Chapter 215: Proper Meal
Wu Heng let out an “oh” and picked another one. “Have you ever eaten snake meat?”
Xie Chongyi shook his head. “I don’t like eating snake.”
Crunch. Wu Heng bit off the head of the snake that had been hissing at him with its mouth open.
Xie Chongyi hissed, “I’m not kissing you for the next three days.”
Wu Heng didn’t even lift his eyes—eating was more important right now. Besides, if the class monitor didn’t kiss him, he could just kiss the class monitor.
“We can bring some back for them. For everyone.”
There was still plenty of empty space left inside the storage dimension. All the creatures Wu Heng had caught hadn’t been taken out yet, because there were no professional biologists at the base to conduct on-site investigations and confirm whether Deathlands could accept foreign species without damaging the local ecosystem. So Doctor Chen was still working hard inside as usual.
Hearing Wu Heng’s words, Doctor Chen strongly protested against him stuffing so many snakes into the space.
“The snakes here are an invasive species to your space’s ecosystem. You’d better not act impulsively.”
“I don’t like snakes.”
“Don’t eat them all—leave me some. Snakes are valuable from head to tail; they can be used for medicine.”
“Got it.” After saying that, Wu Heng focused entirely on eating. Xie Chongyi stayed with him for a while, then stepped over the writhing mass of snakes and walked toward the pair of men and women in the distance.
“Ability users?” Xie Chongyi asked.
The two hurriedly nodded.
“Clear up the snakes on the ground and transport them back by vehicle. Give part to the government cafeteria, and take the rest to the residential area for everyone to share.”
“B-but…” The snakes tangled together like balls of yarn were truly enough to make their legs go weak.
Xie Chongyi glanced up at the increasingly gloomy sky. He turned around—two-thirds of the still-active snakes were instantly ripped open with crackling sounds, and even the snakes crawling along the walls all fell cleanly to the ground, lying motionless.
Then he turned back, looked at the two people standing there dumbfounded, and smiled. “Can we start now?”
The two snapped back to their senses and nodded repeatedly.
The woman took out a wrinkled piece of cloth from her pocket. Tugging and pulling at it, the cloth grew larger and larger. She spread it on the ground, and together with the man, they bent down to pick up the snakes. In just a few swift motions, they could strip off a layer of snakeskin, leaving behind nothing but pale, exposed snake meat.
The snakeskins weren’t discarded either. The woman pulled out another piece of cloth to store them.
They worked quickly and efficiently. By the time Wu Heng was half full, they had just finished packing the snake meat and skins separately—standing on either side of the massive bundles, they looked as though they had come from a land of dwarfs.
The man’s ability seemed to be related to strength. He walked over, lifted one bundle with a single hand, and tossed it onto his back; the second bundle was handled the same way.
From Wu Heng’s perspective, the human looked like an ant carrying two giant fish balls at once, using the smallest body to bear food several times larger than itself.
The bundles were thrown onto the vehicle, making the car sink slightly under the weight.
After they drove off, Wu Heng finished off the last few snakes. Beneath the ground lay a massive hollow dug out by the swarm of snakes, on the verge of collapsing at any moment.
Wu Heng used vines to seal up the hole; at a glance, it looked just like a snake nest.
When the snake meat was delivered to the cafeteria, the kitchen had just set up the pots to start cooking. The scale was far larger than usual these days—after all, there were suddenly thousands more mouths to feed. Cooking a few delicate stir-fries in a small wok like before was no longer possible; they had moved straight into assembly-line cooking with giant pots.
The vegetables were sourced locally. Deathlands was uninhabited—just a walk into the mountains could yield plenty of wild greens and fruits. After several days of rain, mushrooms were sprouting all over the hills.
Meat, however, was much harder to come by. Most of the wild animals in Deathlands looked somewhat different from those outside—so strange they practically screamed “illegal.” On top of that, Jiang Xun had warned them not to hunt recklessly, so the food-gathering teams could only try to find pigs, horses, cattle, and sheep that looked relatively normal. Even then, they didn’t dare capture too many at once, worried that the total population might be very limited.
The snake meat that was delivered in felt like rain after a long drought.
“Where did this come from?!” Lin Mengzhi asked in delight.
Sure enough, he was wearing a chef’s outfit he’d somehow gotten hold of, with a hat on his head. A few strands of purple hair slipped out from under the brim. With sharp brows and bright eyes, he looked full of energy.
The woman explained where the snake meat had come from. Lin Mengzhi only accepted a little over half of both the meat and the skins. “Take the rest back and share it among yourselves. Haven’t you had much meat lately?”
The woman nodded, her mouth slightly open. “Captain Wang said we need to do a complete survey and record of the ecosystem here. Only after several rounds of educational briefings can we go out hunting. But he didn’t completely forbid it—he gave us a small booklet with a dozen or so animals that he said could be eaten in small amounts. Still, none of us dare to go yet… we’re not familiar with this place.”
“Because he also said that humanity must not repeat the same mistakes.”
After the two drove off with the remaining snake meat and skins, Lin Mengzhi dragged several hundred jin of cleaned snake meat back into the kitchen. He pulled out the menu and, with a few quick strokes, added stir-fried snake slices and snake soup.
He wasn’t the one cooking today. Making large-batch meals like this was beneath his skill, so Liu Shen called over a few of his own people to follow instructions.
Lin Mengzhi made a round through the kitchen, giving instructions all the way. As he stepped out the door, he came face-to-face—almost nose-to-nose—with Wu Zhi, whose expression looked rather gloomy.
“Damn—what are you doing?”
“Where’s my brother? I haven’t seen him all day.”
“You went months without seeing him before and didn’t die, did you?”
“…Where’s my brother?”
“Clearing the sewers. He should be back soon,” Lin Mengzhi said.
“Why didn’t you go do it?”
“I think you’re just itching for trouble again.”
Wu Zhi pouted and turned to leave.
She knew it—no one in the world loved her brother more than she did. If she had known he was going to clear the sewers, she definitely wouldn’t have let him go. She would have gone herself.
The cafeteria stood apart from several office buildings. Leaving it meant crossing a large garden that had been cleared and then grown back again. The surroundings were silent. Wu Zhi’s steps gradually slowed, then came to a complete stop.
Behind her, rapid footsteps approached.
Her figure shifted—she dodged aside first. Before she could even confirm who it was, her ability had already been unleashed.
Her former teammate was sent flying, crashing to the ground and unable to get up for quite a while. Wu Zhi looked at him indifferently for a few seconds, then slowly turned around.
Smack.
Liu Shen had appeared behind her at some point and struck her hard across the face.
“I suddenly remembered you, so I came to find you. What is it, little white dove? Got shut out by your dear brother again?”
A buzzing filled Wu Zhi’s head. She felt as if something inside her ear had burst, warm liquid flowing out. It took her a long moment to recover. She looked at Liu Shen coldly.
“I’ve never asked you for help. Do you think I can’t survive on my own? I’m proud to have a brother who’s tough-mouthed but soft-hearted and kind—but I will never feel honored because of you.”
The tattoo on Liu Shen’s face twisted briefly, but he quickly returned to an indifferent expression. “What are you supposed to be, anyway?”
Wu Zhi ignored him. She simply changed her route, bypassed Liu Shen and the two people he had brought, and entered the government building through another door.
By coincidence, she ran into Ruan Silian and Ao She, who had just returned from outside. The girl, wearing a cream-colored light wool coat, looked gentler than before. The coat happened to cover her gradually swelling belly. At a glance, she noticed that half of Wu Zhi’s face was already swollen like a bun.
“Oh my—Xiao Zhi, what happened to your face?”
Ao She stood silent as a mountain. Carrying a cloth sack on his back, he pulled out a handful of greens, kneaded and squeezed them, then placed the crushed bundle into Wu Zhi’s palm.
“Rub it on your face for a while. Don’t be afraid of the pain.”
Wu Zhi quietly thanked him. Her gaze flickered slightly. “Have you seen my brother?”
The two of them shook their heads at the same time.
—
Night had grown deep. Two young men of different builds—yet evenly matched in presence—finally returned to the area where people were gathered. Behind them trailed several bruised and battered figures, dejected like stray dogs.
Wu Heng had someone call Liu Shen over.
“Explain yourselves.”
On the deserted street, one dark-skinned, burly man jumped up and pointed at a shorter man beside him. “They were stealing from my home!”
It was a coincidence. On their way back, Wu Heng and Xie Chongyi had agreed to walk, thinking they could inspect the area along the way. Midway through, they came across a group fighting in an open space. After watching for two minutes, they realized it was four people beating one—and Xie Chongyi recognized the attackers as Liu Shen’s men.
“When did we steal anything?” the short man said with a cheeky grin, before quickly turning serious, clutching the bruise on his face. “We saw you still herding cattle in the rain and wanted to help. And besides, you were the one who made the first move—how are you turning this around on us? Let me tell you, this is a society ruled by law.”
“Right, Lord?” the man added, turning his face toward Wu Heng.
Wu Heng merely moved his arm, pulled out a limp strip of snake meat from his raincoat pocket, and took a bite.
The herdsman’s face flushed with anger, his chest heaving. After a long moment, he finally shouted, “My cows know how to go home on their own—they don’t need your help!”
“Then why are you out herding them? Just stay home and let them come out to graze by themselves.”
This time, the herdsman was so angry he staggered back two steps.
And Wu Heng still hadn’t spoken.
So the man finally broke down crying. “I knew it… people without abilities get b*llied wherever they go… sob…”
Wu Heng’s cheeks kept moving as he chewed. Only after he finished eating did he cast Liu Shen a casual glance.
“What do you think?”
Liu Shen’s expression had been unpleasant from the moment he arrived. Wu Heng’s question only made him force out an even gloomier smile—but he said nothing.
The short man exchanged glances with his three companions. There was far more confidence in their eyes than in the herdsman’s. How could their boss not protect them? It was obvious—this was the lord’s domain, and here, only they were each other’s most loyal allies.
And indeed, things seemed to unfold just as he expected. For the first time, Liu Shen’s grim features showed a hint of submissiveness, as if he were about to plead on their behalf. But before doing so, he walked up to them—closer than Wu Heng, Xie Chongyi, or even the herdsman.
Liu Shen suddenly placed a hand on the short man’s shoulder and patted it rhythmically—three, four, five times.
Something felt off. The short man hesitated. “Boss—”
Before he could finish speaking, his chest jerked violently forward. Dark brown branches burst out from his left chest, spreading across the surface of his body, sprouting and branching.
“You’ve disappointed me,” Liu Shen said emotionlessly, watching the light fade from his eyes.
The other three finally snapped out of it as the smell of blood thickened in the air. They turned and ran.
Liu Shen didn’t move at all. One after another, the three collapsed onto the empty street. Like the short man, small poplar trees—dozens of centimeters tall—grew out from their bodies.
Then came several vines, creeping slowly over their bodies. From afar, it looked almost gentle, like a soft caress—but their bodies were steadily disappearing piece by piece.
Liu Shen hadn’t shown his true expression until now. Only at this moment did the carefully maintained mask on his face visibly crack. He turned to look at Wu Heng—fair-skinned, clean, with a gloomy yet seemingly harmless face.
And the owner of that face… was eating people?
It felt like a long time had passed, but in reality, it had only been a minute or two. The street had already returned to a state as if nothing had happened.
Liu Shen then glanced at Xie Chongyi again—aren’t you going to intervene?
Wu Heng finished eating, and the matter was settled. He withdrew the vines that had finally gotten a proper “meal,” licked the corner of his lips, and said calmly to Liu Shen:
“Not bad.”