Chapter 48: Thug Fried Rice
When Shengxia woke up, Xiaoai searched for the latest news and reported that there was a new problem in the melt cave.
"What new problem?" Shengxia yawned. She was still not used to using the time storage capsule of the Space-Time Bureau after leaving it. She felt that freeing up time for rest was not as convenient as before, and her brain would feel temporarily tired.
“Eating became a problem.”
"Huh?" Shengxia was incredulous after hearing Xiaoai's report. After a few seconds of thought, she quickly sorted out several possibilities: "Did the underground river explode again? Wait, is there something wrong with the grain storage in the hot spring area? Hmm, it can't be some sudden biological disaster."
Shengxia was still guessing when Wei Jie, who saw the light indicating entry to Shengxia's room, knocked on the door and came in with his executive officer, gave Shengxia the final answer: "Everyone who works in the restaurant, including the owner, chefs, waiters, helpers, and laborers, has been admitted to the hospital."
"A riot?" Sheng Xia had just speculated when Wei Jie said speechlessly, "No, they were just sent to the hospital for deliberate reasons."
midsummer:……
Wei Jie and the executive officer who followed him: ...
"Huh." Wei Jie let out a long sigh and told Sheng Xia that he had dinner until 1 a.m. yesterday. After the shops closed, the hospitals opened one after another. As a result, at least two-thirds of the restaurants did not open on time this morning. When he asked again, he found that Chunji Hospital was still receiving an IV drip.
"I've already activated the emergency plan and asked everyone to switch to drinking nutrient solution. I just don't know how to get the food court back to normal operations next."
midsummer:……
Wei Jie saw that Sheng Xia was still confused, obviously not expecting such a question. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and played Sheng Xia the video of him and his team visiting the restaurant staff at the hospital recently.
"Honestly, I was quite excited when we first started doing this, and I strongly support our planetary commander. However, yesterday's workload was truly overwhelming. I'll see if they can come up with some ideas for diversion or other solutions in the future."
"Eight months left! Eight months! As a restaurant owner, after I finish running this restaurant inside the melt cave and go outside, I'm almost thinking about closing it down and taking a break. Honestly, I'm too lucky right now. I used to desperately take advantage of Volk Planet's peak tourist season to make money just so I could spend the winter trembling in the melt cave. Now... look, I've actually been hospitalized due to exhaustion. I'm too happy."
"Yes. In previous years, even during the busy season when foreign guests came to Planet Volker for medical aesthetics, the maximum number of guests each of our restaurants could accommodate would never exceed one-tenth of what we received last night. Honestly, I'm starting to think this job is a bit too challenging."
"It's not that I don't want to support our planetary commander. It's mainly because we didn't expect that feeding over 50 million people would be such a terrible problem. Oh my god, that huge crowd yesterday, I still feel scared when I think about it in my dreams."
"Yeah, yeah. To be honest, yesterday's crowd was the first time I've seen so many people in my life. In previous winters, the number of people who could enter the melting cave was far less than this."
"It's also a good life."
"It's just that our bodies really can't hold on."
"At first, I was so excited that I kept the restaurant open every day, thinking about competing with the owner of the restaurant next door for customers. Now, to be honest, I just want to push my customers to the restaurant next door."
"Hahahaha, that's right. I can't go on like this. Yesterday I even called my mother over to help."
…
Wei Jie quickly listed the various demands currently being made by the public and restaurant staff:
First, restaurant staff want suitable time for taking leave and going on and off work, and don’t want to stay in the restaurant all day;
Second, both parties hope to limit the number of people entering the store each day to avoid such large crowds, which is a very bad experience for both parties.
Third, as for the public, although they feel sorry for the restaurant staff, they still hope to eat freshly cooked meals. However, they are not averse to the current emergency plan of drinking nutrient solution. They just hope that they can have more opportunities to eat freshly cooked meals in the future.
Shengxia remained silent, only slightly raising her head to look at Wei Jie beside her, as if waiting for him to come up with a corresponding solution. Wei Jie also really came up with three plans and told Shengxia that these were plans that had been discussed by everyone, incorporating the opinions of the public, restaurant staff, federal security teams, and corresponding police station personnel. There was no coercion in the joint discussion.
"Not bad, you've made progress." Sheng Xia couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at Wei Jie, saying that his way of working was worthy of praise. However, she was not wrong about him. Anyone who could stand firm in the government affairs hall, a place where all kinds of people mixed together, just lacked an opportunity.
Wei Jie turned his head away as if he didn't want to pay attention to Sheng Xia's sudden sentimentality, but his ears turned red unconsciously, showing that he was moved at the moment and didn't want to say more.
However, after looking at the three plans, Shengxia realized that all three plans had a fatal problem: there were indeed too many people eating and it was impossible to adjust, so the only way to compensate was to drink nutrient solution, limit the number of people, or increase the number of mobile stalls. But the same problem exists that if there are too many mobile stalls, the number of people gathering will remain high, and safety accidents will easily occur.
The fact is, in all three scenarios, both the Federal Security Team and the police were forced to increase their presence in the food court. However, Shengxia had witnessed in many of the Space Bureau's past missions that once a large-scale stampede occurred, even with more police, it would be difficult to save the lives of those trapped at the bottom of the crowd.
Therefore, diversion is necessary.
Moreover, since the federal security forces, police stations and relevant staff of the government hall have already made preparations to show courtesy to the public at meals, it would be better for them to make this gesture bigger and more memorable for the public.
After making the decision and putting down the plan at hand, Sheng Xia suddenly changed the subject and asked Wei Jie, "Both your visit videos and the investigators' evidence in the plan are too well-made. It's impossible for such a large-scale store closure to have no objections. Tell us what happened."
Wei Jie's expression relaxed significantly when this was mentioned. It was obvious that he still trusted Sheng Xia's judgment. Knowing that she would definitely ask about this, Wei Jie simply placed the "backup" for his work in front of Sheng Xia - a list of the last batch of people who had a tendency to cause trouble in this visit.
Shengxia was a little surprised. Feeling his enthusiasm for work, she couldn't help but praise him again: "Very good." After saying this, Shengxia seemed to suddenly think of something. She pushed the list in her hand and asked Wei Jie: "What about the solution? Have you figured it out?"
Wei Jie was stunned for a moment, then his face turned even redder. Under Sheng Xia's persistent stare, Wei Jie had to confess that no one had discussed this point yet.
"Oh, you didn't dare to discuss it or didn't have time to discuss it?"
Seeing Shengxia's thoughtful look, Wei Jie couldn't help but take a deep breath and grabbed his hair and said bluntly that Shengxia had to deal with this kind of punishment for the time being. No matter how hard it was for Shengxia, at least she had to work harder on this matter. After all, the laws of the planet Volker were now in name only, and many things had to be broken and started over, so they didn't dare to make a conclusion on this matter.
"So you saw that I was too tired and you were concerned about me."
Wei Jie couldn't help but sigh, thinking back to the entire process from when he first met his enemy, the Planet Commander, to now when he witnessed her doing one great thing after another. He wanted to be more arrogant, but in the end he only said "hmm" lightly.
midsummer:……
Wei Jie: ...
midsummer:……
After the two looked at each other, they both felt that the current atmosphere was not right, so Shengxia quickly coughed, took the list and glanced at it, and asked Wei Jie to arrest all these people and send them to the detention center.
“Is this too extreme?” “Don’t worry, they will reappear in the public eye soon.”
Wei Jie subconsciously raised his eyebrows. Although he was confused, he didn't say much.
Things progressed just as Shengxia had expected. Once the police and the federal security team began arresting people, the last group of newcomers immediately stood against the people, shouting "The planet commander lied to you", "I hate you", "Planet Volk has abandoned us", etc., while trying to resist the corresponding federal security team members.
At this time, although some people stood up to support the planetary commander, believing that the planetary commander would not give up on such people, more people began to unconsciously become hostile to the last group of people who entered the melting cave. Coincidentally, that group of people happened to be young and strong with no family concerns.
Soon, something worse happened. The young and middle-aged people thought that they would be arrested and detained by the planet commander because they launched a "food protest".
This was also due to the strict search plan before entering the Rongdong, because these young men had no choice but to vent their anger by grinding the food into paint and smearing it on their bodies to write words to form a protest banner.
"We clearly let those of you with families and children enter the melting cave first, but after you adapted, you formed a group and excluded us."
"That's right. We've been standing outside in the cold all this time just for you. But now, not only do you not appreciate our contributions, you're even trying to arrest us."
"Protest, are you guys that great?!"
In response to the protests of this group of young and middle-aged people, the media also expressed that although the current atmosphere in the melting cave is worrying, they believe that they should trust the planetary commander instead of blindly launching a protest. After all, if the planetary commander really wanted to put everyone in the detention center, how could he let this group of people protest outside?
Some volunteers risked being beaten and stood opposite the protesting young and middle-aged people, trying to dissuade them, but the young and middle-aged people continued to do as they pleased, without any regard for these people.
While the commotion was going on outside, Shengxia sat quietly opposite every thug in the detention center, letting the children like Xizi teach these "explosive thugs" how to make fried rice, stir-fry vegetables, and stir-fry dry pots. If anyone disobeyed, the children like Xizi would be particularly intimidating and would directly hit their legs with a pot, making them angry and helpless.
"Look, Planet Commander, it's not like you can learn to cook this dish overnight. There's a big commotion out there, aren't you going to go out and take care of it?"
Before the thug could even finish his words, the actor came over and glanced at the food in his pot with dissatisfaction: "It's burnt again. Is that so difficult?"
The thug sneered, then looked at Shengxia who was sitting quietly in a seat not far away, watching the news displayed on the big screen in front of the detention center, and asked her what to do?
The actor immediately responded to the thug, saying, "If one time doesn't work, try it twice. If two times don't work, try it three times. If three times don't work, try it again."
"I don't want to be fired anymore. If you have the guts, just shoot me."
Someone put down the wok, and others tried to follow his lead, but Shengxia spoke up: "Every portion of food you cook will be your three meals a day in the future. The detention center won't provide you with extra food. If you're hungry, you can choose not to cook."
"There is enough food, you can eat as much as you want, but you must remember that every meal you make will depend on your own cooking, and how long you will be imprisoned also depends on your cooking skills."
A group of thugs: ...The new planet commander even has unique methods of torturing people.
Then Shengxia snapped his fingers again, and the thugs saw that the police officers in the detention center opposite them also set up pots and prepared dishes.
What is this for?
Before the thugs could figure out what was going on, they saw that the actors had already gone to the other side and were actually teaching the police officers how to make fried rice, stir-fry vegetables, and stir-fry in a dry pot?
The scene was a little too beautiful for a moment. For some reason, this group of thugs felt their competitive spirit inexplicably aroused. No matter what, this was a showdown with the police. If they started at the same time and lost, wouldn't it be...
Thinking of this, some of the thugs started cooking again, while others sneered and complained that they were already good cooks before joining the terrorist organization, so why would they have to be taught by these kids?
They didn't expect that Shengxia actually listened to what they said. Not only that, she even took the initiative to come over and try the dishes they made and gave corresponding comments.
Watching Shengxia taste the dishes they made without any precautions, and commenting that the dishes tasted really good, and looking into their eyes, I felt that if they had not been forced into a desperate situation, perhaps they could have a better future.
This made the thugs dumbfounded. This was completely different from the planet commander they imagined. The police officer on the opposite side even came over to share his freshly cooked dishes with them.
So defenseless, so naive.
A group of thugs: ...
After three days in the detention center, facing the constant protests outside, only Fu Qianshen and Wei Jie showed up and announced that in order to cope with the food problem in the next eight months, personnel from the Federal Security Bureau, police stations, prisons and government halls would go to the "central kitchen" to solve their own food problems and not compete with the public for food in the food area.
At the same time, the food security of doctors and nurses in the hospital will be the responsibility of the staff of the government hall. Of course, doctors and nurses still have the right to go to the food area to try new food.
It has to be said that as soon as this news came out, the original protest was instantly overshadowed. Even the protesting young men who were not arrested found this matter very unfamiliar. This was equivalent to the three federal official agencies directly giving up their right to eat, which had never happened before.
Taking advantage of this period of time, Salman and Barr, who were also members of the mob terrorists, quickly took action to guide these young and middle-aged people who were still protesting, so that they would learn not to believe everything they heard, stop protesting and go to adult education colleges to study.
In the end, a protest that seemed to be so powerful was quietly disintegrated before it even lasted four days. However, Shengxia seemed to feel that this was not enough and asked Ji Zhuifeng if he had any other means to stir up public opinion again.
Ji Zhuifeng, who was still in the detention center, turned to look at Shengxia in disbelief. "You knew they couldn't cause any trouble, yet you let them do it. You must have some ulterior motive."
Shengxia took a sip of hot water and solemnly told Ji Zhuifeng, "I'm going to do something big soon. Eight months is a short time. Once the cold winter is over, a large amount of misleading news and fabricated negative information will bombard the people of Volk Planet day and night. I need to repeatedly desensitize them during these eight months. That way, even if there are criminals who want to incite people again, they will find that the people of Volk Planet are no longer the same as before."
"You want to change everyone," Ji Zhuifeng said, adding subconsciously and hastily, "Then you need to pay more attention to your own safety. After all, all the arrows will be aimed at you."
But at this moment, Shengxia burst into laughter and bluntly said that she was not the focus of the planet's future: "The people are."
Ji Zhuifeng: ...
"A mature planet and management system must learn to manage itself." Shengxia couldn't help but sigh. Ji Zhuifeng looked at her expression, which didn't seem joking, and couldn't help but sigh: "Sometimes I really don't understand what you're trying to do."
"I want to retire, live in retirement, and live a peaceful life."
As soon as Shengxia said this, Ji Zhuifeng immediately waved his hand at him: "Come on, forget it. You're talking about the days I've always dreamed of."
"So, don't look so gloomy and think your life could be lost at any time. Even if you're going on an undercover mission, remember that your life is precious."
Ji Zhuifeng: ...
Four days later, a new restaurant opened in the food district, called "Thug Fried Rice", and the main dish of this restaurant was the main dish of the federal official agency's "Central Kitchen".
As soon as the restaurant opened, it attracted a large number of people to try it out. At this time, people also discovered that the head chef of this restaurant not only changed every day, but more importantly, they were all the third batch of people who had been arrested and detained in the detention center some time ago and entered Rongdong.
"Yes, that's right. Can't we just stop making trouble and cook? Well, some of these dishes will also be supplied to the police station. What, add some extra ingredients? That's a good idea of yours, but don't let anyone else know."
"Hey, remember to give a good review after eating. This will help me accumulate points to get the recipes and course books I want to study."
"Eat, eat! Don't expect me to be nice to you. We are thugs! Thugs!"
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