Chapter 78 - 73: Credit Crisis

Chapter 78: Chapter 73: Credit Crisis

After the Ice Sculpture Festival ended, it took Ning He several days to finally catch her breath.

The news of the North Third District winning the championship played on the local television station for days. Everyone was immersed in excitement and joy. Ning He and Connie Ahui had also become major heroes. Wherever they went, people would take the initiative to run up and greet them. Ning He could never have imagined this kind of treatment in the past.

More importantly, after the fervent promotion of her malatang, Ning He’s system reputation value had actually broken one thousand. Although it was still a long way from her goal, it was a pleasant surprise.

With the event over, the academy cafeteria resumed operations. Ning He and her two companions worked non-stop; they had to keep running their own stall after returning from the cafeteria, which was truly overwhelming. Connie then suggested retaining two of the students who had helped out during the food festival.

One was Youzhen, a quiet girl of few words who worked with meticulous attention to detail. The other was Vance, an enthusiastic young guy who was quick on his feet.

Both of them had already obtained their Level 1 chef certificates and were eligible to look for jobs. When Ning He and Connie approached them, they were absolutely overjoyed and agreed on the spot.

There was really no reason for them to hesitate over such a job opportunity. The popularity of the malatang was obvious to everyone. It was also remarkably affordable and flexible, drawing a broad customer base. This single dish alone was enough to maintain a steady income. On top of that, Ning He and Connie were generous; all the student helpers had received their wages for the three-day food festival. Sixty bucks a day was incredibly fair for students still in school.

After all, if they went looking for a restaurant internship on their own, making thirty a day would be considered high.

Ning He had grown familiar with them over the past few days and was very much looking forward to having these two extra helpers. Back in the day, she had passed up a lucrative job at a private company to build a social media presence from scratch simply because she didn’t want to be a corporate slave. The sheer exhaustion from this food festival had genuinely terrified her; she would rather spend more money to hire help.

With Youzhen assigned to the cafeteria and Vance responsible for prepping the malatang stall, the two clever and diligent helpers noticeably lightened the daily workload for Ning He’s trio. Finally, on the fourth day after the food festival ended, they caught their breath and found some time to crunch the numbers.

During the two weeks prior to the food festival, they sold over three hundred bowls of malatang a day. Because the customers all came from the Inner Three Rings, the average transaction value was high. Their daily sales reached seven or eight thousand, with a daily profit of roughly thirteen hundred to eighteen hundred. In total, they made around twenty-three thousand.

During the food festival itself, customer numbers absolutely exploded. Ning He estimated they served no less than twenty thousand people over the three days. Due to the discounts, the extra ingredients, and the labor costs, their profit margin had dropped to 10%. Even so, the funds on Ning He’s collection card and the cash on hand still totaled over 40,000. Combined with the 5,000 championship bonus awarded by the administrator, their food festival earnings reached an astonishing 50,000!

However, Connie and Ah Huai only agreed to take 10,000 of that 50,000. After evenly splitting their earlier profits, Ning He’s savings grew to 56,300, while Connie and Ah Huai also managed to save over 20,000. With the cafeteria payout coming in a week, they officially no longer had to worry about money.

Connie had been in an exceptionally good mood lately and hadn’t lost her temper in a long time. Once the money was distributed, she planned to head to the Market Supervision Bureau to pay off the noodle shop’s fine.

"Sounds good. Once we upgrade to Level 1, we’ll put the noodle shop sign back up and start by making vegetarian noodles," Ning He said confidently, munching on a cucumber.

Connie sighed with emotion. "I never expected things to go so smoothly. Several problems were solved all at once, and we even have enough for Juan’s tuition now."

Ning He raised an eyebrow smugly. "I told you that sticking with me was the right choice!"

"Yes, yes, yes. Isn’t that why I specifically bought some good food to thank you? Now eat up!" Unable to stand her smugness, Connie grabbed a handful of cherry tomatoes and shoved them into her hands. Remembering something, she added, "The cold wave should end in another ten or twenty days. Shouldn’t we find a proper storefront to sell malatang by then? Applying for a storefront isn’t restricted by the stall renewal period, so you can apply directly to open a third-level restaurant. With our sales, we can afford a storefront, and doing business will be much more convenient."

Ning He scratched her head.

These past few days, her mind had mostly been focused on leaving the city to collect the mutated plant compendium; she hadn’t carefully considered the business side of things. To be precise, after partnering with Macken, leaving the city no longer cost money, so her drive to make money wasn’t as strong as before.

Without realizing it, she seemed to have grown content with the status quo.

That wasn’t a good thing.

Ning He sat up straight, thinking it over carefully. "This is something to seriously consider. I wonder how much the initial investment for opening a third-level restaurant would be?"

Connie was very clear on the ins and outs of this. "The first expense is rent. Except for a few prime spots, rent for shops in the Fourth Ring generally isn’t high. One about the same size as our noodle shop goes for around two thousand a month. For basic renovations, tables, chairs, and tableware, two thousand should be enough. Add the three thousand food safety deposit, and even if we prepay half a year’s rent, we can definitely get it all done for twenty thousand."

"That’s actually not too expensive. However, I also want to find a new place to live. My current place is too small. When I try to experiment with new recipes at home, I can’t even lay out all my ingredients," Ning He said in feigned distress.

The privacy of her current residence was terrible, getting in the way of her using the black mud. It would be best to find a larger, more secluded place where she could casually grow some mutated plants to test their effects.

"Actually, with your current income, moving to the Third Ring is completely doable," Connie said after a moment of hesitation.

Ning He was startled for a moment before she reacted.

She was now pulling in at least four or five thousand a month. Even in the Third Ring, that wasn’t considered low; there was absolutely no need for her to stay here.

But she had no intention of moving to the Inner Ring.

She had never thought about it in the past, and after that incident, she refused to let herself forget the anger she felt back then. She could never comfortably become a "more valuable survivor" in Leo’s words.

"I think staying in the Fourth Ring is fine. Let’s just look around for a suitable place first."

Connie faintly breathed a sigh of relief.

Having fought together for the North Third District, she naturally hoped that Ning He would continue to stay here and remain one of them.

"Then I’ll ask Uncle Bari to help you look. He knows every single building in the North Third District like the back of his hand. He’ll definitely be able to find you a suitable place."

"Sure, I’ll leave it to you."

With Connie taking the matter to heart, Ning He only needed to clarify her requirements and act as a hands-off boss.

However, the next day, after Connie went to the Market Supervision Bureau to pay the fine, she returned fuming with anger. Ah Huai didn’t look too good either.

"What’s wrong?"

Ning He had just returned from getting her dressings changed at the medical station. Seeing the furious look on Connie’s face, she instinctively leaned against the wall and backed away a little.

"Those bastards! They clearly said paying the fine would be enough, but they actually lowered our credit value to D-level!"

The credit value was a social credit score established for every Alliance resident over the age of sixteen. A D-level score meant they were only one step above convicts sitting in a jail cell. With a merchant credit of D-level, it would be difficult to even find a supplier willing to work with them.

The food market was already in a state where demand exceeded supply. The competition was incredibly fierce, especially for rare and expensive ingredients.

"It must be because we rejected the cooperation invitations from those large restaurants in the Inner Ring a few days ago! We offended someone, and now they’re trying to put us in our place!"

After the food festival, the craze caused by their malatang had also drawn the interest of several powerful restaurants in the Inner Ring. They had dispatched people one after another to find them and discuss a partnership.

However, they called it a "partnership," but in reality, it would just turn them into slightly higher-paid employees. Ning He naturally wasn’t willing and had rejected them all.

She never expected these people to dig a trap for them here.

"So what if it’s D-level? Can’t we just raise it back up? We don’t need to find our own suppliers at the cafeteria anyway, so it doesn’t matter," Ning He consoled her.

Connie barely managed to quell her anger. "It’s a good thing you’re unaffected. Otherwise, if all of us were at D-level, we probably couldn’t even keep our jobs at the academy cafeteria. You must be extremely careful from now on; don’t let anyone catch anything they can use against you."

Ning He patted her chest. "Don’t worry, I’ve got this on lock!"

Unfortunately, less than twenty-four hours after saying that, Ning He was quietly called into the office by Old Wood after finishing the breakfast shift the next day.

"Did something happen recently?" Old Wood asked, his eyes full of worry.

"Huh? Why do you ask?" Ning He was surprised.

’Did the news about Connie and Ah Huai’s credit downgrade spread over here?’

’It shouldn’t have gone that far, right?’

"Sigh. Take a look for yourself."

Old Wood looked deeply concerned as he turned the computer monitor to face Ning He.

Ning He took a closer look, and her expression changed drastically.

On the screen was her registered personal information at the cafeteria. Right now, the credit value column had dropped from an A to two eye-catching red words:

"High Risk"

Ning He instantly leaped up on one foot.

’Fuck—!!’