Chapter 36 Scallion Oil Noodles

The weather suddenly turned cold.

Just a few days ago, the lingering summer heat made Zhao Xuan and Lu An feel hot even while wearing short jackets, but the temperature dropped the next day, accompanied by drizzling autumn rain, causing their rice to wilt.

When Zhao Xuan and Lu An went to inspect the fields wearing straw hats, they remained silent as they looked at the thin, stunted rice plants. The Yao family had already finished harvesting their grain, and their figures were no longer seen on the field ridges. The birds were even more unrestrained, hovering in flocks above the rice paddies, waiting to harvest the ripe rice and eat the ears of grain.

The Yao family had only recently harvested their grain, and drying and hulling would take time, so Zhao Xuan hadn't seen them for a long time. Lu An said that the dry season was approaching, and the water level in the small irrigation canal the Yao family used for power generation would gradually decrease. After finishing their grain work, they would be expanding the canal to ensure electricity supply for the winter, so he probably wouldn't see them for a long time.

Zhao Xuan changed to a thicker quilt. The bamboo mat was still on. In this cool weather, it was most comfortable to be wrapped tightly in the quilt and sleep on the mat. Lately, there was no heavy work to do, so Zhao Xuan was always lazy. Lu An, on the other hand, was diligent. She got up early every day and went out, and she could also cook all the meals for the day. She was incredibly virtuous.

Lu An left early again that day. The meal was already cooked, and the chickens and pigs had been fed. His big tricycle was nowhere to be seen in the yard. It was assumed that he had gone out with 460, probably to check what they could find at the animal traps.

For the past six months, the two animal traps have yielded no results, but Lu An has been very patient. Whenever he has free time, he takes his dog into the mountains. It's unclear whether he trusts his own judgment or places too much faith in fate.

The animal traps yielded no results, but while checking them, they occasionally brought back a few pheasants and ducks to give the family of three a change of pace.

There are already more than a dozen chickens in the pen, so there's no shortage of eggs, and occasionally they can even kill a chicken for a treat.

During this period, Zhao Xuan ate pork, chicken, and wild duck meat in rotation, which made him feel that his face had become rounder.

After Lu An and 460 left, the small house became unusually quiet. Zhao Xuan walked around and decided to wash a basin of clothes. There was a washing machine that Lu An had brought back, an old-fashioned front-loading washing machine that didn't even have a lid-opening sensor. The machine would still run even if the lid was open. It was usually placed in the bathroom on the first floor, and the water had to be drawn from the well at the edge of the village. The water was drained locally, flowing out through the bathroom drainpipe.

Zhao Xuan was reluctant to use the washing machine because the washing process required manually adding water, which meant that only this front-loading washing machine without a lid sensor was suitable. However, the washing machine was too old. Every time she used it, the drum was louder than the cough of a 30-year-old smoker, and it looked like it might break down at any moment. Zhao Xuan only dared to use it to wash bedding and winter clothes that required a lot of force. She usually washed some small and thin clothes herself, usually under the big willow tree. Sometimes she would ask Lu An to help, since men are stronger and the clothes they washed were especially clean.

After collecting the dirty clothes into a basin, Zhao Xuan took half a bag of laundry detergent and a washboard and headed towards the stream.

Before leaving home, she took out the bag of dried noodles that the Yao family had given her. She didn't plan to cook lunch because she wasn't sure when Lu An would be back. She planned to make a simple and quick scallion oil noodle dish after Lu An returned.

The scallion oil was fried a few days ago and kept in the refrigerator so I can take it out whenever I want.

Carrying the basin, I slowly walked to the big willow tree. The willow tree was still visibly green, but the water felt a bit cold to the touch. It was spring water flowing from the mountains, and it would feel very cool to the touch in the summer. It seems that I should use a washing machine in a while, or I will have to boil water to wash clothes.

There were no facilities at the camp, so she could only use the nearby river water to wash her clothes. In winter, Zhao Xuan's fingers were covered with chilblains, each one like a small red radish, making it difficult to even bend. Touching hot water made them even more itchy and uncomfortable. This winter, she was determined not to let the chilblains recur and to take good care of them.

She continued washing the clothes at a leisurely pace, rubbing them as she casually looked up at the scenery in the distance—not far away, there was a patch of wild chives growing vigorously, which she planned to turn back to make as a side dish for lunch.

Lu An and her two sets of clothes were thin and light, so she quickly washed them, rinsed them clean in the stream, wrung out the water, threw the clean clothes into a basin, and Zhao Xuan jumped into the wasteland in front of them to pick chives.

Chives are something that grows back after being harvested, and they have a long lifespan. Last year, I cut several bunches of chives here, and this year, they're already growing into a large, lush green patch again.

Zhao Xuan doesn't grow chives himself. Like taro, he just picks wild ones whenever he sees them and wants to eat them.

Zhao Xuan tied a bundle of chives to a dry vine and hung it on his wrist. He then returned to the big willow tree, picked up the basin, and headed home.

The road she was walking on was the main road that ran through the village. It wasn't a very wide road, just wide enough for a large three-wheeled vehicle to pass through. It was too narrow for a small car to pass through. This road divided the village into two halves. Going uphill, you would reach the rice paddies. There, a small mountain path connected this village with Xiaxi Village. If you continued uphill along this mountain path, you would reach Taiping Town.

Zhao Xuan has always had excellent hearing. When she heard the sound of wheels rolling over pebbles on the path, she knew immediately that it was coming from the direction of Xiaxi Village behind her.

She immediately slowed her pace, intending to wait for Lu An. She would carry the basin while Lu An carried her, so she wouldn't have to walk home.

Zhao Xuan is someone who either advances or regresses. The comfortable mountain life of the past year has gradually worn down her vigilance. It wasn't until the sound of the bicycle was very close that she suddenly realized: it wasn't the sound of a tricycle, but the sound of a two-wheeled bicycle!

The next second, she wondered why the dog had come over at this time?

In the blink of an eye, just a few seconds later, Zhao Xuan realized something was wrong and turned around sharply to look. He saw a man appear at the corner of the path.

A tall, muscular, unfamiliar man.

A familiar sense of fear washed over her. It was too late to run away, but Zhao Xuan always wanted to fight against fate. She threw down the heavy basin and chives and started running home!

"Hey—" came the man's slightly deep voice from behind. He probably hadn't expected Zhao Xuan to run away so decisively, and the tune he was about to start stopped halfway. He then shouted, "Wait! I'm a good person!"

Zhao Xuan ran even faster, as if a ghost was chasing him.

Helpless, the man pedaled his wheel-less bicycle and chased after her. He caught up with Zhao Xuan in no time, then grabbed her by the shoulder.

Unable to break free, Zhao Xuan turned back, his face full of pleading, looking like an innocent white rabbit: "Big brother, please let me go..."

Seeing that she had given up resisting, the man loosened his grip and was about to ask her a question when he realized that this short woman was a wicked person. The next second, her face changed and she suddenly spat a huge mouthful of saliva at herself!

The man yelled and let go when saliva got into his eyes.

Which man who survived the apocalypse didn't have some kind of martial arts skill? It was impossible for her to fight them bare-handed. The moment she raised her leg, they knew where she was going to kick. This unexpected and disgusting move was something many people wouldn't expect. It could buy her a chance to survive, but it could also anger the other party and make her die even faster.

Zhao Xuan had already seen the person's face clearly when she raised her head to spit, but her mouth was faster than her brain, and by the time she tried to stop, the spit had already flown out.

"ah!"

—The man called out, and Zhao Xuan called out as well.

"Old Dao?!" Zhao Xuan felt like he was dreaming.

Beside the small ditch under the same big willow tree, Zhao Xuan was washing his mud-covered clothes, while Lao Dao was washing his eyes.

Old Dao asked, "Who did you learn this lousy move from?"

"Sister Lu, Sister Lu also taught me that if I am violated by someone, I should poop, which can also save myself."

"Who is Sister Lu?"

"It's that older sister who used to live next door to me, the one who owned a dog, a yellow mongrel."

"Oh." Lao Dao nodded knowingly, but Zhao Xuan could clearly see that he had no recollection of who Sister Lu was.

She looked the man up and down.

Old Knife, the former manager of that camp, a retired special police officer, was a big, skilled man with a buzz cut and a scar behind his ear that pulled at the corner of his mouth, making him look particularly fierce when he spoke. Zhao Xuan remembered him as very strong, riding a cool motorcycle. He was aloof and always in a hurry, but he was a good person.

Ah, he said earlier that he is a good person.

And now… Zhao Xuan glanced at the much thinner and more weathered Old Dao, then looked at the pitiful bicycle down the slope. The bicycle didn’t even have a leather rim anymore, and it was covered in rust. It was like a cannon being replaced by a shotgun.

He was dressed in a drab gray leather jacket, carrying a canvas crossbody bag. He had very little luggage, just a small bundle on the back of his bicycle, with an axe hanging on the left and a kukri on the right. If it weren't for recognizing him from Old Knife's still-rounded, sleek buzz cut, Zhao Xuan would have run away even if his leg was broken, just by looking at that axe and that knife.

After one of them finished washing his clothes and the other finished washing his eyes, they prepared to go home.

Old Dao glanced at Zhao Xuan, who was carrying a basin, and patted the back seat of his bicycle: "Sit on my bundle? I'll give you a ride?"

Zhao Xuan refused, saying that those bicycles without rubber rims would shake their heads off once they started moving.

So the two of them slowly walked towards Zhao Xuan's house.

Zhao Xuan and Lao Dao weren't actually very familiar with each other. Apart from the fact that Lao Dao had indeed saved her life, they hadn't exchanged more than ten sentences with each other. After the initial excitement of recognizing each other, the two became somewhat awkward again.

After a moment of silence, Old Knife asked, "When did you leave the camp and settle here?"

"We came out six months after you left. There wasn't much food left in that camp, and we wouldn't have survived long if we had stayed any longer. What about you?"

"I'm still looking for my daughter!" Old Dao's voice was loud and unrestrained, revealing no emotion. "I've been wandering around outside, then I got into these mountains and got lost. I haven't been out for days. I finally saw a village and wanted to come in to see if there were any living people here, to ask for directions."

“Hmm, we also got lost here for a long time when we first arrived. There are many forests here, and the mountains are high and dense, so it’s easy to get lost,” she said, glancing at the dirty-looking Old Knife. “Are you hungry? Come to my house and have a good meal first.”

My home isn't far away. If I hadn't run into Lao Dao, I would have found this place very quickly after entering the village on my own.

Pushing open the large iron gate, Zhao Xuan pointed to the living room and said, "You sit down first, I'll go cook!"

A small tricycle was already parked in the small courtyard, and there was another empty space next to it, presumably where another tricycle was usually parked. Two bamboo poles were also propped up in the courtyard, with several strings of cured meat and a dried chicken hanging high on them. Several strings of snow-white garlic were also hanging on the window next to the side, neatly arranged like curtains.

The small room that Zhao Xuan entered was clearly the kitchen. Lao Dao parked the car and was about to walk into the hall when he heard Zhao Xuan call out, "I'm going to pick some vegetables from the garden. Wait a minute." As she spoke, he saw the girl carrying a large basket hurriedly walk out of the courtyard gate.

Left alone, Lao Dao suddenly hesitated. He had been wandering alone for so many years, meeting all sorts of people. In this post-apocalyptic world, no one was stupid. This was the first time he had met someone who would leave him a home and go out alone.

Just because he saved his life? He's saved far too many people; if Zhao Xuan hadn't mentioned this past event, he would have forgotten about it long ago.

Passing through the tidy courtyard, the first-floor hall was also spotless. The floor was dust-free, and the furniture was polished to a shine. A simple square table sat beside four long benches. Against one wall was a stainless steel shelf, its shelves displaying colorful food in attractive glass jars. Next to the shelf were two refrigerators, one a cabinet and the other a standing refrigerator. In the bathroom, there was a washing machine.

On the other wall of the hall hung a perpetual calendar, which was lit up and displayed the date and time. Below the calendar, two straw hats hung on the wall, and below them were two pairs of rain boots, one large and one small. Next to them stood several farm tools.

Their little home was kept in perfect order; it was not only clean and tidy, but also had electricity.

Was it that handsome young man named Lu An who turned on the power? Old Dao vaguely remembered his appearance. He was taller than himself and very thin, but even though he was so thin that he looked unrecognizable, you could still tell that he was very good-looking. He didn't talk much, but he was very diligent in his work and could fix electrical appliances.

It was because of this skill that the camp reluctantly allowed him to come in with Zhao Xuan. He was smart, and later he even learned to repair cars at the camp. In Lao Dao's memory, Zhao Xuan was very young and ugly. When he rescued her, whose face was covered in blood, from the three Yu brothers, he thought the girl was ugly. If Zhao Xuan hadn't called out his name today, he wouldn't have believed that Zhao Xuan, whom he was certain wouldn't survive, could reappear in front of him so vibrantly.

This little girl still has messy short hair, her face is a bit rounder, and her eyes are bright and sparkling. Her eyes are a light brown color, which is rare among Asians. Even though she wears unfashionable printed clothes and her hair is not neat because she cut it herself, her watery eyes make her look like a little white flower in spring, swaying gently, both soft and resilient.

Thinking of this, Lao Dao subconsciously touched his face, which was covered in fine lines, and realized that he had aged a lot.

He didn't go up to the second floor without permission, but sat down on the bench and waited quietly for Zhao Xuan to return.

—And all of this was witnessed by Lu An upon his return.

Lu An's tricycle had broken down on the road, and he was coming back to get his repair tools. 460 followed him all the way back; dogs have a keen sense of smell, and even from a distance, it warily tugged at its owner's trouser leg.

The man and his dog walked home silently. Looking through the cracked gate, he saw a strange man in his forties sitting in the living room. The gap was too small for him to see the man's face, nor did he see Zhao Xuan or hear her voice.

Lu An felt his blood run cold.

His face instantly turned terrifying. He glanced at 460. The two had developed a good understanding through many hunts. 460 also glanced back at him, silently revealing a set of white teeth.

If this scenario were placed in a horror movie, it would undoubtedly be that a vengeful ghost suddenly appeared in the home of the woman, and the woman herself disappeared without a trace.

After the apocalypse, there will be a group of "ghosts" who do not engage in production. They live by robbing, attacking any house they fancy, killing everyone inside, eating and using up all the supplies, and then moving on to the next house. The camp where he and Zhao Xuan used to live often traded with these people.

Old Dao, lost in thought in the hall, was suddenly struck by a gust of wind. He instinctively turned his head away, and a sharp axe grazed past his ear. He turned back, threw a punch, and engaged the newcomer in combat.

Old Dao has been traveling alone for many years, and various fighting skills have become second nature to him. Considering that this is Zhao Xuan's home, he held back some of his strength, but he still managed to fight the newcomer to a standstill.

Lu An's fighting skills were all taught by Lao Dao. He was young and strong, but he still couldn't beat the experienced ones. However, he had a dog.

—460, baring its snow-white teeth, bit down hard on Old Knife's calf, using all of its life's cultivation.

When Zhao Xuan returned home, he saw a mess on the ground. The table was overturned, the chair was broken, and Lu An was being pinned to the ground by Lao Dao, who was twisting his arm behind his back, while 460 was biting his leg tightly.

Both men let out screams of extreme pain.

Zhao Xuan dropped his vegetable basket in shock and let out a scream: "What are you doing?!"

...

Time quickly passed to evening. As the sun set, the air gradually became damp and cool. Birds on their way home uttered long, deep cries that sounded somewhat mournful.

In the dimly lit kitchen, the bright red flames licked the bottom of the pot, quickly bringing the water inside to a boil.

Zhao Xuan was busy alone in the kitchen.

Cook all the dried noodles in water until done, then rinse them in cold water. Add scallion oil and soy sauce. The scallion oil is made with lard and is very fragrant when mixed. Finally, add shredded carrots, cucumbers, and chopped scallions. Sprinkle with a handful of crispy fried pork cracklings. A simple bowl of scallion oil noodles is ready.

She washed the chives she had just picked at noon and chopped them into small pieces. The chives were a bit old at this time, and if cooked, they would be as tough as hay. Zhao Xuan blanched the chives until they were half-cooked, sprinkled them with some chili powder and sesame oil, and then tossed them in a cold salad. Finally, she added some sugar to enhance the flavor, making a cold chive salad.

The hall was packed with people: the Yao family of three, Lao Dao, Lu An, and a dog.

Lu An's arm has been reattached, Zhang Xiaohe is applying medicine to Lao Dao's calf, and the dog is leaning against 460, pinching 460's soft ears.

Yao Yuan had just finished repairing the bench with one leg broken, and when he saw Zhao Xuan come in, he quickly took the large bowl of noodles from him.

It was already evening, but everyone hadn't even had lunch, so they must all be starving.

Zhao Xuan called to the dog, "Come on, let me serve you a bowl first." Then he served noodles to everyone in turn.

The bowl was a large one that Zhao Xuan had specially chosen, piled high with noodles, the pale yellow noodles coated in a thick, bright red sauce. Garnished with radish, cucumber, and scallions, it looked even more delicious and tempting. If you liked chives, you could add a generous spoonful on top; the vibrant green chives coated in deep red chili powder looked incredibly appetizing.

The noodles are springy and chewy, the shredded radish and cucumber are refreshing, and most importantly, the bits of pork lard hidden in the sauce are crispy and fragrant.

Nothing can stop people's pursuit of delicious food. For a moment, the hall was silent except for the sound of everyone slurping their noodles.

A bowl of dried noodles that Zhao Xuan had estimated could last for many meals was eaten up in one sitting, and Zhao Xuan's heart felt like it was bleeding.

Old Knife was badly injured, but that didn't stop him from eating several kilograms of noodles. Even the usually shy dog ​​sat next to 460 with a big bowl in his arms, his mouth covered in sauce, while 460's eyes were practically glued to his bowl.

After finishing his meal, Old Dao wiped his mouth before asking, "Zhao Xuan, is your stapler alright?"

Zhao Xuan was stunned for a moment before realizing that Lao Dao was talking about 460. She shook her head: "It doesn't have rabies, and... it doesn't eat feces, so its mouth shouldn't be too dirty."

With a "pfft," Lu An, who could only eat with his left hand, suddenly burst out laughing while holding noodles in his mouth. He seemed to be laughing at the conversation between Lao Dao and Zhao Xuan, and also at the completely unnecessary fight between him and Lao Dao earlier.

When Lao Dao, who had suffered the most physical and mental damage today, saw him laugh, he suddenly burst into a loud and energetic laugh as well.

Then, for some reason, everyone felt that what was happening today was one of the most ridiculous things in the post-apocalyptic world, and they couldn't help but laugh out loud.

The lamplight shone even more dimly in the slightly chilly evening. The fruit ripened, the leaves turned yellow, and autumn arrived. The birds migrating north couldn't find their way home, but they found a warm nest and settled down for the time being.