Chapter 54 - 50: Cold Wave

Chapter 54: Chapter 50: Cold Wave

The fee for the food tour was unexpectedly refunded to her. Feeling flush, Ning He splurged on two sets of thick clothes, a hat, gloves, and snow boots, then returned to her apartment laden with shopping bags.

The first thing she did when she got home was to check her gains for the day.

The collection progress for the encyclopedia displayed by the system was:

47/3000

Reputation Value:

184/1,000,000

The numbers were about what Ning He had expected, but the experience points were much lower. She opened the encyclopedia entries for a few newly collected species to investigate and found that the collection progress for each was low, ranging from only 20% to 60%.

The system’s scanner had an effective radius of twenty meters, and each scan required time to complete. The tour vehicle had been moving too fast for the system to finish collecting the species’ information, which explained the low numbers.

Not only did she receive far fewer experience points for each new species, but she also failed to trigger the high-completion-rate reward. The pollution-free planting soil in her warehouse remained at 40 cubic meters.

Although the number of encyclopedia entries was most important to Ning He, experience points were also very useful. They could be exchanged for exclusive ingredients and seasonings in the system store, and reaching a high enough value could even upgrade the system’s functions.

Perhaps some pleasant surprises awaited her.

As for the pollution-free planting soil, it wasn’t very useful to Ning He without the growth-accelerating properties of the black mud. Still, as one of the world’s scarcest resources, it was bound to come in handy one day.

In any case, as long as conditions permitted, Ning He still preferred to collect each species completely.

Besides, Macken had already agreed to her terms, so she would have plenty of opportunities.

Moreover, joining the Black Panther Company meant she could leave the city for free from now on, saving her a huge expense. She could finally afford to live a little more extravagantly.

Ning He went upstairs, harvested over twenty pounds of vegetables to store in the fridge, and checked on the status of the rice wine in the temperature-controlled box. Then, she went to the grocery store and bought a large flat of eggs all at once, determined to experience the feeling of "egg freedom."

After dinner, Ning He took a short nap. Her alarm went off at one-thirty. Rubbing her eyes and yawning, she got dressed, washed up, and headed out to meet up with Connie and Ah Huai.

Lately, Connie had been in a great mood because both the cafeteria stall and their street vending business were going smoothly. She hadn’t worn her usual scowl in a long time. Today, however, she seemed to have something weighing on her mind. Ning He told a few of her signature bad jokes, but Connie only managed a weak twitch of her lips in response. Usually, she would have at least teased her for them.

"What’s wrong with her?" Ning He couldn’t help but scratch her head, turning to Ah Huai to ask.

Ah Huai sighed. "The lease on the noodle shop is up. The landlord won’t renew and wants us to move out."

"So just move. It’s not like the location was that great anyway. Besides, you can’t even operate the business right now, so you’ll save some money."

The words were barely out of Ning He’s mouth when Connie frowned and shook her head. "No. That shop was passed down from my father. It was his life’s work. I can’t be the one to lose it!"

For once, even Ah Huai’s brows furrowed. "We’d support you if there were any room to negotiate, Connie. But the landlord is dead set on kicking us out. He’s hiking the rent to an outrageous price. You’re not seriously thinking of agreeing to it, are you?"

Connie bit her lip and said nothing, but her face was a picture of stubbornness.

"Um... how’s it going with collecting the money for that fine from before?" Ning He asked in a low voice.

"At this rate, we should have it all in three months."

Connie’s tone softened slightly. She was truly grateful to Ning He for her help with this. Even though the whole incident had started because of Ning He, she had more than done enough to make amends.

But Ning He’s face filled with sorrow. "So does that mean you two will be going back to run the noodle shop in three months?"

Connie was stunned.

Ning He continued with a sorrowful expression, "Honestly, it’ll be incredibly difficult to find two partners as capable and perfectly in sync as you guys. If you go back... never mind the impact on the business, I’d probably work myself to death within a few days."

"We... well... I..." Connie opened her mouth, but couldn’t find the words for an answer.

The noodle shop was important to her, but working with Ning He earned her much more money.

She needed money.

As Connie hesitated, Ning He quickly shot Ah Huai a meaningful look. Ah Huai immediately understood.

"He’s right," Ah Huai chimed in. "Since we agreed to this partnership, we shouldn’t just quit halfway. Things are going smoothly at the cafeteria stall, and adding in the money from street vending, we’re earning more than the noodle shop ever did. Ding Xiang and the others really need money right now. Between the noodle shop and that, what do you think would be more important to the old man? You know the answer."

A flicker of indecision crossed Connie’s eyes, but she still couldn’t make up her mind.

"Isn’t there any other way? That’s the storefront our father left us. He raised us with that shop. I really can’t just let it disappear."

It was rare to see such a sad expression on Connie’s face; her attachment to the noodle shop was clearly very deep.

"It doesn’t have to disappear. Why not just move it to the academy cafeteria?"

Connie looked at Ning He in astonishment. "Wh-what do you mean?"

"It’s simple," Ning He said with a grin. "Once we successfully upgrade the stall, we’ll just hang up the sign for ’Golden Meat Sauce’. Then your family’s shop will be passed down, right?"

"Th-that’s not possible! This is your stall. How can we hang up our sign?" Connie refused instinctively.

"Why not? I don’t care what sign we hang. What I care about is the two of you. A sign is nothing. My only fear is that you’ll look down on my little stall and won’t want to stay," Ning He said.

Connie’s heart warmed at her words.

It was a rare thing to receive such trust and affirmation from someone. And their partnership over the past period had indeed been a very pleasant one.

’If we can hang our family’s sign in the Mecha Academy’s cafeteria... the old man would be so proud if he knew.’

"Thank you. I’ll think about it seriously."

Connie had clearly been moved. With a little more persuasion from Ah Huai, the matter would be settled.

Ning He secretly breathed a sigh of relief. ’If I lose their help, it’ll be a huge hassle for me.’

’I have to keep them on my side, no matter what. They need to become my right and left hands.’

With this in mind, Ning He casually dangled another juicy carrot in front of Connie.

"Mm, once we upgrade to the third-level, I’ll teach you some of my specialty dishes. By then, you should be able to pass the Third-level Chef exam."

Just as she expected, both Connie and Ah Huai showed expressions of incredulous delight upon hearing this.

"Are... are you serious?"

"Of course. I don’t want to work myself to death all alone. Once you two learn, I can slack off a bit."

Ning He grinned smugly, as if she were secretly hatching a brilliant plan.

But to Connie and Ah Huai, this was like a pie falling from heaven.

They were the ones who were really getting the better end of the deal!

"Since you’ve put it like that, I’d be a fool not to accept. I’ll take care of terminating the lease; it won’t affect the stall’s business. From now on, the two of us are with you."

A smile finally broke out on Connie’s face.

Ah Huai’s eyes were also filled with anticipation.

"Hahaha, great! I promise, we all have a bright future ahead of us!" Ning He declared, patting her chest with a confident smile.

That day, after the breakfast shift ended, Ning He went straight home and began developing new breakfast items for the next month to ensure that "bright future."

She also called over her secret collaborators, the "seven dwarfs," to act as her taste testers.