Autophagy

"Let's go," Gabriela said. Song Lei nodded and started following her through the dirty streets of Victorian London. The suburbs of the city was truly horrific for a modern-day person like Song Lei. The trash, mud, and dirt were covering everywhere. The choking and sooty fog was the topping of it. Industrial effluent and untreated human waste were detrimental to human life. It was possible to say that this place was worse than the New World atmosphere-wise.

The state of the people living here was incredibly bad too. People lying on the streets, children trying to scoop up horse dung from the streets... Song Lei didn't know what to say. Although the industrial revolution was an incredible leap in human civilization, it still brought consequences that were unignorable.

As the frown on Song Lei's face was deepening, they kept walking through the streets. As they kept walking, the environment started changing. Although the streets were still in bad condition, they were much better compared to before.

'This place must be for the wealthy people,' Song Lei guessed. While he was looking around like a child that was in a zoo. He was really curious about this place.

"Look. It's right there," Gabriela stopped Song Lei. She pointed towards a certain place with her finger. Song Lei stopped daydreaming and looked at the direction Gabriela had pointed towards. There was a shop with a crude sign on top. The sign read "Oakley's Butchery". Song Lei stared at the place for some time.

"Not there idiot. There," Gabriela said while turning Song Lei's head with her hands. As Song Lei's view shifted to the right, he noticed the garbage bin sitting in an alley that was next to the butcher. It was mostly a normal bin, however, there were a lot of people eyeing the bin from further away.

"Oh," Song Lei said. "I can count 6 people that are eyeing the bin. Are you sure that we can get our hands on the meat before them?"

"What?" Gabriela asked. "You are actually able to do that?" There was a weird frown on her face.

"Yeah? What is the problem?" Song Lei asked, being oblivious to the situation.

"Huh... Maybe losing your memory has made you smarter," Gabriela said while touching her chin. Her words made Song Lei feel apologetic towards Lewis for some reason. "I could count 4. Where are the other two?"

"There and there," Song Lei said while pointing towards the places that people were waiting.

"That's great. Then Mr. Know-it-all can keep track of such things from now on," Gabriela said while pouting. Song Lei's eye twitched in response. He didn't know why Gabriela would get angry over such a thing.

"Stop daydreaming. Here he comes," Gabriela said. Song Lei snapped out of his daze and turned his head towards the backdoor of the butchery. A man was leaving the butchery with a bag of bones and leftover meat. For orphans like Song Lei and Gabriela, eating meat was an incredible luxury. They would never have the chance to do so normally. "Get ready to dash. As soon as the man goes back into the shop, dash in. But always take the other contenders into account."

Song Lei nodded. Shortly after, the man left the bag and entered the shop. As soon as the door was closed. Eight people dashed towards the bin at the exact same time. It looked like some kind of Olympic competition. Song Lei and Gabriela, too, dashed out of their place.

As they charged ahead, one of the people tried to push Gabriela down. This person was an adult. He was at least 20 kilograms heavier than both of them.

Noticing what he was going to try, Song Lei sent one of his legs forward and tackled the man. The man wasn't expecting Song Lei to be able to react, so he was unable to stop in time. Getting caught in Song Lei's tackle, he fell forward and rolled two times before stopping.

Although he hadn't lost consciousness, it was enough to throw him out of the competition. Unfortunately, his shenanigans had put Song Lei and Gabriela in a disadvantageous situation against the other people that were trying to put their hands on the leftover meat.

Right now, there were 7 people left including Song Lei and Gabriela. Two of those people were fighting against each other while the other three were about to reach the leftovers. Seeing that they were about to reach their destination, Song Lei decided to take drastic measures. He bent down without stopping and picked up a few small rocks that were half the size of his hands. Taking aim, he threw the rock at one of the men.

"AH!" The man shouted as soon as the rock came in contact with his head. His eyes blanked out as he fell down to the ground. There was blood coming out of the place the rock had hit.

"Good shot!" Gabriela said. Seeing her get excited, Song Lei smirked and threw another rock. His aim was relatively good. Him being able to shoot moving targets while he himself was running was no little achievement.

He threw another rock and hit another person. Song Lei was like a marksman that wouldn't miss his target no matter what.

'I wonder why my aim is so good...' He thought.

Seeing the other two get hit in the head and faint, the other person that was trying to reach the leftovers stopped and decided to leave. He didn't want to get a concussion for no reason.

The other two that were fighting each other were still going at it without a care in the world. In the end, all the leftovers were standing there for Song Lei and Gabriela to grab.

"Nice! Don't take everything or it'll become a problem," Gabriela reminded Song Lei. Seeing Song Lei nod, she continued by saying "Just take half of it! We made a fortune today!"

They both started rummaging through the leftovers. There was at least half a kilogram of meat for both of them. After packing the meat into their bags, they ran at the same speed and left the scene. If they were too greedy and took everything, some people could come after them, the best would be to take a part of it and leave some for the others.

They ran for more than ten minutes. When she felt like they were safe, Gabriela signed Song Lei to stop.

"Stop... Huff... That's... Enough," she said while gasping for breath. After breathing heavily for thirty seconds, she wiped the sweat off of her forehead. "You did really good today. Maybe your memory loss is a good thing..."

Song Lei raised one of his brows.

"Really? Well... Maybe," he said while looking at his right hand. While he was thinking about how he had hit those three, he felt a warm sensation on his cheek. Raising his head, he realized that he had just been pecked on the cheek by Gabriela.

"Thanks to you, we can eat something proper," she said. Her cheeks were blushed. Looking at her state, Song Lei smiled gently and patted her head.

"No problem..." He said.

"Hey, bastard!" A voice disrupted Song Lei and Gabriela. Hearing the voice, Song Lei facepalmed hardly. "Are you deaf!?" As Song Lei turned around, he saw the idiot trie he had just beaten today, however this time with some reinforcements.

"Lennie? What's your problem!? Leave us alone," Gabriela said nervously. Besides the idiot trio, there were two adults. Although Song Lei could beat the idiot trio on his own, he wouldn't be able to beat adults in a 5v1. And even if Gabriela helped him, things probably wouldn't change much.

Considering this, he started taking small steps while holding Gabriela's hand.

"What is my problem?" The burly teenager asked. "Guys. Spread out so they can't escape," he ordered the others. Weirdly, the adults did what he said and encircled Song Lei and Gabriela. They now had no escape route left. "What is my problem you ask? Well, why don't you start by giving me those things in the bag?"

"What!? N- Mmf!" Gabriela was about to say as her mouth was blocked by Song Lei. Song Lei knew they were in an incredibly disadvantageous situation. The only thing he could do was heed their orders and do whatever they told him to as long as it wasn't something really bad.

He took a few steps forward and threw the bag towards Lennie.

"Very good. Our boss wants to meet you guys," he said. He opened it and looked inside the bag. As soon as his eyes came in contact with the meat, he started drooling. "Wow! You guys really made a fortune today huh? Well, anyways. Follow us."

After Lennie was done talking the two adults came next to Song Lei and Gabriela. They held their arms and started walking together with them. They weren't very forceful, they were just making sure that Song Lei and Gabriela weren't escaping.

"Let's go...."