Chapter 19: Human Fireworks
The camps of the scavengers, apart from the necessities for survival, the most abundant thing was meat.
Since the forbidden zone was nearby, there were scavengers who traveled there every day, so meat that could be eaten was sold at many stalls in the camp.
So after hearing that Xu Qing wanted to eat snakes, a cheerful smile appeared on Team Lei's wrinkled face.
He understood that the reason why the other party had said that he wanted to eat snakes was because the words he had said in the first place had obviously been firmly memorized by this child in front of him.
So he stopped Xu Qing's move to go out and buy meat.
"That group of people in the camp, each and every one of them is treacherous, you don't know much about the forbidden zone's exotic beasts, you'll easily be tricked and appear to be forced to buy and sell, it's better for me to go." Team Lei said and stood up.
Hearing the words forceful buying and selling, Xu Qing subconsciously touched his iron sign, thinking before seriously saying.
"They won't."
Team Lei swept his eyes over the iron sign, dumbfounded, didn't open his mouth, and walked out of the courtyard.
Looking at Lei Team's figure, Xu Qing thought for a moment, went to the side room, carefully cleaned the pots and bowls inside, and set and wiped the table, and finally prepared three pairs of bowls and chopsticks and placed them on top of it, looking at the extra pair of bowls and chopsticks, Xu Qing suddenly understood something.
"That's someone who will never come." His mind floated back to the words that Team Lei had once spoken, and in silence, he placed the third set of chopsticks, next to Team Lei's chopsticks.
The chairs did the same.
After doing so, Xu Qing looked back at the courtyard outside the room's door, at the moment the sky was already dusk, the wind was blowing a bit cold, and within it, there vaguely seemed to be some snowflakes.
The season of the end of March, for the eastern part of the South Phoenix Continent, although the earth is warming up, everything is recovering, but the winter seems to be very reluctant, and will occasionally sprinkle snowflakes, trying to tell everything, it has not yet left.
At the moment, snowflakes fluttering under the gray sky, blown down by the wind.
It seems to fall from the sky to the earth, spreading out the earth at the same time, and then by the ground temperature rapidly melted.
Eventually all that could be seen was the slush all over the ground.
No matter how noble place from the arrival, no matter how clean themselves, but in this place on earth, but also still have to mix with the mud, integrated into the inside, not distinguish between them.
I don't know whether the wind contains the snow, making it more icy, or the snow infiltrates the wind, making it more cold.
At this moment, when it blew across the earth, across the camp, and across the bamboo courtyard houses, Xu Qing was a little cold.
Although he was a cultivator, the fear of cold that had accumulated over the years from the depths of his memories still made him a little uncomfortable in this icy cold.
Until in this cold wind, he saw a hobbling figure, coming from afar against the wind and snow, pushing open the door of the courtyard, the moment the figure was revealed, a voice with laughter broke through the wind and snow to enter.
"Kid, you're blessed with a mouthful of food today, look what I got, this is a saffron snake, the meat of this snake is excellent, I'll show you a good hand later."
Carrying a snake corpse, Team Lei took big strides and walked into the side room.
Noticing the neatness within the side room, noting the placement of the tables and chairs as well as the dishes, especially after seeing the two pairs side by side, a smile appeared on Team Lei's wrinkled face as he gave Xu Qing a deep look.
"Want to learn how to burn a snake?" Team Lei spoke.
"Want to." Xu Qing's eyes lit up, he was eager for all the knowledge he didn't know, especially since the snakes burned by Lei Team were delicious.
Lei Team smiled, greeting Xu Qing to his side, introducing it while making it.
"This snake ah, according to reason it is necessary to chop off the head and remove the tail, but those people don't know, the tail of the snake has to be removed due to the presence of a vent, but the head of the snake, as long as it is handled well with poison, it can contribute to the overall taste of the snake meat, and play a role in refreshing it."
Team Lei was very happy when he talked about burning vegetables.
Xu Qing was also listening attentively from the sidelines, watching as Team Lei cleaned the snake, peeled the skin to take out the internal organs and other debris, and chopped it into segments and put it aside.
"Kid you have to remember, whether this meat has any aftertaste when it enters your mouth or not, it still depends on the soup."
Saying that, the Lei team began to use the casserole to simmer the soup, the soup also put a lot of medicinal herbs into it, and the snake head that was finally processed, was also thrown into it by him.
After doing this, with the clear fragrance overflowing, Xu Qing gulped down his saliva, and as Team Lei looked at him, he laughed, and directly took out the scrubbed and cleaned pot, and began to stir fry the snake meat.
Instantly, as the crackling sound echoed, bursts of rich aroma with heat waves came to the surface, filling the entire side room at the same time, but also wafted out.
It seemed to dispel all the icy cold, causing gurgling sounds to emanate uncontrollably from Xu Qing's stomach as he looked at the tumbling snake meat, his eyes going a little straight.
Soon, as Team Lei's firing, the bursting snake meat was placed into the casserole by him, the lid came down and he looked at Xu Qing.
"Learned yet."
Xu Qing's eyes were fixed on the casserole, nodding his head vigorously, he had seen the entire process and felt that it wasn't very difficult.
Team Lei smiled faintly, leaving the side room and returning with two wine jugs in his hands, one thrown to Xu Qing, one held by himself, taking a sip and sighing in admiration.
"There's no shortage of meat in the camp, but this wine, ah, it's a rarity."
Xu Qing picked up the wine jug and looked at the cloudy liquid inside, he hadn't drank wine before.
As Team Lei had said, this belonged to the category of being a rarity, it was not available in the slums, and only the big shots in the city, could taste it.
But seeing the Lei Team's face of enjoyment after drinking it, Xu Qing hesitantly put it to his mouth and frowned slightly after taking a sip, feeling his mouth full of pungency, but still swallowed it.
A hot current surfaced directly from his throat, flowing down his esophagus and into his stomach, and then exploded violently, spreading all over his body and turning into a breath that surged into his mouth, causing him to open his mouth and spit out a mouthful of alcohol.
"Not good." Xu Qing looked at Team Lei.
Lei Team laughed out loud at his words, pointing at Xu Qing and opening his mouth with a smile.
"You're still too young to taste the flavor of the wine, when you grow up in the future, you'll definitely like it."
Lei Team said, about to take the wine pot from Xu Qing's hand, but was dodged by Xu Qing.
"I'll try again." Xu Qing said seriously, taking another sip, his brows still furrowed but adapting to the strange flavor.
And shortly after time, under Team Lei's good-natured mockery of Xu Qing's drinking, the snake meat was ready.
The moment he served the casserole and the lid was opened, the aroma spread directly, and the knots in Xu Qing's throat couldn't help but move, putting down the wine jug and waiting for Lei Team to clip a piece of it first, Xu Qing immediately poked a piece of it out with his chopsticks, placing it in his mouth to swallow it in a big gulp.
He still couldn't change his habit of wolfing down food.
Just like this, amidst the wind and snow outside, an old and young man inside the house were drinking wine while eating meat, and warmth filled the air.
Looking at Xu Qing holding his chopsticks with force in an awkward position, the depths of Team Lei's eyes revealed a softness as he murmured in his heart.
"After all, it is a child, it is a pity ...... to live in this cruel world."
At this moment, the wind and snow outside blew, because of the existence of gaps in the structure of this house, or drilled in, fell on Xu Qing's body, although he ate a head full of sweat, but for this cold wind, there is still some resistance, slightly shrinking the body.
This subtle behavior, fell into the eyes of the Lei team, he pondered, did not say anything.
Until a long time later, Xu Qing followed Lei Team's example and drank a large mouthful of wine once again, and after spitting out the breath of wine, he looked at the old man in front of him, who had brought himself out of the ruined city and placed him here, and suddenly opened his mouth.
"Your injury ......"
"No harm, so many years have survived, where would it be so easy to die, it's fine."
Xu Qing was silent, he had wanted to ask Team Lei about the matter of the root being abolished, but remembering the scene in the forbidden zone, he ultimately did not open his mouth.
The meal lasted for a long time until Team Lei emptied the wine pot in his hand, and he stood up, his eyes a little hazy as he returned to the house.
Looking at his figure, Xu Qing clearly felt that Team Lei had a once-powerful aura about him that seemed to have dissipated with this return to the forbidden zone.
Xu Qing was silent, and after a long while, he stood up, tidied up the dining table, and put the pots and bowls away neatly before returning inside his own hut.
Sitting on the bedpan, he looked up at the wind and snow outside the window, shrunk his body, and took out the Blood Shadow Captain's leather pouch that he had picked up within the forbidden zone.
There were no pills inside, but there were a lot of spirit coins and a lot of miscellaneous items, which Xu Qing examined.
Eventually, he took out a black glove, which didn't look like leather and had a bit of a metallic texture.
Under the attempt, Xu Qing found that this object was very tough, the power of protection was not bad, so he brought it on and punched it a few times, felt that it was not bad, then he took it off, closed his eyes and meditated, and began to vomit.
The night was silent.
At dawn, the wind and snow were still falling, but it had slowed down a lot, it was just that the freezing cold of the night had made it possible for the snowflakes to finally exist for some time after they landed on the ground.
So when Xu Qing stepped out of the house, he saw the snow marks on the ground.
Tightening his clothes, Xu Qing swept his gaze over Team Lei's residence and walked out of the courtyard, feeling that he should go and do something, such as buying some White Dan for Team Lei.
So after stepping out, Xu Qing stepped on the snow, and with crunching sounds coming out, he headed towards the grocery store.
As he passed by Master Park's caravan tent, Xu Qing heard the sound of young boys and girls reading faintly emanating from the tent, a sound that caused him to step on his feet and glance enviously.
Retracting it in the middle of the day, Xu Qing silently turned his head and walked towards the grocery store.
As he approached, far away, Xu Qing saw the little girl outside the grocery store, who was exerting herself to clear the snow traces, her clothes were a bit thin, her small hands were frozen red, and a gust of mist was emitted from her mouth.
After a few days of not seeing her, the little girl seemed to have adapted to the life of the camp, although she was very tired, but she was sweeping very seriously.
Even if the snow was still falling, she was still sweeping, only the scar on her face that had ruined her face, under the sunlight in this early morning, was somewhat obvious.
As Xu Qing approached, the little girl became aware of it, and after looking up and seeing Xu Qing, her eyes lit up and a happy smile appeared on her face.
"Good morning."
"Morning ......," Xu Qing was a little uncomfortable with this greeting, nodding before looking inside the grocery store.
Perhaps due to the fact that the day had just dawned, or perhaps due to the weather, there was no one inside, and the shopkeeper wasn't there either.
"What do you want to buy, I'll get it for you." The little girl smiled and spoke.
"White Dan." Xu Qing looked towards the little girl.
The little girl sniffed and leaned the broom in her hand against a wall, and after leading Xu Qing into the store, she ran behind the counter and rummaged around, quickly pulling out a couple of leather pouches, opening them up and looking at them, then putting them back.
It wasn't until a long time later that she took out another one and handed it to Xu Qing.
"The proprietor stipulates that you can only sell five a day, so you can't sell more." The little girl apologized a little and looked at Xu Qing.
Xu Qing could understand, and after receiving the leather bag and opening it for a sweep, his eyes solidified slightly.
He noticed that the white dan within this leather bag, the quality was too much better than what he had bought before, and there were even three of them, a little bit of green color didn't exist, and there was also a faint medicinal aroma spreading out vaguely.
Thinking again of the little girl's previous actions, Xu Qing raised his head and looked over.
"It's not much, it's within my purview." The little girl blinked and spoke with a smile.
Xu Qing gave the little girl a deep look.
"Thanks."
"You don't have to thank me for this little thing, I still have to thank you, if it wasn't for you, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to live now."
The little girl smiled brightly, her eyes seemed to have light in them as well, after finishing she seemed to have thought of something, while sending Xu Qing out, she spoke in a low voice.
"I heard the proprietor say yesterday that during this period of time, a lot of younger people in the camp have disappeared within the forbidden zone, and looking at his look, it seems to feel like it's not like the danger of the forbidden zone itself is causing it, it's more like it's man made ...... Keep an eye out for yourself."
There was concern in the little girl's eyes, a look that made Xu Qing a little uncomfortable, he took a few steps back, nodded and thanked him for leaving.
Until he walked out a short distance, Xu Qing looked back, looking at the figure of the little girl continuing to sweep the snow there, looking at the scars on its face in the sunlight.
He suddenly thought of what Team Lei had said, that the Forbidden Zone Temple Cluster, had a stone that could eliminate scars.
"When you have the chance, go find one for her." Xu Qing murmured in his heart and turned to leave.
The teenager was far away, the road came out of a snow trail, and the wind and snow were ...... bigger behind him.
