Chapter 127 Meow
"Protection fee?" Jian Yunlan touched his nose.
"Yes," the pointed-faced man said as a matter of course, "We are all protected by Brother Li in this area, so of course we have to pay protection fees. The position you want..."
The skinny monkey pointed to the empty seat next to the pancake stand and said with his hands on his hips, "That's one of the best seats. The protection fee is 500 credit points a week!"
Fifty credit points a week, many black market vendors can't even make that much money in a month.
This is quite a big ask.
Most people would bargain for the price, and Shouhou said this number also leaves room for bargaining.
Unexpectedly, the handsome young man in front of him agreed immediately.
Jian Yunlan smiled and said, "Okay. How do I pay the protection fee?"
"Of course I paid with your ID card," the skinny monkey rubbed his hands excitedly. This must be a fat sheep. As he spoke, the skinny monkey snatched the thin card from Jian Yunlan's hand, "Here you go!"
The skinny monkey excitedly took the card and walked to the side to swipe the money.
He likes young people like this who are ignorant of the world the most.
People like this who obediently pay protection fees must have saved up money for a long time, and are desperately trying to make a name for themselves in the black market food district.
But the skinny monkey was experienced. Just one look at the big bucket in Jian Yunlan's hand told him that he was probably selling porridge, and it wasn't fragrant at all. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to sell a bowl in a day, and would probably lose all his money.
But they can make a profit by collecting protection fees, and they want to get as many of these fat sheep as possible.
The skinny monkey took Jian Yunlan's ID card and swiped it in front of the card reader, with a smug look on his face.
But the next second...
"Transfer failed! The credit balance of this card is: zero."
Skinny monkey: “?”
Other stall owners: “???”
The skinny guy thought the card machine was malfunctioning and tried a few more times, but the card balance still showed zero.
He walked up to Jian Yunlan angrily: "Are you kidding me??!!"
The other stall owners looked at Jian Yunlan with an expression as if they wanted to say something but hesitated. They wanted to persuade him, but they did not dare to speak because of the tyranny of the skinny monkey.
—— Skinny Monkey himself is not a big shot, but the man he relies on, Li Zhou, has recently become a leader among the mercenaries. He is very powerful and they cannot afford to offend him.
Jian Yunlan blinked innocently: "No. Why do you say that?"
"There is no money in this card!" the skinny monkey screamed, "You don't have a dime, how dare you say you can pay the protection fee?"
Jian Yunlan was also shocked and said in disbelief, "Oh, there's no money in the card. I thought there was money... No, your card is broken, right? Why don't you try again?"
"..." The skinny monkey looked at him suspiciously.
Jian Yunlan's expression was sincere and his appearance was good-looking; he didn't look like someone who would lie.
The skinny monkey then took the card and swiped it through the machine with doubt:
"drop--"
"Transfer failed! The credit balance of this card is: zero."
“Friendly reminder: Please do not continue to try to transfer money, otherwise this machine will doubt your IQ.”
Skinny Monkey: “…”
Others: “…………”
The stall owners couldn't help but cover their faces, looking like they wanted to laugh but were trying hard to hold it back.
The skinny monkey's face turned purple: "You kid——"
Jian Yunlan: “.”
The skinny monkey looked like he was about to explode.
But the miraculous thing was that after he gasped for breath several times, he did not explode, but instead finally recovered.
...Forget it, what's the point of getting angry with this kind of person?
The skinny monkey looked at Jian Yunlan with drooping eyes. A low-level vendor like Jian Yunlan, who couldn't even sell a few bowls of porridge a day and was about to be kicked out of the black market, was not in the same league as him at all. It would be a waste to get angry about him.
"If you can't pay the protection fee, get out of here and don't even think about setting up a stall in this good shop." The skinny monkey snorted coldly, "Don't blame me for not reminding you kindly, you should find another way out as soon as possible. For someone like you, if you can sell a bowl of porridge under my nose... hehe."
The stall owners looked at Jian Yunlan with pity.
Having offended the skinny monkey, this young man will have a hard time in this food area.
"Do you mean that you want to trip me up?" Jian Yunlan asked bluntly.
The skinny monkey was choked by the question.
This kid's behavior is so weird!
Not like a normal person at all!
"So what?" the skinny monkey said with an unpleasant look on his face.
"Not so good," Jian Yunlan spread his hands, "If you try to trip me up, I'm certainly not someone you can easily bully. I'll fight back."
Wow.
The stall owners watched the fun.
This guy is not simple. Can he fight back?
The skinny monkey was almost laughing out of anger: "How do you fight back?"
Jian Yunlan said seriously, "I won't sell you even one bowl of my porridge."
He spoke with great force.
The whole place fell silent.
Ten seconds later.
Other stall owners: “…”
Skinny Monkey: “…Hahahahahahahaha——”
The skinny monkey couldn't help but burst into laughter. He laughed so hard that he was out of breath and even tears were about to come out. The mercenaries eating at the table next to them couldn't help but burst into laughter when they heard this, and looked at Jian Yunlan with mockery in their eyes.
A food vendor said that the punishment for "an eye for an eye" was to not let people buy his porridge?
"Do you really think your porridge is some precious thing?" The skinny monkey laughed exaggeratedly, "Oh, I'm so scared. I can't even buy your porridge! Guess what... There are at least hundreds of porridge shops in this food court, if not thousands!"
"Are you some kind of cooking god? Who would want your porridge?"
After saying that, the skinny monkey waved his hand and stopped looking at him.
The mercenaries did the same, continuing to drink, eat meat, and play finger-guessing games. This was just an insignificant episode.
Even the stall owner who had just felt a little sympathetic towards Jian Yunlan was no longer interested in him and instead threw himself into the busy work of setting up his stall.
——This young man is really too conceited and overestimates his own abilities.
It's just a bowl of porridge. If he doesn't sell it, there are plenty of people selling it. Why should diners have to buy it from him? The biggest taboo in this black market stall is to think that you are irreplaceable.
If you are too confident, you will be slapped in the face sooner or later.
Skinny Monkey and the stall owners all thought so.
But they never imagined that the reversal would come so quickly...
Ten minutes later.
There is an additional stall in the most remote corner of the food area.
This corner is very far away from the entrance to the food area. It takes several turns to get there, and you may not even see two or three diners in the whole day - the things sold in the food area are all similar, and the mercenaries are simple-minded. Why would they take a detour if they can buy things at the door?
Only vendors who cannot afford to pay the protection fee will be assigned here.
Their prices are also the cheapest in the entire food area. Pancakes outside cost ten credit points, but here they only cost two credit points, or even one.
The vendors here all had lifeless faces. When they saw people coming, they didn't even have the heart to shout. They just numbly held the handle of the spoon and stirred the food in front of them.
The food on many stalls was already cold.
After Jian Yunlan found an empty spot, he put his porridge bucket there, then he took out a lamp and hung it in front of the stall.
The warm yellow light shone down, adding a touch of warmth to the cold porridge shop.
Then, Jian Yunlan took out the charcoal from her small backpack, lit it, poured the porridge into the casserole again, and heated it on the stove.
The charcoal was bought outside and cost Jian Yunlan twenty credit points. After each refugee was accepted by the Eastern Base, there would be twenty credit points in his account, and Jian Yunlan used those twenty credit points to buy this batch of charcoal.
...Looking at Jian Yunlan's actions, the other vendors glanced at him calmly and did not show much interest.
They have seen too many newcomers like Jian Yunlan. Many of them were like this at the beginning. Although they were assigned to remote locations because they could not pay protection fees, they still excitedly felt that they were the chosen ones who could change their fate. They bought charcoal and shouted.
In the end, no matter how hard you work, you can only make a living.
"It's better to save the energy." Someone muttered, "It's a waste of effort anyway."
Then, the corner fell silent again.
Jian Yunlan ignored the cold looks and concentrated on setting up the stall. Although I don’t have a tricycle anymore and I’m a little unskilled, this is my first time setting up a fixed stall in a food area.
Just setting up a stall is enough to make him happy.
Soon, the charcoal crackled and burned, emitting warmth.
The warm porridge in the thermos bucket also began to bubble up under the heat...
.
Ten o'clock at night.
As large numbers of mercenaries completed their missions and returned to the base, the food area of the black market became completely bustling.
——The Eastern Base has a special official canteen, but most of the food sold in the canteen is nutritional supplements. They are expensive and can fill the stomach quickly, but they don’t taste good.
After a tiring day of tasks, most low-level and even high-level mercenaries would rather come to the black market. Although the food is not that delicious, at least they can have a bowl of hot porridge to warm their stomachs and relax with friends over a drink.
Porridge is one of the most popular products here, and most vendors add a lot of spices and seasonings in order to compete.
As the D-level mercenary Wang Peng walked into the dining area, all kinds of complex aromas rushed into his nostrils.
The stalls at the entrance of the food area are the busiest and have the most expensive protection fees. Looking around, there are already queues in front of several porridge stalls.
Those wisps of aroma with a lot of seasonings added came from those stalls.
Eighty percent of the mercenaries went straight to the stalls as soon as they came in, except for some low-level mercenaries with less money, who would go to the stalls in the corners, hoping to find some cheap food to fill their stomachs.
Wang Peng is one of these "cash-strapped" mercenaries.
He cast a longing look towards the popular stalls. Although I know that the aroma comes from the seasonings, it is really fragrant and piping hot. After a day's work, who wouldn't want to drink a mouthful of fragrant hot porridge?
Although the porridge sold at the small stalls in the corner is cheap, the porridge is always cold. In order to save costs, the stall owners are reluctant to spend money on charcoal.
but……
Thinking of his sick wife at home and the children in the nursery waiting for his childcare fee, Wang Peng sighed and walked to the corner.
The further you go in, the quieter and more deserted it becomes.
After turning a corner, Wang Peng was suddenly startled.
——He smelled the aroma of porridge.
Different from the smell of the condiments outside, it has a natural, light aroma of rice porridge, the unique salty fragrance of century egg and lean meat porridge, the freshness of chopped green onions, and a faint heat.
The aroma of the porridge was so rich that it wafted from the beginning of the alley to the end.
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