She turned to Second Fish and said, “Bring me some wonton wrappers, and I’ll teach you how to wrap goldfish-tail wontons.”

Luo Huai’an scooped up the meat filling and placed it in the center of the wonton wrapper. After pushing the filling to the center, she pinched the tail together, and a small wonton with a long tail was made.

The method was extremely simple, and Second Fish had a very quick aptitude for cooking; she learned it after watching it only twice. The two of them quickly made a large plate of wontons.

However, the revolution was not yet successful; the soup for the wontons was also extremely particular.

Luo Huai’an took a large bowl, added salt, seaweed, dried shrimp, and a little soy sauce, and finally drizzled in the soul-stirring scallion oil. Only then was the soup base completed.

Luo Huai’an instructed Second Fish to boil water over a large fire, and after the water boiled, to put the wontons in to cook.

The beauty of the goldfish-tail wontons only became apparent at this point.

The water in the pot boiled, steaming and bubbling. The meat filling inside the small wontons floated up automatically, their goldfish-like tails unfurling and bobbing up and down, looking incredibly lifelike.

After boiling over high heat for two minutes, the wontons were cooked.

As the saying went, the original soup helps digest the food, so after Luo Huai’an poured the wontons into the large bowl with soup base, she did not use ordinary boiling water to thin the soup base, but instead poured some of the water used to cook the wontons directly into the large bowl.

The soup of the whole bowl of wontons was clear, and the goldfish-tail wontons floated up and down, which looked very interesting.

Someone once said, ‘Wonton soup with a clear broth is like the warm and gentle Jiangnan region.’ This bowl of wontons perfectly embodied that saying.

Luo Huai’an made many bowls of goldfish-tail wontons and distributed them to Second Fish and the other employees.

She picked up a bowl herself, took a bite of the fresh and smooth wontons, and squinted her eyes in satisfaction. She couldn’t help but praise herself in her heart, thinking how good her cooking skills were!

She ate while thinking about how to sell the wontons.

After finishing a bowl of wontons, she had a flash of inspiration.

She told Second Fish, “I plan to open a small wonton window next to the pastry window, because wontons taste the best when freshly made. So we need to put a large pot behind the window. We’ll wrap the wontons every day, and only when the students come to order will we start cooking them.”

Second Fish nodded, “I think it’s a good idea.”

Luo Huai’an pondered for a moment. “But that means the guests will have to wait for their orders. Is there any way to make the wait more orderly?”

Luo Huai’an pondered for a moment and quickly remembered the method used by the First Cafeteria. “The First Cafeteria sells dumplings. They issue round key rings with numbers on them, and there are two identical key rings. Once a customer places an order, the server will give them one key ring and then hang the other identical key ring on the plate, so the order won’t be mixed up. I think we can learn from this method.”

Luo Huai’an went to the market that afternoon and bought the key rings for queueing. When the shop owner heard that she wanted a key ring and learned that she operated a cafeteria, he also tried to sell her an automatic number caller and display screen.

Once the meal was ready, the waiter could enter the relevant numbers on this screen, and an electronic announcement would play to inform the customer to collect their order. The corresponding numbers would also be displayed on the screen.

With this, the waiters wouldn’t have to shout anymore.

Luo Huai’an was impressed by this feature, so she obediently paid the money and happily took all the items back to the cafeteria.

… …

In the evening, the wontons were officially put on the shelves in the Eighth Cafeteria.

Since discovering that Qing Niao had come to the Eighth Cafeteria, Chancellor Wen has stopped eating in the cafeteria and had to rely on deliveries every day.

Although Chancellor Wen was a bit old, he was full of energy and quick-witted, and could get delivery almost every day. However, as the number of customers in the Eighth Cafeteria increased, his chances of getting food each day were correspondingly getting lower and lower.

In his office that evening, Chancellor Wen fell into deep thought. Today was Teachers’ Day, a day for teachers. He himself could be considered a teacher, yet he hadn’t managed to place a single delivery order.

Was this reasonable? No, it wasn’t!

Just then, his phone rang. It was a message from the Eighth Cafeteria community group. 

[Group Owner, Did You Get Rich Today?: Tonight, the Eighth Cafeteria will be serving goldfish-tail wontons. They’re not available on delivery platforms yet, so come on over and eat some!]

Chancellor Wen had eaten wontons before, but never goldfish-tail wontons. Upon seeing this fancy-sounding name, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of curiosity. What exactly were goldfish-tail wontons? Were they even tastier than regular wontons?

The moment he had this idea, he had already fallen into the merchant’s trap.

Chancellor Wen put down his pen, his toes slowly turning towards the door, his heart drifting towards the Eighth Cafeteria. As time passed, his desire to try the goldfish-tail wontons grew stronger, a desire that even briefly suppressed his fear of the staff of the Eighth Cafeteria.

He even had a thought, and began to comfort himself, that it was lunchtime anyway, and Qing Niao should be out delivering food.

Chancellor Wen planned to take this opportunity to check out the Eighth Cafeteria and quickly pack up a serving of goldfish-tail wontons to take away. As long as he was quick, he definitely wouldn’t run into that supernatural beast, Qing Niao.

Mythical Beast Cafeteria translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: How to make gold-fish wontons. They’re cute!

Wontons are different from dumplings kinda like how croissants are different from bread. Wontons are a type of dumpling that’s more delicate. It uses very thin, square wrappers, folded in a certain way, and the fillings are made with minced meat or shrimps, mostly used for soup and noodles.

Dumplings are wrapped in thicker, chewier, round-shaped wrappers, and the fillings could be a combination of meat and vegetables, or even sweets, also folded in specific ways. Mandarin actually has many words for different kinds of dumplings—much like Italians have different names for differently shaped pasta.     

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