Chapter 14: The Scent of Meat. It Smells Like Meat!
Early in the morning, the bell inside the high walls tolled five times.
This signaled the opening of the city gates.
It also marked the beginning of the city’s exchange for crystals and rations.
Inside Seed City’s high walls, at the central plaza, six city guards in matching black uniforms were divided into two groups.
The group on the west exchanged crystals for City Coins, while the group on the east exchanged City Coins for rations.
The crowd formed two orderly lines on their own.
At a glance, the line for exchanging City Coins was twice as long as the line for rations.
“Are we really not going to exchange?” Jia Wen, who had followed Auntie Yun and Uncle Xu out early in the morning, asked in a hushed voice.
They had to pass through the plaza on their way to the west wall.
Jia Wen was wavering.
He only had two small crystals in his hands, which would fetch four City Coins at most.
The guards only exchanged full portions of rations.
However, he could use those four City Coins to buy a small piece of a ration from someone else in the crowd.
—People inside the walls frequently bought and sold rations among themselves, especially those who couldn’t scrape together enough money for a full portion.
In these private transactions, only City Coins were accepted.
After all, crystals varied in size, and no one could say for sure who was getting ripped off and who was getting a bargain.
There was absolutely no food left at home. If they didn’t exchange for some this morning, they would have to starve for an entire day and wait until tomorrow morning.
Jia Wen could grit his teeth and endure it, but he still had Jia Si waiting at home.
“Let’s not exchange them,” Uncle Xu said.
Despite his words, his tone was clearly hesitant.
“Long Qian said to bring our crystals and not to exchange them,” Auntie Yun whispered to the two of them. “She must have her reasons. Since we chose to believe her, let’s believe her to the end.”
“…Alright.” Jia Wen nodded.
At the same time, movement stirred in several pockets across the city.
Some quietly pushed against the flow of people heading to the central plaza, making their way toward the west wall.
Others looked at the central plaza, hesitated for a long while, and eventually joined the back of the line to exchange City Coins.
They would go after cashing in!
“Long Qian!”
Just as Auntie Yun’s trio reached the high wall, they ran into Long Qian’s group.
Behind them trailed a scattered handful of others who were also going to see the “secret.”
The two young girls, Lilin and Lina, were also following the group.
“Auntie Yun.”
Long Qian gave them a shallow nod in greeting.
She had already said her piece last night, and the number of people following her today was clearly larger than the number who had asked her questions yesterday.
It seemed the news had spread, at least to some extent.
However, some of the people who had questioned her were nowhere to be seen this morning.
Whether they didn’t believe her or had gone to exchange their crystals for City Coins to play it safe, she didn’t know.
Survival was paramount in the apocalypse.
Anyone who had lived to see today understood that a person had to secure themselves first before they could spare any residual kindness.
She had done her utmost by tipping them off; whether the rest went or not was entirely up to their own fate.
“Put your face cloths on. We’re heading out of the city,” Long Qian instructed her crew.
Today, they were rolling out in full force again—eight members, bringing along the two young girls, Lilin and Lina.
There were also about a dozen people tagging along.
Auntie Yun’s trio, an elderly woman with her adult children, a frail young man, two middle-aged men leading three youths, and a woman who seemed to be injured, walking with a slight limp while clutching the hand of a little girl barely older than Lina.
As the group of over twenty people departed from the west gate, the gate guards couldn’t help but shoot them a glance.
But they quickly lost interest and looked away.
“This way.”
Long Ya led the pack at the very front.
Fully armed like everyone else, she moved agilely, using the long staff in her hand to probe the path they had walked yesterday.
Once she confirmed it was clear of danger, she signaled the crowd to follow.
The people following behind grew increasingly bewildered the further they walked.
“Isn’t this the farm area?”
“…What kind of secret could be out here?”
“I’ve been here before. There’s nothing to scavenge…”
“Why have the plants out here grown so huge?”
“…You don’t think they’re tricking us, do you?”
“What’s the point of tricking us? We don’t have anything valuable on us anyway.”
“Didn’t they tell us to bring our crystals…?”
“Stop spouting nonsense. At the very least, Geli really is healed.”
Among the followers, there was doubt, belief, and silent observation.
Up front, Long Qian’s group was completely unfazed.
Quiet and orderly, they marched toward where the miraculous boss’s stall had been yesterday.
“Hm?”
Rounding the massive boulder, Long Ya, who was at the very front, furrowed her brows.
“I remember it being right here.”
“What’s wrong?”
Long Qian caught up, her own brow furrowing at the sight of the empty clearing.
There was no one, no stall, and no miraculous boss from yesterday.
Soon, Qiu Jie, Geli, and the rest rounded the boulder. Lina, pulling Lilin along, walked over as well.
Staring at the deserted spot, Old Hu asked in confusion, “Did we go the wrong way?”
“We didn’t.” Qiu Jie glanced at his compass. “This is the exact spot from yesterday.”
Now it was Long Qian’s group’s turn to be dumbfounded.
“…Is Boss Sister not here yet?” Lina piped up. “Maybe it’s too early and Boss Sister hasn’t woken up yet, right?”
Lilin patted her sister’s hand, gesturing for her not to panic.
The people in the back rounded the boulder as well.
Seeing the situation, someone asked.
“What’s this mean? Are we here?”
“This is the secret?” a middle-aged man demanded. “Are you really just messing with us?”
Long Ya wasn’t one to coddle anyone’s foul temper. Having listened to this man’s incessant whining all the way here, she was thoroughly annoyed and snapped right back, “If you think you’re being tricked, turn around and go back.”
Long Shi chimed in to support her: “Exactly. You think you’re so precious that all of us would skip getting our rations just to put on a play for you?”
“You—!”
Panic collided with suspicion. All the pent-up doubts accumulated over the trek were suddenly brought to the surface.
Someone from the back spoke up: “We don’t think you’re tricking us, but could you at least explain what the situation is right now?”
“Explain what? We haven’t figured it out ourselves yet,” Long Ya said impatiently.
“Then what exactly did you bring us out here to find?” the woman holding the little girl’s hand asked cautiously.
“To find the boss! Yesterday, a boss fell from the sky right here, selling roasted potatoes and roasted sweet potatoes. There was a huge cart and a person, and now they’re just gone!”
Lina couldn’t hold back anymore, blurting it out while gesturing wildly with her hands.
The moment those words came out, the skepticism only intensified.
“…It’s the apocalypse, and there’s roasted sweet potatoes and roasted potatoes?”
“If you’re going to say that, then you really are treating us like fools.”
“Auntie Qian, is this little kid telling the truth?”
“She’s telling the truth,” Geli’s deep voice rang out. “I was on death’s door yesterday. If I hadn’t eaten a roasted sweet potato, my corpse would be completely cold by now.”
Obscured by face cloths, no one could see the expressions of those around them.
But it was glaringly obvious that the eyes of the group in the back were swimming with sentiments like, You people must be crazy, How is that possible, and Lunatics.
“Wait.” Long Qian raised a hand, silencing the crowd. “Do you smell that?”
As she spoke, she took two steps toward the source of the scent. “It seems to be coming from this direction.”
Seeing this, Qiu Jie and the others followed Long Qian forward.
“Are they insane… Sniffing the air outside the wall like that? Are they worried the emerald mist isn’t corroding them fast enough?”
Someone in the back muttered speechlessly.
“Exactly…”
“No, wait a second. There really is a smell. Sniff.”
A few people started following Long Qian’s squad forward.
“Auntie Yun.”
Jia Wen, who had remained silent the entire time, quietly tugged at the hem of Auntie Yun’s clothes.
His eyes sparkled brightly as he whispered, “The scent of meat. It smells like meat.”
The group stretched out sparsely. Those who believed followed Long Qian and the others forward, while the grumblers trailed unwillingly behind.
But soon enough, the questioning ceased completely.
Because it didn’t take long for everyone to smell it.
—A rich, intensely savory, intoxicating aroma of meat.
It forcefully seduced everyone’s taste buds, leaving no room for resistance.
