Chapter Three: The New Manager's First Midnight Meal

Mo Tuan sat on the menu. “I'm management. I don't cook.” Xie Chenzhou pulled on medical gloves. “I'm a doctor.” Xu Tang held up her phone. “I'm operations.” They stared at one another. Little Lamp cried, and the final light went dark. Su Li tied on an apron. “Give me the recipe.” Its ingredients sounded like a recycling exam: rice untouched by sunlight, three drops of a relative's shadow, half a spoonful of a worry willingly forgotten, then seven minutes over the kitchen flame. Wen Jiu offered only verbal guidance, omitting every useful detail. “Wash the rice until it remembers being rice.” “How can I tell?” “Ask.” Su Li bent over the basin. Ten thousand tiny voices argued like a market crowd. One grain complained the water was cold.