Chapter 63 - 62: Selling Pickled Cabbage Fish

Chapter 63: Chapter 62: Selling Pickled Cabbage Fish

Snapping back to his senses, Yang Shunsheng felt a pang of embarrassment. He hurriedly mumbled an explanation to Huang Yuqing through his thermal mask. Without waiting to see if she could read his lips, he grabbed their son from her arms and hurried toward the cafeteria.

After Chen Momo paid the rent at the front desk, she had less than ten thousand base credits left on her card. This was her first business venture at the base; she had to do it right. Arriving at the cafeteria, Chen Momo began tidying up her stall.

The stall was about fifteen square meters in total, fully equipped with all kinds of cooking appliances. There were two tables and a small refrigerator. Opening the fridge, she found it completely empty. She wiped it down, plugged it in, and tossed in some ice cubes to freeze.

She wondered what to sell. Scanning the entire cafeteria, Chen Momo noticed that the stalls sold a wide variety of dishes. After taking stock of the cuisines offered by the major stalls and checking the inventory in her own dimensional space, she decided to sell a single dish: fish with pickled mustard greens.

She chose this dish for three reasons. First, she had hoarded plenty of fish in her space before the apocalypse began. Second, she had already experimented with various recipes during the end times and mastered the art of making the perfect pickled fish. Finally, no other stall was currently selling it, meaning she could command a premium price. She would focus on this signature dish first and consider expanding the menu only after it sold out.

At the very back of the stall was a small room—only about five square meters—furnished with a table and two stools. A cloth curtain hung over the doorway, separating this makeshift rest area from the kitchen outside. Chen Momo stepped into the little room and extracted twenty large fish from her space. They were still thrashing and completely alive, looking exactly as they had the moment she stored them. She then pulled out a few large buckets, tossed the fish in, and carried them out to the kitchen.

With the main ingredients ready, she retrieved an array of spices and seasonings from her space and lined them up on the counter. For her first day, she would test the waters with these twenty fish. If they sold well, she would make a proper signboard and officially launch her business!

For this trial run, Chen Momo found a black marker and a wooden board, writing "Fish with Pickled Mustard Greens" across it. Next, she flipped on all the lights and began cooking. She pulled out her little notebook, followed her personally perfected recipe, and after a flurry of activity, her first serving of fish was officially out of the pan.

Because she had preserved an abundance of seasonings before the apocalypse, she didn’t need to skimp on the ingredients. Unlike the other stalls whose food tasted a bit bland due to supply shortages, Chen Momo’s pickled fish was a masterclass in color, aroma, and taste. A rich, mouthwatering scent wafted from her window, permeating the entire cafeteria.

"Wow, what is that smell? It smells incredible!" A few diners with keen noses quickly picked up the scent and followed it all the way to Chen Momo’s stall. It was a brand-new setup that hadn’t even hung a proper signboard yet, and to their surprise, the boss was a young, remarkably beautiful woman.

One of these customers was a middle-aged man named Li Fei, who had brought his wife and child here to eat. He craned his neck to peek at Chen Momo’s dish. To see such a vibrant, fragrant, and appetizing bowl of pickled fish in the apocalypse was truly a rare sight!

"Boss, how much for the pickled fish?" Li Fei asked. His eyes were glued to the dish, looking as if he wished he could devour it with his gaze alone. From this close, the tantalizing aroma was almost intoxicating.

Chen Momo figured that since a bowl of braised pork belly sold for three hundred base credits, her pickled fish had to be priced a bit higher. After all, fish was much scarcer than pork belly, not to mention that her dish was meticulously cooked using the best methods. She made her decision.

"Five hundred base credits a serving," she replied.

Li Fei’s eyes went wide. "Five hundred base credits? That’s way too expensive."

Having just paid for his family’s accommodations and basic necessities, he didn’t have much money left. Hearing that this single dish cost five hundred base credits was a tough pill to swallow. He only had one thousand base credits left on his card; blowing half of his total funds on a single fish would be a massive financial hemorrhage. Even though he desperately wanted a taste, he simply stared at it, swallowed hard, and walked away shaking his head.

"Huh, isn’t that Momo?"

Yang Shunsheng, who had just finished eating and was about to get up, suddenly caught sight of Chen Momo at her stall. Huang Yuqing frowned. Following Yang Shunsheng’s gaze, sure enough, she spotted Chen Momo standing behind one of the cafeteria windows.

She wore a white sweater paired with a black cotton skirt, her hair styled neatly into a small bun. Her face was clean and exquisite, resembling a water lily—delicate yet resolute. How did she look like a divorced single mother? She clearly looked like a young maiden!

Although her stall was tucked away in a corner, her striking appearance made it stand out remarkably among the sea of vendors. Standing there quietly, contrasting sharply with the other bosses shouting themselves hoarse to attract customers, it was hard for her not to draw attention.

Yang Shunsheng was utterly surprised. "What is she doing here?"

Huang Yuqing sneered. "Isn’t it obvious? She’s definitely working for someone else! With her capabilities, how could she possibly be the boss?"

Huang Yuqing thought to herself that Chen Momo had brought this upon herself. She had insisted on divorcing Yang Shunsheng, and now she had to work just to support her son. How exhausting it must be to do it all alone! She figured Chen Momo had to be regretting her choices by now. Unlike Momo, Huang Yuqing only had to dump all the pressures of life onto Yang Shunsheng, leaving her free to simply eat, drink, and watch the kids every day. Women had to be smart; after marriage, it was best to turn a blind eye to their husbands’ flaws. Otherwise, they would end up exactly like Chen Momo. This was completely her own doing!

Watching Chen Momo standing all alone at the window, Yang Shunsheng couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity. He assumed she had run out of money and was forced to find a job just to make ends meet. After all, she had been highly dependent on him in the past. She hadn’t worked a single day since graduation, so how could she possibly endure such grueling labor now?

Yang Shunsheng pondered whether he should hide it from his current wife and secretly slip some base credits to his ex-wife. But... he really didn’t have much money left either. If he gave any away, things would become very difficult for him and Huang Yuqing.

While he was still hesitating, Huang Yuqing’s roar rang in his ears. "Yang Shunsheng, don’t even think about sneaking money to Chen Momo behind my back, do you hear me?! She brought all this upon herself!"