---

One hour later.

When the hour hand of the quartz clock pointed to the big "3", El was brought back to his senses by a burst of fragrance.

He slowly opened his eyes and tried to get up but found himself tied firmly to a bed.

The white paint on the iron bed had peeled off a bit, and it looked a generation older than El.

Just by moving my body slightly, the iron bed made a creaking sound.

“Squeak~”

Not far away came a sound that only occurs when frying something, and a strange aroma of meat wafted over.

The familiar smell and sound brought back El's long-forgotten memories.

That was when I was very young. At that time, the common people in Hope City did not have three meals of nutritional paste a day like they do now, and my father worked in a small slaughterhouse.

He would often bring back some unwanted fat meat, spend a little electricity at home to make it into white fat, and then sell it on the black market to supplement his family income.

Although the steps are rather complicated, at least you can make some money.

El forced his head to turn around and saw the semi-open kitchen and the young man who was busy working not far away.

There was a thick piece of steak in the pan in front of him, and tiny stars of oil were jumping and splashing everywhere.

His expression was solemn and focused, as if he was an artist adding the finishing touch to his work.

On the iron water pipe behind him were two people with pale faces, only the upper bodies of which could be seen...

people.

El fell into memories again.

He had visited the small slaughterhouse where his father worked and had seen scenes similar to this one several times, except that the iron hooks on the assembly line were hung with slaughtered animals.

El felt his heartbeat begin to slow down after the initial rapid acceleration, as if trying to kill him first by lack of oxygen to reduce the pain.

On the other side, Lin Qingliu was humming a little song about life while sprinkling fine salt on the whole piece of steak, sighing that the freshly cut piece of beef was more fragrant than the zombie meat filling that had been frozen for who knows how long.

He finished frying the fish on both sides, turned off the rice cooker and started preheating it for the final seasoning. When he raised his head, he met the eyes of the young man on the bed.

Lin Qingliu smiled what he thought was a harmless smile and said:

"Are you awake?"