"Are we going to work in a restaurant?" Li Yue asked after getting into the car, bringing up the question they had discussed earlier.
The driver nodded perfunctorily.
"Is the restaurant inside the nursing home?" Li Yue asked again.
The driver slowly turned his head and glanced at her: "No."
The driver said slowly, "District One is not a place for free retirement. You have to take care of yourself, have hands and feet, and contribute to the world."
Silence fell over the car.
Apart from Bu Yi, the others had all been to the Raptor Academy and knew that a place that only talked about contributions without mentioning rewards was definitely not a good place.
The rearview mirror reflected the driver's signature grin, his sharp white teeth gleaming coldly, a trickle of blood seeping from between his serrated teeth, which he quickly licked away with his long, nimble tongue.
Xia Chuhe blinked, and the driver's teeth in the mirror returned to their normal shape, though they were still unusually white.
"Work hard, and the customers won't treat you badly. Coming to work in District One is the wisest decision you've ever made," the driver said. "We've arrived. Get out of the car. The only thing you need to think about is earning energy points."
The car door opened, and everyone got out.
The SUV reversed away and quickly disappeared.
Xia Chuhe hesitated and asked, "Did you see anything just now...?"
Before she could speak, everyone nodded in unison: "We saw it! The driver isn't human!"
Xia Chuhe secretly prayed that he wouldn't run into the driver again. He felt that the driver was far more dangerous than the big black rat.
...
They got off the bus at the entrance of a restaurant with four large, flamboyant characters on the shop sign: "Flesh and Blood Restaurant".
A freestanding sign stands to the right front of the restaurant.
Business hours: 8 PM to midnight
Specialty dish: Delicious Chicken
We look forward to welcoming our diners!
The content of the signboard cannot be described as simple; it is downright rudimentary!
Xia Chuhe went to look at the other shops. The signs were almost identical, the biggest difference being that the specialty dishes had changed from delicious chicken to delicious duck, delicious pork, delicious beef, etc.
However, diagonally opposite the Flesh and Blood Restaurant, there is a shop called Despair's Taste, whose signboard is exactly the same as the Flesh and Blood Restaurant's.
It's four o'clock in the afternoon, four hours before opening time. The whole street is lifeless, not at all like a place where business is expected.
Over the next four hours, Xia Chuhe and the others needed to at least figure out the rules of the business, how to cook the dishes, and the use of energy values.
Xia Chuhe came closest to having enough energy in Taoyuan Village. He could get energy by handing over the animals he drew, and he could use the energy to buy food, water and daily necessities from the vending machine.
However, according to the driver, the energy value in Zone 1 is much more valuable than that in Peach Blossom Village.
Xia Chuhe pushed open the door of the Flesh and Blood Restaurant and tilted his head at Li Yue: "Manager, feel free to let me know if you need anything."
Of the six people, Li Yue has the most experience in running a restaurant.
Li Yue had just finished observing the other shops with Xia Chuhe, so she didn't rashly remove the simple signboard.
Li Yue assigned tasks to everyone: "First, clean up. I'll be in charge of the area near the counter, the waiters will be in charge of the dining area, the chefs will be in charge of the kitchen, and the cleaners... look for a back door in the restaurant and check if there are any trash cans or swill buckets near the back door."
Li Yue specifically reminded Li Qiusheng: "Be careful."
The process of cleaning is also a process of gathering clues.
The interior of the Flesh and Blood Restaurant wasn't dirty. After a quick tidy-up, the group gathered around the counter to share clues.
Li Yue took out an account book and ten glowing coins.
"Two guests have made reservations tonight and have already paid a deposit of 10 energy points. They also have a balance of 10 energy points to pay after their meal."
Li Qiusheng was very excited: "Ten energy points is a lot! I found some things outside the back door, I'll take you to see them later."
Wang Yan took out two small notebooks: "These are the ingredients selection manual and processing manual that we found in the kitchen."
Wang Yan hesitated and said, "There's no recipe. Just select and prepare the ingredients according to the manual, and then serve them directly to the diners. They might want to...eat it raw?"
The two manuals were stacked together and were about a centimeter thick. The group glanced at the table of contents.
The ingredient selection guide mainly discusses the freshness and lean-to-fat ratio of ingredients preferred by different diners. Ingredients are broadly categorized as fatty, lean, tender, and ripe.
Xia Chuhe's gaze lingered on the word "mature".
That's a strange way of saying it. Aren't we usually using "old" or "firewood"?
The table of contents for the ingredient handling manual is even stranger.
This book doesn't teach any techniques for plucking chickens, killing chickens, or dissecting them. Instead, it talks about... how to clean and bathe chickens.
Just as Wang Yan said, diners seem to prefer eating it raw.
The tools that Xia Chuhe and Lu Danggui found in the dining area also corroborated Wang Yan's guess.
In addition to the usual cutlery such as knives, forks, and chopsticks, the dining area also has many tools such as gloves and tweezers...
Li Yue flipped through the ledger again: "Oh right, there are two notes on tonight's orders. One customer likes it slightly undercooked and doesn't like it too spicy, while the other customer wants it fully cooked."
A strange request.
Xia Chuhe concluded: "I have a lot of chickens in my space, fat and lean, young and old, I'll give them a bath and get them ready later."
After the discussion ended, Li Qiusheng eagerly pulled everyone to the back door.
"I found a vending machine. The items inside are super cheap. As long as you earn energy points, it's a great deal! Oh, and there are some animals in the back alley, but they're not dangerous. They look kind of silly."
Li Qiusheng opened the back door, and a faint smell of feces lingered at the entrance.
No one complained; everyone went out with Li Qiusheng as usual.
The backstreet was even darker than the street in front of the restaurant, and the cramped space was filled with the pungent smell of sewage, which made people instinctively feel disgusted.
Many restaurants have their back doors on this street, which is blocked off by numerous animals at both ends. At a glance, you can see chickens, ducks, pigs, dogs, cows, sheep... you name it.
Xia Chuhe frowned; she understood what Li Qiusheng meant by "very dull."
Normal animals, when gathered together, always make a lot of noise. But the animals here were all quiet, which made Xia Chuhe think they... were like people.
Only a group of people who are utterly desperate and have completely lost the desire to communicate can be so silent and so... harmonious when they come together.
Li Qiusheng pointed to a machine about 20 meters away diagonally opposite the back door: "It's right there."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it sounded particularly out of place in the quiet backstreet.
Several animals slowly turned their heads to look at where Li Qiusheng had come out, then turned their heads back. Only a few chickens fixed their gaze on Li Yue.
Li Yue nervously hid behind Xia Chuhe: "They're not food, I can't see any edible colors."
Xia Chuhe nodded.
Some of the animals in Birds of Prey Academy are not food; their true form is carcasses.
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