Chapter 39 Water Chestnuts
Lao Dao is a very amazing person.
While in the camp, Zhao Xuan always thought he was a cold and taciturn ruthless character. However, when he rescued her from the three Yu brothers, it was Lao Dao who broke one of their noses with a single punch.
The three Yu brothers dared not speak out against their anger.
At that time, no one could beat Lao Dao, not even three people.
After rescuing Zhao Xuan, Lao Dao frowned when he saw Lu An's thin body, which looked so frail that he could be knocked over with a single blow. He said, "This won't do. How can you protect your little girlfriend like this?"
So this ruthless but taciturn man specially taught Lu An martial arts for a few days, all of which were quick-to-learn moves that didn't require too much force, similar to women's self-defense techniques. Lu An studied very diligently; he was very smart and learned everything quickly, but he was still simple-minded and was still secretly bullied by the three Yu brothers.
Old Dao was very busy at the camp, and Zhao Xuan didn't have many opportunities to see him. She didn't know when Lu An had met Old Dao.
She thought that Lao Dao's departure was a final farewell, never imagining that they would meet again in a deserted village.
It wasn't until she spent time with him that she realized Lao Dao was talkative and loved to laugh. When it was just her and Lu An, the two of them were mostly quiet. There weren't many interesting things happening in the deserted village, but Lao Dao's arrival brought liveliness to their little home.
Every morning, you could see this big man practicing a set of boxing moves in the yard, his voice booming and the wind whistling through the air. Then he would go out with Lu An. He was a very principled person. Even though he was quite familiar with Zhao Xuan and Lu An, he had never been to the upper floors. He roughly knew that there were a lot of supplies hidden in the house, but he didn't care, and he didn't want to know how much.
He helped carry heavy objects, chop firewood and carry water, and also helped harvest crops, feed pigs and chickens. Most importantly, 460, who had been offline for a long time, became familiar with him in just a few days!
Normally, Zhao Xuan would have to shout 460's name loudly to call the dog, but Lao Dao only needed to pout and say "shh—", and the dog would receive the message as quickly as lightning, running over like the wind, as if it had a radar installed in its brain.
"What a smart boy," Old Dao said, stroking 460's head.
This is the highest praise Zhao Xuan has ever heard from humans regarding 460.
After Lao Dao's legs were fully recovered, he often went into the mountains with Lu An. Usually, they didn't bring 460, because there were many loose rocks and thorns further into the mountains, and they were afraid that 460 would hurt their skin.
Old Dao said the ecology in these mountains is good, but the largest creatures here nowadays are probably wild boars. Tigers or other carnivores won't appear so soon. Besides wild boars, there are also muntjacs, bamboo rats, and wild rabbits in the mountains, and pheasants and wild ducks fly all over the mountains. According to Old Dao, why bother farming? You can't even eat all the mountain delicacies. When you stand in the mountains, rabbits will naturally crawl into your arms.
These words made Zhao Xuan and Lu An, who had almost starved to death last winter, feel inexplicably offended.
Old Dao had once learned hunting and trap making from an old hunter. Years ago, there were outlaws who made firearms for hunting, and Old Dao had arrested quite a few of them. Having arrested so many, he had also learned how to make these simple homemade firearms. However, while the firearms themselves were easy to make, the raw materials for the ammunition were almost impossible to find. He wasn't one to keep secrets, and although he might never need them, he still explained the methods for making the firearms and ammunition to Lu An in detail.
The two of them went into the mountains for many days in a row, sometimes returning within a day, sometimes after three or four days.
Zhao Xuan noticed that everyone liked Lu An. Gou Gou liked Lu An, Lao Dao liked Lu An, and even 460 liked Lu An even more, probably because he was indeed a kind and down-to-earth good person... Zhao Xuan thought to himself happily.
Perhaps only she could use such simple words as "kind and down-to-earth" to describe Lu An. Lao Dao said that even when Lu An was extremely thin at the camp, many women were still willing to approach him and offer him comfort, but he rejected them all.
This young man acted like a straightforward and impulsive fool at the camp, but only Lao Dao knew that this kid was full of bad intentions.
In order to get in touch with Lao Dao, he tampered with Lao Dao's cool motorcycle at night, and then waited for Lao Dao at the camp entrance early in the morning. He pretended to casually notice the problem with the motorcycle, and then provided a one-stop service of repair and maintenance. In the end, the two were able to start a conversation.
At that time, the three Yu brothers saw that Lu An was honest and easy to bully, so they often picked fights with him, stole his grain, made him work for them for free, and even kicked him for no reason if he saw them while walking peacefully on the street. Lu An was alone and weak, so he could only find a powerful backer to protect him.
Old Dao saw through Lu An's little scheme, but whether Lu An saw through his scheme in return was unknown; the kid was good at hiding his true intentions.
In short, Lao Dao felt that Lu An was a deep thinker, but not a bad person.
"You said one of the three brothers died later?" After spending two more days in the wild, on the way home, Lao Dao asked, each carrying a large basket on their backs.
"Yes, after leaving the camp, there's a long, winding downhill section. The eldest son of the Yu family had his brakes fail while driving, and the car went straight off. He didn't like wearing a seatbelt, so he was thrown out, his neck broke, and he died on the spot."
"Oh—" Old Dao said meaningfully, "Then who did the car maintenance for them the most recent time?"
Lu An answered readily: "Me."
"So you got beaten up by the remaining two?"
"Um."
"Impressive." It's unclear whether this praise was for his ruthlessness or his resilience.
Old Dao disliked the three Yu brothers. They were shameless and had killed many people outside the camp, relying on their numbers. They were ruthless and cruel, but because they were wary of the other officers in the camp, they hadn't taken any lives inside. By then, Old Dao had already left, but Lu An was useful; he could fix things, and the camp officers wouldn't let him die in vain.
Actually, Lu An didn't do the car repairs all by himself that day. There were two mechanics working on it. The other one, Lao Jiang, was over sixty years old and had been repairing cars all his life. He was very skilled, and Lu An, who was only a novice, learned a lot from him. In a sense, Lao Jiang was Lu An's mentor.
Old Jiang looked much older than his actual age; his hair was gray, he had lost many teeth, and his speech was slurred. The people in the camp didn't really care about him. Lu An knew he didn't have long to live. Old Jiang was so thin that sometimes he couldn't even turn a wrench and could only sit on the ground directing Lu An to do the work.
He may have seen Lu An tamper with the brakes that day, but he said nothing.
The three Yu brothers had committed too many evil deeds. They had once broken Old Jiang's leg because they tried to steal a gold bracelet from him. The bracelet was something Old Jiang's wife had left him; it only weighed a dozen grams. With the bracelet gone, Old Jiang lost everything.
After Boss Yu's accident, the remaining two wanted to settle scores with Lu An. It was Lao Jiang who bailed him out by speaking to the camp manager. He said the car was already in terrible condition, and Boss Yu had driven it for several days; there was no guarantee it wouldn't have had problems on the road. Also, there were very few people in the camp who could repair cars and electrical equipment; killing one meant one less. Were the three Yu brothers important? They were the most reckless and effective thugs in the camp, but in the apocalypse, there were plenty of reckless and effective people.
Lu An wasn't killed, but was taken home covered in blood.
These old knives have no idea.
When he and Lu An climbed the mountain, they would talk about trivial things. Lao Dao would talk about his experiences in various places he had traveled through, and Lu An would mostly listen, but sometimes he would also talk about himself.
Old Dao asked again, "What about Old Jiang?" He still had some impression of this little old man.
“He’s gone. He repaired the car with me and defended me in front of the manager. The Yu brothers were furious and pushed him. He rolled to the ground and couldn’t get up for a long time. He died that night,” Lu An said with some regret. “I killed him.”
He assumed the three brothers were in that car that day; none of them liked wearing seatbelts and they loved driving incredibly fast. He thought the brakes would fail at some point along the way, and if they were injured, even with a broken leg, they would never make it back to camp.
He didn't see Lao Jiang off. That day, Lao Jiang was beaten unconscious, and it was Zhao Xuan who gritted his teeth and crawled step by step to drag him back to his shed.
In the apocalypse, human life is as cheap as grass. Not to mention being beaten bloody, even a small wound can lead to infection and take a life.
Old Dao asked, "Then you two came out, right?"
Lu An nodded: "Instead of just living a miserable life, I might as well go out and make my own way. Back then, Xuanxuan told me she knew how to farm, and I believed her."
In fact, Zhao Xuan had never farmed before; at most, he had seen it. But they did survive, and they lived very well.
He had befriended Lao Dao in the camp for a certain purpose, but now that they met again, their statuses were finally equal, and only then did they feel like they were making friends.
The two returned home along the path. Not far from their doorstep, a small, coal-colored head suddenly peeked out from the crack of the half-closed gate.
460 barked at them a few times, seemingly welcoming them home.
The two unloaded their baskets; one contained a fat gray rabbit, and the other was full of water chestnuts.
Zhao Xuan glanced at it and his eyes lit up.
Old Dao instructed Lu An: "Go, boil some water and clean the rabbit."
The rabbit had died during their violent capture, and the plump rabbit looked like a little piglet when lifted up. Lu An went to boil water as instructed, while Zhao Xuan squatted down to sort through the water chestnuts in the basket.
Water chestnuts, also known as horse hooves in some places, are something Zhao Xuan often ate before the apocalypse. When the weather gets a little colder, there are small vendors selling them on the streets. Each one looks like a chess piece with a small sprout. They have a black outer skin, and after peeling off the brownish-black skin, there is white flesh inside. They are high in starch, juicy, and sweet.
Before the apocalypse, this stuff was cheap, and Zhao Xuan would often buy a bag to try. Usually, the vendors would peel it for him and put it in a small bag, costing only a few dollars a bag. He could just rinse it with water at home and eat it; it was cooling and helped to reduce internal heat.
Later, Zhao Xuan heard that this thing had parasites and that it wasn't good to eat raw. But that was after she went to university. The city where her university was located didn't sell water chestnuts. So many years had passed that she had almost forgotten about this food.
When asked where he dug the knife, the answer was that it was in a large area of barren paddy fields not far from the foot of the mountain.
"Isn't that a patch of weeds?!" Zhao Xuan exclaimed in surprise. She had been to that area many times. Although it was a paddy field, it was overgrown with weeds, a tangled mess that swayed in the wind like waves of green. Zhao Xuan found it extremely disgusting; the most common sight in a barren paddy field was mosquitoes.
Old Dao rolled his eyes: "Those are water chestnuts from the whole field..."
"Ah!" Zhao Xuan's pupils dilated in shock.
That sight reminded Lao Dao of Lu An's shocked expression when he dug water chestnuts out of the field. The difference was that Lu An was genuinely amazed that water chestnuts could be dug out of the mud, while Zhao Xuan regretted that such a large piece of food had been eagerly awaiting her, yet she had ignored it for so long!
"There are still many in the field. When you have time, ask the Yao family to go and dig some up. If you like to eat them, you can try planting one. That kind of thing only grows once a year. If there is no water in the field next year, no new ones will grow."
It's just tiring to dig.
These days, getting something to eat is such a hassle. Rice has to be cultivated meticulously, corn has to be ground into flour, and even eating water chestnuts requires squatting in the field, digging them up one by one.
Zhao Xuan didn't care about these things. The joy of the harvest largely overshadowed the hardships of the labor. He washed a bowl of water chestnuts, peeled them with a knife, and put them in his mouth. The cool juice flowed into his stomach as he chewed, and Zhao Xuan squinted his eyes in satisfaction.
Dinner wasn't for the fat rabbit; Zhao Xuan had salted it to make dried rabbit in a couple of days for later. She chopped water chestnuts and pork, mixed them with minced ginger and flour, and made water chestnut and pork patties. These patties could be pan-fried or stewed; the chopped water chestnuts sandwiched between the pork tasted like chopped lotus root—crispy, but sweeter. She remembered her grandmother used to chop water chestnuts and mix them into wonton filling; the crunchy bits added a nice texture. Unfortunately, she didn't know how to make wonton wrappers.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
