Chapter 18 Chapter Twelve

Hummin's practiced eyes seemed to take a quick glance at the entire environment, the other taxis, the dining crowd, the corridors, and the men and women nearby.Seldon wanted to appear inconspicuous, but he didn't know how to do it, so he just looked at Hummin intently, trying not to appear too curious. They sat down at a small table, and after pressing the order button, Seldon tried to say in a nonchalant tone, "Is everything okay?" "It seems so," Hummin said. "And how do you know?" Hummin stared at Seldon for a moment with his black eyes. "Intuition," he said, "been running the news for years, and you just have to look at it and know, 'There's no news here.'"

Seldon nodded, feeling relieved.Hummin's statement may be somewhat ironic, but there must be some truth to it. The feeling of contentment didn't last long, and it ended when he took his first bite of the sandwich.He raised his head and looked at Hummin, his mouth was full of food that he couldn't swallow, with a look of astonishment on his face. Hummin said, "It's a roadside fast food place, my friend. Cheap, fast, and not very tasty. It's homegrown, with a strong-smelling yeast flavor that Trantorian mouths are used to." Humton bit the bullet and swallowed: "But in the hotel..."

"You were in the Imperial Quarter then, Seldon. The food there was imported, and the micro-foods used were high-end and very expensive." Seldon wondered if he should take another bite. "You mean, as long as I stay on Trantor..." Hummin made a silencing motion with his lips: "Don't let anyone think you're used to better food. In some parts of Trantor, being considered a noble is worse than being an alien. Not every The food in this land is so bad, I promise you. These roadside stands have always been known for their low quality, and if you can swallow these sandwiches, you can eat anything from anywhere on Trantor. Besides, it won't do you any harm. It didn't rot or go bad or anything like that, it just had a pungent, tangy taste. And honestly, you get used to it. I've met some Trantorians who gave little thought to real food , thinking that that kind of food lacks the unique flavor of local products.”

"Does Trantor produce much food?" Seldon asked.He glanced quickly to the left and right to make sure that no one was sitting around, and then he said in a calm tone: "I always heard that hundreds of space cargo ships deliver food to Trantor every day, and the food needs to be supplied by the twenty worlds around .” "I know there are hundreds of cargo ships to take the garbage out. If you want to make this rumor sound more exciting, you should say that the same cargo ship carries the food and returns with a load of garbage. It is true that we import a lot of food. Yes, but those are mostly luxuries. We also do export a considerable amount of waste, which is carefully processed so that it is no longer harmful to humans, but an important organic fertilizer. That waste is like food to other worlds It's just as important to us. But, that's only a small part."

"yes?" "Yes. In addition to the fish in the sea, there are vegetable farms all over Trantor. In addition, there are orchards, poultry, rabbits, and huge microbiological farms-usually called yeast farms, but yeast only accounts for the total crop. Few. Our trash is mostly used locally, to sustain crops. In fact, in many ways Trantor is very much like a huge, overpopulated space colony, have you ever been to such a place?" "Been there." "Space colonies are basically sealed cities. Everything is artificially cycled, such as artificial ventilation, artificial day and night, etc. The only difference between Trantor is the number of people. Even the largest space colony has a population of only 10 million. Chuan Tuo The population of Tuo is four thousand times that number. Of course, we have real gravity, and there is no microbial food in any space colony that can match ours. We have unimaginably large yeast vats, fungal culture mats and Algae culture tanks. Also, we specialize in artificial flavors, we add them without reservation, and that’s how you get that special taste.”

Seldon had almost finished the sandwich, finding it no longer as bad as the first bite. "It won't make me sick, will it?" "It does hurt the microbes in the gut, and occasionally gives some poor aliens diarrhea, but those are rare, and even then, you'll quickly develop resistance. Anyway, put your Drink the shake, though you probably won't like it. It has antidiarrheal ingredients, and even if you're prone to allergies to these things, it should keep you safe." Seldon said displeasedly, "Stop talking, Hummin, it's easy to talk about things like this and become true."

"Then pretend I didn't say it and finish your milkshake." They ate what was left of their food in silence, and soon they were on their way.