I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 253
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- Chapter 253 - You Pulled Me Aside and Said You Were Feeling Hesitant
Chapter 253: You Pulled Me Aside and Said You Were Feeling Hesitant
Before this, I always thought the reason why Gabriel stayed on Earth was because she liked all kinds of luminous devices, such as the various neon lights in the city at night.
After all, just now on the way to the café, she showed an almost fanatical fondness for the lights on the roadside and the running lights on the sports cars.
I could feel that Gabriel really liked those lights and was very surprised by humans creating “light” in a world without magical abilities. So when I saw how much Gabriel liked the light, I quietly made up my mind that during these days off.
If nothing else worked, I would let Fei Luo and Xiao Mo take Gabriel to see the night view of Shenzhen and let her see the neon lights and nighttime billboards here.
Shenzhen City is a big city, and not to mention the cyberpunk-like light tubes and billboards in the Honor District alone are already very impressive. When Fei Luo took me to the Clock Tower in the Honor District, the brilliance of the Honor Tower and the gigantic LCD screens startled even me, a native of Shenzhen, let alone Gabriel from another world.
Even if Gabriel doesn’t like those, it doesn’t matter. I still have a trump card—the electronic sports center on the lower floor of the café.
That is a complete light pollution.
Standing in the basement, you’ll have a feeling of “am I still on Earth,” and I feel dizzy just standing there.
Living in a drunken dream, it’s like a dream.
When the time comes, standing in a place like that, I’ll show Gabriel some of Earth’s electronic computers, look for games with elements like “heaven” or “angels,” even if they’re just on the fringe, as long as I can showcase Earth’s powerful level of technology to Gabriel. Games like “Civilization,” “Elden Ring,” “Cities: Skylines,” anything like that, let her see Earth’s hardcore high-tech.
Television, movies, computer games, light pollution… There must be something that can win over this newcomer angel.
I thought Gabriel was the kind of angel with very strong principles. After all, she’s been influenced by related cultures for thousands of years as a high-ranking angel. Thousands of years of habits and beliefs shouldn’t change in just one day. I was prepared for a “protracted war.”
But unexpectedly, Gabriel didn’t even need “high technology” or “light pollution.” A few egg tarts and buns directly caused her “faith to collapse.”
You know, this is an 8000 yuan purchase plus a top-of-the-line graphics card. I’m not sure about the exact price of the Tianqi 3000 graphics card that Sikong Yue brought over, but the launch price of the 4090 graphics card is 12,999 yuan. If the Tianqi 3000 is equivalent to this graphics card, then to me, Gabriel is basically worth… over twenty thousand yuan.
Moreover, if we calculate based on the bonus income from the entire café, myself, Yin Xiamo, Fei Luo, Ouyang Xue, as well as Ai Luodi and Lan Jiajia, six maids, each gets 5000 yuan except for me, which adds up to over fifty thousand yuan, enough to make Su Yunjin bleed.
“You want to ask for leave from a high-ranking angel?”
On the second floor of the café, after listening to Gabriel’s words, Yin Xiamo showed her signature sly expression.
“Well, this is quite something new. Our pure and flawless Archangel Gabriel… actually needs to take leave?”
“Don’t misunderstand, it’s just because I can’t go back in the short term.”
While eating buns, Gabriel said somewhat embarrassedly, “Neither Fei Luo nor I have any magic left, so it’s up to you, Momo, to go back and inform them.”
“For how long?”
“Huh?”
“I mean…”
Yin Xiamo tilted her head back, “How long are you planning to ask for leave from the supervisor?”
“Let’s just go with a month here.”
Gabriel seemed hesitant, she looked at the soup dumplings in her hand, then glanced at the soy milk and fried dough sticks next to the tray, hesitated for a moment, “30 days will do.”
The soup dumplings here at the café use the traditional “frozen filling method.” This month, I’ve been shuttling back and forth to the kitchen every day, occasionally helping Chef Wang and secretly learning cooking skills.
I’ve basically learned the specific production methods. This thing isn’t really a secret in various chef circles. Making soup dumplings is almost the same as making regular buns. The difficulty lies in how to put the “soup” in and the technique of wrapping.
When I was a child in the welfare home, I made a lot of dumplings, so making buns isn’t really a technical job for me. I can easily make threaded, plum-patterned, and shell-shaped buns, and I can even make those “twin buns” where two buns are combined.
The café’s soup dumplings are truly authentic, made by first treating the minced meat in a special way to ensure it cooks tender and smooth. Then it’s placed into a specially made thick soup. The minced meat and thick soup are poured into molds in certain proportions, similar to making homemade ice cream or ice cubes. After pouring, they are put into the freezer to freeze. When the time is right, what comes out is a solid block of thick soup with meat.
At this point, all we need to do is take out the frozen block of meat soup, wrap it in dough, then place it uniformly into the steamer. While steaming, the frozen soup inside the bun will melt, with some juice seeping into the dough while some combines with the minced meat. After being fully cooked, it’s taken out of the steamer. One bite bursts with juicy, rich flavors.
The most important aspect of soup dumplings is the “soup.” It can’t be too bland or too thick. Whether it’s pork rib soup, meat soup, or chicken soup, it must perfectly complement the minced meat for the dumplings to be both fragrant and soft.
Obviously, for Chef Wang, who came from a large hotel, making soup is his specialty, so our soup dumplings here have always been a bestseller.
“Is 30 days enough?”
Amidst the aroma of soy milk, fried dough sticks, and buns, Yin Xiamo, in an encouraging tone, said to Gabriel, “Fei Luo plans to stay here for hundreds of years before returning. Are you going to leave alone?”
“30 days is already quite a lot, for an angel.”
Gabriel smiled wryly, “You know the rules of heaven. The Dragon Clan is lax in discipline. Even if they don’t communicate frequently for decades, as long as there’s no world war, Fei Luo can stay here for a thousand years. But we angels are different. I still have many tasks…”
“Is it really that much?”
At that moment, a few customers not far away seemed to recognize me and waved over, saying, “Aren’t you off duty today?”
“Yeah, I’m off today. Just came to see some friends.”
I waved back at them, signaling, “I’m not even wearing my maid outfit.”
“Even in your daily clothes, Nuo’er is still adorable. You’re as down-to-earth as usual. We thought you might start acting high and mighty after becoming a star.”
Those people seemed delighted to see me. “Can we take a photo?”
“Sure, the café doesn’t forbid photos. But since I’m off duty today, group photos aren’t allowed.”
“No problem, I’ll just take a distant photo of you, and boast to my group…”
As I shifted my gaze away from those customers, I sighed inwardly.
I don’t know when it started, but it seems I’ve become a “local celebrity” in the area and even online.
When Xiao Mo and I walk to and from work, various passersby often greet us warmly, showing concern. Even the couple who runs the noodle shop we’ve been frequenting this month would comment when they saw Xiao Mo and me buying things, “Hey, aren’t you two working at that mushroom house by the seaside? I’ve seen you often on short videos lately.”
To this, Xiao Mo and I could only offer some casual responses to brush it off.
Getting famous wasn’t my intention, but if the café wants to thrive, it’s inevitable that we, as staff, become well-known.
I’m the signature of the café, also representing the “loli” archetype, while Xiao Mo is the representative of “young girl” here. Almost everyone who comes to eat at the shop knows our faces and names.
Not to mention the two of us, now even Lan Jiajia and Ai Luodi in the shop are considered half “minor celebrities” on the Tongmeng website. Even without deliberate promotion, the number of followers on their respective accounts is increasing rapidly every day. Lan Jiajia is known as the enthusiastic elder sister, while Ai Luodi is known as the late-night princess.
“How do you eat this?”
In a daze, Gabriel had already finished the soup dumplings in front of her and turned her gaze to the soy milk and fried dough sticks. “This white liquid… doesn’t seem like milk.”
“It’s soy milk. Soybeans are ground into powder, boiled with water, and then a little sugar and honey are added.”
I joked, “Do you have similar soybeans over there?”
“We have many types of beans, but not consumed this way. Most humans just cook them directly.”
Gabriel picked up a piece of fried dough stick. “What about this?”
“Simply put, it’s dough fried in peanut oil.”
I gestured to the soy milk. “These two are meant to be eaten together. You can try dipping the fried dough stick into the soy milk, but some people aren’t used to this way of eating and prefer to eat a bite of fried dough stick followed by a sip of soy milk.”
“I’ll give it a try…”
“Buzzzz…”
While talking to Gabriel, my phone in my pocket vibrated again.
“Sorry, I need to take this call.”
Under Gabriel’s surprised gaze, I picked up my phone and stood up, walking over to the nearby window. Yin Xiamo helped explain, “Someone’s calling Nuo’er, it means they’re requesting a conversation.”
“Can that thing allow two people to communicate directly?”
“Yes, it’s said that the original function of phones was precisely that: chatting and exchanging messages over long distances. Video calls and games gradually developed later.”
“This is so amazing. How does it work exactly? Instantaneous communication? Can the person speaking here be heard immediately on the other end?”
“They can be heard immediately. If it’s too far, there might be a delay of a few seconds, but it’s not much.”
“That’s really great. If we had such devices back then…”
Arriving at the window on the second floor of the café, I took out my phone and glanced at the incoming call, then pressed the answer button.
“Uncle… uh, no, Nuo’er, do you remember me?”
A familiar voice came through the phone, “It’s me, Cai Jingtong (Kill Kirito)!”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember.”
Upon hearing the name, I instantly recalled who the person was and quickly asked, “What made you suddenly want to call me?”
Cai Jingtong, an old friend from my first reader group, was one of my earliest readers. Her name in the group was “Kill Kirito.” She and Maple, also known as Zhou Lulu, were studying at Shenzhen College. Shenzhen College was a vocational school located far from the city center, in a very remote area.
During the first group gathering, Cai Jingtong, who was cosplaying Kirito, came with “Maple” together. Cai Jingtong has a lively personality, or you could say he’s more “D”, while Maple is softer and cuter, more “S”. They share a relationship beyond friendship, but they’re not officially together as lovers.
“A few days ago, Lulu and I participated in an event organized by the school’s anime club and won second prize, which was a set of Dendro Archon Nahida Cosplay costumes. However, the size doesn’t fit either of us. The shop owner said it’s only suitable for girls who are 1.4 to 1.5 meters tall, so we thought of you.”
Cai Jingtong on the phone still had that lively tone, “Coincidentally, Lulu and I don’t have classes today, so we wanted to come out and play. We thought of visiting your café and giving you this outfit.”
Dendro Archon Nahida? From a game?
Though I’ve been particularly busy lately, with no time to even play games every day, I still check the group messages and browse forums and Tieba when I have spare time. I knew that this God is a popular character from a recent game called “Genshin Impact,” known for its “grass element” deity, with a loli-like figure, white hair, and predominantly green clothes, resembling a badminton shuttlecock.
This was a basic quality of an author.
I’ve always believed that as a server, if you don’t actively understand the current popular elements on the market, if you don’t know or engage with what readers like, you can’t call yourself a qualified author.
Just like coming up with book titles, if the titles we used before no longer attract readers, we have to keep up with the times and choose titles that are suitable for this era.
Otherwise, we’ll just be left behind by the times. Games, comics, novels, even doujinshi, as authors, we need to have some understanding of them, or else when we open our reader groups, we won’t understand what everyone is discussing. If we don’t grasp some of the jokes and popular elements, we’ll be puzzled every day when we check the backend, and it might even lead to misunderstandings.
【My ZhiZhi is lent to you for use.】
【ZhiZhi? What ZhiZhi? What are you talking about?】
【It’s nothing.】
For example, I’ve previously written novels where the main character writes a diary. Some readers would comment things like “Who writes diaries seriously?” or “Would that really be considered inner thoughts?” These comments are part of a trend, with a similar phrase being “Despicable! Despicable!”
So if the author is aware of this trend, reading comments and critiques would be more comfortable. But if the author has no clue, sticking only to writing and being oblivious to the outside world, when they see readers commenting “Despicable! Despicable!” on the diary entries, their first reaction might be, “Why are they insulting me?”
At this point, authors with a good temper can only silently endure it, while those with a bad temper might directly retort, “Who are you calling despicable!” Then, the readers who receive such a response might feel wronged, saying, “Author-sama, it’s just a joke from the movie ‘Evil Never Dies‘.” And that would be quite awkward.
So even though I don’t usually have much time to play games, I still have some knowledge about the “Dendro Archon” cosplay outfit mentioned by Cai Jingtong.
“I appreciate your kindness.”
Facing the enthusiastic Cai Jingtong, I smiled by the window. “It’s okay if the clothes don’t fit. You can keep them as a collection. It’s your reward, so you don’t have to give it to me.”
“No, that won’t do.”
Cai Jingtong on the phone bluntly refused, “Both Lulu and I are quite tall, and we don’t have any siblings. Keeping this outfit takes up space, and among our friends, only you, Nuo’er, have the right height. So, it’s for you. Don’t refuse, Nuo’er!”
Only I have the right height… What a sad story.
“Besides, Lulu and I will be there in less than three minutes. You wouldn’t want to refuse our gift, would you?”
“Uh…”
I instinctively looked out the window. “Are you here?”
“Two minutes!”
“Ding dong! Welcome!”
Before I could say anything, the familiar welcoming sound from the café’s first-floor sensor horn came through my phone, followed by Lan Jiajia’s voice, “Welcome! What would you like to order?”
“I’m here to find Nuo’er. I’m her fan. Where is Nuo’er?”
“Oh, Nuo’er. You can go to the second floor, turn right, and it’s the second shelf.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“……”
After a brief silence, I saw Cai Jingtong (Kill Kirito) and Zhou Lulu (Maple), dressed like college students, at the corner of the stairs on the second floor. Compared to their previous cosplay outfits, they now radiated the vitality and beauty of teenage girls in their everyday attire.
“Nuo’er!”
Seeing me, Cai Jingtong, carrying a large backpack, waved towards me. “Are you still busy working?”
“I’m not working today. I’m here to accompany a friend.”
I gestured towards Gabriel and Yin Xiamo sitting at the table. “Would you like something to eat?”
“We’ve already eaten.”
Without hesitation, Cai Jingtong brought the backpack from behind to her chest, unzipped it, and took out a set of green and white dress and accessories. “Here, the promised clothes.”
“This design seems to be like the style of the elf race.”
Noticing this set of clothing, Yin Xiamo hesitated for a moment and then turned to Gabriel. “Have you decided? Just taking a 30-day leave?”
Gabriel nodded. “30 days will be enough.”
“Do you want to stay here with Fei Luo for a few hundred years?”
“No, we angels have our own commandments. Not returning for hundreds of years, hiding in the small world for self-indulgence… will be seen as fallen by the Holy Heaven.”
“Why do you care what they think? The main thing is whether you want to stay here or not.”
Yin Xiamo yawned. “Won’t you reconsider? I’ll go back and talk to your archangel later. You can still change your mind now.”
“Is there still a need to consider?”
Gabriel swallowed the oil stick in her mouth. “This is really delicious, just a little worse than egg tarts in taste.”
“I suggest you take a longer leave.”
“Don’t persuade me, Momo.”
Gabriel’s expression was firm. “At most 30 days, I absolutely will not violate the teachings of the Holy Heaven!”
“Okay.”
Yin Xiamo stood up. “Are you finished eating? If you are, I’ll take you somewhere.”
Gabriel asked curiously, “Where to?”
“Nuo’er, take her there,” Yin Xiamo signaled to me with her eyes. “To the basement.”
“Mhmm, just wait a moment,” I said.
“I’m taking my friend to see the basement.”
Cai Jingtong and Zhou Lulu didn’t mind and sat down casually on the chairs. “Okay.”
“Gabriel, let’s go,” I said, leading the way towards the stairs.
“We’re going to a very beautiful place.”
Under Yin Xiamo’s gaze, Gabriel reluctantly put down the oil stick in her hand and followed me downstairs.
“This is our café’s main project for the next few months, mainly providing entertainment equipment and alternative social venues.”
Leading Gabriel downstairs, I found the switch behind the cat food storage area in the cat living area. I had already turned on the power here in advance, then removed the halo on my wrist to use as illumination.
“Watch your step on the stairs.”
“Why are we going to such a dark place?”
Gabriel looked puzzled. “Just to clarify, I’m not a heavy drinker, nor do I enjoy alcohol. If you’re taking me to a wine cellar…”
“Our wine cellar here has almost been phased out,” I interrupted.
Walking together with Gabriel along the path illuminated by the halo of an angel, we reached the bottom of the stairs. I felt along the wall beside me and found the power switch. With a click, the “cyberpunk” fluorescent lights in the basement flickered to life.
“Wow—”
At that moment, the entire world was enveloped in various dazzling and fantastical lights.
“If Gabriel can work here, this would be your workplace,” I said amidst the fluctuating breathing lights, gesturing towards the space ahead.
“The salary is a minimum of 4000 yuan, but if it’s Gabriel, 10,000 a month shouldn’t be a problem, you can easily buy three mobile phones with that…”
“……”
Gabriel fell silent. Just as I wondered if my words were too abrupt, I heard the girl beside me say something.
“I don’t want money.”
“Huh?” I paused.
“Um, the matter about money can actually be discussed with our manager…”
“I don’t want money. I want to work here. It’s… too beautiful here, even without money.”
With one last glance at the flashing lights of the basement, Gabriel turned and ran towards the stairs.
“I’ll go up and talk to Momo. I’ve changed my mind.”
“I won’t go back within a hundred years.”
“……”
……
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