Gan Lan got up early in the morning and began simmering the snail soup. The income from the snail rice noodles was highly lucrative, and the earnings from the livestream were quite good too. She had thought about it yesterday: Star 1888, the poverty star where the original owner of her body was born, held great development value.
After looking up the information on Star 1888, she learned that a third of the planet was covered by the ocean, another third was wasteland, and the rest was habitable land. The population wasn’t large—only a little over a billion people.
It couldn’t compare to planets with trillions of inhabitants. However, the population size was similar to her original world, and the living environment wasn’t bad. Unfortunately, there were too many planets like this; Star 1888 was completely unremarkable, which was why it had always remained a poverty star.
Yesterday, a thought had suddenly sprouted in her mind. Originally, she had just planned to save up enough Credit Points and donate a few hundred million to the original owner’s home planet as a token of goodwill.
Now, she had changed her mind. She wanted to develop Star 1888! Furthermore, she wanted to save up enough money to buy Star 1888 outright and build it into a Huaxia Food Planet—a planet that belonged entirely to her! She would mold it into the exact image from her memories. The mere thought of this made Gan Lan’s heart pound with indescribable excitement.
However, the Credit Points required to purchase a planet were completely beyond her current means. She had to work hard to make money, because even a poverty star cost twenty trillion Credit Points!
Initially, Gan Lan had flinched at the price tag. She was still in debt right now. With her current small-scale business, even if she worked until she died in six hundred years, she wouldn’t be able to afford twenty trillion Credit Points.
She had to think of a highly profitable venture and strive to buy Star 1888 before she graduated.
Originally, she harbored no such ambitions. But sometimes, an idea would flash through her mind and refuse to be forgotten. Now, just a passing thought of it left her feeling overwhelmingly exhilarated.
It seemed she would have to open the gifting channel in her livestream. Although this felt like a slap in the face given her previous stance, enduring a little embarrassment to buy Star 1888 was nothing in the grand scheme of things.
Still, relying solely on livestreams wouldn’t be enough. She needed to ask the dean if there were any other lucrative opportunities. Taking down her publicly released recipes was out of the question—Gan Lan disdained the very idea. She hadn’t invented those dishes anyway; she was merely passing down the knowledge. If she were to monopolize those recipes, earning twenty trillion would be a piece of cake. But since she absolutely refused to do that, swallowing her pride was her only option.
Her original intention had always been to spread Huaxia cuisine, ensuring that traces of it could be found in every corner of the Federation Star System.
Buying a planet to create a ’Huaxia Cuisine Star’ was a secondary ambition. If it proved impossible right now, she would put the idea on hold and reconsider it once she was wealthy enough.
Gan Lan left the soup to simmer, took out the flower pastries she had made last night from the temperature-controlled box, and poured herself a cup of milk tea to serve as her breakfast.
She opened her reference books and read through them slowly. The upcoming competition was incredibly important. She had been too busy the past couple of days to review her materials, and she was terrified that during the match, she might not even recognize the ingredients presented to her. That would be a complete disaster.
Just as Gan Lan was deeply engrossed in her reading, the doorbell suddenly rang.
Snapping out of her daze, she checked the time. It turned out to be the scheduled meeting time with her two future apprentices.
She closed the reference book, put it away, and walked out to open the door.
"Hello, I’m Su Wanying." Standing outside the door was a delicate and pretty young girl, who greeted her with nervous restraint.
Gan Lan stepped aside to make room and smiled warmly. "Come on in. Why are you here so early? There’s still half an hour until our agreed time."
"Did I disturb you? I... I was just so excited, so I wanted to come a little earlier," Su Wanying said softly, her eyes filled with apology.
"Not at all! I couldn’t be happier that you arrived half an hour early." Gan Lan poured a cup of the milk tea she had prepared earlier and handed it to Su Wanying. She then plated some flower pastries and gestured to the still-standing girl. "Hurry and sit down. Try the milk tea and flower pastries. There’s another senior who hasn’t arrived yet; we can eat while we wait for him."
"Thank you." Su Wanying took a reserved sip of the milk tea, and her eyes instantly lit up.
Turning to Gan Lan, who was sitting next to her, she said, "This is delicious. If you have anything to take care of, please go ahead. I’ll be perfectly fine by myself."
Gan Lan could tell that this young girl was simply too shy. Having her sit so close was making Su Wanying uncomfortable, so it was best to give her some space to relax.
"Alright, I’ll go check if the snail soup is done simmering." Noticing that Su Wanying hadn’t touched the flower pastries, she added playfully, "The flower pastries taste even better when paired with milk tea. Also, there’s no need to be so nervous. I don’t bite."
"I... Before coming here, I had so many things I wanted to tell you. But the moment I saw you, my mind went completely blank, and I forgot everything I wanted to say," Su Wanying murmured softly, hugging her milk tea cup.
"The first time I heard of you was during your competition with Zhao Mengru. At the time, I thought about how amazing you were. I wished I could be just as brave and smart as you. I’ve always seen you as my idol, and I can hardly believe that I actually get to be by your side and learn with you." Su Wanying’s eyes were clear and bright.
Listening to her, Gan Lan fell silent for a moment. Looking at this girl reminded her of the original owner of her body. The original owner and this Su Wanying truly shared similar personalities.
"The fact that the teacher chose you proves that you are exceptionally outstanding! Believe in yourself. One day, you can be just like me. Let’s work hard together!" Gan Lan patted Su Wanying on the shoulder, offering words of encouragement.
Su Wanying smiled shyly. "Thank you. I will definitely do my best."
"Well then, how about a tour of my kitchen first? Since you’ll be helping out here in the future, it’s good to get familiar with the layout," Gan Lan invited, gently grasping Su Wanying’s wrist.
"The ingredients and spices are all kept in this temperature-controlled box, and over there is where the soup is simmered..." Gan Lan introduced everything one by one.
Halfway through the tour, her other future apprentice arrived.
"I am Cheng Haozhen." Gan Lan looked up at the senior standing outside her door. He was over 1.8 meters tall, with a pale complexion and a completely stoic, expressionless face.
"Please, come in." Gan Lan led the stoic senior into her dorm. "Have a seat, Senior Cheng." She poured him a cup of milk tea and pushed the plate of flower pastries toward him. "These are flower pastries. Would you like to try one, Senior Cheng?"
Cheng Haozhen took a sip of the milk tea and ate a flower pastry with a blank expression. After finishing it, he just sat there, staring unblinkingly at Gan Lan.
His unwavering gaze seemed to silently ask if they could finally get to the point now that he had eaten.
Gan Lan was utterly speechless. Even though his profile had mentioned that Senior Cheng was stoic and a man of few words, she hadn’t expected him to be *this* stoic and untalkative. He had spoken exactly four words in total!
Gan Lan handed the printed documents to Su Wanying and Cheng Haozhen. "These outline what is required of an apprentice, the salary and benefits, and the working hours. Please take a look. If you have any concerns, feel free to voice them, and I can make revisions."
The two of them read through the documents earnestly. After a while, seeing that neither of them had spoken, Gan Lan added, "You really can bring up any issues. This is my first time drafting a document like this, so I’m not entirely sure about the standard procedures."
Hearing her words, both of them shook their heads at the same time.
"I don’t have any objections," Su Wanying said. "But Gan Lan, isn’t the salary you’re offering too high? We’re only helping out for three hours a day, and you’re even providing meals. Plus, we get to learn from you. Honestly, we don’t even need a salary."
Cheng Haozhen nodded in agreement upon hearing this.
"Since you both agree, let’s settle it then. Remember to come help out tomorrow. My livestream usually takes place in the evening, right when you finish your classes." Gan Lan directly pretended not to hear their protests about the pay. Two thousand Credit Points a month was a high salary? It was incredibly low, alright?
The two of them were left speechless. Her skill at playing deaf was truly perfected to a fine art.