Kidnapped by a Dragon Billionaire - Chapter 96

The wine and draw class ended about two hours later with Thorin Loong abandoning his art work completely to stay by Zi Mei’s side to feed her snacks and wine. When the teacher, Joyce, asked him why he isn’t painting, he merely gave her a look and she hurried off without saying anything more.

Zi Mei was thoroughly enjoying herself. She found herself relaxing as she painted the flowers and for the first time, she seems to be able to bring the flowers to life on canvas easily. Even Joyce was suitably impressed.

“That is really good!” Joyce gushed. “Are you by any chance an art student?” she asked.

Zi Mei nodded shyly, basking in her praise. Her art works often get criticisms and frowns from her professors in college so it felt good to be praised here even though this is a casual art class for hobbyists.

“Of course, my girlfriend is a talented artist,” Thorin Loong boasted proudly, pouring another glass of wine for himself. He has downed two bottles of wine thus far but since alcohol doesn’t have any effects on him, it was as if he was drinking juice.

“Oh dear, you should go easy on the wine,” Joyce said, noting the two empty bottles of wine. Though the programme had offered free flow of wine, they did not expect anyone to go beyond three or four glasses since there was a condition that they must not get drunk in class.

“Don’t worry, I am not in the least tipsy,” Thorin assured her, winking at her. The elderly lady blushed and bustled away to check on the other participants in the class. All participants are allowed to bring back their art work so they have to leave their names and contact numbers to come collect their paintings after it dries. The participants are slowly filing out of the class.

Thorin turned back to Zi Mei. “Shall we go now?”

Zi Mei stared at her finished painting. She has never done such beautiful work before. She is so happy. She turned to Thorin and hugged him to his surprise. His arms came up to hug her back.

“Thank you! I love this! I have never painted something so good,” she told him happily. She released him and walk up to Joyce to fill in the form to collect her painting on another day.

“I must say dear, you will make a good artist,” Joyce told her. Zi Mei beamed at her happily.

“Thank you! That was my goal one day,” she said. Thorin came up to them and he gave Joyce a nod.

“This is a nice way of helping people to loosen up and learn to paint,” he told her. “If you ever need any investors, I can help,” he took out his business card and handed it to her. Joyce took the card politely and thanked them.

They walked out of the place hand in hand, Zi Mei brimming with joy over her art work while Thorin was smiling at her exuberance. She is feeling a slight buzz from the wine too but she only took sips of one glass of wine throughout the whole session. She is also enjoying holding hands with Thorin, her small hands enclosed in his large warm hands. She felt so safe and secure with him this way.

“Maybe we should book another session next week?” Thorin asked her. Zi Mei turned to him and beamed happily.

“Maybe we should but there are so many other things to try, let’s try other things too,” she said. Her stomach took that moment to growl loudly. It is quite late and she hadn’t eaten much the whole day. She grabbed her stomach in embarrassment. Thorin Loong chuckled in amusement.

“Let’s get you something to eat, those snacks are barely enough,” he said. “So, what do you want to eat?” he asked.

“I will eat anything, you can take me to any restaurant you like,” Zi Mei replied. She is not so picky about food given her circumstances growing up. In fact, she is always grateful to have enough to eat now compared to the years growing up when she had to scrimp and save for food.

“I don’t have any preference actually,” Thorin told her. They both stopped walking and stood by the street. Thorin’s driver and car is waiting for them by the curb. “Let’s think about it in the car,” he suggested.

But Zi Mei has other ideas. Since Thorin doesn’t seem to have any preference, she is thinking of taking him to the nearest roadside food stalls for an experience surely he has never had before. He is a billionaire CEO, surely he has never eaten food at a roadside stall which is usually frequented by the working class and college students.

“No, I have an idea, let’s go there,” she pointed to a direction down the street. She knows of a place where there were a few roadside food stalls1 offering satisfying local food like boiled skewered seafood (this is called lok lok locally), fried noodles and barbecued skewered chicken (this is called satay locally).

She tugged Thorin to follow her and she walked down the street. Thorin followed her without protesting, strolling in his effortless way.

“I need to remind you that we dragons don’t really need to eat,” he told her as they walked companionably down the street.

“Remind me? Did you tell me that before?” Zi Mei asked. She can’t remember if he did tell her. Or maybe it was their time together prior to him wiping her memories. She shrugged. It doesn’t matter. They are starting anew after all.

“It doesn’t matter…you still can eat right?” she said. She has spotted the first of the stalls, the lok lok stall. Her favourite! She headed towards it and chose a metal table where a boiling pot of water was in a hole in the middle of the table. The whole table is covered by plates of skewered seafood, pork, chicken, vegetables and fish balls. There were several containers of sauces too.

She pulled out the metal stool and sat down, gesturing for Thorin to sit down too. He made a face at the heat emanating from the boiling water and the fact that the table is placed on a sidewalk under a large canopy. He pulled out a similar metal stool and sat next to Zi Mei, grimacing in the heat. Noticing how uncomfortable he looked, Zi Mei grinned at him.

“This is the reason why I said you should dress casually, we are in the tropics after all, you are allowed to wear t-shirt, shorts and slippers,” she said.

Thorin looked highly affronted at her suggestion. “Ugh. Never! I can never dress like that, that would be an insult to this excellent body of mine,” he said, gesturing to his tall wide-shouldered frame that is now folded uncomfortably to sit on the stool. Sweat is now beading his forehead and he took out his handkerchief to wipe it.

Zi Mei rolled her eyes. Right. Her boyfriend is Mr Ultimate Vainpot. She started placing skewers of food that she liked, squids, fish balls, cockles and mushrooms into the boiling hot water.  She took an empty plastic plate and place it in front of him and took another one for herself.

“Would you like some sauces? Spicy sauce or not so spicy?” she asked as she scooped a few types of sauces for herself and poured it into her plate.

“It doesn’t matter, I think I will skip this, you can eat,” Thorin said, looking at the skewers of food disdainfully. He looked out of place and very uncomfortable.

Zi Mei frowned at him. If he wants to date her, he will need to get used to her ‘low class’ ways. She was not born rich and she has never felt comfortable in fancy restaurants. She likes eating at these roadside food stalls. They are cheap and comforting and delicious.

“This is how I eat growing up so get used to it,” she told him.

She started taking out the skewers that she had placed in the boiling water. Most of it are fully cooked. She used a fork to remove the food from the sticks and place it in her plate where she mixed it all in her sauces. She took a bite of the squids. The burst of its juices mixed with the sauces filled her mouth and she groaned in pleasure.

“This is really so good,” she told him. She speared a squid and offered it to him. “Here, try it,” she said.

Thorin looked at the tiny morsel of squid on her fork covered in sauces. He swallowed nervously. He doesn’t really get food poisoning but the place didn’t look sanitary and the sauce-covered squid looked gross to him. He remembered the time he took Zi Mei to a fancy restaurant and she ended up sick due to the food. She later told him that the food was horrible too.

Surely, the food here would be worse, he thought. They are sitting outside on a pavement by the roadside after all.

“Come on, are you scared? You won’t die from this Drags,” Zi Mei said, pushing the fork under his nose.

Thorin’s eyes widened in surprise. She just called him Drags. Is she regaining her memories? He studied her but she is shaking the fork at him.

“Just one bite, if you hate it, you don’t have to eat anything else, you can watch me eat,” she said.

“Wait, what did you call me earlier?” he asked her.

She tilted her head, puzzled. Then she smiled up at him knowingly.

“Are you trying to avoid eating this?” she pushed the fork near to his lips. “Just one bite, try it!” she insisted.

Thorin Loong sighed and took a bite.