Embers Ad Infinitum

Seeing that Qian Bai's team didn't speak, Cai Yi, the owner of the "Wild Pigeon" bar, thought that they didn't know what slaughtered vegetables were, so he hurriedly explained:

"This is the custom of Elder Gu Hui's family, in the north, before the old world was destroyed.

“Although most of the people here are from the ‘Linhai Alliance’, there are also some like President Gu, and the corresponding customs have been integrated.

"To put it simply, every New Year, pigs are killed to celebrate, and various parts of its body are made into different dishes. For example, pork belly can be cut into pieces and cooked with sauerkraut. Haha, there are no fresh vegetables in winter, so they are all prepared in advance. Pickled sauerkraut is easy to store and very delicious. Really, it is a perfect match with pork belly. Well, you can also add blood sausage. Blood sausage is made by putting things into the collected blood, mixing with minced meat and spices, and stuffing it into the intestines. After all, those people in the Melting Pot Sect don’t have much of anything, they just have more spices..."

After hearing Cai Yi's description, Long Yuehong, Shang Jianyao and others swallowed their saliva at the same time.

"Stop talking, we haven't eaten yet." Jiang Baimian stopped the boss from talking but not doing anything, "Why don't you cook us the dish you mentioned today?"

"Okay!" Cai Yi readily agreed.

Then, he reminded:

"It's definitely worse if it's made with frozen meat."

"It doesn't matter." Shang Jianyao said as if you can serve the dishes now.

While waiting for the boss to cook, the "Old Tune Team" played billiards again. This time, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong had already started, and they were playing back and forth.

Since there wasn't much meat that could be thawed in advance, Cai Yi first made some white meat with pickled vegetables and a few bowls of rice, letting Shang Jianyao and the others fill their bellies first, while he prepared other food.

"The meat is rich in flavor..." Jiang Baimian picked up a piece of pork belly, put it in his mouth, and chewed it. "The sour taste is very soothing, and overall it goes very well with rice."

Bai Chen ate some meat and planed some rice, looked at Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao who were immersed in eating and said:

"The meat cooked in pure white water is also delicious and very fragrant, but you can't use wild animals to cook it."

When she was working as a wilderness wanderer, there were so many seasonings, and sometimes there was no salt at all. She finally got a piece of meat, but since she couldn't preserve it, she just boiled it in plain water, knocked off the putty, and ate it on the spot.

"Yeah." Shang Jianyao expressed vague approval.

While they were enjoying their meal, four people came in at the door of the bar.

This is the Bai Xiao team that they have met several times.

Lin Tong, who had black hair and a gentle temperament, sniffed:

"smell good……"

As she spoke, her eyes had already locked on the "Old Tune Team" with a large pot of vegetables in front of them.

"Can you buy fresh food in this bar?" Lin Tong walked up to Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao and asked, staring at the pot of pickled cabbage and white meat.

Jiang Baimian laughed:

"We rescued the boss before, he asked for it."

"That's it..." Lin Tong showed obvious disappointment.

"How about eating together?" Jiang Baimian invited.

"Why are you so embarrassed? The boss only invited the four of you." Lin Tong said this, but his feet did not move at all.

Jiang Baimian smiled and said:

"It doesn't matter. The boss will make it for four people. I'll open some more cans and we can eat them together."

"Then open our cans." Lin Tong seemed to be waiting for this sentence and sat down directly.

Seeing this, Bai Xiao, Lei and Zhang Shaopeng glanced at the pot of pickled cabbage and white meat, and sat down as well.

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong politely went to the kitchen and brought out bowls and chopsticks for them.

"You are now famous in Tarnan, and you have eliminated such powerful 'high-level unintentional people'." While waiting for the meal, Lin Tong didn't know if he praised sincerely or politely.

Bai Xiao, half of his head flashing with metallic light, nodded:

"We have thought of many ways and made many plans, but we are not sure at all."

It seems that you still have some confidence in your own strength... After experiencing being lost and dreaming, you still retain the idea of ​​​​solving the other party... Jiang Baimian muttered a few words secretly, and responded with a smile:

"Mainly relying on the Mirage Cult, we only provide some speculations."

"No, no, no, in my eyes, brains are more important than force." Lin Tong expressed his opinion.

At this point, they were given rice, stopped talking, and held out their chopsticks.

After finishing the pot of pickled cabbage and white meat, the eight of them chatted while waiting for the next dishes.

"You made a lot of money this time, right? If you find the whereabouts of the missing robot, you can get ten non-intelligent robots." Jiang Baimian asked casually.

"Fortunately." Lin Tong said modestly, "We can exchange for a lot of supplies by bringing them back to the First City, but how to bring them is a problem."

"Are you from the Prime City?" Bai Chen interjected and asked.

"Yes." Bai Xiao, whose right eye was purple-red, replied calmly.

The straight knife he was carrying had been removed and rested aside.

Lin Tong smiled and added:

"We say we are relic hunters, but we are actually a research team serving the 'Primary City'."

We said they were relic hunters, but they were actually the investigation team into the cause of the destruction of the old world... Jiang Baimian slandered and asked thoughtfully:

"In the biological field?"

"Yes." Lin Tong nodded, "I mainly research the fields of genes and nerves. This time I came to Chilar Mountain to catch an aberrant creature, the lightning marten, and study its neurological aberrations."

"I don't understand why we have to come here in winter." Lei, who always maintained a gentle smile, muttered softly.

Lin Tong's expression suddenly became serious:

“The subsidy for going out in winter is higher.”

Hearing these words, the four members of the "Old Tune Group" suddenly felt that this lady was very kind.

As expected, they are all teams that serve big forces, and it has become an instinct to gather the wool of the organization.

At this time, Shang Jianyao looked at Bai Xiao and asked with envy:

"Were your mechanical modifications done in the First City?"

"Fortunately, we were in the First City at the time." Bai Xiaoyan responded concisely and concisely.

"He was attacked at that time and was seriously injured. He might not survive without reform." Lin Tong added helpfully.

Jiang Baimian suddenly felt the same and asked with a smile:

"Then revenge?"

"If it's still there, it means it's not there yet." Bai Xiao pointed to the irregular piece of shrapnel embedded in his forehead.

Because the specific modifications must be the other party's secret, Jiang Baimian ended the topic and chatted about other things.

After a while, Cai Yi served two dishes, one was sweet and sour meat, and the other was steamed and hot sausage.

"Would you like some wine?" He knew that the two ruin hunter teams in front of him were very strong, so he deliberately asked, "I'll invite you, but it's only fruit wine, so you won't get drunk."

"Okay!" As soon as Lin Tong finished speaking, he glanced around and smiled at Bai Xiao, Lei and Zhang Shaopeng, "I'll just drink a little, a little."

Why did I suddenly have a bad premonition... Jiang Baimian muttered when he saw this.

Ten minutes later, Lin Tong held a cup with only a shallow layer of liquid in his hand, his face flushed, and he staggered to the four members of the "Old Tune Group":

"If you have a chance, come to the First City and I'll treat you!"

Jiang Baimian glanced at Bai Xiao and others and found that they all looked helpless.

"Okay!" Shang Jianyao happily agreed to Lin Tong's invitation.

After drinking and eating, the two teams waved goodbye and went back to their homes.

…………

After washing up, Jiang Baimian returned to the living room and saw Shang Jianyao sitting on a back chair, meditating on something.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Baimian wiped his hair with a towel and asked casually.

Shang Jianyao said with regret:

"The mission ended too early and there is no fresh food subsidy."

When accepting tasks related to the "Higher Heartless" before, Gnawa promised to prepare fresh ingredients for them.

But obviously, this can only be obtained during the mission execution period.

"Yeah..." Long Yuehong, who was studying the computer, felt quite regretful when she thought of this.

"Forget it, we can't stay here for a few days anyway." Jiang Baimian was stunned and said.

Shang Jianyao still maintained a pensive expression and said to himself:

"I don't know when the baptism ceremony of the 'Melting Pot Sect' will be restarted..."

Because of the incident involving the "Higher Heartless One", the recent initiation ceremony of the "Melting Pot Sect" was postponed.

"You can ask later. I hope you can catch up with our schedule." To be honest, Jiang Baimian was still eager to participate in the sauna baptism.

Shang Jianyao nodded slightly and then said:

"I have communicated with the island several times, but to no avail."

"Huh?" The topic jumped too much, and Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen couldn't keep up with the idea for a while.

You just posed and talked nonsense for a long time just to talk about this? Now is the shy and awkward Shang Jianyao? Jiang Baimian thought for a while and said:

“Exactly what fear that island represents may require some deep self-analysis on your part.

"We can only give certain opinions and cannot replace you."

Then, she, Long Yuehong and Bai Chen each expressed their guesses.

…………

In the dead of night, Shang Jianyao sat up and lay on the head of the bed, hiding his body in the darkness.

He stared out of the window with sparse streetlights for a while, then slowly raised his hands and pinched his temples.

In the shimmering "Sea of ​​Origin", Shang Jianyao landed on the sunny and green grassy island again.

He sat cross-legged on the beach and stared blankly at the "ocean" in front of him.

After an unknown amount of time, Shang Jianyao lowered his head, stretched out his right hand, and wrote a word in the fine yellow sand:

"Lonely"

He stared at the word for a few seconds, then reached up and wiped it away.

Then he wrote:

"Afraid it's meaningless?"

The question mark at the end is crooked and huge.

After reading for a while, Shang Jianyao erased this sentence again.

In this way, he wrote, erased, and replaced countless nouns or short sentences.

As time passed by, Shang Jianyao, who had been in a daze for a long time, once again wrote a sentence on the beach with his fingers:

"Afraid of losing everything you have?"