"Heyy! Come over!" Xiao Ye shouted over to Mo Huai and Hou once she was spotted.
Hou heard her and walked through the tables, dodging the disorganised chairs from last night. Since he was so early, it was not yet sorted fully.
He made his way to Xiao Ye's table and sat down on the opposite side, facing her. Mo Huai sat to the side in between the two, trying his best not to get in the way.
"So I heard you wanted to take us to the guards to send a report? Thank you, Xiao," Hou was the first to speak.
"No need to thank me, the guards here never do anything unless they see it first hand or you lodge a real report. I've had trouble before, so just let me get do it for you..." Xiao Ye had experience dealing with ruffians as a receptionist.
Only exacerbated by her looks, many such young masters, like what Mo Huai was imitating, would cause trouble.
However in Freedom Haven, while money and influence was strong, the law held above those. The guards, if given a report, will do their best no matter the status of the perpetrator.
"Shall we go then?" Hou wanted to get attacked by Cang Ying in order to strengthen the Celestial Ink.
"You guys aren't from Freedom Haven, you probably have been travelling, right?"
Mo Huai nodded,
'Good observations, once again a smart girl's
She saw Mo Huai nodding and continued,
"I've seen what travellers survive on, those food pills... Let's have a real meal first, on me"
Hou's stomach growled,
'That is true, they have no flavour and I would enjoy a meal... but I can't let a lady pay!'
"No no let me pay," Hou looked in his robe a put down a few silver.
A few silver was enough for a large meal for three and some drinks. He did not have a concrete understanding of the value yet, he was a direct disciple of an Elder and did not need to worry about funds.
This was some of the earnings he got from the fight, since he was given the money Hou had transferred a portion to his robe to use. The rest he kept in room 6 in the bag it came in. The money was safe as Mo Huai always kept the room they stayed in covered in his formations to protect it.
Xiao Ye saw the few silver and sighed, withdrawing her purse,
"If you insist, but this is why you got robbed. Don't carry and flaunt silver too much. A few silver is fine, but show off copper as well. If people see you only use silver, they'll expect you to have gold!" Xiao Ye scolded Hou, informing him of the hidden rules.
Hou nodded after placing down the few coins,
"Okay, so just use copper as well. So instead of four silver, I should place down two silver and twenty copper?"
"Yeah that's fine, just don't show off higher denominations. People earn only five silver a day if they're lucky, discounting any tax and rent. Showing off will only bring danger."
"Okay, should we order?"
"If it's fine with both of you, since you're paying I'll get you the best items. I eat here everyday, I know what's best."
Hou nodded and turned to Mo Huai, who also nodded. Mo Huai also smirked at Hou and Xiao Ye speaking,
'Almost a couple already, it'll be a shame when we leave.'
A waitress came round and started chatting to Xiao Ye, who then pointed at the menu and ordered a plethora of small meals for breakfast.
The waitress noted them down and said they would return shortly with the food, and to be patient. Once the food arrived, Hou looked at it all.
There was a large array of different plates and bowls. It was a large meal, meant to be shared. In the middle, there was a hot soup which the different plates around had ingredients to add.
"This is the speciality soup of the Dragon's Inn, what you do is take this bowl,"
She grabbed a small individual bowl which was handed out when the food arrived. She took it and continued,
"Then ladle some soup into the bowl and add the food around to your liking in your portion. I like adding these peppers and some of this dove meat,"
She ladled a few scoops of boiling hot soup into her bowl, then quickly placing it back down once it got too hot to handle. Then she used chopsticks and picked up peppers and thinly slice dove meat from the surrounding plates, adding it to the soup.
"Try your own, just combine what you like and enjoy. After it settles, we'll start walking there. On the way though, we'll pass a market so I'll stop there."
"Sound like a plan, thank you Xiao for taking time out of your day for me," Hou's appreciation showed on his blushing face, only made more visible from the heat of the soup.
"No problem, let's dig in!"
As Xiao Ye was eating she occasionally locked eye's with Hou, playing with her hair. She blushed herself at being so direct,
'This'll be my date with little Daizi, if only I can ditch Zhao at the Guard's Station. It'll take a while to report it properly, so I'll advance with Daizi in the meantime!'
The group then ate for next while. The soup was very rich in flavour, it did not need anything else for flavour. Hou was shocked at the flavour, he had been sufficing on bland food for too long.
The small pieces of food which were added at discretion were nice and did not overpower the soup, only enhanced it. There were a range of different roasted vegetables and meat slices which cooked in the hot soup.
The soup stayed at an edible heat throughout. It was placed on a stone which stayed hot no matter what, allowing for the large wide bowl of soup to stay well for a long time.
Xiao Ye slammed down her chopsticks and stood up,
"I'm bloated! Let's start walking to burn off what we just ate. But I'm feeling a bit unsteady, if only somebody could hold me while I walk..." Xiao Ye was being very obvious to Hou but this was intentional on her part.
She knew how Hou was very easy to taunt and guessed he had little experience. She tried to be very straightforward to make sure he did not miss anything.
Even if she did not though, Hou would've noticed. While his reactions have been genuine, he was an experienced person and was not stupid. He could see Xiao Ye was entertaining him.