Chapter 55 - Hotpot with the Crazy Doctor.

In the silence that followed, Zhao Liying froze.

Jing Lihua froze.

Inside the bedroom, Li Zhiqiang froze.

"Is there anyone..." Zhao Liying glanced at the bedroom's closed door, suspicious.

"Zhao Liying you need to sleep. See how late it is? Tomorrow is a big day for you!. I'll walk you to your bedroom." Jing Lihua rushed to take Zhao Liying out of her room. But Zhao Liying evaded her.

"Who is inside your bedroom at this hour?"

"My bedroom?" Jing Lihua frowned and glanced back at the closed door. "Mei Xiu accidentally left my office phone here. And it gets a lot of sham calls. Especially after the incident with Su Lanfen." She made her expressions like Zhao Liying said something absurd and ushered her back out of her room.

After leaving her at her door, Jing Lihua returned with somewhat eased expressions. If Zhao Liying had known that she was hiding a man in her bedroom - a very handsome man - then hell would break trying to explain to her.

When Jing Lihua stepped back into her room, pleasant fragrance molested her nose and yielded her stomach into a grumble. Jing Lihua followed the trail of the fragrance and found a hot pot resting in the middle of the table. Li Zhiqiang was expertly putting vegetables and meat into it. Once he noticed that Jing Lihua was back, he gestured her to sit.

"There was no need..."

Jing Lihua wanted to decline. She wanted to push him out and tell him she didn't want to eat with him. But when she looked at the steaming hot pot and the spicy odor, her determination shook. Hotpot was her favorite. She gritted her teeth and sat beside him.

Just this time, she would yield. She would push him out if there was another time.

Jing Lihua grabbed her bowl. Before she could say something, Li Zhiqiang himself filled it with all her favorite ingredients. Jing Lihua was embarrassed as well as shocked. How would he know what she liked so perfectly? But her concerns were thrown out of the window when an appetizing waft drifted to her nose. Splitting her chopsticks, she attacked the food.

Li Ziqiang also put some ingredients in his bowl but his heart was not into eating, unlike Jing Lihua. His eyes kept on her. She was the reason he was here. His lips curled up thinking that not long after they would be able to enjoy this bliss every day. Unlike Li Zhiqiang, Jing Lihua had fully indulged herself in his delicious cooking. A very comfortable silence lingered in the air as the man and the woman ate, late at night, alone together.

"The sauce is very rich. Did you make it?"

Li Zhiqiang nodded.

"Good. Teach me how you made it sometime." She said casually then paused. Wasn't she supposed to think of the ways to push him away? Her chopsticks were guiding a piece of meat into her mouth and she glanced at him. He had already finished and was staring at her.

"Sure." He agreed.

It was too late to regret. Jing Lihua gulped down the lump. F.u.c.k it. If he was her stalker then be it. Everything could be sacrificed for Hotpot. She busied herself with the savory food.

Jing Lihua finished and picked up the bowls to take them to the kitchenette. Li Zhiqiang was away to pick up a call. She glanced back. He was still busy with the person on the other end of the phone. Jing Lihua picked up her phone and looked through the latest news.

As she expected, the video had a dramatic effect. Jing Lihua was surprised when she found a long apology from Su Lanfen. She was not interested in reading the content of it. But before her post, the video was already released so the damage that happened to Su Lanfen was irreparable despite her apology.

Jing Lihua scrolled down through the screen and read the headlines of media channels situated in Beijing. They claimed that murders had nothing to do with the Su family. And Su Lanfen's manager had cleared the video to merely erase her misbehavior, not the evidence of murders as the analysts had pressed upon earlier.

In some sense, the video had helped them to clear out their names from the murders at the restaurant. Jing Lihua had no interest in dragging the Su family that was not caused by them. Neither was she a petty person. They should pay for something they did. Not for something they didn't. But that didn't mean she would do anything to clear their name.

The number of media channels following the matter was dwindling. The Su family was doing their best to clear Su Lanfen's name before the incoming top ten model award. Soon this news would die on its own and would become a matter of past. But Su Lanfen's reputation did suffer a considerable blow. Jing Lihua smirked. That was the consequence of underestimating her.

She put away her phone and glanced at Li Zhiqiang who had also done his call.