Third Fish counted the pieces of braised pork on his fingers and muttered to himself, “There are eight pieces of braised pork in a serving, and there are only two left. How much should I charge?”

He has only recently been introduced to arithmetic and was still a bit slow to learn, but compared to his younger brothers and sisters, he was already fast.

The foreman: “…”  This was a math problem that even a three-year-old can solve. This guy looks good, but why is his brain a little like a ‘fish’?

Before Third Fish finished calculating the number, the foreman had already done so for him. He ordered a few more dishes and quickly handed the meal voucher to Third Fish. By the time this young man finished calculating, my meal would be cold!

Third Fish took the meal ticket, calculated it and found that it was indeed this number, so he nodded and handed the plate to the foreman.

The foreman found a seat and sat down, eager to try the braised pork. At this moment, Xiao Li’s cell phone rang.

The call was from Xiao Li’s eight-year-old daughter.

Xiao Li picked up the phone and asked happily, “Dear daughter, why did you think of calling Daddy?”

A childish voice came from the microphone, “Dad, have you eaten?”

Xiao Li: “I’m eating now. Have you eaten yet?”

Daughter: “I’ve eaten.”

Xiao Li chatted with his daughter for a while, and his daughter suddenly asked, “Dad, did you have meat for lunch? You work hard, so you need to eat more meat to grow stronger.”

Xiao Li smiled and said, “Dad ate a lot of meat, it was really delicious.”

The foreman paused his chopsticks when he heard these words and turned to look at Xiao Li’s plate. There was only hot and sour potato shreds and white rice on the plate. Where could the meat be found?

There was plenty of money to be made in construction, but without the workers’ blood and sweat, how could there be a wave of successful construction projects? Work on the construction site was exhausting and arduous, and could even be life-threatening if one was not careful. 

Other workers, at least, treated themselves to a good meal after receiving their wages, but Xiao Li lived frugally every day. Like the foreman, these workers were from Lijia Village¹, and he knew a little about the situation: Xiao Li’s daughter was in poor health and was frequently hospitalized, so he really needed to save money.

The daughter expressed disbelief, so Xiao Li had to say, “I really ate it.”

When his daughter asked for a video call, Xiao Li looked helpless. He put down the phone and whispered, “My daughter is very cunning.”

The foreman exchanged his plate with Xiao Li and said, “Here. Go ahead and make a video call.”

Xiao Li was stunned for a moment, smiled at him gratefully, and then turned on the video call.

A very cute little girl appeared on the screen.

Adults often think that children didn’t understand things, but they actually know a lot. Seeing her father reluctant to start the video call, she felt very sad and almost cried. When the video appeared, the little girl hurried to find the meat on her father’s plate and immediately saw the braised pork.

When she saw the braised pork, the tears in her eyes fell down instantly.

Xiao Li quickly asked, “What’s wrong?”

The little girl stared at the braised pork on the screen and couldn’t help saying, “It looks so delicious!”

The skin of the braised pork was translucent, the fat was clear and plump, and the lean meat was soft and tasty. Just by looking at it, you could already imagine how rich and delicious it must taste.

Xiao Li: “…”

Xiao Li was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. His daughter was crying because she was greedy for the braised pork!

The little girl accidentally spoke out her true feelings, and as a result her face turned as red as an apple. After telling her father to eat well, she quickly wanted to hang up the call.

Xiao Li felt a mixture of melancholy and excitement. “This is the braised pork sold in the cafeteria at the Aeronautics University. It’s not convenient to take it home. If you want to eat it, try applying to the university someday! How are your studies going lately?”

Little girl: “…”

“Dad, eat well. I’m hanging up now!” the little girl quickly hung up. Seeing her father eat meat, her heart suddenly felt better. As for applying to Aeronautics University… that wasn’t what the little girl wanted to hear.

Xiao Li: “…”

Xiao Li returned the plate and said to the foreman with a smile, “Boss, my daughter is cute, isn’t she?”

Foreman: “… very cute.” Her expression when asked about her studies was so vivid.

The foreman, withdrawing his thoughts, offered a portion of the braised pork from his plate to Xiao Li, saying in a teaching tone, “Eating is the most important thing. We do physical labor, and we can’t harm our health. No amount of money we spend in the future can make up for it. Only when we are healthy can we spend more time with our families.” 

He and the workers came from the same village, and they had a close relationship. He was also their elder, deeply respected by them.

Xiao Li didn’t refuse, and nodded with a smile, “Okay.”

Seeing his expression, the contractor knew that he had listened, so he breathed a sigh of relief and picked up a piece of braised pork and put it in his mouth.

The full name of Luo Huai’an’s braised pork should be ‘traditional braised pork’. Modern dark soy sauce contained sugar, which could be used to color braised pork, but Luo Huai’an did not use this method. Instead, she used the ancient method of boiling sugar for the reddish color, slowly heating one spoonful of water and one spoonful of sugar at a time, until the sugar water darkened, gurgled and bubbled.

Then she stir-fried the braised pork in it, removed the excess oil, and then simmered it over low heat for over two hours, achieving a rich yet non-greasy finish. Finally, she drained the braised pork broth, which, after boiling vigorously and evaporating, had now become rich and thick, coating the pork.

Mythical Beast Cafeteria translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: If you’re enjoying my translations, do consider buying me ko-fi and get access to advance chapters as reward. Thank you for your support! ☺️

Chapter 8.3 — How Does The Boss Have So Many Connections?
Chapter 9.1 — Seduce The New Students
Chapter 9.2 — Seduce The New Students
Chapter 10 — The Only New Variable Is The Eighth Cafeteria
Chapter 11 — Eat In Front Of The Freshmen During Military Training
Chapter 12.1 — Suzhou-style Mung Bean Soup
Chapter 12.2 — Suzhou-style Mung Bean Soup
Chapter 12.3 — Suzhou-style Mung Bean Soup
Chapter 13.1 — Suzhou-style Mung Bean Soup Part II
Chapter 13.2 — Suzhou-style Mung Bean Soup Part II
Chapter 13.3 — Suzhou-style Mung Bean Soup Part II
Chapter 14.1 — Pepper Pancakes
Chapter 14.2 — Pepper Pancakes

FOOTNOTE:

1. Lijia Village literally means ‘Li Family Village’. Typically, every household in such a village are distantly related, have the same surname, and have lived there for many generations. ↩︎