The NO.1 Food Stall in the Wasteland

Lin Zhou pursed his lips, looking rather embarrassed. "Boss Shen, ahem... uh, do you have any more of those cookies? I’d like to buy some."

Shen Lu: ...

’He’s being so polite about it.’

Shen Lu took out a small bag containing about five cookies. "Here, these are for you."

"I can pay for them," Lin Zhou insisted.

"Consider it payment for helping me keep an eye on Song Zhigao."

"In that case, it would be rude of me to refuse."

Lin Zhou readily accepted, taking the bag of cookies and returning to his usual post.

He tore open the package and took a bite of a crispy, crumbly cookie.

Mmm~

’This is the stuff~’

He absolutely loved cookies.

’Sigh, but our security contract is up in just a few days. I wonder if Boss Shen will renew it.’

’This is the first time I’ve ever felt reluctant to leave an employer.’

’If Boss Shen is willing to renew, I’d even agree to a lower rate.’

’I just don’t know if the boss would agree.’

Shen Lu was wondering about the relationship between Song Zhigao and Master Luo.

’Judging by their ages and backgrounds, a master-apprentice relationship seems most likely.’

’He couldn’t be here to steal culinary secrets, could he?’

’But Song Zhigao’s cooking skills are already quite high. He could even open his own restaurant.’

’I can’t figure it out. It just doesn’t make sense.’

So, Shen Lu decided to stop thinking about it. She went to wash up and get ready for bed, tallied the day’s revenue, and then did her lottery draw.

[Congratulations, Host, you have drawn the prize from blind box #27: One bag of Jinkela Compound Fertilizer.]

[Jinkela Compound Fertilizer: The king of compound fertilizers. It promotes mineral absorption in plants and can dramatically increase crop yields. As the saying goes: With Jinkela, you’re guaranteed a yield of one-thousand-eight!]

Shen Lu: (￣ー￣)

’System, are you messing with me?’

The system was also sweating bullets. The prize pool was just too vast and varied. Forget Jinkela fertilizer; for all it knew, tomorrow Shen Lu could pull an even more outrageous prize, like a Fleshlight or something...

[Calm down, Host. You must remain calm.]

The system wracked its brain for a justification.

[Don’t you have some scallions growing? You can use this fertilizer to speed up their growth!]

Shen Lu scoffed. "So?"

[So, it is useful.]

Shen Lu said, "It’s just one pot of scallions with less than five stalks. So what if they grow bigger? It’s barely enough for one stir-fried dish."

[The scallions can regrow, you know.]

Shen Lu said, "If it’s so useful, how about I trade it with you? I’m not asking for much, just 1 point of store defense will do."

[...]

The system decided to play dead.

Once it went silent, there was truly nothing Shen Lu could do. After all, the system existed only in her consciousness; it had no physical form.

Otherwise, Shen Lu really would have grabbed it by the neck and shaken it hard to see if anything would fall out.

「The next day.」

Shen Lu did indeed see a handprint on Song Zhigao’s face.

She wasn’t the only one; the others noticed it too.

"Little Song, what happened to your face?" Cai Su asked.

Song Zhigao turned his head away slightly. "It’s nothing."

He clearly didn’t want to talk about it, so they didn’t press the issue.

After breakfast, Shen Lu went to sign for the ingredient delivery. When she saw the vegetable list on the delivery form, her eyes widened in astonishment.

"No, wait a minute." Shen Lu showed the delivery form to the delivery man. "Are you sure you didn’t make a mistake?"

The delivery man was a stoic man of few words. "No mistake."

His only job was to deliver; he didn’t care what vegetables were in the truck. His mission was just to get the goods to their destination.

Shen Lu was speechless. "I’m going to call your boss first."

Shen Lu had Zhao Qian’s contact information, but Xue Can had warned her that Zhao Qian didn’t like to be disturbed for no reason. Or rather, he didn’t like to be disturbed even if there was a reason. Whether he answered his phone depended entirely on his mood at that particular moment.

That’s why Shen Lu had never called Zhao Qian before.

But today, she had no choice. The vegetables Zhao Qian had sent were simply too ridiculous.

Shen Lu called eight times in a row, but Zhao Qian didn’t pick up.

Shen Lu couldn’t tell if he was deliberately avoiding her or if he really was just like Xue Can had described, someone who hated answering his phone.

She resentfully slapped the side of a crate of vegetables in the truck.

Shen Lu: Boss Zhao, isn’t this going a bit too far?!

Shen Lu: [Image]

The driver frowned. "Are you going to unload the vegetables or not?"

He had other work to do and couldn’t be held up here forever.

With no other option, Shen Lu had her staff start unloading the ingredients.

Cai Su stared at the crate after crate of onions and scallions, dumbfounded.

"Boss Shen, where are the other vegetables?"

Shen Lu pursed her lips. "What other vegetables? This is all of it."

That’s right. Of the 800 jin of vegetables Zhao Qian delivered today, there was nothing but onions and scallions.

The employees looked at each other in dismay. This was just absurd. Onions and scallions were aromatics, meant to be used as a garnish in dishes. Furthermore, there was no way to make four side dishes out of just these two ingredients!

In a plantation in the Upper City District, Zhao Qian was driving a tiller with a serious expression on his face.

As a rabid gardening enthusiast, he had recently set his sights on a new type of vegetable. After much deliberation, he decided to pull up all the fully grown onions and scallions.

In the past, he would just toss any vegetables he pulled onto the ground, letting them rot and ferment to be used as fertilizer for the soil.

Now that he was doing business with Shen Lu, he had someone pack the vegetables onto the truck instead.

Although today’s delivery only consisted of onions and scallions, the total weight was well over 800 jin. Zhao Qian felt he was being incredibly conscientious.

As for whether Shen Lu could make four side dishes out of just onions and scallions, that was not his concern.

Because this young master, who only knew how to farm, had no idea how to cook.

"Let’s wash and chop the vegetables first," Shen Lu said, letting out a breath and starting to delegate tasks. "For the scallions, trim the roots and remove any yellow leaves. For the onions, slice them vertically into thin strips."

The staff got to work as she instructed.

Shen Lu returned to the front counter alone, rubbing her temples in frustration.

"I’ve already had someone arrange for another delivery." Fu Cheng had come downstairs at some point, his wheelchair stopped at the entrance to the counter area. "Don’t worry."

After their last conversation ended on bad terms, Fu Cheng had clearly felt that Shen Lu was no longer as close to him as before.

He had tried to clear the air about that issue afterward, but every time he mentioned the words "research institute," Shen Lu would immediately change the subject, unwilling to discuss it further.

Fu Cheng urgently needed a chance to make a gesture of goodwill, and as it happened, Zhao Qian had given him one today. He immediately contacted Li Zexing and asked him to get a few hundred jin of vegetables delivered.

Li Zexing: ’...This is fucking ridiculous.’

’I’m a huge star, and you want me to go buy groceries?’

Li Zexing really wanted to just refuse and wash his hands of it, but when he thought of his cousin fighting bravely on the front lines, he held his nose and endured it.

’When Li Zenan gets back, it’ll be a real crime if he doesn’t compensate me handsomely. He has no idea how much I’ve sacrificed for him!’

Shen Lu wasn’t surprised that Fu Cheng knew what was happening in the restaurant. She looked at his good right eye and said a sincere, "Thank you."

"You don’t have to thank me. We’re..." Fu Cheng paused, ultimately not saying, ’We’re family.’ Instead, he finished, "We’re friends."

Shen Lu was still a little touched.

Because of the research institute business, a rift had formed between her and Fu Cheng. For some reason, she couldn’t help but give him the cold shoulder these past few days. Sometimes, when Fu Cheng spoke to her, she would pretend not to hear him.

She had been treating him like that, yet the moment she ran into trouble, he was still the first one to help her.

Thinking about it that way, she felt she hadn’t been a very good friend.