Three Movers

As the car drove near our house, I gave a sigh as I looked at its wrecked form. Broken windows and doors, things spilling out of the house, and the pieces of broken furniture that I could see were really disheartening. As we all got out, Sazzy was the first one to approach the house.

Opening the door, Sazzy rushed ahead of me and ran all over the place. Into each room. and opening any unopened drawers, she fully determined the extent of the damage.

[Not good, it seems most things will have to be thrown out. They sure did a good job of wrecking everything.]

Clicking her tongue, Sazzy put her hands on her hips and sighed.

[What time are the movers coming?]

I pulled up the alternate terminal that we picked up and checked the appointment.

"Around 30 minutes later."

This alternative terminal came in the form of a ring, instead of a sticky patch. The original personal terminal is usually stuck tightly on the side of the neck where we touch to pull the screen up. For the new alternative terminal, it was an auto-fit ring that attaches at the base of the thumb. By closing the web of my hand and rubbing the ring with my skin, it will pull up the screen for the alternative terminal. And to differentiate the two, the new alternative terminal had dark colored screens while the personal terminal had bright colored screens.

Hearing the time, Sazzy grabbed a marker that was lying in an open drawer.

[I'll mark out all the furniture that needs to be thrown away then.]

Paying attention to where the security cameras set by the police were, Sazzy marked large X's on almost all the furniture.

In the meantime, Oliver and I brought out whatever we could to the car to be thrown out. Stacking them neatly on top of the seats, once the car was full, I would drive the car over to the AT center to dispose of them properly.

When I came back, the movers had just arrived and were waiting outside for me.

"Good morning. Is this Ms. Alex's house?"

"Yes. I'm Alex. Could I ask you to remove all the furniture which are marked with a big X?"

Nodding their heads, the men entered the house and stood slightly stunned at the damage. However, thanks to their professionalism, they didn't stay stunned for long and proceeded to start work.

"We will bring all these broken furniture into the moving truck and dispose of them."

The leader of the group of movers, a very tall and buff man who had a lot of hair all over his body, smiled at me as he said that. He then ordered his men to get moving.

"Oliver, come here."

Sitting at the car, Oliver and I took this time to add the needed furniture into the shopping cart. They would arrive quite a while later, and we could ask the movers to help carry them here from the AT center.

In the middle of shopping, Sazzy slipped out of the house and sat beside me.

[I'm done marking everything. I also moved the salvageable items aside. That, and I wrote down what was broken so we can buy new versions of them.]

Sazzy pulled up her personal terminal with a long list of furniture. And following that list, we added even more items into the cart. In the end, the total bill was over 5000 UC.

[As expected, the 2000 UC given by the police is not nearly enough!]

Hearing Sazzy grumble from the side, I paid the full amount and checked the time they were supposed to arrive. Surprisingly, everything should arrive latest by this evening.

"The delivery is so fast! Even for such large furniture!"

[Of course. If there was one good thing the Colonizers did, it was to make everything incredibly convenient. Only a handful of services take more than a day.]

I closed my personal terminal and turned the stove on.

[Why are you cooking?}

Sazzy stood up and hurled herself into the truck.

"I'm planning to make lunch early. Since there will be several extra mouths to feed."

Glancing at the hardworking movers carrying furniture out of the house and into their truck, I counted their numbers. There were 3 of them.

"Once they finish carrying everything out, maybe they could rest for a while before heading to the AT center. Then we can pick up all the needed furniture from there and bring it back here. It'll save the extra trip."

Explaining to Sazzy, I took a pot and filled it with the remaining water we had in the car.

If I was not wrong, in the ingredient bag we had some berries left over. No green berries though. There should also be some more dirt stars and sun dust. Alright!

First, I threw the dirt stars and sun dust into the pot of water. This was the standard base for normal soups. However, since all the berries I had left were those that were native to Mors, it means that the majority of them were poisonous.

Leaving the pot to boil for a while, I headed to a nearby rain powder tree and peeled off some of the bark. Grinding it up, I then mixed it together with the berries and mashed them all together. Adding a little bit of clam powder, I made sure everything was mixed really well before grabbing a small bit of the mixture and placing it into the ladle. I then lowered the ladle into the soup mixture and until it was properly boiled.

Once boiled, the small ball will become more firm and I can tilt the ladle to let it rest at the bottom of the pot. Doing this for the remainder of the mixture, I made sure the stove temperature wasn't too hot before letting the whole thing simmer until we wanted to eat them.

[This dish seems a little simple?]

Sazzy looked at my actions and stared impatiently at the pot.

"There's no choice right now. We lack a lot of ingredients. The reason why it's so simple is that it's a hybrid recipe that I've had an idea of. It's just I haven't found the missing ingredient to give it the flavor it needs to be perfect. It'll work as a snack though."

Getting down from the car, I left Oliver to watch the pot and walked towards the three movers.

"Hello. Can I ask what's the progress?"

The leader, who was in the middle of wiping his sweat while discussing with his two co-workers, turned around at my voice and smiled.

"We're progressing quite smoothly. We got some of the large items taken out. And since they are meant to be thrown and recycled, we took the initiative to cut them into smaller pieces. This means that we might only need one trip to the AT center."

Explaining this to me, he pointed at their moving truck which was currently only a little bit full.

"That's great! Actually, when I requested your company, I also mentioned that I needed furniture moved in. The furniture should all arrive by evening, so I was thinking that when your team drives the truck to dispose of the furniture, you could also pick up the new furniture."

Listening to me, the guy nodded his head and agreed.

"Also, if anyone in your team get's hungry and needs a break, I have cooked something for us all. It's in the pot over there."

I pointed towards the car and the man smiled.

"That's generous of you! Thanks! We'll be sure to head over once we're hungry. In exchange, leave all the heavy lifting to us!"

Giving me a wink, he walked back into the house to work as I headed back to the car.

[I'm guessing the conversation went well?]

Not even leaving her eyes from the pot for a second, Sazzy casually asked.

"Yep! They said that they'll come over when they're hungry. They also agreed to bring the furniture from the AT center to the house."

I lifted the pot lid to check on the food. It was cooked now, but the taste probably wouldn't be so good.

"Hmmm. I wonder if we have anything that can add some impact to the dish?"

Searching through the ingredient bag again, I sighed at the remaining ingredients. They all didn't seem like they would work.

"Sister, what's that?"

I looked over at Oliver, who was pointing at a colorful fruit on top of a nearby tree.

[That's the rainbow fruit. It's not edible. But its leaves usually are used when smoking food. Most ethnic groups in Mors don't smoke or steam food though since it's the fastest way to kill everyone if you accidently include anything poisonous. There is one ethnic group that I know of that uses it though. They usually place the leaf a little distance above the fire and use the smoke that comes through to cook and flavor their food.]

While listening to Sazzy's words, I walked over to the tree and plucked one of its leaves.

Probably due to the fact that the three tribes we have visited don't smoke food, I have never heard of this leaf before.

Tearing a little bit of the leaf, I sniffed it. It kind of reminded me of chrysanthemum. Maybe if I soaked this in the soup, it would give me the little flavor that it was missing.

Plucking a couple more leaves, I brought them over to the car and put them into a separate pot. I then scooped some of the soup base from the first pot and transferred it over.

I could feel two pairs of eyes boring holes into my back.

[You're putting them into the soup?]

Finally tearing herself away from the pot, Sazzy stood on the seats and looked over my shoulder at the second pot.

"The smell reminds me of a flower from my original world. It's usually boiled to make some very nice tea. So I was wondering whether I could boil it as well."

Oliver walked closer to the pot and I passed him the small piece of leaf that I had torn.

"Here Oliver, smell it. It smells like chrysanthemum."

Oliver took the leaf and held it really close to his nose.

"Smells nice!"

Now if only it would make the soup taste nice.