Chapter 15
After Qin Huai brought the things into the house, he disinfected them all first, and then let Mu Nan go forward to sort the items. Some damaged vegetables and fruits had to be picked out and eaten first, and the rest had to be stored in the space. There were also some meats that were bought, all of which were frozen products, and they had to wait until they thawed before being stored in the space. When they needed to be cooked in the future, they could be taken out and cooked directly without having to wait for them to thaw.
Now they can only buy frozen meat. If they live in the countryside, they may be able to buy fresh meat, after all, some families raise their own pigs. But in the city, even live poultry is subject to control. Now there is no condition to transport fresh meat. It is good enough to be able to buy frozen meat.
Mu Nan sorted the meat and put it in order, including pork belly, tenderloin, and ribs. He also took out some of the meat that he bought in a group purchase two days ago. He planned to make braised spare ribs, sweet and sour pork tenderloin, and stir-fried pork belly after the meat he bought today was thawed. He would make a large pot at a time and keep it ready. Now, while there is still time, he should make as many dishes as possible with strong flavors. When every household is in trouble in the future, he can only make dishes that are not so smelly, otherwise people will not even have food to eat, and the delicious food of your family with fish and meat will be too annoying.
While Mu Nan was sorting, Qin Huai cleaned the door. Because he had prepared a lot of disinfectants in advance, he also sprayed the entire corridor. After all, it was his home, so there was no need to save so much. As soon as he put down the disinfection tools, Mu Nan ran over with his mobile phone, looking at him with sparkling eyes: "Brother, do you want shrimp?"
Qin Huai glanced at the screen of his mobile phone. There was a group purchase in the WeChat group. This time, it was a shrimp group, live shrimp, but it was a bit expensive, nearly two hundred yuan per pound. However, this price was acceptable. It was too difficult to buy this kind of live meat now. If it weren't for the fact that the poisonous mycelium seemed to have no signs of survival in animals and could not withstand temperatures above 80 degrees, people would still have something to eat. The current price of goods might still go up.
But even if it is expensive, most people can understand it. Vegetable sellers are also people. It is already July and the temperature has risen. They run around outside every day wearing airtight protective clothing. Although they are working hard to make money for their own livelihoods, if there are no these people, it all depends on government dispatch. The government will not have so many people to work on the food supply of every city and province.
There is another reason for the high prices. Because no one dares to go out, many vegetables rot in the fields and no one picks them. Ripe fruits also rot in the mud and have nowhere to sell them. Some live poultry even starve to death due to lack of feed. Many people have nothing to eat, but more because of the overall environment, food cannot find a way to be sold and can only be watched as it rots and is wasted. Only a small part of it can be dragged out and transported to the city to be sold. Because of this, the prices become even more expensive. Therefore, shrimps that cost more than two hundred yuan per catty are even considered cheap in the eyes of some people.
Mu Nan saw that many people were in the group, so he wanted to buy some. He had shrimps in his space, but he didn't know how to cook them and the space couldn't store living things, so the shrimps he prepared were all ready-made and fried by others. But now he wanted to eat the shrimps cooked by Qin Huai. Qin Huai had his own secret recipe for cooking shrimps, maybe it was a taste he had been used to since he was a child. He felt that the shrimps outside were not as delicious as those cooked by Qin Huai.
Qin Huai threw his phone to him and said, "Buy it if you want to eat it. I'll make it for you."
Mu Nan turned on and unlocked the phone as if he was familiar with it. He had no money left in his account. All the purchases during this period were made with Qin Huai's money. Anyway, he didn't know if he could use up all the remaining money from Qin Huai in the end. He might as well use as much as possible. Otherwise, it would all become a pile of discarded numbers and that would be a huge loss.
"Then how much should we buy?"
Mu Nan noticed that everyone in the chain bought shrimps by the pound or two, but after removing the heads and shells, there was only a few pieces of meat in one or two pounds of shrimps. But if he bought too much, wouldn’t it be a bit of a waste?
Qin Huai said, "Buy ten kilograms."
This amount of money is not a small amount. If it weren't for Mu Nan's dreams, judging from the current situation, Qin Huai would not have predicted that there would be so many natural disasters in the future. Moreover, people's lives are gradually becoming normal. Many people who can get protective clothing have gone out. As can be seen from the increasing number of group purchases, people have found a new way of life in the haze filled with poisonous fungus mycelium and are adapting quickly.
And speaking of these few kilograms of shrimp, there are certainly some who cannot afford to eat them, but there are more who are reluctant to spend them, so even if they buy a lot, if they are seen, they will only say that young people do not know how to live, and they are really willing to spend money, and other than that, they will not cause any trouble. When the environment becomes worse and worse, when the money cannot be used as money, then it is time to keep a low profile and close the shop to live a low-key life.
With Qin Huai's words, Mu Nan placed the order without hesitation. He had obviously experienced the end of the world himself, but now he was looking for confidence in Qin Huai. It turned out that habitual dependence was an instinct that could not be changed no matter how long they were separated.
The first person bought a lot, and I don't know if the people who placed orders later were affected. The orders of four or five kilograms gradually increased, and their ten kilograms were not so conspicuous. Because they were live shrimp, they had to be sold as soon as possible. The chain that ended in the morning was delivered in the afternoon, but this one could not be delivered by volunteers, because the chain was a private vendor, so those who bought the things had to go downstairs to pick them up.
It was Qin Huai who went downstairs. As long as he was there, he would not let Mu Nan go out. Mu Nan's health was not as good as his since he was a child. He always had a fever and caught a cold several times every year. His resistance was too poor, so he did not dare to let Mu Nan go out and take risks. Although Mu Nan felt that he was quite healthy in recent years, especially since he had never been infected in his previous life, he did not argue with Qin Huai. Anyway, he had prepared protective clothing. Although he was just going downstairs and not going outside, he still insisted that Qin Huai wear protective clothing and protect himself tightly.
Qin Huai just opened the door, and the elevator stopped at their floor. Qin Huai hurriedly entered the elevator. There was another person in the elevator. Qin Huai found that the other person looked familiar, but they were wearing masks and he couldn't recognize his face, so he didn't say hello. Instead, the uncle turned his head and looked at Qin Huai several times, frowning and seemed a little confused: "Nan Nan?"
Qin Huai recognized the other person by the voice and said with a smile: "Uncle Zhong, right? I am Qin Huai, and I live next door to Uncle Mu."
Old Zhong was very surprised: "Qin Huai, you have been gone for several years. When did you come back?" He said that his height seemed a little wrong, but the direction he went when he went out and took the elevator was Mu Nan's house.
Most of them are old neighbors, and they know a lot about what happened in their family back then. After all, after Grandma Qin passed away, the neighbors took better care of the two children. But they didn't expect that the rich father of the other family would come and take the children away, leaving the child of the Mu family alone.
Qin Huai said: "I rushed back when the epidemic first started, and it has been about a month since I came back."
Old Zhong seemed to sigh: "It's good to be back. It's very chaotic abroad right now. It's still safe in China. Are you going to leave this time?"
Qin Huai shook his head: "I'm not leaving."
Old Zhong smiled when he heard this, "That's great. You two brothers have had a good relationship since childhood. It's better to have someone to accompany you than to be alone. Nan Nan hasn't had an easy time these years. The child lives alone and doesn't care about what he eats. He has damaged his stomach. He's alone in the clinic getting a painkiller in the middle of the night. How pitiful."
That night he just finished playing cards and was standing at the door talking to someone. He saw Mu Nan's face was extremely pale from the pain. He couldn't even sit still, squatting on the ground, with an IV drip, all alone and no one to accompany him. They had been neighbors with Old Mu for decades. They had lived in the same alley since the previous generation, and later they moved into the same building after the demolition and reconstruction. Old Mu passed away early, so those of them who were called uncles and aunts naturally took care of him as much as they could. So he went home and asked his wife to cook some porridge, and gave a big bucket to the child to take home. When he returned the porridge bucket the next day, the child also bought a big bag of snacks and said it was for his grandson. He was sensible and polite.
Qin Huai's smiling eyebrows gradually drooped, and his heart ached. He was silent for a while amid Lao Zhong's sigh, as if to promise himself, and whispered: "No, I will never leave him alone in the future."
The elevator quickly went down to the first floor. Many people had already come down to get their things. Some were taking the vegetables they had bought, and some were taking some rice, flour, grain and oil. Qin Huai went straight to the shrimp vendor and took the bag he had bought first. Seeing that no one had come down to the shrimp vendor at this moment, he asked again, "Do you have any extra?"
The vendor was probably afraid that some shrimps would die on the way, or something unexpected would happen, so he brought a lot more: "We have extra, how many more do you want?"
Qin Huai took a look and ordered one more portion. He weighed ten pounds and put them into a black bag, stuffed it into the cart he had taken down, and asked the vendor to pack another three pounds. He carried them in his hand. After paying the bill, he walked to Lao Zhong who was buying milk with the three pounds of shrimp in his hand and said, "Uncle Zhong, take these shrimps back with you."
These shrimps are not cheap, and the Zhong family was reluctant to buy them, so they naturally refused them.
Qin Huai said, "Nannan has been alone these years, and she has relied on the care of you uncles and aunts. Please don't be polite with a little gift. Now is a special period, and I can't treat you to a meal. Don't push it back and forth for such a small thing. I'll buy it."
Old Zhong hesitated for a moment, and the plastic bag was stuffed into Qin Huai's hand. His grandson had said that he wanted to eat shrimps these days, but no one knew what the future would be like, so he naturally saved as much as possible. He was reluctant to spend such expensive shrimps even if his grandson wanted to eat them. Seeing Qin Huai's unwillingness to be rejected, Old Zhong blushed and accepted it: "You kid, why are you so polite? Wait, wait until this is over, and ask your aunt to make you some pickles, the kind you two loved to eat when you were little."
Qin Huai smiled and said, "Thank you very much, Uncle Zhong. Uncle Zhong, you are busy. I will go upstairs first."
Old Zhong looked at Qin Huai's back. He was tall and big. Although his face could not be seen clearly because he was wearing protective clothing, Qin Huai had been handsome since he was young. If Grandma Qin and Old Mu were still alive, they would be so proud to have these two young men.
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