Thirty Days to Hoard: Reborn into the Frost

Chapter 94: Chapter 93: New Functions of the Space

To his surprise, Chen Momo had managed to single-handedly turn the tide against her competitors, relying on nothing but her sheer, unyielding determination.

Gu Rongjin furrowed his brow, unable to resist casting a few more glances toward Chen Momo’s food stall. Though the woman seemed completely unremarkable, she possessed a distinctly unique aura.

He couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was, but Gu Rongjin suddenly found himself somewhat... drawn to her.

”Base Director, someone is waiting for you in the lobby.”

Gu Rongjin snapped out of his reverie. A base staff member bowed to him and added, ”The visitor is very anxious and insists on seeing you. She says she has something extremely important to tell you.”

Gu Rongjin furrowed his handsome brows. Who was being so mysterious?

Tearing his gaze away from Chen Momo, he nodded and told the staff member, ”Understood.”

He smoothed out his sharp, dark blue uniform and headed to the locker room by the cafeteria entrance. After changing into the base’s standard-issue thermal gear and strapping on a cold-proof mask, he strode toward the living center’s main lobby.

Upon arriving, Gu Rongjin pulled off his mask. Standing in the center of the hall was a tall, slender, and beautiful figure. The woman was impeccably dressed and her makeup was flawlessly applied, though a faint trace of sorrow lingered in the depths of her large eyes.

Seeing Gu Rongjin approach, the woman’s eyes lit up as she called his name. ”Rong Jin—”

She threw her arms open in pleasant surprise and ran toward him. To her shock, however, Gu Rongjin coldly stepped aside.

The woman stumbled as she grasped at empty air. The smile vanished from her face, and the sorrow in her eyes deepened intensely.

”Rong Jin...”

She gazed at Gu Rongjin, taken aback by a cold, unyielding resolve she had never seen in him before.

”What are you doing here?” Gu Rongjin looked at her coldly, furrowing his brow. ”Aren’t you getting married soon?”

To an old man twenty years her senior. A rich old man, at that.

”He... he’s dead.”

An Qingqing lowered her eyes in grief. Letting out a heavy sigh, she looked up with reddened eyes and said, ”We were supposed to hold our wedding next March, but he didn’t survive the blizzard. During that time, I kept asking myself who I truly loved. I realized I couldn’t lie to myself anymore. The person I love... has always been you.”

Gu Rongjin reacted as if he had just heard the world’s greatest joke. Curling his thin lips into a cold sneer, he said, ”Your fiancé dies, and suddenly you realize you love me? That’s hilarious. But let me make one thing absolutely clear to you: I don’t love you anymore.”

Ignoring his rejection, the woman looked at him sorrowfully. ”Why are you being so cold to me? You were never like this before! I know I hurt you in the past, but I’ve finally realized that I can’t let you go. I—”

Gu Rongjin stared at the woman before him. An Qingqing still had that same familiar, beautiful face. The only thing that had changed was his own heart.

He still remembered their days on the university campus, their bright and shining youth, and how the air used to be filled with the sweet, shy innocence of young love. But from the moment An Qingqing betrayed him, he had ruthlessly killed off that youthful romance in his heart.

Along with it, he had completely erased his first love, An Qingqing.

Gu Rongjin turned to leave, but An Qingqing’s hysterical voice shrieked from behind him. ”No, you’re lying! You haven’t forgotten me at all! After the blizzard, I went to your old place. You kept every single letter I ever wrote to you!”

They were the love letters they had exchanged during their college days. Every last one of them, carefully stored in a box.

After the disaster struck, An Qingqing had visited his old apartment. She had assumed that Gu Rongjin would have thrown out everything she left behind. To her surprise, he had held onto all their old correspondence.

Gu Rongjin’s body stiffened. But in the end, he didn’t look back. His tall, lean figure strode out of the lobby without hesitation.

Left all alone, An Qingqing hugged her shoulders and wept bitterly.

The two older women at the front desk had witnessed the entire melodrama unfold in the lobby, happily playing the role of gossiping onlookers.

”No wonder the Base Director hasn’t gotten married. Turns out his heart was broken.”

”It sounded like she dumped him.”

”That must have left an indelible scar on the poor Director’s heart.”

”No wonder he walks around with a cold face all day. He’s hiding a deep emotional wound.”

Sister Zhang and Sister Wang even began to mentally draft an entire romantic soap opera starring Gu Rongjin and An Qingqing. With such a handsome male lead and a gorgeous female lead, it was effortless to cast them into a tragic romance. Especially when An Qingqing shed tears—it was a sight pitiful enough to melt even the hardest of hearts.

By the time they reached the most heartbreaking part of their imaginary story, the two receptionists were actually moved to tears.

***

Chen Momo wrapped up her shift and returned to her quarters in a fantastic mood.

Her pickled cabbage fish was selling better by the day. The recent boom in business had helped her fully grasp the true essence of the culinary industry: the most important thing was to let the natural flavors of the ingredients shine, rather than relying on chemical shortcuts and artificial additives to trick the customers’ palates.

Chemical shortcuts could fool a customer once or twice, but never in the long run.

The body always provided the most direct feedback. A heavy dose of additives, artificial flavorings, and excessive seasonings might make a dish taste delicious, easily fooling the taste buds in the moment. However, after the meal, diners would inevitably feel physically unwell—experiencing extreme thirst, a desperate need to chug water, and an inescapable sluggishness.

Over time, the diners would naturally realize which food stall offered genuine, wholesome meals, and which one left them feeling sick afterward.

Having mastered this secret, Chen Momo stopped dumping excessive seasonings into her dishes. Instead, she focused on drawing out the food’s natural, appetizing aromas.

To make the fish even more tender, she began placing the thawed fish into her spatial domain to let them recover. She had even driven out to an abandoned farm in the suburbs to scavenge for frozen earthworms and mealworms.

Once she brought the frozen earthworms and mealworms into her space to thaw, the bugs quickly revived and began wriggling around.

They were the absolute best natural fish feed. Fish that fed on live earthworms and mealworms would inevitably grow plump and meaty.

Not only that, but Chen Momo was thrilled to discover that the mealworms and earthworms grew incredibly fast inside her space—roughly five times their normal growth rate!

With accelerated growth, their reproduction rate naturally skyrocketed as well. As a result, batch after batch of earthworms and mealworms flourished in her space, providing an endless supply of feed for her fish.

But the most exciting surprise wasn’t just the thriving bug population—Chen Momo soon realized that the fish were beginning to breed inside her space as well!

It started with a cluster of fish eggs. By the second day, they had hatched into a school of tiny fry. And by the third day, those tiny fry had already grown into medium-sized fish!