Red Star Meat Factory was not very large, merely a small-to-medium-sized meat processing plant. In the East District, known for its industrial zones, factories like it were as numerous as the hairs on an ox.
As technology continued to advance, larger and more specialized assembly-line factories had largely replaced such small workshops. This was also the main reason Red Star had gone out of business.
Four two-story factory buildings stood connected end to end, divided into different work areas for different purposes. The layout looked standard and orderly.
However, battered by the wave of industrial upgrades, Red Star Meat Factory had been shut down for years. Its courtyard gate was now in tatters, with half of it already missing. Judging by the gap, someone had likely dismantled it and sold it off in secret.
The cool night wind stirred up trouble once again. Led by Chang Nian, six employees were the first to step through the lone remaining half of the iron gate and enter the grounds of Red Star Meat Factory.
The instant she entered, Chang Nian's brows furrowed sharply. Her small nostrils trembled lightly a few times as she caught an unusual smell.
The peeling outer walls of the factory sent lime dust swirling through the wind, sweeping up the withered, tangled leaves scattered on the ground. The dust carried a bleak, sour bitterness.
Rusty chains wrapped around the sheet-metal doors. A rusted-shut padlock emitted a metallic smell remarkably similar to blood, while the notice advertising the site for sale had been nearly worn away by wind and rain, carrying a sense of dilapidated sorrow.
But the scent Chang Nian smelled was none of those.
It was an indescribable... rot.
It felt as though she were walking into a house where someone had once been murdered and dismembered.