Chapter 39: New Product Experiment
Jiang Qing led her to the lobby and told Jiang Ning to wait a moment while she went to coordinate an empty table.
Jiang Ning wandered around the lobby for a while.
“Jiang Ning?”
A familiar voice suddenly sounded from behind her.
Jiang Ning turned around and saw Ji Fan standing behind her with a few strange men and women.
“What are you doing here?” Ji Fan looked her up and down.
Jiang Ning glanced at him and said faintly, “Eating.”
If one doesn’t eat at a restaurant, are they here to buy soy sauce?
Ji Fan said to himself, “This place is too popular. The queue is up to number 500. Fortunately, I have an acquaintance here and managed to book a number in advance through connections.”
After he finished speaking, he put on a look of disbelief and looked at Jiang Ning. “You haven’t been waiting here for a long time, have you?”
“Unfortunately, we booked a table for four. Otherwise, we could have brought you along,” Ji Fan said with regret.
Jiang Ning: “No need.”
Ji Fan was about to say something more when he caught sight of a waiter walking past behind Jiang Ning and quickly waved his hand. “Xiao Ma, it’s me!”
“Hello, may I help you?” The waiter heard the voice and walked over.
Jiang Ning and the few friends behind Ji Fan all looked at him in unison.
This Xiao Ma didn’t seem to recognize him at all!
Ji Fan was embarrassed for a few seconds. He stepped forward, pointed to his face, and said to Xiao Ma, “It’s me, Ji Fan. I even asked you to save me a spot this morning.”
Xiao Ma tried hard to recall in his mind and finally remembered this character, Ji Fan. But he still maintained a professional attitude and asked, “Excuse me, do you have a reservation ticket?”
Ji Fan: “No.”
Ji Fan: “But I made a reservation with you in person!”
“Sorry, sir. I can’t let you in without a ticket. Please go to the front desk to get a number and queue up,” Xiao Ma said, pointing to the self-service machine on the opposite side.
Feeling everyone’s gaze on him, Ji Fan bit the bullet and pulled Xiao Ma to the side.
“Hey, buddy, do you really not remember me?” Ji Fan frowned and asked.
“I remember. The one who worked in the farm for two weeks because he couldn’t pay the bill!” Xiao Ma said without mercy.
Ji Fan took a deep breath, his fists clenching and unclenching. He held back his anger and softened his tone. “Brother Xiao Ma, give me some face. I brought friends today.”
Xiao Ma rolled his eyes at him, his good mood instantly gone. He fired off three questions in a row, “Face? What face do you have? Are you addicted to dining and dashing? It’s good enough that our shop didn’t blacklist you. Just go and queue up obediently.”
“What’s with your attitude? I’m going to complain about you!” Ji Fan said, turning from shame to anger.
Seeing that it had come to this, the few friends Ji Fan had brought over quickly stepped forward to calm him down. “Calm down. It’s not worth hurting your friendship over a meal.”
“Complain if you want. Anyway, I can’t let you in today. Either you queue up obediently!” Xiao Ma’s attitude was firm, and he refused to let him in no matter what.
If the manager found out that he had let in a dine-and-dasher, his assessment for this month would be a failure again.
“You!” Ji Fan was furious.
Jiang Qing had coordinated the private room and came down to the lobby to find a group of people making a scene in the waiting area.
“What’s all the noise about? Xiao Ma, did you have a conflict with a customer?” Jiang Qing frowned and asked.
Seeing Jiang Qing, Xiao Ma’s expression immediately changed. He said with a smile, “No, manager. I was just telling the customer how to get a number.”
Jiang Qing glanced at the few people around and, seeing Jiang Ning, no longer bothered with Xiao Ma’s matter.
She walked up to Jiang Ning and said, “Teacher Jiang, your seat has been arranged. This way, please.”
Jiang Ning nodded.
Ji Fan and the few friends he had brought were instantly stunned. Xiao Ma had just called this woman the manager.
What was Jiang Ning’s status that the manager would personally come down to invite her to eat!
Seeing that Jiang Ning was about to leave with the manager, Ji Fan called out to her.
“Jiang Ning…” Ji Fan pointed to himself, signaling for Jiang Ning to talk to the manager and bring them along.
Jiang Ning turned her head and shrugged. “Sorry, I only booked a seat for one.”
After she finished speaking, she left with Jiang Qing.
Only Ji Fan and the remaining few were left, looking at each other.
Jiang Ning was arranged in a private room on the sixth floor. This area was usually frequented by the small bosses with some status on Planet M412.
After she took a seat by the window, she ordered a few of the cheapest dishes on the menu and then handed the menu back.
Jiang Qing was extremely busy. After arranging for her, she left first.
The exterior walls of Shi Shang Ju were all made of transparent glass curtain walls. Jiang Ning enjoyed the invincible window view alone.
Outside the window, the end of the low-lying lower district was brightly lit, with neon lights shining together. The lights of the tall buildings poured down like a waterfall, illuminating the entire city.
That was the upper district, the most developed area of Planet M412.
But even the most developed area of a numbered planet couldn’t compare to the lower district of another small planet.
Jiang Ning stared quietly out the window for a long time until the mechanical bearings above her head began to turn. As the chains moved, three robotic arms carrying round porcelain plates slowly approached her.
It was the meal she had just ordered.
The dishes were all served.
Jiang Ning had ordered a total of three dishes. The first was said to be the meat of some kind of mutated beast chicken. After multiple layers of processing, the meat slices were a translucent purple, and the contamination it contained was so weak it could be ignored.
The other two dishes were both green leafy vegetables.
Jiang Ning picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. The chicken was cool and refreshing, and the meat was Q-bouncy.
Her taste buds, which had been accustomed to a vegetarian diet for a long time, finally got some satisfaction.
Jiang Ning ate at a stormy speed and quickly swept the three dishes on the table clean.
“Hiccup~”
She let out a full burp and contentedly clicked the payment button on the small screen on the table.
The three dishes totaled 548 star coins.
A bit expensive. This amount of money was enough for her to eat nutrient solutions for a good month.
When it came to food, Jiang Ning had already formed a habit of being frugal.
Jiang Ning pressed the hand with the Star Brain on the payment screen.
With a ‘beep—’.
Payment successful.
She looked at the current balance in her account, and the corners of her mouth couldn’t help but curve up.
She was a rich person now!
When Jiang Ning left Shi Shang Ju, Ji Fan’s group was still queuing outside. Jiang Ning passed by and greeted them, then took the return bus home.
The taste of Shi Shang Ju was really impeccable. At least in the sinking catering market, if it claimed to be number one, no one would dare to claim to be number two.
Jiang Ning recalled the mutated beast meat she had eaten at night and searched for it online.
Only after this search did she realize that there were quite a few edible-grade mutated beast meats in the interstellar space. These edible-grade mutated beast meats had some common characteristics.
Their ranks were mostly between D and F. The contamination was relatively not very deep, the meat was soft, and it was also very convenient to handle.
She looked for a while and then logged out.
As expected, even after mutation, those creatures still could not escape the fate of being eaten by humans~
Since she had slept enough during the day yesterday, Jiang Ning got up early the next day.
She went to look at the sea of sunflowers in her sea of consciousness as usual.
The sunflower she had first given to Auntie Li’s family had also completely withered and no longer produced suns.
The sunflower had been given away a month ago, but the one in Auntie Li’s house had withered much later than Ke Lai’s.
The difference between the two was that Ke Lai’s was placed in the shop, with people coming and going, while Auntie Li’s was placed in the kitchen, where only the three of them could come into contact with it.
So the duration of the sunflower was also related to the flow of people around it?
The more people there were, the faster the psychic energy contained in the sunflower would be absorbed, so it would wither faster. Conversely, if one wanted the sunflower’s flowering period to be longer, one had to reduce the flow of people in contact with it.
She walked to her desk and recorded this point.
Last time, because she didn’t understand, she had only priced each sunflower at 999 star coins. Although she had earned more than ninety thousand star coins in the end, it was nothing compared to its original value.
Fortunately, she had sufficient psychic energy and a certain amount of initial startup capital. Everything could be developed slowly later on.
Because the large-scale purchase of her sunflowers by Jin Jiu’s fans last time had been effective, her shop had become quite popular on the Changfeng website. Every day, people would wait for her to release new products.
Now that the shop had a reputation, Jiang Ning was not in a hurry to release new products.
She had to consider the long-term development of the shop. She couldn’t just sell sunflowers. She also had to expand her business line to other plants.
To avoid the situation of selling too cheaply because she didn’t understand the habits of the plants last time, Jiang Ning decided to first experiment with the other plant species she summoned one by one.
Jiang Ning ordered a batch of planting soil and flower pots on the StarNet.
In addition, Jiang Ning also hired an external helper this time.
Chang Ming was very pleasantly surprised when he received Jiang Ning’s message.
Jiang Ning had thought of him first when she needed help. What was this if not special treatment!
After learning that Jiang Ning was going to research new products, he even closed his shop and flew to her house in a flying vehicle.
Jiang Ning’s choice was not just him.
She had sent a group message to Ke Lai, Li Xiang, and him.
It was just that Ke Lai was still at school, and Li Xiang was not at home. It just so happened that only Chang Ming had responded to her.
After Chang Ming arrived at Jiang Ning’s house, the package she had ordered online also happened to be delivered.
“Thank you for coming to help,” Jiang Ning said, being polite before being forceful.
Chang Ming was indeed the best choice among the three in the group message. His family background was there. He was from the capital planet, so his vision and knowledge were much higher than Li Xiang and Ke Lai’s.
“Master, what are you talking about? It’s my honor to be able to do experiments with you,” Chang Ming immediately said fawningly.
Jiang Ning: “…”
Jiang Ning: “Be normal!”
Ever since Chang Ming learned that her sunflowers could increase psychic energy, his attitude had been like this.
The boss suddenly became a lackey.
The scene was as strange as it could get.
Chang Ming: “Okay.”
Jiang Ning opened a few bags of planting soil, soaked them, and put them in flower pots, then took them to the area behind the North District slums.
This place had a large space and was uninhabited. Generally, no one would come to disturb them.
“Where do we start?” Chang Ming asked.
Jiang Ning said slowly, “I’ll try to summon a few plants first. You’ll be responsible for feeling their effect on you.”
If the plants she summoned didn’t only have half the effect on herself, she wouldn’t have had to ask someone else to help with the experiment.
Jiang Ning held her breath and concentrated. Many plant figures flashed through her mind.
After a while, three plant seedlings appeared in front of her.
Jiang Ning planted them in flower pots respectively, then only took one of the pots.
“Get ready,” Jiang Ning said to Chang Ming.
She activated her psychic energy and slowly poured it into the seedling.