"Are you looking for a fight?"
He struck a dragon-catching, crane-controlling pose, bobbing his head so much that even a sniper rifle couldn't lock onto him, and glared at Tsarevich like a tiger eyeing its prey.
"Y-you, what are you trying to do?!"
Tsarevich took a step back, putting on a fierce front as he hurriedly looked at Xiangling.
"This is your restaurant. Aren't you going to do something about him? He's hitting me!"
Xiangling smiled. "I'm only responsible for serving our guests their food. I have no right to interfere in their private affairs."
"Besides, you say he's hitting someone, but I don't see anyone being hit."
"Y-you, don't lie through your teeth! Look at that pose he's striking. He obviously wants to hit me!"
"Then has he hit you?"
"..."
"Since he hasn't, perhaps this guest is just doing some flexibility exercises. Please don't make a fuss over nothing."
Who does flexibility exercises with their fists pointed at someone else? And what kind of flexibility exercise is that?!
Tsarevich roared inwardly. No matter how stupid he was, he understood that Xiangling and this brat were in cahoots.
"You two, just you wait!"
Tsarevich stormed off.
"Hey, you haven't paid yet!"
Shen Luolun called out.
"Ouch."
Xiangling tapped the troublemaker on the head with the handle of her spatula and said irritably:
"He didn't eat a single bite of his dish. Guoba ate all of it, so what would he be paying for?"
"I was only in the kitchen for a little while, and you've already caused trouble."
"He started it."
Shen Luolun rubbed his head and curled his lip.
"Who makes someone apologize a hundred times and take a detour whenever they see him in the future? Especially calling me rude and uncivilized-that was too much. If I could tolerate that, what couldn't I tolerate?"
"I think it was that last part that made you angry."
Xiangling sighed and turned to the other culprit, who was gnawing on a spicy meat cornbread bun.
"Guoba!"
Guoba's mouth, which had been stuffing itself without pause, stopped.
"Lalalala~" (What?)
"Don't mess around with that stinker A-Luo anymore. If you eat a guest's food again, I won't make you special meals ever again."
Wah, no, not that~
Guoba lowered the proud head he had held as a god of old.
"Lalalala~" (I was wrong. I definitely won't do it next time.)
"Now! Clean up the tables. I'm going to cook for the other guests. Don't cause me any more trouble, or you know the consequences."
Putting particular emphasis on the last three words, the girl waved a fair fist. The threat was unmistakable.
Shen Luolun: ⊙ω⊙
Guoba: ⊙ω⊙
We get it, we get it.
Only when they nodded repeatedly, showing they knew the consequences would be serious, did Xiangling let them off and return to the kitchen to continue cooking.
Shen Luolun and Guoba each took a rag and began cleaning the tables where the guests had finished eating.
"Hey, have you heard? A strange phenomenon appeared over at the Chasm!"
"I heard too, and it isn't just the Chasm. There's one in Sumeru too! A friend of mine in Sumeru said a strange phenomenon appeared in the sky out of nowhere!"
"Strange, there's one in Inazuma too."
"Natlan as well..."
Shen Luolun's ears twitched when he happened to overhear the guests at several nearby tables chatting.
A strange phenomenon?
What phenomenon? Had something else happened these past few days that he didn't know about?
"Apparently, it has something to do with the Traveler."
"The Traveler?"
"You mean that famous adventurer?"
"That's her. The phenomenon appeared after she went to Snezhnaya."
"So that's what happened."
"Then it's no wonder."
Once the guests learned it was related to the Traveler, they all understood.
Given what she had done, the skies would change in any nation she visited.
Shen Luolun paused in the middle of wiping a table.
Lumine?
Does it have something to do with them...?
Come to think of it, Lumine and Paimon had written a few days ago to say they had arrived in Snezhnaya.
Going by the game's progression, it should be version 7.0 by now, right?
What would happen in version 7.0?
Would the developers give out a five-star selector?
If it was only the standard banner, forget it. They could sit at the same table as the world's number one ice-type Hunt main DPS from the game next door.
He had quit the game in version 4.8 and knew nothing about 7.0.
"Lalalala~"
Guoba waved his rag at Shen Luolun, as if asking, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Back to work."
Putting those stray thoughts aside for the time being, Shen Luolun got to work in earnest.
Before long, thanks to his and Guoba's efforts, the tables where the guests had eaten were spotless, their surfaces even gleaming faintly.
Someone with advanced OCD and a severe fear of germs would have to give them a couple of licks before leaving.
Nice!
"Tired? Here's your Buddha Jumps Over the Wall."
Just then, Xiangling came over carrying a pot of rich soup.
The aroma rising from the soup made Shen Luolun's eyes light up.
"Oh~ my Buddha Jumps Over the Wall~ Buddha Jumps Over the Wall~ Lord Nuke, you've finally arrived~"
"Without you, how could we fight the Abyss~"
He clasped his hands to his chest like a religious devotee, his face full of piety as he recited with deep feeling.
Xiangling complained helplessly:
"There you go saying weird things again. Honestly."
He was so handsome, handsome enough to rival the esteemed readers, yet he liked to say strange things from time to time, and at eighteen he still didn't have a girlfriend.
At this rate, would he ever be able to marry and have children?
Then who would answer Liyue's three-child policy? What about the aging population? Who would care for him in his old age and see him off when he died?
Well, what could she do? He was her childhood friend, after all. If he really couldn't find anyone in the future, she would reluctantly be his girlfriend.
At the thought, a faint blush spread across the girl's pretty face.
"Xiangling, Xiangling, Xiangling?"
Shen Luolun waved his hand.
"I do!"
Xiangling answered instinctively.
"What do you mean, you do? Hurry up and put down my imperial Buddha Jumps Over the Wall."
"Huh? Oh, right."
Xiangling jolted back to her senses and put the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall on the table, her face red.
"Why are you blushing?"
And she was smiling foolishly for no apparent reason. Could she have eaten so much boiled black-backed perch that she was hallucinating?
That wouldn't do. Nothing could happen to his chef.
Without Xiangling's cooking, other people's food gave him heartburn.
Shen Luolun stroked his chin and looked the girl up and down.
"What are you looking at?"
As if her private thoughts had been seen through, Xiangling hurriedly covered her chest, panicking like an innocent girl who had run into a delinquent.
"I'm asking why you're blushing. And why are you covering your chest? We're buddies. What's there to look at? Don't forget the bond between us, little sister Xiang."
(Flame punch image)
For some reason, the girl's fist clenched.
"Right, could the boiled black-backed perch you made today have been undercooked? You can get poisoned from tasting it if it's undercooked! I think you've been pretty badly poisoned. Want me to take you to Baizhu for a checkup?"
"Huh?!"
Completely unaware of how much damage his words were doing, Shen continued:
"Boiled black-backed perch has been really popular lately, which is good for Wanmin Restaurant, but with so many people coming, you need to establish rules."
"Once the rules are established, the road ahead can only get wider."
"If there are too many rules, people won't come, and you're afraid of losing money? You are, but you're more afraid of messy accounts."
"The shop can't be taken away, and neither can people's hearts."
"Better to earn a little less than break the rules."
"Only then can people eat your food without getting heartburn."
"Heartburn, my foot!"
Xiangling couldn't take it anymore. She punched Shen Luolun on the head, sending everything tumbling into chaos.
"Rules, rules! What do you take Wanmin Restaurant for? Where are all these rules coming from?"
What nonsense was he spouting?
If she really did as he said, Wanmin Restaurant would be out of business the next day.
Sure enough, he was the one who had been sneaking boiled black-backed perch in the kitchen!
Guoba: Lalalala~ (That's right, that's right.)