Chen Ze rubbed his eyes, deeply suspecting he was hallucinating, but when he saw that person still in the restaurant, he went to check if the gas was properly turned off.
"Hey, who are you? The owner of this place?" The bald man, having seen Chen Ze retreat back into the kitchen, called out to ask.
Chen Ze exited the kitchen with a twitching corner of his mouth, now certain that he wasn’t hallucinating. Indeed, there was a living bald man in front of him, or rather, Chen Ze felt he should address him as...
"Are you... Caped Baldy?" Chen Ze grimaced at the bald man before him, whose head was completely devoid of hair and sowhat shining under the light.
With that hairstyle and the man’s expressive face that begged for comntary, Chen Ze recognized him instantly as the protagonist from one of his favorite ani, the so-called Bald Demon King, Saitama.
He was also the character that made people root for the villain in the ani. Chen Ze still rembered the battle between Saitama and the cosmic overlord Boros, when the comnts were flooded with "Go, big bro with the spaceship!" It was absurdly amusing.
This made no sense. Chen Ze leaned in but couldn’t see Saitama’s pores, nor the kind of skin texture normal people have on their heads. The Saitama in front of him looked as if he’d stepped right out of the One Punch Man universe.
"Hey! Who are you calling bald, damn it!" Looking at the infuriated Saitama, Chen Ze felt even more certain of his identity, especially after seeing Saitama’s getup.
"Sorry, custor, welco to Dream Restaurant. May I ask what you’d like to eat?" Chen Ze coughed a few tis, feeling sowhat uncomfortable since he was always serving three-dinsional custors, and now he had to serve a two-dinsional one...
"So this really is a restaurant, huh? But how did you put the door inside a monster’s belly?" Saitama, realizing he was talking to a normal human, relaxed his clenched fist.
This scene made Chen Ze’s mouth twitch uncontrollably, as he suspected that had a monster co out just now, Saitama might have planned to resolve the situation with a single punch.
"Well... the portal isn’t fixed, you should be able to tell that this place is different from where you just entered." Chen Ze shook his head. How could he possibly put a portal in a monster’s belly? It was just the unfortunate guy whose belly happened to be where the portal refreshed.
"I see, I’m not in the sa place I was before, am I?" Saitama looked around, and indeed, the place was different from where he had been fighting just monts before.
Suppressing the urge to mock, Chen Ze looked at Saitama with the most normal smile he could muster, "Dear custor, what would you like to eat, then?"
Saitama imdiately shook his head. What a joke! He was the kind of man who had to pick special deal days even to shop at the supermarket. A restaurant with such decent decor would probably cost him thousands for a al, right?
"You could consider ordering the manager’s special recomndation..." Chen Ze of course understood Saitama’s financial situation, so he quickly added.
But Saitama was already shaking his head while preparing to push the door to leave.
"Today’s a special deal." Saitama hesitated but still took a step with his left foot out the door.
"A manager’s special dish is only one hundred yen." Chen Ze didn’t actually accept yen, but Saitama clearly only had yen.
"Alright, I’ll have one." The next second, Saitama turned back, sat down, and took out a hundred-yen coin, placing it on the table.
Chen Ze smiled as he took the coin, feeling its tallic texture, and indeed it looked like yen.
"But I guess it’s not in circulation," Chen Ze said while looking at the hundred yen coin in his palm, scratching his head. It seed he could only put it in his own box now.
Chen Ze brought a glass of lemon water to Saitama’s side, then he went back into the kitchen to start preparing today’s special recomndation by the restaurant owner.
"What should I make..." Chen Ze mused, looking at the ingredients in the kitchen. He didn’t think Saitama was the type to like sweets, so after a long hesitation, Chen Ze decided on making a braised pork rice dish with pan-fried dumplings, along with a serving of Paluda.
As he watched the braised pork simring in the pot, Chen Ze wrapped dumplings, rembering that a friend once told him dumplings were also very common in the realm of 2D and could even be eaten as a dish.
"Chive and pork dumplings it is.." he thought, satisfied as he looked at the wrapped dumplings. He had been worried that his first attempt at making dumplings might go wrong.
Saitama surveyed the restaurant. It was clearly not a traditional Japanese diner; the decor was more akin to a Western-style restaurant, and they used knives and forks for the cutlery.
"Aren’t Western restaurants usually all about steaks?" Saitama scratched his head. Since becoming a hero for fun, he rarely went out to eat.
"But what about the special offer set al? It’s not pasta, is it?" Saitama was not very fond of pasta.
Gradually, a rich aroma of at, spiced with herbs and soy sauce, filled the air, causing Saitama to involuntarily swallow his saliva.
After a while, Chen Ze ca out carrying a serving plate, placing the prepared dishes one by one in front of Saitama.
"Dear guest, this is today’s special recomndation from the owner - braised pork rice, pan-fried dumplings, and Paluda. Please enjoy your al." Chen Ze placed a pair of chopsticks by Saitama’s side.
This was the first guest to eat at his place using chopsticks, which gave Chen Ze a mont of reflection; it was finally ti to take the chopsticks out of the kitchen.
"So this is a Chinese Cuisine Restaurant," Saitama thought. He had never heard of braised pork rice before, so he didn’t recognize it as a dish from any particular region, but he knew dumplings, and together with the braised pork rice, he concluded it must be a Chinese restaurant.
"Yes, that’s right, guest," Chen Ze said with a smile, knowing that he would be learning more and more dishes in the future, whether Chinese, Japanese, or from Europe and Arica.
"Let’s dig in!" Saitama said as he picked up the chopsticks, grabbed a dumpling, dipped it in the sauce Chen Ze placed beside him, and then popped it into his mouth.
The familiar taste of dumplings, the delicious at filling, and the addition of vinegar that made the dumplings even tastier led Saitama to eat several more.
Chen Ze had already returned to the kitchen, watching Saitama eat the dumplings, and felt even more certain that his friend’s words had been very sensible.
"Whew... Just these dumplings alone are worth it." There weren’t many dumplings; Chen Ze had only made ten, and Saitama finished them in no ti.
"The dumplings are so delicious, so this braised pork rice must also be quite good," Saitama thought as he put down the chopsticks, picked up the spoon Chen Ze had placed by the bowl, and scooped up so braised pork with rice to eat.
"Delicious!"
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