Chapter 69: Two Uninvited Guests
Shen Lu yawned and ignored Bai Wanwan’s question.
What kind of suggestive words were those? Anyone who didn’t know better would think she and Bai Lei had some kind of ambiguous relationship.
Heaven only knew what that brother-and-sister pair were imagining at home.
After dishing out the braised snacks, Shen Lu started a pot of rice. She heard faint footsteps outside and guessed it must be Cai Su.
She glanced out the window, and sure enough, it was her.
Shen Lu opened the door and said to Cai Su, "We might be a little late today. I still have a few things to finish up."
"That’s okay. How about I go on ahead? Boss Shen, you can come over when you’re done."
"Have you eaten breakfast?"
Cai Su nodded. She had eaten an Insect Cake that morning.
Perhaps because she had eaten so well last night, this morning’s Insect Cake was especially hard to swallow. Cai Su had forced it down, all while silently berating herself.
’Xiao Lang’s health hasn’t improved, yet here I am, starting to get picky with my food. This is just so wrong.’
Shen Lu glanced at Cai Su’s sallow and gaunt face and invited her in.
"I just made a batch of braised snacks. Here, you can help me see if they’re salty enough."
’It was just an excuse.’ She knew Cai Su wouldn’t accept it for no reason. Only with a proper justification would she feel at ease.
Cai Su didn’t suspect a thing. She took the chicken leg and bit into it.
The chicken was tender, juicy, and bursting with savory flavor. She had only meant to take a single bite, but before she knew it, she had eaten the entire chicken leg clean.
Cai Su was stunned.
’Boss Shen’s cooking was just too good. No wonder her business was getting better every day.’
’If she were a customer, one taste of Shen Lu’s food would be enough to make her want to come back a second time, a third time...’
"I’m so sorry, Boss Shen. I ate the whole chicken leg," Cai Su said, embarrassed.
"I can’t very well sell a chicken leg you’ve already taken a bite out of to a customer," Shen Lu said with a smile. "How was the flavor? Do you think there’s anything that needs improvement?"
"It was delicious!" The alluring, meaty aroma still seemed to linger in her mouth. Cai Su swallowed hard. "I don’t think it needs any improvement at all."
"Good."
Shen Lu nodded. "From now on, you’ll have to help me taste-test often. It’s called quality control."
’O-Often?’
’Does this mean I can eat Boss Shen’s food regularly?’
Cai Su couldn’t control her expression; her eyes lit up with brilliant joy.
"I... I’ll be sure to taste-test very carefully!"
Fueled by the chicken leg, Cai Su felt boundless energy. She grabbed her scavenging tools and marched off to the junkyard, full of vigor.
"Boss Shen, don’t rush! I’ll be sure to find lots and lots of junk for you!"
Shen Lu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She activated the Good and Evil Judgment Device and took a look. The heart above Cai Su’s head seemed to have turned an even deeper red.
Shen Lu stroked her chin and asked the system, "Cai Su has so much goodwill toward me. Does that mean her loyalty to me is very high?"
[To a certain extent, you could interpret it that way, but it is not the only factor.]
Shen Lu: "Are you saying she could still possibly betray me?"
[Host, human nature cannot be generalized. It is subject to change at any time.]
[However, Cai Su is unlikely to betray you, Host.]
Shen Lu: "She’d better not even think about it. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee what I might do."
Once the rice was done steaming, Shen Lu blanched the chicken legs, placed them in the braising liquid, and then headed out to the junkyard.
The highly motivated Cai Su had already collected quite a pile. Shen Lu went over and broke the parts down one by one, searching for valuable metals inside.
Today’s haul was average: a thumb-sized copper block, a few thin silver flakes, and two tungsten wires.
Seeing it was about time, Shen Lu called Cai Su back to prepare the ingredients for the stall.
The two of them bustled about for half an hour, moving some of the ingredients onto the food cart and leaving the rest in the rented room to be retrieved later.
[DING-DONG~ New quest issued: Please sell 70 cups of mint water, 60 egg waffles, 60 portions of malatang, 60 portions of fried rice, 60 portions of fried noodles, and 30 portions of braised snacks.]
Wang Daguo arrived a little late today, panting for breath.
"Sorry, Boss Shen. Had a lot going on today."
"It’s fine. Have there been more deaths lately?" Shen Lu asked.
Wang Daguo nodded. "Yeah. I don’t know what’s going on, but where I live, two households died just last night. Two whole families, about ten people, all dead in one night."
Shen Lu fell silent for a moment. "They haven’t found the cause yet?"
"They have a few leads." Wang Daguo started pushing the food cart. "After all, several thousand people have died in just over ten days. Everyone in the Lower City District is in a panic, so the higher-ups are doing their best to investigate and calm people down."
"What were the results?" Cai Su couldn’t help but chime in.
"They’re saying people ate the wrong thing and were poisoned." Wang Daguo gave a bitter smile. "The higher-ups are urging us not to eat unlicensed Insect Cakes. They say we should only eat the officially sold ones, which are safe and non-toxic, and that the ones from unlicensed workshops are poisonous."
"But the officially sold Insect Cakes are such a bad deal. For the same price, you could get two more pounds’ worth somewhere else," Cai Su complained with a frown, clearly disagreeing with the official solution.
’It sounded more like an excuse cooked up to fool the lower class, a way to shirk their own responsibility and blame the victims for this large-scale incident, claiming they brought it on themselves.’
Shen Lu wasn’t a native of this place. Even though she had killed a few bad guys and most of the people here were rather cold, hearing these things still made her feel a tightness in her chest.
’Those people high up, the self-proclaimed ’upper-class citizens,’ truly don’t see the people of the Lower City District as human.’
’You could tell just from the way they collected the corpses here to use as fertilizer. To them, the residents of the Lower City District were nothing more than spare nutrients to sustain their own lives.’
"Sigh." Wang Daguo sighed, pushed the food cart into place, and then went to move Fu Cheng.
Payment would still be settled in the afternoon. Wang Daguo left in such a hurry he didn’t even wait to say a proper goodbye to Shen Lu.
The sun was especially harsh today. Shen Lu shaded her eyes, looking up at the glaring light, and felt a strange sadness in her heart.
’If only I could do something.’
’But thinking about it, what could she do besides handing out some free supplies? Nothing.’
’But that would only treat the symptoms, not the root cause,’ Shen Lu thought. ’Besides, she didn’t have the resources to give away that much.’
’Forget it. When you’re poor, you can only look after yourself. If she wanted to save the world, she had to get rich first.’
The Little Deer Cuisine stall opened for business. Drawn by the aroma, the "hungry bugs" lined up in an orderly fashion, trading their Star Coins for delicious food.
Watching the satisfied looks on her customers’ faces, Shen Lu’s previously gloomy mood gradually began to lift.
But soon, the arrival of two uninvited guests soured her mood again.
A semi-old black sedan pulled up beside the stall. The window rolled down, revealing a young woman with delicate makeup.
Her voice was not too loud and not too soft—just loud enough for Shen Lu to hear.
"Oh my god, Shen Lu, it really is you!"