Chapter 35: How Did the Boss Conjure Up So Many Things Overnight?!
“Auntie, there’s a group tailing us from behind. Looks like Mad Dog’s people.”
Long Ya had sharp eyes. Keeping watch from the rear of the formation, she spotted the crew shadowing them toward the Chinese Restaurant, then jogged up to the front to report in a low whisper.
Though those men weren’t wearing red armbands, their builds matched up with the thugs who had come looking for trouble yesterday.
Scouting ahead while staying vigilant for peripheral dangers, Long Qian replied, “Pay them no mind. If they try anything, we’ll deal with it then.”
“Got it.”
Long Ya gave an affirmative grunt, drifting back toward the middle-rear of the group, keeping a close eye on the pursuers as she walked.
Their strategy had been spot on.
Mad Dog’s crew were vindictive dogs to the bone. Having choked on their own medicine at the boss’s hands yesterday, they were bound to nurse a bitter grudge.
Long Qian and the others trusted the boss’s abilities implicitly; there was no way in hell those scoundrels could ever step foot inside the Chinese Restaurant’s white light again. Thus, the most perilous stretch was the journey between the city gates and that light.
If Mad Dog’s thugs wanted to vent their rage and reclaim some face, they would target the scavengers heading to the Chinese Restaurant.
By banding together into a massive convoy, the thugs were forced to weigh whether they could actually win a fight—yesterday’s gang beatdown had been the best possible lesson.
Long Ya wasn’t the only one who noticed the tails.
Having clawed their way through the apocalypse for all these years, situational awareness had long become second nature.
Plenty of scavengers spotted the crew trailing in their wake.
“Heh, they really did tag along.”
“Tsk, tsk. Look at ’em—they don’t even dare get close. Bullies who fold against real grit. Didn’t get their asses kicked hard enough yesterday?”
“There are so many of us! If they come over, we’ll beat the snot out of them!” Lilin brandished her baseball bat from within the crowd, her voice laced with excitement.
Holding her hand, Lina chimed in, “Yeah!”
It was quite a novel sensation.
In the past, ordinary folks gave gangs a wide berth.
Syndicates were ruthless, and the wastes beyond the walls were their personal hunting grounds. If you scavenged anything decent, you had to tuck it away and hide it, terrified it would be seized in a heartbeat. Every single survivor had a history of taking the long way around whenever a gang appeared.
If a clash broke out, you spent days jumping at shadows, terrified of bloody retribution.
Now, however, the dynamic had completely flipped.
Standing united, they forced Mad Dog’s pack to hover far in the distance, afraid to close the gap.
Those thugs couldn’t find a single opening for revenge.
There is strength in numbers. Everyone had believed that before the apocalypse.
After the fall… not so much.
Once scraping by on brute force and theft became the norm, people lost all faith in “solidarity.”
Yet today, they were beginning to believe in those words once again.
Someone rubbed their hands together eagerly: “Heh, I missed out on the one-pot stew yesterday. Today I’m definitely busting my back to earn enough for a bowl!”
“Huh? You haven’t tried it yet? Man, the flavor is out of this world. I’ve never tasted cabbage that savory in my life.”
“So what if I haven’t? The roasted potatoes are amazing too! If you think they’re no good, don’t buy any today!”
“Uh, I never said they weren’t good! Everything’s delicious!”
“Just watch me rake in the City Coins today—I’m getting a roasted potato, a roasted sweet potato, and the one-pot stew!”
“Ha! Can your stomach even handle all that?”
“Course it can! Didn’t you notice the boss eats once in the morning and once at noon? What’s wrong with following her lead?!”
Chatting away, the convoy followed the familiar trail toward the white light.
Yet upon reaching the perimeter, the entire procession ground to a halt.
…What was going on?
Long Qian froze at the front of the pack.
“What happened?”
Those behind craned their necks, bewildered by the sudden stop.
The moment their eyes took in the scene within the white light, they froze just as hard.
Wait? Where did the familiar stall go?
The blue tricycle had vanished. In its place stood… a wooden building?!
And what were all these long benches?
Their practiced familiarity was wiped away in an instant, replaced by round-eyed wonder.
“Is this… a house the boss put up?”
“What a gorgeous little cabin!”
Tentatively, they crossed the boundary into the white light.
“It is! Look at the sign!” someone pointed toward the roof. “It still says Chinese Restaurant!”
Four bold characters hung proudly across the upper eaves, while the familiar “Restaurant Rules” placard was posted right beside the glass double doors.
On either side of the roof hung a plump, round lantern glowing in warm orange.
Beside the doorway stood a… flower basket?
“Where’s the roaster? Where did the roaster go? The boss didn’t stop selling roasted potatoes, did she?!”
“Are these benches… for us to sit on?”
“The boundary of this white light seems to have expanded a whole ring!”
“Has the boss opened up yet…?”
“It smells incredible. Do you smell that? It’s so fragrant!”
The crowd stepped fully into the light, lingering in the open clearing before the Chinese Restaurant, murmuring in hushed excitement.
Given the boss’s miraculous power, their hearts were filled with deep deference. Facing this timber lodge that had materialized out of nowhere, no one dared barge inside first.
A peculiar reverence held them back.
Hearing the commotion outside, Ling Jing stepped away from the skewer pot and walked to the entrance, greeting the morning’s first wave of patrons.
A few minutes earlier, estimating their arrival time, she had submerged the first batch of skewers into the simmering broth; they were just about cooked through.
The entire dining hall was steeped in the rich, spicy fragrance of Malatang skewers.
If she hadn’t stuffed herself silly last night, the smell alone would have had her drooling buckets.
Seeing that the crowd showed no sign of entering, Ling Jing pushed open the glass doors and stood in the doorway. “We’re open. Please, come on in.”
“Boss… this building is…?”
“The Chinese Restaurant has upgraded,” Ling Jing explained. “We’ve added Malatang to the menu today. Feel free to give it a try.”
“Then… are there still roasted potatoes?”
“Yes. Roasted potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and the one-pot stew are all available.” Ling Jing pointed inside. “You’ll see them right as you walk through the door. Pay at the entrance, help yourselves at the roaster, and the one-pot stew is set on the other side.”
She swept an open palm toward the outdoor seating. “You may sit out here to rest and enjoy your roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes. Over there is the Item Exchange Box; new exchangeable categories are marked on the sign, so feel free to check them out.”
Consider that the introductory tour.
“Whoa! That’s incredible!”
Taking in the sweeping changes, the crowd erupted into chatter.
“Boss, this building… how did you put it up overnight? That’s insane!”
“These benches look sturdy as hell—nothing like the crap sold inside the city! Did you make them yourself, Boss?”
“The boss possesses miraculous powers—what are you busy prying for? Boss… the potato prices didn’t go up, did they?”
Listening to their eager banter, Ling Jing smiled, offered a warm “Welcome,” and turned back inside the wooden lodge.
The survivors in the clearing exchanged glances, then followed Long Qian’s crew at the front, stepping gingerly into the Chinese Restaurant.
What… was all this?
It looked like a charming wooden cottage from the outside, but the interior was a whole other world!
Just as the boss had said, the familiar cash box sat right on the counter by the entrance.
Beside the cash box was a porcelain cat continuously waving its paw.
A peculiar, charming little novelty.
The roaster and the display case for the stew were set in plain view. On the wall behind the cashier counter hung a large signboard displaying… a menu?
[Menu
- Roasted Potato —————— 4 City Coins (Purges 1% toxins)
- Roasted Sweet Potato —————— 6 City Coins (Purges 2% toxins)
- One-Pot Hodgepodge Stew —————— 15 City Coins (For 24 hours after consumption: Physical strength +5%, body temperature stabilized, mental resistance +10%. Stew Attribute: Doubled effects of other foods consumed within 30 minutes.)
- Pickled White Radish —————— 1 City Coin / serving (For 3 hours after consumption: Inhaled toxin absorption reduced by 10%. Pickle Attribute: Consuming for 3 consecutive days increases reflex speed by 2%.)
- Malatang Skewers —————— 0.5 City Coins / skewer (Every 10 skewers consumed converts 1% of internal toxins into energy. Malatang Attribute: Moderately increases neural reflex speed for 30 minutes after consumption.)
Note: For items 1, 2, 3, and 4, please pay before serving yourselves. For item 5, settle payment based on the final skewer count after dining. Please pay honestly. This is a small business; no credit under any circumstances.]
The prices hadn’t gone up at all!
Every dish’s attributes were laid out with crystalline clarity!
These Malatang skewers smelled so intoxicating, and they were this cheap?!
Converts toxins into… energy?
Meaning it translated poison straight into physical stamina and focus?
Several patrons craned their necks curiously toward the new Malatang skewer table inside the dining hall.
One look, and their cravings went through the roof!
A medley of skewered vegetables rolled merrily within the chili-slicked broth. The bubbling simmer carried a wave of tongue-numbing, spicy aroma straight into their nostrils.
Early in the morning, on empty bellies that had starved all night, drool pooled shamelessly beneath their face cloths.
Heavens above… How had the boss managed to conjure up so many things in a single night?
Before they left yesterday, this place looked completely different.
The boss truly had to be a deity!
A divine goddess of culinary arts!
