A new day dawned, and Shen Lu opened her eyes right at seven in the morning.
She stretched, thumped her slightly sore lower back, and rolled her neck. After quickly washing up, she made some egg waffles for breakfast.
After feeding Fu Cheng, Shen Lu redeemed the ingredients for mint water. She started preparing it, then grabbed her tools and headed out to scavenge.
The sun didn't come out today, a rare occurrence. A light rain fell from the overcast sky.
Shen Lu held out her palm, catching a few drops. The rain that landed on her skin was tinged a faint black and carried a smell of decay.
It wasn't acid rain, but it was the kind of phenomenon that only occurs after severe environmental pollution.
Shen Lu had no raincoat or umbrella. She glanced up at the sky, debating whether she should venture out in the rain.
'This rain is just too filthy.' Without anything to shield her, it would soak her hair and clothes. Just imagining being enveloped in that stench made Shen Lu's face fall.
"Shen Lu." Granny Jin stood in her doorway, beckoning to her. "Come over here."
Shen Lu shielded her head with her hand and trotted over.
"Granny Jin, what is it?"
Granny Jin took out a well-worn raincoat and draped it over Shen Lu's shoulders. "You can't let this rain soak you. You'll get sick if you're in it for too long."
She pulled the hood up for her. "Consider this raincoat payment for the meals."
After being a lonely widow for so long, it was unsettling to suddenly have someone be so kind to her. Deep down, Granny Jin felt a little uneasy.
She and Shen Lu were little more than strangers who had met by chance; she couldn't bring herself to accept such kindness without feeling indebted.
The raincoat wasn't valuable, but its true worth was that Shen Lu needed it right at this moment.
Shen Lu had no idea Granny Jin had such a rich inner monologue, but she could guess at her intentions. She accepted it with a smile.
"Thank you, Granny Jin."
Shen Lu started to walk away. "I'll be going then."
Because of the rain, fewer people were at the junkyard today.
Scavenging could be traded for food, but it wasn't worth it if you got sick from the rain.
Shen Lu rummaged through the area where new junk had been dumped the day before and found a few pieces of copper.
The raincoat kept the rain off, but it also partially obstructed her vision.
Shen Lu followed a random path, scanning as she went. Before she knew it, she was back at the place from yesterday with the high pile of metal scrap.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP—"
The detector was beeping rapidly. Shen Lu's eyes lit up. This meant there was either a large amount of valuable metal or something extremely rare.
It was an L-shaped mechanical arm component, wedged between layers of scrap metal.
Shen Lu gave it a tentative pull, glancing up at the tower of metal piled above her.
'Good, it didn't move.'
So, Shen Lu pulled harder.
Just as she was about to yank the component free, a sharp cracking sound echoed from the top of the metal tower.
'Not good.'
Shen Lu gritted her teeth. With a surge of desperation, she held tight to the component and, with a powerful backward lunge, finally wrenched it free.
The metal tower came crashing down.
Shen Lu broke into a frantic sprint. She had already picked her escape route; if she ran to the left and was fast enough, she wouldn't be crushed by the falling tower.
She hadn't taken more than a couple of steps when she crashed into someone.
'Damn it.'
'There are so few people at the junkyard today, how could I still run into someone?'
Ignoring the stinging pain in her nose from the collision, Shen Lu reached out to push the person away.
Before her hand could even make contact, the other person grabbed her wrist in a firm grip.
"You—" Shen Lu was frantic. 'Can't we deal with this after we're out of danger?'
Before she could finish, the person started running, dragging her along.
"Running" wasn't quite the right word; it was more like a dead sprint. For a moment, Shen Lu felt like a kite, her feet barely touching the ground.
The wide hood of her raincoat blocked most of her view. All Shen Lu could see was the other person's hand, its knuckles distinct and veins bulging from exertion.
It was clearly a man's hand.
Behind them, the metal towers, large and small, toppled one after another like dominoes. The RUMBLE was deafening and incessant.
After half an hour of running, the man dragging Shen Lu finally stopped.
Shen Lu braced her hands on her knees, gasping for breath. Her lungs felt like a pair of broken bellows.
'Great... I didn't get crushed to death by scrap, but I'm about to die from suffocation instead.'
The collapsing towers kicked up a massive cloud of dust that filled the air. Shen Lu had to force herself to take smaller breaths.
'She was too young to get black lung disease.'
A voice full of undisguised contempt sounded from beside her. "I haven't seen someone as stupid as you in a long time."
The voice was young, somewhere between a boy's and a man's.
More importantly, it sounded familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before.
Pressing her mask down to minimize dust inhalation, she looked up.
"It's you?!"
Shen Lu recognized him.
'His name was Zeng Xiaodao, she thought. She vaguely remembered hearing people call him that.'
Zeng Xiaodao wasn't wearing a raincoat. Instead, he wore a silver hat, and his clothes seemed to be waterproof; water beaded on the fabric without soaking in.
The young man's thick, sharp eyebrows arched into a sneer. "It's me. What of it?"
It was only then that he realized who she was. 'Isn't this the girl who stuck her leg out to trip me yesterday?'
'Tch. If I'd known, I wouldn't have saved her.'
Shen Lu felt a flash of guilt, but she quickly composed herself.
'Guilty my ass.'
'So what if I tripped him yesterday? He bumped into me first.'
"Thank you."
Still, she had to be fair. They were even after yesterday, but today Zeng Xiaodao had saved her life. A "thank you" was the least she could do.
"You think you can get rid of me with just a 'thank you'?" Zeng Xiaodao was clearly not one to be trifled with. His gaze dropped to the mechanical arm component in Shen Lu's hands. "That'll do as payment."
Shen Lu instinctively hid it behind her back. "No."
Zeng Xiaodao eyed her with amusement. "I'm not negotiating."
'Something she'd risk her life to hold onto must be valuable,' he thought.
Zeng Xiaodao was no bleeding heart. If he saved someone, he expected to be paid.
Shen Lu pursed her lips.
'He wouldn't get much for the mechanical arm, but it's different for me.'
'I can exchange the metal inside for so many ingredients.'
"Um, I need this for something," Shen Lu stammered, fabricating a lie. "This piece should be part of a human exoskeleton. It can be fixed up and used. I have a brother... he's seriously injured and bedridden. I need this for him."
"Oh, is that so?" Zeng Xiaodao didn't believe her for a second.
"Uh... how about I pay you back another way?" An idea suddenly struck Shen Lu. "I run a food stall every day on Gold Street. For the rest of this month, you can get a free meal combo every day. How does that sound?"
If Shen Lu had offered anything else, Zeng Xiaodao might not have been tempted.
'Free food?'
He couldn't help but swallow.
"You? What kind of food could you possibly sell? It's not that Insect Cake crap, is it?"
"No, I sell mint water and egg waffles. Today I'm even adding Malatang to the menu. It's delicious."
Zeng Xiaodao squinted. 'So she's the owner of that little food stall that's been all the talk in the Seventeenth District and Gold Street lately.'
Zeng Xiaodao rarely went to Gold Street, and when he did, it was at night, so he had always missed her.
"Alright, give me the mechanical arm first. I'll make my decision after I've tried your food."
Shen Lu seethed. She wanted to yell 'take it or leave it!' and give him a good zap with her stun baton for good measure.
But Zeng Xiaodao had saved her, after all. She couldn't just repay his kindness with malice.
"Fine." Shen Lu relented, handing over the mechanical arm. "I'm going to scavenge for a little while longer, then I'll set up my stall. You can come by for lunch."
Zeng Xiaodao took the mechanical arm and grunted in agreement.