Jiang Min glanced at the time, then looked at Cen Yu, "This time is unreasonable?"
After the apocalypse, the original order collapsed completely. People in the wilderness struggled to survive. Their only knowledge of what happened before the apocalypse consisted of collapsed buildings, empty shopping malls, looted supermarkets, and movie theaters still displaying movie posters from years ago.
DVD stores are too far removed from their lives; they are something beyond their comprehension.
“Generally speaking, these shops don’t close this early,” Cen Yu said after thinking for a moment. “DVD shops are even more likely to stay open until late at night.”
According to the other members of the team, all the shops in the shopping street are the same. Rather than saying they don't want to make money and do business, it's more accurate to say they're afraid of something.
"Are there any illegal factories in the shopping street?" Cen Yu asked.
“No,” the monkey said, “but there is a butcher shop that also sells cured meats like sausages and bacon.”
The clock in the DVD shop was still ticking slowly. There were only 12 of them in the entire shopping street. It was gray outside the window, and they had a feeling that something might sneak in from outside.
"What is this mass hysteria that the newspaper is talking about?" He Yuxing asked, pointing to the newspaper.
"Suspected interference from the total solar eclipse." He looked at Cen Yu. "You mean the people here are all experiencing similar hallucinations because of the total solar eclipse?"
The problem is, there are no residents left in the town.
The DVD store wasn't big, and once everyone in the group entered, it became incredibly crowded. But perhaps considering the unknown dangers that might lurk there, no one seemed inclined to leave.
Finally, Cen Yu glanced at the DVD store and said, "I think we can move to a bigger store and discuss it."
...
There is only one small restaurant in the shopping street that can accommodate 12 people.
The restaurant's windows were blue... Cen Yu looked at them curiously a few more times. The restaurant wasn't big; it could only seat four tables at most, and there was a small private room inside.
Cen Yu sat at the round table, He Yuxing sat next to him, and Jiang Min sat opposite Cen Yu.
“I just checked, there’s no food here,” Jiang Min said. “There’s no water either.”
Cen Yu looked at the blackboard in the restaurant. Besides the daily specials, it also said that the restaurant would never use substandard meat.
Our restaurant will never use substandard meat.
Please rest assured, diners.
Although the vegetables are expensive, they are of high quality and reasonably priced. If there is any deception, the shop owner...
The rest of the writing was left unfinished; the words on the blackboard were erased.
Unlike the Golden Amusement Park, the shopping street had no signs, only uniform opening hours and two news reports; everything else seemed normal.
Cen Yu looked at the words on the blackboard, "Are there other restaurants here?"
Why did he feel that the words on the blackboard were subtly implying that other companies offered cheaper prices but used inferior meat?
“No,” Jiang Min said. “There’s only one restaurant here.”
"There is one breakfast shop that sells steamed buns."
"Could it be that the steamed bun shop uses meat from a shady factory?" the monkey guessed.
"But the newspaper said it was cured meat, so the steamed bun shop probably doesn't use cured meat, right?"
There was a clock inside the restaurant, and as the group discussed things, the clock quickly struck 9 o'clock. As soon as 9 o'clock arrived, the gray and gloomy environment outside finally returned to normal.
Everyone in the restaurant noticed this, and then they heard a bell ring… Then, the thing stopped in front of the restaurant. Cen Yu watched as a middle-aged man took off his woolen hat and glanced somewhat nervously inside—
"Boss, do you buy meat?"
"Cheap meat."
"The pigs we just slaughtered at home are cheaper than those from the factory."
He looked to be in his forties and seemed unaccustomed to this kind of sales pitch, cautiously observing the people in the restaurant.
The other person had a clear target in mind, looking directly at Jiang Min, seemingly convinced that he was the restaurant owner. Cen Yu seemed to realize something, "You were the first person to enter the restaurant?"
“Mm.” Jiang Min nodded. Having experienced countless dungeons, large and small, he naturally understood what Cen Yu meant.
It seems the logic behind this shopping street is—
Whoever enters the shop first becomes the owner of the shop.
Jiang Min pushed back his chair and stood up. He walked over to the middle-aged man and said, "How much? Let me see your flesh."
The middle-aged man quickly quoted a price—Jiang Min didn't know if it was cheap or expensive—he could only vaguely answer, and then asked the man to let him see the goods first.
The man arrived on a tricycle, with a quilt and a styrofoam box inside.
The man lifted the blanket, revealing a styrofoam box inside... As soon as Cen Yu approached, he felt a bloody smell and a chill from the ice. The man looked at them with a somewhat ingratiating expression and opened the styrofoam box.
"They're all from our own pigs, they're clean."
He gestured for Jiang Min to look at the meat in the styrofoam box, and Cen Yu also peeked in.
The meat was all bled and cut, neatly arranged in a styrofoam box, with ice on top to prevent spoilage. "It's all good meat."
"It's not something from a shady factory."
“Do you know where that unscrupulous factory is, boss?” Cen Yu asked immediately.
The middle-aged man seemed to have a good temper. When he heard Cen Yu's question, he just shook his head and said, "The newspaper didn't mention it, but I heard that many stores have bought his products."
“These are all fresh, definitely not the cured meat that’s been sitting in that shady factory for who knows how many years.”
"I don't believe it. How many years can this last?" Cen Yu made an exaggerated expression. "Ten years, perhaps?"
"I heard they have meat that's been stored for decades," the middle-aged man said, then looked at Jiang Min ingratiatingly, "Would you like to buy some, boss?"
Jiang Min didn't have a single penny on him, so what was the point of buying anything?
But he couldn't very well refuse the man directly—after all, it was strange enough that a man selling pork from a tricycle was coming from such an odd place.
"Let me see your yard first," Jiang Min said. "What if all your pigs are sick or dead?"
Upon hearing this, the man's expression immediately became flustered. "How could it be a sick pig?"
"They're all good."
"My home is too far away, it's inconvenient to go there." After thinking for a moment, he gritted his teeth, cut off a small piece of meat and handed it to Jiang Min, "Boss, you try it, you'll know once you cook it and eat it."
"It's definitely good stuff, not pork from diseased pigs."
As he spoke, he put down the foam lid and looked at Jiang Min and Cen Yu, saying, "I'll come again tomorrow. Boss, if you want to buy meat, just let me know."
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