Chapter 128: Chapter 128: Dinner Together

“The first dish is sweet and sour pork loin.”

As far as the three pillars of fine cuisine—color, aroma, and flavor—go, this sweet and sour pork loin at least had the “color” part down.

She couldn’t detect much of an aroma, and she hadn’t tasted the flavor yet.

“The second dish is steamed egg custard.”

It was another homestyle dish. And don’t ask why they’d come to a restaurant run by the successor to an Imperial Chef just to order common homestyle cooking.p>

Because the menu consisted almost entirely of homestyle dishes.

Things like Australian lobster, king crab, or “Buddha Jumps Over the Wall”—none of it was there. Absolutely nothing of the sort.

The third dish was blanched choy sum…

…

Next was a pork rib soup, and dessert was a small cake.

The food wasn’t bad, but it couldn’t be called good, either.

’In fact,’ Jiang Qin thought, ’these dishes aren’t even as good as An Xin’s cooking.’

The main issue was the ingredients; they just weren’t good. She could clearly taste a gamey flavor in the egg custard.

’This probably isn’t made from chicken eggs.’

Sure enough, after asking Lan Yuyan, she learned that it was the egg of a large, colorful bird.

These birds couldn’t be raised in captivity, so all the eggs were retrieved from the wild by mercenaries, making them incredibly expensive.

The loin meat was also from an Alien Beast.

The sweet and sour sauce was concocted from nutrient liquid ingredients.

The choy sum for the blanched vegetable dish came from the restaurant’s own botanical research institute.

Judging by their origins alone, you could tell these ingredients were ridiculously, insanely expensive.

Especially that choy sum dish…

When Jiang Qin had looked at the menu, she’d only given it a passing glance before skipping it. She would rather go her whole life without eating greens than eat a plate of choy sum worth 100,000 Star Coins.

But she never thought Lan Yuyan would actually order it…

Still, it was understandable. After all, in the current Interstellar age, luxury goods weren’t handbags or jewelry, but natural plants.

If you decked yourself out in jewels from head to toe, people would just laugh at you for being nouveau riche.

But if you were holding a bouquet of non-mutated, natural flower species, people would think you were from one of the top-tier powers.

’Too bad mine is an entertainment system, and a broken version at that.’

’If I had one of those spatial dimensions from the novels, the kind where you can farm, I can’t even imagine how rich I’d be.’

’Then again, it’s not like I’m hurting for money right now. If I had a pocket dimension, I’d probably still just want to use it to eat a good meal.’

This meal was actually very appetizing. It was the tastiest and most satisfying meal she had eaten in her two lives.

Lan Yuyan must have noticed, because he smiled and invited her out again.

“If we get in line now, we can probably come again around this time next month.”

“Qinqin, if you’re free, can I ask you to come with me again next month?”

Hearing this intimate form of address again, Jiang Qin still felt a bit awkward.

’This is the first time I’ve thought having such a short name is a bad thing.’

’People don’t know what to call me. My full name sounds too distant, while using a single character feels a bit pretentious.’

Everyone used to call her Ah Qin. But since she was quite a bit younger than Lan Yuyan, he opted for the diminutive, repetitive form.

’It was… sort of like calling someone ’little sister,’ maybe?’

“Okay,” Jiang Qin accepted the invitation.

She would be staying on the Main Star for the foreseeable future, and their collaboration would continue. It was only right to have a meal together occasionally to maintain their professional relationship.

Besides, Lan Yuyan really had made things a lot easier for her.

’We really are friends, I suppose.’

「 *** 」

Lan Yuyan dropped Jiang Qin off at Nan’an Bay and then left.

Only then did Shi Lichuan and the others, who had been secretly following them, emerge from the shadows.

Jiang Qin sheepishly handed him the food in her hands. “Sorry about that, making you guys wait outside for so long.”

“It wasn’t that long of a wait. On our old missions, we’d lie in ambush for our prey for days and nights without moving. That’s a common occurrence.”

When Shi Lichuan smiled, he was as cute as the boy next door.

Who would have thought he was a Bounty Hunter who constantly walked the line between life and death.

His appearance was too deceptive.

“I had them pack some food for you. It’s untouched. Try it and see if you like it.”

Kui Wen quickly took it and said happily, “It’s got to be delicious! This restaurant is pretty hard to get a reservation for.”

“Can’t you just wait in line?”

“Of course not. Besides waiting, you also need to have their restaurant’s membership card.”

“They do an asset check for the membership card. Clients with assets under a hundred million can’t even apply for one.”

’A hundred million?’ Jiang Qin marveled internally.

Even though she had that much, the number still shocked her.

’An asset check just to eat a meal.’

But then she remembered the prices on the menu, and it started to make a little more sense.

’After all, if they didn’t run a check, what would they do if someone decided to dine and dash…?’

But along with her surprise, it also revealed the exorbitant profits of the food service industry, making her once again lament her lack of a farming dimension.

…

After returning home and washing up, Jiang Qin lay in her room playing on her Light Computer.

Tonight, the Star Network was destined to be black and white.

Just moments ago, Planet 1069 had completely disappeared from the cosmos.

That massive explosion had taken countless lives with it.

So tonight, the entire Star Network was mourning for Planet 1069. All the trending topics had been replaced with old news stories.

After dawn, the Star Network returned to color.

People’s lives continued as usual.

The period of mourning for 1069 lasted only one night. After that, people would gradually begin to forget.

This was the Interstellar age.

Their lifespans were long, but they had no time to dwell on the past, much less grieve.

Jiang Qin tossed and turned for most of the night before falling asleep, so she woke up a bit late the next day.

After dinner, she took Xie An’an and her sister, along with all her bodyguards, to the bar’s new address.

「 *** 」

On the way, they passed by many bars.

Every single one was luxurious, with multiple floors. They didn’t look like bars anymore, more like massive event halls.

Most of them were shaped like giant, multicolored spheres.

Even if the shapes were different, the multicolored lights were a constant.

The new Moonlight Bar had a similar appearance.

From the outside, it looked a bit like a blooming flower. It had a circular base, with only the top styled to look like petals.

After walking inside, you could see the massive space within.

Inside the sphere, there were a total of seven floors. In the center was a huge, three-story high circular stage that could be raised and lowered.

The surrounding tiers were filled with booths arranged one after another.

Countless laser light spheres hung from the ceiling.

It really didn’t feel like a bar. It was more like a massive concert hall.

The fact that the bar could now hold three million people at once was rather terrifying.

’Even with my S-level Spiritual Power, I doubt I could affect the Spirit Seas of so many people at once.’

’So the customers who come here must really just be coming to listen to the music.’

’The question is, can it really get filled to capacity?’

Backstage, there were ten dressing rooms in total.

The first one was given to Jiang Qin, while numbers 2 and 3 were given to the new females.

That’s right, during the preparation period, Zhu Yongkang had hired two B-level females to work.

Unlike Jiang Qin, they had actually committed crimes and needed to work at the bar to atone for them.

The current Moonlight was no longer that shabby little bar on Blue Star, so it was easy to recruit people.

When Zhu Yongkang saw she had arrived, he decided to take her to meet the two new females and get acquainted.

“They’re here already?” Jiang Qin was quite surprised.

’Is everyone this dedicated? Showing up so early?’

’I thought I was the only one with nothing better to do, so I came early to see if anyone needed help.’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep