The night market was ablaze with lights, and the air was filled with the enticing aromas of all kinds of spices.
Street vendors wearing red aprons, their faces glistening with sweat from exhaustion, held menus as they enthusiastically called out to passersby.
Since the busiest hours had already passed, many stall owners had some free time and were cracking sunflower seeds while chatting and joking with the vendors next door.
There were only a few scattered pedestrians as well.
Tan Zhizhi sat inside her car, quietly taking in everything before pulling out the wig and clothes she had prepared in advance.
Ten minutes later, her long, straight black hair was hidden beneath a chestnut brown, shoulder-length wig. She had also changed into a black business outfit.
With a pair of black-framed glasses and light, innocent-looking makeup, she looked exactly like a naive young office worker who had only recently entered the workforce.
“Boss, I’d like one hundred sweet and sour grilled fish, one hundred spicy grilled fish, and one hundred grilled fish with sauce. Make them all around one kilogram each, add plenty of houttuynia, and pack everything to go!”
Standing in front of a long-established grilled fish shop, Tan Zhizhi smoothly rattled off her order.
The uncle who was cleaning fish was startled and nearly thought some thug had come to cause trouble. He grabbed his knife and was about to rush over.
However, when he turned around and saw that it was a delicate-looking young woman, his fierce expression immediately softened.
“Miss, you’re not joking with me, are you?”
“Uncle, why would I joke about something like this? I said three hundred grilled fish, and I mean exactly three hundred. My company has two or three thousand employees, and everyone is busy working overtime right now. They’re hungry and want something delicious, so they sent me to buy food for them.”
After hearing this, the uncle called over the seven or eight workers busy in the kitchen to help clean the fish while jokingly asking, “Miss, you’re a programmer, aren’t you?”
Working desperately at the company after midnight, there probably was no one else but programmers.
“That’s right. I’m a programmer. Uncle, you really know your stuff.”
Tan Zhizhi frowned at just the right moment and adjusted her glasses, looking every bit like a miserable office worker.
The uncle sighed softly, and the two silently understood each other.
Back then, he had also been a programmer who worked himself to the brink of madness. That was how he had ended up with his bald spot.
The owner of the barbecue stall next door overheard their conversation and immediately hurried over. She leaned in eagerly and asked, “Miss, do your coworkers like barbecue? Auntie’s barbecue stall has all kinds of food, with excellent color, aroma, and flavor. Everyone who tries it has nothing but praise for it.”
As she spoke, she thoughtfully handed over a freshly grilled chicken wing.
Tan Zhizhi accepted it and took a bite. The hot oil and the spicy aroma of the chicken wing filled her mouth, warming her stomach as it went down.
She smacked her lips in satisfaction, glanced at the enthusiastic auntie, and placed another extravagant order.
“I’ll take five hundred grilled gluten skewers, three hundred grilled mushroom skewers, two hundred dried tofu skewers, and one hundred servings of grilled eggplant. As for the rest, give me two hundred skewers of duck legs, chicken wings, sausages, chives, enoki mushrooms, chicken gizzards, and everything else.”
“Alright! You got it!”
The auntie’s hearty voice rang out.
Tan Zhizhi then went to a dry pot crayfish restaurant.
She ordered two hundred servings of garlic crayfish and three hundred servings of spicy crayfish, along with two hundred servings of dry pot chicken wings and one hundred servings of dry pot crab. She also ordered one hundred and fifty servings each of dry pot duck wings, dry pot duck feet, dry pot chicken strips, dry pot rabbit, and dry pot bullfrog.
At the teppanyaki squid stall, she ordered one hundred servings each of grilled squid and grilled tofu.
At the fried potato stall, she ordered two hundred servings each of strangely flavored potatoes and sweet, sour, and spicy potatoes, one hundred servings of cold mixed noodles, and eighty servings each of cold jelly noodles, liangpi, and cold rolled rice noodles.
At the rice noodle shop, she ordered two hundred servings each of the signature rice noodles, pickled mustard green fish rice noodles, beef noodles, and Crossing the Bridge rice noodles.
At the mala mix stall, she ordered two hundred servings of spicy mala mix with extra cilantro.
At the roast duck shop, she ordered two hundred crispy roast ducks and two hundred sweet-skinned ducks.
At the ice jelly stall, she ordered two hundred servings each of watermelon-flavored lianggao, rose ice jelly, and original ice jelly, all with extra ice.
At the grilled pig trotter stall, she ordered two hundred servings of grilled pig trotters sizzling with hot oil.
At the pickled chili chicken feet stall, she ordered one hundred servings each of tangy lemon pickled chicken feet and spicy braised chicken feet.
At the spicy rabbit head stall, she ordered three hundred of their signature spicy rabbit heads, along with two hundred servings each of spicy duck racks and spicy braised duck legs.
At the grilled sweet potato skin stall, she ordered one hundred servings of spicy grilled sweet potato skin.
She bought five hundred candied fruit skewers from the tanghulu stall.
At the pancake stall, she bought three hundred servings each of jianbing guozi, savory sauce pancakes, egg-stuffed pancakes, and corn pancakes.
She bought six hundred servings of sugar-roasted chestnuts.
At the stir-fried pork intestines stall, she bought two hundred servings each of stir-fried pork intestines, stir-fried chicken gizzards, and stir-fried clams.
She bought three hundred servings of brown sugar sticky rice cakes.
At the popcorn stall, she bought eight hundred servings each of milk-flavored popcorn and original popcorn.
Finally, at the milk tea shop, she bought two hundred cups each of coconut pearl milk tea, freshly squeezed lemon juice, passion fruit milk coffee, strawberry shaken milkshakes, and Grandma’s Grass Jelly.
After her wild shopping spree, the entire night market knew about Tan Zhizhi’s “company.” Apparently, it had countless programmers who were always working overtime late into the night, and every single one of them was a food lover who spent money generously.
The stall owners all clutched their aprons and grinned from ear to ear as they urged Tan Zhizhi to come back again in the future.
Tan Zhizhi cheerfully agreed on the surface.
But inwardly, she thought that after tonight, she probably would not have the time to wander around the night market anymore.
There were simply too many things she still needed to prepare!
A fierce gust of wind suddenly swept through the market, sending discarded cardboard and plastic bags flying across the ground. The large red umbrellas above the vendors’ stalls snapped violently in the wind.
“Smack!”
A hailstone the size of a plum struck the neon sign at the entrance of the night market.
Then, more and more hailstones began falling from the darkened sky.
They came down swiftly and violently.
The constant sound of hail pounding against everything filled the air.
Many of the food containers at the stalls were smashed to pieces by the hailstones.
“Bang!”
The charcoal fire at the barbecue stall was extinguished by the hail, sending white ash flying everywhere.
“It’s the middle of summer. Why is it suddenly hailing?”
“Pack up! Hurry and pack up! These hailstones are huge and falling so densely. If we don’t hurry, all the ingredients at our stalls will be ruined.”
“Oh no, my crayfish! The hail has ruined them all. What am I supposed to do now?”
“Stop worrying about the crayfish and hurry home. Hailstones this big falling on someone’s head would be far worse!”
The anxious and distressed cries of the stall owners filled her ears. Tan Zhizhi pulled her coat tighter around herself and cleverly ducked beneath the awnings of nearby shops to avoid the hail as she hurried toward her off-road vehicle.
Once she got inside, she looked through the car window at the chaotic scene around her.
Tan Zhizhi’s emotions remained unsettled.
This strange hailstorm was about to mark the beginning of the apocalypse.