Chapter 30 Sausage and Potato Rice
"Are you guys going to do this?"
Thinking of what Jiang Bin and the others had just told her when they came back, Jiang Qian's anger level rose sharply.
They had clearly agreed to only search the outskirts of town, and their family wasn't starving yet, so why take the risk? Even though she knew that the decision to go to the town center couldn't have been made by Jiang Dong alone, she still couldn't help but get angry.
The other villagers around were also surprised when they heard Jiang Qian's voice, and hurriedly looked at the people who had returned from their home.
"Did you go to the town center?"
"What are you doing over there? Didn't you say you were just going to look around the periphery?"
"You naughty kid, I'll beat you up!"
"How dangerous is it in there? Binzi and the others almost didn't make it back home by car, and you only have two legs. Aren't you courting death?"
"Where's Hong Bing? I want to ask him. Didn't we agree not to go into the town? What on earth is he, the leader of the team, thinking?"
Jiang Dong was unloading the things he had brought back from the shopping cart. When he realized that everyone had misunderstood him, he quickly explained, "No, we didn't go into the town. We only went to the outskirts of the town."
Then, Jiang Dong talked about his trip out this time.
Their town is just a small town. Most of the people doing business are villagers from the town and nearby villages. There are very few outsiders. The main customers are residents of the town and nearby villages.
So although there are many supermarkets and shops in the town, most of them are small businesses run by families.
Compared to the bustling town center, business in the outskirts of town isn't exactly booming. Most shops are converted from the first floor of their own homes. With no rent and low costs, they can still survive even in the small town.
When Jiang Dong and his friends went to the outskirts of the town, the only places they could find supplies were these small shops.
But Jiang Hongbing and his men knocked on the doors of three shops, but returned empty-handed.
The owners of two stores were still there, but they were unwilling to exchange supplies with them. In the last supermarket, the owner and his wife had turned into zombies, and the only one left was the owner's youngest son, who was still in the eighth grade of junior high school.
Jiang Hongbing and his team helped deal with the zombies and then left. Looking at the remaining items in the store, they couldn't bring themselves to steal food from a teenager.
They could only continue searching along the outskirts of the town, and fortunately they finally found it.
"Do you still remember Meiyuan Supermarket?" Jiang Dong asked, "The one that was very popular for a while but gradually declined after the chain supermarket opened in the town center?"
As soon as he mentioned Jiang Qian, he remembered, "Where did you go?"
Meiyuan Supermarket was indeed very popular in the town for a while. At that time, the new campuses of the town’s primary and secondary schools were built in the south of the town. Many people thought that the town’s old commercial street would be abandoned, so they went to the south of the town to build and buy houses and open shops. The owner of Meiyuan Supermarket was one of them.
However, the town's south didn't prosper. Instead, it became even more desolate and remote due to the outflow of the town's population. Furthermore, two new chain supermarkets opened in the town center, and Meiyuan Supermarket, due to its remote location, saw fewer and fewer customers.
Although Meiyuan Supermarket has been open for several years, fewer and fewer people know about it. Except for those who live nearby, most people don't even think of it when shopping.
"Meiyuan is indeed quite large. Did you get all this from Meiyuan?"
"Yeah." Jiang Dong nodded. "In order not to attract attention, we entered the supermarket from the back door. There was no one in the supermarket. There was still a lot of stock, but we couldn't take much, so we could only look for things that were light and small in size."
"There's still a lot of stuff in the supermarket. We're planning to go back before it gets dark. It looks like someone went rummaging through the supermarket before. When we went in, we saw a broken window on the second floor. If we don't grab enough this time, we don't know how much will be left next time we go!"
After the people who came back piled all the things together, Jiang Hongbing found a box of bread and distributed it to the people who had just left to replenish their energy.
"The town center is very dangerous right now, so let's not go there. Everyone, follow me to the Zhennan Supermarket. We'll drive this time and try to bring back as much stuff as possible," Jiang Hongbing said. "Anyone who doesn't want to go can stay. We'll divide these things up when we get back."
However, none of the people who had just gone out wanted to stay. They all knew that this was the last chance to search for supplies before leaving. Someone had explored the road before, so it was relatively safe, so they didn't want to miss it.
They quickly ate the bread, sat down and rested for fifteen minutes, and then crossed the barbed wire again.
What followed was another long wait, until the sun set and someone was seen returning on the distant road.
But those who were waiting found that there were far fewer people than when they went out.
The people who came back were surrounded as soon as they passed the barbed wire.
"Xiao Qi, why are you back? Where's your uncle?"
"Da Kuan, where's my Binzi? Didn't he drive away with you guys? Why hasn't the car come back, and why hasn't he come back yet?"
A middle-aged woman pulled her brother's arm and said, "Brother, why hasn't my son Gangzi come back? He won't..."
As the woman spoke, her eyes became moist. The person being pulled didn't have time to put down the things he was carrying and hurried to explain.
"Don't panic, no, nothing, everything is fine."
"Don't worry, they just separated from us halfway and went to look for something else. They will be back soon."
Then he turned to the crowd that had gathered around him and said, "Everyone is fine. No one is missing. Don't worry, don't worry."
But no matter how much assurances those who return make, those who should worry will still worry.
Jiang Dong was also one of those who did not return.
Huang Liping looked at the gradually darkening sky and became increasingly anxious. "This kid has everything at home, so why is he still following me to look for something?"
Jiang Weimin: "If I had known this, I would have followed him. I would have brought him back even if I had to."
Originally, Jiang Weimin wanted to go with them the second time, but Jiang Dong was afraid that more zombies would surround the house and the women and children would be in danger, so he forced Jiang Weimin, the driver, to stay and told them to drive away if anything happened.
Jiang Qian was also feeling uneasy, but she could only comfort her parents.
"Dad, Mom, it's okay. So many people have gone there. Uncle Hongbing hasn't come back, so he must have gone with them. With him here, nothing will happen."
After saying that, he looked at Ren Ru who was beside him with a worried look on her face, "Don't worry, they are driving there, they should be safe."
Ren Ru nodded, but her expression didn't soften at all.
Fortunately, they didn't have to wait too long. When the sky was completely dark, bright headlights shone from the road not far away. The car came back, followed by a group of people pushing shopping carts.
After they had all passed the barbed wire, the gatekeeper blocked the fence again. Only then did everyone feel relieved and went to their families to complain.
"Where have you been? Why are you back now?"
"You old fool, don't you know your family will be worried about you?"
"What good stuff is there that's worth a special trip like this?"
Of course Jiang Dong could not escape the scolding. He listened obediently and then took the two buckets off his cart.
Jiang Qian sniffed, her eyes brightening at the peculiar aroma. "Are you guys going to do this?"
Jiang Dong nodded and said proudly, "Originally, it was just Uncle Hongbing who wanted to get some diesel. He wanted to use the village engine connected to the water pump to pump out the water under the bridge at night so that he could go out and look for people tomorrow. I thought our car was big and consumed a lot of fuel, so we should go along and get some gasoline, so we all went together."
"I was just looking for some nearby smugglers to see if they had any oil in stock, but I didn't expect there were still people at the gas station to the south. They were two employees on the night shift, and they were trapped in the break room by zombies wandering around. We helped take care of those zombies, and as a thank you, they gave us some gas."
"It's a good thing those zombies are there, otherwise I don't know if this gas station can be saved. It might have been drained by passers-by long ago." Jiang Dong put the oil barrels away. "With these two barrels, we shouldn't have any problems with supplies in the short term."
The others hadn't realized they'd gone out with them to get gasoline, but now that they knew, they felt it was worth the extra trip. Only Jiang Weimin still regretted not following them, thinking they might have brought back two more barrels of gasoline.
Their car is big and looks impressive, but it consumes much more fuel than other people's small cars.
The family had not been waiting for long for the gasoline when they saw people distributing things outside and quickly got out of the car.
Gasoline is important, and supplies are also important.
The second time we went to the supermarket, there were more people, and we added another cart. We brought back more things, and the variety was more complete.
In addition to common food and grain, they also brought a lot of tools this time, such as kitchen knives, scissors, fruit knives, and even a large bone-cutting knife used by supermarket fresh food area staff.
The items were all in quantity and were divided equally according to the number of people going out each time, so there wasn't any trouble.
Huang Liping looked at the full shopping cart, sorted the items one by one, and then put them in the cabinet on the cart.
"With so much food, if we save a little, it will be enough for our whole family to eat for ten days to half a month." The family finally had some income again, and it was no longer all spending. The wrinkles on Huang Liping's face became less.
Thinking that her family had not yet eaten dinner, she took out a box from the shopping cart beside her and gave each of them a piece of chocolate.
"Eat first. I'll make you some sausage stewed rice tonight."
This time when we went to the town, the cold meat in the supermarket freezer had already gone bad due to the power outage, but the pile of sausages on the shelf next to it were still edible, so they brought them all back and gave dozens to each family.
The others in the car felt like drooling instantly.
Ever since they went up the mountain and ate all the frozen meat and dumplings at home, they haven't tasted meat since.
Jiang Qian licked her lips and said, "Mom, I remember we also had potatoes this time. Let's stew them together."
"Okay." Huang Liping, who had made some money, was generous for once. "I'll fry an egg for each of you, okay?"
"Great," Jiang Dong said, pressing forward. "How about we make some cold-mixed eggs tonight?"
The spoiled eggs in the supermarket were placed together with the eggs. When they went to the supermarket for the second time, they didn't look carefully and took them out together with the eggs.
When I divided it into equal parts, I found out that it was a mutated egg.
Transformed eggs are really delicious, but they are difficult to eat. If you don’t soak them in vinegar, the alkaline nature of the eggs is too strong and will hurt your stomach.
Under normal circumstances, everyone might scramble for this transformed egg, but now, when there is not enough food, who would be willing to eat this troublesome thing?
Even if there's a row of vinegar on the supermarket shelf, no one thinks to grab it. They think they'd rather grab a couple of packets of salt than just the vinegar.
So, in the end, no one wanted the two pieces of spoiled eggs mixed in with the eggs, so Jiang Dong took them all back home.
The most leftover items in their store were oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.
【Author’s words】
I don’t know if you have seen what the author said in the revisions I made yesterday, so I will say it again.
There is no ranking list this week, but the chapter will still be updated every other day. The next chapter will be updated the day after tomorrow, which is the 11th.
The red envelopes for Chapter 29 have been sent out! Everyone, please check.
Thank you for your support. I will continue to work hard.
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