As Ji Wuchen continued to look at the photo for longer and longer, a thought suddenly arose in his mind.

This person actually reminded him of Qi Ze; not only was she good-looking, but she also possessed a mysterious and enigmatic aura.

Seeing that the professor was not looking, Ji Wuchen showed the screen on his phone to Qi Ze next to him. “Is this person your relative?”

Qi Ze paused slightly as he wrote, his train of thought interrupted, and felt somewhat irritated. He initially intended to ignore the question. However, his peripheral vision unexpectedly caught sight of the photo in the other person’s hand, and his gaze froze.

He stared intently at the photo. Although the person looked vaguely familiar, he couldn’t place her in his memory.

Qi Ze shook his head, “I don’t know her.”

“What a pity,” Ji Wuchen said with some regret. “I heard she’s the boss of the Eighth Cafeteria. If only she was your sister. To be honest, I’d like to be your brother-in-law.”

Qi Ze: “…Get lost.”

Soon it was time to get out of class, and the two packed up their books, preparing to go out for dinner.

Ji Wuchen came from a wealthy family and ate all his meals at upscale restaurants nearby. Qi Ze has no particular requirements when it came to food; he usually just went wherever Ji Wuchen wanted to go without complaint.

Ji Wuchen spent nearly the entire latter half of class reading posts in  the forum and had developed great curiosity about the Eighth Cafeteria. He now really wanted to check it out. 

So he changed his mind and eagerly said, “I heard that the braised pork at Guanhailou is especially delicious, but I haven’t had a chance to try it even once in all these days since school started. 

“Today, customer service told me that the head chef is working all day and there’s unlimited braised pork. I was just thinking of trying it, but there’s so much hype about the Eighth Cafeteria on the forum. Let’s go check that out instead.”

Qi Ze nodded indifferently and strode off with Ji Wuchen towards the Eighth Cafeteria.

The closer Qi Ze got to the Eighth Cafeteria, the more strangely he felt.

Qi Ze could sense that the spiritual energy here was extremely abundant and the air was fresh, making it a very pleasant place.

He was somewhat surprised; it turned out that the Eighth Cafeteria was actually a rare and auspicious place.

Qi Ze noticed that he was different from other children when he was still very young. While ordinary people couldn’t sense the spiritual energy in the air, he could. He could sense the bright, scattered lights around him as soon as he closed his eyes—that was spiritual energy.

And one day, as he passed by the kitchen where their housekeeper was cooking, he suddenly discovered that he could control flames, as if the flames were created by him.

This ability surprised and delighted Qi Ze. Most people wish they had superpowers, and he was naturally one of them.

But there’s a saying: ‘Playing with fire will get you burned.’ As he grew into adulthood, a flame seemed to rise up from deep within him, capable of devouring everything, gradually eroding his will.

Qi Ze endured the pain of his soul being burned every moment.

His parents consulted numerous renowned doctors, but none of them could cure his strange illness.

Over time, he realized that this was an incurable disease, so he simply stopped seeking medical treatment and instead suppressed showing his pain, telling his parents that he was cured.

His parents believed him and let him go to school and live a normal life.

Qi Ze himself long understood that he was not actually healed, but rather only chose to suppress the signs of pain in order not to worry his parents.

Qi Ze didn’t know when the flames would consume him completely, so he could only study and live diligently, treating each day as if it were his last.

… …

In the kitchen of the Eighth Cafeteria, large chicken legs hung in the oven, glistening with oil, sizzling and emitting an enticing aroma.

Luo Huai’an looked at the hanging furnace in front of her as if she were inspecting her own country, feeling very satisfied, but also somewhat insatiable.

This hanging stove was so expensive, yet it was too small!

It could only be used to roast fifty large chicken legs at a time, and it took a long time to roast them, which meant she could only sell two hundred chicken legs a day.

Luo Huai’an sighed deeply, lamenting for the fiftieth time why Captain Zhang hadn’t sent over any supernatural beasts who needed labor reform yet.

It would be great if some of these supernatural beasts could control fire.

Luo Huai’an examined the chicken leg to check its quality, then turned to Big Fish’ wife, her tone encouraging, “I just taught you how to judge the heat, did you learn it properly?”

Second Fish carefully recited her understanding, which was exactly the answer Luo Huai’an wanted.

Luo Huai’an patted Second Fish on the shoulder and said with satisfaction, “You’re really good. You’re my right-hand person.”

Second Fish was exceptionally quick-witted and had a deep love for cooking, unlike her cunning and lazy husband or her internet-addicted children. Of all the twenty wenyao Luo Huai’an had, Second FIsh was her most satisfying employee.

Luo Huai’an sighed deeply, thinking that the highly perceptive Second Fish and the extremely efficient Qing Niao were both her reliable wings.

Hearing her encouragement, Second Fish was overjoyed and felt a great sense of satisfaction. She sincerely said, “It’s all thanks to the boss’s excellent teaching!”

As usual, Luo Huai’an gave Second Fish, this outstanding employee, a round of free encouragement, praising her until she was so shy she almost blew bubbles, before finally ending the teaching session.

Luo Huai’an glanced at her watch and realized it was time for students to get out of classes, so she instructed Second Fish to continue roasting the big chicken legs before she left the kitchen.

She had just stepped into the hall when she saw two people enter through the main doors. Thinking they were customers, she prepared to walk through the side door to the food window to get them their meals.

But before she could take a step, she caught a glimpse of one of the young men out of the corner of her eye, and her gaze froze.

After seeing his face clearly, Luo Huai’an’s eyes flashed with disbelief as she scanned him up and down. After repeatedly confirming her guess, she was both surprised and confused.

Why has Phoenix, once the leader of the Phoenix Clan, fallen to such a state?

He had no cultivation whatsoever; he was just an ordinary mortal. If it weren’t for the fact that his soul was still in the form of a phoenix, she would hardly believe her guess.

Mythical Beast Cafeteria translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Remember when I made a clear distinction between the fenghuang and the Western phoenix, and how I said they have nothing in common except for being mythical birds, and that the fenghuang has no special affinity at all to fire and flames, and that the Chinese fire bird is actually the Vermillion Bird, which is a cosmic guardian of the South constellations? 

Welp! The author gave our resident fenghuang flames.

Baidu says just as the fenghuang was being translated to English as ‘phoenix’, the Western phoenix (and its characteristics) is also bleeding onto the Chinese fenghuang.  Online novels now often give the fenghuang affinity to flames. 

The author really should know better since they use the Classic of the Mountains and Seas as basis for this work but here we are. 

I’m just gonna curl up here and call him ‘Phoenix’ *sob*

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