Cooking Gourmet Meals in the Apocalypse

Chapter 201: Chapter 198: Monsters Appear

But was the knife really bloody?

She was always neat and efficient, so she had wiped the blade clean immediately.

This ”bloody knife” was a ruse. While pretending to retrieve it, she had ducked into her pocket dimension, pricked Meng Hu’s backside, and then immediately tossed him into the healing spring below to recover.

Meng Hu was indignant, but it kept its mouth shut!

Chen Xing felt bad, but she’d had no other choice.

The little dinosaur monster’s blood wasn’t red, and she couldn’t bear to harm the wolf cub. It was just too small.

Seeing the bloody knife, most people were convinced that Chen Xing had done it.

The men holding Atilla let her go and moved to grab Chen Xing instead.

’Too bad!’

’I confessed, but I never said I’d let you catch me!’

Chen Xing let out a wild laugh and, with a few leaps, was already beyond their reach.

She left the crowd completely dumbfounded.

’So... why did she confess?’

’It couldn’t have been just to clear someone else’s name, could it?’

Ignoring Atilla, all the police officers began their pursuit of Chen Xing.

From the checkpoint registry, they learned the woman’s name: Adilei!

Soon, a city-wide manhunt was underway for ”Adilei.”

Some officers went to question Atilla, but she genuinely knew nothing, so they had no choice but to let her go for the time being.

As the manhunt for her began, Chen Xing had already found a deserted spot and changed her entire outfit.

She took on the appearance of a Baling woman.

She copied Arthur’s style of dress, still accentuating her eyes and using shadow to make her nose look more prominent.

She swapped her contact lenses for a pair in the distinctive blue of the Baling people.

She put on a long, curly wig and changed into a tight top and short-shorts, making her completely unrecognizable.

Only after returning to the streets did she learn that Assad, the man she’d killed, was a high-ranking nobleman.

’He was still a scumbag!’

Chen Xing didn’t regret it one bit.

’With so many people in the city, they’ll wear themselves out trying to find me.’

She had also swapped her large backpack for a crossbody bag.

It was still fairly large—after all, she had to keep up appearances.

She swaggered across bridges and stairways for three whole days, but there was still no sign of Hao Wenli.

During that time, she familiarized herself with the area and found a room for rent in the commoners’ district, leasing it for a month.

The room wasn’t large, only about twenty square meters in total. It had no running water or electricity and no bed—just a single room with a bedroll.

The rent was two loaves of sliced bread.

The room wasn’t large, but thankfully, the ceiling was high.

Chen Xing took out a small, teardrop-style camper, and it was a perfect fit.

She could shower, sleep, and even do some simple cooking inside.

Her grasp of the universal language had become quite proficient recently. She had mastered most of it, so communication was basically no longer an issue.

She had even learned a few other languages well enough for simple conversation.

She spent another full day searching without any news of Hao Wenli, though she did see plenty of patrols out hunting for her.

It was getting dark, and the city-wide curfew was about to begin, so she had no choice but to head for her room.

’Is the curfew earlier than usual today?’

Chen Xing had timed her return carefully, but the streets were suddenly deserted.

Sensing something was wrong, she decided to take a shortcut through the lower levels.

The path was on the lowest level, a tunnel that passed beneath several large buildings.

It was a route discovered by stragglers who were worried about being caught by patrols. People usually avoided it.

She only knew it existed because she had once seen someone dash into it in a panic.

’This path seems a lot more crowded today. Maybe because of the early curfew, everyone’s trying to avoid trouble.’

Chen Xing followed the flow of people down into the tunnel.

To her surprise, the entrance to the tunnel was being guarded. People were only being let through one at a time, at a glacial pace, and the narrow stairwell was crammed full.

They couldn’t move forward or go back.

Everyone was stuck.

Someone at the front started arguing, ”Why aren’t you letting us through?”

The guard claimed to know nothing and simply stopped answering.

This was the first time Chen Xing had encountered such a situation. She asked a white woman next to her, ”Excuse me, why is the curfew so early today?”

The woman gave Chen Xing a curious glance and said with the distinct arrogance of an American, ”The curfew here is an hour early every ten days!” Her tone was thick with contempt.

Chen Xing wanted to ask why, but seeing the woman’s dismissive attitude, she suppressed her curiosity.

Just then, someone behind Chen Xing, happy to explain, chimed in, ”It’s because of the monsters, what else? Nobody knows what their cycle is, but they come out early every ten days. Puts everyone on edge!”

’Monsters?’

Chen Xing didn’t quite understand.

’Aren’t the monsters confined to the city streets? How could they appear in a residential area?’

Chen Xing turned her head and shot the helpful man a grateful glance.

”From now on, you should head home earlier on these days to avoid getting caught up in this!” The kind man was black, tall and lanky, with almost no visible body fat.

As he was in a dim corner, his smile revealed a row of perfectly white teeth.

The line, which had been crawling along, had now been at a complete standstill for quite a while.

At that moment, the sound of someone violently pounding on an iron gate echoed through the stairwell, along with frantic shouts. ”Why is it locked? Why?! Let us in, let us in! You can’t do this...”

”What’s happening?” The crowd instantly grew restless.

The narrow space suddenly felt even more oppressive.

Chen Xing glanced toward the entrance not far away. The patrol team that had been guarding it had withdrawn, and the gate was now secured with a heavy iron lock.

At that very moment, bloodcurdling screams mixed with beast-like roars erupted from behind them.

’It sounds like a slaughter!’

The sounds sent everyone into a panic, surging downward and crushing the people at the front of the line.

Chen Xing tapped the black man on the shoulder, used him for leverage to climb over the heads of the crowd, and landed at the very front in an instant. ”If you want to live, give me some room!”

Her voice was completely drowned out by the panicked crowd.

Everyone assumed she was just trying to save her own skin by cutting to the front, and not wanting to be left behind, they surged forward as well.

But everyone knew that if they couldn’t get through this door, it was a dead end.

Chen Xing had no choice but to roar, ”Back up a little!”

Her shout was so loud it startled the people in front, who flinched back, giving her an instant to reach the gate.

With a powerful tug of her hand, the heavy iron lock, which had seemed unbreakable, snapped open.

Chen Xing stepped aside, and the crowd surged through.

The American woman saw Chen Xing directing the evacuation, and her earlier disrespect vanished. A look of guilt crossed her face as she ran through the now-open gate.

And... as the crowd fled down the stairs, a creature resembling a lizard appeared at the top.

Its tongue was incredibly long. It would shoot out and retract, and with each flick, a person would be devoured, their body mangled beyond recognition.

What was worse, there wasn’t just one Lizard Monster behind it.

”We should run!” The kind black man from before, Carson, hadn’t run away. Instead, he stood beside Chen Xing, his face a mask of terror.

He wanted to run, but his gentlemanly nature wouldn’t allow him to abandon a woman.

Especially the woman who had just saved their lives.