Chapter 303: What a Sickeningly Sweet Couple

Ever since being surrounded by the army of international students last time, Ma Ma Zhaodi had deeply felt the terror of the human wave tactic.

No matter where he was in the Central City, once spotted by a single international student, within just three minutes, a massive number of other international students would inevitably start spawning in the surrounding area.

Moreover, that crowd was like the endless mode of Plants vs. Zombies, wave after wave, with no end in sight; the intensity of their enthusiasm reminded him of the turbulent years back in school when he and students from other grades fought over food in the cafeteria.

Ma Ma Zhaodi truly hadn't expected that, while in the Central City, he would personally experience the feeling of "being submerged in the ocean of the masses," nor did he expect the international students' net to cover the entire Central City; the most excessive part was that, for a bite to eat, international students from neighboring cities seemed to have already come over to find him; to prevent his plan from being ruined, he had to adopt a purchase-limiting strategy—for this very reason, he had specifically joined this group of international students' chat.

"I'll give you ninety percent daily; each of your sides sends one person to pick it up, pay the money and take the food," he said in the group chat: "Take it and leave; don't come blocking the road every day, or in less than two days, I'll have to be called in by the Central City Police Department for a heart-to-heart."

"Why not one hundred percent?"

"Don't ask; just consider it promoting food culture and launching it onto the international stage."

"I protest!"

"Protest denied; go eat your buns—anyway, from now on, when you see my stall in the city, don't make noise, and don't come up to buy; your share has already been given to you, so be frugal when distributing it yourselves, and don't eat it every single meal."

"Oh."

Facts proved that Ma Ma Zhaodi's approach worked quite well; master-level culinary skills not only enhanced the taste of the food but also significantly boosted cooking efficiency, speeding up every part from ingredient preparation to processing to cooking techniques; now, he only needed to spend one day cooking to barely meet the international students' needs for the next day—at the very least, everyone could eat once within two days.

The remaining time was basically him riding the San San Bengzi all over the city.

"Let me check my asset points... thirty thousand?"

Ma Ma Zhaodi sighed inwardly; asset points multiplied by ten really made money come fast; after deducting expenses for cooking, buying ingredients, preparing materials, and purchasing skills, the net profit reached thirty thousand in the first three weeks; by the time Barry woke up, he felt his asset points would reach several million.

"I'd like to ask," Ma Ma Zhaodi asked the system: "If something goes wrong halfway through this illegal border crossing mission, say I get killed by some boss, can I try again?"

【System Notice: If you fail to be recognized as part of that world's timeline during the first illegal border crossing, the probability of being caught will surge during a second attempt on the same world; and if you are caught and deported, that world will no longer allow illegal border crossings.】

"Got it, basically just try not to die."

Ma Ma Zhaodi casually purchased an Immortality Totem—although according to his memory, before Barry woke up, no particularly extreme disasters or villains would likely appear in the Central City, but he didn't plan to gamble; life-saving items had to be bought sooner or later, so it was better to buy them in advance now.

"And there's still fifty thousand left—let's save it for now."

Just as Ma Ma Zhaodi was calculating in his mind, a thin middle-aged man arrived at the San San Bengzi stall, arm-in-arm with a woman.

"Elizabeth, you should know, I still have a lot of work to do today."

"I know, I know," the woman stuck her tongue out at him: "The great Mr. Denton always has so much work unfinished; his research concerns the future of all mankind, the tomorrow and hope of this nation, and the breakthrough progress in the history of human medicine—so, Mr. Denton, when will your research finally concern your lovely wife?"

Denton sighed; it was obvious he couldn't withstand such an offensive.

"Alright, Elizabeth," he said: "I know I don't often accompany you out these days; sorry about that."

"Hmph, I forgive you—as long as you buy this for me!" Ma Ma Zhaodi watched the couple approach his San San Bengzi expressionlessly, suddenly feeling an impulse to turn around and leave.

I came to sell food, not to look for food; you two just randomly grab a lucky audience member and start showering them with PDA; isn't this indiscriminate attack behavior a bit excessive?

Denton spoke first: "Hello, Mr. —what are these?"

"Food."

"Uh, I mean, I know these are food, but what exactly are they?"

"Dim sum."

"Electric shock?"

In the past, Ma Ma Zhaodi would probably have given an answer like "Chinese handmade traditional dessert" or "Chinese handmade royal dessert," but now he was stuffed from eating PDA and didn't really want to deal with this couple of sickeningly sweet spouses.

But it was obvious that Elizabeth was very interested in these foods with unique appearances.

"I know, I know!" She raised her hand: "I've heard of this term; it's a word from the Chinese side."

Ma Ma Zhaodi raised an eyebrow.

"We call it dim sum over there; if you say it your way, it's called dessert," he replied: "Although it's from a roadside food cart, the price isn't cheap."

"How much?"

"Salty-sweet Ox Tongue Pastry and Yunnan Ham Mooncake are five dollars each; sweet Victory Cake and Walnut Cake are also five dollars each," Ma Ma Zhaodi said: "Leaving aside material costs, the taste really has no difference in quality, so I just set the price the same for all; however, eating depends on your taste; if you like salty, buy the first two types; if you like sweet, buy the last two."

"Sounds like it's not particularly expensive."

"Five dollars a piece is already considered expensive here; over there, things like Walnut Cake are much cheaper," Ma Ma Zhaodi pouted: "It's food for common people; if it's too expensive, who can afford it?"

Denton seemed interested; he said to Ma Ma Zhaodi: "Give us two of each; we want to taste them first."

Facts proved that master-level culinary skills truly lived up to their price of one hundred twenty thousand asset points—the couple first spent forty dollars to taste the pastries once, then spent another two hundred dollars to buy ten of each type.

"Uh, do you accept card payments here?" Denton asked, unable to hold back while chewing a piece of Victory Cake.

The soft, sticky, and chewy Victory Cake burst forth with a faint osmanthus fragrance in his mouth, along with a sweet red bean paste flavor; this batch was made with osmanthus and red bean paste, so the color presented a beautiful pale yellow.

It was clear that Denton had no resistance to this dim sum.

He looked down, flipping through his wallet: "I don't have that much cash on me; I want to buy more..."

"Sorry, small business, can't accept cards," Ma Ma Zhaodi shrugged: "It's already surprising that you brought so much cash on you; if you want more, come back and buy next time you see me."

(End of Chapter)