Chapter 84: The Authorities Have Arrived
“Here are four sets of tableware. Your dishes are all served! (^▽^)”
Caicai set a plate of Di San Xian down before four pairs of predatory eyes.
The moment the dish touched the wood, the four of them dug in without missing a beat.
“Here are two sets of tableware. Your dishes are all served! (^▽^)”
Caicai placed three dishes and two sets of utensils on a two-person table.
Along with a bowl of steamed rice.
Some were willing to splurge, ordering three dishes for just two people.
Others took inspiration from Long Shi, banding together as a quartet to split a single dish just to get a taste.
Lilin, Lina, Jia Wen, and Jia Si had also pooled together for a table. Counting their coins, they ordered two dishes and two bowls of steamed rice.
—As members of the very first wave to discover the Chinese Restaurant, their savings had already surpassed those of many grown adults in the city.
Time to live a little!
At a two-person table nearby, a woman accompanied by her young daughter had ordered a plate of Di San Xian and a bowl of rice.
The little girl, slightly younger than Lina, was fascinated by the robot calling itself Caicai. When it demonstrated how to use chopsticks, her wide eyes had watched every move with rapt attention.
Right now, she was carefully trying to pinch a chunk of eggplant between the sticks.
The eggplant made it safely into her mouth, and the girl gasped in delight. “Mama, look! I did it!”
After marveling at her feat, she chewed a couple of times, her face lighting up with pure joy. “This is so delicious! Mama, you said there were lots of tasty things to eat before the cataclysm—were they like this?”
The woman smiled, nodding before shaking her head slightly. “Not quite the same, but all very delicious. Does Xixi like this dish better, or do you prefer the sugar-roasted chestnuts?”
“Both! Mama, after we finish eating, can we buy a bag of chestnuts before going to work?” the little girl asked.
“Of course we can. You earned plenty of coin yourself, Xixi—you get to decide.”
“Yay!”
At another two-person table sat a lone customer.
The one-armed young man was clumsily using chopsticks to pick up steaming pieces of braised vegetables.
…Not long after the Chinese Restaurant opened its doors, the second floor was practically packed to capacity.
The ground floor was just as bustling.
Those who couldn’t bring themselves to part with the coin, or who hadn’t found partners to split a dish with, had headed downstairs.
The food on the ground floor was fantastic too, alright! And cheap, to boot.
They hadn’t even had their fill of the chestnuts and corn introduced just yesterday.
Waking up to a hot, hearty meal every morning was a dream come true—so wonderful it felt unreal.
In the past… you didn’t even have to look that far back, just seven or eight days ago, everyone here was living hand-to-mouth, never knowing where their next meal was coming from.
Every morning, the moment their eyes opened, they worried about whether they would return alive with crystals or anything of value.
Helplessly watching the green corruption seep deeper into their skin with nowhere to turn… that suffocating despair suddenly felt distant.
A single week was not a long time, especially in the post-apocalyptic era where days blurred together.
Monotonous survival usually felt like hitting the fast-forward button, numbing away as they scraped through the endless cycle of leaving the city and returning within its walls.
Yet over this past week, the lives of every regular patron had turned completely upside down.
Now, they didn’t have to fear rotting to death from toxic corruption, nor did they have to pinch every coin wondering how many days of starvation it would take to scrape together a ration brick.
Every morning, they enjoyed a warm meal at the Chinese Restaurant before heading out to work, and after a hard shift, they could return to buy more food to fill their bellies.
The boss kept rolling out new items every few days too—their mouths could barely keep up with their appetites!
Life was finally holding something to look forward to.
It was truly wonderful.
The crowd back on the ground floor was in equally high spirits. Having bought their food, they sat on the benches outside, munching away while resolving to earn extra coin today so they could head upstairs tomorrow and try those… stir-fries and braised master-stock platters!
People ate and chatted, discussing pushing further west later in the day.
The vast abandoned farmlands were no longer useless pre-cataclysm ruins; they had become treasure troves.
Who knew? Maybe digging up higher-value wild produce would fetch them even more City Coins.
Hm?
Mid-conversation, someone caught movement out beyond the perimeter of white light.
“Look… people are coming.”
“This early? Isn’t the second group supposed to… wait, that’s not right.”
The convoys setting out from Seed City still moved in three waves: Long Qian led the early morning group, a few older women and men took the mid-morning shift, and Duncan’s crew of young scavengers led the midday wave.
The dawn departure always drew the largest crowd, roughly equaling the mid-morning and noon groups combined.
Even if the second wave had set out ahead of schedule, it couldn’t possibly be this massive.
And flanking them were… people in black uniforms?!
On the second floor.
Having licked the very last grain of rice from his bowl, a thoroughly satisfied Long Shi set the empty dish down and stood up.
“Full and energized! I’m practically bursting with power right now—anyone want to place a bet on who rakes in more City Coins today…?”
As he talked, he casually swept his gaze out the window.
Long Shi froze mid-sentence.
The grin vanished from his face in an instant. Turning to Long Qian, he said in a hushed, urgent tone:
“Auntie Qian. The people outside the white light… look like city guards.”
As the newcomers drew closer, the patrons of the Chinese Restaurant all took notice of this unfamiliar crowd.
Those outside on the benches and those inside the dining hall turned their eyes outward upon hearing the murmurs.
What commanded their immediate attention, however, were the accompanying guards.
Black tactical uniforms, transparent visors, and sidearms holstered at the hip.
The patrons tensed, on high alert.
—The authorities had arrived?
…
Approaching the white light was the very crowd of Seed City residents who had mustered in the plaza at dawn for their inaugural trip to the Chinese Restaurant.
The official broadcast had landed like a massive boulder hurled into a tranquil lake, churning up turbulent waves across the city.
Excitement, astonishment, shock, suspicion… a tangled knot of emotions rippled through the ranks.
From the moment they passed through the West Gate until now, the chatter had never ceased.
Some were thrilled.
“Are there really roasted potatoes?”
“It’s an official announcement—it has to be true, right?”
“Wait, the commotion outside the West Wall these past few days… was it this Chinese Restaurant all along?”
“Now that you mention it… that actually makes total sense.”
“Didn’t someone say a worker who was mauled in the Black Fields got carried out and didn’t die?”
“Huh? That really happened?”
Others were riddled with dread.
“The guards aren’t setting us up, are they? I brought every last crystal I managed to save over these past few weeks.”
“Hard to say… What if the city can’t afford to feed this many mouths anymore, and cooked up an excuse to march us out here to die?”
“Surely not? The notice was laid out with so much detail.”
“They swore the Black Fields service was safe too, and look how many corpses were hauled out of there!”
“Hey, if you’re so paranoid, why the hell did you tag along?”
“…If I’m going to die, I’d rather die knowing the truth. What if it’s real?”
And throughout it all, many remained dead silent.
Their expressions were concealed behind coarse face cloths, hiding a mixture of bewilderment, wariness, and fragile hope.
A detachment of city guards marched along both flanks of the crowd.
Starting from the West Gate, two guards broke off every few hundred meters.
Planting a red flag into the dirt, they took up sentry positions on either side of the trail.
Like improvised waypoints.
…
Until, at last, the crowd laid eyes on the structure glowing within the white light.
Real, solid, and undeniably there.
—The Chinese Restaurant.
