Monster Hunter: I can hear the monsters' thoughts

Chapter 144: Tea Shop Owner Ai Cao

Lin Lin tried hard to control his wild thoughts, but Brave beside him couldn't help but ask curiously:

"What are rabbit dumplings? Are they delicious?"

Date patted his chest with his cat paws and kept breathing. When he heard Brave's question, he subconsciously recalled the taste of the rabbit dumplings he had just eaten.

"They're quite delicious, meow, but a little hard to chew... As for the texture, they're sweet, glutinous, and sticky... It seems the color and flavor are different, meow? The one I just ate seemed to have a cherry blossom flavor, meow..."

Lin Lin listened and breathed a sigh of relief.

It sounds okay, as long as I don’t have to eat rabbit dumplings all the time, then I can accept it.

"Oh, these bunny dumplings are so delicious! If you come to Flame Village, it would be a shame not to try them!"

A gentle female voice came from the front. Everyone looked in the direction of the voice. Brave subconsciously asked:

"Shui Yun?"

After only two minutes of not seeing you, how come you feel like a completely different person? Like the clouds have cleared up, and your smile is as bright as the sun?
And weren't you in the meeting hall just now? When did you run to the front?
The dragon girl in a fiery red witch costume held her chin with one hand and held a bunch of three-colored dumplings in the other hand. She spoke in a soft tone:
"Shuiyun is my sister. My name is Huoya. Besides being the village shrine maiden, I also serve as the village receptionist. You two should be the hunters who have just arrived in Yanhuo Village, right?"

After a brief greeting, Huoya "ah" and swallowed the three colorful dumplings in her hand into her mouth. Her cherry mouth obviously looked like it couldn't even hold one dumpling, but surprisingly, even after eating three dumplings at the same time, Huoya's cheeks still didn't show any signs of bulging.

It was as if the girl's mouth was not connected to the esophagus, but to some unknown mysterious dimension.

This magical, almost magical, operation made Coconut's eyes widen in amazement. Even if it was a Felyne, it was a bit bigger than the Dragonoids, but it definitely wasn't three times as big, right? It nearly choked on a single dumpling, so why did Fire Bud show off three at once, seemingly without any issues?
"Hmm, Sister Ai Cao's rabbit dumplings are so delicious!"

Huoya stroked her cheek and smiled happily.

"Please don't miss it, everyone! The bunny dumplings are really, really delicious! I could eat fifty of them in one day!"

Brave thought Huoya was exaggerating, and in order to highlight the deliciousness of the rabbit dumplings, he was tempted for a moment.

It doesn't seem like it would delay anything if I filled my stomach first and then went to the processing shop?
Only Lin Lin, who was dragged by Brave to the stall that Huoya pointed out, which specialized in selling rabbit dumplings, knew that Huoya was not exaggerating when she said she ate fifty skewers. Her appetite was so big that she could eat fifty skewers of rabbit dumplings without affecting her normal three meals!

……

Even though he was not very willing, Lin Lin was dragged to the rabbit dumpling shop by Brave.

Sitting at the wooden table in the waiting area, you can see two Felyne cats hammering the mortar not far away. The large ball of dough in the center of the mortar has become quite chewy and sticky under the constant beating. The Felyne cats have to lift the mallet as high as possible to pull the part of the dough stuck to the hammer head to the limit and finally break it off from the mallet.

"Will hitting the cat like this get some of the cat's hair in too?"

Lin Lin complained quietly.

"Don't worry, sir!"

The owner of the tea shop, dressed in green, suddenly appeared, holding the account book he had just used to record orders, and introduced enthusiastically:

"Our Ailu helpers are very experienced, and we also have me, Ai Cao! The owner of this tea shop is always watching over it. Not to mention cat hair, not even a speck of dust can land on it. There will definitely be no problems!" "So amazing, you can even see this?"

Brave asked curiously. He actually didn't care about these things. Hunters were not that picky. At the beginning, the meat sac of Rocklak was directly buried in the embers and roasted. He took it out and took pictures and looked very happy while eating it.

"Hehe, sir, please don't underestimate me!"

Miss Ai Cao jumped back with full energy and greeted the clerk Ai Lu, and the whole tea shop suddenly became busy.

"The stars in the sky are twinkling~"

One of the calico-colored Elu was like performing an acrobatic trick, throwing several kneaded balls into the air and catching them accurately. The movement trajectories of the balls formed a pleasing arc.

Miss Ai Cao crossed her hands in front of her body and struck the same pose as Wolverine, but what popped out from between her fingers were not adamantium claws, but bamboo sticks.

Brav was shocked. What was he doing?
"A shooting star flashed by~"

Ai Cao exerted force on his feet and leaped lightly into the air. As if he just waved his hand casually, the bamboo sticks in his hand flew straight out with a sharp sound of breaking wind, accurately passing through the dumplings thrown into the air by the store clerk Feymao. If you look closely, you will find that there are exactly three dumplings on each bamboo stick.

Another clerk, Elu Cat, was holding a large wooden tray in his hand. At this moment, he jumped into the air. The bamboo skewers with dumplings on them seemed to have eyes. With a few light sounds one after another, they stuck firmly on the tray.

Brave was horrified. "Oh my god, what kind of strength and eyesight does this girl have? It's a waste of talent to work in a tea shop with this kind of skills. How much better would it be to be a hunter?"
“Draw the eyes and mouth~”

Ai Cao and Sanhua Ai Lu surrounded Ai Lu who was holding the tray. They grabbed a handful of sesame seeds in their hands and used the sesame seeds to decorate a small expression on the rabbit dumpling, which looked quite cute.

"Rabbit dumpling~ It's done!"

Ai Lu, a waiter, held the tray above his head and staggered towards the dining area where Lin Lin and Brave were sitting. As a result, the bamboo skewers of the two strings of rabbit dumplings on his head were not deeply inserted and were thrown off with a slight shake. Fortunately, Ai Cao and another Ai Lu cat waiter were quick-eyed and quick-handed. They grabbed the bamboo skewers and instantly... instantly inserted them back into the tray.

"Here! Please enjoy your meal, gentlemen!"

Looking at the plate of rabbit dumplings and a cup of tea placed before him, Brave asked a soul-searching question:

"So the bunny dumplings were already made, right? Why did they have to put on this... uh, performance before serving them?"

Ai Cao was stunned by the question, blinking his eyes, and the sunny smile on his face faded a little, with a hint of loss in his tone:
"Sir, don't you like it?"

"No no!"

Brave waved his hands repeatedly. "The singing is sweet and the performance is wonderful, but what I mean is, how did you come up with this performance, owner of Wormwood Shop?"

Hearing Brave say this, Ai Cao's face was filled with smile again:
"Because I want everyone who eats the bunny dumplings to smile!"

　I went back to Yanhuo Village and took a look. I found that the meeting place was actually a man-made building. There were cherry blossoms planted around it, not in a tree hole as I wrote before.

　　(So why did I get the impression that the entire meeting place was built inside a giant cherry tree?)

　　
　
(End of this chapter)