I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 337

Chapter 337: Lotus Fish, Delicious, Cat’s Favorite

Xiao Mo’s usual job mainly involves taking care of the cats and serving customers interested in cats in the cat living area. It can be said that basically anything related to “cats” is handled by Xiao Mo, such as providing cat snacks, cat toys, guiding customers on how to interact with cats, and so on.

At first glance, this seems like a very leisurely job, but only those who have done it will understand that it’s actually quite tiring. Because you need to repeatedly answer customers’ questions, often simultaneously addressing many different inquiries.

Customers who come to pet cats are not like those who come to dine. When dining, customers may only need the service staff at the beginning when ordering. They might wave to call the server over, ask about the restaurant’s signature dishes, what’s good to eat, what dishes suit them, and so on.

Generally, after asking these questions and possibly ordering more dishes, customers won’t need to interact with the server much more.

But cat-petting customers are different. If someone comes to the café specifically for the cats, they are most likely either without cats at home or find owning a cat troublesome but still love cats.

These customers don’t interact with Xiao Mo about which cat in the shop is the most enchanting, or demand, “Give me the fattest cat,” or ask, “Miss server, as a shut-in like me, what breed of cat would be suitable?” Instead, they head straight for the cat living area, timidly taking photos of the cats and then tentatively reaching out to interact with them. Only when they gain some courage do they call the server over for assistance.

And this “assistance” is quite troublesome. When petting the cats, they’ll ask about each cat’s situation and casually pose questions about anything they don’t understand. If they see any strange cat toys or snacks on the shelves, they’ll ask about those too.

Xiao Mo is by their side throughout, acting like a teacher imparting cat knowledge to the customers, needing to answer questions at any time. So sometimes, everyone calls Xiao Mo the “Xiao Mo Teacher” here.

When there are few people, it’s fine, but when there are many people coming to pet the cats, it’s one question here, another there, and customers wanting to buy cat canned food over there. The constant chatter makes it impossible to concentrate. Xiao Mo, with her supercomputer-level brain, is fine with it, but for an ordinary person, this “multithreaded” way of life would probably short-circuit them, leading to complaints from customers like, “I asked her questions for half the day, and she didn’t answer, acting all high and mighty!”

But speaking of which, the snacks on these shelves really do look tempting…

After handing over work to Lan Jiajia and Ai Luodi, completing the daily routine of counting and cleaning the cats, I instinctively became curious about the snack shelf near the cat climbing frame.

The cat living area in the café is a very large area, and not just one place. Because the land in the Nanchi district is relatively cheap, the café itself occupies a very large area. As the name suggests, the cat living area is where the cats live. It’s roughly Z-shaped, with a small entrance at the beginning of the Z where we usually store our things, like a storage room. Ouyang Xue often goes there to work on the computer, write programs, debug, and make videos.

The area on the right side of the Z is not completely blocked off either. It has many double and single person areas, where you can directly see the Shenzhen River and the sea outside through the café’s glass windows, and there are also many massage chairs, making it a particularly good leisure area.

I really admire Ouyang Xue for this. The places where the single and double person areas are located have the best scenery, so customers who come alone don’t have to worry about the noisy crowds around them and can enjoy their alone time, while customers who come with friends or family don’t care about the scenery because they’re here to have fun with their companions.

“This is a lotus fish specially fried for you by Chef Wang. Didn’t have a proper breakfast this morning, did you?”

Just as I was setting up in the cat living area, finding the table and chair Xiao Mo usually sits at, preparing to get down to business, someone came over with a plate of fragrant little fish.

“Lotus fish?”

I took the plate and looked at the golden crispy little fish inside. “Why would Chef Wang have this?”

The specific term “lotus fish” is not known in which region it originates. In Shenzhen City, basically, any small freshwater fish that doesn’t grow large is called lotus fish. This kind of fish looks somewhat like a miniature version of tilapia, with a slightly reddish hue on its body, resembling the lotus flowers in the pond. Since these fish are mostly raised in the lotus ponds in university campuses or parks, the name “lotus fish” has spread.

This kind of fish is also considered a common home-cooked dish in Shenzhen City. It’s simply fried in fragrant oil, fried until the fish bones are crispy, and then served. Because the fish are very small, after frying at high heat, their fins break at the slightest touch, so you don’t have to worry about choking on them.

Of course, that’s for the uncle’s benefit. As for me now, with a small mouth, even small fish can’t be eaten in one bite. I have to take small bites, but I’m not worried about the fins, that’s for sure.

“Chef Wang said his old fishing friend had a big catch yesterday, couldn’t finish it all, so he took some and gave it to him. But because the raw material for this lotus fish didn’t come from regular channels, he couldn’t sell it to customers, so he thought about making it for us here in the café.”

Xiao Mo explained, “And here comes Little Nuo’er.”

“I’m not a little milk cat!”

Instinctively retorting, I picked up the chopsticks and tried to pick up the smallest fish, “click,” and took a bite.

So delicious!

The subtle fishy taste, paired with the heavy salty flavor, and the crispy texture from frying… Ah, it’s like heaven.

Much tastier than canned fish!

Come to think of it, I’ve eaten this kind of fried lotus fish a lot before, why does it suddenly taste so delicious today? Is it really the cat-girl genes at work?

“Why can Chef Wang’s fishing buddy catch so many fish?”

I directly picked up a fish that was still a little hot and handed it to Xiao Mo. “Are there many fishing buddies he knows? Or did they fish all day?”

If I remember correctly, almost all the fishing buddies around Shenzhen City are from the Air Force.

They can’t catch anything.

As a coastal city, after so many years of development, whether it’s the sea near the city or the rivers, the fish inside are very clever, because the not-so-clever fish have died. Not to mention the fishing buddies, even professional fishermen might not be able to catch so many fish without some skills.

“From what he said, just one or two fishing buddies.”

Xiao Mo took the fried lotus fish I handed her and took a couple of bites.

“Indeed, they didn’t catch much at the time, so they fried them.”

“What?”

“Fried fish, as in… using explosives.”

Xiao Mo seemed to think for a moment.

“Chef Wang said they used something like… torpedoes, and those kinds of cannons that can sink to the bottom of the water, blowing the fish belly-up, then they scooped them up. That’s all.”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

“It’s their own pond.”

Oh… then it’s fine.

?User “LOKER” sends a bullet screen: Is this a new look for Nuo’er today? Why is there a tail??

?User “Vanilla and Chocolate” sends a bullet screen: Are there cat ears inside the beret??

?User “Huang Weida is my son” sends a bullet screen: Are you selling the Tianqi graphics card in your store today? I saw it mentioned on the official account, seems like you’re trying to prevent scalping??

While eating fish, I heard the broadcast of the barrage in the live broadcast from the Bluetooth earphones on top of my cat ears.

It looks like everyone is about to get up at this time…

“Yes, that’s right. Today is June 18th. In addition to various discount activities in our store, there will also be offline direct sales of a batch of graphics cards.”

I said into the microphone fixed around my neck while chewing fish, “The graphics cards from Jialan Company, the Tianqi series, here mainly includes the Tianqi series and the joint graphics cards with the café, totaling three models, Tianqi 2600, Tianqi 2800, and Tianqi 3000.

Chew chew…

?User “Huang Weida is my son” sends a bullet screen: My friend is in your city. He doesn’t get off work until six in the afternoon. Will he be able to buy your graphics card??

?User “Not recording unboxing to send you Blizzard green tea” sends a bullet screen: Although I heard from various channels that this Jialan Company is awesome, but after all, it’s a new card, I’m a bit hesitant, I’m afraid the drivers won’t work.?

?User “Super Scam” sends a bullet screen: How about waiting for reviews first, wait and see. How long will your store’s graphics card direct sales event last??

“From today until the 25th, Jialan Company will be holding events in our store, including graphics card cooling and so on.”

I continued to explain to these bullet screens, “As for the scalping issue… Sister Ouyang has already explained on the official account. We have purchase restrictions here, and purchases need to be reviewed. For example, if you have already purchased all the computer parts at home and are waiting for the graphics card, or if you have upgrading needs, and can prove that you are a personal player, you can qualify for purchase…”

“Nuo’er, this is the setup for today’s graphics card sales event. You… why don’t you sit here?”

Just as she said that, Ouyang Xue pushed a small cart full of things over, placing various advertising leaflets on the table where I was sitting one by one, and then began arranging props.

These props were mostly printed with the logo of Jialan Company’s little elf, and overall, they were mostly green. Like super large billboards, small balloons, and some small light tubes, advertising leaflets, etc., all in shades of green, attracting curious little cats from around to gather around and meow.

“So many…”

I felt a bit guilty, “Sister Ouyang, you didn’t work overnight for this again last night, did you?”

“No, I’ve been resting on time during this period. These were done by the designers from Jialan Company. I just had the factory rush to make them overnight.”

Ouyang Xue seemed very relaxed, “Your friends Jiang Wei and Ye Zi will also come later, they have a lot more.”

That’s good.

I thought you stayed up all night for this event again…

“Oh, I almost forgot.”

After arranging the props around, Ouyang Xue pushed the cart away, “Nuo’er, wait for me for a moment.”

Soon after, I saw Ouyang Xue coming back, holding a large sign with a cat paw pattern in her hand.

“This, today Nuo’er, you can sit here to sell goods, sell cat snacks, and sell graphics cards, all okay.”

Putting the sign with the conspicuous “Not for Sale” on my table, Ouyang Xue patted my shoulder.

“Come on, little kitty, the future depends on you.”

“……”

……