaoli asked softly, "You’re not telling me this is your first time at a buffet, are you?"

Li Yifei shrugged his shoulders and said, "You guessed it right."

Song Xiaoli slapped her forehead and pushed Su Yiyi, saying, "Teach your boyfriend how to eat his money’s worth here."

Li Yifei turned his head to look at Su Yiyi, and Su Yiyi’s face instantly reddened, but there was also a hint of excitement. Usually, she followed Li Yifei’s lead, but today it seemed she might have something to instruct Li Yifei on.

"Brother Li, the priciest things here are seafood and mutton slices. The mutton fills you up easily, so we can’t start with that. We should eat seafood first, and when we’ve nearly had our fill of that, then we can eat the mutton. But we also shouldn’t get too full on mutton, because there’s still fruit salad at the end."

Li Yifei listened with interest and laughed, saying, "I’ll remember that. It’s good you reminded me, otherwise, if I started with the mutton, I’d get full right away and couldn’t eat anything else, which would be a huge loss."

"Right, when you go to get seafood, you need to be quick. If you’re slow, the good stuff will be snatched up by others. They restock the seafood every half hour, so if you miss out now, you’ll have to wait for the next half-hour."

Li Yifei nodded repeatedly, finding this way of eating to seem more interesting than dining in big restaurants.

They each grabbed a plate at the serving area, and Song Xiaoli quickly whispered, "Head to the seafood section fast, they’re about to bring out the seafood."

The four hurried to the seafood section, where quite a number of people were already waiting. It seemed that those who often ate at buffets knew how to make the most of it.

In less than two minutes, several waiters came over pushing carts with several boxes on them. Everyone immediately started pushing forward. Watching Xiao Ning and Song Xiaoli struggle to get to the front without any hint of ladylike grace, Li Yifei couldn’t help but chuckle.

Su Yiyi followed beside Li Yifei, whispering, "Song Xiaoli and Xiao Ning aren’t kids from wealthy families either, so having a buffet is quite a luxury for them. They naturally want to make sure they eat their money’s worth."

Li Yifei quickly said, "I didn’t mean to make fun of them. The idea of scrambling for food just makes it seem all the more delicious. Let’s join in the scramble too."

Su Yiyi nodded, and with Li Yifei’s help, the two of them squeezed to the front, where the waiters had just poured several kinds of seafood onto ice-filled trays. Everyone was busily piling seafood onto their plates. However, because the plates were just regular small dish plates, even filled to the brim, they could only hold two or three crabs, and it wasn’t easy to fit anything else, so many were going back and forth multiple times.

The restaurant probably limited the plate size to prevent some from taking too much all at once, leaving none for others. seaʀᴄh thё Novёlƒire.n(e)t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

"Brother Li, you better hurry up," Su Yiyi urged Li Yifei in a low voice as she saw him moving languidly.

At that moment, Song Xiaoli had already put three crabs on her plate and said to Li Yifei with a giggly smile, "Having airs doesn’t work here. If you don’t take action, everything will be gone soon. Ah, I can’t talk anymore, I have to take these to our table and come back for more."

After speaking, Song Xiaoli and Xiao Ning hurriedly walked towards the dining area with their plates. When they picked a table and came back, they found Li Yifei and Su Yiyi still at the seafood section. Xiao Ning spoke with some urgency, "You two are so slow. You better not swipe our food later on."

Su Yiyi immediately said, "We definitely... won’t snatch yours."

Song Xiaoli and Su Yiyi’s faces changed, and at that moment, it seemed everyone around was looking at Li Yifei. They had stopped taking seafood themselves, and both girls were astonished. When they moved forward two steps and finally saw Li Yifei from the side, they too were stunned, now understanding why everyone was staring at Li Yifei and why Su Yiyi was so sure they wouldn’t snatch their food.

"Is this a magic trick?"

"That’s incredible, how is that even possible?"

"I definitely can’t do it; I tried just now and couldn’t stack it that high no matter what."

People were now completely entranced by Li Yifei, murmuring their assessments. It was a good thing that Xu Shanshan wasn’t there, otherwise she would have been excitedly shouting. Even at a buffet, Li Yifei managed to create such a spectacle, earning one more reason for Xu Shanshan to like him.