Chapter 235: A 500,000 Hot Pot

Du Qiangwei scoffed at the barbecue stall owner's words.

High prices are only temporary?

Don't kid yourself; how could Ye Cang possibly notice such trivial matters? Right now, he is likely thinking about how to launch a larger war and how to build more weapons.

Morgana, standing to the side, saw at a glance that Du Qiangwei strongly disagreed with the barbecue stall owner's words, and she was surely about to refute him again.

If she were allowed to keep refuting him, she feared she wouldn't be able to eat this barbecue at all.

Consequently, Morgana hurriedly said, "Boss, I think what you said makes sense."

After saying this, she returned to Du Qiangwei's side and whispered into Du Qiangwei's ear, "Qiangwei, my money didn't just blow in on the wind."

"Stop talking, let me eat some barbecue; I'm starving to death."

Because the two were pressed so closely together, the hot air from Morgana's breath when she spoke hit Du Qiangwei's ear entirely.

From childhood to the present, this was the first time she had experienced such intimate contact.

Morgana's few short sentences made Du Qiangwei's face flush completely red.

"Stay... stay away from me..." Du Qiangwei said in a voice barely louder than a mosquito's, while attempting to push Morgana away.

But it was unclear whether Morgana was pressed too tightly or if she herself had lost her strength.

She tried several times before finally pushing Morgana away.

Morgana, having been pushed away, noticed Du Qiangwei's anomaly immediately, but she didn't speak of it, instead revealing a mischievous smirk.

Countless bold ideas surfaced in Morgana's mind.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, half a month had passed.

During these past half a month, Morgana had been with Du Qiangwei the entire time.

Whether eating or sleeping, they had never been separated.

At first, Du Qiangwei still tried to keep Morgana at a distance, but as time went on, she soon abandoned that idea.

As of today, the two were already inseparable.

As for their relationship... um... it's hard to say... ah!

On Ye Cang's side...

During this half-month, it could be said that things were calm and peaceful; nothing happened, and everything was just as it had been before the Taotie invasion.

During this time, the old man had been busy preparing for the memorial service for the predecessors, busier than he had ever been.

If not for Ye Cang giving him the Special Protein, his body likely wouldn't have been able to hold up halfway through the preparations.

Meanwhile, Ye Cang had been at the Stellar-class Warship construction base, resolving problems both large and small.

Up to now, the general framework of the Stellar-class Warship had been completed, and the energy system had also been mostly constructed.

It is believed that in a few more days, the first Stellar-class Warship belonging to humanity will be completed, and that will be the end of the Taotie.

This afternoon, Ye Cang walked out of the Stellar-class Warship construction base.

Once out, he headed straight for the downtown area of Beizhixing.

Because this evening, the Stellar-class Warship had completed a phased stage of construction.

All the scientific research personnel voted unanimously to have a hot pot together that night to celebrate properly.

Originally, Ye Cang wanted to just call someone to have it delivered, but the researchers suggested that Ye Cang should go buy it himself.

The reason was simple: things bought by the Chief Engineer taste better.

Ye Cang naturally understood that this was just for fun, so he didn't want to be a killjoy and agreed without hesitation.

Thus, he headed to the city center to purchase ingredients.

Although the distance from the base to the city was somewhat far, for Ye Cang, this was not a problem.

Soon, he arrived in the city center.

After finding a supermarket, Ye Cang began today's shopping.

There were about a hundred researchers at the construction base, so the amount of ingredients that needed to be purchased was exceptionally large.

After Ye Cang busied himself for a while, he found he couldn't keep up, so he directly had Qing Long bring Liu Chuang over in a truck to help.

When the ingredients were purchased and it was time to check out, Ye Cang was completely stunned.

"Um, I don't think I heard you clearly regarding how much these things cost; could you say it again?" Ye Cang looked at the supermarket manager in front of him and said expressionlessly.

The supermarket manager immediately repeated, "Mr. Ye, for the food you purchased, after the 20% discount, it comes to a total of 500,000."

500,000?!

For Ye Cang, money had long since ceased to be an issue, but!

500,000 for a hot pot meal... isn't this a bit excessive? And he hadn't bought anything with an outrageous price tag.

It was all the most common hot pot items, even if it was for a hundred people.

Ye Cang was not the only one surprised by this price; Qing Long and Liu Chuang were equally shocked.

"No way, what is this!" Liu Chuang said, "What kind of hot pot is this? Is this hot pot made of gold?"

"500,000 for one meal? Why don't you charge 500,000 for a loaf of bread? You're just price-gouging, you know! Do you believe I'll go report you guys?"

The supermarket manager felt very aggrieved after hearing this.

"Customer, you are really wronging us; how would we dare to price-gouge!"

"If you want to blame someone, blame the fact that prices are rising too fast."

As he spoke, the supermarket manager picked up a 500-gram box of beef tripe and said, "Originally, this box was only 50 yuan, but now it's gone up 5 or 6 times."

"Also, this beef and mutton are in the same situation."

"If you really don't believe me, I can show you our wholesale costs."

Liu Chuang did not accept the supermarket manager's explanation, and just as he was preparing to say something more, he was stopped by Qing Long.

Qing Long picked up a box of beef, turned to Ye Cang, and said, "Chief Engineer, if we calculate it this way."

"A single person eating a regular hot pot costs nearly 1,000?"

"These prices are truly too exaggerated!"

Ye Cang did not speak, only silently taking out his bank card to pay the bill.

Immediately after, he loaded the ingredients into the vehicle and headed straight for the construction base.

On the way back, Ye Cang sat in the passenger seat without saying a word, which made the atmosphere inside the car very oppressive.

Liu Chuang, who was driving, did not even dare to take a deep breath.

He was terrified that Ye Cang might find the sound of his breathing unpleasant and strike him.

Of course, this was purely Liu Chuang overthinking things.

Ye Cang did not have the habit of taking his anger out on others.

As for why he was silent, it was because he was using Zhizi to check when prices had become so expensive.

After checking, Ye Cang found out.

The time when prices began to rise was after he defeated the various nations, at which point they started to increase slowly.

It wasn't until all nations surrendered and Huaxia achieved great unification that prices rose the fastest!

It is no exaggeration to say that it was almost a different story every hour.

Even a fool could see that someone was maliciously driving up prices.

Just as Ye Cang was deep in thought, Liu Chuang's cautious voice rang out.

"Chief Engineer, we have arrived at the base."

"Mm." After Ye Cang acknowledged this, he added, "Liu Chuang, thank you and Qing Long for your hard work tonight."

"The two of you stay and eat together."