Bitter melon is bitter melon.

As long as it's cooked well, even insect legs are fine.

Lu Ban peeled off the charred chitin shell and saw the gelatinous insect meat inside that had solidified due to the high temperature. The meat exuded an aromatic aroma, tempting people to devour it.

Lu Ban tore off a piece of hot meat and put it into his mouth.

Chew chew.

After putting it in his mouth, Lu Ban felt a little regretful.

It tastes so bad.

Although it looks delicious on the surface, it is actually very unpalatable, just like looking at a perfect piece of original chicken but finding out it is Wallace roasted chicken leg, or gulping down a glass of iced cola only to find out it is toilet cleaner.

Lu Ban noticed the waiter's eyes. He tried his best to control the muscles on his face so as not to twitch or vomit, and he swallowed the insect meat.

"If you need anything else, I can get it for you."

The waitress, who was only in her teens, smiled.

"Let me digest it first."

Lu Ban declined the other party's request.

Watching the waiter leave, Lu Ban hurriedly hid himself and retched twice, but unfortunately the insect legs he had eaten had already entered his stomach, and he could not take them out unless he reached in.

“Is it not tasty?”

Seeing this, Feng Yu asked.

“It tastes worse than you.”

Lu Ban spoke the truth.

“…”

Feng Yu looked at him with a smile.

Lu Ban hurriedly took another bite of the insect legs on the plate.

"Sure enough, you are more unpalatable."

He corrected himself.

Feng Yu wanted to say something, but there was a noisy sound from the side.

"It's Mr. Du who's here."

Looking at this group of "veterans" in their teens and twenties who were looking around, Lu Ban suddenly found it a little funny.

At the entrance of the hall, Du Danping walked into the hall wearing a classical-style robe. He greeted everyone, and many people also greeted him, like a respected elder. It seemed that all camps were on good terms with him and wanted to give him face.

Du Danping came to one side of the hall, next to a piano.

This piano is obviously an unearthed cultural relic. The paint on its surface has long been peeling and mottled. I don’t know how long it took to repair it. It just stands here, like a singer who has been independent from the old times.

Du Danping sat down in front of the piano.

Lu Ban didn't know if there was anyone in this world who could play the piano, but he knew very well that in today's wasteland, even the most artistically gifted person could not reach even half as well as Du Danping.

Du Danping placed his fingers on the keys and tried two notes.

The pitch of this piano is not accurate. As a musical instrument left over from the old times, being able to make a sound is already its best effort.

But just as a great musician can produce beautiful melodies even with a ruler and a calculator, under the hands of [musician] Du Danping, this piano produced amazing melodies.

Music flowed like water through his fingertips, and the intoxicating melody lingered in the hall. In this wasteland, only now there was a moment of peace.

If music has magic, then Du Danping is now a magician who can bring people into a fantasy world and make them intoxicated.

Lu Ban had no doubt that as long as Du Danping was willing, he could use this music to manipulate people's hearts, reverse the situation, and even control pollution and prevent alienation.

This is extraordinary power.

When the song ended, people even forgot to applaud, as if they were still intoxicated by the images brought about by the music and unable to extricate themselves for a long time.

Lu Ban subconsciously finished all the roasted insect legs on the plate.

“A great musician.”

A young man applauded.

The others came back to their senses from their trance and started to applaud.

Amid the applause, Du Danping sang another song, this one full of melancholy, which made everyone fall into a sense of sadness again.

When the song ended, Du Danping stood up, and soon several female Senate members gathered around him, eagerly discussing topics related to music.

Du Danping communicated with them in a very gentlemanly manner. Then, he said goodbye to these ladies and looked at Lu Ban.

Lu Ban was holding a cup in his hand, which contained a kind of wasteland drink.

"This is honey wine brewed from a kind of insect called honey bug."

The waitress introduced.

"Oh, just like mead."

Lu Ban took a sip. The taste of alcohol was not strong, but it had a strange flavor. Although not as bad as Feng Yu's, it was not much better either.

"It is brewed from the semen excreted by honey bees after they eat other insects."

The waitress added.

"That is..."

Lu Ban looked at the translucent liquid in the cup.

Life in the wilderness is really hard.

He quietly put down the cup while no one around him was paying attention.

"How was the party?"

Du Danping came up to Lu Ban and asked.

“Everything tastes terrible.”

Lu Ban spoke the truth.

"Haha, indeed, the eating habits here are somewhat different from those in other foreign lands, but once you get used to it, you can still taste some of the flavor."

Du Danping chuckled and picked up a meatball made from insect eyeballs, putting it into his mouth and chewing.

"You rely on music to gain other people's favor?"

Feng Yu was not interested in the food. She looked at those little fans of Du Danping and asked.

"You mean using supernatural powers to manipulate people's minds?"

Du Danping glanced at those little fans and smiled at them.

"I can indeed use music to do these things, but at least in the wilderness, I didn't do it. Those saints can sense extraordinary power. If I had used music to bewitch them from the beginning, then I wouldn't be standing here."

“The cultural cognition in foreign lands is different, but at least in the wilderness, music is common. In order to survive, they gave up a lot, including art and music, but the feelings and resonance are retained in their genes. When the old melodies are played, they will naturally be moved.”

After hearing Du Danping's words, Feng Yu was silent for a moment and then spoke again.

"But music may not be enough to convince those people in the Senate."

Just like in reality, even if a person sings a song, he would not entrust his future and life to the other person. After all, art is just a luxury compared to survival.

“Music is just a means to bring people closer together. In the wilderness, the most fundamental reason for you to get along well with others is to demonstrate your value.”

Du Danping said.

"That's why the academy's pursuit is hard to understand, because it's hard to directly transform the exploration of the past into something that can be used immediately. So far, the things people have dug out from the ruins haven't played the role they were supposed to. Even the piano, if I hadn't noticed it, would probably just be scattered in the garbage dump, undiscovered."

He looked at the people who were talking in low voices not far away and pointed over there.

"That's right. I'll introduce you to the leader of this city, the saint of Utopia. His name is Plato."