Chapter 36 Xiaobao and Achen
After wandering the streets all day, Zuo Shan felt more tired than if he had gone scavenging in the wild. He hastily cooked a bowl of wild vegetable and yam porridge for dinner, and of course, he didn't forget to put a sesame ball in boiling water to cook first.
Sure enough, the wild vegetable porridge with the added numbness tasted much better than just salt.
However, these sesame balls taste somewhat different from the Sichuan peppercorns I remember; the numbing sensation is stronger, so they should be ground into powder first before use.
Before going to bed, I glanced at my watch at my account balance: 49,732 silver coins. It stung, but I thought about how every penny was necessary, so there was nothing to worry about.
That night, Zuo Shan fell asleep almost as soon as she hit the bed and slept soundly all night. When she woke up the next day, it was almost dawn. Counting the time, she realized she had slept for a full twelve hours, which was the best sleep she had had since transmigrating.
Zuo Shan belatedly realized that this sesame ball probably had numbing and calming effects in addition to its tasting appeal.
If you mix this with spices and burn it before bed, it should help you sleep.
Just this little ball of sesame seeds made her feel that the long trip to District 48 yesterday was well worth it.
She didn't plan to go out scavenging today. Instead, she washed, chopped, and drained the nine carrot-sized pieces of pagoda greens that she had kept for herself.
Then she took out the small hand-cranked grinder that Wu Qiong had given her, found a stone to break open the large piece of salt ore crystal, and threw small pieces into the water to boil.
Seeing that the crystals had dissolved into the water, she was finally relieved. She had been worried that the salt content of the crystals was too low, which would be a huge loss.
The results showed that her worries were unnecessary.
There was some fine sand stored at home, which the original owner's parents had carried back from the riverbank years ago, so that young Zuo Shan could crawl on it and play.
Of course, these fine sands also have another use: in extremely hot weather, the whole family can sleep on them to cool off, which is much more effective than hand-woven mats, and they also absorb sweat.
The fine sand that had been used for many years must have been very unhygienic, so Zuo Shan simply washed the fine sand several times in a large bamboo basin, then boiled it in a pot before draining it and setting it aside.
Pour clean, dry fine sand onto a nettle-woven filter screen, place a bamboo basin underneath to catch it, and then pour in boiled and cooled coarse salt water.
With the dual filtration of fine sand and a filter screen, the impurities in the mineral salt can be largely removed. In the wasteland, it's impossible to have too high expectations, so the salt obtained in this way is definitely no worse than the fine salt sold in supermarkets.
Zuo Shan observed that the fine salt sold in the supermarket was not pure white, but rather mixed with a light yellowish-brown, indicating that the filtration process was not very thorough.
After a lot of work, we finally finished processing the five pounds of salt ore crystals.
Thanks to Jiang Sha for making her more than a dozen bamboo basins of various sizes, otherwise she really wouldn't have dared to buy mineral salt and make her own fine salt at home.
Not wanting to waste the salt clinging to the fine sand, she poured cooled boiled water over it, rinsed it again, and tasted the filtered water with her hand—it was incredibly salty! Perfect for pickling vegetables.
Zuo Shan poured the recycled salt water into the plastic jar containing nutrient solution that Uncle Wu Qiong had given her, then took out a hemp fruit and ground it with a small grinder, instantly filling the room with a pungent hemp smell.
Smelling the familiar aroma of Sichuan peppercorns, Zuo Shan was so happy that tears welled up in her eyes. After arriving in the wasteland, she once thought that she would have to say goodbye to the delicacies of her previous life, such as spicy hot pot, Sichuan peppercorn chicken, and spicy crayfish.
She never expected to find a seasoning that could replace Sichuan peppercorns so quickly. Even though those delicacies are still a long way off, at least she can now pickle vegetables with salt and numbing flavor.
Yesterday she also bought ten resealable plastic bags of different sizes with sealing strips. The price wasn't expensive; Wu Qiong charged her five silver coins for the ten bags.
At this moment, she took out the smallest one to hold the ground sesame powder. This seasoning was rare, and if a little too much was used, it would make a person faint from the numbing effect, so she had to use it sparingly.
Worried that the kimchi might mold easily on the first try without the right brine, she took out a few dried lemon slices from the moderately irradiated mutant lemons she had previously sliced and dried, and put them into the kimchi jar.
Lemons have preservative properties and can inhibit bacterial growth. Adding them to kimchi brine can not only enhance the flavor but also prevent it from rotting and spoiling.
In the wasteland, this pagoda vegetable and this brine are hard-won treasures. If she were to ruin them, she would be devastated!
After adding dried lemon slices and sprinkling some sesame powder to the salt water, Zuo Shan carefully tossed the dried pagoda vegetables one by one into the plastic bucket.
Nine carrot-sized pieces of pagoda greens, when cut open, still didn't fill a jar.
Zuo Shan felt that her future scavenging journey was still long and arduous, and she needed to find some more suitable varieties for pickling vegetables to make such a large jar of pickles, so that her jar of pickles would always be full.
After sealing the lid tightly and placing the kimchi jar in the bamboo storage cabinet, this important task was finally completed.
This is her exclusive recipe. If she ever runs out of silver coins, she might be able to make a living in the wasteland by selling kimchi.
Zuo Shan was secretly pleased with himself, but he also knew that in this place where even basic necessities like food and clothing were a problem, filling one's stomach was the most important thing. As for things like kimchi, probably only food enthusiasts like Uncle Wu Qiong, who had no shortage of food and clothing, would be interested in them.
After finishing his important business, Zuo Shan noticed a listless panda cub nestled at his feet.
She slapped her head hard. Sigh! How could she ignore such an adorable panda cub? In her previous life, she would have had to buy a ticket to see it, and even then, she would have to look through a wire fence.
She felt guilty, like a fan neglecting her idol. So, at dinner, she tried blowing on the wild vegetable and yam paste to cool it down and feeding it a little bit. To her surprise, it ate it with great delight.
In the end, she had to give it a quarter of her portion.
Fortunately, this panda cub is still small and doesn't eat much, otherwise she would have gone hungry tonight.
Through her observations over the past two days, she discovered that this panda cub is actually quite picky about food. For example, if you feed it ordinary wild vegetables, it will only lick them once and then spit them out with a look of disgust.
She originally thought it would only eat bamboo leaves, but she didn't expect it to eat this paste with sesame powder and salt water so deliciously.
For ease of reference, Zuo Shan named the panda cub Xiao Bao. She hoped it would grow up slowly and not grow into a large panda like its mother, so that it wouldn't have any conflicts with humans.
Xiao Bao probably thought it had been abandoned by its mother, because it has been unusually well-behaved and obedient these past two days. It will eat whatever it likes.
She doesn't take it with her when she goes out, leaving Mao Li at home to keep it company, and it doesn't cause any trouble.
After drinking a small bowl of wild vegetable and yam paste, she fell asleep in her crib.
The crib was made by Zuo Shan Hua Tu Jiang Sha Zhao Tu, with smooth railings all around, sturdy and comfortable.
She didn't dare tell anyone she was pregnant at the time, saying it was just to prepare for the baby in the future, and neither Jiang Sha nor Jia Yiming suspected anything.
After all, given her status as a scavenger in District 50, it wasn't easy for her to get a chance to customize furniture for free, so she was definitely going to make everything she could think of.
Now this crib is a real treat for Xiaobao. Zuo Shan even put a lot of dry grass under him and mixed in a few bamboo leaves so that he wouldn't miss home or his mother too much.
Looking at the baby sleeping soundly in the crib, Zuo Shan touched her slightly protruding belly, her heart and eyes filled with love and tenderness.
Having been single since birth for 25 years, she never imagined that one day she would skip blind dates, dating, marriage, and the adjustment period after marriage and become a mother.
But since things have already come to this, she will work even harder for Xiaobao and the baby in her belly in the future.
Since she had already named her baby, she decided to name the baby in her belly as well.
She was originally terrible at naming things, so she just used the character "Chen" (晨), which means "the day's plan starts in the morning," and "morning" signifies the beginning of new hope.
The baby's name was decided—Zuo Chen.
From then on, besides Mao Li, the little prince of the mechanical race, she also had two precious children by her side, Xiao Bao and A Chen.
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