Chapter 33 Food

The next morning, after a quick wash and breakfast, Jiang Li began preparing food.

I picked up the power strip and connected it to the solar panel. Although there is electricity in the room, it requires points, and using a lot of water and electricity at once will attract attention.

So Jiang Li decided to cook for himself until the extreme cold arrived. Electricity and water would definitely cost a lot, so why not use the free solar energy?

The water is also intended to be from the space; the water in the house will be used for daily purposes and will not attract the attention of others.

Jiang Li plans to make a different dish every day, and in large quantities. Today, she plans to make steamed buns first.

First, put the living room sofa away from the space, then take out a larger table and put various ingredients such as bowls, meat, and flour on the table.

Because the quantity was quite large, Jiang Li used a very large iron basin to hold the ingredients.

Jiang Li first kneaded the dough and set it aside to ferment before preparing the filling.

Today I made fillings with fresh pork and mushrooms and vegetables.

First, soak the shiitake mushrooms in water. Then, take out the green vegetables, wash them, and set them aside. Crush the scallions, ginger, and garlic, and steep them with Sichuan peppercorns in hot water to extract their flavor.

Then take out the pork from the side and put it on the cutting board to mince it. While mincing, add salt, a little sugar to enhance the flavor, a little soy sauce, and the scallion and ginger water that has been soaked in advance.

Once it's done, put it in a bowl, sprinkle with chopped green onions, pour a layer of hot oil over it, and immediately stir it quickly with chopsticks. This will make the filling more fragrant. After it's done, let it sit for a while to marinate and absorb the flavors.

Luckily, no one was downstairs, otherwise the sound of Jiang Li chopping meat would definitely have attracted attention.

Next, chop the dried greens and soaked shiitake mushrooms, add salt and seasonings, and mix them together.

Once all the fillings are prepared and the dough has risen, it's time to wrap the buns.

Jiang Li first packed a batch, then took out a steamer. It was an electric, stainless steel steamer with water on the bottom layer and five layers of buns on top.

I plugged in the steamer, put the first batch on to steam, and then sat back down to continue wrapping the rest.

After the first batch was steamed, Jiang Li picked one up and ate it. Finding the taste to be quite good, he ate three in a row. Then, while they were still hot, he put all the buns into his spatial storage and continued with the next batch.

This process was repeated, steaming the buns until they were cooked, then storing them away, and then putting down a new batch. By the end of the day, there were many more buns in the space, and time had passed. Jiang Li tidied up her things, washed up briefly, ate something, and went to sleep.

The next few days were the same, with different dishes cooked every day.

Dishes include boiled sliced ​​pork, stuffed green peppers, stir-fried vegetables, tomato and egg drop soup, poached eggs, garlic chicken wings, corn and pork rib soup, borscht, salt and pepper shrimp, hand-torn cabbage, and so on.

After cooking, pack them all into disposable lunch boxes that I bought earlier, enough for one person at a time, and the same goes for the rice.

When she had free time, Jiang Li also made some desserts, such as double-skin milk pudding, pudding, milk tea, and small cakes. If she didn't know how to make them, she would learn from the recipes she downloaded.

Jiang Li always closed the windows and sprayed air freshener on the burner after it was done, just in case.

Although Jiang Li lives on the sixth floor, there aren't many people living in the surrounding buildings, and no one lives downstairs either. It's also quite remote. But the worst thing is that someone might have a particularly sensitive nose and come looking for him by smell. It's always better to be careful.

Over the next few days, the amount of food in Jiang Li's space visibly increased.

That day, Jiang Li woke up to find the temperature noticeably lower than the previous day. He took out a coat from his spatial storage and put it on, then glanced at the thermometer on the wall, which showed only a dozen degrees Celsius.

Jiang Li knew that the extreme cold was coming soon, so he immediately decided not to cook today. He had been at the base for almost a month, and it was time to go out and look for supplies, otherwise people would really find him suspicious.

As Jiang Li walked downstairs, he heard a sound on the third floor, indicating that new residents had moved in.

Jiang Li was originally going to walk straight down. However, when he passed the third floor, two people came out, causing both of them to stop.

The people opposite were He Shan and her son, the same mother and son that Jiang Li had rescued at the mall before.

When Jiang Li saw He Shan again, he felt that she had changed. She had become stronger and more resilient. Perhaps the apocalypse had changed her, or perhaps it was the strength that comes with motherhood. In any case, such a change was good, at least in the apocalypse.

"My benefactor, you live here too? That's wonderful!" He Shan was so excited to see Jiang Li.

"Yeah, I didn't expect to run into you again." Jiang Li was also surprised.

“My benefactor, I don’t even know your name yet. I was so confused back then that I didn’t even ask you your name.”

"Jiang Li, you can call me Xiao Jiang. Sister He Shan, did you just move here?"

"Oh, no need to call me 'sister,' I'm more than ten years older than you. Just call me 'aunt.'" She felt a little embarrassed to be called "sister" since she was more than ten years older than Jiang Li.

Looking at He Shan's youthful face, Jiang Li simply couldn't bring himself to call her "Auntie."

“We just moved in today. We lived in other places before. Xiao Jiang, I’m really grateful to you. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have had the courage, and I wouldn’t be alive today.” He Shan is much older than Jiang Li, so she called her Xiao Jiang, just like Jiang Li said.

She was truly grateful to Jiang Li. If it weren't for him, she would still be that cowardly person and wouldn't have been able to survive the apocalypse.

"An'an, quickly thank Sister Jiang. She saved us back then," He Shan said, pulling her son along.

"Thank you, sister," the little boy said in a soft, sweet voice.

"You're welcome. An'an, you're a man now, so you have to protect your mom in the future. Here, consider this a little gift from your older sister."

Jiang Li took a lollipop out of his pocket, squatted down, and handed it to An An.

"Thank you, sister. I've grown up now and I can protect Mommy." An'an glanced at He Shan and only took the lollipop after seeing He Shan nod.

"Mmm, An'an is great," Jiang Li said, patting An'an's head.

"Sister He Shan, I remember his name used to be Hao Hao, right?" Jiang Li asked uncertainly, as he seemed to have that name back then.

He Shan heard that Jiang Li still called her "sister," so she didn't ask Jiang Li to change it.

"I changed his name to He Le'an, taking his surname, hoping he can always be safe and happy." He Shan tenderly patted An'an's head, as An'an had suffered a lot with her.

“An’an is very healthy. You’ve taken good care of her.” Jiang Li could tell that He Shan really was taking good care of An’an. It was indeed not easy for a woman to raise a child in the apocalypse.

“An’an isn’t tired, Mom is.” An’an looked up at He Shan and said.

Hearing what An'an said, He Shan felt both gratified and heartbroken, and could only keep stroking Lele's head.

"Xiao Jiang, are you going out?"

"Yeah, I'm planning to go outside and look for supplies." He glanced down at An'an again and continued.

"Sister He Shan, the weather is a bit abnormal right now. It was so hot before, but I've noticed that the temperature has dropped a bit these past few days. It might get even colder, so you should prepare more food and clothes."

Jiang Li shared his speculations with He Shan, hoping they would take it to heart and go find supplies.

"Okay, don't worry, we will."

The two chatted for a while longer before parting ways. Jiang Li had to go out, and He Shan and the others, having just moved in, would definitely need to unpack their things.