Chapter 33
by LhaoziChapter 33: Food That Can Be Kept for a Long Time
Qin Song immediately shifted his body to step right in front of Qin Xi.
The atmosphere grew tense in an instant. Just as Qin Song reached out to open the door, Qin Xi suddenly stopped him:
“Big Brother, let’s go through the side door.”
This back door was far too narrow—so narrow that only one person could pass through at a time.
The side door was considerably more spacious, making it much easier to respond to unexpected changes.
And so, the two stepped out through the front door of the west wing, taking a turn directly into the outdoor alleyway.
From the alleyway, one could see that the ground behind the house wasn’t compacted concrete, but remained in a natural dirt state instead.
However, the ground was bare without anything planted.
The two continued walking inward until they reached the fence gate blocking the end of the alleyway, finally seeing clearly what lay behind it.
To their surprise, there were family-raised chickens, ducks, and geese.
There was even a pig!
The pig had already mutated, trapped inside the pigpen unable to break out for the moment, and was dispatched by Qin Xi in two quick slashes.
Looking at the scene in the backyard, the smile on Qin Xi’s face gradually widened!
Who would have thought there’d be an unexpected surprise!
Though chickens, ducks, and geese only counted as three Natural Element points, every little bit added up!
Besides, imagining small chicks and ducklings running around freely on the grassland made for quite a lovely sight as well!
And so, Qin Song used his metallic wire to snake along the ground, quickly binding the feet of nearly fifteen chickens, ducks, and geese and dragging them over.
Qin Xi stored them all into her spatial dimension.
With that, the backyard was cleared out entirely.
She and Qin Song turned back to walk toward the front courtyard.
The sky overhead had darkened, though it hadn’t turned pitch-black quite yet.
Arriving at the front courtyard, the two didn’t go indoors right away, stepping straight into the vegetable garden in front instead.
Most of the vegetable species in the garden had already been collected from the previous few households.
Picking and choosing carefully, Qin Xi only found four distinct plant varieties: strawberries, bitter melon, luffa, garlic, and tobacco.
She couldn’t help but sigh, feeling that this wouldn’t do.
The Natural Element points in the village were still somewhat lacking.
She pondered where else she could go to find another batch of items possessing Natural Element characteristics.
She and Qin Song returned to the house. This time, Li Zekai took over the cooking duties, Lin Xin tended the fire, while Bai Hanyue washed the vegetables.
Unexpectedly, Li Zekai possessed quite impressive culinary skills.
The moment she stepped inside, Qin Xi immediately caught a whiff of rich, aromatic garlic.
Noticing the two walk in, Li Zekai turned his head over as well:
“Brother Qin, Miss Qin, we made some food—made plenty of it, so let me join us for dinner tonight!”
They knew Qin Xi and Qin Song possessed their own supply of food and seemed to have prepared a vast stash even before the apocalypse.
Although curious as to why they had stocked so much food beforehand, all three understood what should be asked and what shouldn’t.
So no one asked.
Furthermore, with so many ingredients available here, Qin Xi clearly possessed a spatial dimension yet hadn’t stored them away; it was obvious she had left these supplies for them.
These few supplies didn’t seem like much in normal times, but under current circumstances, they were life-saving provisions.
All three felt deep gratitude in their hearts.
This pair of siblings appeared cold on the surface, and at times, some of their actions even seemed somewhat ruthless.
Yet in reality, all three knew that both of them were good people.
And good people who were exceptionally well-suited for surviving the apocalypse at that.
Qin Xi raised an eyebrow upon hearing Li Zekai’s words.
Glancing at the electric frying pan emitting a delicious aroma behind the kitchen partition, she agreed:
“Sure, thanks for your hard work then!”
With that, just as she was preparing to walk toward the bedroom, she paused her steps after a moment’s thought, looking at the three to add:
“This family has plenty of ingredients. We’re resting here tonight, so you three can brainstorm ways to make food that can be kept for a long time.”
Hearing her words, all three were caught somewhat by surprise!
After a few seconds of silence, Bai Hanyue answered:
“Got it, Sister Xi. We’ll think it through carefully.”
Qin Xi smiled upon hearing that before returning to the bedroom.
Stepping inside, Qin Xi stood on the floor looking at the five-meter-long brick kang bed-stove before her.
In the kitchen behind, Lin Xin was tending the fire, which conveniently burned away the excess dampness accumulated in the room due to consecutive days of rain.
Half an hour later, dinner was cooked.
Li Zekai retrieved this family’s dining table, setting it up in the living room.
Several plates of dishes and steamed rice were brought onto the table sequentially. Looking at the spread on the table, Qin Xi couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.
Garlic glass-noodle shrimp, scalded lettuce, tomato scrambled eggs, along with a dish of honey chicken wings!
Complete in color, aroma, and presentation—though she hadn’t tasted them yet, merely looking at them made one feel the flavor was guaranteed to be top-notch!
She looked at Li Zekai with some surprise, her tone full of praise:
“Who would’ve thought your culinary skills were this good!”
Being praised so directly, Li Zekai felt somewhat embarrassed.
He raised his hand to adjust his glasses, just about to say something, when an unexplained chill suddenly swept across his body!
Raising his eyes, he met the menacing, dark glare of the man sitting directly across the table!
Terrified, the hand adjusting his glasses trembled slightly as he hurriedly averted his line of sight.
Though he didn’t know why Qin Song suddenly had such a strong reaction, it was clearly related to Qin Xi!
The smile on Li Zekai’s face pulled back instantly.
His eyes darted around erratically, only daring to glance at Qin Xi once before dropping his head swiftly:
“Just cooked casually—home-cooked dishes, just home-cooked dishes!”
Qin Xi didn’t notice Li Zekai’s awkwardness. Taking a bite of a chicken wing—tender, fresh, and savory, carrying the sweetness of honey with soft, slightly sticky skin—the taste was indeed fantastic!
She instantly felt the somewhat overly soft steamed rice in her bowl turn sweet and delicious!
In a great mood, she pulled a pack of chilled Sprite out from her spatial dimension, handing a can to each of them.
All of them were young people who naturally had no resistance to sweet beverages.
Having experienced massive emotional swings within just a few short hours today alongside physical exhaustion, their feeling of hunger was all the more pronounced!
Right now, the ice-cold Sprite Qin Xi handed out served as an absolute sanity-restoration item!
Taking a single gulp down, one instantly felt their entire being refreshed!
Everyone ate the meal with great satisfaction!
After dinner, it was still very early—just past 7:00 PM.
Bai Hanyue, Lin Xin, and Li Zekai decided to take advantage of the free time tonight to use the flour they found to bake a large batch of oil-free flatbreads.
Flatbreads didn’t take up space, could be carried in large quantities, wouldn’t spoil easily in the short term, and were filling!
And so, clearing away the bowls and chopsticks, the three got busy in the kitchen once again.
However, because baking flatbreads required using the large wok—and Bai Hanyue feared making the brick kang too hot to sleep on—they did the work in the west-wing kitchen this time!
Taking a moment while the three were busy, Qin Xi popped over to take a look, discovering that the three had even turned flatbread baking into an assembly-line operation:
Bai Hanyue rolled out the dough, Li Zekai baked the flatbreads, while Lin Xin tended the fire!
The kitchen was filled with warm steam, yet smelled enticingly of roasted wheat!
They were working away with great cheer.
Qin Xi returned to the east room, sitting down on the brick kang.
Sending her consciousness into the system space, she made brief preparations before walking over to the iron mine on the hillside toward the rear, beginning to dig for iron ore.
Over three hours passed, and Qin Xi had already mined over 600 jin [1] of iron ore.
Checking the upgrade progress, the upgrade task required 3 tons of iron ore; at this pace, as long as she gritted her teeth, completing this single sub-task tonight didn’t seem impossible at all!
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