Thirty Days to Hoard: Reborn into the Frost

Chapter 92: Chapter 91: New Plan

Xu Xiaoka whispered to Chen Momo, ”Sister Momo, look at that person. He drank all the broth. No one ever used to finish the broth from our pickled cabbage fish.”

Because the broth of the pickled cabbage fish contained many artificial seasonings to flavor the fish slices, diners would typically only take a few sips at most. But today, this diner drank all of it in one go.

Chen Momo said, ”He might just be too hungry.”

”Yun Hai, our pickled cabbage fish is here.” Jiang Yunhai and Yi Ronghao were eating the pickled cabbage fish as usual. They steadfastly supported the pickled cabbage fish counter. Meanwhile, Ouyang Feng and Song Chuhuan continued to support the Japanese ramen counter.

Jiang Yunhai took a bite of the pickled cabbage fish, then used his spoon to take a sip of the broth. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. He turned to Yi Ronghao and said, ”Rong Hao, today’s broth seems different! Try it!”

Yi Ronghao didn’t believe him at first. However, he eventually picked up his spoon, scooped up some broth, and carefully tasted it.

To his surprise, he found that the originally rich soup base didn’t taste as thick and heavy today! Moreover, it felt incredibly nourishing going down, as if it had been meticulously simmered with a variety of restorative herbs.

Jiang Yunhai couldn’t help but praise, ”Mhm, today’s broth is really delicious! The taste of those artificial spices from before is completely gone! Today’s soup base is simply irresistible!”

Aside from the broth, the taste of the fish itself was also different. The rich broth didn’t overpower the fresh flavor of the fish at all; on the contrary, the combination of the broth and the savory fish was absolutely perfect. Yi Ronghao and Jiang Yunhai couldn’t resist finishing every last piece of fish and every drop of the broth.

They weren’t the only ones. Other customers who bought the pickled cabbage fish today also devoured the fish and polished off the broth completely. After drinking it, a comforting warmth spread through their bodies. In this bitter, freezing apocalypse, being able to drink a hot, nourishing bowl of soup and eat delicious, savory fish was simply a tremendous blessing!

When Xu Xiaoka went to clear the dishes from the counter, he said to Chen Momo, ”Sister Momo, many of the bowls returned today are completely empty. Everyone finished the fish and drank all the broth.”

Chen Momo took a look, and it was true.

Normally, although her pickled cabbage fish sold well, almost no one would finish all the broth. After all, a broth made with so many artificial flavorings might taste good, but after a few sips, the body would naturally reject it. Therefore, the bowls collected usually still had half a bowl of soup left. But today was different—many of the bowls were empty; the broth, along with the fish, had been completely consumed.

Chen Momo thought, ”It seems the diners’ palates can still distinguish whether the food is truly healthy!”

Today was a good omen, indicating that a turning point had quietly emerged. However, she still needed to wait until tomorrow to check the return customer rate.

While they were closing up the stall, Zhang Wanwan—at the counter diagonally opposite—noticed that she had successfully snatched away many of Chen Momo’s customers today. A smug smile played on her lips. Her Japanese ramen was second to none.

Moreover, to enhance the deliciousness of her food, Zhang Wanwan had recently gone out of her way to add a seasoning called ”Ke Liuxiang” to her ramen. In the pre-apocalyptic world, this was a seasoning explicitly banned by the government, but many major restaurants still used it in secret.

Ke Liuxiang contained addictive properties; diners who ate it once would crave a second serving. Because of this addictive nature, even restaurants that used Ke Liuxiang before the apocalypse didn’t dare to use too much, fearing that diners would catch on and complain to food safety regulators.

But the apocalypse was different. People were just grateful to have a full meal; there were no regulatory departments left to care about the ingredients in her broth. Therefore, Zhang Wanwan secretly increased the amount of Ke Liuxiang. As long as she used a sufficient amount, she could keep even more diners returning to her counter!

As the boss of a franchise restaurant management company with hundreds of locations, Zhang Wanwan knew the ins and outs of running a restaurant perfectly. A mere housewife like Chen Momo wouldn’t understand such tricks. This time, she was absolutely going to win the competition!

The next day.

When Chen Momo took today’s fish out from her spatial dimension that morning, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the fifty fish kept inside the dimension had grown much larger than the fifty fish kept outside! In other words, the fish raised in the spatial dimension grew better!

Chen Momo sliced some of the dimension-raised fish and some of the regular fish, then boiled them in separate pots. After carefully tasting both, she distinctly noticed that the fish from Yang’s spatial dimension had a much better texture!

Could the spatial dimension really have so many functions?

Chen Momo immediately called Chen Xiaobao and Xu Xiaoka over, giving them each a serving of the dimension-raised fish and the regular fish to taste carefully. Neither Xu Xiaoka nor Chen Xiaobao knew which one came from the dimension and which came from the outside. But their conclusions were identical: the fish from the dimension was much more savory, and its meat was far more fragrant!

With this, Chen Momo had finally found a way to make her fish taste even better. The spatial dimension had the ability to enhance the umami of the fish meat, and the longer they were raised inside, the more pronounced this effect became. Chen Momo preemptively left a portion of the fish inside the dimension, preparing to use them on the final day of the competition.

By the second day of sales, Chen Momo noticed that many of the customers who bought from her pickled cabbage fish counter yesterday had started to return for more. The line queuing in front of her counter was longer than before.

The third day, the fourth day...

The line in front of her counter grew longer and longer. Conversely, the number of people at the Japanese ramen counter dwindled day by day.

Xu Xiaoka said happily, ”Sister Momo, our method of adjusting the pickled cabbage fish broth is working! There are genuinely more and more people at our counter!”

Zhang Wanwan, however, began to grow anxious. Seeing that the final day of the competition was drawing nearer, the number of people at her counter was steadily decreasing.

Zhang Wanwan couldn’t help but wonder, ”What exactly is the reason for this? What kind of tricks did Chen Momo pull?”

To retain more diners, Zhang Wanwan began to use larger and larger amounts of ”Wei Liuxiang”. Little did she know, the more she used, the more diners actually pivoted towards the pickled cabbage fish.

Many people praised how comfortable their bodies felt after drinking the pickled cabbage fish broth, feeling as though it had nourishing effects. On the other hand, the more they drank the Japanese ramen broth, the stranger it felt. For some unknown reason, the taste of the ramen was simply weird.

Although it smelled incredibly fragrant, after eating it, they felt completely drained of energy and constantly drowsy. Even Song Chuhuan and Ouyang Feng, who had always supported Zhang Wanwan, stopped buying the Japanese ramen.

Even though food was currently scarce, they could still taste whether or not a large amount of artificial seasonings had been added to the broth. Clearly, many unhealthy seasonings had been added to the Japanese ramen—so much so that neither Song Chuhuan nor Ouyang Feng dared to buy it anymore, afraid that continuing to eat it would ruin their health.