Chapter 112 Salt and Pepper Grain Worms
Jinglai quietly took out a large bowl of rice and started eating. She couldn't help but think of what Jingshu said: "Third Aunt's food has not been good these days. Grandma prepared a portion of the rice prepared for my mother for you. My mother can't finish it, so you can take it with you, otherwise it will be wasted."
Jinglai's eyes were a little moist. Jingshu was a smart girl. She said those words just to save her face. It was just that she had a strong self-esteem and couldn't afford to lose face.
Otherwise, I would give my sister-in-law four dishes every day. In order to take care of her and not let her stand out too much, I would mix the rice together every time so that people couldn't tell what she was eating.
This was clearly a meal specially prepared for her. She remembered this sincerity. At the critical moment, it was still her blood relatives who cared about her!
"Jinglai, your family prepared a meal for you again? You're so lucky! You get to work and your family provides you with meals, and you even take one extra portion for yourself. Unlike me, I save half of my portion every day and take it home. I use all my work points for the month to buy food for my children."
Jinglai had already hidden in the corner, but unexpectedly she was discovered by the people around her.
"Why does it smell so good? Why can I smell the scent of pork ribs? Let me see!" A man with a sharp nose came over.
"No, it's just moldy brown rice." Jinglai took the bowl generously. In the dim light, only a black lump of rice could be seen.
"It smells so good, I can even smell potatoes."
"You might be hallucinating. Even shit smells good."
Jinglai quietly swallowed a piece of boneless meat and ate up the pork ribs and potatoes stewed with sesame seeds under the rice. "Hurry up and eat. After that, we still have to go up and kill the worms."
In other words, those who work in the canteen can occasionally eat white rice. Now that the government is tightening its control over food, ordinary people can only use their work points to exchange for cheap relief meals.
…
In the afternoon, when Jing's father drove to pick up Jing's mother from get off work, he took the whole family in the car and went to Aijia Supermarket to get some water.
Jingshu's family exchanged 5 tons of water last time for watering vegetables and feeding poultry, but now there are only 3 tons left for various domestic water. In the extremely high temperature, Jingshu's villa has to keep making ice and placing it in the yard to cool it down.
Otherwise, having a cover would be really suffocating, and the fish in the pond can't stand such high temperatures, so we have to take the water distributed by the government no matter how little it is.
When I came to the supermarket again, it was surrounded by dense S-shaped queues. Everyone was waiting to enter the cafeteria with dry mouths but excitement. They all knew that to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, there would be three consecutive days of buffets with all you could eat. This excited countless people.
The queue for getting water was also very long, but fortunately ten more water outlets were added. After getting their water, everyone rushed to queue up at the dining area.
There was a high wire mesh in the middle, and even under the dim light, one could still see the bustling noise in the cafeteria.
The government also invested heavily this time, using all the collected seasonings, and the entire cafeteria was filled with various aromas.
Jingshu could see from a distance that two rows of pots of food were neatly placed on the table. Behind each pot stood a man holding a spoon and shouting:
"Try my palace bug! It's delicious and tasty."
"You deserve the dried worms. Eat as many as you want."
"Come, come, try some Guangdong specialty oilworms. I can give you another spoonful if you only have one. Eat more!"
The lady in the cafeteria not only changed her habit of shaking off most of the food with a spoonful of food, but also added more food to your bowl with great effort.
Everyone who came here excitedly thought that the worst they could do was eat mushrooms, but they were dumbfounded when they saw the various cooked maggots. Some of the maggots in the pot were still moving, clearly not cooked yet.
Some of the maggots in the pot were chopped into meat paste, which looked disgusting. Most of the maggots were still in their original dirty color, and they were definitely not processed.
“This seems to be different from what I imagined…”
"We agreed to a buffet, and this is what they're serving us? Is this edible? Did it come from a toilet?"
"It's disgusting to death!"
But there were also people who had been hungry for several days. They didn’t care about the delicious smell and just picked a few flavors that looked good and started eating.
At this time, the cafeteria broadcast began: "
Take as much as you can eat, each person is limited to 30 minutes. If you find anyone wasting food, you can report them and receive 2 virtual coins. Wasting food will result in 5 virtual coins being deducted. If the virtual coins are negative 10 or more, you will be sent to labor reform!
"To celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, Aijia Supermarket will be offering a worm buffet for three consecutive days, with each person only needing 0.5 virtual coins. And every day, the 10 citizens who eat the most will be selected and awarded 10 virtual coins each."
"At the same time, Aijia Supermarket has added a special counter for insects. Each male insect is returned for 0.5 virtual coins. There is no limit on the number of insects returned each day. Citizens can go there to catch insects and exchange them for virtual coins. In hot weather, you can exchange them for water and white rice."
People at this time are no longer like they were in the first two months of the apocalypse, when they couldn't drink muddy water and were tired of eating white rice.
After being hungry for a month or two, most people chose to eat maggots after hesitating for a few minutes, even though they couldn't accept it.
What can we do?
I am hungry and thirsty. If I choose 2 points of white rice, I can't drink water. If I choose to drink an extra bottle of water, I can't eat. Now 0.5 points are very precious. All the clothes and beddings in the house have been changed. There is nothing to change in the homes of dead people. If I don't eat, I will starve to death. I'd better eat.
To survive.
Some of the aunties who were in charge of cooking, seeing that no one came to eat their food, made up their minds and grabbed the maggots in the pot and stuffed them into their mouths, saying, "Everyone, come and see what I have, it's delicious!" They had to finish it anyway even if no one else was eating it.
The chef enthusiastically promoted the food and worked hard to deliver it, and most people gradually accepted to eat this kind of food, but the time was up before they were full.
The bald man looked at the bustling crowd and the long line outside, and shouted over the loudspeaker: "This group's time is up, next group!"
“This salt and pepper flavor is so delicious!”
I don’t know if it’s the high quality of the raw materials, the fragrance of the seasoning, or the superb cooking technique, but this dish of pepper worms has made a name for itself in Aijia Supermarket.
There was a long queue at Jinglai's place. When others had not finished one pot, the seven or eight pots she made had already been eaten. Those who had eaten said they wanted to eat more!
"There's no more today. Let's come back tomorrow!" Jinglai wiped the sweat off his forehead and said with satisfaction.
The bald man patted Jinglai and said, "You've done a great job. I'll promote you to team leader today. Keep it up!"
…
Jingshu saw this familiar scene, and it seemed as if she saw herself in her previous life from the expressions of those people, from hesitation, fear to gritted teeth acceptance. In this life, she had unknowingly changed her destiny. She no longer had to eat maggots. How great!
"Hurry up and get the water, then go back and make some rice dumplings." Grandma Jing sighed and shook her head. "That's how we got through the famine back then. We ate whatever we could."
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