The poetry that was about to jump out of Chen Mo's mind was abruptly interrupted by Dunzi.

Forget it.

The sun gradually rose higher, and birds began to chirp in the mountain forest. Chen Mo was the first to turn his head and prepare to go down the mountain.

"Boss Xiao Chen?"

Dunzi called out to Chen Mo, "Isn't it time to make breakfast?"

Everyone cast expectant eyes, after all, they were all regulars here. They were thinking, if breakfast was marinated meat buns and pork offal porridge, they could certainly wolf down two more big bowls.

Without turning his head, Chen Mo waved his hand, "Everyone, we'll meet again in the rivers and lakes if fate allows!"

"Boss Xiao Chen, where are you going?"

Chen Mo didn't reply, just continued walking forward nonchalantly, stepping out of the Buddhist Gate to the parking lot and getting into the food truck, entering his next destination.

'Wow, saying goodbye with my back turned just now felt kind of cool!'

What if I kind of like this pretentious swagger?

Next stop — Sichuan!

Just now, at the moment Chen Mo stood on the mountaintop and saw the sunrise, he suddenly knew where he should go.

The flavor of the world is seen in Sichuan cuisine.

If he wants to go further on the road of gastronomy, Sichuan cuisine is an unavoidable learning threshold, not just because of its amazing flavors.

The key is that the characteristics of Sichuan cuisine perfectly align with the attributes of the food truck.

With the current state of the food truck, I can't exactly slowly cook a Nine-Turned Pork Intestines or some other famous dish on the roadside, can I?

Sichuan cuisine's cooking methods, which mainly include stir-frying, dry frying, and deep-frying, determine the speed of serving is extremely fast.

Moreover, the ingredients used in Sichuan dishes themselves are common and affordable, except for some famous dishes. They are mostly everyday ingredients for ordinary people, and buying them conveniently is exactly what Chen Mo urgently needs now.

"So, setting the destination as Sichuan is no problem!"

Plus, to get to Sichuan you also have to pass through Hunan, and Sichuan and Xiang Cuisine have some similarities, making it a good option too.

With the destination set, the food truck started to move.

Having not slept all night, Chen Mo fastened the seatbelt and pretended to drive with both hands on the steering wheel. In reality, he closed his eyes to rest but couldn't quite fall asleep.

"System, what do you think of my decision to go to Sichuan? Besides, the scenery is supposed to be great over there, and I haven't been there yet."

Chen Mo usually doesn't like talking to the system, always feeling it's nothing more than AI intelligence without any real value, but he was bored.

[We recommend you go to Guangdong.]

"Why Guangdong?"

[The system is searching for reasons for you...]

[Guangdong girls are great, gentle and soft, easy to fall in love with. Sichuan girls only know the Sichuan mountains, so please choose wisely!]

"What kind of system are you?"

[Responding to host, a legitimate food truck system.]

"Alright, then shut up."

[...]

The food truck drove down Wanglong Mountain, leisurely making its way towards the highway entrance. Within Jingzhou, Chen Mo temporarily decided not to take the national highway; navigating coal-heavy provinces on it would only lead to unnecessary troubles.

Once on the highway, Chen Mo really closed his eyes to rest. It was just five o'clock coming down the mountain, and this was the time when exhaustion from a late night would hit hardest.

He didn't know how long the truck had been running.

By the time Chen Mo opened his eyes again, it was nearing noon, and on the map, he saw that he had to exit the highway soon.

Going further, he would enter Yu Province, where he'd need to leave the highway and pay a 10 Yuan toll.

"Might as well pull over, eat something before continuing on."

Chen Mo remembered that there were still over a hundred unsold buns in the display cabinet from selling at the hospital earlier. These couldn't be sold, so he could only eat them himself.

Baking some buns in the electric griddle and having them with some water was quite delightful.

At this moment, Chen Mo deeply understood why countless people wanted to develop smart driving. Getting into the car and sleeping, waking up to eat and drink, it's pure comfort!

Unfortunately, current technology is not adequate to support such advanced level smart driving.

"If I could sell the smart driving system of this food truck to tech companies, I might fetch a good price, right?"

[???]

"Just kidding."

As the food truck neared the toll booth, the speed kept decreasing until it was queued up to pay the highway toll.

Yet, Chen Mo was puzzled because the manual toll lane he chose wasn't moving at all.

Nowadays, most highway exits are ETC-only, keeping just one manual toll lane open. The food truck did have ETC, but Chen Mo hadn't linked a bank card, mostly because he didn't plan to repay any loans. If his account gets frozen, what then?

After waiting for about ten minutes, there was still no movement.

Several drivers had already gotten impatient, exiting their cars to check the situation ahead, and Chen Mo was getting anxious too.

For some reason, traffic jams just make people anxious.

Even if there isn't a rush to get to the destination, it still causes agitation.

Having driven a bit earlier and reached the toll booth, he saw a driver wearing a double-arrow vest, work pants, and yellow rubber shoes sitting on the roadside, sobbing loudly.

"I said it can't be looked at, can't be opened, once opened it's ruined! Now what am I going to do, sob sob!"

"Ah... Fifty thousand, fifty thousand Yuan's worth of goods, I can't afford to pay that even if I lose everything, sob sob!"

Beside this driver stood police officers and toll booth staff, looking helpless, muttering incomprehensibly.

"What's going on, brother?" A driver standing next to Chen Mo was also watching the scene.

But what could they do, with this vehicle stuck, the non-ETC vehicles couldn't move either.

"I was right behind him, I think he was trying to use the green channel, but the staff required him to open the cargo box for a quick check and take a photo for record. Then somehow afterward, this old fellow just sat down crying."

Chen Mo nodded, curiously walking around that vehicle, detecting a very strong fishy odor.

"Officer, what exactly happened here?" Chen Mo asked, seeing the officer staring at him, he quickly added, "I was just wondering when will traffic resume."

"Sigh!" The officer sighed, "This fish transport truck needed to deliver to Yu Province, but wanted to use the green channel which by rule requires photographing for documentation. The driver mentioned his refrigeration unit broke down on the way, and with the current high temperatures, opening the cargo box would let out too much cold air, risking the fish not surviving the trip to Yu Province. Without opening it, he couldn't use the green channel, leading to..."

The toll booth lady stood nearby, looking both aggrieved and helpless, "Without a photo, I can't let him pass. Who knew he'd open the cargo box in a fit of anger, then say the fish would die just from that."

The once sobbing driver stood up suddenly at this, veins bulging at his neck, hollering at the top of his voice, "Don't you understand live fish require low temperatures to reduce oxygen demand! I said my refrigerating unit broke, that I'd provide supplementary proof upon reaching destination, why was that not acceptable! Now the cargo box is open, the cold air is gone, the spare oxygen isn't enough, midway the fish will all die, sob sob..."

So that's it, Chen Mo finally understood.

This uncle's job is to transport live fish, and probably something went wrong with the refrigeration unit on the road. Normally, even if something went wrong, since the cargo box is insulated, it can maintain low temperatures for quite a while.

Yet, highway regulations demanded a photo to use the green channel, leaving him stuck.

Presumably, the uncle got stubborn, possibly agitated by something the toll booth staff said, in a moment of exasperation opened the cargo box.

Now the cold air was gone.

In this weather, running for another four to five hours on the highway, even if the oxygen supply holds, the heat alone could cook the fish alive.

However, Chen Mo was a bit confused; the truck wasn't too large, what kind of fish costs over fifty thousand for such a quantity?

"Uncle, what kind of fish are you transporting?"

The old driver sobbed, "River-opening fish! This season's river-opening fish, it's valuable, fifty-one Yuan a pound, totaling fifty thousand, what am I going to do!"

Whoa!

River-opening fish.

Others might not know about it, but Chen Mo was definitely familiar with it.

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