You're that "sucker" from the first day!

"Sure enough, good food never lacks customers. It's only been a few days, and business at this stall is already this good. Thinking about it, I'm actually a little proud to have been its very first customer."

"You were the first to eat here?" a customer queuing beside him asked curiously after hearing his muttering.

"Of course!" Lu Xiaotao straightened his back with shared pride, looking as though he had accomplished something extraordinary.

"That day, I passed through the food street and spotted the boss in his suit right away, all calm and composed. In this food street filled with cooking fumes, he stood out like a firefly in the darkness. My instincts told me his food had to be delicious.

"I spent ten yuan on a chive pocket right then. The moment I took a bite, I knew my fiery golden eyes had gotten it right again. That's right, Boss Shen is the legendary God of Cooking."

He made it sound so miraculous that the customers ahead of and behind him all laughed.

"Bro's the intuitive type."

"You were pretty lucky, getting to be the first to try it."

"Have you tried the boss's scallion pancakes, then? I came because I heard there were flying scallion pancakes."

"What, flying scallion pancakes?" Lu Xiaotao blinked.

"Yeah, this boss sold flying scallion pancakes yesterday. My friend said they were especially delicious, so I came to queue today," said the customer behind him.

Lu Xiaotao immediately felt like beating his chest and stamping his feet.

"So the boss sold other snacks too? I've been away on business these past few days and missed them all. I missed out on a fortune! How wonderful would it be to get to eat both?"

"The people up front should get to eat both. We probably don't stand a chance."

Lu Xiaotao had only just arrived, so everyone standing around him was near the end of the line.

"Why?" Lu Xiaotao was a little bewildered and didn't understand what that meant at first.

"I heard the boss sold chive pockets for two days, took a day off, then switched to scallion pancakes. A customer supplied the ingredients for today's chive pockets. He can't eat scallions, so he specially brought ingredients and asked the boss to make them. There probably aren't many. The people up front will likely buy them all. How would any be left for us?"

A customer supplied them? That was allowed?

Lu Xiaotao was even more bewildered.

Smelling the rich aroma of chive pockets in the air, he belatedly realized he might not get to eat any today.

"And we might not even get any scallion pancakes. There are so many people, and the boss doesn't limit purchases. He actually wants to sell out early and finish work early, so it's really hard to say whether there'll be any left for us."

Lu Xiaotao's excitement was instantly doused with ice-cold water.

Had the treasure of a stall he'd discovered really become this popular after just a few days away?

Thinking of how he had yearned for it all these days, Lu Xiaotao simply couldn't accept this outcome.

"Thanks, bro. Got it!"

With that, he ran toward the front of the line without looking back. Only when he saw the boss and confirmed there were still chive pockets did he relax.

He studied the appearance and clothing of the customers near the front, then picked out a plainly dressed young man and walked over.

"Hello, I'd like to buy your place in line. Would five hundred yuan do?"

Hearing the voice, Zhang Jiale looked up at the man before him, dressed in a suit and carrying a briefcase as though he had just gotten off work. He didn't seem to be joking.

Only then did he register what the man had said.

Five hundred yuan for my place-but it's my turn to buy chive pockets next!

But five hundred yuan?

Holy shit! That's tempting!

It was a third of his monthly living allowance.

His appetite and money tugged his reason back and forth.

The next moment, he thought of the chive pockets his roommates were holding... He nodded without hesitation and pulled up his QR code.

He could snatch some from his roommates if he didn't get any himself, but once he missed out on that five hundred yuan, it would be gone.

Seeing how readily he agreed, Lu Xiaotao immediately took out his phone, scanned the code, and transferred five hundred yuan. Just like that, the transaction was completed in less than a minute.

Having secured Zhang Jiale's place, Lu Xiaotao finally relaxed.

None of the surrounding customers who witnessed this said anything. Both parties were willing.

Only Zhang Jiale's classmates and roommates looked tempted, envious, and wary at the sight. If they hadn't been waiting for scallion pancakes, they would have turned and fled right then.

The fat guy reacted quickly, lifting the remaining chive pockets in his hands and licking every one of them.

This was so disgusting that Zhang Jiale immediately changed direction.

When Lu Xiaotao's turn came next, Jiang Wenyan recognized him before he could speak.

"You're that 'sucker' from the first day!"

Lu Xiaotao: ...

Shen Chuan had already kneaded the dough for the scallion pancakes and was chopping scallions. Hearing this, he shifted his gaze from the chopping board to Lu Xiaotao and recognized him too.

He still remembered the first customer of his stall-running career quite clearly.

"Boss, we meet again! I was only away on business for a few days, and I nearly missed out on your chive pockets!"

"There's just one left. You're really lucky!"

Jiang Wenyan packed the last chive pocket from the draining rack and handed it to him.

"There's actually only one left! Then I'll have two scallion pancakes too."

Just then, the pungent, sharp smell of the huge pile of scallions Shen Chuan was chopping wafted over to Lu Xiaotao. He rubbed his eyes, then suddenly realized something.

"I can wait right here, can't I?"

"Yes, but there are still some people ahead of you for scallion pancakes. Here's your number."

Jiang Wenyan took off his gloves, lowered his head, and wrote out a number for him.

These were handwritten queue-number slips he had made to avoid mixing up the customers and failing to assist Boss Shen properly.

Lu Xiaotao: ...

"I'll eat while I wait, then."

He hadn't expected that, after spending five hundred yuan on a place in line, not only would he get just one chive pocket, but he would still have to queue for scallion pancakes.

Still, compared with possibly getting nothing at the end of the line, he felt the five hundred yuan was worth it.

Wasn't satisfying my own desires the whole point of working and earning money?

As he ate the chive pocket, he felt happy from the bottom of his heart!

With the scallions chopped and the dough rested, Shen Chuan straightened his back a little for a brief rest, then began making scallion pancakes.

He pinched off a portion of dough, pressed it into a pancake blank, and flung it forward hard.

Lu Xiaotao watched the pancake whirl through the air and grow larger, then fly back under the pull of gravity, landing right in Shen Chuan's hand.

"Holy crap, Universal Pull!"

It was his first time seeing scallion pancakes fly during their preparation, and he exclaimed aloud.

"Boss, that's an amazing trick! I've never seen a scallion pancake fly before."

Shen Chuan deftly flipped a pancake to set its shape, then flicked his hand to send another flying, all while looking down to tend the pancake in the pan without neglecting either task.

"I'm the God of Cooking. Isn't being amazing only natural?"

[Ding! Show-off Points +10!]

"Right, right, the boss is the God of Cooking!"

Lu Xiaotao was very familiar with the way Shen Chuan spoke and expressed his wholehearted agreement.

Shen Chuan discovered that the more his customers acknowledged his cooking skills and believed he really was the God of Cooking, the less effective his showing off became!