Chapter 83 - 78: Chairman Gates

Chapter 83: Chapter 78: Chairman Gates

Ning He’s refusal to play by the rules began with rewriting the banquet menu.

The next day, Ning He harvested and processed a batch of mature vegetables from the plantation, packing them into the glass jars she had just bought.

A row of calf-high glass jars with large bellies stood along the base of the wall, stuffed to the brim with radishes, peppers, cabbage, and beans. After the snow melted, the temperature in Beiluo City began to rise sharply, making it warm enough to wear short sleeves. It was estimated that the pickles would be ready in about a week.

After returning from the cafeteria, Ning He led everyone in cooking and tasting dishes. The banquet had many guests, and relying on her alone to cook would definitely be too slow, so Ning He simply taught while tasting. Anyway, she had promised to help Connie Ahui pass the third-level exam, so it killed two birds with one stone.

As for Vance and Youzhen, although they couldn’t cook themselves, standing by and listening to Ning He explain the various techniques for marinating and removing gamey odors from meat, the ways to cut it, the textures produced by different cooking methods, and the appropriate spices for different meats was an eye-opening experience.

Connie and Ah Huai had been making meat sauce noodles for a long time, so they had some foundation. They understood the preparation procedures very quickly, but they were still quite unfamiliar with handling techniques like pan-frying, deep-frying, and stir-frying after the meat went into the pot, as well as heat control. This required Ning He to step in personally. However, leaving the prep work to them had already made things much easier for Ning He.

Although almost all the dishes on the new menu were changed, considering the guests’ tastes, they weren’t completely replaced with Chinese food. Instead, it was a fusion of Chinese and Western cuisine.

The cream of mushroom soup was intentionally kept, but it was made using the most meticulous method, greatly improving its texture, aroma, and quality. After Connie tasted it, her heart completely settled. She no longer had nightmares about being kicked out of the banquet and could finally sleep peacefully at night.

For several days in a row, the four of them walked out of Ning He’s door feeling dizzy every day. The lingering aftertaste of the delicious new dishes never faded, and before they could even process it, it was replaced by new delicacies. This feeling was simply intoxicating.

During this time, a sudden hailstorm hit Beiluo City. It was quite large, and many houses were damaged. At the time, Ning He was stewing braised pork. Everyone was swallowing hard at the rich, unprecedented meat aroma, and it wasn’t until they heard BANG BANG sounds from above that they realized something was wrong.

Ning He jumped in fright. Fortunately, the house was built sturdily enough and didn’t cave in. However, the restaurant suffered some damage, so the renovation time would have to be extended by a few days.

After finishing the food tasting, Ning He followed Macken out of the city again, but this time, apart from the 800 in wages, she only collected a single-digit number of new mutated species.

Although this had to do with the fact that Macken’s two expeditions were very close in location, Ning He also understood that the mutated species on the outskirts of the forest had pretty much all been collected. If she wanted to encounter others, she would either have to try venturing further into the outer regions or go deep into the dangerous dense forest.

As for the former, Macken and his team wouldn’t set foot there easily without scouting it out beforehand. As for the latter, it went without saying—her only hope was to go through the Mecha Academy.

However, from these few trips out of the city, Ning He had overall gained quite a lot.

She had completed 83 species for the compendium quest, all of which were fully collected. Besides a massive amount of experience points, there were also 830 cubic meters of planting soil stored in the system warehouse, enough to cover 4,000 square meters.

However, until Ning He could reasonably explain the origin of this soil, it could only remain in the system warehouse.

Half a month before the banquet, Ning He sent a message to Leitel, notifying him that the dishes were ready for tasting.

When she sent the message, Leitel was attending an important meeting.

Inside the Mecha Academy’s highest council chamber gathered the bigwigs who stood at the absolute pinnacle of Beiluo City’s power structure.

The current Dean, David, sat to the left of the head seat. The empty seat to his right bore the nameplate of the City Lord.

"The City Lord is feeling unwell, so I will be hosting this meeting on his behalf," David said. "...Everyone has already seen the combat plan for intercepting the Shadow Beast. Preliminary deployments are already underway. The main focus now is the preparation of munitions and Mecha equipment. This meeting is, firstly, to vote on using the emergency reserve funds, and secondly, to discuss other fundraising channels."

"The reserve funds are meant for times like this, so I doubt anyone will object. As for the exact budget shortfall, the chairmen of the major chambers of commerce are also here today, so everyone can brainstorm together," said the Minister of Economy sitting opposite him.

"There is a significant amount of weapons stockpiled in the city, but the key is the upgrade of Mecha equipment. To ensure the interception plan can be carried out smoothly, I’ve already submitted an application to Central City to requisition Heavenly Knights. The cost is 10,000,000."

The Minister of Economy frowned.

"The frequency of extreme natural disasters has been high these past two years, and the reserve funds have depleted quickly. We currently have exactly 10,000,000 left. But the other estimated costs for the interception plan require at least another 8,000,000, and that’s not even counting the various damages future disasters might cause."

"In your opinion, how much more would be appropriate to prepare?"

"At least 10,000,000."

David nodded.

"How much can the chambers of commerce pull together?"

The Minister of Economy gestured to the secretary behind him. The latter quickly walked out of the conference room and went to the adjacent room, where the leaders of various industry chambers of commerce in Beiluo City were gathered.

If Ning He were present, she would have spotted a familiar figure among them:

The short, chubby man in a suit.

The secretary quickly tallied the numbers and returned to the conference room:

7,210,000.

Beiluo City had a population of 1,000,000, ranking lower-middle in the entire Alliance. Many industries could only meet basic needs and yielded little profit. The average income of the residents was mediocre, their spending power was weak, and economic development had always been average.

The fact that the enterprises could pool together over 7,000,000 couldn’t be called going all out, but it was justifiable.

"For the remaining 2,000,000 or so, we can initiate a public donation drive. It’s been over a year since the last one, so it shouldn’t cause panic," said Carolyn, sitting further down the table.

"Then let’s do that. Next, let’s discuss the areas of the interception plan that require everyone’s coordination and dispatch. Leo, I’ll hand it over to you."

From the back, Leo stood up, walked to the front of the room, and turned on the holographic map projection. Everyone in the conference room gave him their full attention; only Leitel was so bored he was practically falling asleep.

Sitting opposite him, David watched his teacher’s eyes drooping behind his glasses. He pretended to cough a few times, but it had no effect whatsoever, so he had no choice but to pretend not to see it.

When the painfully long meeting finally ended, Leitel yawned, stretched, and was the first to walk out of the conference room. A staff member brought him his phone.

This meeting was highly classified, so all communication devices belonging to the attendees had been confiscated.

Leitel had just picked up his phone and scrolled to Ning He’s new message. Before he even had time to be happy about it, a teasing voice came from behind him:

"You’re just the same as before, Sir. You get drowsy the moment a meeting starts."

Leitel turned around and burst into laughter. "You cheeky girl, if an old man like me doesn’t sleep, am I supposed to compete with you young people for the limelight? I heard you did something big recently. Not bad, as expected of someone from the Caroline family!"

Carolyn smiled and made an inviting gesture. "Lieutenant Colonel Leo and the Dean are still inside. I’m afraid it’ll be a while. Shall I walk with you?"

"Sure, let’s not wait for them. We’ll head off on our own."

Just as the two of them walked out of the conference building, they ran head-on into a tall middle-aged man wearing a black trench coat and gold leather shoes.

The middle-aged man walked up with a face full of smiles.

"Director Caroline, Dean Leitel. Long time no see."

Carolyn gave a slight nod. "Chairman Gates, what are you doing here?"

"I was waiting specifically for the two of you, of course," the middle-aged man said, looking at Leitel with a solemn expression. "I heard that the Dean invited someone else to prepare the banquet for his wedding anniversary gathering. Is there something my restaurants did poorly that upset you?"

Leitel showed a rare expression of awkwardness. He stroked his beard and coughed lightly twice.

"Not at all. It’s just... I just wanted a change of taste. If your restaurants aren’t doing a good job, who else in Beiluo City would dare say they do? Don’t overthink it."

"That’s good to hear. May I ask which master chef you hired? To be held in such high regard by you, I’d really like to meet them myself." A faint gleam flashed in the middle-aged man’s eyes.

"This..." Leitel hesitated for a moment.

Carolyn glanced at Chairman Gates. Their eyes met, and she understood his intent. She smiled and said, "To be honest, I’m quite curious myself. I wonder if I could tag along with you to meet this master chef and treat my taste buds? I’ve been so busy running around lately that I haven’t had a proper meal in a while."

Leitel struggled internally for a while before finally letting out a sigh.

"Forget it. Seeing as you two have contributed both money and effort for Beiluo City, I’ll take you to meet her. The food tasting is tomorrow. I’ll send you the address then, and you can just come directly."

"I’ll definitely be there!" The middle-aged man hooked his lips into a smile.

After Leitel left, Carolyn looked at the middle-aged man, her gaze somewhat playful.

"I heard that Dean Leitel used to be Chairman Gates’ idol. It seems that rumor is true."

The middle-aged man’s burning gaze continued to follow Leitel’s car.

"You never witnessed the past glory of this great man, otherwise you would definitely be like me—filled with regret over losing an opportunity to serve him. Tomorrow, I’m going to see exactly who dared to stand in my way!"

Carolyn lightly raised an eyebrow.

"It seems you really care about this. I didn’t even see you this angry when we signed the laboratory contract. Now I’m actually sweating for that master chef."

At this moment, the master chef in question, Ning He, had just received Leitel’s confirmation message and an address, and was busily preparing the ingredients.