However, at this moment, Tan Mengmeng suddenly heard a rush of noise; she looked around and saw that she and the Mount Everest shaved ice were now surrounded by strangers.

Some of these people were from other classes in the Chinese Department, while others were completely unfamiliar—likely from other colleges. They stood next to the Mount Everest shaved ice, their eyes gleaming green with envy, their faces etched with longing.

Tan Mengmeng felt a headache when she saw this.

She hadn’t expected the boss to be so impressive and make such a grand snow mountain shaved ice. The Mount Everest shaved ice couldn’t even get into the school building, so their class had to eat it out in the road. The consequence was that they became a target of many people.

The monitor of Year 1, Class 2 of the Chinese Department came over.

She had a smile on her face, and you wouldn’t be able to tell at all that they had just argued on WeChat Moments. It seemed as if they were very close and familiar, as if they had been good friends for eight hundred years.

The monitor of Class 2 said in a soft and cute tone, “Mengmeng, I want to eat shaved ice too.”

Tan Mengmeng was very proud and muttered, “Humph, so there will also be a day when you ask me for help.”

The monitor of Class 2 gritted her teeth but had to bow her head for the sake of some shaved ice, and her tone became softer, “Please, Mengmeng, you are my good sister.”

The students from Class 2 gathered around, their faces filled with eagerness. They asked Luo Huai’an if they could buy some, only to learn that it was bought and paid for in full by Tan Mengmeng, and only she could decide who could eat it.

These people were all from the Chinese Department. They saw each other every day and naturally had some friendship.

Although Tan Mengmeng really didn’t want to give them any, her logic told her that if she didn’t give it away, the Mount Everest shaved ice would either be wasted or everyone in the class would have diarrhea.

According to her rough calculations, it would take at least 300 people to eat all the shaved ice on this Mount Everest, which was more than three meters high and looked like an impressive pyramid.

Tan Mengmeng reluctantly agreed and shared the Mount Everest shaved ice with others, “You guys should go get some too.”

“Okay! Thank you. How much is it?”

“I’ve already paid, so consider it my treat.”

Hearing what Tan Mengmeng said, the onlookers were overjoyed. After thanking Tan Mengmeng, they all ran to Big Fish and started asking for shaved ice.

“Give me some shaved ice quickly, or the child will starve to death.”

“Such perfect shaved ice should be put in an exhibition area, not eaten… Damn, it’s really delicious, soft and sweet. Please, give me another bite, don’t make me kneel down and beg you.”

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

The ice blocks on this Mount Everest shaved ice were so impressive and tall that they could be seen from a great distance. It happened to be right after the freshman opening ceremony, and many students were passing this way. After witnessing this bustling, shaved ice-cutting scene, they immediately gathered around.

When they learned that the shaved ice was free, they were extremely excited and the scene became very lively. The impromptu Mount Everest Shaved Ice Parlor was immediately surrounded by layers of people, with no way in or out.

Many people really couldn’t get in, so they had to be content with taking photos and uploading it to WeChat Moments and Weibo.

The Mount Everest shaved ice has sparked huge discussion on Weibo.

[Oh my god, I looked at the thumbnail and thought it was nothing special, but when I clicked on it, I realized how tiny the people were compared to this shaved ice. Oh my god, how is this shaved ice made?]

[It seems like they’re in Lilliput¹, hahahaha.]

[A quick note: due to various limitations, giant shaved ice is incredibly difficult to make. A while ago, a foreign shop made the news for making shaved ice over a meter tall. This shaved ice is clearly as tall as two people, making it exponentially more difficult.]

[This shaved ice is more than just difficult to make! Take a close look at this shaved ice; it’s clearly a complete snow mountain, with countless ravines and layers upon layers. How could anyone make shaved ice like this?]

[If I’m not mistaken about the logo, that student should be wearing a Jiangcheng University of Aeronautics T-shirt. I can’t imagine the happiness of being a student at a prestigious university.]

The Mount Everest shaved ice sparked a wave of discussion online, with the popularity gradually increasing and slowly entering the bottom of the hot searches.

… …

Luo Huai’an, however, had no idea about this matter.

All the students liked the Mount Everest shaved ice, especially Tan Mengmeng.

Tan Mengmeng gave Luo Huai’an some extra money because she thought what she ended up making was great value for money.

After receiving the money transfer, Luo Huai’an happily returned to the Eighth Cafeteria. As soon as she entered the doors of the Eighth Cafeteria, Big Fish tried to leave stealthily.

However, at this moment, Luo Huai’an cleared her throat and said seriously, “Big Fish, don’t you have anything you want to say to me?”

Big Fish shuddered at her words, but he was not afraid of losing. He mentally plucked up his courage and said with his neck stiff, “I don’t have anything to say to you. I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Luo Huai’an looked serious, not being fooled by him, “But the relevant departments sent you here in the hope that you would become a better person through labor reform. Right now, you are lazy and hate work. How can you be worthy of the trust that the leaders of the relevant departments have placed on you? You might as well go back to jail.”

Big Fish snorted and thought to himself, ‘Don’t think that just because you say something great and righteous, I won’t know your little thoughts.’

His wife and children couldn’t understand it, but he was very smart and saw it clearly.

Luo Huai’an was just a Zhou Bapi² who waves the flag of righteousness in a big way.

The reason why she made them work hard was not to reform them, but to make money.

So when Big Fish heard Luo Huai’an telling him to go back to jail, he was not afraid, but rather felt a little yearning. Prisons provided food and accommodation, and there were no disadvantages except that staying in a small, dark room was boring—but most importantly, there was no need to work every day.

He thought to himself, Although the food here is good and the spiritual energy in Fragrant Mountain is the best he’d seen, I will not surrender. If I admit defeat, what is the difference between me and a rotten fish?

Although he was unwilling to admit defeat, he was still very afraid of Luo Huai’an’s strength, so he ended up stammering his true feelings, “Actually, I- I really want to go back to jail.”

Luo Huai’an blinked when she heard this. It turned out that this was what this Fish was thinking.

Mythical Beast Cafeteria translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N:  The thing is, Big Fish is not wrong 😅

The cafeteria opens at 6am and operates until 8pm. Then when they get back to Fragrant Mountain, the wenyao still need to farm. And they don’t get paid… They should consider forming a mythical beasts labor union 😂 But then again, as non-humans, they don’t seem to get tired.

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! ☺️

 FOOTNOTES:

1. Lilliput is the fictional island of very tiny people from Gulliver’s Travels. ↩︎
2. Zhou Bapi (Zhou the Exploiter) was the main villain in the short story turned animated film titled ‘The Rooster Crows at Midnight’. He was a greedy, abusive landlord. He devised a plan to exploit his workers and made crowing sounds at midnight, forcing the workers to get up and toil the fields when they had just barely gone to sleep. ↩︎