Working at an otherworldly junkyard, making a fortune by collecting trash.

As dawn broke and the morning mist still carried a chill, Chen Chen crept into the kitchen.

I slept until the afternoon yesterday, but woke up exceptionally early today. The casserole was on the stove, and the boneless and diced mutton from last night was soaking in water. As the flames licked the bottom of the pot, a layer of milky white foam gradually rose to the surface. The aroma of the meat, mixed with the warm and spicy scent of ginger slices, quietly drifted into the hallway.

Ji Yunli was even busier than him. During the day, she had to reconcile accounts and settle the daily wages for the warehouse ladies. She also had to get up at three in the morning to supervise the loading of trucks. At this moment, she was fast asleep.

Chen Chen didn't disturb her. He simply turned the fire down to a very low position, left a note on her door saying "Come drink soup when you wake up," and then turned and went to the storeroom next door.

He pulled out the distributor's phone number he had saved last night, his finger pausing on the screen—while contacting manufacturers could certainly lower prices, comparing prices and negotiating qualifications with dozens of brands, big and small, was too time-consuming. Distributors who directly supplied supermarkets were much more straightforward; he quoted "the same price as supermarkets," and they immediately agreed, finalizing a 100 million yuan snack order, with the address simply being the warehouse next door.

After hanging up the phone, he contacted the packaging box factory to order 100,000 custom-made cardboard gift boxes as a trial. The apple seedlings and nutrient solution in the space were already prepared. Once a suitable land was found and contracted, there would be a continuous output. Online sales channels had to be laid out in advance.

After finishing all that, Chen Chen planned to take out 60,000 green fruits that looked like pears but were the size of pomelos from his spatial storage.

The peel is greenish-yellow, about the size of a fist, and when you get close, you can smell a faint fragrance of pomelo blossoms. When you bite into it, it's crisp and sweet, and the juice slides down your throat, making your throat feel moist.

He casually named the fruit "Green Pomelo Pear." He selected a few of the best-looking ones, took high-resolution photos in the soft morning light, and posted them in the supplier group with accompanying text: "[Green Pomelo Pear, with a light pomelo blossom fragrance, crisp, sweet and soothing taste, each fruit weighs 2.5-3 jin (1.25-1.5 catties), special group price of 108 yuan/each, limited to 30000 pieces]."

The message had barely been sent out when the group chat exploded.

"Boss Chen, these fruits look amazing! Give me fifty, please!"

"I want it! I want it! The apples last time were so delicious, they were all snatched up as soon as I got them! *crying*"

"Payment transferred! Please deliver quickly, my child is getting impatient!"

Within minutes, the message count reached over nine hundred, all of them voice messages urging people to place orders and sending red envelopes.

Chen Chen sat on the warehouse steps, swiping his finger across the screen. In just one hour, 30000 green pomelos and pears were completely devoured, leaving not a single one.

By the time the mutton soup was cooked until tender, Chen Chen had already visited three slaughterhouses.

Either the processing is too rough, leaving the lingering fishy smell; or the efficiency is too low, and slaughtering 10,000 sheep would take forever.

He simply logged onto the StarNet and spent 268 Star Coins to bid on a multi-functional slaughtering machine.

The seller said this is the basic model, but it is equivalent to a medium-sized slaughterhouse. The energy core embedded in the machine body is enough to support the machine to run continuously for a hundred years.

Ten thousand sheep were still waiting in the space. Chen Chen completely emptied the first floor of the adjacent warehouse and carefully placed the machine inside.

The three-meter-square cube has a dark gray exterior with a cold, hard metallic sheen. The front has a half-meter-wide inlet, the back has a conveyor belt-style outlet, and the side has a touch screen. When you swipe your finger across it, a dense array of function options pops up—dehairing, gutting, cutting, slicing, dicing, and even finely categorizing by part. It can even process lamb kidneys without removing any tendons.

He carefully inspected the warehouse; the locks on the outer door and the stairwell were all fastened tightly, leaving no gaps whatsoever.

Then, fingerprint, pupil, and DNA collection were completed on the screen. The system's cold notification sounded: "Permission binding successful. Unauthorized operation will trigger the self-destruct program." Chen Chen nodded in satisfaction. Even if someone stumbled upon this machine and forcibly disassembled it, it would only turn into a pile of scrap metal. Its security was top-notch.

He first put a whole sheep into the inlet and then selected "full process processing" on the screen.

The machine hummed, with only a slight hissing sound. In less than a minute, a cleaned sheep, gutted and gutted, was slowly delivered from the outlet. The heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and kidneys were separated, without a trace of blood.

Chen Chen's eyes lit up; this machine was simply a marvel.

He removed the space button, inserted it into the groove of the inlet, selected the sheep pile in the space, and set "batch processing".

Sheep began to pour into the inlet continuously, while clean sheep and packaged offal poured out of the outlet like a flowing river. Chen Chen inserted another spatial ring into the storage slot at the outlet, set it to automatically retract, and then moved a small stool to the side to play games.

Fortunately, we now have two space vehicles, otherwise just transporting goods back and forth would be exhausting.

Around noon, Ji Yunli arrived with her lunchbox. Seeing the machines humming in the warehouse, she peered at the conveyor belt for a long time, then exclaimed in amazement, "This thing is so convenient! Things from interstellar space are just different; it saves so much manpower!"

In the corner of the warehouse, there was a small folding table and two small stools.

On the table sits a pot of milky-white mutton soup, with chunks of mutton, marbled with fat and lean meat, nestled in the broth. The mutton intestines are tightly rolled, and the tripe is cut evenly. A sprinkle of bright green scallions completes the dish, instantly filling the room with its aroma. Two bowls of steaming white rice are placed beside the soup, along with two small dishes of cilantro, fermented bean curd, and chili dipping sauce, making the meal look incredibly appetizing.

Chen Chen picked up a slice of mutton and put it in his mouth. He bit down and the lean meat was so tender that it almost melted on his tongue, yet it had just the right amount of fiber, neither dry nor tough. The fat melted in his mouth and left a milky aroma as it slid down his throat, without any greasiness. Instead, it made the meat flavor even richer.

As you chew, the aroma of meat juice mixed with oil explodes in your mouth. There is not a trace of fishiness or muttoniness, only a clean and refreshing taste with the scent of the grasslands. After swallowing, a faint sweet aftertaste lingers in your throat.

"This mutton is tender but not mushy, fragrant but not greasy." Chen Chen kept using his chopsticks, savoring each bite.

"It tastes even better than the sheep my grandfather used to raise himself; it doesn't have any gamey smell at all." Ji Yunli took a big bite, her eyes shining like stars.

"Eat more, there's more in the pot."

After the two finished lunch, Ji Yunli cleaned up the dishes and hurriedly returned to the warehouse, where there were still many goods to keep an eye on.

Chen Chen had just rested when a phone call came in; it was from Wu Suowei.

"Hey bro, I saw you posted some great stuff in the group chat again. How could you forget your big brother?" A cheerful voice came from the other end of the phone, tinged with familiar teasing.

"How could that be? You're my brother. I specially saved 30000 for you. I'll bring them to you with the delivery tomorrow," Chen Chen said with a smile, his tone exceptionally cheerful.

"I knew it, little brother, you're good to me, haha..." Wu Suowei's laughter paused, then he continued, "I forgot to tell you, the year-end gathering I mentioned before, it's on the last day of this month, January 31st, at 6 PM, on the 60th floor of my hotel, don't forget!"

There's a deeper meaning in those words; it's a great opportunity to network with bigwigs from all sorts of fields.

"Okay, we'll be there on time." Chen Chen glanced at the calendar. It was Saturday, and he needed to be back early that night so he wouldn't miss his work at the garbage disposal center on Sunday.

"I'll send a stylist to your place then, and I'll also prepare the clothes for you." Wu Suowei was very thoughtful, taking care of all the outfits.

"Okay, thank you, brother." Chen Chen didn't stand on ceremony.

"We're brothers, let's not talk about this. You go ahead and do your thing, I'll hang up now."

Goodbye, Big Brother.

After hanging up the phone, Chen Chen was stunned—she still needed to get her hair and makeup done? She was full of doubts, but she didn't refuse. Wu Suowei must have his reasons for making this arrangement.

By 5 p.m., all 10,000 sheep had been processed. Inside the spatial ring, the mutton was neatly arranged, and the offal was neatly separated, with even the weight clearly marked.

Chen Chen put on the spatial ring and watch, and then put the multi-functional machine into the ring.

Just as he finished his work, the distributor called to say that the goods had been delivered to the door. He opened the warehouse door and saw seven or eight large trucks lined up in a row. A man in a dark down jacket stood at the door, holding a delivery note in his hand. When he saw Chen Chen come out, he immediately came up to greet him warmly.

Forklifts came and went, carrying boxes of snacks into the warehouse, which quickly filled the first and second floors.

After everyone had left, Chen Chen closed the door and handed all the goods to Green Fruit, emphasizing, "This is a return gift; you don't need to transfer the Star Coins."

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the communicator, then Green Fruit's voice came through, tinged with emotion: "Chen Chen, you're such a good friend!"

Chen Chen hung up the phone with a smile. He felt much more at ease when he saw that Lv Guoguo had accepted the goods and hadn't transferred any Star Coins.

By the time I finished all of this, it was already past 8 p.m.

Ji Yunli, Fatty, and Deng Lijun had already prepared the ingredients, just waiting for Chen Chen to come back and have hot pot.

When we used to work together, the four of us would get together for meals and chats every few days. Now that we work in the same place, we get together less often.

Four chairs were arranged around a pot, where mutton soup was bubbling and steaming, warming everyone's faces.

There was no wine on the table, only plenty of ingredients. The group of people were focused on cooking the meat in the hot pot, enjoying a rare moment of leisure.

"I have a new girlfriend, I'll introduce her to you guys next time." The fat man picked up a slice of mutton roll with his chopsticks, the fat dripping down the tip of the chopsticks. He spoke cheerfully, his cheeks flushed from the steam, unable to hide his excitement.

Chen Chen and Ji Yunli exchanged a glance, a hint of surprise flashing in their eyes.

Ji Yunli's gaze swept quickly past the fat man and then fell back on Deng Lijun, who was engrossed in cooking meat. Deng Lijun's chopsticks paused for half a second, and the mutton roll she was holding almost slipped into the pot. Then, she casually put the roll into the dipping sauce dish, dipped it lightly, and slowed down her movements.

"When did you submit it? How is the person?" Chen Chen quickly asked, breaking the momentary silence.

"I met her on a blind date last week. She's the daughter of my mom's square dance partner." The fat man scratched the back of his head, his silly grin widening. "She's quite pretty, speaks softly, and has a very quiet personality."

As he spoke, he took out his phone, intending to show the two photos, but then seemed to remember something, chuckled, and put it back. "I'll bring it next time, you can see for yourselves."

"That's good. Talk it over properly and try to get married soon." Chen Chen patted his shoulder.

The fat man blushed with delight at the compliment, shoveling mutton into his mouth while muttering, "Take your time, take your time," his eyes brimming with undisguised joy.

Throughout the entire process, no one noticed that Teresa Teng's movements as she put meat into her mouth became slower and slower. In the end, she simply put down her chopsticks, picked up the warm water beside her, and sipped it slowly. Her gaze was fixed on the bubbling soup, and her long eyelashes drooped down, obscuring the emotions in her eyes.

The lively atmosphere at the table seemed to be separated by a veil, unable to reach her at all.

After the meal, Chen Chen divided the remaining bone-in mutton into three portions, 20 jin each, packed them in plastic bags, and handed them to them.

The fat man, carrying meat, rubbed his hands together and said he wanted to take Teresa Teng home, but she smiled and waved him off.

"No need, you have a girlfriend now, you need to avoid suspicion." Teresa Teng's voice was very soft, with a hint of teasing, but there was no hint of joking. "Otherwise, the young lady will be unhappy if she finds out."

After she finished speaking, before the fat man could say anything more, she hailed a taxi, and before getting in, she turned back and waved to them, her smile seemingly normal.

The taxi's taillights gradually disappeared into the night. The fat man stood there for a moment, stunned. The bag of mutton in his hand sagged slightly. He scratched the back of his head, his smile fading. Without saying anything more, he drove away.

The evening breeze on the balcony was cool. Ji Yunli leaned against Chen Chen's chest, watching the fat man's car turn the corner, and sighed softly, "I thought they could get together."

"I think so too." Chen Chen put his arm around her shoulder and couldn't help but sigh. He still remembered the last time they had a meal at the snack street, when Fatty protected Teresa Teng and even insisted on buying her favorite snacks. He queued for more than half an hour and came back covered in sweat. Teresa Teng would also bring him a hot meal when she went to work.

Those subtle, unspoken understandings hidden in their daily lives made everyone who saw them feel that they were just one step away from breaking through that barrier.

I never expected it to end like this.

"Do you have any brothers around your age? Introduce one to Lijun." Ji Yunli nudged his waist with her elbow, her voice tinged with concern.

"I'll ask her when I go back for the New Year. If there's anyone suitable, I'll definitely introduce her to someone." Chen Chen looked down at the bright eyes of the person in his arms, smiled, and gently brushed his fingertips through her wind-blown hair.

"It's so windy, let's go back inside."

The evening breeze, carrying the scent of distant fireworks, quietly drifted over the balcony railing, and in the night, a sense of melancholy lingered.