After turning off the camera, Photographer Zhang looked at Luo Huai’an and exclaimed, “You treat your employees so well; you’re a truly great boss. This kind of interview footage would be very positive in a promotional video and would definitely enhance it.”

After listening to all the employees, Luo Huai’an finally let go of Big Fish, who had just tried to rebel again. She nodded to Photographer Zhang with a bright smile, “I also think I’m a good boss.”

After Photographer Zhang left, Luo Huai’an revealed her true colors. She turned and walked towards Big Fish, who was hiding in the distance, feeling somewhat unhappy.

This Big Fish seemed to have a rebellious streak; it was always trying to rebel and could never learn his lesson. It didn’t care at all that it was a convict and was always trying to set traps for her.

If she weren’t worried about breaking him and then no one would make shaved ice anymore, she would really like to fix this shaved ice machine properly.

“Do you know how much I hate aquatic creatures like you with so many scales? I’m your natural enemy, and you still dare to mess with me? You’re like a cat licking a tiger’s whiskers, courting death.”

Big Fish stammered in rebuttal, “That’s species discrimination.”

Big Fish was somewhat surprised. He hadn’t expected his boss to be not only heartless but also a speciest, a complete scoundrel.

Luo Huai’an: “…”

Luo Huai’an was too lazy to argue, so she went straight to the heart of the matter. “You’re off staff meals today. Go eat your seaweed instead. I don’t want to give you the meal I worked so hard to make.”

Big Fish: “…”

He was used to Luo Huai’an’s cooking and had long since grown tired of eating the earthy, fishy-tasting aquatic plants.

Regret, I really regret it now.

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

Zhou Siyuan was a senior student at Jiangcheng University of Aeronautics. At the same time, he was also a well-known streamer in the learning section of the Flying Comments website.

He has released many popular science videos, including well-known works such as ‘How to improve attention’, ‘How to memorize 500 words in one day’, and ‘Let’s take a look at the airplane models of the aviation university’.

These videos all garnered millions of views and were frequently featured on the homepage, earning him a large following. To date, he has over two million followers, making him a renowned content creator.

It had been more than ten days since the start of his senior year when he finally leisurely returned to his dorm. His dorm was a studious dorm; all four students had excellent grades and planned to take the postgraduate entrance exam, often spending time together in the library.

Zhou Siyuan had excellent grades, ranking among the top in his major. Among the universities offering his major, Aero U was ranked first, which was why he applied to Aero U.

However, Zhou Siyuan, who loved food, had had enough of the cafeteria food and the daily long walk to the food street. The reason he came to school so late was because he didn’t want to face reality.

Therefore, he changed his target school for postgraduate studies to another prestigious university with delicious cafeteria food.

In the library, Zhou Siyuan stretched and sent a message to his three roommates across from him: [Let’s go eat! Should we have liangpi (cold skin noodles) or malatang (spicy hot pot) today?]

After a moment of silence in the dorm group chat, someone replied: [What cold skin noodles and spicy hot pot? No way, my heart belongs to the braised pork from the Eighth Cafeteria.]

[Am I the only one who thinks the bamboo rice at the Eighth Cafeteria is delicious? Carbs are the worst part!]

[I saw the new dragon beard candy from the Eighth Cafeteria on social media, I love it! I was getting tired of the old ones.]

Zhou Siyuan was dumbfounded. What were his three roommates talking about? He couldn’t understand a word they were saying. What was happening with the Eighth Cafeteria?

Because he returned to school late and hadn’t paid attention to the campus forum at all, he was completely unaware of the changes in the Eighth Cafeteria.

After the four of them left the library, before Zhou Siyuan could express his doubts, he was pulled to the Eighth Cafeteria by the other three people who were in a hurry.

“Run! If we’re late, all that’ll be left of the braised pork is the sauce.”

“Actually, if you go too late, there won’t even be any sauce left! I heard that some people specially use the sauce to soak the rice, and it’s incredibly delicious.”

After Zhou Siyuan entered the Eighth Cafeteria, he suddenly found a large crowd gathered in front of one of the tables. Some people were taking pictures with their phones, and exclamations could be heard from time to time. Moreover, there was a video camera filming the area.

Luo Huai’an considered that Photographer Zhang wanted to shoot cooking-related materials and wanted to attract students, so she found an empty table, moved all her equipment there, and started making dragon beard candy on the spot.

She took the softened maltose out of the pot, placed it on the cutting board, and kneaded it repeatedly, shaping it into a circle. While it was still hot, she stretched it repeatedly, making the maltose thinner and thinner.

The maltose fluttered in her hands like butterflies, stretched to the thinness of a hair strand.

With each roll, each movement, each gesture, Luo Huai’an’s actions flowed like clouds and water, like a dragon dancing and a phoenix soaring. The sugar threads in her hands were snow-white and delicate, like the whiskers of an auspicious dragon.

The students were astonished, and the sound of cameras clicking was incessant.

“What is she doing? That’s so cool.”

“I never knew watching others cook could be so enjoyable.”

After Luo Huai’an twisted the snow-white silk threads into dragon beard candy, she placed them on a plate.

The dragon beard candy was small, snow-white, and extremely beautiful.

Zhou Siyuan was extremely surprised when he saw this scene.

When did such a skilled chef come to the school cafeteria?

People around were also extremely curious about the dragon beard candy. After Luo Huai’an finished making the candy, they all raised their campus cards and went to the card reader to swipe them.

Zhou Siyuan and his roommates all joined in the fun and bought one.

Looking at the distinct, snow-white, and plump dragon beard candy in his hand, Zhou Siyuan took a small bite and felt a shiver run through his body.

The texture of the dragon beard candy was absolutely amazing!

It was a fluffy confectionery  made up of countless maltose strands that would touch every sensitive spot in your mouth, a unique enjoyment that could not be experienced with other confectioneries.

Dragon beard candy was silky smooth in the mouth, and the aroma of maltose filled the mouth. After a slight sip, it slowly melted, releasing layers of sweet maltose flavor.

This unique sweetness quickly permeated every cell of the body; the maltose feast triggered dopamine production in the brain, creating an indescribably delicious flavor.

Zhou Siyuan felt a sense of joy, and his head, which had been spinning from studying for so long, suddenly cleared up.

His roommates, who were also eating dragon beard candy, exclaimed in surprise, “I always thought Chinese pastries were overly sweet and greasy. It seems I’ve been eating really bad ones before.”

“This dragon beard candy is full of the aroma of maltose, and the sweetness is just right. Any less and it would be bland, any more and it would be cloying. It’s absolutely amazing.”

“Carbs, the forever god!”

Because dragon beard candy was easily broken, Zhou Siyuan had a lot of silver threads on his hands.

Zhou Siyuan raised his hand without any hesitation, put all the snow-white sugar strands into his mouth, squinting his eyes in satisfaction. Having finished it all, he began asking his roommates about the Eighth Cafeteria.

After listening to his roommates’ explanation, Zhou Siyuan thought about it for a while. In any case, the graduate entrance exam subjects for the two schools were exactly the same.

He made up his mind; he would stay at Aero U for the sake of the Eighth Cafeteria.

Mythical Beast Cafeteria translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: Scientifically, maltose is a type of sugar made from two glucose units joined together. For practical purposes, it is used as a browning agent to give pastries that rich caramel color and flavor, and helps keep cakes and bread soft and chewy. It’s about 30% less sweet than table sugar.

It’s available in Asian groceries in thick, syrup form—which is how dragon beard candy could be stretched over and over into thin strands. It’s used a lot in Chinese cuisine such glazing meats like char siu (barbecue) and peking duck, as well as candy art.

Fun fact: As far back as 3000 years ago, ancient Chinese have known that mixing sprouted grains (malt) with cooked sticky rice or millet, keeping it warm, and boiling down the strained liquid resulted in a thick, golden sweetener. But maltose is listed as having been ‘discovered’ in the 19th century by a French chemist.

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