Chapter 466: Chapter 463: Three Hundred Bucks
They’d been in the room for less than ten minutes when the young lady at the front desk had already brought over the latest local tourism brochure.
"If you need anything else, guests, feel free to call the service number at the front desk."
He Qianhui answered with a smile and returned with the brochure in hand.
"Look at this, the scenery is really nice, and the weather here is good too. I should be able to wear the clothes I bought."
Zhang Hao was packing his suitcase, taking out clothes he would change into over the next few days, so that he wouldn’t have trouble finding them when needed.
"I want to wear the red dress tomorrow, and the other one in a couple of days."
Zhang Hao responded, neatly folding the clothes he’d just taken out.
"I’ve got everything ready for you so you can just wear it when it’s time."
He Qianhui sat curled up on the sofa, watching Zhang Hao busy himself.
"I’m really happy about this trip, but why aren’t you looking for hidden cameras here?"
Zhang Hao closed the suitcase, squatted on the ground, looking around, and said lightly, "No need, don’t need to here."
He Qianhui knew what he was thinking and passed him a bottle of water.
"Have a drink, you’ve had a hard journey."
"With your care, I’m not tired. This hotel has always had good reviews, so there’s no need to worry about hidden cameras."
"Besides, I don’t plan on touching you tonight, remember? Whoever gives in first is the dog."
He Qianhui pursed her lips as if she wanted to say something but eventually swallowed her words.
Just as her opinion of Zhang Hao was improving, he brought up that matter again. She really was at a loss with him.
Finally, after holding back for a while, she squeezed out a sentence: "Can’t you just forget about that? You’re always saying how it benefits you; after all, I’m not the one who wakes up feeling uncomfortably stiff every morning."
Zhang Hao stood up and adjusted his trousers: "No problem, it was the same during university. So many years have passed, and I’m used to it."
Seeing this, He Qianhui forced out a smile uglier than crying.
"Alright, since you’re not giving in, I have to eat something with a strong flavor tonight. So even if you beg me, you’d better think thrice."
They asked the hotel front desk if there were any good restaurants worth visiting nearby.
Luckily, the person at the front desk was a local and offered them a suggestion.
Do not look for places that are lavishly decorated.
Instead, seek out small but crowded eateries, though they might look run-down.
Despite their shabby appearance, if they have many customers crowding in, you can bet the cooking’s got to be good. Surely the chef’s skills must be decent.
Following the front desk lady’s advice, they searched for the kind of small place she described.
However, this area was sparsely populated with few shops around, let alone ones with luxurious decorations.
"Did we ask the wrong person, or should we check the map?"
Facing such a desolate place, He Qianhui wasn’t quite sure.
Zhang Hao, on the other hand, had already opened the map.
It showed that there was a place to eat two kilometers away.
The question was whether it would be open during the off-season for tourism.
If not, they might still end up hungry.
Continuing down the road, after about ten minutes, they spotted a white tin house by the roadside.
Outside the tin house stood a red sign with the word "restaurant" written on it.
Seeing these two words, Zhang Hao and He Qianhui felt a special closeness and quickly made their way over.
When they pushed open the door of the tin house, there wasn’t a single diner inside.
But there were quite a few tables, and just by looking at the environment inside, one could tell that the business wasn’t great on regular days.
The dishes and chopsticks were all piled up on one side, unwashed, and it was unclear whether they were left over from the previous meal.
However, when traveling, one adheres to the philosophy "a little dirty won’t hurt you, as long as you don’t get sick," and after all, anything stir-fried on high heat should be considered sterilized.
Noticing customers arriving, the young couple who were snuggled up together flashed a hint of displeasure on their faces.
The woman stood up from the man’s lap and adjusted her clothing.
"What will you eat? But today, the delivery only brought one type of vegetable, and we only have rice left," she said.
Wanting to eat vegetables in such a place was a matter of no small difficulty.
"No vegetables, what about meat?" Zhang Hao asked.
"We do have meat, beef, mutton, yak meat; whatever you want, we have it here," the proprietress said.
Under the woman’s guidance, Zhang Hao went to the counter to take a look.
The meat, no one knew how long ago it had been cooked, looked somewhat air-dried.
"Is this meat fresh?" Zhang Hao asked.
The woman, leaning on the counter with a smile, her chicken heart neckline revealing the pink lace of her bra.
"Handsome, you’ve come all the way here, and you still don’t know what the climate is like around these parts?"
"To have something to eat is already good; don’t be picky. If you’re picky, go eat in the big city, where you can find everything," she taunted.
Under the woman’s ridicule, Zhang Hao turned back to look at He Qianhui.
Should they eat here, or should they look for another restaurant?
Starving, with her front sticking to her back, He Qianhui didn’t plan to look any further.
They might as well make do with a few bites here; they found a relatively clean table, and Zhang Hao ordered two staple dishes and a plate of meat.
He also asked the proprietress to stir-fry some greens. With only the two of them as customers in the place, the food was prepared quickly.
In a few minutes, a plate of greens was stir-fried, which they had thought would be tender and fresh.
On closer inspection, both of them instantly lost their appetite.
The plate of sliced meat, though it looked air-dried on the surface, was actually not bad.
"Quick, try it and see how it tastes!" Zhang Hao said.
He Qianhui dared not touch her chopsticks and merely dryly ate the rice from her bowl, bland and unappetizing.
Seeing her hesitant to try, Zhang Hao picked up a slice of meat and put it into his mouth.
At first, the taste was a bit strange, but the more he ate, the more acceptable it became.
After swallowing, he even began to crave more of that flavor.
Seeing him eating so happily, He Qianhui also reached out with her chopsticks.
She put a small piece into her mouth and discovered, to her surprise, that the meat was tastier and more flavorful than she had imagined.
Before long, the plate of meat was finished; Zhang Hao turned around intending to ask the owner to cut two more plates.
But turning his head, he saw the couple once again wrapped up in each other’s arms, intently watching a TV drama on the cellphone.
Zhang Hao coughed and said, "Madam, could you please serve two more portions of the meat from just now?"
The proprietress got up again with a smile and said, "How about that, this meat is tasty, isn’t it? Don’t mind the surface looking a bit dry, that’s just the weather here. This meat, we’ve soaked it in the best marinade, I guarantee you’ll want it again after trying it once. Not a few customers have eaten here before and then bought three to five catties to eat on the road."
Zhang Hao had heard of such things before, with tourists on road trips buying some meat to snack on or fend off hunger while on the road.
After all, given how remote this place was, finding a place to eat was not an easy task.
If one didn’t come prepared with something to eat, they might spend the entire trip going hungry.
