Chapter 316.

Chapter 316.Chapter 316. An Unexpected Encounter. (3/6)

“Is there something wrong?” Zale followed up.

“Huh? Uh... sorry... are you hitting on me, or are you asking a genuine question? I can’t really tell.”

“Hitting on you? Did you want me to hit on you?”

“No.”

“Then I was asking a genuine question.”

“I... see. Well... there’s no need for you to look any further.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re in the engineering building.”

“Huh? Wait... really?”

“Yeah. Hahaha...”

A pleasant smile on her face, she quietly laughed together with her friend beside her in line.

Zale scratched the side of his head awkwardly and said, “I see. How absentminded of me.”

“Well, it’s not strange to be confused. The engineering complex consists of three buildings that form an isosceles triangle; they used to be completely separate from each other in the past. This central area is walled off by those three buildings. It used to be open to the outside here, but they built a ceiling over it to connect the three buildings together which created this enclosed area.”

Light from outside illuminates this area as there were windows along two of the buildings at the top a bit below the ceiling.

“I see. That’s pretty interesting.”

“Are you here for a campus tour?”

“Yes.”

“Then you can just wait on one of the couches here. When the guide arrives they’ll make an announcement.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that.” It seems Zale felt it was a bit too awkward to stick around and continue talking to her with me witnessing his little blunder.

He returned to the couch I was on, sat down beside me, and said, “It seems you got pretty lucky and stumbled across the right place.”

“I did? Haha. What a surprise, to think my random guess would turn out to be correct.”

“Yeah... you got lucky.” He repeated, putting extra emphasis on the luck part.

“Why am I with her? That’s like asking why people like things that are bad for them.”

“You’re trying to say those bad things taste good?”

“Sure.”

“What about a rotten apple? You’re not going to tell me they taste good, are you?”

“Just because something is rotten doesn’t mean it can’t taste good.”

“How?”

“Take cheese or aged beef for example. Making cheese is the art of controlling rot. Milk is treated with bacteria and enzymes to curdle it, then the curds are cut, formed, and given some TLC for days, weeks, or months until the cheese is ripe. In the case of dry-age beef, slabs of it are allowed to sit in a temperature and humidity-controlled room for up to three weeks while it develops a crust, usually complete with mold. All of this is cut away after the dry-aging is complete, and you’re left with a steak that’s tender, minerally, and more concentrated in flavor.”

“So you’re suggesting under certain conditions rotten things can taste good.”

“Well, more or less.”

“I see. What about a rotten soul? Do you think there’s any way for them to taste good?”

“A... soul... you say?”

“It’s a joke. Rosa’s definitely got a rotten soul.”

“Oh, that’s what you mean. Well, even if she did have a rotten soul, I’d still like it.” Though... I still haven’t found the chance to get her to sell her soul to me. So I don’t actually know.

“You struck me more as being the type to scoff when someone brings up stuff like souls.”

“I am. Souls are utter nonsense. They definitely don’t exist.”

“I see. Well, I guess if you’re more rotten than her, something less rotten than yourself would probably taste better comparatively. It’s a bit sad to see.”

“What’s a bit sad to see exactly?”

“That you’ll only ever know what low-quality goods taste like.”

“Low-quality goods, huh? Are you trying to discreetly call me a lowly peasant in a nice roundabout way?”

“Are you dissatisfied with my assessment?” He neither confirmed nor denied it.

“I don’t understand the appeal of things that are high quality. What’s so great about them? Who gets to decide what’s high quality and what’s low quality?”

“Ignorance is bliss I suppose. You don’t understand what’s so great about it because you’ve never feasted upon it. Once you taste something high quality, that low-quality junk you were once so satisfied with will never taste the same again. You’ll be hooked.”