The President’s Man - Chapter 130

An Xin shook her head. “Of course not. He has a successful practice, and he has a good wife and a beautiful son. I heard that even General Nakamura respects him.”

“That’s right. So, please don’t compare yourself to your sister ever again.” Mr. Zhen stopped walking. He looked at his daughter and lifted a hand to caress her head gently as he said, “Despite your last mistake, one day, you’ll marry a great man.”

An Xin looked down at her fingers as she murmured, “Dad… You really don’t blame me?”

“Why would I blame you? You did everything you could… And you are nothing like me. I can’t get the heart of the woman I loved and I hurt her… and I hurt your mother and you as well. But you stayed for so long and you never did anything that betrays your conscience.” Mr. Zhen looked at his daughter in the eye and said, “I’m very proud of you, An Xin…”

…

After picking up Lu Ziyan, Han Ye brought them to a two-star Michelin restaurant that specialized in French food. Since he knew that Xiao Zhihao was coming back from school today, he booked a private room at this restaurant so that he could take the mother-son duo for a good dinner.

It was also a well-done gift for Xiao Lei’s performance in the past few days.

As he stared at beef bourguignon that his mother ordered for him, Xiao Zhihao felt so out of place. It was his first time eating French food, much less proper French food. When he looked at his mother, she seemed so… comfortable. She also knew how to eat that “snail” dish that Tian Le explained to him, “It’s escargot, basically, French for snails”.

“I know…” Xiao Zhihao gulped as he watched his mother eating so heartily. He was glad to see his mother eating happily, but at the same time… “Of all things, snails?!” he thought as he shivered at the sight of his mother popping another escargot meat into her mouth.

Xiao Zhihao had never eaten “snail” of any kind before and he was pretty reluctant to try.

“Zhihao, this is really good! Trust me! You have never eaten this before. Now that Mr. Han is paying for it, you need to widen your food experience!” Xiao Lei said. She stabbed a piece of escargot meat out with a snail fork and dipped it in butter before she held it in front of her son’s face. “Come, ahhh…”

“Mum, you eat things like fried bugs and frogs…” Xiao Zhihao shook his head and gently pushed his mother’s hand away. He loved his mother, but there were certain things that he would absolutely disagree with her. For example, her love for exotic food.

“Fried bugs?” Tian Le repeated as he looked at Xiao Lei. “Seriously? Fried bugs?”

“It’s good! Before we settled in Imperial City, Zhihao’s father and I went around the country and we tried food from different places. One of the cities we went to, there was a food festival there. And they sold all kinds of fried bugs! It was soooo good! Crickets especially! I really like fried crickets! A little bit of salt and pepper is all you need to make good fried cricket!”

Lu Ziyan laughed, and he shook his head in disbelief as he said, “Wow… Xiao Lei, you sure eat a lot of… interesting stuff.”

“Ha! Of course! I used to travel all over the world with my parents. Like escargot? I still remember the first time I had it. I was 5 years old, and my father had to go on a business trip to Paris. He took me along and introduced me to escargot, foie gras, coq au vin.”

Xiao Lei smiled as she looked at her plate. “My dad used to feed me…”

Despite smiling, she seemed sad at the mention of her late father. To cheer her up,  Han Ye stabbed a piece of escargot out and held it in front of Xiao Lei. “My good daughter, say ahhhh…”

“W-Who is your daughter!” Xiao Lei stuttered and stuck her tongue out. But when he pulled his hand back slightly, she immediately bit off the meat, which caused the others to laugh at her.

Ignoring the laughter, she then closed her eyes and made an exaggerated gesture as she said, “C’est tres bien! L’escargot a un gout divin ⁠— le chef a fait un boulot. Cuit avec du beurre, de l’ail et du persil? C’est délicieux!” (It’s great. The snail tastes heavenly. The chef did a great job. Cook it with butter and garlic and parsley? Delicious!)

“Wait… You speak French?” Han Ye looked at her curiously. He did not know that she could speak French. Furthermore, she spoke so fluently as if she had been learning French from young.

“Yeah, my mum is really smart. She can speak English and French fluently, among others,” Xiao Zhihao said with a proud tone as he looked at his mother. He then sighed, “Unfortunately, French is a little hard for me.”

Xiao Lei chuckled and gently rubbed her son’s back. “You’ll get there soon. You just started learning after all.”

Xiao Lei was already fluent in French and English before her parents’ untimely deaths. After that, she watched a lot of foreign language movies to stop herself from forgetting about her previous lessons.

“Oh… Intriguing…” Han Ye was thinking about something else. He looked down at his coq au vin and continued to eat while Xiao Lei continued to try and tempt her son into eating escargot despite her son’s reluctance.

However, when no one was noticing, Han Ye looked up at Xiao Lei with his eyes narrowed. “Xiao Xiao Lei… Who exactly are you?” he thought as he looked at her.

Being able to fly around at such a young age at more than 30 years ago? Back then, flight tickets were expensive. What this told him was that she came from a rich background… If her father could take her along on a business trip, then it meant that he was not a normal rich man. Based on how she talked about her parents, it was obvious that she was loved by them.

So… why would a rich heiress be abandoned at the street just because of her parents’ death? And who was she running from?

Han Ye was thinking about all these questions while the rest continued to eat and chat. As he looked at the plate of escargot on the table, he remembered that little girl from his past again. She bragged about it to him before… Han Ye could not remember the exact age, but he knew that she went to Paris when she was still in kindergarten.

“It’s not possible…” Han Ye thought as he looked at her, but deep down inside his heart, he felt that he was wrong. With his fingers tightened around the knife and fork that he was holding, he muttered under his breath, “I need more evidence…”

Once they were done eating, Han Ye looked at the bill with his eyes wide open. It was more than he expected. In fact, it was five times more than his normal monthly groceries.

“Zhihao, I now know why you lived in poverty before,” Han Ye muttered as he walked with Zhihao at the back while the other three walked ahead as they talked about games.

“Huh?” Xiao Zhihao looked up at Han Ye, confused.

“I think you guys were poor because your mother basically ate all the money away… I’m surprised you managed to grow so big.” He then laughed and joked, “Actually, I’m surprised that she didn’t eat you!”

Xiao Zhihao chuckled. He then thought for a moment before he asked, “Mr. Han, you have known my mum for quite a some time now. Can you tell if my mum has put on any weight lately?”

Han Ye thought about it and nodded. “She seems to have more meat around her wrists.”

Xiao Zhihao nodded. When he hugged his mother earlier, he could tell that she put on some weight, which he was happy about.

As they continued walking, Xiao Zhihao said, “My mum, she eats a lot. I can’t deny that. But after my father disappeared, and even before he disappeared actually, she didn’t eat much. She would take a few bites and said that she was full even though she was still hungry. In the last two years, she was probably in constant hunger. I doubt she even allowed herself to eat more than the minimum.”

“Zhihao…”

“I know that she is just trying to save money for me,” Xiao Zhihao said as he looked at his mother who was still walking in front of him. He then turned to Han Ye and bowed slightly before he said in a hushed tone, “I’m sorry that my mum ate so much today, Mr. Han. I’ll pay you back when I’m older…”