Gangzi quickly closed the bag, leaving only a small handful for the birds, and took the small bag without any hesitation. Although it was only enough for the group to eat for one meal, it was the greatest treasure for him and Yunling after searching for so long without finding anything good.
"Boss, luck!"
Yunling ignored his praise and looked around, wondering if there was more than one place to feed the birds. Just thinking about it made her restless.
As she had guessed, there were five places in the backyard where rice was placed to feed the birds, with the largest quantity of rice, half a sack, located near the pond.
Yunling thought that the rice was only found because the birds relied on it for food, so she shouldn't take it all away. She left a small bag for them to eat, and the rest, when put together, made up a bag that was more than half full.
While Gangzi wasn't looking, she reached her hand into the rice and secretly used her supernatural power to make the rice plump up, so that she could have a big bag full of rice – a great harvest indeed.
"Boss, today is a really good day. We can find dried seafood and rice. This is enough for our group to eat for two or three days. It's just a pity that there are no dishes you mentioned."
"As for food, it's simple. We can just pick some wild vegetables on the mountain. Let's also get a pot and head back now, so that everyone won't worry and think something has happened to us."
Okay.
The two walked towards the kitchen. There were three kitchens in the county government office: one was the dining hall for the six departments of officials, yamen runners and foreign guests; one was the kitchen for the county magistrate's family to eat on a daily basis; and the other was a small kitchen in the backyard for the women.
The stoves and boilers in the dining hall were so badly destroyed that they were barely visible. The kitchen was almost empty, probably looted by bandits or other civilians. As for the small kitchen, it was in a rather remote location, making it difficult for ordinary people to find, and they didn't have the time or inclination to look for it.
Therefore, Yunling and Gangzi successfully obtained the pot from the small kitchen. Gangzi also casually rummaged through the pot and discovered three large pieces of cured meat being smoked in the stove. Although the smoking time was insufficient and it even looked strange,
But to the two of them, this meat was not strange at all, but rather quite adorable—the cutest meat in the world!
The two packed up all their belongings and ran up the mountain, panting as they caught up with the group that was parked to the side.
Zhang was the most worried. After Yunling hadn't returned for a long time, she was unwilling to go any further. She even wanted to go look for Yunling, but Yun Shenghua persuaded her to stop, and the group waited on the side.
"Ling-jie, what... what... where did this thing come from?"
As Zhang spoke, she took the bundle from Yunling's hands. It was quite heavy, and she was very curious.
Tang Ling quickly came forward to help Gangzi unload the heavy sack of rice from his shoulder, as well as the iron pot and lid he was carrying.
"Young lady, have you gone to Qingcheng?"
The others also came forward one after another, surrounding Yunling and Gangzi, their eyes focused on the things they had brought back.
Yunling, with her hands slightly on her hips, replied:
"Gangzi and I originally had stomach problems, but our stomachs were so empty that we could only fart for half the day without pooping. In a fit of anger, we ran to Qingcheng."
"How is Qingcheng? Is it really as the vendor described?"
"It shouldn't be. If it were really an empty city, how could Sister Ling have brought back so many things?"
Yun Ling raised an eyebrow and said:
"Sister, Aunt, don't rush, let me explain slowly."
"This Qingcheng is indeed as the vendor said. The city is deserted, the streets are filthy and chaotic, and all the shops and houses have been demolished. Everything edible and usable has fallen into the hands of bandits."
"We went to the warehouse of the Lu family business and the county government office with only a sliver of hope and found these things. There aren't many, and they're only enough for two or three meals."
Zhang and Granny Yun had already squatted down to sort through the things they had brought back. They calculated that if they ate these things sparingly, they could last for two or three days.
The eldest brother of the Fan family laughed and said:
“Sister Ling is already very capable of finding so many things. We can eat them sparingly. If it’s really not enough, we can find something to eat in the mountains, just like we did in Pingcheng before.”
No one had any ideas, only that the road ahead would be difficult. According to the vendor, the people of Qingcheng were also fleeing to Yuecheng.
Although they may not have settled in Yuecheng, at least the direction they were heading towards Yuecheng was the same as theirs. Although they did not necessarily take all the mountain roads, at least some of them did choose to travel by mountain roads.
If that's the case, then they still need to eat. The dry rations they brought with them will eventually run out, so they'll have to eat wild vegetables, just like the people here. I don't know if they'll be able to compete with them then.
However, the Yun and Fan families were not born pessimists. They had experienced many hardships in Pingcheng, even eating tree bark from the mountains. Now that they had lost their homes, what was there to be afraid of?
We'll just live one day at a time, who knows, there'll always be a way out.
After everyone had figured things out, they quickly got to work on cooking. Since there was no rice threshing machine, they had to husk the rice by hand, which was a very time-consuming task. It was difficult to do it by hand alone, but fortunately, there were many of them.
If one person can peel one seed, then twenty people at the same time can peel twenty seeds, which is quite fast.
Aside from those who were husking rice, the rest of the people started gathering firewood to build stoves and processing dried seafood, while Yunling and Gangzi naturally went to the surrounding area to pick wild vegetables.
Before it got completely dark, the rice was steaming. Dried fish, dried shrimp, and wild vegetables were chopped into small pieces and added to the pot when the rice started to bubble. The pot was then covered and simmered again.
Fifteen minutes later, an extremely tempting seafood aroma wafted from the iron pot, a delicious taste I had never experienced before. The more I smelled it, the more convinced I felt that this would be a pot of heavenly delicacies.
Little White and Big Black had already clung to Zhang's feet, their eyes fixed on her, their noses twitching as they sniffed the delicious aroma wafting from the iron pot.
Looking at the two dogs, Zhang felt they were just like Yunling when she was little. Whenever she cooked, Yunling would always run to the kitchen and pester her for food. Those times were truly unforgettable, so she felt a lot of affection for Xiaobai and Dahei.
First, Zhang took out Xiaobai's and Dahei's bowls and scooped three spoonfuls of rice mixed with dried fish into each. Then, she drizzled a ring of soy sauce around the rice in the pot...
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