"Hot pot."
Lin Mo knew without looking that the smell must have drifted out of a nearby shop.
The residents initially settled in Tiankui Underground City had mainly been evacuees from Sichuan.
Although people from other regions had kept moving in over the years, the city's dialect and eating habits still retained distinct regional characteristics.
Even the station decorations differed from those in other cities.
The load-bearing pillars were painted black and white, a row of panda paw prints appeared beside the platform map, and several rotund cleaning robots even had two black semicircular ears mounted on their heads.
Thorin stared at the cleaning robots for quite a while.
"Why did you make your machines look like these bears?"
A staff member nearby said with a smile:
"These aren't ordinary bears. They're pandas, Great Xia's national treasure and mascot."
"There's an even bigger one up ahead."
The group left the station and, sure enough, saw a panda hologram over ten meters tall standing in the center of the hall, holding a stalk of bamboo and waving to passing passengers.
Zhou Mingyuan, the City Lord of Tiankui City, was already waiting outside the hall.
He had evidently received word from the transportation safety system, and even held a hastily prepared reception plan.
"Commander Lin, Deputy Commander Zhao, and our representatives from Terra, welcome to Tiankui City."
"We-"
"City Lord Zhou, there's no need for formalities," Lin Mo interrupted in time.
Zhao Gang waved a hand as well.
"We're just having a look around. Go about your work. You don't need to accompany us."
Zhou Mingyuan opened his mouth, glanced at the reception plan in his hand, and finally nodded helplessly.
"All right, all right!"
"But given your special status, the Security Center will monitor your itinerary remotely. We can't reduce the