Chapter 18

Two people with little experience in growing vegetables finally grew enough vegetables to make at least one dish in a room with almost no light and only the help of fluorescent lights.

Holding a small basket of pakchoy picked from a soil pot, Qin Huai looked at Mu Nan who was still digging in it, looking for ripe ones to pick: "You don't like eating pakchoy, why would you grow this?"

Mu Nan said: "This grows fast. I want to see how long it will take to harvest a batch if I plant it like this."

Qin Huai smiled and said, "Your rice seedlings are growing fast after they are planted. If you start directly from breeding, it won't grow so fast."

After making sure that there were no fish that slipped through the net, Mu Nan stood up from the pile of earthen pots and put the two handfuls of cabbage in his hand into the small basket handed over by Qin Huai: "Let's explore slowly. We don't have anyone in the village, and we don't know anyone who can work in the fields. We don't know who to ask if we want to. We can only rely on ourselves. Apart from this, I can't imagine the future. Before social order is restored, how can we make a living? You are a software developer, and I am a painter. People's food and clothing have become a problem, so why do they need spiritual food?"

Mu Nan then added: "We don't rely on this to make a living anyway. It's just a superficial way to make a living. If it really works, it will also be a livelihood."

Qin Huai: "After the earthquake, did the country start reconstruction work quickly?"

Mu Nan thought about it for a moment: "Not really fast. I dreamed that after the earthquake, many people went to the ruins to dig for things, food, daily necessities, and valuables. Many people searched but no one cared. There were rescue teams, but most people were just trying to save themselves. There was a period of time when there was no order and it was very chaotic. Later, a base was built."

At that time, private bases began to increase in number. Those private bases were certainly not for charity. If you wanted to live in a place with water and electricity, you naturally had to come up with the corresponding supplies. In the past, it was money, but after the earthquake, money became worthless, so gold, silver, jade, and food could all be exchanged. Where did those things come from? Naturally, they were dug out from the ruins.

Of course, Mu Nan also followed the crowd and searched in the ruins for a while. Otherwise, it would be too abnormal for him to stay indoors and still have food and drink. That period was not easy. The weather was hot and many houses and buildings collapsed due to the earthquake. Not only did they have to dig up the heavy stones, but they also had to be careful with their feet. Many people accidentally loosened the stones under their feet and fell into the pit and died. Not to mention, they would often see a rotten corpse or broken limbs after moving a stone.

That period was an important turning point for Mu Nan in facing the end of the world. It was also the first time that he truly experienced the cruelty of death in the end of the world. He still remembered that he had enough food in the space during that period, but he was so thin that he was just skin and bones because he couldn't eat. He looked as haggard as others. After slowly adapting to the environment and finally accepting the reality of the end of the world, he dared not waste the food stored in the space.

He was alone and thin, and he looked easy to bully. Perhaps even if he hadn't given the tortillas to the kid that day, he might not have been able to escape the robbery by those people. Maybe they had already targeted him.

Hearing Mu Nan sigh, Qin Huai thought he was worried about the future: "Worrying about this now won't change anything. Don't worry, when the time comes, I'll go and move bricks to support you. Rebuilding the base will probably require a lot of manpower."

Mu Nan glanced at him and said, "Let me grow vegetables and support you." Why do you have to work so hard when you can do some easy work?

Qin Huai smiled and handed the dish in his hand to Mu Nan: "Take it over, I can stir-fry a plate later, I'll go check on the chicken coop."

The balcony of Qin Huai's house is open. At the beginning, Mu Nan raised a few chickens outside because he was worried about chicken droppings, which would make the house stink. Now he puts the chickens outside on the balcony, wears a mask and flushes the ground with a hose. Even if there is chicken droppings, it will not make the house very dirty. Moreover, the mycelial virus does not seem to be able to live on animals, so Mu Nan feels at ease to raise chickens outside.

But after Qin Huai came back, he let the chickens in, but kept them in the room where the vegetables were planted, and built a nest. Otherwise, every time he fed the chickens or cleaned the balcony, he would inevitably be exposed to the smog, which was too dangerous. Mu Nan bought both male and female chickens, and raised them together without separation, so Qin Huai would occasionally check the eggs. Fertilized eggs were left to wait for the chickens to brood, and unfertilized eggs were collected and stored in Mu Nan's space.

When Mu Nan finished washing the cabbage, he heard the sound of chickens clucking. Qin Huai came in with a chicken in one hand and two eggs in the other. When he saw him, he said, "Find a rope. I'll tie this one up first."

Mu Nan quickly went to look for a rope in the drawer. He also had a rope in his space, but it was a life-saving rope. It was a bit too long to tie up a chicken. Fortunately, he had ropes from previous express packages at home, so he cut a piece and handed it to Qin Huai: "Why are you tying it up? Do you want to eat chicken?"

Qin Huai said, "Just keep the hens and one rooster. There are three roosters among the chickens you bought. They were small before and didn't have much meat. Now that they are grown up, eat them as soon as possible. Uncastrated roosters are aggressive, eat a lot, and love to crow. They are quite noisy. In the past few days, I saw someone in the group asking who has chickens and was woken up by the crowing of chickens every morning."

Mu Nan was a little surprised: "Do roosters need to be castrated?" In his knowledge, only pigs need to be castrated.

Qin Huai saw his surprised expression and said with a smile: "The chickens you eat are basically castrated. Castrated chickens grow faster and have more tender meat. Uncastrated chickens taste worse in comparison, and it is not easy to grow meat even if you eat more. So raising hens is actually enough. If you want chicks, just keep a rooster."

Mu Nan bought chickens because after the earthquake in his previous life, although there were some shaking here, the houses were intact. He thought, he would raise chickens and grow vegetables at home, and when the government base was built in the future, he would move to the base with the chickens and vegetables. So he bought a few more roosters and hens, so that he could sell eggs or chicks to make a living in the future.

But now Qin Huai said there was no need to keep too much, so let's kill it and eat it. However, looking at the chicken struggling in Qin Huai's hands, Mu Nan didn't know where to start: "Do you know how to kill a chicken? Should chicken blood be collected like pig blood? Should we just chop off the chicken's head? I'd better check it online."

Qin Huai threw the tied chicken into the entrance and said, "Go boil a pot of water first. I'll go look at the guide."

Seeing Qin Huai holding the chicken and saying calmly that he was going to kill it, Mu Nan thought he had experience. It turns out that this is also something that requires looking up guides on the Internet.

As for the process of boiling water, Qin Huai looked up a few videos of killing chickens on the Internet. The one about twisting the chicken's head to its butt and cutting its neck seemed a bit difficult for a novice like him. He was still a little afraid of being bitten by the chicken, so it would be more direct to just chop off the chicken's head with a knife. He asked Mu Nan to get a clean bowl, and Qin Huai carried the chicken and the bowl back to his own place to avoid filling the room with a bloody smell.

Mu Nan followed behind, trying to watch from the sidelines. Qin Huai habitually treated him as a child: "Go and watch over the water in the pot."

Otherwise, he was afraid that Mu Nan would be affected by the bloody scene and have nightmares at night. Although it was just a chicken, he grew up in the city and may not have even been to a traditional vegetable market, so how could he have seen someone killing a chicken? When the chicken died and the internal organs were cleaned later, he would let Mu Nan watch and slowly get used to it.

How could a person who was numb even to the sight of a corpse be frightened by the sight of a chicken being killed? Mu Nan stepped forward and took the knife from Qin Huai's hand: "You hold the bowl to collect the blood, and I'll chop off the head."

Without waiting for Qin Huai to refuse, Mu Nan took out a thick glove from the space, grabbed the chicken's head with his gloved hand, and stretched its neck: "I'm going to chop it off, hold the chicken steady."

Qin Huai saw that Mu Nan really wanted to do it himself, so he said no more and held the chicken tightly in his hand: "You chop it."

As soon as he finished speaking, Mu Nan's knife fell. Not knowing how hard the neck of a live chicken would be, Mu Nan's knife was a little heavy. The knife almost cut into the chopping board. The chicken's head naturally fell off, and the blood spurted out as expected. Qin Huai quickly used a bowl to block it and lifted the whole chicken upside down to drain the blood.

Mu Nan picked up the chopped chicken head. There was still edible meat on the comb. There was also a piece of chicken neck attached to the chicken head. It would be a waste to throw it away. After picking up the chicken head, he squatted next to Qin Huai and watched the chicken being bled. "How do you eat this chicken blood? It should be edible, right? But I've eaten pig blood and duck blood, but I don't think I've ever eaten chicken blood."

Qin Huai was a little surprised at his boldness. He glanced at him and saw that he was really fine and was still thinking about eating. Then he said, "Chicken blood can be eaten, but let's not eat it."

Mu Nan was puzzled: "Why?" Why not eat it if it's edible? Although he himself had never experienced it, he had seen others dig tree roots and boil tree bark. It was a waste of any edible thing and it made people feel guilty.

Qin Huai: "Have you never heard people describe those who are overly excited as being like those who have been injected with chicken blood? This chicken blood is probably quite hot. It's already quite hot in summer now. If you eat something hot, you will suffer a lot." Especially since they are at the age when they are full of blood, it would be a bit embarrassing if they are even hotter.

Mu Nan didn't think too much about it. When he heard Qin Huai say that, he said, "It's OK as long as it's edible. Then make it first and put it in the space. You can eat it when the weather gets colder."

Boil the chicken in boiling water, pluck the hair, and clean the internal organs. It took most of the afternoon to finish all these. Qin Huai did not stew the rooster into soup. The chicken itself was a bit tough, and it would be even more unpalatable if stewed into soup. So he added a lot of spices and made a roast chicken. When the chicken was soft, he poured the chopped potatoes into it. When the potatoes were cooked and glutinous, they were ready to be served.

Looking at the pot that kept bubbling, Mu Nan sniffed the aroma and said, "It still tastes the same as before."

Qin Huai started cooking when he was very young. After his grandmother got old and her eyesight deteriorated, he and Qin Huai stopped letting her enter the kitchen, because it would be dangerous if she got burned. He wanted to learn how to cook, so that he could at least help Qin Huai, but Qin Huai never let him touch a knife or fire, so Qin Huai had to do the cooking by himself.

Being able to eat Qin Huai's cooking again in this life, Mu Nan couldn't help but sigh every time, this is the taste, the taste of home.