The mascot of the wishing shop is a cat.

Chapter 57 Hungry

After bidding farewell to Lingyan, Lin Xiyue led Molos and Earl to the cafeteria.

It's called a canteen, but it's actually just a large tent that's three or four times bigger than a regular living tent. There's a smaller tent connected to it next to it, which is being used as a kitchen.

It was lunchtime, and all the law enforcement officers were taking turns eating here, keeping the kitchen constantly on. Long queues formed at every window, but the food was served quite quickly.

"Hmm, what would you like to eat?"

Lin Xiyue stood in front of the blackboard with the menu written on it, somewhat hesitant. Although there weren't many dishes to choose from, each one had a portion size marked, and they were all quite large.

After hesitating for a long time, Lin Xiyue still ordered a braised pork rice bowl, a sweet and sour pork, a stir-fried vegetable dish, and two separate roasted pork hocks for the dog and cat.

After queuing for a while and finally buying her food, Lin Xiyue struggled to carry the packed meal back to her tent to eat. Since she didn't have anything else to do, she figured it would be more comfortable to eat back there, and she could even watch a show while she ate.

Back in the tent, Lin Xiyue opened the lunchbox and was greeted by a wonderfully fragrant aroma of food. The first thing that caught her eye was the bright red braised pork belly—three layers of pork hind leg meat cut into equal-sized cubes, piled in a casserole dish, its red color making it look incredibly appetizing.

Take a bite. It's fatty but not greasy, soft, sweet, and melts in your mouth. Paired with rice, one bite of meat can make you want to eat three bowls of rice. Plus, since it's braised pork rice, there are large chunks of pork belly under a layer of white rice. The rice is soaked in the oil and aroma of the pork belly, making it especially delicious to eat just the rice.

Then came a separate serving of sweet and sour pork. The pork was fried until golden brown, coated in a glistening, sweet and sour sauce. Because the sauce contained plenty of vinegar and sugar, its aroma was irresistible even before it was exposed to air, whetting the appetite. Picking up a piece with chopsticks, the crispiness was immediately apparent.

Taking a bite of sweet and sour pork, you first hear a crisp crunch, followed by the sweet and sour flavor and the unique taste of meat. It makes you want to keep eating it, one bite after another.

Let me also mention the stir-fried vegetables, specifically water spinach. The water spinach was still bright green when stir-fried, garnished with minced garlic and a few small chili rings. With each bite, you could even hear the crisp sound of the stems being crushed.

This cafeteria food is so delicious, no wonder it's so crowded.

"Waaaah, so delicious! Amo wants some too, Earl wants some too! (ˉ﹃ˉ)"

Lin Xiyue, a southerner, was overjoyed to eat such delicious sweet and sour pork for the first time, and even put some in the bowls of Moros and Earl.

"Awooo! Grunting and puffing!"

Meros was alright, but Earl was already starving, and now that he was eating such delicious sweet and sour pork, he couldn't even lift his head. Add to that the crispy, fragrant pork hock in his bowl, with its succulent skin and chewy tendons, plus the flavorful bones and marrow, and he simply couldn't stop eating.

Half an hour later, Lin Xiyue, having finished her meal, lay on the bed with Molos lying beside her.

Earl, on the other side of the bed, lay on his back with his limbs in the air, his belly bulging, his tongue lolling out, looking like he was stuffed to the point of being stupid.

For a moment, the tent was filled with a quiet atmosphere that made people unconsciously want to sleep.

Of course, only Lin Xiyue wanted to sleep. Meanwhile, Meros and Earl were communicating telepathically.

(Meros, Meros! Now I know why you and Li Si like humans so much, their food is so delicious! Compared to that, what are we eating?! Dog shit!)

After eating his first proper human meal, Earl decisively betrayed the race. He had silently vowed that unless he was about to starve to death, he would never eat the original food of the alien race again.

(You came here just to eat?)

Meros was truly speechless. Luckily, he wasn't allowed to speak when he let Earl out to fight, otherwise he didn't know what humans would say about their superior race. They would say things like, "Don't think that all superior races have this kind of brain."

(Well, not really. Originally, it was because you and Li Si were both here, and I was so bored by myself. But after coming down and finding all this food, I really didn't want to leave. Speaking of which, you guys are really unfair; you have such delicious food, and you didn't even invite me to eat it!)

Earl lay sprawled out, rolled over, and then lay sprawled out again, looking like a lazy bum.

(I'm doing this to reclaim my power.)

Meros sighed and said helplessly.

(Hmm, speaking of which, how much power have you withdrawn now? Without you in charge, that idiot has become far too arrogant. If you hadn't told me not to fight him yet, I would have punched him into a pulp long ago.)

Earl, recalling their nemesis, angrily waved his paw.

(About a third. It's not the right time yet. We discovered he was up to something ten years ago, but he was too well hidden, and back then I... sigh... Anyway, there was nothing I could do at the time, so you just had to be patient. It was only this time that I discovered and caught him red-handed.)

Meros seemed to remember something, looking somewhat helpless.

(Hmm, okay. Anyway, you two are always smarter than me, so listening to you is never a bad idea. But when you said you caught him red-handed, did you mean he was the one who caused the tumor we encountered?)

Earl was somewhat surprised that it was their adversary who did this, after all, it involved humanity, and they had signed a treaty that did not allow superior races to directly interfere with humanity.

(He didn't intervene directly; he was even afraid of encountering us, so he didn't send any clones down. But he did send his subordinates, and those subordinates just happened to be below the standard, which is why the alarm wasn't triggered.)

Meros explained this borderline behavior to Earl, but since they themselves had also gotten their way through borderline tactics, they couldn't really say anything about the other person.

(Tsk, how can this be the same? We came here to have fun, and we didn't do anything! [○?｀Д′? ○])

Earl was somewhat indignant.

(But it's all the same in the end. After all, you know you're here to have fun, but if you tell humans what you're saying, will they believe you?)

Meros shook his head, stood up, and decided not to continue talking to Earl. He went to the sleeping Lin Xiyue's head and leaned against her.

(Hmm…)

Before Earl could say anything more, he saw that after Meros lay down, strands of dark silk emerged from his body and then neatly connected to Lin Xiyue's body. It seemed this wasn't the first time; soon, Lin Xiyue and Meros were both wrapped in black silk threads, turning into black eggs.

……