By three o’clock in the afternoon, Ning He could clearly feel that the surrounding temperature had dropped significantly. Sure enough, before long, a new announcement sounded over the loudspeaker.
“…Latest update: this extreme temperature disaster is coming to an end. Ground temperatures are rapidly dropping, and the gates are expected to open tomorrow morning at ten o’clock. Please have all residents be prepared.”
Five days and four nights, exactly as estimated.
It seemed the people of this world had fairly rich experience in dealing with natural disasters; the entire process was orderly, and the predictions were remarkably accurate.
However, this did not put Ning He at ease. Instead, it made her want to go home even more urgently.
With disasters occurring at this frequency, who knew what they would encounter next time? Her small life might be lost at any moment.
She had better quickly find a way to complete the system tasks, return to continuing her life as a food blogger, and go back to the good old days where her only daily worry was deciding what to eat.
As the temperature dropped, business at the Ring 3 restaurants showed some improvement.
However, being able to recover their costs was already good enough. Wanting to scoop up ingredients from the Ring 4 eateries at low prices to make a massive profit like before was completely impossible now.
After observing briefly, Ning He tossed it to the back of her mind. They might not even have a chance to meet again in the future anyway, so why bother worrying about it?
When nine o’clock arrived on the morning of the fifth day, the loudspeaker broadcasted an announcement once more, asking everyone to pack their belongings and await the opening of the gates.
Ning He packed her suitcase and was the very first to arrive at the gates, pushing her small stall cart.
At ten o’clock, the gates opened right on time. A gust of fresh air rushed over her face. Ning He took a deep breath, pushed her cart, and stepped outside the gates.
Although she had not experienced any real danger inside the sanctuary, Ning He still felt a sense of rebirth.
Massive crowds of people poured out from various exits. By the time Ning He reached the surface, a good number of people were already outside.
Everyone bore a look of relief on their faces, walking toward their respective homes accompanied by friends and family.
Ning He also pushed her cart along with the flow of people.
Suddenly, the screech of vehicle brakes sounded sharply near her ear, followed immediately by the piercing cry of a child entering her ears. Ning He subconsciously turned to look.
In the middle of the motor vehicle lane on the road, a seven- or eight-year-old girl was sitting on the ground, crying uncontrollably. Half a meter away from her stood a parked military pickup truck. Soon, an armed soldier stepped down from the pickup. He came to the girl’s side, squatted down to ask a few questions, and then walked to the rear door of the pickup to report a few words to the person inside.
The car window rolled down. Seated in the back row was a woman wearing a green uniform with short brown hair. Her expression was cold and stern, carrying a sharp, imposing aura of someone in authority between her eyebrows. After listening to the soldier’s report, she parted her lips to say a couple of words. The soldier turned back immediately, picked up the little girl, and delivered her to the other side of the back seat.
The moment the car window rolled up, Ning He caught sight of the woman raising a hand to stroke the little girl’s hair while saying something softly. The crying inside the car quickly ceased.
Tsk, running into a good person.
Ning He withdrew her gaze and continued on her way.
No further incidents occurred after that, but the effects of the extreme temperature could be seen everywhere.
Walls burned jet-black everywhere; the asphalt road surfaces had become pitted and full of potholes, with the shocking sight of carcasses of birds, stray cats, and dogs scattered about in some places; roadside lampposts leaned crookedly, their paint nearly entirely peeled off. Many power lines were snapped and had not been cleared in time, with dangerous warning signs set up beside them; quite a few windows and doors were deformed and dislodged, with broken glass scattered all over the ground.
Ning He felt her heart turn completely cold at the sight, accelerating her pace.
If the doors and windows at her home were ruined as well, wouldn’t her black soil be at risk of exposure?
Ning He sprinted at a fast run all the way home, instantly realizing with a single glance that her own window had shattered into pieces on the ground. Fortunately, most of the surrounding neighbors had not returned yet, so the situation wasn’t too terrible.
Letting out a sigh of relief, Ning He pushed the stall cart to the doorway, opened her front door, carried her suitcase inside, and hurriedly checked on the vegetables she was growing at home.
Just as Ning He expected, for the ones hydroponically grown in plastic containers, let alone vegetable seedlings, even the plastic underneath had deformed and melted. As for the originally lush and verdant vegetables in the black soil, there wasn’t even a trace of them left. According to the system’s answer, after rotting, they were directly absorbed by the black soil.
It was considered an expected outcome. Ning He quickly calculated her losses—still manageable.
The matter of utmost urgency was to settle the academy cafeteria affair as soon as possible.
Delay brings complications!
Ning He looked at the wide-open window frame. If she was going out, it was better to be safe than sorry, so she simply had the system temporarily store all the black soil away.
Anyway, nothing was planted right now, so it wouldn’t delay anything.
Without the black soil, Ning He’s home was a standard room.
A standard room that even thieves would be too lazy to visit.
She shut the door and set off for the academy carrying her money and chef certificate.
Because the power system had not fully recovered yet, Ning He transferred between several bus lines and walked a long distance on foot, finally arriving at the cafeteria before Old Wood clocked off work.
After she paid the deposit, Old Wood handed two small booklets and a card to her.
“You know how to use all these things. Although it’s a Level 0 breakfast stall, there’s a future in it if you do a good job. Go back and think about what specifically you want to make, and give me your ingredient list before Friday. I’ll submit it, and we’ll officially open next Monday.”
“Alright, thank you Uncle Wood. I’ll consider it carefully.”
Sitting on the shuttle bus for her return trip, Ning He pulled out the three items to take a look.
The first was the cafeteria rules and regulations handbook, detailing the operating rules of the academy cafeteria in full. Ning He carefully flipped through the section regarding stall upgrades, discovering that it differed slightly from her memory.
Stall upgrades indeed required ranking first in comprehensive ratings for three months, but it did not necessarily have to be three consecutive months. As long as it was achieved three times within half a year, and no month had a comprehensive evaluation below the passing grade, it would count.
In this way, the success rate increased by quite a bit, which counted as good news.
The second item was the food supply list from the suppliers partnered with the academy.
From staple foods, vegetables, and soy products to meats, cooking oils, and seasonings, it basically covered all categories available on the market, proving to be exceedingly comprehensive.
Ning He scanned through the staple food categories.
The positions of the three major staple grains—rice, wheat, and corn—remained unshaken. Below them, they were sub-divided into regular rice, glutinous rice, flour, whole wheat flour, cornmeal, and the like, with slightly varying prices.
Apart from these, there were also buckwheat and oats among the staple foods, priced somewhat higher than the three major staple grains.
To Ning He’s surprise, legumes were also listed in the staple food section, featuring varieties such as chickpeas, kidney beans, red beans, and black beans, but their price was three times that of rice and flour, approaching thirty raw coins per jin.
This pricing made Ning He feel a bit dizzy, but after careful thought, she vaguely came to understand.
The logic behind this world’s grading of chefs and restaurants was likely related to the nutritional content of various ingredients. Foods high in starch content were usually relatively affordable, followed by vegetables that provided vitamins and trace elements, while the prices of other foods were directly tied to their protein and fat content.
Under such a food valuation system, beans—with protein content comparable to meat—naturally saw their value multiply.
From a nutritional perspective, combining beans with rice and flour, as well as pairing coarse and refined grains for consumption, could form complete proteins close to that of meat, while simultaneously supplementing dietary fiber for balanced nutrition.
No wonder they were placed in the staple food section.
Ning He was hit with a sudden realization.
She felt a touch of admiration, too.
To have considered even such details showed that they truly cared quite a bit about the students’ health.
Ning He flipped back further. The ingredients were still very rich, but unfortunately, none were currently within her range of choices for the time being. Her matter of utmost urgency was still to settle on the breakfast items as soon as possible.
However, what should she sell after all?