Chapter 38: Upper Hive

Ashford, Fudia City, Upper Hive,

District 9, Residential Area 18, Street 33,

Zhou Yun stood by this wide street, looking at the exquisite metal street sign.

According to Xiang Xiang Leina, District 9 is an old district of Fudia City's Upper Hive, with a history dating back tens of thousands of years.

This district is also the dividing line between the Upper Hive and the Underhive. The two entered the Upper Hive through the heavy gate at the entrance of this district.

Even as an old district with a long history and closest to the Underhive, the streets of this district still have spacious streets and neat buildings.

The surrounding air still carries the smell of chemical reagents used for purification, but it is still fresh compared to the Underhive.

The lights are bright enough to replace the sun, and the buildings are connected to each other by straight arch bridges, cross-roads, and corridors. Bright lights are dotted on them, looking like stars flickering at a glance.

Under these buildings, there are shops and private workshops, and there are some neat stalls on the side of the road selling the products of these workshops.

Having lived in the crowded alleys of the Underhive for so long, Zhou Yun even felt a little dizzy when he suddenly came to the Upper Hive.

This place even reminded him of the city he lived in in his previous life.

Zhou Yun walked east along this Street 33, looking at the goods sold on the streets along the way.

Ashford's large factories mainly produce military products, and the things sold on the streets here are all from private workshops.

These private workshops buy raw materials from merchant ships coming from other stars and process them into goods to sell on the street.

The price of these goods is enough to make any Underhive guy's face pale and fingers tremble.

But Zhou Yun has money.

Xiang Xiang Leina the big fool... no, Xiang Xiang Leina bought two Upper Hive passes from him.

At four times the price, one of which belonged to Zhou Yun.

But when Zhou Yun took the pass from the PDF guarding the entrance and exit of the Upper and Underhives,

Xiang Xiang Leina still widened her eyes, sighing again and again in astonishment.

She marveled at the fact that Zhou Yun actually knew a big shot who could make the PDF do things, and marveled at how worth it the money was.

It made Zhou Yun's conscience a little uneasy.

However, when he received the huge sum of money from Xiang Xiang Leina, his conscience was immediately at ease.

After arriving at the Upper Hive, Xiang Xiang Leina didn't take action.

Instead, she skillfully found a street stall and sat down, as if waiting for something.

Taking advantage of Xiang Xiang Leina's waiting time, Zhou Yun wandered around the nearby streets.

Although he had a lot of money in his pocket, it was ultimately just some local Ashford currency, which would be of little use once he left Ashford.

The Empire is too big, and almost every planet has its own currency system, or forms a common currency alliance with neighboring star systems.

The currency of the Ashford system is anchored by the bloodstones in the Governor's warehouse. Each Ashford currency can be exchanged for a certain amount of bloodstones.

That is a blood-red gemstone often produced in Baal, like the blood of Sanguinius, and even the Blood Angels often use it as an ornament.

Ashford's currency is therefore called blood coins.

Zhou Yun exchanged 70% of his money into bloodstones, including the money from the batch of automatic infantry rifles and the two passes.

He then stuffed the bloodstones into his four-dimensional pocket and sold them, totaling 660,000.

Zhou Yun's savings also reached 1.4 million.

He also kept 30% of the blood coins for living expenses...

Zhou Yun's footsteps stopped at a stall on the side of the road.

This is a food stall.

The sun in Ashford is radioactive and almost impossible to grow normal crops.

Food supplies almost all come from nearby agricultural worlds, from those endless seas of farms wrapped in thick yellow-green fertilizer atmosphere.

The food sold at this stall is almost all processed from melon crops.

Unknown melons split into pieces, with dim yellow melon pulp flowing with oil, like fat.

And huge roasted melon seeds the size of a palm.

Zhou Yun could probably imagine how big these melon crops were.

Nine times out of ten, they are giant high-yield crops grown on agricultural worlds.

"Want a portion of roasted melon seeds? Or roasted melon pulp?" The Upper Hive woman guarding the stall asked with a brilliant smile.

Zhou Yun glanced at this woman and found that her mental outlook was significantly better than that of the Underhive residents.

He took a few blood coins from his pocket and bought a piece of dim yellow melon pulp flowing with oil and a bag of roasted melon seeds from the woman's stall.

Zhou Yun carried the roasted melon seeds, returned to the stall where Xiang Xiang Leina the big fool was, and sat opposite her.

"Eat?" Zhou Yun took out a palm-sized melon seed from the bag and shook it at Xiang Xiang Leina.

He pushed the bag to Xiang Xiang Leina and cracked open the huge melon seed with his teeth.

The huge melon seeds were very satisfying to eat, and the fragrance of plant oil flowed out in Zhou Yun's mouth.

Xiang Xiang Leina looked at the melon seeds Zhou Yun handed over with some surprise.

These melon seeds are very large, and there are only nine in a bag.

"I ate these melon seeds when I was a child. In my memory, the price was not cheap for the Underhive."

Xiang Xiang Leina picked up a melon seed and said hesitantly:

"You spent a lot of money."

It's okay, the money was all cheated from you.

Zhou Yun chewed the melon seeds without saying this.

He swallowed the melon seeds, nodded to Xiang Xiang Leina, and said: "Just eat yours."

"In our hometown, it's a tradition to treat friends like you to melon seeds."

Hearing this, Xiang Xiang Leina even cast a grateful look at Zhou Yun.

But before she could put the melon seeds into her mouth, she suddenly remembered:

"Wait, didn't you say last time..."

"Is it the tradition of your hometown to tease me as a fool and buy melon seeds for a fool?"

Xiang Xiang Leina the big fool... no, Xiang Xiang Leina widened her eyes instantly.

"Cough, cough..." Zhou Yun coughed twice and changed the subject calmly: "What are we waiting here for?"

"Oh, we are waiting here for that actuary and mathematician."

Xiang Xiang Leina pried open the melon seeds and gnawed on them, saying.

It was so easy to be fooled... easier to deal with than an Ogryn...

Zhou Yun glanced at Xiang Xiang Leina.

He found that Xiang Xiang Leina's IQ was generally normal, and could even be said to be somewhat outstanding.

Zhou Yun had seen her handle gang affairs and calculate accounts, and her efficiency was very high.

This at least shows that Xiang Xiang Leina is not a fool in the physiological sense, and in fact, she doesn't look like one.

But... but she seems to have a strange dullness and stupidity in some things.

This seems to be more of a mental problem than a physiological one.

Psykers are always easily affected by the Warp and fall into some kind of mental illness.

Such as madness, irritability, depression, autism, stubbornness...

Xiang Xiang Leina may have been deeply affected by the Warp.

But her symptoms are... turning into a stupid person from time to time?

Zhou Yun even suspected that this occasional stupidity was Xiang Xiang Leina's instinctive self-protection, cleverly preventing her from falling into true madness.

After all, Ogryns are more resistant to Chaos corruption than other humans most of the time...

Zhou Yun's mind was full of wild thoughts.

"Look, she's here, the actuary and mathematician I told you about..."

Zhou Yun looked in the direction Xiang Xiang Leina pointed.

(End of chapter)