Chapter 9 Salt and Food (My Favorite)
The house now has electricity and water.
I made myself a bowl of noodles, and after eating, I took a hot shower.
She nestled on the soft sofa, wearing her newly bought nightgown.
I opened the Pinduoduo app and began my second, incredibly satisfying online shopping spree.
Today's main focus is on stocking up on delicious food.
Since I started preparing for the apocalypse, the thing I've wanted to do most is stock up on all sorts of delicious food online.
However, fearing insufficient funds, I prioritized stockpiling essential items such as housing construction, winter clothing, and food.
The remaining money can be spent however you like.
Items that are heavy and inconvenient to transport are not within my purchase scope; I plan to go to the store to buy them when I have some free time.
The quantity of food purchased depends on its shelf life.
I also try to choose foods with a longer shelf life among similar foods.
I also told the seller to send me the freshest product with the best shelf life, and that I would return it if it was more than halfway past its expiration date.
Some merchants readily agreed because they saw that I was buying in large quantities.
However, some vendors said they couldn't deliver the latest food, so I gave up buying from those stores.
The final list of purchased items is as follows:
Food seasonings:
200 bags of hot pot base from different brands, shelf life 1-2 years; 100 bags of Cao's extra spicy hot pot base;
Two boxes of chicken bouillon, totaling 200 bags, with a shelf life of 20 months; 300 bags of different brands of Thirteen Spices, with a shelf life of 2-3 years;
50 bottles each of cumin powder, pepper powder, and Sichuan peppercorn powder, shelf life of two years; 200 bottles of different brands of soybean paste, shelf life of two years;
Spices such as star anise, cinnamon, and bay leaves, 30 jin each; 200 bags of various flavored rice-mixing sauces and chili sauces; 80 jin of fermented black beans (shelf life 3 years); 500 bags of baking powder, totaling 12,000 kilograms.
Dried vegetables:
50 jin of dried gongcai (a type of vegetable), 100 jin of dried kelp, 50 jin of dried black fungus, 100 jin of dried bean curd sticks, 100 jin of dried shiitake mushrooms, 50 jin of dried bean curd sheets, and 150 jin of various types of dried chili peppers, totaling 9500 kilograms.
semi-finished products such as flour
100 jin each of dried thin vermicelli and wide vermicelli, 50 jin each of dried beef tendon noodles and rice noodles, 100 bags of Longkou vermicelli, and 50 jin of mung bean sheets.
100 catties of branded wide and thin noodles (I don't particularly like them, but they're convenient), 10 boxes of instant noodles (cheap version without seasoning, 20 yuan per box, 10 yuan per box), totaling 3200 yuan.
Fast food staples
200 bags of rice noodles of different brands, 50 bags of potato noodles, 200 tubs of hot and sour noodles of different brands, 100 bags of Xinjiang fried rice noodles, 200 bags of instant noodles of different flavors, 50 bags of Korean Shin Ramyun, and 200 bags of domestic spicy chicken noodles. Since the items were all purchased from the same shop, the owner gave them a box of ham sausages as a gift and rounded down the price, totaling 6000 yuan.
Snacks
10 boxes of different types of ham sausages (super delicious brands, no off-brands), 300 Xiangbalao braised eggs, 20 boxes of different types of spicy strips, 50 bags of Lay's potato chips (I don't really like them, just a little is fine), 10 boxes of Xiaodangjia instant noodles, 20 boxes of various candies (for emergencies), 1 box of small biscuits (I don't like them), 1 box of compressed biscuits, and 200 braised chicken feet and drumsticks, totaling 4100.
Beverages
100 jin each of jasmine tea, black tea, and Longjing tea; 50 pieces of ordinary tea cakes; 50 jin of small green tangerines (tea is expensive, but it's a scarce commodity in the apocalypse. It can be used to exchange for supplies when forced to socialize; otherwise, keep it for personal consumption). Total: 10,000.
800 packets of milk tea powder, 100 cans of honey grapefruit tea concentrate, 100 cans of passion fruit tea concentrate, 500 sachets of Nestlé coffee, 100 packets of 500g milk powder, and 50 catties of coffee beans (relatively expensive), totaling 7800.
Tin canned goods (extremely long shelf life)
500 boxes of luncheon meat, 300 boxes of canned fish, 100 boxes of canned braised pork belly, 100 boxes of canned braised pork belly with preserved mustard greens, 30 boxes of canned black glutinous rice, and 300 boxes of canned tuna in oil, totaling 13,500.
Cured meat and sausages (long shelf life)
Sumi must have stocked up on plenty of snacks, but probably not much meat.
Since she wasn't a picky eater, we decided to buy two portions of preserved meat, one for each of us.
Because I was buying a lot, I looked up some tips and found the original manufacturer's shop. After negotiating the price, I bought in bulk.
500 jin of cured pork, 300 jin of Cantonese sausage, 200 cured chickens (not home-raised chickens, but farm-raised chickens), 50 cured pig trotters, 100 jin of cured pork ribs, 100 jin of various salted dried fish, and 5 whole smoked pig legs, totaling 30,000 jin.
Including Sumi's share, the total is 60,000.
I've almost finished stocking up on food online.
I just need to wait patiently for all the goods to arrive, and thinking about this, I fell asleep peacefully.
On May 25th, I got up early, washed up, and prepared to head to the county town. While the iron was hot, I bought the seasonings and food that I hadn't ordered online.
When we arrived in the county town, we ate two large meat buns and a bowl of wontons. We were so full that we dared not bend over when we walked.
I drove the small truck to the entrance of the largest supermarket in the county, and then, with my pregnant belly, I started shopping.
Today's important tasks are oil and salt.
Arriving at the oil section, I had enough money for the time being, so I didn't need to save money on the oil.
I will definitely choose the oil with the longest shelf life; preservatives and additives pose no threat to me at this point.
We finally settled on oil with a two-year shelf life, priced at 85 per barrel, and planned to buy 50 barrels.
Then I went to the condiment section, where I planned to buy a lot of salt.
Logically speaking, salt shouldn't expire and can be eaten for a long time, but who knows how long the apocalypse will last.
If the environment doesn't improve after many years, I'll try making my own pickled vegetables and cured meat to preserve food.
I also want to make soy sauce and fermented soybean paste, so the more salt the better.
I roughly estimated the amount over several decades, deducting that portion because other foods and seasonings also contain salt.
I use 6-8 bags of salt a year. I bought 4,000 bags of salt, each 500 grams, choosing the cheapest ones, one yuan per bag.
I also wanted to buy canned goods, drinks, soy sauce, etc., but the truck definitely wouldn't have enough room, so I plan to come back the next day to buy other things.
I don't plan to have the supermarket deliver my goods; I'm afraid the employees will remember my address and cause trouble later in the apocalypse.
The total cost of 50 barrels of oil and 2000 bags of salt was 8250.
I was worried about whether I could ship it all back in one trip.
I called the used car dealer and learned that my truck could carry a maximum of 3,600 kilograms of goods, so I felt relieved and asked the staff to help me load the truck.
The clattering of the truck lessened along the way, weighed down by the heavy salt and oil, and it emitted a muffled sound of resistance.
I hummed a little tune as I slowly drove home.
Once I got home, I couldn't hum the tune anymore. 2000 bags of salt, divided into 50 bags per box, were still quite heavy.
I was afraid of breaking the box if I threw it directly on the ground, so I found some leftover wooden planks from the renovation.
They were placed diagonally between the truck bed and the ground, and the boxes of salt and oil were slid onto the ground one by one.
Then push it to the basement in a small cart and pile the salt on the cart.
I can push four boxes in one trip, and six barrels of oil can be stored in it. Compared to manual carrying, the trolley greatly improves my efficiency.
They got them all to the basement in less than two hours.
Clean the existing water tanks in the basement, open the bags of salt one by one and pour them in. After pouring them all in, cover them with plastic and tie them tightly with rope.
Since plastic bags used to store salt expire over time, storing salt in a jar can preserve it for a longer period.
I clapped my hands in satisfaction and went back to the floor to slump onto the sofa to rest.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
