Chapter Fourteen: Payday at Last

“All right, the last diner has left. Let’s divide up the leftovers, eat, and then call it a day,” said Zhuang Xiaoyuan, who had taken on the appearance of Erina Nakiri with her divine transformation. She addressed the kitchen staff and helpers who were either busying themselves or taking a break nearby, after noticing the final soldier finishing his midnight meal and departing.

Tonight’s midnight snack was a bit special—it was served buffet-style, without the need for individual orders. So, Zhuang Xiaoyuan and her team had moved the food station into the main dining hall. The soldiers found it novel to see the chefs working out in the open like this, and their curiosity was piqued.

Having learned from the exhaustion of the first day, Zhuang Xiaoyuan made some changes to how meals were provided. Normally, the menu for the soldiers eating in the main kitchen was set by the head chef, so she decided to switch things up and offer a different menu at four separate times throughout the day. This change not only brought a fresh experience for the soldiers but also made her own workload lighter.

She entered the kitchen at four in the morning to begin breakfast preparations. The breakfast menu, in addition to the usual meat buns, vegetable buns, and red bean buns, would feature a random selection from items like Chinese soup dumplings, pan-fried buns, spring rolls, dragon beard noodles, meat sauce noodles, corn cakes, along with Western options such as cupcakes, jam toast, chicken wraps, omelets, Japanese omelet rice, sushi rolls, and tamagoyaki. Every day was different, and in her brief three-day tenure as head chef, she hadn’t even managed to cycle through everything once.

Lunch centered on Chinese cuisine, with four dishes selected at random from each of the eight major culinary traditions, making a total of thirty-two dishes to choose from. Lunchtime was always the busiest part of the day—after all, Chinese cuisine is diverse and uses the greatest variety of ingredients, resulting in an array of flavors.

Dinner, on the other hand, was all Western fare. From appetizers, soups, side dishes, main courses, desserts, to drinks, there were two or three options for each stage. Altogether, dinner consisted of about thirty dishes, but unlike the individually prepared Chinese lunch items, many Western dishes could be made in bulk and served over a longer period—like ice cream, pudding, or caviar appetizers. So, dinner was much less labor-intensive compared to lunch.

As for the midnight snack, it was the simplest. After the chaotic first night of frantic ordering, the second night featured only noodle dishes—udon, dragon beard noodles, cold noodles, zhajiang noodles, scallion oil noodles, and so on. The fermented dough prepared in advance came in handy. On the third night—tonight—it was the famous Chinese street food, spicy hotpot. What was meant to be a simple, self-serve dish, requiring little effort beyond preparing the base sauce, turned out to be surprisingly popular among the frontline soldiers.

Once tonight’s midnight snack was done, Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s shift as head chef came to an end. Tomorrow was Sunday, the usual day for chefs to rotate shifts, and she would be replaced by Head Chef Liao—the very one who’d been drunk on the day of the incident. So, starting tomorrow, Zhuang Xiaoyuan would once again be out of a job.

But this time, she felt no disappointment at all. The pay for her three days as head chef had already been deposited into her bank account—a full ten thousand yuan for just three days’ work, ten times a soldier’s basic wage. No wonder head chefs are so well-paid; the money comes fast.

Although with the current state of medical technology, by the time of her next rotation in two weeks, Head Chef Sun’s injuries would surely be healed, leaving Zhuang Xiaoyuan little chance of earning such a high wage again, ten thousand yuan was enough to buy two bottles of decent cultivation enhancement potion. Each potion lasted a month, so she wouldn’t have to worry about potion money for two months. As for after that—well, she’d figure it out when the time came. When the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally straighten itself.

With a heart full of optimism and determined to let future troubles wait for the future, Zhuang Xiaoyuan finished her work and prepared to leave. What, there were still things left undone? The cleaning not finished? That was the kitchen helpers’ job—she wasn’t about to steal their work.

Come to think of it, now that she’d just received her pay as acting head chef, the basic military salary would be distributed soon as well. With her culinary skills, she could buy ingredients and cook for herself in the dormitory kitchen, saving a fair amount of money. The money saved, along with her previous small savings, would total over a thousand yuan. Maybe she could pick up a decent secondhand computer? Even if the world had changed, many things remained the same. She wondered if there were anime or novels in this world.

Looking forward to tomorrow’s shopping trip, Zhuang Xiaoyuan opened the back door of the main kitchen. The back door was closer to the women’s dormitory, which was why she usually exited that way.

“Xiaoyuan, finished with work?” To her surprise, she saw a familiar face waiting as soon as she opened the door. It seemed he had been specifically waiting for her.

“Yes, all done. Uncle Feng, is something the matter?” Although he always looked out for her and had cared for her when she was unconscious, Uncle Feng was in fact the top boss of the logistics team, which had tens of thousands of members. There was no way he had so much free time to see her this often; usually, even seeing him once a week was rare.

“You must have received your wages. Are you going to buy cultivation potions tomorrow?” Waving his hand to suggest they walk and talk, Feng Guoqing led the way toward the women’s dormitory.

Closing the kitchen’s back door and undoing her transformation as she caught up to Feng Guoqing, Zhuang Xiaoyuan replied, “That’s right. The effects of the last potion have long worn off, so I plan to go to South Street tomorrow.”

South Street was a shopping district specializing in substandard goods, secondhand items, and knock-offs, completely different from North Street, which was known for luxury, elegance, and perfection. Things in South Street were generally cheaper. While outright fakes were rare, quality was not guaranteed. The cultivation potion Zhuang Xiaoyuan had used before was also bought there—the cheapest kind.

Cheap as they were, those potions still had some effect. They were mostly novice alchemists’ practice batches, so their effectiveness was limited, but for Zhuang Xiaoyuan, they were a lifeline. It was thanks to these subpar potions that she’d been able to feel her divine power grow day by day. Of course, if not for that accident, who knew how many years it would have taken her to reach the level of faith.

“That works out, then. I’ll be heading near South Street tomorrow as well. Ride with me and save on the bus fare,” Feng Guoqing said, confirming her plans. He had some business nearby—not on South Street itself, but close enough.