Chapter 181: Pull noodle’s lady boss Chapter 181: Pull noodle’s lady boss “That’s such a rip-off.”
“Isn’t it just? It’s a monopoly. Only one place , so they can set whatever price they want.”
Brother Chi shook his head; he also thought the price was outrageously high, which is why he had never gone there.
All he could do now was rely on what he’d heard to tell Lin Murong.
“Ah well, nothing to be done about it,” since he was going to check it out anyway.
Lin Murong exchanged some pleasantries with Brother Chi before parting ways with him.
“We’ve got the lay of the land; just keep walking down this street, and we’ll eventually see it.” Lin Murong rejoined the other two.
While Lin Murong was cozying up to Brother Chi, the other two instinctively kept their distance. Once Lin Murong split off from Brother Chi, the three of them converged again.
Lin Murong quietly relayed the information he’d managed to gather.
As they walked, Chi Yan’s hands became filled with several bags of grain they would need to trade for entry; they couldn’t possibly pull it out when they got there.
They needed to have it ready for the exchange.
He was quick when he took the grain out, and nobody noticed.
He then distributed a few bags to Lin Murong and Su Yinhe.
“Brother Chi, you’ve got so much grain,” Lin Murong said, grinning as he looked at the grain in his hands.
“Brother Chi, give me a few more bags. I want to see if I can become their vvvvvvvvvvip.”
Chi Yan: “Do you remember what you’re here for?”
“Me? I’m… here to become a vvvvvvvvvvip.”
He didn’t want to communicate.
Might as well drop dead.
When Su Yinhe got his allotment of grain, he sneaked a peek. It was all old stock.
Who knows where Chi Yan had scrounged it up from.
This street sure was long. It took them a while to reach it, and this place was the center of the entire Underground City.
Upon their arrival, there was no need to search; they could see it straight away because a lot of people were queuing up. There were also guards tossing people out.
“No money and you’re looking for women? What, hoping for a freebie?” The guard flung a man out like a dead dog.
The man was one of the rare fatties left in the apocalypse. After being thrown out, he still tried to get back in, weeping with snot and tears streaming down his face.
“Let me in, I want in. I paid, what right do you have to keep me out?!”
“You’ve already spent what little money you had.”
The guard, clearly impatient, kicked him away and continued to stand his post.
The perfect embodiment of absolute indifference.
The trio joined the queue.
The line was long, but the pace was brisk.
Because most people hadn’t brought enough grain to give.
They were quickly driven away by those collecting grain, and when they tried to linger, guards kicked them away.
Brutal and simple, completely ignoring their wails.
“Please, check again, weigh it again,” someone who really wanted to get in pleaded after being kicked, vainly hoping for another chance.
And then was kicked again by the guard.
“Go, go, go! If you don’t have enough grain, don’t waste our time. Come back when you’ve gathered enough.”
“But I do have enough.”
“If it’s not enough, it’s not enough. Go, go, go!”
Another kick followed.
Su Yinhe was baffled watching this.
To see women, they really were…
They were up shortly, and they had more than enough grain, even some to spare after paying.
At first, the person collecting the grain had a scowl on his face. Too many paupers had shown up that day, and everyone he had checked didn’t have enough.
A total waste of his time.
But when it came time to check Su Yinhe and his companions, discovering they had ample amounts, and three of them at that, his face lit up with a smile immediately.
He lavished them with praise and even had a guard escort them inside.
The guards, who would normally kick people around, treated them with the utmost respect.
After learning it was their first time there, they even took the initiative to introduce them to the inside situation and, seeing them carrying food, were very eager to help carry it for them.
Their main appeal was enthusiasm.
“Enjoy your time and your meal,” the guard said with a smile as he left.
“Do we count as VIPs?” Lin Murong asked as he took back his food, still a bit stunned. The difference in treatment was too obvious, wasn’t it?
Was this the difference between having food or not?
All thanks to Chi Yan.
Once inside, it was indeed different from the outside.
There were women here.
Each shopfront had one or two, sometimes three women, dressed skimpy, with seductive eyes.
Flirting and fooling around with the male patrons.
Passing men would often go up and cop a feel.
Lin Murong’s mouth gaped open again.
“I… I just feel isn’t something we can save,” he said weakly.
Su Yinhe spoke, “I have a very bad feeling about this.” Initially wanting to save people, but it seemed… there were a bit too many.
The most common establishments here were gambling dens, almost at every few steps.
And then there was, surprisingly, a hair salon.
Quite many of them, too, very tiny, not many people outside, but with several revealing posters on the walls, clearly not your respectable hair salon.
And at this time, there probably shouldn’t be many people in the mood to do their hair.
So this “hair salon” was actually a low-end…
The three of them ended up in a noodle shop. It only had a female owner, who was covered in nothing but two thin pieces of cloth.
The noodle shop was doing quite well, nearly full, and the patrons who came to “eat noodles” didn’t have any noodles in front of them but were all staring intently at the owner as she kneaded the dough.
When the owner kneaded a bit too vigorously, her clothes would reveal a little too much.
And then the eyes of these patrons would simultaneously widen.
Terrifying, truly terrifying.
None of these shops were legitimate.
Su Yinhe wanted to leave but figured that there seemed to be nowhere to go outside either.
The three of them could only find an empty table and sit down.
They offered boiled water here. Lin Murong, after sitting down, wanted to drink some water to calm his nerves. He picked up a glass on the table, about to pour, when he suddenly saw the guy next to him holding a glass, licking it while ogling at the owner.
Lin Murong put the glass down.
And silently shed a tear.
It was, perhaps, a bit scary.
Lin Murong poked Chi Yan urgently, signaling that he wanted some water.
Chi Yan tossed him a bottle of mineral water.
Lin Murong discreetly crouched down, his body at table height, and started to drink.
Everyone was watching the owner, so no one noticed him.
He finished the bottle of water in one go, then handed the bottle back to Chi Yan, who put it back into their storage space.
Everyone was waiting for the owner’s noodles. Since they had entered, she had been pulling dough for half an hour before finally ready to cook it.
After cooking, the owner started to auction off the noodles.
“There are ten bowls of noodles total. Whosever brings the most food gets the noodles,” the owner said, then touched her lips suggestively.
The owner had put on makeup, her bright red lips opening and closing, instantly heightening the atmosphere.
“Gorgeous, look at mine, I have a lot of food. I want two bowls!”
“I want three bowls!”
“Me! I want three bowls too!”