The NO.1 Food Stall in the Wasteland novel Chapter 144

Chapter 144: Chapter 144: "Boss, You Didn’t Buy a Defective Product, Did You?

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.

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."

...