Chapter 39

After hesitating for a moment, Shaoxing Yang finally ate a piece of fried clam meat. It did not have the expected fishy smell, but instead had a fresh taste. After being stir-fried at high temperature, the freshness was fully stimulated, and then mixed with the salty and spicy sauce, forming a unique fresh and mellow taste. The cooking wine in it not only removes the fishy smell but also further enhances the freshness.

The clam meat after being hit with a kitchen knife maintains a certain elasticity without being too hard. When chewing, you can clearly feel the slight toughness of the fibers, and the taste is very chewy.

The fish soup was stewed until it was milky white, and the fish with some strange patterns on its body was partially exposed on the surface of the soup. With a spoon, you could scoop out the full amount of fish meat at the bottom of the pot.

The collagen in the fish head and bones dissolves in this pot of soup, giving it a sticky texture and a sweet taste. Every sip of the thick milky white soup contains the richness of fish fat. The slightly fried fish skin is slightly charred and exudes an oily aroma. The fish meat is stewed until it is soft and almost falls apart when you take a bite. It can be said to melt in your mouth and is delicate and nourishing.

Yan Hong filled a bowl of pickled fish with anticipation. Before she even started eating, she could smell the pungent sour smell just by getting close to it. The fish fillets were covered with a thin layer of soup and cooked until they were translucent in the sour and spicy soup. The meat melted in her mouth like solidified fat, and the sour and spicy taste rushed to her throat. Finally, she could still taste the umami flavor belatedly.

The combination of sauerkraut and chili peppers is appetizing and refreshing, contradictory yet harmonious. If you eat a few more slices, you will sweat from the spiciness, but you can't stop, switching back and forth between pain and happiness.

After the meal, everyone was sweating. Shaoxing Yang wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and continued eating hurriedly, as if he was afraid of eating too much.

"Looks like I don't have to worry about leftovers." Lu Shiyu ate a stir-fried river shrimp, and the soup exploded in his mouth.

"You really have to eat fresh seafood," Yan Hong kept stuffing fish fillets into her mouth. "Every time I go out to eat fish and shrimp, they're either frozen in ice or dead, and they're expensive."

“The price of aquatic products in the base has indeed always been high.”

Lu Shiyu's store has never served dishes containing seafood. They are difficult to handle and expensive, which really does not fit the positioning of her store. Lu Shiyu positioned her store as a place where people in a hurry can quickly eat delicious and inexpensive hot meals. Usually, seasonal vegetables are the main ingredients, which are delicious, fresh and cheap, and most importantly, they are easy to buy.

While eating, Shaoxing Yang took out a fish from the fish soup.

"It's really strange. Some of the deformed creatures look fake, while others look quite normal."

For example, the one caught by Shaoxing Yang now seems to be no different from ordinary fish except for its patterns and ugly appearance.

"I think I caught this fish," Yan Hong put her chopsticks into the fish's mouth, "but it's definitely not normal."

As she spoke, Yan Hong picked out another mouth from the fish's mouth. Nested in the fish's mouth was another small mouth that could be stretched out independently. When it was at a certain distance from the small fish, it could unexpectedly bite the other party and drag it into its mouth. It was very cunning.

"Even if a deformed creature appears normal on the outside, there are always some differences inside that are different from normal creatures. You just can't see it," said Chen Yunliang, pushing his glasses, which had turned white from the heat. "Just because it looks normal doesn't mean it is truly normal."

"Wouldn't a deformed creature definitely show it in appearance?" Lu Shiyu asked.

"Not necessarily. Some creatures appear completely normal, but only after encountering them do you discover their anomalies," Chen Yunliang told Lu Shiyu about the base's past. "When the base was first opened to the public, ordinary people were actually allowed to leave. They just had to submit the necessary documents and undergo an inspection. Once they were confirmed to meet the requirements, they could leave the base."

"Wouldn't that lead to ordinary people dying after going out?"

"The base's requirements for applicants are very stringent, but even if the requirements were set higher, they still couldn't match those of a proper exploration team. The casualty rate was horrific, so they were discontinued shortly thereafter."

Lu Shiyu grumbled quietly: "So casual..."

"But the reason for the suspension was not entirely due to the casualty rate."

"The high casualties are only part of the problem. The more serious problem is that someone has smuggled mutant creatures into the base."

When she heard this, Yu suddenly became alert. She lived very close to the gate. Although she had heard rumors about people sneaking in deformed creatures, she had never actually seen one. The rumor spread in the streets for a while and caused some panic, but then disappeared inexplicably. She was probably suppressed.

"Some abnormal creatures that appear normal, or that conform to human aesthetics, are smuggled into the base by civilian exploration teams and sold. Some are driven by curiosity, or by some rumored miraculous effects. Regardless, they are extremely popular in the market, with supply exceeding demand. This has led to the spawning of even more shady industrial chains."

"Some were treated as exotic pets to be flaunted, while others were considered exotic ingredients, popular in the kitchens of the wealthy. It's understandable that you didn't know about them. After all, these were still considered a gray industry at the time, with high prices. They were considered a tool for the wealthy to show off their wealth. It wasn't until some issues arose that they were banned."

Chen Yunliang looked at Lu Shiyu with suspicion and smiled: "Don't look at me, I don't have those habits."

"But you eat a lot of the dishes I cook."

"..." Chen Yunliang paused: "Don't talk like Yan Hong."

Yan Hong, who was standing by, was so angry that she threw a piece of clam shell. Chen Yunliang turned his head and the clam shell just brushed his cheek.

"Get lost! Don't blame me for everything!"

"But then," Chen Yunliang seemed to think of something interesting. "A deformed creature is still a deformed creature after all. Even if it looks soft and cute, it is still a deformed creature."

"While the black market for aberrant creatures and exotic pets was still surging in popularity, problems had already begun to arise with previously purchased aberrant creatures. The most notorious incident involved a villa where the owner purchased a large-eyed, furry aberrant creature resembling a lop-eared rabbit as a birthday present for his daughter. However, on the day of the birthday party, the aberrant creature somehow escaped its cage and, for some reason, transformed from a rabbit into a kangaroo-like creature. It then proceeded to slaughter everyone in the villa, including the birthday guests, leaving the entire interior walls painted red with blood."

"Well, what happened later?" Lu Shiyu swallowed.

"Later, the freaked creature was shot dead by the police who arrived. Because so many people were involved, there was no way to keep the news secret. It spread throughout the community, and the richer people were, the more afraid they were of death. No one dared to keep a freaked creature as a pet anymore, fearing it would die inexplicably one day. So, even if it looked normal, it was just that, normal."

Lu Shiyu asked, "Isn't there also a portion that can be used as food?"

Logically speaking, if mutated creatures had been used as food before, then why hadn't anyone in the base ever heard of anyone eating mutated creatures?

"Oh, that," Chen Yunliang recalled. "Back then, there were also cases of people dying from eating deformed creatures. But they were all idiots. They either ate them uncooked or simply ate them raw. If they didn't die, who would die?"

"Anyway, as more and more murders occurred, the relationships and interests involved grew, and the base realized it couldn't just ignore it. However, trying to control smuggling was too time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the trouble was endless. So, the base simply implemented a blanket ban. No one except for the official exploration teams was allowed to leave. This completely blocked the possibility of smuggling aberrant creatures, and incidentally, spread the word about the terrible dangers of aberrant creatures."

Lu Shiyu glanced at the milky white fish soup in the bowl. When he thought about the fact that they had been eating mutated creatures all along the way, it was obvious that no one in the team had really listened to what the base said.

"If the aberrant creatures are so dangerous, how dare you eat the food I cooked?"

It would be fine if they were as unaware of those cases as she was, but they clearly knew about them and still dared to eat them.

"Didn't I tell you? They died from eating it because they were stupid. How can you eat food without cooking it and still be safe?" Chen Yunliang calmly drank a sip of fish soup and continued, "It's just that the management at the base is too strict, so no one dares to mention it."

"I'd say rich people have some quirks," Yan Hong said, slurping a mouthful of fish. "They can eat things that look so disgusting."

Shao Xingyang shook his finger and retorted, "No, no, humans may have always been curious about exotic foods. Not long before the apocalypse, some people ate animals like bats, live pearls, and even human placentas. These have always had a popular audience."

Yan Hong kicked him: "How disgusting! Who told you to say that while eating?"

Lu Shiyu was still a little worried: "Are you really okay?"

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm here. You won't die," Chen Yunliang said comfortingly. "Besides, who knows if anyone else in the exploration team has secretly eaten the aberrant creatures without telling anyone else?"

"Then they are very greedy." Shaoxing Yang said.

"Who can be greedier than you?"

Lu Shiyu quietly approached Tang Zeyu and asked, "Tang Zeyu, do you think anyone besides us also eats deformed creatures when they're out?"

"Possibly, but not very likely," Tang Zeyu answered truthfully. "Most exploration team captains are quite strict. They would most likely not allow a team member to eat a distorted creature. If anything goes wrong, the joint liability would be very heavy."

"Aren't you afraid of joint liability?"

"..." Tang Zeyu's eyes moved to the air: "We'll talk about it when the time comes."

Lu Shiyu: “…”

Why do I suddenly feel that Captain Tang is so unreliable?

"Those people in the base live a life of luxury and extravagance every day, immersed in the comfort of money, completely forgetting the terrifying nature of the aberrant creatures," Chen Yunliang said with a sardonic smile. "They're so bold as to want to keep the aberrant creatures as pets, thinking that because the aberrant creatures are so soft and cute, they're harmless. It's laughably stupid. They really think the aberrant creatures will fear their money and power just like humans do. They've even forgotten why they're confined to the base their entire lives. Ha, even if they die, they'll be considered a contribution to the base."

Lu Shiyu clearly felt that Chen Yunliang's mood was not right. Obviously, Chen Yunliang's family belonged to a wealthy family, but he seemed to hate those "rich people".

Noticing Lu Shiyu's dazed expression, Chen Yunliang thought he was shocked by what he said, and his mood instantly brightened. "It's normal that you don't know. The base wouldn't let ordinary people know so much. Many things are sealed within the circle before they are spread out, so just treat it as gossip."

"Chen Yunliang," Lu Shiyu said word by word, "Did you run away from home because your family forced you to join a social gathering?"

Chen Yunliang: “?”

Wait, how did the topic jump to that point?