Universe Infinite Canteen

Ma Lu opened at 5 PM, and by 8 PM, all 200 servings of the Extreme Flavor Storm Dongpo Pork were sold out; the remaining dishes also sold out within the next half-hour.

If you count the time spent queuing, in reality, those who arrived after 7 PM couldn't get any of the Dongpo Pork.

Seeing that the queue was long enough, Ma Lu placed a sign at the end of the line, indicating that it was closed for today and to come back tomorrow.

After the last customer left, Ma Lu calculated today's revenue, which totaled 113,276. He then called Little Snail and Wu Peipei, who were part-timers at the restaurant, to settle their wages for the previous week.

Since both of them were still attending classes, they could only work during their free time, one worked 18 hours and the other 24 hours, at a rate of 50 per hour, totaling 900 and 1200 respectively.

Ma Lu directly transferred double the amount via WeChat. "Consider the extra as a bonus," he said.

Both were very happy upon hearing this, especially Wu Peipei. Her family's financial situation wasn't great; her tuition fees were covered by student loans, and she had to fend for herself for accommodation and daily expenses.

Although working at the Universe Infinite Canteen was somewhat tough, she could earn nearly five thousand a month, and with the occasional bonuses from Ma Lu, it was enough for her needs, and she could even save some.

After they left, Ma Lu also sent He Xiaoqian 4000, which was purely a bonus, as her salary was settled monthly and paid on the first of each month.

Boss Ma, having showered his staff with bonuses, of course did not neglect himself.

He soon dialed a number.

After more than half a month of test-driving, he had experienced almost all of the mainstream brands on the market, once or even twice, and it was time to make a decision.

Choosing a car, just like choosing a girlfriend, can easily dazzle one.

Especially cars around the 500,000 price range, each has its own unique features.

Some had cool exteriors, some had good chassis quality, some excelled in smart technology, some offered a great driving experience, some featured sofas, color TVs + large refrigerators enhancing the riding experience, others... had a brand.

It wasn't easy to make a choice among them, so Ma Lu first used the process of elimination to exclude gasoline cars.

This was partly to respond to the national call for energy conservation and emission reduction, but mainly because the development of new energy had been vigorous in recent years, and they indeed offered a lot more than their gasoline counterparts at the same level.

360-degree reversing camera, seat ventilation, steering wheel heating, which were traditionally premium features that required extra payment, were now standard. Moreover, they offered better materials, a sturdy vehicle structure, passive and active safety, more aggressive power, and a smoother vehicle system...

Genuine usable features like automatic parking, driving assistance, one-button summoning, and more were increasingly common, with significant progress in energy consumption and tuning.

In the realm of new energy, Ma Lu preferred pure electric over range-extended or hybrid models, primarily because in City B, only pure electric vehicles had no driving restrictions. It was quite frustrating to buy a car and have days when you couldn't drive it.

Having focused on pure electric vehicles, Ma Lu then organized his own needs. Firstly, he had some requirements for space. Since he ran a restaurant, occasionally, there was a need for transporting goods, so the trunk couldn't be too small.

Then, it was preferable if the car had some business attributes, since he was now a businessman. Besides these two points, Ma Lu also wanted a long driving range, at least over 800 CLTC, so that even in winter at 50% capacity, it could still run at least 400 kilometers, and charging once a week would be almost enough.

Considering all these, Ma Lu felt that the 09 was the most suitable, and he was even ready to place an order, but one night, he and Old Wang went out to walk number 6, taking advantage of the quiet night.

While passing by a small house next to their residential area, Old Wang suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"What's wrong?" Ma Lu asked.

"There's a lot of energy stored here," Old Wang said, staring at the small house in front of them.

Ma Lu looked in the direction he was pointing. "Oh, it's a battery swap station; indeed, there are a lot of batteries inside, but they are for cars, just like power banks," he explained.

As he spoke, he suddenly paused, a flash of inspiration striking him.

Old Wang's charging issue hadn't been completely resolved; initially, he could only charge in the rental house, but after the restaurant opened for business, Old Wang could charge both in the rental house and at the Universe Infinite Canteen.

The restaurant had a bit more power capacity than the rental house, so the charging time could be slightly reduced, but it was necessary to first ensure the operation of lights, air conditioning, refrigerators, and various kitchen equipment, leaving not so much power available.

Now that Old Wang's workload had increased, single-handedly managing the restaurant's kitchen, his power consumption was also quicker, so the frequency and duration of his charging had significantly increased.

Ma Lu felt he spent almost half his time next to a socket, and to improve this situation, it was essential to find a more efficient energy replenishment method for Old Wang.

He initially had his eyes on supercharging stations, which are widely distributed across the urban area for new energy vehicles and had sufficient power, commonly offering at least 120kw, with the peak power output even reaching up to 600kw.

The problem with supercharging was that it was easily spotted by others, as the stations are located in open areas, making them unusable during the day. From his observations, even in the early hours, there would still be occasional ride-sharing cars charging there.

But if it were about battery swapping, that issue wouldn't exist.

In just 5 minutes, one could get a nearly fully charged battery; after charging, Old Wang could return the empty battery and immediately get a new one, not affecting Ma Lu's car usage, and significantly improving the energy replenishment efficiency.

Moreover, from then on, all battery swap stations in the city could become Old Wang's energy storage stations.

With this in mind, Ma Lu changed his mind and finally ordered an ES8.

He specifically chose a 100-degree large battery, then opted for the highest available configurations, considering various discounts, the final cost was about 600,000, slightly over budget, but it wasn't a big issue.

The only regret was hearing that the initial free unlimited battery swapping rights had been canceled, otherwise Old Wang could probably charge the car company into bankruptcy.

After rewarding himself and solving Old Wang's energy replenishment issue, Ma Lu turned his focus back to the daily operations of the restaurant.

And then, on Wednesday night, the Universe Infinite Canteen welcomed another special guest.

The individual was dressed in a long black dress that wrapped her body, topped with a wide-brimmed hat, also in black. Additionally, she wore a veil over her face and gloves on her hands.

At first glance, Ma Lu almost thought that Angie had come again.

Except for celebrities, hardly anyone would wrap themselves up so tightly, but this person was noticeably smaller and much thinner than Angie.