Chapter 2: This Heart Like Fire
With a roar, Zhou Yan's shoe landed squarely on the butcher's face with a solid thud.
The fat on the butcher's face jiggled like waves.
But his body didn't sway. With a single pull, he lifted Zhou Yan, grinned, and praised, "So fierce! Truly good meat!"
His tone was like a Guangzhou native encountering a lively crab at a seafood market. He stared at Zhou Yan, swallowed, and said, "Fragrant, so fragrant! Damn it, I haven't seen such fragrant meat in eight lifetimes."
"Never mind eating it, just getting stepped on by a foot like that makes your body feel two taels lighter."
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, his face filled with intoxication.
Saliva was about to dribble from between his teeth.
Then he swallowed hard again, suppressing his hunger, and tied Zhou Yan up.
"This kind of good meat can't be eaten raw or stir-fried over high heat. It must be boiled or steamed. The person who eats it must be human, and what's sought after is its tenderness and deliciousness."
"What a pity, what a pity, I don't have the good fortune to taste it."
"Three days from now is Zhi Niang's birthday. We were just worrying about what to give her. Such fragrant meat is worthy."
The butcher personally carried him past the meat shop.
At the big locust tree at Shizipo, he circled three times, muttering incantations. Then, facing southeast, he shouted 'Open', kicked open a door, and as if a portal had appeared in the air, he carried Zhou Yan through it.
Inside, it was chillingly cold. A vast estate, lit by lanterns casting a pale green glow.
A single step separated two worlds.
Zhou Yan froze, instinctively looking back.
The butcher's shop at the crossroads was still there, bathed in sunlight outside, but inside, it was eerily cold.
This...
Zhou Yan's thoughts solidified.
Is this right?
This can't be right, can it?
The butcher carried Zhou Yan to a side courtyard, gave a few instructions, and then threw Zhou Yan into a cage.
"Boss, new stock?"
A man sidled over, examining Zhou Yan, his eyes glowing green.
The butcher said, "Just got him today. Watch him carefully. Fangzhu will be celebrating Zhi Niang's birthday here in three days, and this one will be a dish."
"No touching, no tearing off pieces of meat to sneak a bite."
"Keep him well-fed."
The butcher gave detailed instructions, then stared at Zhou Yan, swallowing hard, his teeth somewhat sharpened. It was clear he truly wanted to eat, but finally, his stomach rumbled, and he lowered his head, bit his own arm, drew blood, and sucked it deeply to suppress the craving.
"I've never seen such a fragrant person!"
...
"Damn it, where exactly is this place?"
Spell? Divine Ability?
Or a mechanism?
After the butcher left, Zhou Yan finally relaxed a little.
He felt intense fear, the unease of being in an unfamiliar environment, and finally, an inexplicable anger at how he had come to this world. His emotions were a chaotic mess.
Zhou Yan exhaled.
He clapped his hands on his face.
He controlled his emotions through deep breathing. Now, various thoughts surged in his mind, but amidst the chaotic thoughts, there was only one thing Zhou Yan could be sure of.
These things, whatever they were, planned to eat him in three days.
Everything else could wait.
The most important thing right now was to escape!
Self-rescue!
"Lang Jun, Lang Jun, are you alright?"
A low call brought Zhou Yan back to his senses. He then realized there was another person in the cage, a woman.
After regaining his composure, Zhou Yan managed to reply, "I'm fine."
"You are... you were also sold here?"
The woman was silent for a moment, then nodded.
Zhou Yan felt he had said something foolish and redundant, but since they were in this predicament, he decided to ask the woman some questions.
However, she didn't know much. Over and over, she only said that war had suddenly broken out. The area around Chang'an, which seemed fine the day before, suddenly fell into chaos, and once it started, it wouldn't stop.
Chang'an... is it the Chang'an I'm familiar with?
Hearing the familiar name, Zhou Yan felt a moment of daze.
The woman said, "Lang Jun, you... are injured." Zhou Yan looked at his arm. Whether from tumbling down the mountain or from struggling just now, there was a wound still bleeding.
"Oh, it's actually fine, look."
"Hiss!!"
Zhou Yan shook his hand, but the wound was indeed painful. With that movement, he winced in pain.
The woman searched around, then seemed to recall something. After a moment of hesitation, she pulled out a piece of white cloth from her in my arms and simply bandaged Zhou Yan's arm. She lowered her head, her face showing a mix of apology and complexity, and whispered,
"This is the white cloth I used for my daughter's vigil. It's still clean."
"Lang Jun, please don't mind it."
Vigil...
Zhou Yan didn't know how to respond. Finally, he could only say,
"My condolences."
"But, isn't it not good for me to use this?"
He half genuinely thought so, and half felt a bit uncomfortable.
The woman said, "It's fine. She... Lang Jun doesn't know her."
"She was lively and loved to talk to people passing by our house. If passersby were thirsty, she would run home, take her own bowl, and bring out a bowl of water for them. She wouldn't mind."
When she spoke of her daughter, a faint smile appeared on her face:
"Lang Jun hasn't met her."
"She was small, but she seemed to have endless energy. When her father came home, she would run over with a towel, and she always pestered her older brother to play with her, even crying loudly when her brother had to study and wouldn't play."
"On rainy days, the snails on the roadside moved slowly, and she was afraid they would be crushed, so she would pick them up one by one and carefully place them on leaves."
"She always seemed to have boundless energy."
A mother's voice is always gentle when speaking of her daughter.
Zhou Yan said, "She was a good child."
Then the woman shrank her body and said, "I sold her."
!!!
A huge sense of discord froze the softening expression on Zhou Yan's face, especially after he had personally experienced the meaning of 'sold' in this world. He knew what the woman meant by 'sold her'.
The woman lowered her head: "When the war broke out, we had to go back to our hometown to live with my parents. Then she got sick. That strong little one slowly lost all her strength."
"We tried to feed her, but there was no food, nothing to eat."
"The whole family was going to starve to death."
"There was no other way, so we had to sell her."
"We sold her for some money, bought some rat meat and rotten cabbage, and cooked a pot of meat and vegetable porridge. Her older brother recovered after eating the porridge, shouting and asking where his sister was, saying he had to save some for her."
"I wondered, where was she? Would she also have become a bowl of meat porridge?"
"Looking at the meat and vegetable porridge, I felt a little nauseous."
"But I still finished the meat and vegetable porridge."
"That was food, that was life, but where was my little daughter?"
Zhou Yan's eyes showed unbearable sadness. He touched the white cloth on his arm and asked in a low voice,
"What about your son?"
The woman said, "And then, her brother also got sick, died, and was sold."
"Now it's me."
"I secretly sold myself. Boss Zhao is kind. I secretly sent the money back yesterday, and then I came back."
The woman said, "Someone always has to go home."
Zhou Yan looked at her and asked,
"If only one person returns like this, is it still a home?"
The woman's expression froze.
The atmosphere in the air suddenly became oppressive and quiet.
After a long silence, the woman, like a fallen leaf in autumn rain, her face somewhat desolate, asked, "If we keep walking forward, we will surely reach home. Lang Jun is a good person, but if we don't go home, can we still turn back, Lang Jun?"
Both of them fell silent. Zhou Yan felt the atmosphere here was very oppressive. He was thinking about the situation and how to escape when suddenly, the guard watching the cage came over, shouting for the woman to come out.
The woman stumbled to her feet. As she passed Zhou Yan, she lowered her head and said,
"We all ate that bowl of vegetable and meat porridge."
"So, Lang Jun, only this piece of white cloth is still clean."
She said, "She really was still very clean, Lang Jun, please don't despise this piece of cloth."
Zhou Yan suddenly felt the white cloth on his arm sting with pain.
The woman was led away by the guard.
Zhou Yan leaned his head against the cage.
Did she cry when she said that last sentence?
Or had she been crying all along?
Just without tears?
Zhou Yan didn't know.
The thin man with the big belly turned around and muttered,
"This world is strange. You can even see people selling themselves. It's just that Boss Zhao likes to watch the fun. If you ask me, just sell and kill her, and even give her money to send back first."
"And talking about fairness and refinement."
"Bah! Thinking he has some skill, he's getting particular now. Damn it, isn't he just a meat seller?! What's the Divine Qi about?"
He muttered, bringing over a bowl of black soup, staring at Zhou Yan, swallowing hard twice, cursing 'so fragrant' twice, then grabbing Zhou Yan's collar and pulling him over, forcefully pouring the bowl of black medicinal soup down him. He watched Zhou Yan cough on the ground, triumphantly saying,
"Don't be afraid to know, for these three days, you can't eat anything, you can only drink this laxative soup. We have to clear out the dirty stuff in your intestines."
"Otherwise, if Fangzhu and Zhi Niang eat dirty stuff, we'll have to be deep-fried."
After speaking, he looked at Zhou Yan's clear black and white eyes, wiped some saliva, and said, "Good eyes, I really want to skewer them on bamboo sticks, wrap them in syrup, tsk tsk tsk, delicious, good taste!"
Zhou Yan propped himself on the ground, coughing, looking disheveled, but his eyes were clear.
"His strength isn't that great..."
He recalled the strength of the man during the struggle and when he was forced to drink the medicine.
It was much greater than an ordinary person's, but not on the same Rank as the butcher.
The man left. Zhou Yan unzipped his jacket, took out anti-diarrhea medicine, and regardless of whether it was the right treatment, he tilted his head back and dry-swallowed it.
Becoming dehydrated from laxatives was actually a life-threatening matter.
He had inexplicably arrived at this place while assisting in mountain search and rescue. Although he had lost many things, he still had some items: he felt around, his flashlight and phone were gone, but he still had water purification tablets, a foldable multi-tool Swiss Army knife, a magnesium rod for fire starting, and a fire starter.
Magnesium rod...
He was afraid of the frying pan.
Zhou Yan's eyes flickered.
He took out the magnesium rod and the Swiss Army knife.
..................
"Hey, what's wrong with that person? I've never smelled such a fragrant scent. It's truly making me crave it to death. If I could just have one bite of that meat, it would be worth dying for." The pot-bellied skinny gatekeeper stuffed a steamed bun into his mouth, his saliva endlessly flowing.
He recalled many years ago, eating the arm meat of a three-year-old child.
He only ate one piece.
Fragrant, so fragrant!
He wanted to snatch the eyeballs but didn't get them.
In the end, the eyeballs of that entire family were strung together on bamboo skewers, like candied hawthorn.
How beautiful!
He also knew that a small demon of his Rank, who was only fit for dumping chamber pots and guarding the gate, wouldn't get to eat such good meat. He could only satisfy his craving here.
It was midnight. He was dozing off when he suddenly heard shouts from inside.
He woke up with a start and stumbled inside.
He saw the person lying there, clutching something, screaming repeatedly. Cold sweat broke out on the little demon's forehead. He cried out 'Zhi Niang!', fumbling to open the cage and pull the 'meat' out.
But he didn't expect that as soon as he reached out and pulled.
The person, using his momentum, twisted and lunged, crashing into his arms.
Oh my, he smelled so damn fragrant!
It made his head spin.
The little demon thought, for meat like this, it's worth dying for a single bite!
Then something flew into his eyes.
The little demon shrieked, "Who?!"
Zhou Yan's hand was padded with cloth, and on it was a large amount of scraped magnesium powder. He pressed it directly and forcefully into the eyes of the just-woken demon, pushing hard inwards.
The metallic magnesium powder reacted with water.
His right hand struck the fire starter, giving a sudden jab. Open flame, magnesium powder, and water instantly produced a large amount of heat.
"Your father!"