Chapter 1

"Thank you for listening to today's base broadcast. See you tomorrow."

As the broadcast ended, only the rustling noise remained on the radio. Lu Shiyu had just finished brushing his teeth and wiped his face with a towel. He walked forward and pressed the off button on the radio. After changing his clothes, he went downstairs to open the door.

The house where Lu Shiyu lived was a two-story detached building. The second floor was her living room, and the first floor was a medium-sized restaurant with a conspicuous sign hanging above the restaurant door.

Lu's restaurant.

Lu Shiyu had just tied on his apron when a man came in from the back door with a receipt.

"Sister Lu, there were no tomatoes for sale in the greenhouse at the base today. We only bought mushrooms. But I saw potatoes on sale, so I bought some extra."

Lu Shiyu peeked over and saw a basket of mushrooms and two snakeskin bags of potatoes piled outside the back door. He took the order and confirmed it was correct before nodding, "Okay, take those ingredients and prepare them. Today we'll make mushroom soup and spicy and sour potato shreds, and the staple food will be rice."

"Okay."

The man responded and turned around to pick up the potatoes and started washing them, which he would then need to peel and shred.

Lu Shiyu heard someone coming in and walked from the back kitchen to the front to receive them.

"Hey, Sister Lu, what are we eating today?"

A man and a woman walked in together, and the woman greeted Lu Shiyu in a friendly manner.

"Today I'm having mushroom soup and spicy and sour shredded potatoes with rice."

"Give us two servings. Oh, and add more chili peppers to my portion of shredded potatoes, and more vinegar to his."

After they ordered their meals, they found a seat next to each other. Lu Shiyu went into the kitchen and asked the man to give her a processed potato and some mushrooms before starting to prepare the meal.

Lu Shiyu peeled off the roots of the mushrooms, washed them clean, tore them into long strips and rinsed them with water again. After squeezing out the excess water, he put them into the pan and stir-fried them. When the water was almost boiling, he added clean water, covered the pot and waited for the water to boil. During this time, he could process the potatoes.

The potatoes have been peeled. Lu Shiyu cut them into slices and then into thin strips. He washed off the starch on the potatoes with a bowl of clean water and took them out. The oil on the side was already heated. Lu Shiyu added a few chili peppers and minced garlic and fried the oil until fragrant. He poured in the shredded potatoes and added chili and other seasonings and stir-fried them over high heat. After the shredded potatoes were thoroughly cooked, they were placed on a plate and a plate of sour and appetizing shredded potatoes was ready.

It only took three or four minutes to make the spicy and sour potato shreds. The mushroom soup was already boiling after being taken out of the pot. I opened the lid of the pot and sprinkled in some seasonings. Lu Shiyu felt that something was missing, so he added two spoonfuls of rice wine. After simmering it for a while, the mushroom soup was ready.

When Lu Shiyu prepared the meal and brought it to the table, the two were still whispering to each other. As soon as they saw the food, they separated immediately and sat in their seats to prepare to eat.

The woman picked up a piece of shredded potatoes with chopsticks. The sour, spicy and crisp taste instantly made her drool.

"This is the taste!" The woman ate shredded potatoes and rice with relish, and did not forget to take the time to praise Lu Shiyu's cooking skills.

Lu Shiyu was happy to see that both of them were enjoying their meal, so he lowered his head to continue preparing the dishes and waiting to welcome today's guests.

A man in uniform walked in. The two people eating in the restaurant just looked up and glanced at him without paying much attention. Lu Shiyu's restaurant has a very good reputation in the base. Not only ordinary people, but also many soldiers or government personnel come to her to eat. People who often come to Lu Shiyu's restaurant to eat have long been accustomed to these people. After all, they are all diners who come to eat, and looking at people is not as important as eating.

"Would you like to order? Today's set meal is hot and sour shredded potato, mushroom soup and rice."

The man glanced at the plates of the two people who were eating seriously, but he did not order.

"Hello, I have something I want to talk to you about."

Lu Shiyu paused while cutting potatoes, and finally looked up at the man.

"I'm sorry, I'm very busy right now. If you have anything to say, please wait until I close the shop before discussing it."

The man was silent for two seconds, then said okay and left.

Next, a steady stream of hungry diners walked into the store. Just as Lu Shiyu herself said, she was very busy during the day. Although the store was not big, it was very popular. It could be said that she was busy from opening to closing, with almost no time to rest. She was busy until five in the afternoon. After five in the afternoon, the sun began to set, and Lu Shiyu's store also reached closing time. The last few customers hurriedly finished their meal and hurried back home before dark.

Lu Shiyu looked back at the kitchen and saw that all the ingredients he had bought today were almost used up.

The food supply at the base is strictly controlled, and the amount of food each person can buy every day is limited. The amount that ordinary people can buy is very small. Those who are assigned to other places can apply for higher purchase qualifications. The reason why Lu Shiyu can buy so many ingredients is very simple, because she runs a shop.

To operate a business in the base, no matter what you sell, you need to apply to the base and obtain approval before you can open.

The shops within the base belong to the base rather than individuals. To open a shop, you need to apply for qualifications from the base first. After the application is approved, the base will allocate a store. You need to pay rent to the base every month. At the same time, the base will also issue different purchasing qualifications to different stores.

For example, Lu Shiyu runs a restaurant, so she has more qualifications to purchase ingredients, so she can purchase them from the breeding greenhouses at the base. If she were an ordinary person, her whole family would not be able to buy so many ingredients.

In order to avoid having his purchasing qualification cap deducted by the base due to waste, Lu Shiyu always buys on demand, so that the ingredients are fresh every day.

Finally, a busy day ended and the employees in the store had already left work. When Lu Shiyu walked to the door of the store to close, she saw a person standing outside the door, which almost scared her.

"Are you done?" The man also noticed Lu Shiyu.

"Hmm," Lu Shiyu then remembered that she seemed to have promised the man this morning to talk after they had rested, but she had long forgotten about this matter and felt a little guilty when she suddenly remembered it.

"Come in, we're closed."

The man followed Lu Shiyu upstairs. There was only one chair in Lu Shiyu's room, so Lu Shiyu had to sit on the bed.

"Please say whatever you want to say as soon as possible. It will be dark in an hour."

Lu Shiyu said this not to embarrass the other party, but since the biological deformation began, no place is safe. Even in the base, there is no guarantee that some deformed creatures will not suddenly appear at night and attack humans. Most people choose not to go out after dark.

"I would like to hire you as the chef for my team."

"What do you mean?" Lu Shiyu didn't understand.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Tang Zeyu, and I'm from the Sky Eagle Squad of the exploration team. We recently received a new mission, but the journey is quite long, to the northern forest, so I'd like to hire you as the team's accompanying chef, responsible for the team's food."

Lu Shiyu was a little bit incredulous after hearing this, and asked again uncertainly: "Are you saying that you want me to go outside with you?"

"Yes."

Lu Shiyu was a little surprised. She had never thought that there would be a day when she would be able to go out.

Since the complete outbreak of biological distortion ten years ago, Lu Shiyu took refuge in a base with high walls and has never left since then. If she wants to go out, she must get approval from the base. It can be said that no one can go out except the exploration team. She has long been accustomed to life in the base and never thought that one day she would have the opportunity to go out again.

"But I'm just an ordinary person, not a member of the exploration team. How can I get out?"

"You don't need to worry about that. My team is of a high level and can apply for an accompanying position. I will do my best to ensure your safety during the process, and the reward afterward will not be low. You can consider it."

"I promise."

Tang Zeyu didn't even try to persuade Lu Shiyu much before he agreed immediately, which was a bit surprising.

"When do we leave?"

"The day after tomorrow, I'll come to see you early in the morning. You need to pack your belongings and make arrangements in advance, because it may take two months to reach your destination."

Two months is indeed not a short time, but Lu Shiyu did not hesitate much and agreed.

Before leaving, Tang Zeyu said he had something to give her. After Lu Shiyu took it, she found that it was a book called "Manuscript of Deformed Organisms".

"This book records the appearance and habits of the deformed creatures outside the base. You can read it to prepare yourself mentally."

"Yes, thank you."

The sun's rays gradually disappeared and the street lights came on. Tang Zeyu turned around and left without staying any longer. Lu Shiyu stood outside the door and watched his receding figure, still feeling a little dazed. After returning to the store, locking the doors and windows, he looked at the brand new and heavy book in his hand and still felt a little unreal.

“I actually…”

On the way, Yu turned off the lights on the first floor and couldn't wait to go up to the second floor. He sat at the desk, turned on the small lamp for lighting, opened the book and began to read carefully.

This book records "new species" that appear after organisms undergo huge deformation. Each organism recorded in the book is accompanied by a page of exquisite and detailed illustrations and text descriptions. Although the name of this book contains the word "manuscript", in fact, this page is just a printing. The real manuscript has been collected by the base officials.

As Lu Shiyu read the book, he felt his heart beating faster, his face turned red due to congestion, and his eyes flashed with excitement.

It turns out that those creatures will become like this after deformation. It's amazing!

When Lu Shiyu finished reading half of the book with great interest, she felt a little dizzy and her head began to become confused. She shook her head and looked up at the clock. After seeing it clearly, her eyes widened. She had actually read so late!

There were only a few hours left before the hotel opened the next day, so Lu Shiyu quickly climbed into bed to catch up on his sleep, trying to get the few remaining hours of sleep he had. However, he felt extremely excited by the contents of the book, and he tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep.

The result, of course, was that I woke up the next day with two big panda eyes.

The next morning, Lu Shiyu was open for business as usual, but closed early after lunch. When she told the other employees that she was going out, there were gasps from all around.

"Sister Lu, is it really okay? It's so dangerous outside, why don't you just reject him?"

"Yes, Sister Lu, even the base isn't completely safe. If you go out, you might run into something. Even if the other side gives you a lot, it's not worth it to lose your life."

"Sister Lu, just tell me if it was the captain of that team who threatened you! How dare you make such a request? You're not a human being!"

"Yeah yeah."

Amidst the chatter of criticism against the captain of a certain exploration team, Lu Shiyu finally managed to interrupt.

"Everyone, please listen to me and be quiet for a moment."

The crowd's voices gradually faded away. Lu Shiyu pondered for a moment before speaking, "I know the environment outside the base is dangerous, but I didn't accept this commission because I was threatened, deceived, or tempted. So you don't need to complain to the base. I agreed because I wanted to go outside the base myself."

"What? Sister Lu, you must be wrong. It's so dangerous outside the base, why would you go there?"

"Yeah, there are all these weird and disgusting looking animals outside. I almost vomited in the museum before."

"I know you're all worried about me, but that captain is very capable and has promised to keep me safe," Lu Shiyu continued. "I've always wanted to go out and see the world, but for various reasons I haven't had the chance. Now that Captain Tang has given me this opportunity, I want to go and do it."

After Lu Shiyu said this, the others understood that she had made up her mind to get out, so they didn't say much.

"Captain Tang said it would take about two months to reach our destination. I need everyone to work together to help me take care of the hotel so that it can operate normally while I'm gone."

At this moment, no one knew who took the lead and shouted, "Sister Lu, just leave it to us!"

Others began to echo:

"Don't worry, Sister Lu, we can do it."

"Yes, we have worked in this store for many years. Don't worry about us not being able to take good care of the restaurant."

"Sister Lu, don't worry, we are here in the store."

"Pfft, pfft, look at what you are saying."

The atmosphere among the crowd changed from restlessness to excitement. Lu Shiyu finally felt relieved and went out to buy things.

After Waiting for Lu Shiyu to leave, everyone in the store looked at each other, as if they wanted to say something but no one said it. Finally, someone couldn't hold back.

"Sister Lu is gone. Is it really okay for us to be the only ones left?"