Unlike Rong Ziyin, the system could directly see the item attributes, which made it even more shocked. The system even momentarily suspected that the Heavenly Dao had drunk fake alcohol.
Rong Ziyin sensed something was wrong with its tone and wanted to click to take a look, but then more than a dozen identical items popped up, pushing the storage slots to the front, leaving him a little time to operate.
However, he quickly finished his fifty-pull. Rong Ziyin glanced at the gray storage box and realized he had crashed again.
However, unlike before when it was always salted duck eggs, this time, although he was still drawing N-level items, at least the N-level items he drew were not just salted duck eggs, but also included the unidentified strip-shaped object from before.
Rong Ziyin finally found a chance to click on the item details, and a magnified bluish-white salted fish was boldly displayed in front of him.
Salted Fish: Tender and chewy, fresh and salty, even better when fried and paired with millet porridge. A secret recipe from an Ama (female diver), this is a salted fish with dreams. When you’re stared at by its dead fish eyes, it’s as if you’re being observed by the abyss.
The system had already given up on Rong Ziyin’s bad luck.
“Hahahaha, host, quickly take one out and look at it. Maybe it will give you confidence in the future.”
Rong Ziyin was also curious about what it meant to be observed by the abyss. So he took out a salted fish to examine it closely.
A pair of dead fish eyes rolled back and stared at Rong Ziyin.
Salted fish: …
Rong Ziyin: …
Whether he felt spurred on or not, Rong Ziyin really didn’t feel it. What he cared about more about this salted fish was something else, such as its taste.
So, he quickly tore off a small piece of fish meat from the back of the salted fish and put it in his mouth to taste it.
Salty! This was Rong Ziyin’s first reaction. Even the moment it entered his mouth, the salty taste, almost bitter, made him shudder.
Rong Ziyin quickly picked up the water glass next to him and took a swig. Surprisingly, once the saltiness was diluted, the unique freshness of the sea fish burst forth.
In the past, before refrigerators, people used salt to preserve food for longer periods, then dried it to extend its shelf life. While this seemed to dry out the tender fish, it also added a firm and chewy texture.
Salty yet delicious, soaking it in water to remove excess salt, cutting it into pieces, and deep-frying it resulted in a soft, crispy texture with a savory aroma—truly a perfect accompaniment to porridge.
More importantly, salted fish is more valuable than salted duck eggs! So, this fifty-fish stash was still a profit for him.
So, Rong Ziyin happily grabbed another basket, placed the remaining fifteen salted fish inside, changed his clothes, and prepared to wash up and go to bed.
Of course, before going to sleep, he didn’t forget to send the extra money he earned that day to the loan sharks.
According to the livestock station’s regulations, sterilizing a boar cost five yuan, and as the veterinarian who performed the surgery, Rong Ziyin would receive three yuan and fifty cents—a truly substantial sum!
Five minutes later, Rong Ziyin successfully gained 6,000 anger points from the loan sharks and went to sleep contentedly.
Another six-times winning streak! At the rate the loan sharks and rich kids were generating, Rong Ziyin felt he would soon become the richest man in the world. He
slept soundly all night.
The next morning, Rong Ziyin deliberately left before 5:30, carrying forty salted duck eggs and fifteen salted fish to find the couple who ran the snack shop.
Rong Ziyin remembered that the couple left the village for town at 6:00 every day; arriving at this time shouldn’t delay their business.
Sure enough, when Rong Ziyin arrived, the couple had just boarded their tractor, ready to depart. The back of the tractor was fully loaded with breakfast for that morning.
“Dr. Rong is here!” the husband jumped off the tractor first to greet Rong Ziyin.
“Okay, I’ll bring you salted duck eggs. Also…” Rong Ziyin took out another basket containing salted fish and handed it to them, “This basket contains salted fish, which needs to be soaked in water first, then cut into sections and deep-fried. You can try selling it first, and if you don’t sell it, just bring it back to me.”
“Salted fish…it seems like not many people around here eat this?” The husband hesitated for a moment, but then he thought, Rong Ziyin is skilled, maybe this salted fish tastes quite good!
Besides, Rong Ziyin himself said it was a trial sale, so he didn’t need to worry about profits or losses. As for deep-frying, they need oil to sell fried dough sticks in the morning, so they can just use a small pot to fry the fish separately.
With this in mind, the husband readily agreed, and even gave Rong Ziyin a whopping 1000 points of excitement.
Rong Ziyin understood that the man was happy because business might be better today, so he didn’t waste any more words and quickly handed the baskets to the husband, saying, “I won’t take up any more of your time, hurry up and go!”
“Okay!” The husband quickly got on the tractor, but before leaving, he remembered something else, “Oh, right, Dr. Rong, how much is this salted fish?”
He remembered that the price for the salted duck eggs had been agreed upon, but the salted fish hadn’t been ordered yet!
Rong Ziyin thought for a moment, “Twenty-five a plate after cutting it into sections!”
“What’s the name of the dish?”
Rong Ziyin took the pen handed to him by the proprietress, quickly wrote it down on their breakfast menu board, then returned the pen to the couple, and prepared to get ready for work.
He had nothing much to do today, and Rong Ziyin planned to take advantage of his clear mind this morning to study the paper he had seen yesterday.
Coincidentally, the paper mainly analyzed the prevention and control of poultry diseases in summer. Rong Ziyin was currently doing this work as well. Practical verification had made his understanding of the theory more precise.
Rong Ziyin, always focused on his academic work, let time fly by. However, the system suddenly received a notification: [100 points of breakdown value from Zhang Dagou, a resident of the town]
“What’s going on?” Rong Ziyin was confused.
But then, he received even more breakdown values from the town’s residents. Even more subtly, half an hour later, among these breakdown values, Rong Ziyin received one that was different:
[300 points of genuine satisfaction value from Zhang Dagou, a resident of the town] .
So, what exactly happened in the town? Both Rong Ziyin and the system were completely baffled, unable to figure out the details.
Little did they know, the reason the town’s residents were so enthusiastic about providing Rong Ziyin with emotional points was entirely due to the fifteen salted fish he had brought to the couple running the snack bar that morning.
In the town, there’s a breakfast street.
This is the only commercial street in the town, and the only way for everyone to get to work. Therefore, breakfast vendors usually operate on this street.
Because Rong Ziyin had suddenly come to deliver salted duck eggs and salted fish, the couple left home late today and couldn’t get a good spot, so they had to set up their stall in a rather secluded corner.
The location was bad, and even some regular customers wouldn’t notice them, which meant they missed the first wave of the breakfast rush.
“It’s okay, we’ll come out earlier tomorrow!” the husband reassured, patting his wife’s shoulder.
The wife laughed too, “Alright, stop dawdling. If we can’t sell them here, we can sell them back in the village. Do you think I’m that petty?”
“No, no, my wife is the most straightforward!” Seeing that his wife wasn’t upset about the poor business, the husband still smiled despite being teased.
Since business was going as planned for today, the couple wasn’t in a hurry. They leisurely heated the oil in the wok; the wife fried dough sticks, while the husband soaked two salted fish.
After the first batch of dough sticks was fried, the salted fish had softened a little.
The husband cut the salted fish into sections and heated another pot of oil to fry the fish.
Little did he know, this frying would ruin everything.
He didn’t know how Rong Ziyin had prepared the salted fish. Before, it tasted like ordinary salted fish in the basket, but after being fried, the taste changed completely.
A strong fishy smell instantly filled the air, spreading rapidly with the terrifying force of a biological weapon.
“Holy crap, isn’t this smell a bit too strong?” The husband stood there dumbfounded, chopsticks in hand.
His wife was even more choked up and somewhat dazed.
“No, what are you guys doing here?” The woman sitting next to her selling wraps complained, thinking to herself, “Are these two crazy? Making trouble so early in the morning, and now that business is bad because they’re late, they’re trying to take everyone down with them by selling rotten fish?”
Clearly, many others shared her sentiment. Soon, almost every passerby on the street couldn’t help but cover their noses.
“It’s poisonous! What is this?”
“I think even the buns I’m holding smell like rotten fish.”
“Who’s selling this? Are they crazy?”
The stench doesn’t deter people, and soon someone followed the scent to the door.
It was none other than Zhang Dagou, the first person to give Rong Ziyin “True Fragrance Points. ”
He was unlucky. Today was his first day at work, and he had a romantic date with his new girlfriend that evening. So, the first thing he did after waking up was to groom himself, shave, and pull out his treasured three-piece suit. Before leaving, he looked in the mirror three times to make sure he looked incredibly handsome before heading out. Zhang Dagou
had originally planned to grab a quick breakfast at the breakfast street before heading to work feeling refreshed.
But to his utter surprise, the moment he stepped onto the street, he nearly tripped over by the overwhelming stench of rotten fish.
He sniffed his suit and found it reeked of the smell too. Enraged, Zhang Dagou was determined to find the stall that sold it and confront the owner.
So, almost immediately, he stood in front of the couple.
“You…” “Are you fucking crazy?!” Zhang Dagou was about to unleash a torrent of abuse when he suddenly felt something watching him.
The gaze was cool and unsettling.
“Yes, it must be my imagination!” Zhang Dagou took a step back, cautiously looking around.
But his gaze landed squarely on Rong Ziyin’s basket of salted fish. A dozen or so salted fish, their heads held high, perched on the bottom of the basket, glaring at him with their white eyes, their gaze undeniably mocking from any angle.
It seemed to be covered in the words “trash corporate slave.”
Zhang Dagou felt like he’d been struck in the knee, speechless for a long time. Then he looked at the menu next to him, where Rong Ziyin’s calligraphy was written in bold, flamboyant characters:
Summer Refreshment: Large Duck Egg; 2.5 Yuan: One
Dream Salted Fish; 2.5 Yuan: One Plate of Salted Fish, Add a Salted Duck Egg, and a Bowl of Millet Porridge.