Chapter 26: Rat Meat Jerky
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“Little girl, why have you come to the trading market at this hour?” The proprietress could not hold back her curiosity. Lu Li had brought a child with her, and both of them were clean and well-dressed, unlike the traders she usually saw, who lived rough and sold goods wherever they could.
Lu Li was no longer the same as before. Lies came easily to her now.
“My home is far away, and something happened there. This is my first time at the trading market, so I didn’t know the rules. I waited half the day but never caught a bus. I thought I could get here on foot, but by the time I reached the terminus, I still hadn’t managed to board one. I’m just glad my ability is fairly strong. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have made it all this way.”
“I could walk back, but my little brother is already exhausted to the point of unconsciousness. He’s still young, and I’m carrying all these things. Why put him through another ordeal?”
“That’s exactly how it is. When you’re in a hurry, you can never catch a bus. You wait until you’re fed up and finally walk away—and then, wouldn’t you know it, the bus arrives, and you miss it again!”
Lu Li, who had once missed a bus and walked until nightfall, nodded vigorously. With a conversation started and nothing else to do, the two women soon began chatting.
“No wonder you looked unfamiliar to me. If you hadn’t been carrying a child and looked so pitiful, and if I hadn’t had all this merchandise piled up at home, I wouldn’t have dared let you in.”
“Thank you, Auntie.”
After a whole day without filing her fangs, their tiny points had already begun to show. When she smiled, her little canine teeth pressed against her lips like grains of rice. With her rosy cheeks and large eyes curved into crescents, she melted both husband and wife’s hearts.
“Oh my, what a pretty little girl! Nothing like that wild daughter of mine, who’s never home and works herself to death all day for a mere twenty contribution points!”
Her words were full of complaint, but her face could not conceal her pride. Lu Li gained a rough estimate of the value of contribution points.
“Looking at the two of you, how did it come to pass that you had to come out and sell—”
At that, the woman hurriedly slapped the talkative man beside her and gave Lu Li an awkward smile.
“Little girl, do you have any specialties from your side of the country? Lately, goods coming out of the safe zone have dropped sharply. Imported products used to be so scarce that you couldn’t buy them even if you had the money!”
Recalling the words “Gui City Safe Zone” on the identity card he had just glanced at, the man realized he had misspoken and, as a cover, handed Lu Li a cup of water.
Lu Li accepted it and took a sip. A strong taste of disinfectant filled her mouth. It was even worse than the boiled water from her river. Sure enough, having too sensitive a tongue after becoming a zombie could be a problem.
She set the cup back on the table and did not touch it again. Then, without blinking, she fixed her eyes on the older woman, hoping to learn more about the safe zone.
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Looking at the mountains of supplies stacked throughout the room, Lu Li guessed that the couple were probably decent people. After a moment’s hesitation, she wrote on a sheet of paper:
“Auntie, do you know where I can sell meat?”
When they read the words, both of them jumped.
“Little girl, you mustn’t joke about something like that. If you have rat meat, it can’t simply be tested for contamination levels and put on the market. It has to pass several rounds of approval. If a private buyer gets involved, you’ll go through all that trouble and still not even recover your costs.”
Seeing the bewildered expression on Lu Li’s face, the couple did not report her immediately. Instead, they earnestly began to advise her.
“A few years ago, on the street next to mine, the younger son of the Li family grew jealous of someone else’s dried-meat business and decided to try his hand at it himself. Rats, you know—there are plenty around the safe zone. Every so often, we get a rat infestation or an insect infestation, so catching a few with low contamination levels isn’t difficult. He gathered some rats and started experimenting on his own.”
“He was an honest, respectable man with a good reputation in the neighborhood. He made the dried meat right outside his home, so everyone could see what went into it, and he was generous with the seasonings. When it came fresh from the oven, it glistened with oil. Each thin slice was roasted to perfection, translucent and shining.”
As she spoke, she swallowed audibly, then suddenly shuddered.
“We were all practically driven mad by the smell. How long had it been since we’d tasted meat? We thought we’d splurge for once, so we followed the aroma—and found an incredibly long line.”
“He was fair-minded too. The ingredients didn’t cost much, though making the meat was time-consuming and troublesome, so he sold it for considerably less than the big corporations did—still within the range ordinary people like us could afford. Uncle Liu and I bought a piece as well. We tried to resist our hunger and wait for our daughter to come home from school so we could eat it together.”
At this point, both of them looked relieved and shaken.
“Luckily, our daughter had something come up and didn’t come home. The two of us got so busy that we forgot all about it! The very next day, more than half the people on these few streets were dead, and the entire Li family was wiped out.”
“With so many people dead, the authorities naturally came to investigate. They suspected the water. They suspected a new type of mutated creature. Somehow, they never suspected that low-contamination dried meat.”
“Not until the matter became widespread. A research team that had bought the same kind of dried meat came to investigate. Their tests showed that the dried meat made by the Li family contained a new type of virus—one that was directly fatal to humans!”
“After that, no one lived in this area anymore. The authorities happened to need more space, so they rebuilt it into what is now the Ninth Trading Market. We don’t know whether it was because we escaped that disaster that good fortune came our way afterward.”
“We had the property deed for this house. When the area was redeveloped, it worked out in our favor, so we simply started a storage business from home.”
“So you see, the authorities are extremely strict about food safety now, especially meat. It’s scarce to begin with, and tampering with it can get people killed. That’s not only irresponsible toward human life—it’s also a waste of food.”
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Under their stern gazes, Lu Li hurriedly waved her hands. It was not rat meat, nor was it homemade dried meat. She had simply found several snake eggs with low contamination levels. Once they hatched, she wanted to sell the snakes for meat.
Upon hearing that it was only a snake that had not yet even appeared, the couple relaxed.
“Do you know where meat fetches the highest price? I want to move out and live with my little brother. My uncle and aunt—”
Lu Li had not yet thought of how to invent a story about her nonexistent uncle and aunt when the older woman had already taken hold of her pen, as though she did not want Lu Li to expose her own wretched circumstances.
Her expression said, I understand, I understand.
A mute niece in poor health whose family had fallen on hard times, bringing her equally frail younger brother to seek refuge. The girl clearly looked as if she had been pampered at home and had never suffered much. Now that she had suddenly seen the harshness of the world, she merely wanted to make a living on her own with her little brother. There was little anyone could say to dissuade her; helping her a little was the least they could do.
Thinking this, the couple began to take the matter seriously.
“Hmm… I do know a shop that buys live animals, but just a few little snakes probably won’t bring in much money. If you’re looking for a private buyer, you’d be better off taking them directly to him. He has connections in high places, deals in a wide range of things, and has an excellent reputation. He also pays promptly.”
Lu Li nodded, her eyes shining. A buyer who dealt in a wide range of things was perfect! Then she would not have to worry about finding a market for her goods.
“It’s on the outskirts of the trading market, an antique shop that takes up a lot of space but never seems to have many customers.”
An antique shop?
Lu Li suspiciously rubbed her ears.
Uncle Liu chuckled. “Yes, it’s actually called A Family Antique Shop! That’s what someone called it when they were storing goods here. I don’t understand the interests of those young masters and misses, but all sorts of strange and unusual things can fetch a good price there.”
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