He wants to retort that the only thing good for stabbing in the area are the butter knives, and they'll take a decent amount of effort to get them through the skin, but instead he just grins in reply and dishes himself up with a couple of spicy entrees, grabbing the shaker of chili flakes for good measure.

"Maybe so," he concedes, "but at least you don't have to eat anything you don't want."

Something that both is and isn't good, he supposes, since he has a hard time forcing himself to eat anything bland or too many vegetables, though he really ought to.

It's a little early in the day for drinking, so he picks up a mug of hot water and drops in one of the tea packets to steep on his way to find a table. Luckily, there's plenty available, and he picks one that's in the middle of enough other chatter that it should be difficult to overhear them, should they have to talk in hushed tones. Once decided, he waves Jin Ling over, gesturing at the empty seat across from him, waiting til he's seated before he starts asking questions.

"Mm, so one at a time then. Think you can answer questions while we eat?" they weren't from the Lan clan, after all, "just to make it fair, you can ask me some in return."