Chapter 17 - 16: Acquisition

Chapter 17: Chapter 16: Acquisition

「An hour later.」

Ning He wiped the sweat from her head, poured herself a glass of lemonade, and chugged it down.

The recent wave of over thirty customers, trickling in one after another, had completely bought out all their stock.

Connie stared at the overflowing money box, a little dazed.

"See? I told you we’d sell out, didn’t I?" Ning He said, lifting her chin at Connie.

Connie closed her eyes. The amount of revenue in the box, so far beyond her expectations, made her head spin.

She looked at Ah Huai. "So... should we buy all the ingredients?"

Ah Huai nodded.

Connie took a deep breath to steady herself, then walked with Ning He to the stall that sold chicken soup clay pots. The woman there was already waiting and quickly presented a sorted basket for Connie to inspect.

There was a rich variety of vegetables for the clay pots, plus a full ten pounds of chicken and dozens of eggs. The total was less than four hundred original coins—an absolute steal that would be impossible to get on a normal day.

"Everything looks fine. I’ll just—"

"We’ll take it!"

Before Connie could finish, another voice cut in.

Ning He turned to look. A chef from a place called the Golden Pomelo Restaurant in the Third Ring dining area was striding toward them.

No one had ever encountered a situation like this, and the scene fell silent for a moment.

"What did you say?" Connie asked, uncertain.

The chef curled his lip, but his gaze didn’t land on Connie at all. He jutted his chin at the woman selling the clay pots. "We’ll take this basket of yours. Whatever she’s offering, we’ll add ten percent."

’Oh ho, what arrogance! Someone is actually trying to poach their deal?’

Ning He’s brow twitched. She squinted, sizing up the tall, burly, middle-aged chef, then glanced at the deserted Third Ring dining area. She immediately understood his intentions.

Her stall had taken ninety percent of the dining area’s business today. Now that they had finally sold out, there was no way the competition would let them restock and continue to dominate the market.

As long as they had nothing to sell, customers would naturally settle for second best and eat at the other restaurants.

And then, they would naturally make their money back.

Given their average customer spending, adding an extra ten percent now was just a drop in the bucket, almost negligible.

Ning He grunted under her breath and leaned in to whisper a few words in Connie’s ear. Connie’s expression changed slightly. She bit her lip but finally nodded.

"Auntie, we’ll take these things at the original price."

After speaking, Connie turned to the other stalls in the Fourth Ring area.

"If any of you want to sell your leftover ingredients, we’ll buy them at the original price, too."

The middle-aged chef’s face changed in an instant.

According to the shelter’s dining area regulations, no item could be sold for more than its original price.

In other words, his poaching tactic was now useless.

He shot Connie a glare, snorted coldly, and turned to leave, his face dark.

"Since we agreed on half price, I’ll sell it to you for half price. Do a good job and make us in the Fourth Ring proud. It’ll save us from having to see those guys acting all high and mighty every day." The woman who sold clay pots spat lightly as she watched the middle-aged chef’s retreating back.

Before Connie could say anything, the uncle who sold skewers also walked over, carrying a large basin.

"That’s right! A bunch of snobs who look down on people. I’ve had it with them for a long time. They dress up all fancy and think they’re hot stuff. Steal all their business, see how smug they are then!"

Immediately after, the hot dog and steamed bun vendors also brought over their ingredients, all of them willing to sell to Connie at half price.

Although they didn’t know each other well, they all ran Level 3 Restaurants in the Fourth Ring, and at this moment, they shared a common enemy.

"We can’t sell it anyway, so we might as well give it to you."

"But... won’t you be taking too much of a loss?" Connie hesitated.

"What loss? In the past, whenever this happened, those guys would wait until the very end to lowball us. Their prices were so low it was basically robbery. You’re giving us half price, how could we not be satisfied?" the skewer uncle said, hands on his hips.

"Yeah," Ning He stepped forward and tugged Connie’s hand. "Everyone is being so kind. You should just accept it. Today, let’s give those guys across the way a real taste of envy, jealousy, and hate!"

"However," she changed her tune and smiled at the skewer uncle and the others. "With this much stuff, we definitely won’t be able to handle it all. I wonder if you’d all be willing to lend a hand? For pay, of course! Right, boss?"

"Haha, the little lady wants to hire us as helpers, eh? Sure, I’m just sitting around anyway. Count me in!" the skewer uncle was the first to respond.

The hot dog vendor agreed as well.

Prompted by Ning He, Connie quickly caught on and offered a wage of fifty original coins. The woman, who had originally planned to leave the dining area to meet her family, also agreed to stay and help.

Once they reached an agreement, Connie first took out money to settle the bill, buying all the ingredients along with their food containers and chopsticks, then began to assign tasks.

This job was given to Ning He.

Ning He redistributed all the ingredients.

The tomatoes, pork belly, and other ingredients needed for the meat sauce noodles were given to Ah Huai to handle first. From the remaining vegetables, those that couldn’t be eaten raw—like eggplant, spinach, green beans, and corn—were separated out. The rest were given to the woman and the hot dog uncle to wash and prepare as salad toppings.

There were quite a few eggs. The yolks were set aside to be made into mayonnaise, while the whites were cooked like a thick tamagoyaki, cut into cubes, and used as a salad topping.

The bread and sausages from the hot dog uncle also became new additions to the salad.

The skewer uncle was tasked with toasting the bread until crisp and cutting it into small pieces. He did the same with the sausages.

The task of kneading dough was given to the steamed bun couple.

They had a leftover steamer of buns they hadn’t sold, which Connie generously bought up for everyone to share as a meal. It was the first time in many days that Ning He had tasted meat, and she was so moved she almost cried.

But she didn’t forget to discuss a pay raise with Connie.

After finishing the meat sauce, she rubbed her hands together and gave Connie a sly grin.

"You see, today’s workload is obviously much higher than we originally estimated. Can my processing fee get a little bump?"

She said, carefully pinching her thumb and index finger together to show a small amount.

"Forget a raise," Connie said, shooting her a look. "If we can sell all this, I’ll give you thirty percent of the profit."

Ning He’s face had fallen at the first part of the sentence, but it immediately brightened up again once Connie finished.

"Deal! Just you watch, I’ll definitely sell every last bit of this!"

Ning He had been aching all over from a full day’s work, but now she was as energized as if she’d been shot up with chicken blood, full of drive. By five o’clock, all the ingredients were prepped.

The salad ingredients were especially abundant, with several new varieties added. Each was placed in a large basin and arranged in a long row on the stall. A large new batch of mayonnaise had also been made; they were well-stocked.

But while they were busy, the people in the Third Ring dining area across the way hadn’t been idle either.

Probably realizing that no one wanted to eat piping hot fried chicken or pork cutlets in this heat, they had also started making salads.

Moreover, they had prepared an even wider variety of ingredients, making for a grander display. The only thing was, they didn’t have salad dressing, only the commonly used vinaigrette.

The price of vinegar had always been steep, so the cost of vinaigrette was no less than that of mayonnaise. Plus, the taste of vinegar was popular among the upper class, so it wasn’t necessarily at a disadvantage.

Not only that, but they had also hastily made a conspicuous banner poster that read:

New Salad Special! Twenty original coins per serving. Your choice of chicken, pork, or fish.

Clearly, the Third Ring restaurants had banded together.

They were deliberately setting the same price. The meaning behind that was obvious, wasn’t it?

Faced with this threat, Ning He rubbed her chin.

’Looks like I have no choice. They’re forcing me to use my secret weapon.’

Ning He took out the chili peppers she hadn’t had a chance to use yet. She borrowed the skewer uncle’s grill to roast them until the skins blistered and charred, then peeled them. She mashed the peppers into a paste with chopped scallions, ginger, garlic, and cumin, then poured hot oil over it all and seasoned it with salt and sugar to create a roasted pepper sauce.

The roasted pepper sauce had a unique flavor—smoky, fresh, and spicy. It was completely different from the smooth, mild mayonnaise, but it was something spice lovers would find absolutely irresistible. In this weather, it was also especially appetizing.

You could tell just by looking at the skewer uncle.

He ate his grilled eggplant with the sauce, and it was like a whole new world had opened up to him. The hot dog uncle had a taste and immediately wanted to try it in his own hot dogs.

If they could just add a bit of soy sauce, vinegar, and Sichuan peppercorns to enhance the flavor, the mere thought was enough to make one’s mouth water.

Ning He placed this sauce next to the mayonnaise.

All that was left was to wait.