Three hours later, just after the lunch rush, Yu Lian finally met up with his old classmate and roommate Reese near Green Locust City's spaceport. It was a family restaurant run by a Feline, specializing in fragrant-leaf catfish rice and river-fresh hot pot. The place was comfortable, tasty, and affordable, but it had never appeared in any famous food magazines or shows. Yu Lian had stumbled across it on some obscure travel forum by chance.
When the short Feline owner heard Yu Lian had ordered the restaurant's most expensive dish, the "Heroic Grand General Hot Pot," he came over with a beaming smile to exchange a few pleasantries. He brought two bottles of sweet wine and some appetizers, then personally served the hot pot. Like most Felines, he had a round, fluffy, chubby body, but he moved with quick, nimble steps.
Like the Katai, the Felines had some feline traits. But if you had to point out a difference, the former looked like giant predatory cats that had gained human form, while the Felines were harmless house cats.
The owner soon brought out all the appetizers and side dishes, then carried in the hot pot, made mainly with giant lake snails and blood crabs. Yu Lian casually asked, "Has business been good lately?"
"It was never especially good to begin with, and lately it's gotten worse." The Feline owner smiled sheepishly. "Fortunately, I own the place, so I can still keep it running."
"Hasn't there been a lot of construction lately?" Reese asked in surprise.
"Sure, there's more construction, but the shipyard workers' wages haven't gone up!" the Feline owner said. "If anything, so many migrant workers have flooded in that the local old-timers are earning less. Of course fewer people are coming out to eat. Besides, there's no way