After we checked in at the hotel, we pretty much didn't have anything else to do. It was around noon already, so the girls and I decided to go grab some lunch somewhere. The restaurant we eventually arrived at was called Ramen World. And as you would expect from the name...the restaurant specialized in...well, ramen.

The place itself was pretty nice. It was decorated like a traditional Chinese restaurant, and the lights were all enclosed within lanterns, giving it a bit of an ancient Eastern feel. A waitress soon came to us and led us to a large round table that had exactly ten seats - just enough for all of us. As always, I took the one in the corner, and the Qing Yue insisted she sat down next to me. Immediately, Mei Gui took the one on the other side of me, and the rest of the girls pouted slightly.

I sighed as the waitress handed us menus, and she left our table.

"So? What are we ordering?" I asked, flipping through the menu.

"We're not in a rush or anything, so we can take our time ordering," Feng Mian said. "This place has some nice food, I want to browse through the catalogue carefully before making my selection."

"Yep, she's right," Xiang Peng agreed. "All of this is looking real delicious!"

Hm...I never realized it before, but is Xiang Peng actually a huge foody? H-Hey, you're drooling all over the menu, you damn woman!

I sighed. "Whatever, take your time. I'm just going to go with...uh, let's see...y'know what?"

I handed the menu over to Qing Yue. "I'll just have whatever you have, Qing Yue. Too lazy to pick."

"Mm, okay~" she said in reply, before promptly opening the menu and flipping through it, eyes dazzling in excitement.

I then turned to Obsidia, who was sitting beside Mei Gui. She was directly across Flaria - the greatest distance possible. While Flaria seemed to be extremely uncomfortable sitting at a table together with a dragon, Obsidia didn't seem to even care. Instead, she calmly flipped through the menu like any human would.

"Obsidia, does human food even satisfy you?" I asked. Even if someone overheard us, there are an infinite number of possibilities for this statement, which was why I wasn't afraid to say it out loud.

"Yes. My body's needs adapt to whichever form I am in," Obsidia replied calmly, not letting any critical information slip out accidentally.

I nodded. "I see."

If that's the case...then I guess Flaria is the same.

After a long while, the girls finally all settled on what they were going to eat, and Yu An Yan beckoned the waitress over.

"All done choosing?" she asked, a smile on her face.

"Yeah," Yu An Yan replied. "Can we get numbers 1, 3, 9, 15, 16, 17, 20, 22, 25, and two 28s?"

"Of course. Anything else?"

Yu An Yan flipped through the menu some more, then continued. "Oh, and 33 please. Three servings."

"Alright, so that is 30 lamb skewers in total..." the waitress murmured as she jotted down everything on a notepad. "Is that all?"

Yu An Yan looked around. "Sounds good, everyone?"

Everyone nodded, including myself. Qing Yue had ordered a number 28 ramen, so naturally I did as well.

"Alright, then that's it," Yu An Yan said, turning back to the waitress.

"Awesome. Any drinks?" the waitress continued.

"Yeah, just a glass of water for everyone," Yu An Yan replied.

"Will do," the waitress finished. "Your food will be ready very soon."

With this, she turned around and left our table once more. Around twenty minutes later, she came back with a tray, our entire order on it.

"Damn, that was quick," I mused. The girls seemed to be pretty surprised as well at this speed.

"We pride ourselves on quick service," the waitress replied, puffing out her chest proudly. "You see, the trick is to use multiple stoves and cook multiple dishes simultaneously. Of course, this requires a lot of hand-eye coordination as well as the ability to flawlessly multi-task. It is by no means easy."

"I see..." I murmured, as she took out our steaming bowls of ramen, one by one.

At last, she finished with the lamb skewers, then our glasses of ice water. After that, she bowed-

"Enjoy the meal."

-and left us to our lunch.

"Let's see..." Feng Mian murmured. "This is...28, I think. Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs ramen. Here, Xuan Kai."

She pushed the bowl over to me, and I received it gratefully. "Thanks."

"No problem. This one is...oh, this one's mine, 17."

"Ooh, is that the fish ball one I saw?" Qing Yue asked.

"Yes, do you want to try one?" Feng Mian asked, picking up a fishball from within her bowl using her chopsticks.

"Really, I can?" Qing Yue asked one last time for confirmation.

"Yep," Feng Mian replied, before placing the fish ball in Qing Yue's bowl.

"Aww, thank you, Feng Mian~"

"Hehe, no problem."

Wow, this scene is so wholesome. Yu An Xue and Yu An Yan are also sharing their food as well...ah...what a nice sight. So peaceful...

...Not. Flaria and Obsidia, would you two stop glaring at each other? Thanks. You're ruining the mood.

But alas, even if I really told them that, it wasn't like they would automatically become friends all of a sudden. Still, I didn't want my travel companions to hate each other. That would lead to many problems, including the possibility of backstab and traps. Of course, I doubted Obsidia would do so, since we had a deal, but then again...she didn't exactly need Flaria for our deal. I'm not going to think about that though. On the other hand, Flaria backstabbing us is way out of the question, as she's completely under my control thanks to our contract.

But that aside, everything was going well...we were in the middle of eating, when suddenly...

"This place look good, boss?" a short, freckled student asked loudly.

He had barged into the restaurant with some of his buddies like a bunch of gangsters. But since they were wearing school-like uniforms, I assumed they were just a bunch of delinquent students. By the looks of it, they were the same age as the girls and I.

"Yeah. We've been here a couple of times before, no?" another boy said. This one was a lot taller, and seemed to be the leader of the gang. He carried a baseball bat, and was currently swinging it around dangerously, as if daring anyone to come close to him.

"Yeah, haha! Last time we were here, the damn waitress actually dared to ask us to pay! Like hell we're gonna do that, can't believe they don't even know who our boss is," another lackey added. This one wore glasses, and had bunny-like teeth. By that, I mean he literally looked like a rabbit. Not the adorable kind. More like...the fat and ugly kind.

"Heh, yeah. Our boss is the son of the mayor. This entire city is essentially his playground, haha!" a chubby dude agreed.

There were 4 of them in total, and they all seemed to be arrogant trouble-makers.

Man...guess there's people like Li Yi Fei everywhere, huh? But at least Li Yi Fei was more or less discrete. These guys are just full-on doing whatever the hell they want, thinking they are above the law.

I noticed the waitress that had served us quickly retreating into the back kitchen. I assumed she was the one who had attempted to deal with these guys the last time they were here, and probably got shamed to no end. I sighed. This looked like trouble...and I don't like it. The other customers in the restaurant also appeared to be very nervous, and were murmuring to each other.

"Ah...it's Dong Zhu and his gang..."

"So unlucky..."

"Let's finish eating quickly before things turn ugly..."

The leader, whose name was apparently Dong Zhu, looked around, then frowned. "What, no waitress coming to serve us this time?"

After a short silence, the ugly rabbit dude stepped forward and crossed his arms. "Oi, you guys dare ignore boss?"

Dong Zhu smirked, then slowly walked towards the counter of restaurant, where the cashier, a young woman, stood, frightened.

"Oh...you're new here," Dong Zhu murmured, reaching to caress her cheek. She moved away immediately, which caused Dong Zhu to chuckle.

"Hm, pretty feisty, eh?" he said, licking his lips like a creep. "I like that."

The cashier appeared to be very uncomfortable, and honestly, for a second, I considered helping out a little, but in the end, decided against it. Not my problem. I just wanted to eat my lunch in peace, spend the night at the hotel, then set off to Shanghai the next day. No problems, no troubl-

"Hey, boss, look over there," the short, freckled lackey said suddenly, pointing in our direction.