Human Meat Buns on the Tip of the Tongue

My name is Li Tie. I came to Donghai City because I want my daughter, Niu Niu, to live a more decent life than I have.

Working myself to death at the construction site all day leaves my bones feeling like they've been taken apart and reassembled. My sweat soaks my clothes until I could wring them out.

Only when midnight strikes and the faint red light appears at the alley entrance does this weary shell of a body of mine feel truly alive again.

It's a hunchbacked old man selling steamed buns, pushing a creaky wooden cart.

A string of small red lanterns hangs from the cart, and the white steam rising from the steamer basket carries a meaty aroma that seeps into your very bones.

That scent... it's unreasonable.

No matter how much you've just eaten, as soon as you smell it, your stomach feels like ten thousand hungry ghosts are roaring within.

My coworkers are all addicted to these buns.

After work, they'd rather skip washing up and endure their bloodshot eyes until midnight, just to get their hands on one.

"Old Li, are you waiting again tonight?" Wang Pangzi, from the bunk below, rolled over and asked as if in a dream.

"Yeah." I watched the time on my phone, my Adam's apple involuntarily bobbing.

Half a month ago, this old man just appeared out of nowhere.

His steamed buns have skins as thin as paper. With a gentle bite, the scalding, soul-stirringly delicious soup gushes into your mouth with a "hiss."

The meat filling is tender and springy, so fragrant it makes you want to swallow your own tongue.

Once you've tried it, you can never forget it.

Tonight, the foreman treated us, and I had a few too many drinks. By the time I got home, it was almost midnight.

As soon as I turned into the alley, that familiar, intoxicating meaty aroma, like an invisible hand, grabbed my nose and pulled me towards the cart.

"Boss, two steamed buns," I said, shaking my slightly heavy head.

The hunchbacked old man looked up and grinned at me.

The dim light from the red lanterns illuminated his deeply wrinkled face. His smile looked unnaturally stiff, like a mask glued to his face, only his mouth moving, while his cloudy eyes remained utterly still.

He didn't say anything and slowly lifted the lid of the steamer.

An even richer aroma wafted out, waking me up from my drunkenness by a good third.

I took the oiled paper bag and eagerly took a big bite.

That's the taste! So delicious it made every pore of my body relax.

I finished one in a few bites and was about to eat the second.

Perhaps the alcohol amplified my taste buds, but I felt like today's meat filling had an almost imperceptible... chewiness.

Like some kind of minced sinew.

I didn't think much of it; construction site bento boxes have all sorts of scraps.

I took another bite.

"Crunch!"

A crisp sound, my teeth hitting something like a small pebble.

I frowned and quickly spat out the contents of my mouth into my palm.

Under the dim streetlights, the object glinted faintly in my palm lines.

It wasn't a stone, nor was it bone fragment.

It was a... small, pinkish, semi-transparent sliver.

A fingernail.

A chill shot from the base of my spine to the crown of my head, and my stomach churned instantly.

The soup bun I'd just eaten, mixed with alcohol, surged towards my throat.

I suppressed the urge to vomit and, with hands trembling so much I could barely hold anything, slowly pulled apart the remaining half bun.

Mixed within the reddish-brown meat filling was a small white piece.

I picked it out with my fingertips.

It was a boiled, pale, swollen segment of a little finger.

Fear washed over me like a tide, and I felt like I'd fallen into an ice cave; my blood seemed to have stopped flowing.

I stared intently at the severed finger segment in my palm, my gaze fixed on a detail on the knuckle.

There was a faint, crescent-shaped old scar on it.

My whole body trembled as if struck by lightning. I suddenly raised my left hand.

It was intact, all five fingers present.

But... that scar... the rough shape of that knuckle... When I was a child, chopping wood, the sickle slipped, and I got an identical scar right here!

My left little finger suddenly felt a needle-like phantom pain, as if echoing the severed finger in my palm.

An absurd, yet irresistible thought slithered into my mind like a venomous snake:

My hand is still here, yet this severed finger in my hand is undeniably mine.

When... when did I... eat myself?

"Hh... hh..." A wheezing sound came from my throat as I abruptly looked up at the hunched old man.

He was still standing in the swirling mist, smiling at me.

This time, his mouth stretched into an inhuman arc, the corners nearly touching his ears.

On that leering face, only the scarlet gash continued to widen, as if it were about to swallow this entire silent midnight, along with me.

"I ate my own finger?"

Qin Feng smacked his lips. Just imagining the scene made his stomach churn.

Normally, finding a single strand of hair in his food would bother him for ages, let alone an entire finger, and his own at that.

His afternoon classes were packed, running until six in the evening. As soon as the dismissal bell rang, Qin Feng rubbed his aching temples and followed the crowd out of the teaching building.

He didn't head straight for the cafeteria or the snack street outside campus like usual. Although his stomach was growling with hunger, the mere thought of food involuntarily brought to mind Li Tie's bloody confession and that little finger with its calluses and old scars.

"Damn it, I'm not eating!" Qin Feng cursed fiercely, his appetite completely gone.

Should he rush to the old town in the north of the city right now and take out that old man selling Human Meat Buns?

It would take at least four hours by subway and then bus from Donghai University, even if he hurried.

It wouldn't be midnight yet, and if he got there, he'd just be waiting.

So, he needed to prepare first.

"I'm currently in the mid-stage of the Spirit Touch Realm. I can actively sense the surrounding Yin cold energy, and my physical fitness has slightly improved, but I still don't possess superhuman strength. My only weapon is the Scissors of Truth."

Even now, Qin Feng didn't fully understand his own strength. After all, he had only dealt with two urban legends, and both times it was through luck and items.

Could it be... another item-reliant approach? But I haven't personally come into contact with these Human Meat Buns yet, so the system can't detect them. All the information is concentrated in the previous eyewitness reports.

Hmm... Characteristics of Human Meat Buns: thin skin, large filling, delicious taste?

That's making me hungry again. It is what it is, I should eat first.

While eating Jianbing Guozi from a snack stall near Donghai University, he looked at the mobile vendors nearby. Before the street stall economy was liberalized, these vendors were always chased around by the urban management.

So, what the Human Meat Buns fear most is... urban management?

Once this thought popped into his head, it spread like wildfire, impossible to contain.

The rules of Anomalous Events are often rooted in the collective subconscious and specific scenarios of humanity.

What is the most instinctive fear of a street vendor, a profession that is highly mobile and hovers on the edge of urban management?

It's urban management!

Qin Feng's eyes gleamed with the excitement of a "heretical cultivator." He immediately took out his phone, opened that dark gold "Yellow Springs" app, and directly found the "Contact Customer Service" option.

The call connected, and a polite, professionally trained female voice responded, "Hello, Collaborator 'Soul Reaper,' ID GHS-9527, Mr. Raven. Customer service representative 049 is at your service. How may I help you?"

"Raven? Oh, hello."

Qin Feng paused, recalling that this was the ID Shen Bingyue had given him.

He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound serious and professional. "I'm preparing to undertake an investigation mission targeting the E-class Anomaly 'Human Meat Buns' and require organizational support with some special equipment."

"Certainly, Mr. Raven. Please state the equipment model or name you require, and I will register your request." The customer service representative's voice remained sweet.

"I need a set of urban management uniforms, the latest model, summer wear.

Also, a matching ID badge. You can use the avatar from my app for the photo."

On the other end of the line, there was a dead silence that lasted for a full eight seconds. Only a faint static hiss could be heard, as if the signal itself was confused by the outrageous request.