I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 345

Chapter 345: Magical Kitty Chef

 

“Meow!”

 

Seeing me return from outside, the few cats that had been keeping watch at the door.

Dingman, Nian Gao, and Nen Bao, all seemed to sigh in relief and ran to the side to scratch their claws in unison.

 

I’m not sure when it started, but it seems that the bigger the cats in the shop get, the more they like to cling to me.

 

Dingman and Nian Gao are the only two Maine Coons in the café. Dingman is the biggest and most handsome, while Nian Gao is more delicate, like a little lady. Nen Bao is the most beautiful Ragdoll cat and is also the poor soul that gets petted nonstop by customers every day.

 

Nen Bao really has an excellent appearance—big, round face, fluffy fur, and an overall ethereal look. However, this name often gets complaints from customers: “What does Nen Bao mean?”, “Why such a strange name?”

 

Some customers take “Nen Bao” literally, thinking this fairy-like Ragdoll cat must feel very soft, but that’s not quite right.

 

When it comes to fur texture, I personally feel that some domestic cats have better fur feel than long-haired cats. Cats like Dingman and Nian Gao, large long-haired ones, have fur that feels somewhat like a dog’s—quite coarse, unless they’ve just had a bath.

 

Actually, if you call “Nen Bao” by another name, most people would understand: Little Snail.

 

I remember this is a kind of endearing term in some dialects elsewhere, similar to “cute snail.” Nen Bao essentially means “snail.”

 

“You guys… I wasn’t out fighting, why so nervous?”

 

After petting a few of the cats, I moved to the side, grabbed a stool, stood on it, and placed a little golden figure above the large fish tank. After adjusting the angle slightly, I got down from the chair.

 

Hmm… seems alright.

 

After putting the chair back, I examined the effect of the little gold figure from the front of the fish tank.

 

Based on the weight I felt while holding it, this little gold figure is indeed made of pure gold, except for the base.

 

It’s particularly heavy. Even though I’m in my cat-girl form right now, carrying it back all the way made my wrist feel noticeably fatigued. It must weigh seven or eight catties.

 

In other words… if you exclude the weight of the base, this little gold figure, even if sold directly as gold, would fetch around seventy thousand yuan. Converted to cash… fifty centimeters?

 

When I placed the little gold figure on top of the aquarium, it was like putting a stack of cash fifty centimeters thick on top.

 

Well, it’s not like this thing belongs to us anyway, and the Zhao family made the first move.

 

I yawned, stretched, licked the back of my hand, and stroked the cat ears on top of my head.

 

“You girls’ props are getting more and more realistic.”

 

Su Yunjin, who was helping Jiang Wei move things, walked by and joked with a smile, “If I hadn’t seen Nuo’er without cat ears before, I’d almost believe you’re a real cat-girl.”

 

“You can buy one too, you know, they’re available online.”

 

I teased, “With Brother Ji being such a handsome guy, he must be very popular with beautiful girls. A six-foot-tall cat-eared man, warm and versatile, would definitely attract a lot of big sisters wanting his contact info.”

 

I know Su Yunjin quite well.

 

I suspect he was suffocated by being surrounded by girls since he was a child, and that’s why he turned out this way.

 

A guy like him, even without cat ears, usually gets asked for his contact info by various girls when he comes to the café.

 

As maids in the café, Xiao Mo, Lan Jiajia, Ai Luodi, and I get normal, straight girls who come to eat and look at us with admiring eyes at most.

 

After all, most girls love beauty and cute things, but it’s just admiration. But when they look at Su Yunjin, it’s different. They have the expression of wolves eyeing a sheep—they really would pounce on and devour him.

 

So I know that as long as I bring up “If you learn to wear cat ears like me, you’ll definitely be popular,” Su Yunjin can’t stand it.

 

“Forget it, just thinking about that scene gives me goosebumps all over. Nuo’er, please don’t talk about it.”

 

Sure enough, after hearing my words, Su Yunjin looked frightened and waved his hands repeatedly, saying, “Let’s get back to the point. What did Miss Zhao say? Did they give you a hard time? Do you want me to ask Uncle to step in and resolve it?”

 

“No, with Xiao Mo around, they wouldn’t dare do anything strange. It’s already good that we didn’t scare her away.”

 

I shook my head and gestured towards the little gold figure. “Besides, Miss Zhao didn’t come here on behalf of the Zhao family.”

 

She came here purely to find a master to apprentice with, a very traditional motive.

 

It feels somewhat similar to how some delinquents idolize Bruce Lee immensely, practicing martial arts since childhood, and disregarding everything to approach their idol for guidance.

 

Of course, whether Xiao Mo, this “idol,” can guide these delinquents is not within my consideration.

 

What I can clearly understand now is that Zhao Yue had some ulterior motives in leaving this little gold figure with us.

 

The café has been on TV before with Mayor Ye and Uncle “Prosecutor Su” Su Yunjin, so people in both the underworld and the legal world probably know our status. So Zhao Yue’s visit this time also carries a certain gesture of goodwill.

 

Now the café is like a hot potato, everyone wants to curry favor, but our café’s style doesn’t fit into this vortex of competition, and it’s not appropriate for everyone to come and cause trouble openly.

 

Zhao Ming leaving the little gold figure here carries the meaning of ‘Our Zhao family has reconciled with the café and Mayor Ye, and also has connections with the higher-ups in the city.’ It also has the flavor of ‘Listen, enemies of the Zhao family, if you want to make a move in the future, think twice about your own capabilities.”’

 

In a way, Zhao Yue leaving things here claiming “you can get protection from the Zhao family” can ensure that the small-time troublemakers from Nanqi District and Honor District won’t come looking for trouble, but it also carries some risk. However, the café itself can handle this kind of risk.

 

I just placed the little gold figure in the most prominent position. There are cameras everywhere in the café. With something worth nearly a hundred thousand yuan, even if you steal it, there’s comprehensive surveillance.

 

If you steal, you’ll get caught. Ten thousand yuan is definitely a “huge amount,” starting from three years, and maybe even ten years.

 

Ordinary troublemakers won’t dare to make a move, and those who understand the rules will see that this is a gold medal from the Zhao family and won’t dare to act recklessly.

 

Anyway, if someone does cause trouble, let the Zhao family deal with it themselves. Your family heirloom jade seal is lost, and you’re not in a hurry, right? If you’re not in a hurry, I’m not in a hurry either. After all, it was given by that Miss Zhao.

 

In short, for now, we’ll just stick to our usual working habits and go to work diligently.

 

“Not bad, Zhao family knows what’s what,” Su Yunjin glanced at the little gold figure on the fish tank.

 

“I originally thought with their personalities, they would need at least half a year of education to yield.”

 

“Alright, alright, with your uncle around, who would dare to cause trouble?”

 

Jiang Wei, who was moving things with Su Yunjin, became a little impatient seeing this guy not moving for half the day.

 

“Hurry up, we still need to move other stuff after this. My hands are getting sore.”

 

“Okay, okay, today you’re the boss, you’re the greatest…”

 

Watching the two of them leave, I turned to the cats. “You guys should get to work too. There will be more customers coming during the peak hours.”

 

“Meow—”

 

Dingman, Nian Gao, and Miaomiao, along with a few other cats, seemed to understand my words. They ran to the cat climbing frame at the shop entrance and scratched their claws “ka-cha, ka-cha” a few times. Then, they rubbed against my shins lazily and strolled towards the cat living area.

 

Scratching claws is a relatively mysterious behavior for humans when it comes to cats. This behavior usually occurs when the litter-picker comes back home after going out or after using the restroom. For cats, scratching claws symbolizes “I’m ready, I can go hunting anytime” and “I’m relieving inner pressure.”

 

In the cat world, there’s no concept of going to work or coming off duty, and they don’t know whether humans going into the bathroom means taking a bath or relieving themselves. The litter-picker disappears from their sight, and cats only think that the big cat they live with is out hunting.

 

If the litter-picker comes back with a lot of cat snacks and canned food, the cats think the hunt was successful. If they come back empty-handed, it’s considered a failure.

 

In the cognitive world of cats, the failure rate of going out to hunt is far greater than the success rate.

 

Even in ancient desert environments, a mother cat wouldn’t always bring back prey in a single outing, so kittens don’t necessarily expect that the litter-picker will always bring back something to eat when they go out. The only expectation cats have of humans is… don’t die.

 

“You, please come back safely”—this is the mental activity of cats when they see humans going out. The outside world, in the eyes of cats, is a dangerous place where death is possible. Going out means risking their lives to hunt.

 

When Zhao Ming called me and Xiao Mo out earlier, I was actually a little nervous. I think Dingman and the others could sense this emotion, so they felt that our outing this time was full of danger. They stayed tense in the shop for as long as we were outside, always on edge.

 

When they saw me come back in, they relaxed, and scratching their claws represents “I’m relieving pressure,” which also means saying to the litter-picker, “I’m ready, my claws are sharpened, take me with you next time you go out.”

 

So, the placement of the cat climbing frame in the café is actually quite particular.

 

Some cats in certain households often scratch up the sofa, even if you buy them scratching posts. Most of the time, it’s just a matter of not understanding the cat’s psychological activities properly.

 

At the entrance of the café, there are dedicated cat climbing frames and scratching posts prepared for those worried little kittens, to prevent them from not finding a place to vent and damaging things in the café.

 

In fact, this approach does have some effect. However, because there are too many cats in the café, it’s impossible to cover everything, and not all kittens have the same personality and principles of conduct.

 

So, it’s inevitable that there are quite a few pieces of furniture scratched by cat claws here, and we can only educate these naughty little kittens when we see it happening.

 

“Chef Wang, is the duck ready?”

 

Seeing that it’s almost lunchtime peak hours, I jogged to the kitchen and checked the “sour porridge” I brought in the morning.

 

I’ve gotten into the habit of having my own “lunch” during meal peak hours to prevent being too busy during lunch or dinner and not having time to eat when I’m too hungry.

 

Chef Wang previously mentioned that he had a few friends coming over, and he received a lot of ducks, more than they could eat, so he brought some to the shop.

 

Usually, such food that hasn’t gone through formal inspection is consumed internally by our staff.

 

I also happened to want to try making a local delicacy according to memory, so I bought some probiotics in advance, let the rice porridge ferment at home, and brought it over, preparing to make my own lunch.

 

“They’re all ready, here you go.”

 

Chef Wang, who was busy stir-frying in the kitchen, pointed to the already chopped duck meat on the side.

 

“There are two ducks there. If it’s not enough, I’ll chop a few more later.”

 

“That’s enough, that’s enough.”

 

I quickly took the large basin.

 

“Why suddenly want to make lunch yourself?”

 

Chef Wang joked, “Little girl, do you have a crush? Starting to learn how to cook?”

 

“I…”

 

For some reason, an image of myself eating alone in the café a few months ago flashed through my mind.

 

“It’s nothing, just wanted to learn more about cooking.”

 

Shaking my head, I casually said, “For myself.”

 

“Not for that Xiamo?”

 

“No!!”

 

“Ooh.”

 

“What’s with your ‘ooh’.”

 

I felt my ears instinctively droop backward, and subconsciously took a spatula from Chef Wang’s side.

 

“I don’t even know when she’s coming back! I can’t be bothered with her!”

 

“……”

 

……