The NO.1 Food Stall in the Wasteland

Now, all the beef brisket needed was time to stew until it was tender and flavorful.

The preparation for the sauce-braised beef steak was nearly identical to the red-braised beef brisket, differing only in seasoning. It was another dish that required a significant amount of time.

The Cumin Sizzling Plate Beef and Sour Soup Beef Hot Pot couldn’t be prepared ahead of time. However, the beef could be sliced in advance and cooked to order. The same went for the vegetables—they had to be stir-fried fresh to taste right.

After Wang Daguo left to pick up the guests, Shen Lu checked on her staff’s progress. Seeing that everything was in order, she went to the front desk to edit a video and take a short break.

Sang Yue silently approached her.

“Boss Shen,” she called out, “can I go work in the kitchen?”

Sang Yue had entirely too much time on her hands. Compared to everyone else who was bustling with activity, her idleness was making her anxious. She was on the same level of uselessness as Xiao Lang.

But she didn’t want to be this idle.

Shen Lu glanced up at her before looking back down at her video editing. “Miss Sang, would you be willing to work at my restaurant permanently?”

Sang Yue shook her head. “Probably not.”

“If that’s the case, then there’s no point in discussing you working in the kitchen.”

Sang Yue only knew a bit about baking. In the kitchen, she’d be no different from a complete novice, and everything would have to be taught from scratch.

And after you teach her everything, it’s not like she’d want to stay and work for you. At best, she’d treat this place like a starter-level dungeon for grinding EXP, and she’d leave as soon as she was done.

Shen Lu didn’t consider herself a particularly kindhearted person. Besides, she no longer had any intention of trying to ride Sang Yue’s coattails.

‘So annoying.’

She just didn’t like people with an overblown savior complex. It was best to just remain nodding acquaintances.

Sang Yue found this hard to accept. She felt Shen Lu was being too pragmatic, too calculating.

She was so motivated and enthusiastic, willing to work for free, and she even knew that Jiang Gong had given Shen Lu money.

Logically, Shen Lu had no reason to refuse her request to work in the kitchen.

But even though Sang Yue was unhappy, she didn’t cause a scene or start a fight. Instead, she tried to persuade her.

“Boss Shen, I noticed your menu doesn’t have any baked goods or pastries. The profit margin on those is huge. I could help you develop a few small cakes for the menu.”

To put it bluntly, she was trying to trade a few cake recipes for the right to work in the kitchen.

It would also give her a chance to gauge the market’s reaction, which would be valuable experience for opening her own shop later.

That’s right, Sang Yue had made up her mind: she wanted to open a cake shop.

Shen Lu sighed. “If you don’t mind, Miss Sang, you can be a waitress in the booth area. We’re having a soft opening for it today, and we happen to be short-staffed.”

‘Who doesn’t know how to make small cakes?’

‘Is she not selling cakes because she can’t make them? No, it’s because they’re not a good fit. They don’t match the restaurant’s vibe.’

Sang Yue opened her mouth to argue, but in the end, she just nodded reluctantly.

‘Fine, I’ll just have to take it slow.’

“But in weather like this, will people really come out to eat?” Sang Yue asked doubtfully.

Shen Lu gave a slight smirk and uploaded the edited video.

An hour later, Xue Can and his group arrived at Little Deer Cuisine. All ten of them disembarked from their vehicle and entered the restaurant.

“Hello, Boss Shen.”

The newcomers were all Xue Can’s most trusted subordinates, and they greeted Shen Lu enthusiastically.

Shen Lu led the ten of them to the new booth area, pushing two tables together to accommodate everyone.

Deng Ying served the hot tea she had prepared, adding two complimentary saucers of sunflower seeds and peanuts.

“Boss Shen, you’re too kind,” Mo Bei said, his eyes crinkling into a smile as he shelled a peanut. “We haven’t even started the meal and you’ve already brought out all this.”

“This area is for entertaining our valued guests. The service is naturally a step up.”

“Ooooh,” Mo Bei drawled sarcastically. ‘So our boss’s long wait has finally paid off,’ he thought. ‘Boss Shen has finally recognized how great he is and is giving him special treatment.’

“Here’s the menu. Order whatever you’d like.”

Shen Lu shared the digital menu with the group. They could order directly from it, and her terminal would show her what they selected, which was very convenient.

“Boss Shen, are any of these dishes limited?” someone asked.

“In theory, no. But the order size has to be within reason. I won’t be accepting any ridiculously large orders.”

“Alright, then.”

The man was a little disappointed. He had been hoping to order a ton of food and take the leftovers home. Even though the food here no longer had the potent effect of soothing their Spiritual Seas, the flavor was still top-notch.

Shen Lu tactfully excused herself from the booth area, leaving them to discuss their order.

Less than ten minutes later, the order came through on Shen Lu’s terminal.

They had basically ordered one of everything on the menu, and two servings of each meat dish.

It was certainly a lot of food, but not an absurd amount. Besides, Shen Lu knew they had the appetites to finish it all.

Shen Lu immediately got to work. The sour soup just needed a quick seasoning before being brought out to their table’s heater, where they could add the beef and vegetables themselves. This dish went out first.

Next came the red-braised beef brisket and the sauce-braised beef steak. In the meantime, Deng Ying plated two orders of cold-dressed beef and filled two large buckets with rice.

Once the Cumin Sizzling Plate Beef hit the table, the rice vanished. At the mercenaries’ request, Deng Ying brought out four more large buckets of rice.

To speed things up, Shen Lu worked three woks at once: one for stir-frying carrots, one for eggplant, and one for shiitake mushrooms with bok choy hearts.

After three or four rounds of this, all the dishes had been served.

Shen Lu let out a breath. It wasn’t that she was tired; she was actually a little excited.

Cooking small, individual dishes was different from cooking in bulk. Shen Lu preferred the former; it demanded more skill and gave her a greater sense of accomplishment.

Deng Ying came in with an empty rice bucket. “Boss, they can really eat.”

“They’ve already gone through six buckets of rice.”

The rice buckets Shen Lu had bought were a good size—five liters each—but the mercenaries’ appetites were just as impressive. A single person could easily finish a whole bucket, especially with such delicious food to go with it.

“Boss, all this food can soothe the Spiritual Sea!” Mo Bei said gleefully. “Don’t tell me Boss Shen brought out all of her special reserve ingredients for us?”

“Boss, while I’m eating this, it’s not just my stomach that feels good, my mind feels great too.”

“Boss, this food is amazing! It’s even better than the takeout we used to get.”

“Boss, are we coming back for dinner tonight?”

“Boss, can we come back tomorrow, too?”

One by one, stuffed and satisfied, they sipped fragrant tea and started making requests to Xue Can.

Xue Can shot them all a cold look. “Why don’t we just come here every day?”

“Yeah, that works! Boss, you’re the best!”

“You really have some nerve, don’t you?” Xue Can sneered. “If we came here to eat every day, who would go on missions? What, do none of you want to work anymore?”

“That’s not what we meant. It would be great to come for a meal whenever we’re not on a mission.”

“And it would be even better if we could have food made with these special ingredients every time.”

“Boss, when are you going to win Boss Shen over?” Mo Bei asked, rubbing his hands together eagerly. “Or have you already succeeded?”

“Win what over?” Shen Lu had only caught the last part of Mo Bei’s sentence as she entered with a plate of sliced apples. “You’re the first customers in our new booth area, so the fruit is on the house.”

Xue Can secretly kicked Mo Bei under the table, warning him to shut his mouth.

Mo Bei winced in pain but didn’t dare show it, forcing a grin. “Boss Shen, you’re too generous! Aren’t you worried about losing money?”