The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 285: Choosing Canned Food

A grocery store.

The small shop was packed with customers.

The rainy season was approaching, and most of Belfast's grocery stores looked just like this.

Lu Li waited at the entrance for a while until a clerk, finally free, approached him. "What can I get for you, sir?"

"Two boxes of canned food."

The clerk was soaked, whether from sweat or the rain. "Right now, we only have pork with peas, apple preserves, canned fish, and canned beef, a few crates of each. We're running low on everything else."

He pointed to the wall shelves, where several types of tinned goods in paper wrappers were displayed, including the ones he had just listed.

Lu Li took one of each type from the shelf. The pork and apple cans were about the same size, while the fish came in flat tins. When shaken, liquid could be heard sloshing inside. The canned beef was larger and heavier, and made no sound at all when he shook it.

The paper labels bore simple drawings and the names of the contents, and nothing more.

No expiration date, no list of ingredients.Information about ingredients appeared only when people were no longer starving and could start worrying about nutrition and health. In this world, such things didn't matter. Except for the aristocracy, most commoners could barely make ends meet, and the nobles, of course, had no interest in canned food loaded with additives.

One could assume that a long-term diet of these canned goods was unlikely to be healthy.

Lu Li handed all four cans to the clerk and asked him to open them with a can opener—in the dawn of capitalist industry, no one had ever heard of "consumer convenience."

"Sir, you want all of them opened?"

"I want to taste them."

The clerk hesitated for a moment, then, seeing that Lu Li's appearance and bearing were unlike those of an ordinary person, he placed the cans on a wooden crate near the entrance and said, "Alright, just a moment..."

He turned and disappeared into the noisy crowd. His thin body struggled to squeeze past the clamoring customers.

He returned to Lu Li two minutes later, even more soaked than before.

The clerk opened all four cans with the opener and stepped back slightly.

Lu Li took a metal spoon from a shelf, wiped off any potential dust and grime with his finger, and approached the crate.

A powerful fishy odor emanated from the crate, even stronger than the one that hung over Sailor Street when the sailors returned from work carrying their fresh catch. It completely overwhelmed the scents of the other canned goods.

Bluish fish and a few chunks of fish meat floated in the murky liquid, looking like bloated corpses.

Lu Li scooped up some of the fish and liquid with his spoon and brought it to his mouth.

Cold, a fishy stench, and an overpowering saltiness exploded on his tongue. The intense sensation drowned out the unpleasant taste—which was not a good sign, as it meant there was another flavor so foul his taste buds were simply rejecting it.

This was not something to be eaten on its own; it would be best paired with stale black bread.

The clerk, who had been watching Lu Li, noticed his frown and ventured cautiously, "I wouldn't recommend the canned fish..."

Lu Li pressed his lips together, waiting fifteen seconds for the taste to seemingly dissipate, then asked, "Why?"

"The canned fish is made from fish that has already started to spoil. No one eats it except for starving vagrants and people with no money for food... especially not in Belfast."

Buying canned fish in the port city of Belfast was as absurd as selling overpriced art in Khimfast, the city of arts.

"And the others?"

"The others are produced at a local factory here in Belfast, the Craving Cannery. The taste might not be to your liking... but at least they won't make you sick."

The words were polite, but the meaning was clear.

The canned fish could make you ill.

"Throw it out," Lu Li said, and noticing the clerk's hesitation, he added, "Or you can use it for something else. I'll pay for it either way."

The clerk relaxed a little, thanked Lu Li, and placed the tin under the awning outside.

Seeing Lu Li watching him, the thin young clerk smiled and explained, "There are always vagrants and stray cats and dogs wandering around here."

Lu Li gave a slight nod, averted his gaze, and turned his attention to the canned pork and peas.

Chunks of pork and peas the size of a fingernail were visible on the surface of the liquid. Lu Li had last eaten this on the Isle of Gaze. After being stored for so long, the pork had practically dissolved into the brine, and the taste had been indescribable.

But it was still better than the canned fish.

A cold, rainy wind kept blowing into the shop, but even that couldn't disperse the fishy stench around the crate.

Lu Li scooped up a piece of pork and put it in his mouth. A salty taste and a faint mutton-like smell spread across his tongue. As he chewed, a meaty aroma filled his mouth, far more pleasant than the first time he'd tried these cans on the Isle of Gaze.

Perhaps it was the contrast with the canned fish he had just eaten.

After finishing it in silence, Lu Li tried the apple preserves.

The taste of cheap sugar and chemical additives spread through his mouth, almost completely overpowering the flavor of the apples themselves.

But at least they were edible, and they contained sugar.

Finally, the canned beef. The can was full of reddish-brown minced meat. Lu Li took a small spoonful and tasted it. The aroma of beef completely overwhelmed the excessive saltiness and the taste of additives.

Compared to the previous three, the canned beef felt more like real food.

Accordingly, the price was high.

When Lu Li had taken the can from the shelf, the price tag read 57 shillings, roughly equivalent to the cost of 60 pounds of black bread.

However, the can weighed one pound, a third more than the pork or apple preserves.

"What's their shelf life?"

Having tasted everything, Lu Li asked his final question.

"The taste won't change for a year, sir, don't you worry."

"And longer? What's the maximum storage time?"

The clerk thought for a moment before answering uncertainly, "It varies depending on the conditions... The fruit and pork preserves would probably go bad after three years, the fish after five, and the beef... I think eight years wouldn't be a problem."

That was long enough. By then, Lu Li would likely no longer be in this world—he might have found a way back to his own, or he might have died here.

"A crate of the fruit preserves and one of the pork. Can you deliver them to my home?"

The canned beef was by far the most expensive, and with conditions worsening, its price was only likely to increase—but Lu Li no longer had that kind of money.

"Of course," the clerk replied with a smile.

There were 20 cans in a crate. The price per can was 13 and 12 shillings, respectively, so Lu Li paid 500 shillings.

As for the canned fish... it cost only 7 shillings, but Lu Li didn't even consider it.

He didn't want to die of diarrhea.

Or be attacked by some anomaly during a bout of it.