An hour later.
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Ning He poured herself a glass of lemonade and tilted her head back to gulp it down.
The recent wave of over thirty customers in a row had completely depleted all their inventory.
Connie stared at the packed money box, still feeling a bit dazed.
“How about that? Didn’t I tell you we’d sell out?” Ning He raised her chin at her.
Connie closed her eyes, her mind dizzy from the revenue in the box, which far exceeded her expectations.
She looked at Ah Huai. “So… shall we buy up all the ingredients?”
Ah Huai nodded.
Connie took a deep breath to steady her nerves, then walked over to the chicken soup casserole stall with Ning He. The woman had been waiting for a while and quickly brought over the packed baskets for Connie to inspect.
The casserole dish offered a rich variety of vegetarian side ingredients, along with ten jin of chicken and dozens of eggs. The total came to less than four hundred raw coins, an absolute steal that people would usually fight over.
“Everything looks good. I’ll just—”
“We’ll take them!”
Before Connie could finish her sentence, another voice cut in and interrupted her.
Ning He looked back. The head chef of a restaurant called Golden Pomelo, located in the opposite Ring 3 dining area, was striding toward them.
No one had ever encountered this kind of situation before, and the scene fell silent for a moment.
“What did you say?” Connie asked, sounding unsure.
The head chef curled his lips, but his gaze did not even land on Connie. He raised his chin toward the woman selling the casserole ingredients. “We’ll take this basket of stuff. Whatever she offers, we’ll add ten percent to it.”
Oh wow, what a big mouth! Someone is actually trying to intercept our buy?
Ning He raised an eyebrow, squinting as she sized up the tall, burly middle-aged chef. She then swept a glance over the desolate Ring 3 dining area and instantly understood his intention.
Her team had taken ninety percent of the dining area’s business today. Now that they had finally managed to survive until her side ran out of stock, how could they possibly let them replenish their ingredients and continue to dominate the market?
As long as her team had nothing to sell, the customers would naturally settle for second best and go to those restaurants to dine.
When that time came, the money would naturally be earned back.
With their average order value, paying ten percent more right now was a mere drop in the bucket, practically negligible.
Ning He gave a soft grunt, leaned in, and whispered a few words into Connie’s ear. Connie’s expression changed slightly, and she bit her lip before finally nodding.
“Auntie, we’ll buy all your stuff at the original price.”
After saying that, Connie looked toward the other stalls in the Ring 4 area.
“If anyone else wants to sell their ingredients, we’ll buy them at the original price, too.”
The middle-aged chef’s face turned dark immediately.
According to the rules of the sanctuary’s dining area, all goods sold could not exceed their original prices.
In other words, his attempt to intercept the purchase had failed.
He glared at Connie, snorted coldly, and turned away with a grim face.
“Since we agreed on half price, I’ll sell it to you at half price. Do a good job and bring honor to us in Ring 4. It’ll save us from those guys acting high and mighty all day long.” Looking at the back of the middle-aged chef, the woman selling casseroles spat softly.
Before Connie could say anything, the uncle who sold skewers also walked over with a large basin of items.
“Exactly! Those snobs who look down on people—I’ve been sick of them for a long time. Just because they wear fancy clothes, they think they’re something special. Steal all their business and see if they can still look so smug!”
Immediately after, the stall owners selling hot dogs and steamed buns also brought their ingredients over, all willing to sell them to Connie at half price.
Although they were not particularly close, operating Level 3 restaurants together in Ring 4 made them share a common hatred for the enemy at this moment.
“We can’t sell them anyway, so we might as well give them to you.”
“This… won’t you guys be losing out too much?” Connie hesitated.
“Losing out on what? In the past when this happened, that group would wait until the very end to drive down prices and acquire everything. The prices were so low it was practically robbery. You’re giving us half price, so how could we not be satisfied?” The skewer uncle said with his hands on his hips.
“That’s right,” Ning He stepped forward and pulled Connie’s hand. “It’s everyone’s good intention, so just accept it. Let’s give the other side a real taste of envy, jealousy, and hatred today!”
“However,” her tone shifted, and she smiled at the skewer uncle and the others, “with so many ingredients, we definitely won’t be able to handle it all by ourselves. I wonder if everyone is willing to lend a hand? Of course, there will be pay! Boss lady, right?”
“Haha, little girl, you even want to hire us as helpers? Sure thing! I have nothing to do anyway, count me in!” The skewer uncle was the first to respond.
The hot dog stall owner also agreed.
With Ning He’s reminder, Connie quickly caught on and offered a payment of fifty raw coins. The woman who originally intended to leave the dining area to reunite with her family also agreed to stay and help.
After reaching an agreement, Connie first pulled out the money to settle the accounts, buying the ingredients along with the food boxes and chopsticks, and then began assigning tasks.
This job was handed over to Ning He.
Ning He redistributed all the ingredients.
Tomatoes, pork belly, and other ingredients needed for the meat sauce noodles were first handed to Ah Huai for processing. Among the other vegetables, the ones that could not be eaten raw, such as eggplants, spinach, and green beans, were sorted out, while the rest were handed to the woman and the hot dog uncle to wash and process as salad side ingredients.
There was a somewhat large quantity of eggs. The egg yolks were kept to be processed into mayonnaise, while the egg whites were prepared using the tamagoyaki method, cut into blocks, and used as salad side ingredients.
The bread and sausages brought by the hot dog uncle also became new members of the salad.
The skewer uncle toasted the bread until crispy and cut it into small pieces, and the sausages were prepared in the same way.
The job of kneading dough was assigned to the steamed bun couple.
They originally had a steamer of unsold buns left over, which Connie generously bought out completely to distribute as working meals for everyone. For the first time in so many days, Ning He tasted meat, almost moved to tears.
However, she did not forget to discuss a wage raise with Connie.
After finishing the meat sauce, she rubbed her hands together and let out a chuckle toward Connie.
“Look, the workload today clearly exceeds what we originally estimated. Can my processing fee be raised a little?”
She carefully pinched her index finger and thumb together.
“Forget about a wage raise,” Connie threw a glare at her. “If all of these can be sold out, I’ll give you a thirty percent share of the profit we get.”
Hearing the first sentence, Ning He’s face had originally dropped a little, but as soon as Connie finished her sentence, her gloom instantly turned into sunshine.
“Alright, just you wait and see, I’ll definitely sell all of these out!”
Having worked hard all day, Ning He’s entire body had been aching, but now she was like she had been injected with chicken blood, full of drive. Before five o’clock, all the ingredients were processed.
The salad ingredients were especially abundant, with several new varieties added, each served in a large basin and arranged directly in a full row at the stall. A large new portion of mayonnaise was also freshly made, fully prepared.
However, while they were busy working here, the people in the opposite Ring 3 dining area were not idle either.
Probably knowing that on such a hot day, no one would have the appetite for hot fried chicken cutlets or pork chops, they had also started making salads.
Moreover, the variety of ingredients they prepared was larger, and the display they put up was grander. However, they had no salad dressing, only their accustomed vinaigrette.
The price of vinegar had always remained high, and the cost of vinaigrette was no less than that of mayonnaise. Furthermore, the taste of vinegar was highly sought after by high society, so it did not necessarily lack an advantage.
Not only that, but they had also temporarily made eye-catching banner posters that read:
Huge Discount on New Salads, Twenty Raw Coins per Portion, Choice of Chicken, Pork, or Fish.
Clearly, the restaurants in Ring 3 had also united.
They intentionally set the exact same price as them—what did that mean? Did it even need to be said?
Facing such a threat, Ning He stroked her chin.
No choice then, you’re forcing me to use my ultimate move.
Ning He took out the chili peppers that had not been put to use yet, borrowed the skewer uncle’s stove to roast them until the surface blistered and charred, then peeled off the skin. She mixed them with chopped green onions, ginger, garlic, and cumin, mashing them into a paste. Finally, she splashed hot oil over it and seasoned it with an appropriate amount of salt and sugar, turning it into burned chili sauce.
Burned chili sauce had a unique flavor—charred, fresh, and spicy—completely different from the smooth and soft mayonnaise, but it was definitely hard for people who loved spicy food to refuse. In this kind of weather, it was especially appetite-stimulating.
Just looking at the skewer uncle proved it.
Eating his own grilled eggplant with this sauce felt like opening the door to a new world. The hot dog uncle took a taste and wished he could immediately add it to his own hot dogs to try out the effect.
If a little soy sauce, vinegar, and Sichuan peppercorns could be added to enhance the flavor, just thinking about it would make one’s mouth water.
Ning He placed this sauce right next to the mayonnaise.
All that was left was to wait.