Gourmet: Midnight Vending-Chapter 327 - 304: The Ecological Garden on the Brink of Closure

Chapter 327: Chapter 304: The Ecological Garden on the Brink of Closure

After tasting the lion’s head he made himself, Chen Mo felt that although Zhou Yu and the others thought this lion’s head was amazing, there were still some minor imperfections to him.

Greasy.

Fatty but not greasy is always relative. The first bite might indeed be fatty but not greasy, but after eating three or four?

It would definitely become greasy.

Of course, for the people eating this dish, maybe they never even considered that someone would eat three or four lion’s heads.

But Chen Mo, well, had this habit since childhood, though it might not be a particularly good one.

When he encountered something delicious, something he liked, he had to indulge to the fullest in one go!

If something is tasty, he must eat it ravenously, until he’s had enough!

When he met a girl he liked, he’d confess. It was simply a matter of acceptance or rejection; if he didn’t confess, there would be absolutely no chance at all.

As for face? Chen Mo doesn’t need it. After all, aside from himself, everyone else in this world is just NPCs, so why care so much?

This is Chen Mo’s way of life.

Without saying much, Chen Mo directly took out the ingredients he had bought earlier from the cabinet. Some of these were leftovers from a summer camp with Xiao Jiao, and some were leftovers from helping Fang Zhizhong with a rehearsal.

Not too much or too little, thirty pounds of pork belly, enough to make about a hundred lion’s heads.

Being new here, he didn’t know much about the market situation, so Chen Mo thought making this many at once would be okay.

Currently, Chen Mo found that the most troublesome part of making lion’s head was actually the meat chopping stage. With his current knife skills, he couldn’t just chop blindly; he had to concentrate fully and focus on the progress bar, ensuring every chop cut into the meat but didn’t mince it completely.

This was the secret Chen Mo hadn’t told Zhou Yu at Wanglong Mountain.

Only in this way, those seemingly small meat chunks still have numerous strands of meat fiber connecting them, so they wouldn’t fall apart when stewing the lion’s head.

He took out the pork belly and began slicing it.

Meanwhile, he adjusted the temperature of the air conditioner to be cooler, as one can easily sweat when highly focused.

While Chen Mo was completely engrossed in cutting meat, he didn’t notice that the street vendors lined up with him suddenly became tense.

Everyone’s eyes uniformly looked at the two people walking out together from the Ecological Garden.

"Now, the benefits brought by the ecological garden are no longer enough to maintain the daily upkeep expenses within the park. The higher-ups mean that continuing like this is not a solution; if necessary, we might lay off some temporary workers first."

"Ah, Director Zhang, those temporary workers usually do the hardest and most tiring work for the least pay; it’s not appropriate to lay them off."

Zhang Huixiang stopped in his tracks and turned slightly, "Then what do you suggest? It’s not just the temporary workers; if this continues, I’m afraid you might not even be able to keep your position as the park manager!"

Liu Xu felt both awkward and troubled, not knowing what to say for a moment.

When they initially built the ecological garden, they chose the urban-rural junction with the aim of improving the environment here and boosting the sales heat of nearby newly built housing.

Later, alright, the ecological garden was built, but the real estate market started to falter!

Now, although the environment around the ecological garden is indeed good, the houses nearby aren’t selling. With no one residing in the area, other facilities can’t keep up. If other facilities can’t keep up, even fewer people come to live here.

It’s become a vicious cycle.

Yet the ecological garden must ensure daily maintenance work, which is different from regular parks, with greenery and various types of vegetation throughout the park.

Not only were many employees hired to trim the vegetation, but also numerous technical personnel to treat these plants, and personnel alone cost a considerable amount every month.

Initially, the higher department was willing to bear this part of the cost to promote local development, but later, they saw no hope, and now they are reluctant to give this cost.

To maintain the ecological garden, Liu Xu later started charging an entrance fee.

Now, while it was free, there were still people coming daily to stroll, but after starting to charge, even those people disappeared.

Something even Liu Xu himself found funny: the main income of the ecological garden now comes from the daily stall fees paid by the few vendors at the park entrance, totaling about 400-500 yuan a day.

With this, the higher-ups recently felt these vendors at the entrance were somewhat tarnishing the cityscape, intending to have Liu Xu drive them away.

So when the vendors saw these two approaching, their expressions all became tense.

"Director Liu is here? Come, come, I just roasted some fresh starch sausages, they’re hot and delicious, let me get you two. Would you like some chili?"

"Oh, Director Liu! Here’s my newly developed durian-flavored grilled squid, try it and give some feedback!"

"Stinky tofu just made, Director Liu, here, by the way, can I still continue to set up my stall tomorrow?"

As soon as Liu Xu came over, he was immediately surrounded by a dozen or so vendors, each of them holding their snacks, faces full of ingratiation and worry.

Zhang Huixiang, who was the business contact for this area, was immediately a bit dizzy seeing this scene.

He looked at Liu Xu, bewildered, and Liu Xu looked at the vendors, also bewildered.

"Everyone, everyone!" Liu Xu quickly raised his hands, "I just had a meal with Director Zhang, I know what everyone is worried about, let’s talk about it... Hey, take away that durian-flavored grilled squid!"

"Director Liu, with the city promoting cultural creativity everywhere, we’re not allowed to set up stalls, and finally having a place here, even though foot traffic isn’t high, at least we have a means to make a living, you can’t remove the stalls in the ecological garden!"

"Yes, Director Liu, this is our lifeline!"

Liu Xu took a deep breath.

He certainly didn’t want to remove them either, the stall fees totaled over ten thousand yuan a month, even mosquitoes are meat.

But now the intention from above was clear, that since the suburban area couldn’t take off, it might be better to cut losses decisively!

Faced with numerous vendors pleading earnestly, Liu Xu didn’t know how to respond for a moment.

He looked towards Zhang Huixiang.

Director Zhang was also bewildered, thinking of discussing this matter with Liu Xu before coming, not expecting to encounter this situation.

"So, everyone, don’t worry yet. The matter of the ecological garden hasn’t been concretely decided yet, how to proceed depends on above, we are just executors. I can only say, before any specific policies come out, you definitely can set up your stalls here every day, rest assured!" Zhang Huixiang could only use these conventional words to deal with them.

At this moment, Zhang Huixiang’s nose suddenly twitched a few times.

Amid the strong durian squid scent, he suddenly caught a certain indescribable aroma.

Looking around, he didn’t find which food from the vendor’s hands emitted this aroma.

Zhang Huixiang looked up into the distance.

"Is it that car, the yellow one?"