The NO.1 Food Stall in the Wasteland

Bai Lei showed the picture to Bai Wanwan. "Sis, can you believe this? Shen Lu slapped Mrs. Shen. Look how swollen it is."

Bai Wanwan glanced over from what she was doing. "That’s got to be fake, right? Shen Lu isn’t crazy, why would she hit her adoptive mother?"

"Shen Lan said so in a post."

"Oh?" Bai Wanwan set the car to autopilot, then zoomed in on the picture for a closer look. "That’s not right. Shen Lu’s hands aren’t that big. Her hands are tiny—they haven’t grown since elementary school. Looking at her hands alone, you’d think she was a grade schooler."

"Wow, sis. You know a scary amount about her."

Bai Wanwan rolled her eyes at him. "Of course. She’s my rival. How am I supposed to beat her if I don’t know her inside and out? It’s also because her hands are so small that she couldn’t learn to play a lot of instruments."

That was why Bai Wanwan always outshone Shen Lu in music; every school talent show was her time to shine.

"Shen Lu’s reputation is even more ruined now," Bai Lei said, scrolling through the comments. They were all calling Shen Lu cruel and heartless.

Bai Wanwan shrugged. "So what? Her reputation wasn’t that great even when she was the young miss of the Shen Family."

When the siblings got home, they tried to sneak upstairs, but Mrs. Bai called out and stopped them.

"You two need to clear your schedules for the evening a week from now. You’re going to the Shen Family’s home for a birthday party."

"A birthday party? Whose?"

"It’s for the Shen Family’s young miss who just returned, Shen Lan. You two need to go and make an appearance."

Bai Wanwan pouted. "But I don’t even know Shen Lan."

"They’ve already sent an invitation. It would be rude not to go."

"Fine."

Once they were upstairs, a belated thought struck Bai Wanwan. "Hey, that means Shen Lu’s birthday is coming up soon, too. She and Shen Lan were born on the same day."

Bai Lei lifted the lid of a takeout container and stuffed a large mouthful of fried noodles into his mouth. "Duh."

...

After he finished eating, Xue Can stared at Shen Lu for a few seconds. Seeing that she was completely oblivious, focused solely on making fried rice, he stood up decisively and left.

Shen Lu caught a glimpse of him from the corner of her eye, then looked away.

’I’ll give him the cold shoulder for a few more days. I can’t accept Xue Can’s apology that easily.’

’And what if he doesn’t fall for it? Then so be it. It’s not like I don’t have other options. Worst case, I’ll just hold my nose and work with Bai Lei.’

[DING. Sales detected: Mint Water 70/70, Egg Waffles 60/60, Malatang 60/60, Fried Rice 60/60, Fried Noodles 60/60, Braised Snacks 30/30. Task complete. Reward: one Lottery Ticket.]

Hearing the task completion notification, Shen Lu quickly finished frying the noodles she was working on. She asked Cai Su to watch the stall and left to check on the renovations.

She walked over to the abandoned building, where several people were busy working on the second floor.

Shen Lu walked up the stairs. The first door on the left was the living room she was having renovated.

Unlike the building materials Shen Lu was familiar with from her past life, the workers simply poured a substance resembling a non-Newtonian fluid out of a bucket, roughly shaped it, and once it was fully exposed to the air, it would become incredibly solid.

It was said to be fireproof, shockproof, waterproof, and emitted no harmful gases.

’I have to admit, this kind of building material is a real time-saver,’ she thought. ’No wonder Boss Xu said he could get it done in three days.’

After looking around and seeing that everything was being done according to her instructions with no need for changes, a very satisfied Shen Lu returned to her stall.

On her way, she ran into Zeng Xiaodao.

Shen Lu hadn’t seen him in a while. He seemed to be doing well; the injuries he’d sustained before had healed, leaving only a few faint scars.

"What have you been up to lately? I haven’t seen you around," Shen Lu said, walking over to greet him.

The corner of Zeng Xiaodao’s mouth twitched. "Heard you bought that abandoned building?"

"You’re not here to talk me out of it, are you? Don’t even start. I have my own plans."

"Of course not. Why would I try to talk you out of it? You’ve already bought it." Zeng Xiaodao scratched his chin, then suddenly lowered his voice. "I have something to tell you."

"Hm?" His sudden seriousness felt strange to Shen Lu.

The two of them found a quiet alley. Zeng Xiaodao glanced around to make sure no one was there before he spoke.

"I was the one who blew up the kitchen at Cao’s Noodle House."

Shen Lu’s expression said ’I knew it.’ "I had a feeling," she admitted.

Cao’s Noodle House had been on Gold Street for a long time. If someone had a grudge against him, why would they happen to pick that exact day to act on it?

Fine, let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the person had done it on purpose, hoping to pin the blame on someone else.

If that were the case, then they should have also arranged for some evidence to frame Shen Lu and make the accusation stick.

But they hadn’t done that. In fact, they’d picked a time when Shen Lu had a solid alibi, which meant that wasn’t their goal.

To blow up a kitchen in such a short amount of time, disappear without a trace, and leave Boss Cao still unable to find the culprit—and for that culprit to have a connection to Shen Lu—there was only one possibility: Zeng Xiaodao.

It was just that she hadn’t run into Zeng Xiaodao, so she’d had no way to confirm her suspicions.

Zeng Xiaodao looked a little embarrassed. "I was just trying to get some revenge for you, but it seems like my good intentions backfired..."

"Not at all! You did a great job blowing it up. It was incredibly satisfying."

"No, that’s not it... After Boss Cao transferred ownership of the shop, he took the transfer fee and went to pull some strings."

Shen Lu raised an eyebrow. "To deal with me?"

Zeng Xiaodao nodded. "He knows you’re opening a shop, so he bribed people at the commerce bureau to block your permits."

Shen Lu almost laughed out loud. ’Too bad,’ she thought. ’My permits don’t even go through the commerce bureau. Boss Cao just wasted his money.’

’No wonder he was so solicitous that day. He really was plotting against me.’

"I’m not afraid. He can pull strings, and so can I. Who doesn’t have a few connections?" Shen Lu, of course, wasn’t going to mention the system, so she just came up with a random excuse.

"He’s dead set on taking you down. I’m afraid he might have other tricks up his sleeve."

"I’ll be careful."

Shen Lu wasn’t too worried about Boss Cao; he couldn’t cause any major trouble for her anyway. "It’s rare to see you, and you’ve helped me so much. Come on, let me treat you to something to eat."

The thought of the delicious food at Shen Lu’s stall made Zeng Xiaodao’s mouth water; he’d been craving it for a long time.

He wiped the corner of his mouth, then remembered there was one more important thing he hadn’t told Shen Lu.

"Oh, right. That nutrient liquid. Did you drink it?"

"What nutrient liquid?"

"The pharmaceutical companies have been throwing out expired nutrient liquid at the junkyard recently, right? Did you go pick any up?"

"No, there were too many people fighting over it, there’s no way I could’ve gotten any. But Wang Daguo gave me one." Shen Lu pulled out the pink tube of nutrient liquid. "It’s right here."

Zeng Xiaodao swatted the nutrient liquid out of Shen Lu’s hand. With a SMASH, the glass vial shattered, and pink liquid spilled all over the ground.

"There’s something wrong with that nutrient liquid! You can’t drink it!"

Shen Lu hadn’t expected Zeng Xiaodao to have such a violent reaction. "What’s going on?"

Zeng Xiaodao pressed his lips together, his expression incredibly grave. After a long moment, he let out a heavy sigh and began to explain everything from the beginning.