During the time Luo Huai’an was away, Qing Niao had already told the little Birds about his promise to Luo Huai’an.

The Birds were all confused. Why did they have to work?

One Bird then retorted, “I don’t want to work, we want to go online.”

One Bird decided to pretend to back down first, so he looked at Qing Niao and said in a pitiful tone, “Senior, we don’t want to work. Working is too tiring. We want to go online.”

Qing Niao hesitated, unsure of what to do, so he looked up at Luo Huai’an.

Luo Huai’an did not agree to this request, but instead said, “Supernatural beasts respect strength above all else. You regard Qing Niao as your elder, so of course you should listen to him. He has already agreed to let you work for me, so don’t even think about breaking the contract.”

One Bird was utterly bewildered upon hearing this, but still refused to admit defeat, “If we don’t treat him as an elder, can we stop working for you?”

A hint of hurt flashed in Qing Niao’s eyes, and his brows drooped. So that’s what these little birds were thinking?

Upon seeing Qing Niao’s sorrowful appearance, One Bird realized that his careless words had unintentionally hurt someone. Although they were somewhat like vampires, they were actually grateful to Qing Niao.

One Bird panicked and prepared to apologize, but Luo Huai’an suddenly said, “You think you can leave just by denying Qing Niao? You’re really overthinking it. You’ve taken a lot of money from Qing Niao over the years, haven’t you? Supernatural beasts have a comprehensive set of laws. I just found out that he gave you a lot of money. With so much money you’ve taken from him, you should at least get a year or more in prison.”

One Bird: “…”

The other Birds: “…”

This was practically a case of going to jail if you didn’t want to work!

The bluebirds looked at each other and whispered among themselves. After a long while, One Bird came over and said, “Alright, we can work for a year for now. But if we do that, you can’t keep bringing up the money our senior gave us.”

Luo Huai’an nodded and agreed. “That’s not a problem.”

Luo Huai’an took the dejected little Birds back to the Eighth Cafeteria and let them tour the work environment first.

At this moment, Qing Niao’s eyes were filled with worry, and he whispered, “Are they sad?”

Luo Huai’an patted him on the shoulder. “Qingniao, you’re just too kind. You said they really like being online and often ask you for money, which is just awful. Internet use should be moderate; using it too much means internet addiction. Internet addiction harms the minds of teenagers and empties their wallets; it’s harmful in every way. Don’t you want to help them get rid of their internet addiction?”

Upon hearing this, Qing Niao’s eyes lit up, and he answered sincerely, “Yes.”

He actually felt that work was the most meaningful thing, while surfing the internet was a time-wasting and meaningless activity. Every time he saw these little birds addicted to the internet, he felt a little heartbroken, but he was always too soft-hearted to be firm and tell them to stop being addicted.

Luo Huai’an’s tone was earnest and sincere, “Ordinary methods of internet addiction treatment will certainly not work. The best way to treat internet addiction is to force them to stay away from the computer by being busy doing other things. We are not a bad institution here. We don’t use electrotherapy. We just use work to distract them. What do you think?”

“That’s great!” Qing Niao said happily. “Boss, I can entrust them to you with peace of mind.”

Luo Huai’an nodded proudly. “Don’t worry, leave it to me. I’ll use work to help them kick their internet addiction.”

… … translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

At this moment, the little Birds were unaware that they would hardly ever touch a computer again in the future. They wandered around the Eighth Cafeteria, feeling like Grandma Liu visiting the Grand View Garden.

One Bird was awestruck by the magnificent building, forgetting even his earlier disappointment. He exclaimed excitedly, “This place is so big, so beautiful, so luxurious! And there’s such a wonderful fragrance in the air, it’s full of spiritual energy. Is this where we’ll be working from now on?”

Luo Huai’an had learned about the ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ method from online get-rich-quick schemes, so she took a pastry from the kitchen and walked up to them. “This place is indeed great, and there’s delicious food too.”

The Birds were initially wary of Luo Huai’an, who was making them work without pay, but after seeing the dragon beard candy and salted egg yolk pastry on the plate, their eyes were immediately glued to them.

One Bird’s eyes were glued to the salted egg yolk pastry. “Wow, is this a salted egg yolk pastry? I’ve seen it before when I was peering through the glass of a pastry shop next to an internet cafe. I heard that salted egg yolk pastries are very expensive, so I never dared to buy one.”

Luo Huai’an said, “That’s right, these are salted egg yolk pastries. You can all try one.”

A good salted egg yolk pastry required meticulous attention to detail.

Many commercially available salted egg yolk pastries were made with frozen pastry, but Luo Huai’an always made them entirely by hand, resulting in salted egg yolk pastries that didn’t crack at all.

She made four layers of pastry over the salted egg yolk, and it became incredibly crispy and fragrant after baking in the oven.

Commercially available salted egg yolks will have a certain degree of fishy smell. If you want to turn this unpleasant smell into something wonderful, you must not try to find a quick and easy way to remove the fishy smell from the salted egg yolks.

Luo Huai’an first soaked the salted egg yolks in rice wine. The volatile substances in the rice wine could remove the fishy smell from the salted egg yolks. Moreover, after baking, the rice wine would undergo an esterification reaction with the components in the salted egg yolks, bringing a unique ester aroma.

One Bird couldn’t resist picking up a salted egg yolk pastry and taking a bite as if holding a precious treasure.

Because the pastry crust of the salted egg yolk pastry was too flaky, many crumbs fell to the ground, causing One Bird to frantically catch them with his hands.

Beneath the golden-yellow crust lay soft, red bean paste, with a plump, golden-yellow salted egg yolk nestled within.

One bite broke through the many layers of the salted egg yolk pastry’s defenses, and the salty and sweet flavors burst in your mouth. As you chew, the salty and sweet flavors spread throughout your mouth.

Since arriving in the big city, these little birds have never been rich. They spend all their money on internet access and have never eaten anything good. They could only nibble on the corn and fruit that others fed them every day.

One Bird’s guard was noticeably decreasing, and his gaze toward Luo Huai’an was filled with a hint of awe and respect.

She could actually make such delicious salted egg yolk pastries. He decided to stick with her for now!

Mythical Beast Cafeteria translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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