Chapter 303: You’ve Got a Lot of Nerve, Kid
Chapter 303: Chapter 303: You’ve Got a Lot of Nerve, Kid
"Mom, come have breakfast with us in a bit," Shen Lu said.
Yang Jing was a bit overwhelmed by the favor. "I-I’ll just have an Insect Cake..."
She was worried about displeasing the boss.
"Suit yourself." Shen Lu had only asked in passing. If Yang Jing didn’t want to, she wouldn’t force her.
She just felt that Yang Jing was very responsible. She was never stingy with diligent employees.
Yang Jing hesitated for a moment. "Could I... take a little for your brother and father?"
Shen Lu’s face darkened. "No."
"Alright..."
Yang Jing’s thoughts were simple. She just thought that since Liu Yaozu and Liu Qiang were injured, eating something good would help them recover faster.
As for herself, it didn’t matter.
She was healthy; she would be fine without eating so well.
For breakfast, Shen Lu had beef and cellophane noodle soup with a freshly made egg pancake. The soup was rich and savory, and a single bowl warmed her from the inside out.
The egg pancake was soft and fragrant. Shen Lu couldn’t resist eating an extra half, and before she knew it, she was completely stuffed.
She brewed herself a cup of hawthorn tea and paced around the shop.
By 7:30 in the morning, the sky hadn’t brightened much. It was gloomy and overcast.
Shen Lu figured the vegetable delivery truck probably wouldn’t be coming today.
BEEP BEEP.
The crisp sound of a horn pierced through the swirling dust and sand, reaching Shen Lu’s ears clearly.
"No way. They’re still delivering vegetables in this weather?"
The vegetables from Zhao Qian’s plantation had arrived. They came in a different vehicle today, a silver-white one. You could tell just by looking at it that it was heavily built and extremely sturdy—it had the look of something a cannonball couldn’t pierce.
Even the driver had a string of lead weights tied to his waist to increase his own weight, so he wouldn’t be blown away by the wind when he got out of the truck.
A Level 8 gale could snap small trees, and the resistance of walking against it was immense. Someone with Shen Lu’s body weight could easily be blown away if she wasn’t careful.
So, the job of moving the vegetables had to be left to Little Mantis, Huo Qian, and Wu Jun. Shen Lu had Cai Su and her son stay safely inside the shop with her.
The harsh weather made unloading take longer, but thankfully, everything was moved safely in the end.
Once the driver got back in the truck and started the engine, Shen Lu immediately sent a message to Zhao Qian, telling him that if the weather was as bad as today, or worse, he didn’t need to send the vegetables—just letting her know would be enough.
Zhao Qian’s reply came quickly today, and as always, he was a man of few words.
Zhao Qian: Okay.
Just as Shen Lu was about to head back to the kitchen to deal with the newly delivered vegetables, the door opened again.
Wang Daguo struggled in, dragging a dark, lumpy bundle with him.
"Wang Daguo, what are you doing here?" Shen Lu’s eyes widened. "Didn’t I tell you before? If the weather’s too bad, you don’t have to come to work."
After the sandstorm season began, Shen Lu had told all employees who didn’t live in the dorms that if the weather was bad, they didn’t need to come in. They could just treat it as a day off.
Wang Daguo pulled off the scarf wrapped around his face, blowing two puffs of black sand from his nostrils. "My place is just a few steps from the shop. A sandstorm of this level is no problem for me."
He had wondered whether he should come in or not.
"Brother, Boss Shen is a good boss. You have to work hard for her!" Wang Xiaoci had said, her little face serious like a tiny adult. "Besides, you’re really heavy, Brother. If you’re careful, you can make it to the shop."
Wang Xiaohui nodded. "That’s right, Brother, you can’t be lazy."
Mrs. Wang didn’t think the same way as her two daughters. "Xiao Ci, Xiao Hui, don’t talk nonsense. The weather is too bad. It’s easy to have an accident walking outside."
As a mother, her primary concern was for her children’s safety; she didn’t want Wang Daguo to go out.
Grandma Wang didn’t speak. She sat at the table, watching Wang Daguo quietly, her expression seeming to say that she would support whatever decision her grandson made.
After thinking it over and over, Wang Daguo decided to come after all.
"I’ll give it a try today. If it’s too much, I’ll just come back," Wang Daguo had said, patting his own sturdy arms. "I’ve been eating well lately and have gotten a lot stronger. I’ll be careful. There won’t be any accidents."
Shen Lu pointed at the bundle he had dragged in. "And what’s this?"
"This is Xin Yu."
"Xin Yu?" Shen Lu had to admit, she was having trouble seeing it. This big lump of a thing didn’t look like a person at all.
Wang Daguo unwrapped Xin Yu. Whether from being cooped up for too long or from lack of oxygen, Xin Yu’s face was beet red, and his eyes were dizzy and spiraled like mosquito coils.
"He knew he wasn’t heavy enough, so he tied things all over his body to weigh himself down. But that also made it harder to move. By the time he got near the shop, he’d run out of energy, fell to the ground, and was almost blown away by the wind. I heard him yelling for help, recognized his voice, and brought him over."
Shen Lu was filled with a sudden, solemn respect. ’Look at that willpower just to get to work,’ she thought. ’As a boss, I’m moved to tears.’
"Let’s get him some water first."
"I’ll go get it!" Xiao Lang responded eagerly. He loved to be the first to volunteer for small, manageable tasks like this.
Wang Daguo untied all the things wrapped around Xin Yu’s body and helped him to a chair in the waiting area.
Freed from those restraints, Xin Yu clearly began to recover. After a few sips of water, his head wasn’t spinning anymore.
"I’m at the shop?" Xin Yu only remembered falling, being unable to get up, and then being rolled across the ground by the wind. He had barely managed to grab onto a pipe to stop himself from rolling farther.
Wang Daguo clapped him on the shoulder. "You’ve got some serious guts, kid. And some serious luck."
If he hadn’t run into him, who knows where Xin Yu would have been blown to by now.
Xin Yu chuckled foolishly. "I think my luck’s pretty good, too."
Shen Lu shot him an exasperated glare. "Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
Xin Yu scratched the back of his head guiltily. He had indeed been reckless. He didn’t know what got into him this morning; he’d just acted on a whim and left the house.
Her other food suppliers sent messages saying that due to the bad weather, their delivery times would be delayed.
"Delayed? Then how did Zhao Qian’s vegetables get here?" Shen Lu muttered to herself.
Zhao Qian’s plantation is in the Upper City District. They delivered from that far away, but the ones closer to her couldn’t?
"Zhao Qian’s delivery vehicle is a military armored car. As long as it’s not a black sandstorm, it can operate normally." Fu Cheng slowly approached Shen Lu’s side. "Xin Yu and Wang Daguo should both rinse their nasal passages with saline solution. Inhaling suspended sand can potentially cause inflammation in the lungs."
"I see." Shen Lu found two bottles of saline solution and told the two men to go clean up in the restroom. "You seem to know a lot about a lot of things."
"The instructors talked about it in class."
"I thought a military academy would only teach you about fighting."
"That’s also part of it."
"So when do you think the wind will stop?"
Fu Cheng looked at her. "Little Deer, you could just check the weather forecast."
Shen Lu pouted. "The weather forecast is always hindsight. It has zero predictive function."
"It does now."
Dubious, Shen Lu glanced at her Light Brain. Just as Fu Cheng had said, there really was a weather forecast that wasn’t just hindsight.
"How did you know there would be?"
He had said it so definitively, as if he were the one who had made the forecast himself.