Early the next morning, Ning He checked the status of her mobile stall application, which showed that it was still under review.
She quickly gulped down a bowl of grain slurry and went out to the nearest food supermarket to procure supplies.
In this era of famine, due to frequent natural disasters, geological catastrophes, nuclear leaks, cosmic pollution, and other crises, arable land in this apocalyptic world was as scarce as gold. The limited output dictated that food was a scarce resource—expensive and strictly rationed. Through decades of adjustments, its distribution had formed a structure Ning He had never seen before.
For instance, upon stepping through the supermarket doors, one was greeted by boxed grain powders from various brands stacked as high as a person.
Coarsely processed grain powder packets containing small amounts of added vitamins, dietary fiber, proteins, and fats turned into a full meal when mixed with water and swallowed down. The nutrition barely satisfied a person’s daily requirements, while artificial flavorings of various profiles were added to cater to different tastes. Low in price and affordable for ordinary people, these played the role of primary staple food.
For days now, this was the only kind of food Ning He had been eating.
“Today’s Special: Yuankang Extra-Protein Grain Powder! One-month shelf life, thirty Yuan a box! Limit two boxes per customer, limited quantities, first come first served!”
The neighboring promoter’s voice reached her ears, and shoppers all around rushed over to scramble for the item.
A box of grain powder was generally a one-week supply for one person. Depending on the nutritional content inside, the price ranged between fifty and eighty Yuan. Thirty a box was indeed quite a bargain.
Tight on funds as she was, Ning He naturally saved wherever she could.
Picking up a box of mango-flavored powder and placing it in her cart, Ning He headed toward the fresh produce section.
While customers fighting for the grain powder earlier had gathered in three deep layers around the displays—where Ning He had only managed to grab two boxes thanks to her long reach—the fresh produce section, by contrast, was practically deserted.
It was simply too expensive.
Inside the refrigerated display cabinets, even the cheapest lettuce, bok choy, and spinach cost eight Yuan for a half-jin, to say nothing of other vegetables with lower yields and longer growth cycles.
Although Ning He didn’t need to purchase these items, the pricing of street snacks had to reference market rates, so she still needed to get a proper understanding. She took note of the prices of these vegetables and moved over to the neighboring display cabinet that sold meat.
This cabinet was small and fitted with a lock. Inside sat eggs, chicken, and pork.
A box of six eggs was marked at thirty Yuan.
One jin of chicken was marked at sixty Yuan.
And a small portion of pork weighing roughly 300 grams cost eighty Yuan—equivalent to an ordinary person’s food expenses for an entire week.
Having not tasted a single bit of meat since coming to this world, Ning He’s salivary glands began secreting saliva involuntarily. Even her digestive tract reacted, contracting in sharp spasms as if it wanted to crawl out of her throat to pull those eggs and meat straight into her stomach.
No wonder this cabinet was locked.
Otherwise, she really might not have been able to control herself and would have started gnawing right there on the spot.
However, after taking a look at the prices of these items, Ning He removed the egg-containing option from her previously planned list of snacks.
Even though she had applied for a Grade 2 stall permit that allowed her to sell eggs, the item was simply too expensive for her to afford wholesale.
Ning He arrived at the grain and flour section.
Prices here were much easier to bear, generally sitting around ten Yuan per jin.
Ning He picked up a ten-jin bag of flour, placed it into the cart, picked up her pace, and made her way over to the seasoning section.
A quick glance across the shelves made her brow furrow once more.
Aside from basic oil, salt, and sugar, there was only ridiculously expensive soy sauce and vinegar, packaged in high-end gift boxes with price tags near triple digits.
As for meat spices—such as bay leaves, cinnamon, black cardamom, and pepper—there wasn’t even a trace of them.
It seemed the spices provided by the system couldn’t be used carelessly; otherwise, people might spot something unusual.
Ning He only took a small jug of cooking oil, a bag of salt, and a bag of sugar.
Aside from the salt, neither of the other two items was cheap.
A 2L bottle of corn oil cost sixty Yuan, and a 200-gram bag of sugar cost twenty Yuan.
After checking out, Ning He had only eighty Yuan left on her person, and she still needed to buy a cart equipped with a stove.
Fortunately, there were plenty of second-hand options at the thrift market. Ning He scoured the stalls, bargaining again and again, until she finally secured a 70%-new pushcart with a gas stove for seventy-two Yuan.
Everything was ready; all that was needed was the right opportunity.
A day passed, and at around two o’clock in the afternoon, her mobile stall application was approved.
Without losing a moment, Ning He quickly set to work.
Climbing up to the attic, the vegetables in the wooden bed frame had grown larger once more. Even the tomatoes and chili peppers were essentially ready for picking, their bright red fruits looking exceedingly tempting.
Swallowing her saliva, Ning He pulled up just two radishes. Each radish was twenty centimeters long and as thick as a calf, which was more than enough.
Cutting a large bundle of chives, she washed both ingredients clean, shredding what needed shredding and chopping what needed chopping. Mixing them into the prepared flour batter, she was ready to set up her stall.
While doing all this, Ning He carefully drew the curtains shut to avoid being seen.
In Beiluo City, private ownership of plantable soil was prohibited, as this precious resource had to be turned over to the authorities. She had to be extremely cautious.
Loading the items onto her pushcart, Ning He set off.
When filling out the application form, she had already checked off her desired location: at the entrance of the industrial park in the north of the Fourth Ring, where pedestrian traffic peaked every day after work.
Most of the people working there had moderate incomes with a bit of spare cash in their pockets. Grabbing a reasonably priced snack on the way home after work to add to their dinner was a widespread habit.
After all, only those as dirt-poor as Ning He would drink nothing but powder slurry every day; ordinary households would still buy something extra to supplement their nutrition and satisfy their cravings.
Clearly, however, Ning He wasn’t the only one who had spotted this business opportunity.
When she arrived, the stretch of road from the factory park entrance to the transit station was already packed with various snack stalls.
Ning He pulled out her printed permit and handed it to the vendor administrator, a forty-year-old middle-aged man named Cam, who logged her registration and subsequently assigned her a small open spot. While setting up her preparations, she carefully observed the surrounding stall conditions.
The items sold were similar to those at the market near her home, ranging between Grade 0 and Grade 2.
Bread, steamed buns, fried potato slices, potato strips, pan-fried flatbreads, roasted corn, roasted potatoes, steamed bean paste, hot soy milk, egg pancakes…
There was a fair variety, mostly focused on carbs and vegetables, with only one stall selling eggs. Apart from the egg stall, everything was priced between one and four Yuan.
Having gotten the general idea, Ning He wrote a few words on her sign:
Dengzhan Cake (Radish / Chive) — 2 Yuan each
The arrival of a new stall naturally attracted the attention of others. Seeing what Ning He had written, they showed a hint of curiosity, clearly having never heard of the name. However, no one came over to ask; everyone was a competitor, and there was no need to be overly warm.
Ning He prepared her oil pot, turned on the heat, and first made a classic radish-shred filling.
The batter tumbled in the hot oil, gradually revealing a golden hue. Once fried, she scooped it out to cool. Ning He intended to taste it herself first, but looking up, she saw the administrator wandering over at some point, staring with curiosity at the food she had made.
With a turn of thought, Ning He looked up and smiled at him.
“This is my stall’s specialty. Would you like to try one?”
“How could I take that from you?”
Although Cam uttered words of refusal, his eyes conveyed quite a bit of anticipation. He had eaten everything sold around here, so encountering a new item naturally made him want a taste.
Ning He packed the fried Dengzhan cake into a box and shoved it into his arms.
“This is my first time out setting up a stall, and I don’t know if this thing will sell. You’re a man of broad experience—just consider it helping me test the waters!”
“Well… alright then, I won’t stand on ceremony.”
As an administrator, vendors voluntarily offering a bit of food was quite common. Cam didn’t refuse any further. He blew twice on the steaming Dengzhan cake, carefully bit into it, and chewed a few times.
It was scorching hot, but so delicious it made him want to shed tears!
The moment he bit down, his teeth shattered the crispy outer crust with a sharp “crunch.” Following that, a wave of heat infused with the toasted fragrance of flour and the crisp sweetness of radish swept violently through his mouth, awakening his dormant taste buds.
Having breached the crispy outer shell, what greeted him was an impossibly soft filling.
The dough and shredded radish rolling between his teeth and tongue—one soft, one crisp, one savory, one sweet—intertwined in flavor. Occasionally, the intense aroma of chopped green onions seemed to burst open in the gaps, making Cam feel as though his tongue could barely keep up.
The crisp, refreshing sweetness of the radish beautifully balanced the oiliness of the dough. After finishing one, only a lingering fragrance and sweet aftertaste remained in his mouth, leaving him craving more.
“Try this chive one as well.”
Cam completely forgot to be polite. He simply blew on it once and bit down in a single mouthful.
With the same texture of crispy exterior and tender inside, the moment he bit through, an even more stimulating aroma surged straight to his nose and mouth. Cam felt as though he could see a massive clump of emerald-green chives swaying in the wind over black soil—wild and dominant.
Meanwhile, the soft dough was like a gentle elder, softly wrapping around the overbearing chives and neutralizing a portion of their intensity.
The richness of oil, the fragrance of flour, along with the aroma of chives carrying a hint of spiciness.
Cam could well imagine how people—famished and devoid of oil and fats after working a full day on mere energy from powder slurry—would feel so much bliss upon tasting these two delicacies!
“How is it? Are you satisfied?”
Cam shook his head, leaving Ning He momentarily stunned.
“No,” Cam looked at her and said seriously, “something this good shouldn’t be sold so cheap.”
“Change the chive one to 3 Yuan, and sell the radish one for 4 Yuan.”
“Trust me, these two items are definitely going to be wildly popular!”