After a while, the waitresses drifted in like petals, setting each delicate dessert on my table like tiny boats on a moonlit pond. Everyone here was a girl, a soft chorus like lilies under spring rain. Must be the loli boss’s quirky taste, a cat playing with ribbons by lantern light.

But what’s that to me? My mood was flat as still water; they don’t work for me, and the wind keeps moving.

"Awoo— that flavor!" I blurted, a spark leaping like fireflies from my tongue.

"Well? Well?" The white-haired boss popped up beside me like a snow ferret from behind a screen, her eyes wide as lanterns in festival mist.

"Meh..." I licked the fork clean, the silver a crescent moon sliding over my lips.

"Mm-hmm. Mouth denies, body agrees—classic. Sweet as a peach caught in summer rain."

"...?" My stare was a blank cloud drifting past a bare mountain.

"Don’t mind me. If little sister can’t finish, I can help clean the plate like a sparrow pecking grains at dusk. What I eat, you don’t pay. I’m Blood Clan, but sweets sit fine, like frost on ripe persimmons."

"No need, I can finish." Possessiveness pricked me like thorns on a rose; savoring is best, but if someone reaches in, it’s a different storm.

"Do you have to be that fast?" Her smile twitched like a fishing line in a windy river. There were so many desserts, a whole tray like a flower bed—yet she watched me clear them all.

"Mm… routine stuff." I patted my belly like a small drum and melted into the chair like a sun-warmed cat.

"All right, please remember to settle the bill." Her harmless smile sat on her face like a lamb mask in winter light.

A chill slid down my back like rain off bamboo. Still, my money should be enough, a small flame in a cold room. It must be enough.

"Since you ordered every item on the hidden menu, I’ll give you twenty percent off, like shade under a willow. That comes to about a hundred and three gold coins. But you’re so cute—let’s call it an even hundred, like a round moon."

"...How much?"

"1 0 0 gold coins." She spaced it out like beads on a rosary.

"..." Panic fluttered in my chest like a trapped sparrow. If I dine and dash, could I outrun the storm?

"Mmm—are you thinking about how to run?" She leaned in, eyes narrowing to crescents, her smile a fox’s curl at pale dawn.

"As if! It’s just 100 coins. I can pay." I scolded myself, a gust scattering dead leaves. Why think about bolting? I can handle it, and if it isn’t enough, then I’ll…

"There are only ninety-seven coins here, dear." Across from Shengsheng, her white-haired face was all sunlight, bright and relentless.

"I… can I return the last three coins in a few days? I picked up a quest, like a kite already in the wind. I’ll finish it soon…"

"Ah—hard for me." Her tone was silk hiding thorns. "I don’t believe strangers, like paper boats in a fast stream."

"But…"

"Never mind what quest you took. What if you walk out and never come back, like fog at dawn?"

"I…"

"How about this?" Her words rang like a bell over still water. "I’m short on hands. You can work here, like a swallow nesting under my eaves. When you earn enough, you can keep working or leave."

"Benefits are good, like warm bread and a roof in rain. Room and board are covered. Pay settles daily. If you do well, your pay rises like the tide. And it looked like you loved that dessert—work here and you can order one free item a month. How’s that?"

Being called little sister by a loli shorter than me stung like a nettle, and she even wants me to call her boss later—such a pebble in my shoe.

"Hmm? What are you murmuring, little sister?" Her head tilted like a curious bird.

"Nothing…"

"So? Have you decided?"

"Sorry, I don’t think working here suits me." Reluctance pooled like cool tea. I took off the necklace Dreamsound made me wear; she said if I ran out of money, pawn this to settle debts, a moon token tucked close to the heart. I’d redeem it later—after all, it’s her gift, a lotus pressed between pages.

In truth, Qingyu Mengyin had set tracking and recording into that necklace, like a spider’s thread spun in clear light. She told Shengsheng to pawn it so she could find trouble later with a smile like rain.

"This necklace—!" Her voice snagged like silk on a thorn.

"If you know its value, you understand my sincerity, clear as lake water."

"You’re not afraid I’ll stiff you or run with the necklace, like a fox into the pines?" Her soft loli voice carried a tangle of feelings, a ribbon knotted by wind.

"Not afraid." I smiled, calm as moonlight on stone. "Boss, you don’t seem that type." I’ve always read people well, like paths in sand. As for that last small town—an accident, a stray gust.

"Ah, you win." Her laugh spilled like beads. "But are you sure you don’t want to consider it? My shop pays one gold coin per day, like a sun rising steady."

"One gold coin?!" My shock snapped like thunder. That last quest to defeat a Demon Lord paid just one.

"Yep. Any problem?"

"No…" Temptation flickered like fire on dry grass. "I’m tempted, but I refuse."

"Shame." She sighed, a reed bending in wind. "If little sister became our poster girl, customers would flock like swallows in spring."

I don’t want to be a poster girl—no way. I should finish the quest first, like crossing a river before the rain, or I can’t pay anything back.

Usually, dragons nest in mountains, sleeping like gods in cold stone. You just go up and shout… Forget it. That’s too embarrassing. If someone hears, I’d die of shame, a plum blossom crushed under boots.

Argh, where did Wangcai hide? My frustration buzzed like cicadas at noon. A dragon that big—how could no one spot it, even through mist?

Right, with a body that massive, there’s no way to vanish like dew. So why has no one taken that quest, like fishermen ignoring a silver river?

There’s a problem, isn’t there? Better ask the poster, like seeking a lantern’s keeper in a night market.

I opened my pocket quest panel, a firefly screen I carry everywhere, and read the details carefully. Qingfeng Street, No. 444—the address rang familiar, like a bell from a dream. Whatever. I’ll go look.

"Ah, you again. Mistaking me again?" The girl’s violet eyes mirrored my face like a glitched sticker, a digital koi trembling in glass.

This spot was my home—why didn’t I notice sooner? Panic surged like a thunderhead.

"Sorry to bother you… wrong door, ehehe." I pivoted and sprinted like a hare across a hundred meters of field, dust lifting like smoke.

"Hey—" She tried to speak, but I was gone, a breeze slipping down an alley.

Her black hair, dark as ink with deep-blue tips like twilight sea, drifted behind her as she watched the blue-haired loli’s escape route, thoughts pooling like rain in a stone basin.

"Hah… lucky I run fast, or I’d be done for." Relief cooled me like shade under bamboo. "Looks like I can’t do this quest, boo-hoo, like a kite cut loose."

"To clear the debt, I’ll have to beat five Demon Lords." The idea felt like climbing icy steps.

The demonfolk don’t even have five Demon Lords yet, like constellations missing stars.

"How many trash quests would it take to scrape together five coins?" My complaint rattled like a gourd. "Worst part—beginner-tier has weekly caps, a gate like iron."

Doing deadly jobs for dead-low pay—ha. Who becomes an adventurer, really? Tell someone to be one, and heaven should strike you with lightning, a bolt splitting an old pine.

Sigh. I wonder if it’s too late to go back, like turning before the rain breaks.

"Welcome—" The bell chimed like a wind chime. "Eh? Little sister, you came again?" The familiar beast-eared maid stood glowing like dawn, but unlike the first time, the novelty had fallen away like petals.

Will I end up like them one day? The thought laughed hollow, like autumn wind in an empty hall. Ha… haha…

"Ke-ke-ke, back so soon? Long time no see, little sister." The white-haired laugh was cute as frosting, yet it coiled like an abyss demon’s chuckle, echoing in my chest like drums in a cavern.