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Hotpot Restaurant 24

Meng Xiaoni’s train of thought was rather peculiar.

Guifeng’s head momentarily filled with question marks, and subconsciously cocked his head out of his habit as a parrot.

Guifeng’s long hair was tied up, and the ends tilted as he cocked his head.

He stared at Meng Xiaoni, wondering what was going on in this human’s head.

Meng Xiaoni had too many thoughts.

In the end, she thought that this was Guifeng, her parrot.

He was the cute little peach that cocked its head every day; the ruby ​​who wanted to eat the food she made every day. 

Also, as a parrot, other than eating, Guifeng could only bank on his cuteness and become an internet celebrity.

It was different now that he had become human!

He could be a waiter, a cashier, assist with cooking, hand out flyers for publicity, and carry ingredients when they replenished their inventory.

When Meng Xiaoni realised this, she picked up where she had left off.

Her eyes shone brightly as she tilted her head slightly to ask Guifeng, “Guifeng, you can work here for money. You’ve grown up!” 

Since he was grown up, he could work!

With a “swoosh”, Guifeng turned back into a parrot; he fluttered back to the table, keeping his head cocked, looking very well-behaved.

Innocent, weak, and cute.

Meng Xiaoni: “……”

So was this because it’s impossible for him to maintain a human form, or was it to avoid working?

Meng Xiaoni’s current choked expression was too funny, and Guifeng performed a “Great Transformation into Human” again in front of her on the spot. There was a smile at the corner of his lips, and the red marks at the corners of his eyes were even more obvious, so demonic that it made one draw a cold breath.

In the cramped room, a man, a woman, and one bed—it was an unbearable situation.

It was a pity for both parties that Meng Xiaoni’s head was still in shock at Guifeng’s transformation into a human. She was also still thinking about part-time work and other such disturbing matters. On the other hand, this line of thinking had completely never occurred to Guifeng; he was still internally weighing the gains and losses between being a human and a bird.

“It’s not impossible for me to help,” Guifeng gazed into Meng Xiaoni’s eyes, moved closer, and raised his chin slightly. “But how are you going to explain to your parents?”

As a parrot, Guifeng’s eyes were red and moist. When he transformed into human form, his eyes were dark red, deep and beautiful. His haughty expression was also a little teasing as he threw the question to Meng Xiaoni.

Father Meng and Mother Meng would be returning tomorrow night. Faced with a man who had appeared out of nowhere at home, they might both go nuts.

Meng Xiaoni followed Guifeng’s line of questioning and pondered. She was astonished to realise that when Guifeng was a bird, although his origins were unknown, he could: one, live in her room, and two, be cute.

As a human, although he could work her family’s eatery, he couldn’t: one, squeeze in a bed with her, and two, she had no way to explain to her parents that this man, who was taller than herself, was actually only a bird. 

In the human realm, Guifeng had no legal identity!

When Meng Xiaoni thought about it this way, she thought it was all rather tricky. She looked at Guifeng and said meaningfully, “As a phoenix.”

 “Huh?” said Guifeng, his voice having a slight, upwards lilt.

“You can neither turn stones into gold, nor give yourself identification documents, and you even have to squeeze in the same room with me.” Meng Xiaoni looked at her girly bed and fell into distress. “How can I explain this to them? After explaining, will you have to sleep with my father at night? Then I’ll have to sleep with my mother.”

There were two beds in the house.

It would be very normal for Meng Xiaoni to sleep with Mother Meng, and Guifeng to sleep with Father Meng.

It can’t be helped that Meng Xiaoni and Guifeng were of different genders.

Guifeng never considered sleeping with Father Meng.

Phoenixes were arrogant by nature; otherwise they would not be picky about nectar, picky about the wutong tree, and picky about everything around themselves. Since Guifeng coming into the human realm, he felt that he was simply a miracle of the phoenix world, to be willing to sleep in such an ordinary little bed.

He could turn stone into gold, but he had never really thought of doing so. Such substitution was very simple, but he was not a dragon and had no need to hide a pile of treasures. As for the matter of identification documents, it had never even crossed his mind.

The issues related to becoming a parrot had just been resolved, and now the issues related to becoming a human had surfaced.

It was all too real and practical.

The two of them couldn’t help sighing inwardly— Human (bird) life was so difficult. 

Meng Xiaoni thought about it for a long while. She even came up with the idea of letting Guifeng work part-time during the day, then turn into a bird at night to live upstairs with her. But this way, the parrot version of Guifeng could not appear during the day.

Perhaps Guifeng knew some trick to maintain the illusion of being a parrot.

But Meng Xiaoni felt that concealing the truth for now would only cause more trouble in the future, and it was still better to be honest with her parents.

She said honestly, “I think it’s better to tell my parents the truth. Though they love to nag, they would be able to keep a secret.”

“……Where would I stay at night?” said Guifeng.

Was he really going to sleep with Father Meng?

Meng Xiaoni looked at the bed, and her eyes could not help drifting towards the birdcage she had bought that was now a decorative item, having never been lived in.

Guifeng: “……”

There was no helping it.

With one sitting on the bed, and the other sitting in a chair, Meng Xiaoni and Guifeng finally had a friendly discussion about how to break the truth to Father Meng and Mother Meng, and also seriously considered Guifeng’s food and housing issues in the future.

During their discussion, Meng Xiaoni even raised the possibility of Guifeng becoming female. The prideful Guifeng almost gave Meng Xiaoni a dangerous performance of burning down the hot pot eatery on the spot.

Meng Xiaoni had the vague feeling that she was about to follow in Uncle Lu’s footsteps and was about to go bald.

No matter what, Guifeng insisted on sleeping in her bed.

So, in the end, Meng Xiaoni had to say, “Guifeng, you had better just be a bird the next few days. When the hot pot eatery reopens, remember to turn into a human and stand at the door. We will talk about working part-time and other issues related to being human later.”

Guifeng looked at Meng Xiaoni and nodded reluctantly.

Seeing that Guifeng was so reluctant, Meng Xiaoni sincerely added another jab, “People who have no money shouldn’t be so fussy. Your current food intake is no longer that of a bird’s, but of a human’s.”

Guifeng: “……”

With that, Meng Xiaoni went downstairs.

The lighting was not good at night, so Lao Lu and Zhang Xiaoxiao finished up after painting for a while. They gossiped about the people in their circle as they packed up. 

Whenever there was a community, there would surely be gossip; Lao Lu listened rather cheerfully.

When Meng Xiaoni came down, the two hurriedly shut up and quickly packed up. They explained the progress to Meng Xiaoni, then took their things and each went home.

Meng Xiaoni checked on everything on the first floor, closed the door, and locked it.

After everything was settled, she went back upstairs, washed up in preparation for bed.

When she walked into the bathroom, Meng Xiaoni looked at herself in the mirror.

She cocked her head.

She wasn’t as cute as a parrot, and nowhere as beautiful as Guifeng. It was an ordinary appearance that could easily be drowned out in the crowd when she walked down the streets.

An existence like Guifeng was actually in her own house, and even insisted on sleeping in her bed. This all happened too abruptly, but they had also unfolded logically.

Actually, Guifeng could help her out even without working. As a phoenix, he could guard the hot pot eatery, and protect her as well.

Her abilities were merely that she could see ghosts, and could make food for ghosts to eat.

There was nothing else.

As for existences like ghosts that were beyond the scope of human scientific understanding, Meng Xiaoni thought that there would definitely be those that were very powerful. As the number of ghosts that knew about her grew, so would the danger she would be in. 

She might even be locked up one day and made to cook for them.

In the mirror, Meng Xiaoni righted her head and broke into a smile.

It was very sincere.

In life, the most important thing was actually to live happily.

She liked Guifeng very much. The days with Guifeng were much more fulfilling and merry than before.

She also liked making things for Guifeng to eat. Guifeng loved eating, and had a large appetite, which made her even happier.

She would cross the bridge when she got to it— although Guifeng has become human, he was still Guifeng.

She would make hot pot to feed him, and he would guard the hot pot eatery.

Excellent.

Meng Xiaoni smiled and decided to take a shower, then go to bed.

After showering and changing into cute little pyjamas, she blow-dried her hair. Then, Meng Xiaoni walked back to her room, closed the door, and looked over at Guifeng who was sitting in a chair by the table.

Guifeng had also taken the opportunity to change his clothes just now.

The clothes he had been wearing were what he usually wore in the past. What he was wearing now was in line with the style of the modern youth—short sleeves and knee-length shorts. The simple short-sleeved shirt was pure black, with a line of palace-wall red along the shoulders.

The shorts are loose and beige, ordinary and tidy

His long hair was tied simply at back of his head; it had gone from its original high ponytail to a loosely tied low knot. This was probably to ensure that it would not press against his head when lying down flat. 

Meng Xiaoni’s hair was loose and fluffy, making her unable to restrain from rubbing her own head.

As she rubbed her hair, she asked Guifeng curiously, “Are you not changing back? If you want to sleep on the bed tonight, you will still have to turn back into a parrot to do so.”

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