After Apocalypse, I Got Rich With Superpower

Li Pan carefully counted, and the Five Elements Spiritual Fruit had only borne five fruits, which had just started to swell. She deliberately channeled a large amount of Wood Element superpower to ensure that the Spirit Plant would not suffer any deficit.

Just caring for two Spirit Plants had consumed nearly half of her superpower, and now she understood why high-level Wood Power users hardly ever farmed or helped out, simply because they did not have the energy. To take good care of these Spirit Plants, one almost had to tend to them all day; they were so delicate that all one’s time and superpower strength were spent on them, leaving no time to spare for miscellaneous activities.

High-level superpower users were actually very busy. They used the last bit of time they had to purify medicinal materials for the base. The variety of medicines consumed by combat superpower users were all manually purified by high-level superpower users, which was why the supply was limited and the prices remained high.

This wasn’t up to individual decisions. A person’s energy is limited. You could drive a High Level Wood Power User to death and it would be useless; they could only produce so much, no more than that.

Pei Yuan had taught her how to extract the active ingredients from medicine, which she could do with her own medicinal materials, but it required the fusion of several kinds of medicines, another separate field of study she needed to learn.

His idea was for her to learn how to maintain Spirit Plants first to earn money for her farm. Only when the farm stood firm could she have the strength to learn the next step. Making medicine was actually a big waste of medicinal materials and money, and the base wouldn’t allow her to waste materials on learning; she had to bear the cost of learning on her own.

Failure was certain, and failure meant a bunch of high-quality medicinal materials would be wasted.

The high-level superpower users from the past had to go away to study specifically, and even after returning, they practiced with great caution. Waste was inevitable, starting from scratch, and it was really hard at that time.

The medicinal materials couldn’t be completely successfully cultivated; they were fought for with the lives of combat superpower users. Pei Yuan said that when a superpower user failed in refining and became so upset they would cry bitterly and slap themselves in the face. Failure meant wasting medicinal materials, creating enormous psychological pressure.

His group of people had managed to learn how to refine medicines under such high-pressure environments, and to this day, it was still this group who refined medicines for the base. Newcomers who wanted to learn could only assist and start with the basics, slowly learning. Moreover, they had to pay tuition fees.

Food wasn’t even sufficient to fill one’s stomach, let alone how precious medicines were, so no one could afford to waste them limitlessly.

In fact, the base didn’t have many high-level Wood Power users, and each person had multiple roles to play. They had to care for Spirit Plants, and when they found time, they would refine medicine, starting with low-level medicinal materials. Only if there was no failure rate were they allowed to proceed to the next material. Wasting would lead to a deduction in their pay, and those who refined medicines were few as it required at least five years of learning from scratch – it was too costly.

This was why Pei Yuan wanted her to learn how to cultivate Spirit Plants first: only when she had the money and could "play big", could she afford the massive wastage of medicinal materials and have the capital to learn and practice.

Li Pan didn’t know how to refine medicine yet and didn’t dare to waste like that; she truly wasn’t wealthy enough to afford it.

After taking good care of several Spirit Plants and processing and purifying forest ginseng with a batch of medicinal materials by channeling her superpower, her superpower was depleted, needing time to recover.

Going back to cook for Gu Ye, she also took the opportunity to record the daily changes of the Spirit Plants and medicinal materials. This journaling was a must-do daily task, a procedure she set for herself to easily review and see if there were any omissions or defects, so she could remedy them promptly.

These few Spirit Plants were extremely precious; she couldn’t have any issues with them as there were no second chances for her to "play with".

Half the day went by just like that, and in the afternoon, once her superpower had recovered, she had to take care of the Spirit Plants again. The entire day was spent on those few Spirit Plants.

Qin Jianzhong came back, "Pan’er, the boss has introduced a chef to us, the head chef’s nephew."

"Oh, that’s good. Wasn’t he working in the cafeteria of the rich district?"

"Right, but he resigned and came back. He said someone was taking his place, always sniffing around the base for information. The head chef asked him to come back to avoid trouble later on, and the boss had him start working here, believing he is trustworthy."

"Then that’s settled. He seems to have only the head chef as his relative, right?"

"The rest of his family passed away one after another during the disaster, leaving just him and his grandfather."

"The cafeteria at No.9 Farm could indeed do with a chef for its kitchen. Have him come over." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

"If you agree, I’ll have someone come over to cook. We can’t let Xiao Yun do all the cooking by herself; it’s too much for her, and Gu Ye also needs to work."

These elderly people all held multiple duties but actually received only one salary. They devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the farm, worrying about every aspect on behalf of Li Pan.

Gu Ye, seeing how busy the farm was, let his daughter cook while he went to work in the fields. Since adults are capable of greater work intensity and can handle more, Gu Yun, being younger, did less. This arrangement, in fact, added another strong labor force.

Gu Yun, a young girl, was responsible for cooking for so many people, which was also a demanding job. Once Li Pan finished with the Spirit Plants, she would come and help with the cooking.

The next day, the head chef’s nephew arrived with another superpower user. This person was selected by the Base Commander and assigned to work in the cafeteria.

He was a mid-level Gold Element superpower user, but with a limp from combat injuries. His bones had been hurt, and though Li Pan had treated him, unfortunately, after the injury had healed, despite the tendon being reconnected, he still walked with a slight limp due to uneven leg lengths.

Hearing that Panpan Farm was short on manpower and in search of dependable and diligent workers, he volunteered to work there. Being homeless and jobless, he felt gratitude to Li Pan for saving him and took the initiative to sign up.

The Base Commander approved of his character and ability, his limp not affecting his work.

With that, No.9 Farm now had a formal cafeteria, serving three meals a day. Meals had to be pre-booked via mobile phone; eating was free for workers, and the cards were for meal count to manage the food quantity and prevent waste.

Some people didn’t eat breakfast or were too tired to eat dinner at night, and if they went to the base for a few days’ break, they wouldn’t eat, so the meal card was essential for proper headcount.

No. 7 and No. 8 Farms also started using meal booking cards; otherwise, things would be too chaotic. Gradually, rules needed to be established.

The head chef’s nephew was named Xiao Yun, a mid-level Fire Power. The other was Shao Kuan, a mid-level Gold Element superpower user.

Upon their arrival, they immediately got to work. The cafeteria listed its rules and regulations that same day, including the necessity of booking meals in advance, such as ordering breakfast three hours ahead, with the suggestion to book all of next day’s meals the night before.

No on-site card scanning for meals was accepted; it was necessary to count the number of people to prepare the food.

No waste was allowed; diners should take only as much as they can eat, and fines would be issued for wastage, with surveillance in place on site.

The cafeteria provided seasonal drinks like plum juice and mung bean soup, and during the busy farming season, these could be delivered to the fields.

Each month, the cafeteria required a thorough cleaning, with three people from each shift contributing to the effort.

All the new regulations were quite reasonable, and Li Pan was very satisfied.

Shao Kuan and Xiao Yun were both efficient in their work, cooking delicious meals and keeping the cafeteria clean.

In just a few days, they had not only kept the floor of the cafeteria where they worked clean every day but also planted the barren courtyard with vegetables and herbs for easy access while cooking.

Seeing the two of them working so well, Li Pan felt much more at ease. Feeding the workers had been a significant concern; resolving it early provided peace of mind.

No.9 Farm was considered a considerable operation, running independently from No. 7 and No. 8 Farms, with separate accounts for each farm.

Wenwen, Zhang Yu, and Xie Ling would be specially trained as finances in the future.

Zhang Qi was not fond of finance. He was about to come of age, and Qin Jianzhong intended to take him around to arrange various affairs, to train him as a future manager. Zhang Qi learned with exceptional dedication and never slacked off in his work.