Chapter 241: "Boss, you’re really amazing.

Shen Lu broke into a genuinely sincere smile. "Fu Cheng, you’re amazing."

’She had thrown a little tantrum at him, but Fu Cheng treated her the same as always. He really was a very, very good friend.’

When the young woman acted cute, her voice became impossibly soft, as if she were holding a piece of candy in her mouth, sweet enough to leave him dazed.

Fu Cheng froze for a moment before his heart began to pound wildly in his chest. A little flustered, he maneuvered his wheelchair back, trying to put some distance between them so she wouldn’t notice anything was off.

But Shen Lu had already sensed it. She stood up and leaned in.

"Fu Cheng, are you feeling unwell?"

"It’s a little stuffy." Fu Cheng’s words came out in a rush. "I’m going to head to the backyard for a bit."

"Okay. If you start feeling really bad, be sure to let me know."

Fu Cheng fled to the backyard. As the cool breeze washed over him, the heat in his flushed cheeks finally began to subside.

’He was afraid of her giving him the cold shoulder, but he was also afraid of her being sweet and playful. He couldn’t handle either scenario.’

Now that someone had solved her problem, the great weight on Shen Lu’s shoulders lifted.

Humming a song, she went to the back kitchen, changed into her chef’s uniform, and started making salted scallions with her staff.

Shen Lu redeemed the other ingredients for the salted scallions from the store—things like ginger, garlic, onions, pears, and chili powder.

It was fine to use ingredients from the store for these, since the main ingredient—the scallions—was locally sourced. When mixed, the dish would have a negligible effect on soothing one’s Spiritual Sea.

To keep up appearances, she put on a show of going into the pantry, emerging with two large baskets of ingredients.

"Boss, when did we get this stuff in the pantry?" Xin Yu asked bluntly.

Shen Lu smiled without speaking. Xin Yu got the hint and gave her a thumbs-up. "Boss, you’re amazing."

The rest: ??? How is she amazing? Quit it with the cryptic talk!

Song Zhigao glanced at the pantry door, then at the contents of the baskets, and pressed his lips together tightly.

He’d been the one cleaning the pantry for the past few days, so he knew its contents like the back of his hand. He was certain he had never seen the things Shen Lu brought out.

According to their agreement, he should have reported this to Master Luo. This time, however, Song Zhigao was reluctant to compose the text.

He took out all his pent-up frustration on the radishes. He held down the shredder with one hand and, with a radish in the other, began moving his hand up and down with lightning speed.

In less than an hour, he had finished shredding all the radishes.

Shen Lu was shocked. ’Was that even humanly possible?’

’Wasn’t he afraid he’d grate his own hand?’

Shen Lu was in charge of the seasoning. After adding all the ingredients, she left the task of tossing and coating to Deng Ying, Shu Meng, and Cai Su. She then turned to deal with the large green onions.

The large green onions were also for a cold dish, but the preparation method was different from the scallions.

They had to be julienned, soaked in ice water, and then tossed with seasonings.

Little Mantis was excellent at this task. As a Second Level kitchen robot, the strips it cut were perfectly uniform in thickness. Shen Lu was very, very, very, very satisfied.

Just as she finished preparing the two cold dishes, the vegetables Fu Cheng had asked Li Zexing to procure on short notice arrived.

The person who delivered them was Li Zexing’s agent, Qin Shuangshu. The look he gave Shen Lu was indescribably complex.

’He thought that as a celebrity agent, his job was to secure investments, book gigs, and generate publicity for his client. He never in a million years thought he’d be helping his client secure vegetables.’

’And to a small restaurant in the Lower City District, of all places.’

"Thank you," Shen Lu said politely. "When I have time, I’ll thank Li Zexing in person."

’Even though I wasn’t the one who asked him for the favor, I’m the one benefiting. I should go and thank him personally.’

’Besides, I’ve already used his name to drum up a lot of business.’

’He’s so useful. I think I’ll go fleece this sheep a little more.’

Qin Shuangshu desperately wanted to say "no need," but he couldn’t ultimately make decisions for Li Zexing. He could only manage a muffled grunt. Once the vegetables were unloaded, he got in his car and left.

Li Zexing was still filming on location outside the city. Qin Shuangshu couldn’t rest easy and had to go supervise in person.

Qin Shuangshu had delivered only two types of vegetables: water celery and lettuce.

Both could be grown hydroponically, had high yields, and were easy to obtain.

With four side dishes finally secured, Shen Lu felt a sense of relief. She rolled up her sleeves to cook, film a video, and then post it online.

[DING! New Mission: Sell 760 Braised Pork Belly combos, 660 Kung Pao Chicken combos, and 320 Steamed Fish Head with Diced Hot Peppers combos. Achieve total revenue of 170,000 Star Coins and a customer satisfaction rating of three stars or above. Time limit: eight hours.]

Shen Lu glanced at the mission and let out a long sigh.

’The mission requirements are really getting tougher and tougher.’

Every day, the mission required her to sell nearly a hundred more combos than the day before, but her customer traffic wasn’t increasing to match. The gap was widening at a steady rate.

It had been ten days or so, and the several Fragrant Sky fast-food chain stores were still running their low-price promotions.

’How are they able to hold out for so long?’

’They must have really deep pockets.’

Mr. Sun and General Manager Chen, of that supposedly deep-pocketed business, were having similar thoughts.

Fragrant Sky’s business was booming, but in reality, they were losing money every day.

The losses were heavier in the first two days, and only slightly less after that.

On average, they were losing about 20,000 Star Coins a day.

And that was just the on-paper loss. The two hadn’t even factored in the hidden costs.

"Where the hell did this thorn in our side, this Shen woman, come from? Isn’t she some fake rich girl who was kicked out to the Lower City District? Where does she get so much money to burn?"

Mr. Sun truly didn’t get it. He had researched Shen Lu’s background over and over, including the people she associated with. He had even investigated them, using some personal connections to check the financial flows of Bai Wanwan and the others, but found no large expenditures from anyone.

In other words, Shen Lu had not received financial support from Bai Wanwan, Xue Can, or the others.

"There’s definitely someone backing her," General Manager Chen said decisively.

"I’m at my limit," Mr. Sun said, feeling deeply aggrieved. "Fragrant Sky was never a huge money-maker, and now we’re losing money every single day—and we’re the only ones taking the hit! I don’t have any personal beef with Shen Lu; I’m just doing a job for the Commerce Association. But all the Commerce Association does is provide some prizes for the raffle! They don’t handle anything else. How is that supposed to work?"

"Let’s go. Let’s find Mr. Jin and have a talk."

The two were in perfect agreement and headed to a small, Western-style house to find Boss Jin.

Boss Jin didn’t actually want to see them, but he worried that they’d get fed up and just walk away from the job.

’That would be unacceptable. If they quit halfway, wouldn’t all the effort so far be for nothing?’

’Most importantly, if others in the Commerce Association saw them fail, no one else would be willing to wade into these muddy waters.’

’These days, it wasn’t easy to find two suckers like Mr. Sun and General Manager Chen.’

"General Manager Chen, Mr. Sun, have a seat," Boss Jin greeted them warmly before calling out, "Get some tea and snacks in here! Mr. Sun likes green tea and General Manager Chen likes black tea, so don’t get it wrong."

"Mr. Jin, things have been tough for us," Mr. Sun began to complain immediately. "We’ve been running this price-cut lottery for nearly half a month now. Little Deer Cuisine hasn’t collapsed, but it’s about to bankrupt the two of us! Who’s supposed to be teaching who a lesson here? Who’s putting who in their place?"

"That’s right, Mr. Jin. You know what kind of resources Old Sun and I have. If this keeps up, we’re both going to go bankrupt."