After accepting the order, Shen Muyu arrived at the location of the client, but the scene before her made her frown.
The creature standing in front of me could be vaguely identified as having some human form, but the creature she was holding in her arms was truly impossible to identify as any species.
Both the human and the animal appeared to have been scorched by fire, their bodies shrinking to varying degrees, their skin a mixture of black and blood, with parts of their inner flesh exposed.
As Shen Muyu approached them, she could smell the aroma of roasted meat, while a cloud of dust irritated her nasal mucosa, and the next second she sneezed.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, we must have choked you." Before Shen Muyu could apologize, the person spoke first. However, perhaps due to damage to his vocal cords, the person's voice was very hoarse, and several words were particularly jarring due to the cracking sound.
"It's alright, it's alright, I wasn't prepared." Shen Muyu smiled as she opened the passenger door, where the passenger seat was covered with a layer of fancy clothes.
After all, it's really hard to clean the blood and flesh stuck to the fabric, but in order not to appear unusual and anger the guests, Shen Muyu also covered his chair with a layer of cloth.
"The decorations are so cozy, but how did I end up as a guest?" The woman's mood visibly dropped, but not long after, she pulled out a disposable plastic tablecloth from somewhere and carefully laid it on the passenger seat.
"It's alright, you can go up directly." Shen Muyu said insincerely, but she didn't make any move to stop him. After all, if so many pieces of clothing could survive, they could be exchanged for a lot of fuel.
"How can I do that? This is clearly something you painstakingly set up; I can't destroy it," the man said while tidying up the edges and corners of the tablecloth.
Upon hearing this, Shen Muyu touched her nose sheepishly, wondering if she had done something inappropriate.
Finally, the passenger seat was completely covered by a tablecloth, and the person sat inside with an unknown animal in their arms. Shen Muyu returned to the driver's seat upon seeing this, while Da Bai could only make do in the trunk for a while.
"I like places with life like this." The owner looked around, and finally his gaze settled on the blade of grass stuck in the rearview mirror.
Although this blade of grass lost its spirituality in order to save Shen Muyu, its emerald green color remains unchanged, and even after so long, it still shows no signs of withering, hanging upright on the rearview mirror.
"I like it very much too." Shen Muyu said with a smile. In this place where it was gloomy all day long and even the wild grass was tinged with a bit of haze, the emerald green grass really made people feel happy.
Big White seemed to have its interest piqued as well, peeking out from between the two seats. It could sense that the person meant no harm, so it acted more without restraint.
"Cough cough..." The approach of the big white car made the owner unable to stop sneezing a few times, and black ash came out of her mouth, instantly turning a patch of black on the glass in front of her.
"Excuse me, I'm allergic to pet fur." The seller said, sneezing a few more times. Some of the cigarette ash even drifted towards Shen Muyu, who couldn't help but sneeze a few times as well.
"Big White, go to the back and stay put, don't come forward." Shen Muyu waved his hand, clearing away some of the dust in front of him, and said.
Realizing he had caused trouble, Da Bai quickly and pitifully went back to the back of the truck and lay down.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were allergic to Da Bai." Shen Muyu smiled apologetically at Shan Zhu, but at this moment she also looked at Shan Zhu's arms with some doubt. A hairless pet? Judging from its size, it doesn't look like a snake or a lizard.
"Should I be apologizing? I've dirtied your car." The owner pulled out a damp towel from somewhere and wiped the glass. The tablecloth had only covered the area in front of him and hadn't protected the glass.
However, she seemed to notice Shen Muyu's gaze, and the next second she spoke again.
"This is a hairless cat. It used to be so cute, but unfortunately it turned into this along with me. But it's okay, at least it can't dislike me now." The owner carefully wiped the glass in front of her with a damp towel, then nodded in satisfaction and sat back down.
"Hmm, it must be a cute little kitten," Shen Muyu said, looking at the kitten rubbing against her.
The journey was peaceful and uneventful. The owner sat quietly in his seat, petting his cat, showing no intention of causing trouble.
"We've arrived." Shen Muyu stopped the car and opened the door for Shan Zhu.
The man carefully stepped out of the car, not forgetting to take the tablecloth down with him.
"The extra money is for washing your car. I'm so sorry for getting your car dirty." After saying that, the customer left with the cat.
Shen Muyu returned to the car, picked up the 200 yuan note from the passenger seat, and smiled happily.
Actually, because of that tablecloth, the cart didn't get too dirty; there was just some dust in the front, which could be wiped off easily.
The electronic speaker went through, and another 200 yuan arrived in my account. Awesome!
Shen Muyu happily put away the paper money, and then enthusiastically went to receive her last order.
The person who placed the order lived in a residential area, which was densely packed with many six-story buildings. If it weren't for Xiao A pointing the way, Shen Muyu would probably have gotten lost as soon as she entered.
"There are hardly any people on the road, but the residential area is quite large." Shen Muyu sighed as he looked at the illegal buildings with obviously substandard spacing between buildings.
On the way there, Shen Muyu had only seen a few dozen strange creatures here and there, and as for cars, there were only three or four.
However, according to Xiao A, the cars here seem to mostly drive on the main roads, and it's rare for them to strangely drive onto the side roads she was on.
Shen Muyu guessed that this was probably to make things more difficult for them. After all, without Xiao A, she would only be able to follow the navigation provided by Banzhuan, and she would most likely end up on the main road, struggling to survive amidst a host of strange attacks.
After many twists and turns, Shen Muyu finally arrived at his destination, a rather old-looking tenement building with five floors. The homeowner's apartment was on the third floor.
Shen Muyu took a deep breath, then took a candle and led Da Bai into the building.
The hallway was filled with the smell of decay, and there were some yellowish-brown residues on the walls that looked like rusty molten iron. The most eerie thing was that there was a scrubbing sound, as if someone was rubbing the floor.
As Shen Muyu went higher, the sound became clearer until he saw a person struggling to sweep the floor with a broom on the stairs below the third floor.
Shen Muyu immediately placed the candle in front of her chest and stopped moving. The man, not expecting anyone to come up, also raised his broom.
"Blue Star people?" The person sweeping the floor spoke first. Their actions didn't seem strange at all, and besides, he recognized the candle.
Shen Muyu looked at him but did not answer.
"You're going up, right? I'm going down anyway. How about we slowly pass each other?" To show friendliness, the man sweeping the floor slowly opened his arms to indicate that he wasn't carrying anything else.
Shen Muyu nodded expressionlessly, and the two began to move up and down simultaneously. After meeting, they looked at each other and passed each other without making any extra movements.
Shen Muyu only breathed a sigh of relief after they could no longer see each other. She had just seen a small tricycle downstairs, and it should have been the man's vehicle. She never expected that he could survive until now with such a means of transportation.
That person must have either incredible luck or incredible skill, which is why Shen Muyu was so wary just now. She would have fired without hesitation if the man made even the slightest unnecessary movement.