Part 2

Half an hour later, the government officials arrived.

A man got out of the car and headed straight for the breakfast shop.

Once inside, he looked around and saw, just as described in the phone call, that the four freezers were packed full of food.

The man could not help but exclaim, “The ingredients in your freezers are really quite abundant!”

Lin You nodded and replied, “Yes.”

The man appeared gentle and refined. He smiled slightly at her and introduced himself:

“I am Shang Zhisheng, the head of Ancheng’s Food and Material Reserve Center. I heard from my colleagues that your freezers can continuously produce food?”

Lin You led him closer to the freezers and said, “These are the ones. All four freezers will produce food, and also those baskets over there.”

“Two days ago, the freezers started producing all kinds of vegetables, fresh meat, and fruits. I specially took them to the food testing center for verification. These ingredients are non-toxic and edible.”

She handed over the testing reports she had prepared in advance to Shang Zhisheng.

Shang Zhisheng took them and examined them carefully.

As he read, his brows furrowed: “These ingredients even contain healing effects?”

“I didn’t believe it at first either. But after getting the test report, I took some ingredients from the freezer and cooked a yam pork rib soup for my injured best friend. Miraculously, her leg injury really improved,” Lin You explained.

Shang Zhisheng was deeply surprised: “What you are saying is simply unbelievable.”

Lin You opened the freezer, preparing to move the ingredients from inside out. “The strangest part is still that it keeps producing food. Look, this freezer is like a bottomless pit, no matter how much I take out, it never runs out.”

Shang Zhisheng stepped closer and carefully looked at the food inside the freezer. He personally reached in and picked out a bunch of spinach.

Just as he took it out, he heard Lin You say, “Very soon, another bunch will appear right there…”

Before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly froze for a moment.

Because inside the freezer before her, a new bunch of spinach did not appear.

Lin You: “……”

She gave an awkward smile and said, “Wait a moment, let me try again. Maybe I had the wrong posture.”

So, imitating how she had taken vegetables earlier that morning, she stood up straight, faced the freezer head-on, and began taking them out one by one.

But as she kept taking ingredients out, a part of the freezer became empty, and the so-called “automatically replenished vegetables” still did not appear.

Seeing that nothing was happening, Shang Zhisheng could not help but say:

“Are you sure those strange things you mentioned really happened? Could it be that you were in a bad mood and had a hallucination?”

“Lately, some of my colleagues have indeed received a few unusual reports. However, many were proven to be due to the reporter being affected by negative news and becoming overly anxious, which led to them seeing things…”

Looking at the now-normal freezer, Lin You also began to doubt herself.

To say that the freezer was producing vegetables out of nowhere did sound too strange.

If someone else had told her this, she would probably be the first one not to believe it.

But her memory could not be that poor. That morning, vegetables were still endlessly emerging from here, and the ones she took out had piled up in the corner.

Moreover, the inspection reports were fine. In black and white, they clearly stated that the vegetables contained healing elements.

If these vegetables were really normal, how could they contain such things?

Lin You stood still and thought for a moment, then suddenly lifted her gaze and looked toward the back of the kitchen.

If the freezer could not prove her words, then how about the baskets?

So Lin You walked over, took out one of the vegetable baskets, placed it in front of Shang Zhisheng, and said:

“The phenomenon I described also happened with the baskets before.”

She just could not believe it. If something went wrong with the freezer, could the basket also fail?

After saying that, she took a deep breath, lifted the basket lid, and took out a sweet potato.

Sure enough, where the sweet potato had disappeared, a new one appeared in its place.

Shang Zhisheng was startled.

But when he reached in to try taking one out himself, the basket returned to normal.

Even when he dumped out all the sweet potatoes inside the basket, no new ones appeared.

Shang Zhisheng was puzzled as well. “What on earth is going on?”

Lin You was equally confused.

Clearly, when she was the only one here, the freezer and basket had never stopped producing vegetables and fruits.

So was the problem that she had brought someone else in?

As she was thinking, Shang Zhisheng had already packed all the sweet potatoes back into the basket. He squatted there thinking for a while and said:

“Although this thing is unstable, just now a new vegetable did appear. If it’s really like you said, and this basket can continuously produce ingredients like a bottomless pit, then I need to take it back. Based on its actual future output, I’ll have to plan how to allocate food for the entire city… However, if it only produces one sweet potato at a time, then it won’t be enough to distribute city-wide.”

Lin You nodded.

Just as Shang Zhisheng was about to leave, carrying the basket full of sweet potatoes he had packed himself, he suddenly remembered something.

He smacked his head and stopped in his tracks, explaining: “Right, we won’t be requisitioning this basket without compensation. But due to the current situation, when the government distributes ingredients, the rule is that the price can’t exceed 5 percent above cost.”

Cost?

Lin You was stunned.

These vegetables that appeared out of thin air—how could there be any cost?

Knowing that this was a special case, Shang Zhisheng hurried to continue:

“I understand that the vegetables in your basket appear out of nowhere and don’t have a wholesale price. So, we will issue them to citizens at a low enough price with subsidies. That means what you eventually get in return won’t be much either. As for how to divide it up, I will find time to discuss it with you in detail. We may also need to sign an agreement.”

Lin You had never thought about making a profit from the basket.

After all, she received these ingredients at zero cost. It was basically like free pie falling from the sky.

If she even took money from selling those vegetables, it really would seem a bit unreasonable.

So she quickly refused: “The government has to recruit people to form security teams and coordinate city resources, which costs a lot. I’ll just give this basket to you for free. It’s just one basket anyway… Besides, having more food benefits me too. Once Ancheng returns to normal, if my breakfast shop can reopen, the money I make will be enough for me to live on.”

Shang Zhisheng turned and smiled: “This is the rule. We cannot randomly requisition things from citizens. If you really do not want payment, I can check the policies again. But at the very least, we’ll arrange some annual fixed government subsidies for you.”

After speaking, Shang Zhisheng walked out of the breakfast shop.

But just as he stepped out and was about to drive away, he suddenly felt the basket in his hand become lighter.

He looked down and saw that the sweet potatoes inside the basket had all vanished into thin air.

Shang Zhisheng: “……”

He had really encountered every strange thing possible today. It was downright spooky.

He had no choice but to return to the shop and saw Lin You sweeping the floor. He quickly asked:

“Has this basket become a spirit or something? Why did it suddenly empty out just now?”

But before he finished speaking, he felt that the weight in his hand was off again.

Lin You glanced over, visibly confused: “Weren’t the sweet potatoes sitting just fine in the basket?”

Shang Zhisheng had already guessed what he would see. He looked down, and sure enough, that was the case.

The two of them immediately thought of one explanation—could it be that the feng shui of this shop was unusual?

Once you step outside the shop, the food disappears?

But Lin You quickly dismissed that thought in her heart.

After all, she had taken food out of the shop before. When she carried pork ribs and went to find Tong Lan halfway up the mountain, the food did not disappear…

At this moment, Shang Zhisheng began testing it.

He walked back and forth across the breakfast shop’s doorway.

The change was obvious. As long as the vegetable basket left the breakfast shop, the food inside would disappear. Conversely, the food would stay intact in the basket if it remained inside the shop.

This was truly a strange phenomenon.

Shang Zhisheng had never seen such a situation before and could not make a conclusion for the time being.

In the end, he had no choice but to return to the breakfast shop kitchen.

Watching Lin You take an orange from the freezer and seeing a new one appear behind it, he could not help but click his tongue and say, “Looks like your stuff recognizes people.”

Lin You peeled the orange she took out of the freezer and took a bite, then did not forget to place one in Shang Zhisheng’s palm. Somewhat puzzled, she asked, “Recognizes people?”

Shang Zhisheng explained, “I suspect that this food, if taken out by me, can only stay inside this shop.”

He paused briefly and looked at Lin You, who had just swallowed the last slice of orange, and said, “I’m afraid only through your hand can the food continuously appear and even be taken out of the shop and still exist.”