The Qian Bai squad didn't speak. Cai Yi, the owner of "Wild Pigeon" bar, thought they weren't quite clear on what "butchered pig feast" meant, and hurriedly explained:
"This is a custom from Director Gu's hometown, far up north, from before the Old World was destroyed.
"Most of the people here come from the 'Lin Hai Alliance,' but there are also those like Director Gu, so the corresponding customs have blended in.
"In simple terms, it's about slaughtering a pig to celebrate during festivals, making different dishes from various parts of its body. For example, streaky pork can be cut into chunks and cooked with sauerkraut. Heh, there aren't many fresh vegetables in winter, just sauerkraut pickled in advance. It's easy to preserve, very refreshing, really, a perfect match with streaky pork. Hmm, you can also add blood sausage. Blood sausage is made by putting things into the collected blood, mixing it with minced meat and spices, stuffing it into the intestines, and then cooking it. Anyway, those from the 'Furnace of the Gods' have plenty of one thing: spices..."
Hearing Cai Yi's description, Long Yuehong, Shang Jianyao, and the others swallowed at the same time.
"Stop talking, we haven't eaten yet." Jiang Baimian stopped the boss from just talking without doing anything. "Why don't you make us this dish you're talking about today?"
"Alright!" Cai Yi readily agreed.
Then, he reminded them:
"It'll definitely be a bit worse made with frozen meat."
"It's okay." Shang Jianyao looked like he wanted the dish brought out right now.
While waiting for the boss to cook, the "Old Task Force" played pool again. This time, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong had both gotten the hang of it, playing back and forth.
Because there wasn't much meat thawed in advance, Cai Yi first made sauerkraut pork, prepared a few bowls of rice, and let Shang Jianyao and the others fill their stomachs first before preparing the other food.
"The meat is so fragrant..." Jiang Baimian picked up a piece of streaky pork, put it in her mouth, and chewed. "The sourness also cuts through the greasiness, making it especially good with rice."
Bai Chen ate a piece of meat, shoveled a mouthful of rice, and looked at Long Yuehong and Shang Jianyao, who were focused on eating.
"Meat boiled purely in water is also very delicious, especially fragrant, but you can't use wild animals to make it."
When she was a wasteland wanderer, where would she have so many seasonings? Sometimes she didn't even have salt. If she managed to get a piece of meat and couldn't preserve it, she would just boil it in water, skim off the scum, and eat it on the spot.
"Mmm, mmm." Shang Jianyao expressed his approval vaguely.
Just as they were eating with relish, four people entered the bar.
It was Bai Xiao's team, whom they had met a few times before.
Lin Tong, who had black hair and a gentle temperament, sniffed:
"It smells so good..."
As she spoke, her gaze had already locked onto the "Old Task Force" with a large pot of food in front of them.
"Does this bar sell fresh food?" Lin Tong walked up to Jiang Baimian and Shang Jianyao in a familiar manner, staring at the sauerkraut pork and asked.
Jiang Baimian chuckled:
"We saved the boss before, so he's treating us."
"I see..." Lin Tong revealed obvious disappointment.
"Want to eat together?" Jiang Baimian extended an invitation.
"How could we? The boss only invited the four of you." Lin Tong said, but her feet didn't move an inch.
Jiang Baimian smiled:
"It's okay, the boss will still prepare enough for four people. I'll open some cans, and everyone can eat together."
"Then open our cans." Lin Tong seemed to be waiting for this sentence and sat down directly.
Bai Xiao, Lei, and Zhang Shaopeng looked at the pot of sauerkraut pork and followed suit.
Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong politely went to the kitchen to get bowls and chopsticks for them.
"You guys are famous in Tarnan now. You even took care of such a powerful 'Advanced Heartless.'" While waiting for the rice, Lin Tong praised, whether sincerely or just being polite.
Bai Xiao, whose half of his head shimmered with metallic light, nodded:
"We thought of many methods and made many plans, but we weren't even a little confident."
*Looks like you still have some confidence in your strength... After experiencing getting lost and illusions, you still retain the idea of solving the other party...* Jiang Baimian muttered to herself and responded with a smile:
"It was mainly thanks to the 'Mirage Dragon Church'; we only provided some speculation."
"No, no, no, in my eyes, brains are more important than martial strength." Lin Tong expressed her opinion.
At this time, they received their rice and stopped talking, reaching out with their chopsticks.
After eating the sauerkraut pork down to the bottom, the eight of them chatted while waiting for the subsequent dishes.
"You guys must have made a lot this time, right? Finding the whereabouts of the missing robot can earn you ten non-intelligent robots." Jiang Baimian asked casually.
"Not bad." Lin Tong said modestly. "Bringing this back to First City can be exchanged for a lot of supplies, but how to bring it is a problem."
"You're from First City?" Bai Chen interjected.
"Yes." Bai Xiao, whose right eye was purple-red, replied frankly.
The straight sword on his back had been taken off and leaned to the side.
Lin Tong added with a smile:
"We call ourselves relic hunters, but we're actually a research team, serving 'First City.'"
*We call ourselves relic hunters, but we're actually a survey team for the cause of the Old World's destruction...* Jiang Baimian slandered and asked thoughtfully:
"Biological field?"
"Yes." Lin Tong nodded. "I mainly study the fields of genetics and neurology. This time I came to Mount Ciral to catch a kind of aberrant creature, the Lightning Mink, to study the neural aberration on its body."
"I don't understand either, why do we have to come in winter." Lei, who always maintained a gentle smile, muttered quietly.
Lin Tong's expression suddenly became serious:
"The subsidies for going out in winter are higher."
Hearing this sentence, the four members of the "Old Task Force" suddenly felt that this lady was very friendly.
As expected, they are all teams serving a large force, and fleecing the organization has become an instinct.
At this time, Shang Jianyao looked at Bai Xiao and asked with a look of envy:
"Was your mechanical modification done in First City?"
"It was fortunate to be in First City at the time." Bai Xiao responded concisely.
"He was attacked at the time and suffered heavy injuries. He might not have survived without the modification." Lin Tong helped to add.
Jiang Baimian suddenly empathized and asked with a smile:
"Did you take revenge?"
"The fact that it's still there means I haven't." Bai Xiao pointed to the irregular shrapnel embedded in his forehead.
Because the specifics of what modifications were made were definitely the other party's secret, Jiang Baimian ended this topic and chatted about other things.
After a while, Cai Yi brought up two dishes, one was sweet and sour meat chunks, and the other was steamed and sliced sausage.
"Want to drink some wine?" He knew that the two relic hunter teams in front of him were very strong, and he deliberately tried to please them. "It's on me, but I only have fruit wine; it won't get you drunk."
"Okay!" Lin Tong blurted out and looked around, smiling at Bai Xiao, Lei, and Zhang Shaopeng, "I'll just drink a little, just a little."
*Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling...* Jiang Baimian frowned at the sight.
A dozen minutes later, Lin Tong, holding a glass with only a shallow layer of liquid, with a flushed face, swayed and said to the four members of the "Old Task Force":
"If you, have the opportunity, to First City, it's on me!"
Jiang Baimian glanced at Bai Xiao and the others and found that they all looked helpless.
"Okay!" Shang Jianyao happily accepted Lin Tong's invitation.
After the feast, the two teams waved goodbye and went their separate ways.
...
After washing up, as soon as Jiang Baimian returned to the living room, she saw Shang Jianyao sitting on a chair, wondering what he was pondering.
"What's wrong?" Jiang Baimian asked casually, wiping her hair with a towel.
Shang Jianyao said with regret:
"The mission ended too early, there are no fresh ingredient subsidies anymore."
When they accepted the "Advanced Heartless" related mission, Genava 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, also felt quite regretful when he thought of this.
"Forget it, we can't stay here for a few days anyway." Jiang Baimian said after pausing for a moment.
Shang Jianyao still maintained a pensive expression and said to himself:
"I don't know when the 'Furnace of the Gods' baptism ceremony will restart..."
Due to the outbreak of that "Advanced Heartless" incident, the "Furnace of the Gods'" recent initiation ceremony was postponed.
"You can ask about it later, hopefully it will catch up with our schedule." To be honest, Jiang Baimian was still itching to participate in the sauna baptism.
Shang Jianyao nodded gently, then said:
"I've communicated with that island several times, but it hasn't worked."
"Huh?" The topic jumped too much, and Jiang Baimian, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen couldn't keep up with the thought process.
*You just struck a pose and rambled for a long time, just to say this? Is this the shy and awkward Shang Jianyao?* Jiang Baimian thought for a while and said:
"What kind of fear that island specifically represents may require you to do an in-depth self-analysis.
"We can only give some advice, but we can't replace you yourself."
Then, she, Long Yuehong, and Bai Chen each said some of their guesses.
...
When it was late at night and everyone was quiet, Shang Jianyao sat up, leaning against the headboard, hiding his body in the darkness.
He stared at the sparse streetlights outside the window for a long time, slowly raising his hand to pinch both temples.
Inside the shimmering "Sea of Origins," Shang Jianyao once again boarded that sunny, green island.
He sat cross-legged on the beach, staring blankly at the "ocean" in front of him.
After an unknown amount of time, Shang Jianyao lowered his head and stretched out his right hand to write a word in the yellow sand:
"Loneliness"
He stared at the word for a few seconds, then reached out and wiped it away.
Then, he wrote a sentence:
"Afraid of being meaningless?"
The last question mark was crooked and huge.
After watching it for a while, Shang Jianyao wiped the sentence away again.
Just like this, he wrote and erased, erased and wrote, changing countless nouns or phrases.
As time passed by, Shang Jianyao, who had been spacing out for a long time, once again used his fingers to write a sentence on the beach:
"Afraid of losing everything you have?"