Chapter 19

On the way, Yu wiped the water droplets off the plants. When he saw a few people coming back, he ignored their strange looks and began to talk about his discoveries enthusiastically.

"I know why this thing is so good at hiding," Lu Shiyu said, holding the plant and pointing at its leaves. "Its leaves have a lot of hairs on them. These hairs can sense very subtle air movements, allowing them to determine the direction of attack and dodge in advance. However, if it gets wet, the water droplets will press on the hairs, causing them to lose most of their sensing ability. As a result, they can only run around."

"So that's how it is," Yan Hong said, picking up the struggling plants in her hands. "No wonder it's so hard for even me to catch them."

"So it's all thanks to me that we were able to catch them," Shaoxing Yang began to brag again, "If it weren't for me, we wouldn't have been able to catch them."

"Oh, that's really all thanks to you," Yan Hong said coldly, "Thanks to you, we'll have this for dinner."

"Actually, there are other ways," Lu Shiyu thought for a moment. "If it rains or is early in the morning, it should have a similar effect. The dew and frost that form naturally in the morning can also make them lose their ability to sense."

"It uses its hairs to sense its surroundings and can move, just like an animal," Chen Yunliang said, looking at the plant still writhing and struggling. "Can this still be considered a plant?"

"Although it looks like it has some animal characteristics, it is more like a plant overall." Tang Zeyu also gave his own opinion.

"Okay, let's prepare to cook first." Lu Shiyu took out a big pot from his bag.

"Wait, what should we do with these things?" Yan Hong held up the still-living plants in her hands and said, "We can't keep holding them forever."

“That’s definitely not a solution.”

Lu Shiyu thought for a while, took out a cloth bag from his bag, removed the plastic rope on top, and the originally wide plastic rope was torn into several strips. Lu Shiyu used the torn rope to tie all the branches and leaves of the plant together and carefully placed them on the ground.

Yan Hong was just about to tell Lu Shiyu that this thing would run away if it was put on the ground, but the following scene was beyond everyone's expectations. After being placed on the ground, the plant was still obedient, just like when it was caught, lying quietly on the ground, and did not burrow into the soil to escape.

"I see," Shao Xingyang pushed up his glasses. "By tying the branches and leaves together, the hairs on the leaves can't function properly. The hairs collide with each other and constantly transmit wrong information. That's why it won't move because it has no idea where to go."

On the way, I tied up several plants one by one, which finally freed everyone's hands.

Lu Shiyu sharpened the kitchen knife and began to process these moving ingredients.

First, you need to remove the branches and leaves from the root, as well as any excess, moving parts of the stem, leaving only the cylindrical main body. Use a kitchen knife to make a shallow cut from top to bottom, rotate half a circle, and then make another cut. Make four cuts in total, just enough to extend past the outer skin and just touch the inner flesh. Then you can tear the outer skin apart directly, similar to peeling a banana, but the outer skin is still tightly connected to the fruit, so it takes a little more effort to tear it off.

After completing the initial processing, I cut the pulp into small pieces, put it into the pot, added honey and sugar, and added water that was just enough to cover the pulp. I boiled it until it became thick, added a little starch water, and continued to boil.

Lu Shiyu picked up a piece of fruit and rubbed it lightly with his fingers, and it turned into paste. This meant it was cooked. He took out the cooked fruit pieces and let them cool.

Lu Shiyu took out some ingredients from his bag and started making other food.

Two spoons of flour and half a spoon of starch, a small spoon of oil and a few grams of salt, finally add water and mix well, knead into a smooth dough.

Lu Shiyu divided the large dough into several small doughs, and made several round pancakes with the small doughs like making dumpling wrappers. Then he put a spoonful of boiled fruit pieces in the center of the dough, covered it with a round wrapper, pressed it firmly along the edge, and used the dumpling-making technique to simply pinch a lace to prevent the filling from overflowing.

Then you need to prepare a batter. Add a spoonful of flour and a little starch, water, cooking oil and white sugar. Mix well and then put the round cake you just kneaded in the batter and coat both sides evenly.

Lu Shiyu found Tang Zeyu and asked him if he could make the fire bigger.

"Of course you can, but how big a fire do you want?"

"I think I can get the oil temperature to 180 degrees. Can I do that?"

Tang Zeyu estimated and replied, "It's definitely impossible to do it with the temperature of the campfire, but I can directly use my supernatural power to adjust it to approximately that temperature."

"Great!" Lu Shiyu heard that it could be done. He took out a smaller pot from his bag, poured a layer of oil on the bottom of the pot, and said to Tang Zeyu, "Please heat the oil to 180 degrees for me and keep it at this temperature."

Lu Shiyu set up the wok, and Tang Zeyu placed one hand underneath. A ball of fire instantly erupted from his palm, gathering there. Just as it was about to leap, it was pinned down by the bottom of the wok above, allowing only a small amount to emerge from the sides. Soon, the oil was heated. Lu Shiyu dipped a little batter with chopsticks and dropped it into the wok, confirming the temperature was just right.

Lu Shiyu put a round pancake covered with batter into the oil pan. Dense bubbles appeared in the oil pan instantly. The round pancake was half suspended in the oil, and the edges were filled with bubbles produced by the reaction. Slowly, the round pancake seemed to expand a little, and the originally white crust gradually turned into golden yellow under the action of the hot oil.

Lu Shiyu used chopsticks to pick up the fried round cakes in the pan. Both sides had been fried until golden and crispy, and it was as perfect as the food in the promotional poster.

"It was really fried, and it wasn't burnt at all."

Lu Shiyu looked at the crispy pancakes and couldn't help sighing, then threw a few more pancakes in.

The round cake rose and fell in the pan, and Lu Shiyu kept turning it over until it was finally fried to light yellow and then taken out and put on a plate. Lu Shiyu took out the ant honey and the jam he had made last time, scooped up a spoonful, and poured it on the round cake in an "S" shape, acting as honey and ketchup. The sauce dripped on the cake and flowed a little, and the translucent sauce reflected the light of the campfire and seemed to sparkle.

"Finish!"

Lu Shiyu picked up a piece of cake and handed it to Tang Zeyu. Tang Zeyu pinched the two ends of the round cake and broke it open. The soft flesh and sticky sweet water inside were squeezed out and slowly flowed down along the crispy crust.

Tang Zeyu lowered his head and took a bite. The crust was so crispy that he could hear a crackling sound. He finished half of it in just a few bites.

Shao Xingyang saw Tang Zeyu eating and felt a little greedy, so he asked, "Captain, is the pie made from that thing delicious?"

"It's delicious, sweet and sticky," Tang Zeyu said, and then he ate the other half of the cake in a few more bites as if to confirm it. He asked Shao Xingyang, "Why? You don't want to eat it?"

"I'll eat it!" Shaoxing Yang immediately grabbed a cake and stuffed it into his mouth when asked. The next second, the oral mucosa made a sharp popping sound.

"It's so hot, so hot!" Shaoxing Yang opened his mouth wide and breathed out wildly. Hot air kept coming out of his mouth and his expression was very painful.

"Hey, why did you take the last one out of the pot?" Lu Shiyu noticed that Shaoxing Yang took the last one out of the pot. "This one is still too hot. If you want to eat, you should take the first one."

"The mud seems to be early!"

Chen Yunliang picked up a slightly cool pancake. The crust had been fried thoroughly until crispy. A light pinch would produce a "crunching" sound. The crust was shiny with oil. Chen Yunliang broke the round pancake open, revealing the steaming filling inside. Some tiny crispy crusts fell from the broken parts, like golden sand.

The filling inside can be seen clearly. The orange-yellow square pieces of fruit pulp and sticky liquid fill the entire interior of the pie, flowing out slowly like lava, while emitting a little heat. Chen Yunliang blew on the filling and it felt like biting into a roasted marshmallow.

After being cooked, the flesh becomes soft and delicate. You can hardly taste any solid matter when you put it in your mouth. It melts on its own without even using your tongue. The sticky stringy texture is mixed with some skin crumbs, adding a sense of layering.

The sauces poured on top also have their own flavors. The ant honey has a unique floral fragrance but is not cloyingly sweet, while the jam is sweet and sour but not bitter, which is appetizing. You can taste different sauces in every bite, which makes people unable to stop. Soon Chen Yunliang finished a piece.

Because the filling is too fluid, it needs to be eaten quickly, otherwise the pulp will drip onto the ground, making everyone look hurried while eating. Yan Hong was still hesitant at first, but when she saw that everyone was busy eating and no one was talking, she became even more hesitant about whether to eat or not.

Although it looked delicious, Yan Hong still felt a little nauseous when she thought about the original appearance of those plants. In the end, Lu Shiyu handed her a piece.

"Don't think about it. Just concentrate on eating. Otherwise, even the most delicious food will become tasteless," said Lu Shiyu.

Yan Hong shook her head and decided to forget the appearance of those things for the time being, driving away all the random thoughts in her mind. She took the cake from Lu Shiyu and took a big bite, and was immediately captivated by the sweet taste.

"It feels like the dessert I had as a child!" Yan Hong chewed the pie with a crunching sound. When she saw the filling overflowing, she quickly took another bite. The delicious taste was reflected on her face.

"I remember when I was little, my parents often bought me all kinds of cookies to please me," Shaoxing Yang licked the sweetness on his fingers. "Later, they even learned to make cookies themselves. I was tired of eating them."

"It was better when I was a kid," Yan Hong sighed. "Thinking about it now, life without the deformed creatures was so much easier. I didn't have to run around all day just to survive, and I didn't have to worry about being killed by monsters that suddenly appeared."

Lu Shiyu took a bite of the crispy and fragrant pie and said, "Do you think the apocalypse will ever end?"

"Maybe, maybe a dozen years from now, or even decades from now," Yan Hong said, leaning against her backpack while eating a pancake. "But it's not something we can see. It's a long time away. It would be great if we could see it in our lifetime."

"We can't even find the source of the distortion disaster, so how can we talk about solving it?" Chen Yunliang broke open a round pancake, the filling already slightly solidifying from cooling. "This kind of unreasonable disaster is hard to tell whether it's natural or man-made."

"Look at it from a bright side. At least humanity survived," Tang Zeyu said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "As long as we're alive, there's always hope. Besides, we're all eating the deformed creatures now. It's only a matter of time before this situation is completely resolved."

"The captain is right!" Shao Xingyang slapped his thigh and said, "At worst, we can just eat the deformed creatures to extinction!"

Yan Hong rolled her eyes: "Don't you think before you speak? What big talk!"

Chen Yunliang smiled and said, "Maybe someday these mutants will actually develop a food supply chain. After all, they taste pretty good, right?"

Lu Shiyu handed Tang Zeyu a towel to wipe the oil off. When he heard what Chen Yunliang said, he was stunned for a moment. Although he was not paying attention, the listener was paying attention. Until before he went to bed tonight, Lu Shiyu had been thinking about the feasibility of transforming deformed organisms into food that can be supplied in bulk.