When she reached the market, Ning He finally felt a bit of the urgency that should come with a major disaster.
The crowd was surging and walking with hurried steps, and everyone’s expression was serious and solemn.
However, apart from that, there was no excessive panic or fear.
Clearly, everyone was accustomed to this kind of situation.
All the storefronts in the market were preparing to close up, and many had already shut their doors. Only the restaurants inside remained bustling with activity, selling all their food at a discount, and the queues of people buying were quite long.
“Vegetable buns at half price, three for five yuan coins!”
“Grilled corn, buy one get one free!”
“Fried oil cakes, two pieces for three yuan coins!”
The grocery supermarket was also having a sale. Mountains of piled grain powder were snatched away in an instant, and even the slightly pricier bread was completely sold out.
Ning He watched all the way along, her heart sinking further and further.
With this kind of momentum, food-selling merchants were selling off early just to avoid even greater losses!
Even small-scale vendors were no exception, clearing out their stock with half-sell, half-give-away deals.
The prices were so cheap that even Ning He was tempted to buy some as emergency rations.
“Why did you come over? Perfect, saves me the trouble of looking for you. Hurry up, help me move these things onto the cart.”
A slightly familiar voice sounded by her ear, and her arm was grabbed by someone. Ning He looked up and realized she had unknowingly arrived at the entrance of the noodle restaurant.
Dragged all the way into the shop by the proprietress, Ning He found that this place was different from other dining establishments and wasn’t holding any clearance activities at all.
Instead, a pushcart was parked at the entrance, with a somewhat familiar style.
Once she looked closely, Ning He couldn’t help but be surprised: wasn’t this an upgraded version of a stall cart?
Stoves, counters, everything was there, and jars of oil, salt, and sugar were neatly arranged on the shelves inside.
“What are you standing there for? Hurry up and move the stuff! If we don’t go early, we won’t grab a good spot.”
Ning He turned around, and the proprietress was carrying a stack of disposable bowls and chopsticks to load onto the pushcart.
What was going on here?
Seeing Ning He standing frozen in place without moving a muscle, the proprietress frowned and took a few steps over to pull her into the corner.
Please ensure you adhere to all safety protocols regarding this area.
“You were the one who said you wanted to go to Center City and wouldn’t stay in Beiluo City, which is why I rented your chef’s license. Now that you’re here, you have to go down and set up a stall with us, or else if we get caught, we’ll both get fined! Don’t you dare try to drag me down with you at a time like this!”
Set up a stall?
Ning He’s eyes lit up.
“No way, how could I want to hurt you? I just forgot about this for a moment. If we can set up stalls in the shelter, why are all those people outside rushing to sell?”
The proprietress’s expression softened, and upon hearing this, she let out a disdainful snort: “I think falling in the river knocked your brains loose, you’ve even forgotten this. How big is the shelter? If everyone could set up a stall, would there even be room to stand? It’s just that the higher-ups considered that tier-three restaurants have too high of a stocking cost, and letting all of it go to waste is something no one can bear, so they’re allowing us to set up small stalls. Down below, we can only sell things cheaply, but at least we recoup some of our capital.”
Only tier-three restaurants could set up stalls?
Was this path going to be blocked off again?
No way, she had to hitch a free ride!
Ning He looked with pleading eyes at the proprietress, flashing a smile she thought was well-behaved and pitiful.
“To be honest with you, to scrape together the money to pay you back, I set up a small stall to sell things the past few days, and I still have quite a few vegetables piled up at home. Look, can I bring them along and sell them together?”
“You? Going out to set up a stall?”
The proprietress looked suspicious. Seeing that Ning He didn’t look like she was lying, she thought for a moment and said, “It’s not entirely out of the question to bring them, but let’s make it clear first: our things sell first, and yours can be sold after ours are done. If they don’t sell out, don’t complain either. Business down below isn’t that easy to do.”
“Alright, it’s a deal!”
Having achieved her goal, Ning He agreed very readily.
The two of them loaded all the ingredients stockpiled in the back kitchen onto the stall cart.
As one of the few tier-three restaurants in the fourth district, the noodle shop had plenty of supplies. The pre-kneaded dough alone filled two large basins. Combined with a large pot of soup base, two baskets of vegetables, half a basin of meat topping, a basin of raw meat, a basket of eggs, two bags of flour, and some kitchen utensils, it stuffed the cart to the brim.
With so many good things, no wonder they couldn’t bear to sell them off cheaply.
“A-Huai and I will go in through Entrance 21 and wait for you in the No. 8 centralized dining area. Hurry home, grab your things, and set off. Don’t dawdle.”
Ning He nodded and ran back home at top speed.
Most of the people out working in the residential area had clearly received the news and rushed back. Every household had their doors wide open, with busy figures inside packing things up.
As soon as Ning He got home, she ran up to the attic and harvested all the vegetables she could.
She had already confirmed with the system that although the black soil could shorten the growth cycle of crops, it couldn’t give them a heat-resistance buff, and these vegetables would definitely be baked to death.
While complaining internally about the system’s uselessness, Ning He organized the edible parts of all the vegetables, stacking them into two full baskets.
If she could sell all of them, perhaps she could save up close to enough.
Ning He steadied her mind, pushed the stall cart out, left the stove behind, and only loaded her emergency suitcase and the two baskets of vegetables.
The red and green vegetables were far too eye-catching, so Ning He grabbed a bedsheet to cover them, hiding them slightly before locking the door and heading out.
＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊
There were dozens of shelter entrances in the fourth district, and Entrance 21 was a half-hour walk from Ning He’s place.
There were plenty of people traveling the same way on the road, many of whom came from the same community, and they all subconsciously kept a distance from Ning He.
Ning He remembered something, opened the system to check, and sure enough, her reputation score was still a capital zero.
Ning He was somewhat displeased.
“In the past few days, at least two or three hundred people bought lantern cakes, and the rave reviews were endless—how come it didn’t go up at all?”
The system’s mechanical voice sounded: “Acquiring reputation points requires others to directly generate positive emotions toward the host. The system did not perceive customers generating such emotions toward the host, so it is not counted as reputation points.”
Huh?
They only praised her craftsmanship to high heaven, but felt nothing toward her as a person?
That works too?!
When she used to make food cooking videos, the bullet chats were never short of praise groups, and countless people admired her culinary skills to no end.
Who would have thought it would turn out like this today?
Giving it a second thought, though, lantern cakes were fried food, and deep frying was the most common cooking technique in this apocalyptic world. Ordinary people didn’t know the little tips and tricks required inside, so of course they wouldn’t produce any feelings of astonishment or admiration.
Ning He felt slightly relieved.
Fine, anyway, she wasn’t counting on completing this reputation task anyway—whatever!
Ning He pushed her cart halfway there when the intersection ahead was blocked by a crowd, making it impossible to move forward.
“Everyone please pay attention, the shelter entrance ahead has opened. Please queue up locally, follow the instructions of the police personnel, and move forward slowly!”
The loudspeaker nearby suddenly broadcasted a voice, and the crowd jammed together ahead was quickly divided into pairs standing two abreast. Ning He was also placed into the queue, following the main force to move forward slowly.
They really were well-trained; there was no panic at all.
As expected of an apocalyptic world, even infants were accustomed to this kind of mass evacuation scene.
Ning He made a funny face at the little baby perched on a young mother’s back ahead of her, eliciting a crisp burst of giggles that added a ripple of vitality to the oppressive atmosphere blanketing the surroundings.
At least infants didn’t look at her with colored glasses.
Take a look at the person next to her—still a strapping young fellow.
Acting like a mouse seeing a cat.
He should have stood in the same line as her, but he deliberately lagged half a meter behind.
Tsk, who wants your company!
Ning He held her head high, pushed her cart, and occasionally teased the little baby. After more than half an hour, she finally reached the shelter entrance to go through security check.