Upon receiving her praise, Xiao Jingcheng immediately cracked a smile, a far cry from the man who had grabbed Qi Wen just now.
Qi Wen looked at Ye Wanmian, then at Xiao Jingcheng, who was smiling foolishly. After these two days, he had finally seen the light: His Highness the Crown Prince only listened to and allowed Lady Jiang to get close to him!
"Alright, sit down quickly and have dinner," Ye Wanmian urged, sitting down at the table. Qi Wen and Xiao Jingcheng also took their seats respectively.
Seeing that Xiao Jingcheng was about to reach out to grab the food on the table again, Ye Wanmian gently tapped his arm with her chopsticks. "Wrong. You can't use your hands. You should use chopsticks like me."
She pointed to the other pair of chopsticks on the table, indicating for him to pick them up.
Although Xiao Jingcheng couldn't speak yet and his habits were nothing like those of a normal person, he was still very smart. He understood Ye Wanmian's hint. Looking at her hand holding the chopsticks, he tried to pick up the chopsticks on the table and imitate her posture.
Ye Wanmian nodded in satisfaction. "That's right. Just like this. Now you can use the chopsticks to pick up the food you want to eat."
She demonstrated it once, picking up a slice of lotus root and putting it into her bowl.
Xiao Jingcheng followed suit, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pick up the food. It always fell back as soon as he lifted it. After several attempts, he got impatient. His sword-shaped eyebrows knitted tightly as he was about to throw away the chopsticks in his hand.
Seeing this, Ye Wanmian sighed softly and quickly held the hand that was holding the chopsticks. "Let me teach you."
The girl's hand was much smaller than his. Since she often went up the mountain to collect herbs and did other chores, her hand wasn't particularly fair, but her fingers were slender and nice, and her palm was very warm.
Xiao Jingcheng stole a cautious glance at her, unable to stop smiling.
"You need to apply force like this when using chopsticks. Don't be distracted. Pay attention to my movements."
Her small hand covered the back of his, applying force to guide him to pick up a piece of chicken with the chopsticks and smoothly put it into the empty bowl in front of him.
"That's it. Now try it yourself," Ye Wanmian said, then let go of him and sat back in her original position.
The warmth of the girl's palm still lingered on his skin. Seeing the distance between her and himself, Xiao Jingcheng felt somehow unhappy. His eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"Try it. It's not difficult," the girl encouraged from the side.
Xiao Jingcheng pursed his lips and, following what she had just said, reached the chopsticks towards the several dishes in front of him.
Ye Wanmian held her breath and watched. She saw with her own eyes that the chopsticks successfully picked up the food. She secretly let out a sigh of relief and the corners of her lips curled up slightly.
This guy might not remember anything now, but he learned things quickly. He had grasped the essentials after just one demonstration.
However, the next moment, the chopsticks that had just picked up the food trembled, and the food "plopped" down.
Xiao Jingcheng looked at her innocently and moved his lips. "Ah."
Ye Wanmian frowned slightly, then relaxed again.
"Still haven't learned it?"
She had no choice but to lean forward again, hold his hand, and said seriously, "I'll demonstrate it to you one more time. This time you have to watch carefully."
The small hand wrapped around the big hand. Ye Wanmian concentrated on the movement in her hand and taught carefully, "When your fingers hold the chopsticks, you can't be too forceful. At this time, you need to be gentle..."
Their hands together moved towards the dishes on the table. Ye Wanmian said, "After picking up the food, you need to apply a little more force on your hand. At this time, you must not slack off. Just keep it like this..."
She taught very seriously, so she didn't notice at all that the man's attention wasn't on using the chopsticks. Instead, he turned his head slightly and stared at her, greedily smelling the fragrance emanating from her body.
But this scene was clearly seen by Qi Wen sitting across the table.
"Cough, cough, cough!" Qi Wen almost choked on the rice grains in his mouth, which made Ye Wanmian and Xiao Jingcheng both look up at him. Sensing the man's unfriendly gaze on him, Qi Wen quickly scooped up some meat and vegetables from the plate into his own bowl, then picked up the bowl and ran away.
"Um, I just remembered that I still have something to do. I'll go back to my room and eat by myself. You two continue, continue!"
Ye Wanmian was completely confused by his attitude. She had no choice but to turn to look at Xiao Jingcheng. But her nose gently brushed against the man's cheek. She was startled and her heart skipped two beats.
Wait a minute. When had the distance between them become so close?!
Suddenly realizing something, a flash of annoyance crossed Ye Wanmian's mind. She let go of the man's hand, retreated to her own seat, crossed her arms, and said with a straight face, "Now have you learned it? Try again."
Xiao Jingcheng tilted his head slightly. Under her gaze, he imitated her previous actions and tried to pick up the food on the table.
Sure enough, as soon as he picked it up and moved it less than five inches, the food on the chopsticks fell again.
This time, Ye Wanmian saw clearly that he had deliberately let go of his hand!
He did it on purpose!
Completely unaware that he had been exposed, the man looked at Ye Wanmian again, trying to put on that pitiful and innocent look. Ye Wanmian said coldly,
"No one is born knowing how to do this. Since you don't know, then practice more until you learn it. If you still don't know, then just starve."
After saying that, she ignored him and picked up her own bowl, burying her head in eating.
"Ah!"
Xiao Jingcheng held the chopsticks and called out to her.
Why didn't she teach him anymore?
He even moved closer to her on his own initiative, his eyes fixed on her hand.
He really wanted to get close to her. He liked getting close to her so much.
But how could Ye Wanmian let him succeed? For every inch he moved towards her, she moved an inch to the side. She never raised her eyes to look at him again, completely ignoring his existence.
The food on the table emitted an alluring aroma, swirling around the two of them and reaching Xiao Jingcheng's nose. His stomach let out a "growl".
The aroma stirred Xiao Jingcheng's sense of smell, and a strong sense of hunger came from his stomach. That hunger made him have an impulse from the bottom of his heart to tear up all the food in front of him and swallow it.
He looked at the chopsticks in his hand with a bit of disgust, wanting to throw away this annoying thing.
But when he saw Ye Wanmian's somewhat elegant eating posture and remembered the gentle tone when she taught him just now, he forced himself to suppress that impulse. He imitated her and used the chopsticks to scoop the food in the bowl into his mouth.
This time, he finally didn't deliberately let go of the chopsticks to let the food fall on the table. He successfully put the food into his mouth.
The long-lost fresh, fragrant, and salty taste entered his mouth, immediately stimulating his taste buds. He gobbled it up.