"What’s this?"

A young woman had blocked Aunt Fang’s path.

In the basin she held with both hands were fried eggs that had been soaking in meat broth from earlier. These eggs were the "scraps" left over after Su Chen had used them to make the soup base.

If they hadn’t used so many eggs for this meal, this stuff would have just been thrown away. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"They’re eggs."

"Eggs?" The young woman looked curiously at the dark, soy-colored broth. A rich, meaty aroma wafted up to her, and at the bottom of the broth, she could faintly see a few thin, white-and-yellow slices. "Fried eggs?"

Aunt Fang grunted in affirmation.

"I’ve never seen fried eggs like this before. Can I try one?"

The warehouse girl was very curious, mainly because this company’s cafeteria had given her too many surprises today.

She had always thought that people who ran company cafeterias were the boss’s cronies. To make money, they would stop at nothing, making the food as terrible as possible—just like the cafeteria at her own company.

Who would have thought that this company’s cafeteria not only served delicious food at prices cheaper than outside restaurants, but even made their staff meals so unique?

Don’t you just eat fried eggs straight up? Who eats them soaked in broth?

’Is there some special technique to this?’

Aunt Fang was at a loss for what to do.

’This girl looks so thin and small, but when she came in to get her food earlier, I think I heard she ate four big meat buns in one sitting. Is she still not full?’

However, Aunt Fang’s eyes also darted to the thick wad of cash in Zhou Kai’s hand. ’They’re such big clients,’ she mused, ’giving her an egg probably won’t hurt.’

"All right..."

Placing the basin on a table, Aunt Fang served one of the fried eggs into a bowl for the warehouse girl.

After soaking for three or four hours, the thick broth had long since seeped into the egg. The egg white was stained a soy-sauce color, which contrasted beautifully with the slightly charred, crispy edges.

Wang Rui was speechless at the warehouse girl’s behavior.

’It’s obvious this is for their own staff. What the hell is she doing?’

The warehouse girl picked up the egg with her chopsticks and bit off half of it in one go.

MUNCH MUNCH~

Aunt Fang didn’t leave, waiting curiously for some feedback.

After all, this was just something Su Chen had mentioned offhandedly. No one knew if they were actually any good. In any case, if they were the eggs right after Su Chen had used them, they definitely wouldn’t have been tasty.

Unlike homemade fried eggs, the ones used for the soup base had been fried by Su Chen until their surfaces were golden-brown and slightly charred, and then they were boiled in scalding water for a while.

’There’s no way they could be good.’

"Mmm... This is delicious! Auntie, how do you make these eggs? It’s like eating meat!"

Aunt Fang was a bit stunned. Before she could speak, the young woman added, "I’m honestly too full to eat any more, hehe. I’d like to get a few to go."

’The fuck?’

Wang Rui glared at the warehouse girl. ’So that was your fucking game all along, huh?’

’I took one bun to go, and you took that as a challenge, is that it?’

Zhou Kai turned back, intending to stop the young woman’s behavior, but Li Mingtao walked over. "It’s fine, Auntie. Go ahead and pack them all up for her. We’ll count each egg as five yuan."

At that moment, Director Li was feeling disheartened.

His plan had gone down the drain once again.

As the boss, even if Su Chen were to give the money back, he would distribute the one-thousand-plus yuan among everyone, not just settle the subsidy with him alone.

That being the case, there was no point in staying any longer. Li Mingtao just wanted to end this vexing meal as quickly as possible.

"Five yuan..." Aunt Fang muttered.

’Tea eggs sell for two yuan at most on the market. These fried eggs were about to be thrown out, and he’s paying five yuan for them?’

’This is more than a good deal!’

Without even asking Su Chen, Aunt Fang happily agreed. She enthusiastically helped pack all the eggs into disposable containers, even adding a ladleful of broth to keep them soaking.

"That’s twenty in total!"

Zhou Kai shook his head, speechless. He pulled another bill from his pocket and walked out of the cafeteria.

...

After everyone from Xinghui had left, all the employees of Meiweilai gathered wearily in the office area.

"It’s already 8:30. Shengnan, take a hundred yuan and call two cars to take everyone home."

The Development Zone was about a dozen kilometers from the city center, so two cars would be enough to get everyone back.

Liu Shengnan hesitated for a long time, reluctant to part with the money, before finally pulling a single bill from the wad of cash.

"Today was really something..." Su Chen said, pressing a hand to his forehead. "I’m sorry. Now everyone has to go home without having had dinner."

A few minutes earlier, the group had been waiting for Aunt Fang to bring out the eggs and rice—they could have just eaten in the office area—but then...

When Aunt Fang came back from the cafeteria empty-handed and explained that she had sold the eggs for a hundred yuan, everyone was dumbfounded.

’Aren’t those people going too far?’

They could really eat. Basically, every one of them ate twice as much as a normal person, and that guy with the black-rimmed glasses ate at least three times as much.

’And after all that, they still took food to go?’

Seeing that everyone still looked dejected, Su Chen took the remaining 1,400 yuan from Liu Shengnan and deftly counted out 800.

"Here, a hundred for each of you! Don’t worry about calculating overtime pay. Just take this hundred as your overtime bonus."

All eight of them turned to look at Su Chen in unison. Xiaobin said sheepishly, "Brother Chen, I’m not really a company employee..."

Su Chen grinned. "Didn’t you start as a temp today? Just take it."

According to Meiweilai Company’s policy, overtime was paid at double the rate. For a regular employee, that came out to about 30 yuan an hour at most. Besides, they had been idle for half a year, so working some sudden overtime once in a while didn’t seem like a big deal.

"Alright, alright, enough nonsense. Everybody take it. And Liu Shengnan, log Director Li’s share in the accounts. Settle it with him whenever he comes back."

Liu Shengnan: "Oh."

Of the 1,500 yuan they received, one hundred was for the cars, and eight hundred was distributed as overtime pay. Setting aside Director Li’s one hundred, that left five hundred.

Seeing everyone still standing around in a daze, Su Chen speechlessly kicked Bai Xiaobo’s stool. "What are you all still staring for? Get the hell out of here, it’s time to go home. Oh, right."

Su Chen tossed the remaining five hundred yuan to Bai Xiaobo. "When you get back to the city, treat everyone to a late-night snack. I’m staying at the company, so I won’t go. Eat something good!"

"Don’t worry about cleaning the kitchen, we’ll deal with it tomorrow. It’s not like we have any business anyway. If no one’s in a hurry, we can have a late breakfast tomorrow."

After saying that, Su Chen went back to his office.

He locked the door from the inside and pulled the blinds on the window shut.

"What a day!"

Su Chen flopped heavily into his chair. He hadn’t done much work all day, but he was still exhausted.

But now, Su Chen couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.

He roused himself and sat up straight.

Su Chen began to seriously consider a question.

’What am I even doing?’

Initially, Su Chen’s only plan was to pay off his debts while also completing system missions and practicing his cooking skills. The final step was to have the company declare bankruptcy, and he would figure out the rest later!

Like so many people who were just specks of dust in the grand scheme of things, once he became an adult, he was always just pushed along by circumstances. In this modern era of immense pressure, people rarely had time to think about what they truly wanted.

But now...

Su Chen closed his eyes, and an image appeared in his mind: Liu Shengnan’s excited smile when she received the 1,500 yuan.

The excited flush on Bai Xiaobo’s face when he returned, carrying a sack of pork knuckles.

And the look of pure enjoyment on Aunt Fang’s face as everyone praised the steamer full of buns she’d made.

"Perhaps..."

Su Chen rubbed his face, then heard a BANG from outside his office.

He opened the door and saw Aunt Fang bending over to pick up a broom.

"You haven’t gone home yet?"

Aunt Fang untied her apron, folded it, and placed it on a desk. "They’ve all gone back. I live close by, so I tidied up the kitchen. You’re not asleep yet, Boss?"

’It’s already 9:30.’

Su Chen stretched. "I’m about to."

"You were up too early today. You should get to sleep. I’m just going to check if the outlets in the other rooms are all unplugged."

"Aunt Fang, you should get home and rest soon, too."

"Mm-hmm."

Returning to his office, Su Chen stretched his neck.

’Perhaps... trying to earn the rent money in twenty days is something worth striving for after all?’