About half an hour had passed, and Little Fairy's wine and fennel beans still hadn't been served.
"?"
Yan Huan, sitting in the dining room, couldn't take it anymore. He got up and headed for the kitchen.
He had barely poked his head inside when he shouted:
"Did you die in there? What's taking so damn long with the wine and fennel beans? Are you putting something in the food?!"
"Huh?" Phainon was crouched beneath the earthen stove, his face smeared with soot. He looked up. "I can't get this stove lit..."
"I need to fry the fennel beans, don't I? But it seems damp under here..."
"?"
Yan Huan narrowed his eyes, shoved Phainon aside, and peered beneath the stove.
It was indeed damp.
The floor was littered with matches Phainon had used up.
"I thought this restaurant had been abandoned for ages. Why's the stove still wet? Who peed here?"
"Uh... I did." A gray Little Fairy wearing a chef's hat floated over and said awkwardly:
"I couldn't hold it, so I went wee-wee here."
"Um..." It fidgeted. "Is it that bad?"
"?" Yan Huan gave it a startled look, then asked Phainon:
"Who's this? Why is it in the kitchen?"
"Oh, it's my assistant." Phainon gave an awkward laugh.
"It mostly chops the vegetables and things..."
The gray Little Fairy said guiltily:
"I didn't know this restaurant was so poor it didn't even have a bathroom."
"If I'd known, I wouldn't have come..."
"My mama's waiting for me to earn lots of money and give her a better life... I want to quit."
"..." Yan Huan stared at the man and the squirrel, speechless.
It took him a long moment to recover.
Then he snapped his fingers. With a whoosh, a roaring fire sprang up beneath the