My Restaurant's Guests are All Abnormal

Chapter 214: Chapter Seventy-four: Running Away from Home?

Chen Ze was feeling a bit conflicted, to be precise, he was a bit nervous. Betty had already finished eating and gone back, but Chen Ze still hadn’t closed up.

Of course, this wasn’t because Chen Ze planned to stay open all night, but rather because he was waiting for Lafra to come over.

Chen Ze looked at the Magic Crystal in his hand, it was a recording of "Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day" taken by Hastur. Chen Ze was very interested in it, and the thought of watching it with his girlfriend made him feel doubly happy.

It’s just that... Lafra was taking so long to arrive. Chen Ze frowned and glanced at his phone; it was already midnight, but Lafra still hadn’t shown up.

Moreover, Lafra wasn’t like Chen Ze’s friends in this world, whom he could call or message through WeChat or QQ; there wasn’t a direct and effective way for the two of them to communicate right now.

This bothered Chen Ze and gave him the feeling of being in a relationship in ancient times. freewebnovёl.ƈom

The sound of the Wind Chime came softly, and then Chen Ze looked over curiously. The one who came through the door wasn’t the familiar blonde lolita, but someone else.

A customer who had only visited once before.

"Nobita? What brings you here?" Chen Ze was somewhat surprised, considering it was already the middle of the night, and he hadn’t expected Nobita to show up.

Chen Ze peered out to see that the familiar figure wasn’t following behind Nobita, indicating Doraemon wasn’t with him.

"Manager uncle, do you have any food?" Nobita bowed politely.

Chen Ze looked Nobita over; the boy was somewhat dirty. Then Chen Ze noticed the bundle on his back and immediately understood what Nobita had done.

Nobita had probably run away from home again, although Chen Ze couldn’t quite understand why running away from home necessitated carrying a conspicuous bundle like that.

But Chen Ze didn’t really care, after all, it was a children’s anime, and he wasn’t going to fuss over it.

"Okay, how about a special combo meal?" Chen Ze put on his headscarf and loosened his neck.

"Thank you!" Watching Nobita sit down at the table, Chen Ze smiled and then went into the kitchen.

Before long, Chen Ze had prepared a portion of chestnut rice, complemented with a piece of fried pork cutlet.

Chen Ze checked his phone; Lafra still hadn’t come, which made his heart flutter, and it wouldn’t be long before he could pull an all-nighter.

Could it be that Lafra thought staying up late was bad and therefore wanted to stay awake all night with Chen Ze?

"Wow! This is delicious!" Nobita exclaimed in amazement at the chestnut rice in front of him, declaring the soup to be the best thing ever.

Chen Ze wiped the pan, then glanced at Nobita. "Did you run away from home?"

"Um..." With a sheepish bow of his head, Nobita felt embarrassed by such an inquiry. He could tell Shizuka or Doraemon without any worries, but it was awkward with Chen Ze, a stranger adult.

Chen Ze turned on the water and washed the pot, then looked again at Nobita.

Doraemon was also an incredibly long anime; Nobita was in elementary school when Chen Ze was in elementary school, and Nobita was still in elementary school when Chen Ze graduated from college.

This was actually quite a frightening thought, especially since Nobita once lived on an uninhabited island for ten years, but with each episode, it seemed to reset.

While arguing with an anime was a foolish thing, that was on the premise of it being just an anime. Now, Nobita was sitting in his restaurant, which made Chen Ze wonder if Nobita’s life would continue to reset in the future?

"Would you like some miso soup?" Chen Ze asked, noting there was still some miso soup in the pot.

"Thank you, manager uncle," Nobita immediately nodded his head.

Chen Ze noncommittally poured Nobita a bowl of miso soup and then went back to the kitchen to continue scrubbing his pots.

Chen Ze didn’t ask Nobita why he had run away from home. Although asking would surely get an answer, Chen Ze didn’t want to play the psychologist.

Nobita’s frequent runaway episodes were usually related to his parents, and Chen Ze could guess the reasons—be it his mom’s scolding, her bad attitude, or her throwing away his comics...

Thinking this, Chen Ze suddenly felt that Nobita’s mom was very much like the eldest disciple in ’Journey to the West,’ often being pointed out by the third disciple saying, "Eldest disciple, Master has been captured by a demon."

"Uncle, are you still open this late?" Nobita was obviously full by now.

"It’s not a late-night diner. I just had something to do today," Chen Ze glanced at his phone again. Lafra still hadn’t shown up.

"Oh," nodded Nobita, and then a silence fell over the restaurant again, with only the sound of Chen Ze washing pots.

"Manager Uncle, have you ever hated your parents?" Nobita suddenly asked, which startled Chen Ze.

"I have. I hated that we had a generational gap, that they didn’t understand me, that they nagged," Chen Ze frowned at the grease in the pot, added some detergent, and then poured in fresh water.

"Exactly, my mom is like that..." Nobita seemed to find agreement and lightened up as if relieved to share his troubles.

Chen Ze held a luffa sponge, scrubbing the pot while listening to Nobita’s complaints. Just as he thought, Nobita had run away from home because his mom had thrown away his comics and scolded him.

"Nobita, do you think I’m an adult?" Chen Ze asked after letting Nobita finish.

"Eh? Manager Uncle, you’re definitely an adult," Nobita immediately nodded. He longed to be an adult because adults didn’t have to do homework or go to school.

"Adults are really pitiful."

"Eh?" Nobita looked up curiously.

"Because there’s no one bigger than them, no one to cuddle or scold them," Chen Ze washed the pot again, this time thoroughly.

Nobita blinked, not quite understanding what Chen Ze meant.

"You’ll understand later. Even though I’ve hated my parents, I’m still grateful that they’re healthy and nagging beside me," Chen Ze passed a mango mousse to Nobita.

Nobita hesitated, then perhaps recalling something, shook his head, "I don’t care about that. If mom wasn’t around, I wouldn’t get nagged."

But Nobita’s nervous expression and his fidgeting betrayed his inner thoughts.

Chen Ze smiled without saying anything, just collecting the dishes Nobita had finished.

When Chen Ze finished with the dishes, what he saw on the table was a 500 yen note.

"Honey~ Sorry, sorry to keep you waiting!" Lafra pushed the door open and walked in.

Chen Ze looked at his phone. It was one in the morning.

"What were you up to?" Chen Ze wasn’t angry; he knew Lafra’s character wasn’t the sort to break an appointment without good reason.

Lafra rubbed her eyes and plunged into Chen Ze’s arms, embracing him.

"A master engineer appeared in the prime material plane and flattened a small valley. They say someone saw a mushroom-like cloud," she explained.

"Huh?"