The Gourmet Customizer

Zhang Li stepped outside the kitchen and saw a young woman looking around curiously.

"Hello?"

"Oh! Someone’s here!" The girl tugged on one of her two braided pigtails. "Teacher Zhang? I recognize you!"

Zhang Li had rarely felt this embarrassed. Her face was starting to burn. ’Why is she calling me Teacher Zhang? I’m not a teacher!’

"I saw you yesterday when you dropped off a student. My name is Wang Xiaoyi. It’s nice to meet you!"

Zhang Li numbly reached out and shook her hand. It felt like she was watching an anime. ’This Teacher Xiao Yi has such an unusual vibe!’

Her light-blue dress was embroidered with lots of cross-patterns, and she wore a matching light-blue vest over her white blouse. Her whole outfit made her look like a girl from an ethnic minority who had just stepped out of a Chinese-style comic!

Her round face, which still had a bit of baby fat, went completely against the mainstream standard of beauty, but it made her look exceptionally cute.

Very cute, and very youthful! Like a porcelain doll!

"You too... Teacher Wang, about Zhang Dali, we’ve already..."

"That’s not it!" Wang Xiaoyi raised a hand to stop Zhang Li from speaking further. "I heard you serve breakfast here, and I’m here to eat!"

Zhang Li’s lips curled into a smile. ’I love making friends with girls who love to eat!’

"We do, we do! We have big steamed buns, tea-leaf eggs, and millet porridge. What would you like?"

Wang Xiaoyi thought for a moment. "In that case, I’ll have one bun, one egg, and a bowl of millet porridge!"

"Okay!" Zhang Li nodded happily. "Teacher Wang, I suggest you order more. In a few minutes, I’m afraid there won’t be any left."

"Huh?" Wang Xiaoyi let out a loud gasp. "Oh, okay then! I’ll take your advice. Double everything except the millet porridge!"

"Okey-dokey~" Zhang Li skipped back into the kitchen to get the food for the teacher.

Meanwhile, Su Chen and Ah Bao were standing at the doorway.

"Why do I get the feeling this teacher is a bit strange?"

Ah Bao nodded. "She’s clearly a young woman in her twenties, but for some reason, she feels like a daughter."

Tsk!

Su Chen turned to look at Ah Bao. "Hey, none of that now."

"Oh, Boss! You’re terrible!"

Su Chen: ???

Watching Liu Ahbao act all shy and fussy, Su Chen felt it was truly unbecoming of a grown man.

’He’s just grabbing a bun, what’s there to be so picky about?’

’Hey, hey, hey! The eggs are all pretty much the same size, okay? Why is he picking out the two biggest ones? What is wrong with him!’

After Zhang Li brought out the buns and eggs, she furtively brought a hand out from behind her back.

"Here you go, Miss! This is some shrimp our boss just made. It’s super delicious!" Zhang Li already felt she really liked Teacher Wang. ’She’s so adorable!’

’You have to share good food with the people you like!’

"Thank you~" Wang Xiaoyi picked up a shrimp with her chopsticks. The moment it entered her mouth, her wide eyes narrowed into slits. "This is really good!"

Growing up in Jingzhou, Wang Xiaoyi was used to a diet heavy in oil and salt. Suddenly tasting something so light and delicate felt like a jolt to her taste buds.

The shrimp was tender and succulent, with a clean, refreshing flavor. And that faint fragrance of tea... it seemed to have hit a strange nerve!

’Damn it!’

Wang Xiaoyi suddenly clenched her fists and her body gave a violent shudder. The look of pure bliss on her face twisted into one of pain.

"Teacher Wang, are you okay? Is it the shrimp..."

Wang Xiaoyi, head down, raised a hand. "I..." She took a long, deep breath. "I’m fine."

It was strange, though. Wang Xiaoyi rarely ate out at restaurants, a fact well-known by everyone at the Mechanical Kindergarten.

She never even participated in the teachers’ team-building activities.

What they didn’t know, however, was that Wang Xiaoyi did eat out—always secretly, and always alone.

Because... there was something that was truly difficult to admit.

Every time she ate something especially delicious, she would always feel a sensation like an electric current passing through her whole body.

At first, Wang Xiaoyi thought this happened to everyone. But as she got older, she realized it was something that only happened to her.

To deal with this distressing problem, Wang Xiaoyi had even gone to see a doctor.

"Some people react this way to certain sounds, some to certain smells. Some people are ticklish and some aren’t. Your situation is very normal; your taste buds are just more sensitive. As long as it doesn’t affect your daily life, it’s fine."

That’s what the doctor had told her back then.

But Wang Xiaoyi *was* troubled by it. Sometimes, when she was eating at a restaurant, a particular dish would trigger that strange reaction.

Then she would feel a jolt, as if from an electric current, making her scalp tingle. Sometimes she would even let out an involuntary "Mmph..."

To overcome this problem, Wang Xiaoyi began a regimen of constantly visiting different restaurants and trying all sorts of cuisines. Whenever the kindergarten was on break, she would even travel to other cities to sample their local delicacies, all in an attempt to gradually lower her taste buds’ sensitivity threshold.

And to hide this strange quirk, she had learned from a young age to act more flamboyant and over-the-top.

’That way... even if she suddenly made a strange noise, people wouldn’t get the wrong idea, right...?’

After several years of this conditioning, the reaction hadn’t occurred in a long time. For it to happen so suddenly now sent Wang Xiaoyi into a panic.

’Damn it, do I have to start that terrifying process of overcoming it all over again?’

Based on past experience, she could desensitize herself to any restaurant. As long as she went three or four times in a row, the feeling would be gone by the fifth visit.

’That damn shrimp... I’m coming back for you at lunch!’

"Are you really okay?" Zhang Li asked, looking at Teacher Wang with concern. She noticed the teacher’s face was a bit flushed.