For those who can handle spicy food, indulging in a hearty hot pot meal, feeling so hot that they sweat profusely yet feel completely refreshed, is an ultimate enjoyment.
A hot pot meal made Qin Chengguo feel as if he had been transported back to the pre-apocalyptic world.
After finishing the meal, he practically bowed down to Qiao An'an in worship: "Can I come to your house for hot pot again in the future?"
After saying that.
Qin Chengguo quickly realized that food was extremely scarce in the apocalypse, and everyone was worried about where their next meal would come from. This hot pot might be all they had left. They were eating this hot pot to thank him for helping the old man with his surgery, but he was asking if they could still eat it in the future. It seemed a bit unfair of him.
He quickly changed his tune, saying, "That's not what I meant. I didn't mean I'd come back. I just... just... wanted to say that your hot pot was really delicious."
This person doesn't seem very bright.
Qiao An'an smiled and said, "Since Dr. Qin likes hot pot so much, we'll invite him to join us whenever we have hot pot at home in the future."
Qin Chengguo never imagined there would be a future.
He felt he had to do something, otherwise he'd be eating their food for nothing: "Then... I'll give all of you a physical exam?"
Then, Qin Chengguo actually gave everyone in the courtyard a health check.
Although Qiao An'an didn't really approve of Shen Zhou and his group's decision to take in people all the time, she felt that this time it wasn't so bad if they took in such a kind-hearted person.
For a period of time after returning from the hospital.
The neighborhood and courtyard have not been attacked by the masked men since.
Shen Zhou and his group believed that a major reason was that the group of soldiers treated by Dr. Qin had previously clashed head-on with the Ghost Mask Man and inflicted heavy damage on him. This was why the Ghost Mask Man, an extremely vengeful organization, had not come to cause them any trouble for so long.
They can't just sit and wait to die if no one else comes to them.
So the group dug a deep ditch in front of the wall made of cars, leaving only a single lane at the entrance and exit.
One side of the ditch is a large pit dug by the developer, and the other side is the community's wall.
The reason for choosing this location to dig the ditch is that the large pit had accumulated a lot of water over time, forming a natural pond. By digging the ditch to connect to the residential area, they provided the area with sufficient water.
The water supply for the residents of the community will no longer depend on rainfall.
While digging the irrigation canal, Chen Zhou and his team also searched for supplies outside. While searching for supplies, they tried to find traces of the masked men. They have now roughly determined the location of the masked men, but through reconnaissance, they found that there are more than a hundred of them. With the current manpower and weapons, Chen Zhou and his team cannot wipe them out in one fell swoop.
Even if you know the other person's location.
They dared not launch a counterattack rashly, and could only continuously reinforce the buildings in the community in order to protect themselves.
The peace and quiet of the past month or two has given the community and courtyard enough time to be repaired. The vegetables in the community are now ready to eat, and the corn they planted has grown to over a meter tall. Grandpa Li even took out his fishing rod, which he hadn't used in a long time, and fished several times in the dug ditch to improve everyone's meals.
It is said that the fish in the irrigation ditches they dug came from mountain springs.
Meanwhile, good things kept happening in the small courtyard.
First, a hen that hadn't laid eggs for a long time suddenly brought back a brood of chicks. Only then did everyone realize that the hen hadn't stopped laying eggs, but had been secretly hiding them to hatch the chicks.
Worried that the chicks would freeze in the back bungalow, Qiao An'an immediately moved the mother hen and chicks to the front yard and warmed them with cardboard boxes, straw, and old clothes.
Then, when Qiao An'an was feeding the miniature pigs, she discovered that the original sow was pregnant again.
This left everyone completely bewildered.
Although the two piglets they left behind were a male and a female, they were only two or three months old. How did the sow get pregnant on her own?
This mystery was finally solved one night when Chi Xiaoyu was on night shift.
At first, she only noticed a pair of bright green eyes suddenly appearing in the square behind her.
She thought it was a zombie coming from the mountain and immediately became alert. But when she looked through her binoculars, she realized it was a large wild boar.
It seems that the big wild boar dug through the dirt under the back door and squeezed into the room. After entering the pigpen, it acted as if it were its own home, squeezing the two piglets into a corner and feasting on the leftovers that Qiao An'an and the others had prepared for the miniature pig family. This also explains why only one miniature pig was still able to get pregnant.
Chi Xiaoyu told Qiao An'an about her discovery.
Qiao An'an felt that wild boars had an enormous appetite, and they simply couldn't afford to raise them. If wild boars continued to come and steal the pig feed from their domestic pigs in the middle of the night, their pigs would become thin from hunger, which would be a loss.
So, Qiao An'an took out her silenced pistol and sent the wild boar to its death.
They filled the hole that the wild boar had dug up back with soil and reinforced the area with many bricks so that large wild animals could no longer enter.
Although a silenced pistol was used to kill the wild boar, it still made a lot of noise.
The Gu family grandfather and grandson also woke up as a result.
Grandpa Gu Bei's health has almost fully recovered after the surgery, but at his age, surgery can damage his very foundation. So even though it has been two months since the surgery, he still cannot return to his pre-operative state. After hearing the noise, he did not go downstairs to check, but instead leaned back in his chair and beckoned Gu Bei to go and see what was going on.
Gu Bei went to check and quickly returned: "Grandpa, Aunt An'an caught a wild boar!!!"
While Gu Bei was speaking, Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu had already carried the wild boar to the front yard to bleed it.
The wild boar had only been dead for a short time, yet a considerable amount of blood had been released.
After the blood coagulates, it can be stir-fried with bok choy or cooked in a spicy hot pot.
Qiao An'an and the others caught the fish in basins, so nothing was wasted.
Then they boiled water to remove the wild boar's hair and cleaned out its internal organs.
Grandpa Gu Bei asked Qiao An'an, "What are your plans for dealing with such a big wild boar?"
In fact, Qiao An'an had already prepared the food when she hunted the wild boar. She planned to keep half of it in the small yard, using the tenderloin and ribs for stir-frying and braising, and the rest for pickling and eating slowly.
She wanted to trade the other half for daily necessities and seasonings with people in the neighborhood.
She had previously stocked up on a lot of daily necessities and seasonings in the courtyard, but that was only enough for her and Ya Ya. Later, five people lived in the courtyard, and her stockpile of daily necessities and seasonings was about to run out.
Although Shen Zhou kept saying that she could contact them if she needed anything, Qiao An'an always felt that she couldn't accept something for nothing. In the apocalypse, supplies were the key to survival. Shen Zhou and the others were generous, but she couldn't just take their supplies for free. Besides, taking other people's things for free was like owing them a favor, which she would have to repay someday. It would be better to have a fair trade and feel at ease.
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