You've Been Buffed-Now Go Feed
Lu Li the long queue and went into a restaurant to observe carefully.
This is the restaurant with the long queue that Lu Li saw while traveling by car.
The restaurant wasn't big, with only seven or eight tables, and it wasn't crowded like other restaurants; each table was spaced far apart.
There are three particularly noteworthy aspects.
First, this restaurant doesn't have waiters, only the owner, so each customer needs to clear the table themselves after finishing their meal.
Second, the dishes here are incredibly expensive. For example, a simple egg fried rice costs 1888.
Third, each guest is only allowed to order one meal. Takeout and delivery are not accepted. You must eat your meal here. If you order too much and cannot finish it, the restaurant will not serve you again next time.
But even with these three factors, the restaurant is still packed with people every day, as if the food here is laced with poppy shells, making it addictive.
As Lu Li sat down, he heard a middle-aged, balding customer next to him suddenly shout after seeing the menu, "You forgot to put the decimal point in the prices, didn't you? It's just a plate of fried rice, and you're charging 1888? Are you crazy for money? I think eighteen yuan is more appropriate."
"Another idiot like this, daring to question the Little God of Food." At a table not far from Lu Li, a middle-aged man dressed in slippers and dressed like an artist shook his head and said this.
Judging from his attire, he probably lives nearby and has seen this kind of situation often. But then again, people have a herd mentality or curiosity. When it's lunchtime and you see such a long queue at a restaurant, you naturally want to see what's going on.
"I'm sorry, sir, but these are the prices at our restaurant. If you're not comfortable dining here, please leave to make room for the next person," the restaurant owner, who had come out of the kitchen to take the order, said to the middle-aged man in a humble yet assertive manner.
"Tch, it's just 1888, it's not like I can't afford it, I just don't think it's worth it. If the food you serve later doesn't win me over, don't blame me for reporting you to the Industry and Commerce Bureau!" The middle-aged man held the menu, hesitated for a moment, and then ordered two dishes: fried rice with egg and smashed cucumber, both common street-side restaurant dishes.
"Okay, please wait a moment, sir!" The owner, dressed in a clean, disposable white chef's uniform, was no less handsome than any TV star. He showed no concern whatsoever for the middle-aged man's threat, instead approaching Lu Li's table and asking, "What would you like to order, sir?"
Lu Li opened the menu, glanced at it casually, ordered a dish, and continued watching the show.
Not long after, the restaurant owner brought out the food from the kitchen and served it one by one. The middle-aged man's egg fried rice and smashed cucumber were also placed in front of him. The egg fried rice was crystal clear, with each grain of rice coated with egg liquid, like a little yellow gem. The smashed cucumber was the same, with each piece of cucumber being tender and juicy. Paired with the sauce, it looked very appetizing.
Looking at the two dishes in front of him, which looked very appealing, the middle-aged bald man's expression became unusually serious. He sniffed them but couldn't detect any aroma. Then, as if to be stubborn, he said, "They look good, but I wonder how they taste."
The middle-aged bald man took a spoonful of fried rice with a white porcelain spoon, and his expression became increasingly serious. He occasionally ate a bite of cucumber. To others, his behavior naturally made them think that he was completely convinced.
But after the middle-aged bald man finished eating, he slowly said, "I take back what I said about it only being worth eighteen yuan, because that's disrespectful to the ingredients."
"Just take the rice for this fried rice, for example. It's not just 1888; it's Rouge Rice. This extremely rare Rouge Rice is mentioned twice in 'Dream of the Red Chamber.' Rouge Rice became extinct in the 1970s. It's a waste that a small restaurant could get its hands on it as a raw material for fried rice."
A startling glint appeared in the middle-aged bald man's eyes, making the restaurant owner's expression uneasy. The bald man continued, "This rice alone is indeed worth the price, but as for your cooking skills, I can only say that it's decent for others, but for these top-quality ingredients, it's simply a waste!"
The bald man tore off his suit jacket, revealing a chef's uniform underneath, then put on a chef's hat. He flexed his fingers and said to the somewhat stunned restaurant owner, "Let me, Tang Big Ox, teach you how to cook!"
Lu Li finished his food and left the restaurant. There was no need to watch the rest. On his way here, he saw the bald man and planted a system in him. The system's main talents came from three food-related worlds that the Gresta Shadow Legion had once conquered.
One is a world where glowing dishes can be made, another is a world where food can be turned into aphrodisiacs, and the last is a world with higher combat power, where food cells can actually provide people with power.
If the bald man, supported by the culinary power of three worlds, can't defeat the restaurant owner, then it can only mean that Lu Li's system-making level has declined.
At the same time, those who had risen to prominence were being challenged, some of whom were orchestrated by Lu Li, who was creating a large number of system cheat codes to challenge those key figures. Of course, Lu Li wasn't the only one who saw through the truth, so Waterblue Star had been slowly starting to fall into chaos these past few days.
Li Chengfeng got up early and decided to go to school early this morning to avoid the school bullies, otherwise he wouldn't be able to have a proper day of class.
And things seemed to be going as he expected. It was common for those people to be late, so how could they possibly arrive early? As long as he could finish this semester, he would graduate. He didn't expect to go to university; he just wanted to start working sooner so he could give back to his family.
After finishing his day of studying, Li Chengfeng spent some time reading and waiting in a secluded corner of the school, quietly collecting empty water bottles and other recyclables before heading home. Those people spend their days eating, drinking, and having fun; as long as he doesn't appear in front of them for a while, he will be forgotten, and then he can continue to go to school in peace.
With a loud bang, Li Chengfeng, who was helping with chores at home, heard the door being kicked open roughly. He thought his useless father had come back.
"Trying to hide from us, huh!" Li Chengfeng was about to say something when the man kicked him in the stomach, sending him crashing onto the table in the small room. The noise naturally attracted the attention of Li Chengfeng's mother.
"Who are you? Don't hit my son! Hit me instead! Don't hit my son!" This kind of thing had happened a few times in the past. Families who had lost their children would find them and beat them up because they couldn't find their children. They would also hate Li Chengfeng because they thought, "You kidnapped my child and now you're raising his son!" So the old woman's first reaction was to stand up and say that they should hit her.
The information about rice was from Baidu; if there's anything wrong with it, Xu Ming has nothing to say.