Chapter 102 Opening

“It’s much cheaper than buying it from a vending machine!”

After Jiang Dong reported his name, he followed his mother into the dining car.

What to cook this morning had already been discussed last night. Since it was the first day, Grandpa Xia thought that they should be cautious, so the breakfast items prepared were not large in quantity.

But because we were worried that we wouldn’t be able to handle it on the first day, we asked all four kitchen chefs to come this morning.

When Huang Liping entered the warehouse, she saw the millet, flour, and eggs she had requested yesterday piled in a corner, along with several buckets of drinking water, a few juicy radishes, and some seasonings.

She didn't care about anything else. She took out the flour and kneaded the dough with her son.

While they were kneading the dough, Wu Dayong and Tong Yuanyang also arrived.

Following Wu Dayong was his wife, and following Tong Yuanyang was also a young woman.

Mrs. Wu has been dealing with people in her own store all year round and is an extrovert. In the two days since she got on the bus, she has almost gotten to know everyone in each family. The only exception is Tong Yuanyang's family. Except for greeting the old lady, Tong Yuanyang's mother, on the first day, she has hardly seen anyone else in the family come out.

I finally ran into her while washing up today, but despite her warm greeting, the young wife didn't say a word the whole time except for introducing her name when they first met.

The other party didn't want to talk, and Mrs. Wu didn't want to make things difficult for him, so she remained silent on the way to the dining car.

After entering the dining car and the kitchen and seeing other people, I finally relaxed the mouth that I had been holding all the way. I had been holding it in since I entered the door.

"We're making sesame cakes, millet porridge, and pickled radish this morning, right?"

"Do you have any flour left? I want to knead the dough too."

"Master Xia, the sauce for your pickled radish looks delicious. Is it a secret recipe? Could you teach me?"

…

With Mrs. Wu around, the life of preparing meals in the morning doesn’t seem so boring anymore.

While everyone in the kitchen was busy, the sky not far away gradually brightened. It started out as pale as a fish belly, and then the rosy glow covered the entire sky.

The quiet city began to become noisy, and there were gradually more pedestrians on the road, some of whom gathered towards the place where the train stopped.

The staff on duty at the guard booth had already opened the gate to the station and was waiting for people to pass through and enter the platform.

As the people in the car watched the crowd outside gradually gather, they unconsciously quickened their movements.

Grandpa Xia, wearing a tall white chef's hat, gave orders in a booming voice, "Are the sesame cakes ready? How many are out of the oven? Put them in the front and sell them later. Don't stop at the back, keep making them... How about the millet porridge? Is it ready? Only sell half of the pickled white radish today. The other half will taste better tomorrow when it's seasoned..."

"Have you memorized all the prices? Do you know how to use the cash register?"

After everyone nodded, Mr. Xia inspected the place again before he felt relieved.

Afterwards, the passengers who had been waiting on the platform in advance got on the train, but suddenly found that today's train was different from the previous ones. The door leading to the last carriage at the rear of the train, which had been closed before, was actually opened.

In the previous two days, they saw two new carriages added to the train, but the doors of the new carriages had never been opened, so no one knew what was inside.

I did see some people go in, they were the train staff who were accepted in the last recruitment and their families, but no one who went in came out again, and the news about the new carriages remained confidential.

After the arrest yesterday, the scene of the train arresting people sounded a warning to everyone. Although everyone was more curious about the newly added train carriages, they did not dare to explore them.

But today, the doors of the new carriage of the train suddenly opened!

"Is it time to go in and take a look?"

Without any prior agreement, everyone who saw the door open had the same thought in their mind, and then moved uncontrollably towards the new carriage.

As I walked through the connecting door between the two carriages, the view in front of me suddenly brightened.

Everyone who entered the new carriage was amazed by the train, whose decoration was completely different from the previous one.

What comes into view is a restaurant with a European retro style decoration...

No, a dining car.

Chairs with dark gold metal frames and covered in green velvet, and a dining table covered with a beautiful tablecloth. Of course, the most eye-catching thing is the spacious and bright kitchen in the middle and rear part of the train, and the bucket of golden millet porridge and crispy-looking sesame cakes placed on the counter of the semi-open kitchen.

The air was filled with the aroma of burnt sesame cakes and the sweetness of porridge cooked with grains, and the sounds of inhaling and swallowing saliva came one after another.

"Ouch!"

Someone pinched his face hard, and after feeling the clear and obvious pain, his eyes gradually brightened up.

"Really! It's not an illusion!"

This sound also made others realize that what they saw was not a dream. Seeing the faces busy in the restaurant that they had seen in the notice before, their expressions gradually became fanatical.

"So they're hiring chefs because they're going to have a dining car on the train?"

"This job is much better than moving bricks in an open field or driving a car. The most important thing is that I can take my family with me and it's safe."

But more people's eyes were still on the rows of food.

First there was a rainstorm, and then the end of the world. Although people from all over the country temporarily rescued a batch of supplies, most of them were packaged fast foods. Later, they were busy making a living, and too many people had not tasted the taste of ordinary home-cooked meals.

Someone swallowed his saliva and said, "This sesame cake is really delicious. I wonder if it's expensive? If it's not expensive, I really want to buy a bowl to drink!"

"I'd like to try some pickled white radish. It looks so refreshing and goes well with rice. Fresh vegetables are so expensive in the city these days. I haven't had any vegetables in almost two months."

Although it was summer, there shouldn't be a shortage of vegetables, but not long after the flood, all the vegetables were soaked and inedible.

Most of the newly reclaimed land in the safe zones is now planted with high-yield, filling foods like corn and even sweet potatoes. Only small, leftover plots and nearby farmers' yards grow some vegetables. So, while the city still has a supply of vegetables, they're both scarce and incredibly expensive, making them difficult for ordinary people to afford.

Although this ivory-white radish is not green, it is still a green vegetable. It is better than relying on the onions on your balcony that have not yet grown after being cut.

But the convenience foods in vending machines outside are not cheap anymore, so these freshly made ones should be even more expensive, right?

Some people hesitated, but others stepped forward to ask.

On the first day, everyone was inexperienced, so the enthusiastic Mrs. Wu rushed to join the team and stood in the front row at the sales window.

Seeing the person who came in hesitating to move forward, Mrs. Wu was about to shout out the slogan she had prepared in her mind, but before she could even open her mouth, many people had already surrounded her excitedly.

"How much is this pancake?"

“How much is a serving of millet porridge?”

"Are you the ones who passed the assessment earlier? Did the train hire you just to work in the dining car?"

"Will the dining car be running all the time? Will it serve three meals a day?"

"Can you work on the dining car after passing the assessment? Are you asked to sign any unequal agreement?"

…

Questions one after another hit everyone in the kitchen's faces like a barrage of bullets, leaving them with almost no time to answer.

The inexperienced people were already overwhelmed by the scene, and among the four helpers, only Mrs. Wu could barely cope with it.

"All payments are made with crystal cores. There's a coin slot underneath for three crystal cores. Just pay and place your order."

As Mrs. Wu spoke, she picked up a pancake and put it on the plate. As soon as the metal clip touched the crispy pancake, the crust of the pancake began to break, and the crumbs fell to the bottom of the plate.

"They are all made fresh in the morning with grains, so you can eat them without worry."

Jiang Dong, who was standing next to him, also stirred the bottom of the pot with a spoon. "Millet porridge is the same as sesame cakes, three crystal cores per bowl. I cooked it for more than two hours this morning. Look, it's sticky."

As he spoke, he shook his hand, and the golden millet porridge fell along the edge of the big iron spoon like a waterfall.

Mrs. Wu struck while the iron was hot. "I heard that a box of mixed noodles out there has five or six crystal cores, and the noodles are only about a hundred grams, and you have to find water yourself. This pancake and bowl of porridge only have six, which will fill your stomach up. How satisfying!"

Jiang Dong also chimed in, "Those sesame cakes are all made by our kitchen chef. Each dough is definitely no less than 180 grams. It's much more affordable than buying them from a vending machine!"

【Author’s words】

Sorry, this chapter is a bit short.

My menstrual period is finally coming to an end. I don’t know if it’s because of insufficient qi and blood, but I always feel cold easily this winter.

When I was in school, my hands and feet were almost never cold, but this year they are always cold, and my dysmenorrhea is much worse than before.

I've been taking medication a few times lately, but it's been slow to work and the pain relief doesn't last long. I often take it before bed and wake up in the middle of the night with pain. The pain only lasts three to four hours, but I don't dare take it too often. After all, I can't take five or six pills a day.

Why!