Translator: ChuRen/ YuQiChen
When Su Ling came in, he brought breakfast for everyone.
“Buns? What fillings are in the buns?” Meng Xiaoman bounced up, poking at the plump buns inside the bag.
Su Ling smiled brightly. “Celery, chive, rock sugar, and fish meat.”
Meng Xiaoman froze on the spot, doubting her own ears. “…Celery?”
Shi Kongzang: “…Yellow chives?”
Wu Pan: “…Rock sugar and fish meat?”
Su Ling nodded with a “Mhm,” looking at them with a strange expression—was it really necessary to repeat everything word by word?
Meng Xiaoman suddenly dropped her breakfast, waving her hands frantically. “I’m not hungry. I’m skipping breakfast.”
Su Ling’s smile didn’t change as he swayed over and said, “It wasn’t really for you anyway. Here, A-Ze, this one’s specially for you.”
Meng Xiaoman: Pfft!
Sheng Ze stared blankly at the breakfast bag in front of him, not very eager to reach out.
Su Ling waved the bag in front of his eyes and asked curiously, “Don’t you like Xiaoman’s midnight snacks? It’s such a unique flavour—I went several miles to get this just for you.”
Sheng Ze opened his mouth but had no words.
Meng Xiaoman struggled to hold back a laugh. “Yeah, boss, this is a heartfelt gift. You absolutely mustn’t disappoint him.”
Wu Pan nodded vigorously. “Although those combinations sound weird… maybe it’ll suit your taste!”
Shi Kongzang laughed nervously and patted his shoulder sincerely. “Enjoy it.”
Sheng Ze: …
Looking around, Sheng Ze turned his pleading eyes back to Su Ling.
Su Ling lowered his gaze, seeing Sheng Ze’s reluctant and wronged expression, and smiled. “Don’t want to eat?”
Sheng Ze nodded pitifully.
“All right then.” Su Ling mercifully took back the buns, speaking sadly, “You like Xiaoman’s cooking, but not the buns I specially bought for you, sigh…”
Before he could finish, Sheng Ze immediately grabbed the bag and said in distress, “I’ll eat.”
Su Ling stood with his hands behind his back, smiling warmly as he watched him.
Sheng Ze, determined to survive at all costs, took a big bite, and immediately his expression changed to one of surprise: “Delicious!”
Meng Xiaoman:? Seriously?
Su Ling blinked, also somewhat surprised.
“Not lying to you,” Sheng Ze said, eyes wide as he took another sincere big bite, “It’s really very tasty.”
Everyone looked at his blissful expression sceptically.
Ignoring their looks, Sheng Ze swallowed the big white bun in just a few bites, then, without hesitation, reached for another one.
At this, Meng Xiaoman was the first to lose her restraint.
As a passionate chef, how could she not dare to try new food?
She took a deep breath and bit off almost half of a bun.
Then, another happy ghost was born.
“So delicious! Whoever came up with this combination is definitely a genius!” Meng Xiaoman’s eyes sparkled as she gave a thumbs-up to the air.
Next, Shi Kongzang, somewhat doubtful but curious, reached out and took one.
And then—
Shi Kongzang exclaimed, “Delicious! There are two buns left—don’t even think about fighting me for them!”
Wu Pan, refusing to believe it, snatched a bun with difficulty from Shi Kongzang’s hand, popped it in his mouth, then almost cried from excitement, “So good, I feel like my tongue is about to swallow itself…”
With about half a bun left, Su Ling raised his eyebrows and looked at Chang Wu and Chang Bai standing calmly aside, curiously asking, “Aren’t you two going to try?”
Chang Wu’s response was as simple as ever: “I don’t like it.”
Chang Bai shrugged and smiled meaningfully, “After all these years, I’ve figured out their tricks. They won’t fool me.”
The ghosts who had been enthusiastically praising the buns fell silent.
Then Chang Bai walked over, used chopsticks to dig around the filling a few times, and picked out a small piece of hairy meat skin with disdain: “This texture, just thinking about it is thrilling…”
As soon as he finished speaking, a group of ghosts covered their mouths and dashed into the restroom like lightning.
Meng Xiaoman rinsed her mouth three times, drank two large glasses of water, and then weakly waved at Chang Bai, saying, “You were so right. After being tricked so many times, I still ended up trusting this guy, surnamed Sheng.”
Sheng Ze sipped his mint tea, which was supposed to cleanse the palate, his expression not very pleasant either. But upon hearing this, he still twitched the corner of his lips, showing off his irritating personality.
Su Ling sympathetically patted Meng Xiaoman’s head as comfort: “I only meant to trick A-Ze, who knew you all would jump into the pit one after another?”
Meng Xiaoman whimpered and completely gave up.
“But boss, where did you buy these buns? The taste is way too… dark,” Shi Kongzang grimaced, feeling that a strange flavour still lingered between his lips and teeth.
Su Ling willingly turned to look at Sheng Ze, lifting his chin and said, “I didn’t have A-Ze eat these buns just for fun. Last night, I received a commission call—the assignment was to investigate this bun shop.”
Sheng Ze raised an eyebrow.
Su Ling looked at him curiously: “So, Lord Ksitigarbha? Did you taste anything unusual?”
Sheng Ze swallowed instinctively—he always felt that the way the boss said “Lord Ksitigarbha” sounded somewhat mischievous.
“I didn’t taste carefully. You can ask them,” he said cautiously after a moment, pointing at Shi Kongzang and the others.
Shi Kongzang licked his lips, his face contorted by the weird taste, “Aside from being disgusting, nothing else.”
Su Ling rubbed his chin, mumbling with a troubled look, “That’s really strange…”
“Did the client mention any problems with the buns?” Sheng Ze asked.
“Strictly speaking, there’s nothing abnormal,” Su Ling thought for a moment, then asked back, “If I told you this shop’s business is booming, and I waited in line for an hour just to buy these buns, what would you think?”
Meng Xiaoman: “Are you kidding me?”
Shi Kongzang: “People’s tastes have really become bizarre nowadays.”
Wu Pan: “Xiaoman can finally open her own restaurant.”
Su Ling looked at Wu Pan with a complicated expression.
—Gotta say, young man, your line of thought is quite unique!
Sheng Ze thought for a moment, then hesitated: “Could it involve food safety issues? I saw news before reporting on unscrupulous factories adding poppy seeds and such into food, making people addicted if they eat too much.”
Su Ling shook his head. “Even so, you can’t get addicted from just one bite, right? This isn’t even about mixing in illegal drugs—it’s practically like using illegal drugs as ingredients.”
Sheng Ze asked again, “When you were waiting in line, did you hear people’s opinions about this shop?”
Su Ling’s expression instantly turned quite amusing.
He looked around and twitched the corner of his mouth. “Everyone’s saying it’s delicious—pretty much like how you all just acted.”
He left the last part unsaid.
—So when those people were acting out just now, Su Ling was happily thinking everyone had really fallen for it. 🙂
“A great person once said, ‘Practice is the only way to gain true knowledge.’ What’s the use of just thinking about it? We should just go check the place out tomorrow,” Shi Kongzang suggested.
Su Ling sighed. “That’s probably the only option.”
After a short break, the next day, Su Ling groggily opened his eyes to the sound of his alarm.
Following his usual routine, he got out of bed first and opened the wardrobe to pick out clothes, but…
Su Ling stared at the chubby “fin” before him, somewhat stunned.
He stood there dumbfounded for a long while, then belatedly realised that the sensation in his lower body felt different too.
Looking down, Su Ling was shocked to see—a split “fish” tail!!!
He gasped sharply and suddenly remembered there was a full-length mirror in the restroom, so he headed that way. But it seemed he instinctively jumped?
Coupled with the smooth grey-black skin covering his limbs, Su Ling strangely thought of an animal—a little dolphin!
Su Ling: ??!
The little dolphin Su Ling was dazed for a while, then ended up lying back down on the bed, mumbling, “I must be dreaming because I’m not even fully awake yet…”
Half an hour later, after a short nap, the little dolphin Su Ling opened his eyes, looked down, and let out an explosive dolphin squeal!
Hopping and jumping, Su Ling cast a camouflage illusion on himself, and finally, struggled his way to the company.
Inside, it was very quiet.
And very strange.
Lying in the middle of the floor was that big white blob—clearly Tuanzi—and beside the blob…
Su Ling stretched out his chubby little hand and seriously started counting—one little crab, one sea turtle, one octopus, and another one that looked like a scallop!
Seeing the little dolphin standing by the door, Tuanzi was the first to open its eyes, greeting him with a curious and warm “Gu?”
Next—
Little Crab: Pop. (blowing bubbles)
Octopus: Whoosh. (spraying ink)
Scallop: Clap. (closing its shell)
Little Sea Turtle: (stays motionless)
In an instant, Su Ling got the illusion that he had arrived at an ocean theme park!
Luckily, at that moment, Chang Bai appeared carrying a big basin of fresh water. Seeing the “little dolphin,” he confirmed, unsurprisingly, “Boss?”
Little Dolphin Su: “Ying!”
Su Ling: ???
Why did his voice sound like that?!
“Looks like it is,” Chang Bai chuckled, waving at him. “I’ve prepared a basin of seawater for everyone. Do you want to soak for a bit?”
Su Ling: “Ying.”
No, thanks.
Just then, the scallop and octopus didn’t hesitate at all and leapt straight into the seawater basin, happily soaking.
Chang Bai waited for the little dolphin to hop closer, then patiently explained one by one, “Little Crab is Sheng Ze, the little turtle is Wu Pan, the scallop is Xiaoman, and the octopus is Kongzang. Since they’re deep-sea scallops and octopus, they have to soak in salt water from time to time.”
Hearing this, the scallop suddenly made its shell clap repeatedly in the water, and the octopus angrily squirted ink.
Chang Bai sighed helplessly: “Alright, I get that you’re uncomfortable. But where am I supposed to get the deep-sea water pressure for you two?”
Chubby little dolphin Su Ling inexplicably felt comforted by these words and plopped down beside Tuanzi.
—Compared to them, it was such a lucky break that he didn’t have to soak in salt water or endure deep-sea water pressure!
But why was everyone looking at him like that?
Su Ling tilted his head suspiciously.
Chang Bai looked complicated and said, “Uh, Boss, maybe you should get up and move over a bit.”
Su Ling: ?
Chang Bai tried hard to hold back his laughter but couldn’t quite manage it, making his expression especially distorted. “You’re sitting right on Lord Sheng Ze.”
Su Ling jumped up quickly. Looking down, he saw beneath him a tiny little crab—probably only about one seven or eight hundredth his size—waving its big claw angrily and glaring with its little round eyes.
Su Ling: Pfft!
—You have to admit that that glaring, claw-waving, sideways-walking1walking sideways in Chinese can be figuratively used to refer to acting arrogant manner was exactly like Sheng Ze’s usual self!!!
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