The NO.1 Food Stall in the Wasteland

Ye Fan jumped up in shock. He sensed it again, carefully this time, and confirmed it was true. He was really about to have a breakthrough.

He just didn’t know if it would be today, tomorrow, or some time after that.

He was currently at Level 3 Peak, and this breakthrough would allow him to step into the Fourth Level Initial Stage.

Advancing from a level he’d been stuck at for so long was a cause for both celebration and concern.

"What the hell is there to worry about? As long as Boss Shen is around, my Spiritual Sea won’t be a problem." After saying that, Ye Fan calmed down.

’That’s right. As long as Boss Shen is around, there’ll be a steady supply of her food. Even eating it just once a day is enough to soothe my Spiritual Sea.’

「Meanwhile」

In an illicit underground clinic, Zeng Xiaodao’s eyes snapped open inside a nutrient tank.

The machine monitoring his vital signs let out a piercing alarm, drawing a nurse over. Upon finding the patient awake, she immediately notified the doctor.

Soon, four or five people surrounded Zeng Xiaodao. One of them, a man with salt-and-pepper hair, pulled down his mask, his gaze probing. "Zeng Xiaodao, do you recognize me?"

Zeng Xiaodao’s pupils shifted. His gaze seemed to stick to the man’s face, and as if in a daze, he remained unresponsive for a long time.

The man frowned slightly, readjusted his mask, and said to the attending physician, "It seems he’s only opened his eyes. His consciousness isn’t quite clear yet."

The attending physician reviewed a series of data readouts and nodded in agreement. "All kinds of side effects can occur after severe trauma. Temporary amnesia is perfectly normal."

"About when will he recover?"

"It could be as short as three to five days, or as long as ten days to two weeks. It won’t be too long. After all, Superpower Users have better physical constitutions, and his recovery will be even faster since his superpower is body strengthening."

"Good. Keep a close eye on him. Help him recover as soon as possible."

"Understood, Second-in-Command."

The man known as the Second-in-Command walked out of the intensive care unit, removed his mask and protective suit, and asked his assistant, "Have you found out how Zeng Xiaodao actually managed to escape from the corporate park?"

The assistant replied in a low voice, "Not yet. The police haven’t traced anything to Zeng Xiaodao, either."

"That kid sure has some damn good luck." The Second-in-Command gave an enigmatic smile. "I wonder what he actually found inside that pharmaceutical company."

"When he was brought here, his clothes and equipment were missing. Should we question the people who brought him?"

"No need to rush. We don’t want to leave a trail for anyone who might be looking. We’ll wait until Zeng Xiaodao’s mind is clear."

The Second-in-Command was quite pleased that Zeng Xiaodao had managed to both wreak havoc at the pharmaceutical company and escape with his life. Now that he was past the most dangerous period, waking up was just a matter of time.

He was very good at waiting.

...

Shen Lu was enthusiastically testing Little Mantis’s knife skills.

Just as she’d expected, Little Mantis’s knife skills were limited to slicing and dicing, or breaking down meat into larger chunks. However, it had one great advantage: it could chop through bone!

Give it a bone cleaver, and it could perfectly chop through any bone exactly as Shen Lu instructed.

"Excellent! Excellent!" Shen Lu clapped her hands. "Now we have someone to do all the bone chopping."

As for its cooking skills, Little Mantis was currently limited to simple dishes.

For instance, it could perfectly handle a simple stir-fried bok choy that only required salt, producing a dish that tasted just as good as Shen Lu’s. But it failed at anything even slightly more complex.

All in all, it could only perform procedurally simple kitchen tasks.

This realization sparked endless fighting spirit in Cai Su.

’This means I still have a great chance to become Shen Lu’s most capable right-hand woman!’

With Little Mantis on the team, Shen Lu’s workload became much lighter. However, something that gave her a major headache happened soon after.

Halfway through stir-frying a dish, Little Mantis suddenly froze!

Shen Lu rushed over to take its place and finish the last batch of stir-fried bok choy. After a quick inspection, she realized its time was up—Little Mantis had automatically entered sleep mode.

It needed ten hours to recharge, and all you had to do was plug it in.

Shen Lu had Wang Daguo come over and lend a hand. The two of them pushed Little Mantis into the utility room, found the charging cable on its back, pulled it out, and plugged it into an outlet.

"It really doesn’t last long," Wang Daguo remarked. "Boss, you don’t think you bought a defective model, do you?"

"I doubt it." Shen Lu wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Alright, that’s enough talk. We open for business in less than an hour."

Shen Lu returned to the stove to continue cooking, already calculating in her head how to make better use of Little Mantis’s four hours. ’Next time, I can’t have it kneading dough for the buns. That wasted a good forty or fifty minutes. It’s much more efficient to use all its time for meal prep.’

[DING~ Mission issued: Sell 270 Braised Pork Set Meals and 170 Kung Pao Chicken Set Meals, achieve a total revenue of 60,000 yuan, and maintain a customer satisfaction rating of three stars or higher. Time limit: eight hours.]

[DING~ If the Host completes the mission within four hours with a customer satisfaction rating of Four Stars or higher, an additional reward will be granted. Failure to complete the mission within the specified time will result in the cancellation of the additional reward. There is no penalty.]

It’s here!

The bonus mission she had bitterly failed to complete last time was back!

’This time, I’m definitely going to get my hands on that bonus reward!’

With all the dishes ready to go, Shen Lu went out to the dining area to do a final check on the tables and tableware. Everything was spotless.

She had Wang Daguo open the main doors, then straightened her collar and headed to the front counter, full of vigor.

The number of customers coming to split meals had been on the rise. As soon as the doors opened, a crowd of office workers came in for lunch.

Shen Lu couldn’t help but feel secretly smug about it. As more people came to her restaurant, correspondingly fewer people went to eat at Boss Cao’s noodle stall.

’I wonder how Boss Cao is handling the situation.’

Just as Shen Lu had guessed, Boss Cao was having a very hard time accepting the reality of his shrinking customer base.

At first, when only a few people—or even a dozen—stopped showing up, he didn’t mind. In fact, he thought it was for the best. He only prepared a limited amount of noodles each day anyway, and there were always people at the end of the rush who waited in a long line only to be turned away.

And those people would complain, point fingers, and grumble incessantly.

Boss Cao found it incredibly annoying, but he couldn’t afford to lose his temper. After all, his noodle stall’s only competitive advantage was its price. When it came to flavor and culinary skill, he was no match for Shen Lu.

What if he retorted, and other customers took offense?

But soon, he made a shocking discovery: he wasn’t selling out of noodles anymore!

What did this mean?

It meant fewer customers were coming to his noodle stall!

"Tsk, this tastes awful," a customer at one table muttered. "If his noodles weren’t cheap and filling, I really wouldn’t bother coming."

"Why don’t we bring a couple of Insect Cakes to Little Deer Cuisine tomorrow?"

"Huh? What’s the deal with that?"

"You don’t know? You can split meals at Little Deer Cuisine. The two of us can buy one set meal to share, and if we bring two Insect Cakes, we’ll definitely be full. That’s what Li Zhen and his friends have been doing."

...