Surviving in a Collapsed World, Is Something Wrong?

Wood leak tea room.

After fulfilling the three small wishes that Ayaka gave to Ying and Paimon, Jiang Ming and Kiana also returned to the society's executive office. Just as Paimon wanted to tell Kamisato Ayaka the results of the operation, Thomas signaled them to wait. An elegant girl walked out from behind the screen with a fan covering her face, and nodded to them with a smile. Paimon and the others realized at this time that this elegant girl was Princess White Egret.

"This is the first time we've met like this."

Linghua chuckled.

"I heard about you helping those friends. You guys worked so hard. And Mr. Jiang Ming and Ms. Kiana, thank you for helping us rescue Master Zhengsheng. If it weren't for you, we really don't know what we would do."

"We weren't much help..."

"Yeah, as long as we can't get back their Eye of God, it seems like nothing we do will help..."

Paimon spread his hands, indicating that he was powerless.

"Is there no one else who resists the Eye Hunt Order?"

Ying expressed the doubts in her heart.

Linghua looked depressed.

"After all, there are only a few people who can obtain the Eye of God. This will inevitably arouse jealousy, so most people will just choose to remain indifferent."

"Why is this... a bit annoying."

Paimon said somewhat unwillingly.

"But besides us, there are still resistance forces far away in Haiqi Island."

"Rebels? Are they specifically rebelling against the Eye Hunting Order?"

"Yes, many people who have lost or are afraid of losing the Eye of God have formed a resistance organization under the Coral Palace on Haiqi Island. I have also submitted proposals to abolish the Eye Hunting Order to the castle tower many times, but they would always be invalidated due to the objections of the Tenryo Bugyo and Kanjo Bugyo. They have always shown an attitude of unconditional support for the general's decision and have no intention of discussing it."

"So... have you figured out how to fight against the Eye Hunting Order?"

"...Honestly...No."

"Eh?!"

"After all, fighting against the Eye Hunting Order is equivalent to fighting against God. Just being prepared is difficult enough. So all we can do now is to find ways to reduce the losses of the Eye Hunting Order, such as hiding the holder of the Eye of God or making a fake Eye of God as an emergency measure. This is also thanks to Mr. Jiang Ming and Ms. Kiana for helping us rescue Master Zhengsheng who made the fake Eye of God."

Afterwards, they discussed for a while.

"Well, it seems that you have understood the feelings of me and the people. In this case, I wonder if you can reconsider it..."

"Yes! Of course we are willing to help you."

"Really? Great! With your help, I believe we can overturn the Eye Hunting Order."

Linghua's worry suddenly turned into joy.

"What about Jiang Ming and you guys?"

Paimeng turned and looked at Jiang Ming behind him.

"We will find a suitable time to help you, but you must be careful. From what I know, the Fatui may be hiding in the dark, waiting for the right moment to strike."

"The Fatui?! Do they want to..."

Considering what happened in Mondstadt and Liyue, the Fatui may have come here for the Heart of God this time.

"I'm afraid it's what you think."

"Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered something."

Thomas suddenly spoke up.

"I heard that the Tenryo Bugyo seems to be preparing for a celebration recently... I think... it's some kind of ceremony, and even the number of samurai executing the Eye Hunting Order on the streets has decreased. Now is a time of peace!"

"Celebration? If that's the case, it was usually handed over to the community magistrates in the past. Why did they suddenly hand it over to the Tenryo magistrates this time?"

Linghua frowned and thought.

"I don't know either, but it shouldn't have anything to do with us. Anyway, they are very busy recently and they probably don't have time to cause us trouble."

Thomas said with a solemn oath.

'No, it's not just about you, it's about a lot more.'

Jiang Ming thought to himself.

"That makes sense. If we continue to be so tense, we will only become more tired. We might as well take a good rest."

Linghua looked at Thomas and asked.

"Thomas, do you have any good suggestions?"

"Well, it's time for the celebration banquet, so how about we all have hot pot together?"

"eat hot pot!"

Kiana, who was originally stroking Taromaru outside, immediately came to Jiang Ming when she heard the word "hot pot".

"Well, to be honest, I just learned a new hot pot game recently. It's very interesting. Simply put, everyone prepares different ingredients and puts them in the pot to cook. Then they close their eyes and take turns to fish food out of the pot. While tasting, they guess who put it in. The person who guesses correctly will trigger another try. And the person with the highest score in the end will be blessed by the God of Hot Pot."

"Oh, that sounds interesting!"

Paimon and Kiana cheered very considerately.

"Hehe, of course, I can't wait, and I've already prepared all the ingredients!"

Thomas said with a grin.

"How badly do you want to play......"

Jiang Ming couldn't help but hold his forehead and said, but at this time he found that Kiana was looking at him with expectant eyes.

"...Okay~ I have some ingredients here too, Kiana, just put whatever you like in there."

"Great!"

Kiana cheered.

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"Okay, is everyone ready?"

Thomas said excitedly.

"Yeah! I'm ready!"

"Then let's put the ingredients into the pot together."

Everyone put the ingredients they brought into the pot.

"Hey, then let me try it first!"

Paimon was the first to close his eyes, pick up a piece of food and put it in his mouth to taste.

"Ah! Puff, so bitter! So astringent! What is this!"

Paimon stuck out her tongue with a painful look on her face, but when she recovered and savored the taste carefully, she understood instantly.

"This bitter and astringent taste... is Qingxin! Why would anyone put Qingxin in hot pot?!"

Paimon couldn't help but wail.

"Ying, was it you who put it there?"

Hearing this, Ying shook her head.

"Ahem, sorry, it was me who put it there."

Jiang Ming apologized to Paimeng with a wry smile.

"Are you planning to put glass bags and glass lilies in there next?!"

Paimeng stamped his feet angrily.

"Hey~ It has to be a little bit new."

"Then it's my turn next."

Thomas also closed his eyes and put the thing he caught into his mouth.

“This refreshing, cool feeling…it’s mint!”

Thomas tasted it right away and realized that what he had eaten was mint.

"This mint...was it put there by Paimon?"

Thomas asked, but before Paimeng could shake his head, Jiang Ming continued, "Well... I also put this mint there."

"Ah, that's it, what a pity!"

"Then it's me next."

Linghua put the food into her mouth gracefully and savored it carefully.

"Hmm! So sweet! Is this a small portion of sweet flowers? But... it's a little too sweet... Did Mr. Jiang Ming put it there?"

With the previous experiences, Linghua seemed to know that Jiang Ming liked to put plants in the hot pot.

"Ahem, unfortunately, no."

But Jiang Ming denied it straightforwardly.

"It's me, it's me! I put it there!"

Kiana immediately raised her hand.

"Ms. Kiana?"

"Hehe, because the name of this flower made me feel it was sweet, so I wanted to try it. I didn't expect that you, Linghua, would be the first to eat it."

Kiana scratched her head a little embarrassedly.

“Well, this is a very novel experience.”

"Yeah! Then it's my turn next!"

Kiana couldn't wait to close her eyes and put the food from the pot into her mouth.

“Mmmmm!! So… so hot!”

Kiana looked like she had eaten something very spicy, and her face turned red from the spiciness. She only recovered after she took the water handed to her by Jiang Ming and drank it all.

“Is this chili?”

"To be precise, it's Jueyun Pepper."

Jiang Ming explained for Kiana.

"I heard that this pepper is so spicy that it makes people run straight to the top of Jueyun Mountain, making people crave for cool air, so it is called Jueyun Pepper."

"It's so spicy...it must have been you, Jiang Ming!"

"Ahem... yes."

The big monster Jiang Ming admitted it readily.

Because Kiana guessed correctly, she triggered another try.

But when she ate the sea ganoderma that Thomas put in, she was immediately frightened by the smell and insisted that it was Jiang Ming who put it in.

Jiang Ming cried out that he was wronged.

Later, Ying ate the sunset fruit that Paimon put in there.

But as everyone knows, Ying is a mute, so she is not allowed to speak here.

Then it was Jiang Ming's turn. After putting the food into his mouth, Jiang Ming couldn't help but frown.

"What's wrong? Jiang Ming, did you also eat the Jueyun pepper?"

Kiana asked with a happy look on her face.

"What do you mean by looking so happy... But unfortunately, I didn't get to eat the Jueyun pepper. From the taste, it seems like melted cake."

Jiang Ming rested his hand on his chin and thought.

"Because the hot pot soup base melted the cake, but the cake base melted the cream and hot pot base together, the taste was really a bit weird..."

"Is it Miss Linghua who put it there?"

"Huh? Yes...yes."

Linghua looked surprised.

"Then next is my encore."

As he spoke, Jiang Ming closed his eyes again, picked up a piece of food from the pot and put it in his mouth, but he quickly opened his eyes with a distorted face, obviously having eaten some winning ingredient.

"Who released the ice mist flower? Stand out right here!!!"

.................................................. .....

Everyone quickly had an unusual hot pot time...

"Hey, this is definitely the weirdest hot pot I've ever seen, but luckily Thomas ate most of the weird food."

Paimon said with a look of having survived a disaster.

"That's right... I'm the one with the highest score! Wait a minute, my stomach suddenly hurts!"

Thomas immediately showed a painful expression. I really don’t know what he had eaten.

"It's all because Thomas put a lot of weird stuff in it, which made the soup taste weird afterwards."

Linghua scolded softly.

"Even the normal food tasted a little weird, and I didn't guess it right several times."

"But Linghua also put a small cake in the hot pot, and Jiang Ming ate it. And from what he said, cooking cake in a hot pot... well... it feels so weird just thinking about it."

"Sorry, I thought it would be delicious..."

“The taste is indeed unique.”

"No...I can't do that anymore. I need to rest for a while..."

Thomas obviously couldn't bear it anymore and fell to the ground. It took him a long time to recover.

"Actually, Thomas... you don't have to try so hard. It's okay. Just guess a few wrong and pass the ball to Kiana and Jiang Ming."

"Haha, actually I always feel that my luck has been bad recently, so I need the blessing of the Hot Pot City to change my luck."

"Your luck is not just bad, it's really good. How did I catch you?"

Jiang Ming looked at him with a strange smile.

"I can feel that after all this trouble, my bad luck has run out! I declare that today's hot pot game is over, and I am the winner!"

"oh----"

Paimon congratulated him weakly.

"Huh... the game is over, and the work is over, so is it time for the long-awaited vacation?"

Thomas looked at Linghua and asked.

"Well, if the Tenryo Bugyo is really busy preparing something as Thomas said, then we have some time to breathe."

Linghua thought seriously.

"Then let's each take a break for a while. We'll gather at Mulou Teahouse in a few days to discuss the next strategy. This is a rare holiday, so we must make good use of it. I also need to pack up and prepare the ingredients for the next hot pot game."

Thomas obviously didn't suffer a loss from the hotpot just now, and he was still talking with great interest.

“Is there a sequel to this game?!”

"Haha, of course. How can once be enough? See you later."

......

"Jiang Ming, Jiang Ming, let's play this game with Mei and the others after we go back!"

Kiana seemed to like this game very much and suggested it to Jiang Ming.

"Well, of course, but we'll be busy once the vacation is over."

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