The mountain road was very difficult to travel, and the tricycle could not be ridden at all.
By the time the two of them dragged the tricycle to the bungalow behind the small courtyard, it was already completely dark. Fortunately, Gu Bei arrived in time to help carry the things.
By the time everything was moved into the cellar, it was already around 8 p.m.
Ya Ya was already hungry, so Grandpa Gu Bei gave her some steamed egg custard with rice beforehand. When he saw Qiao An'an and the others return, he quickly brought out the stir-fried Shanghai bok choy he had prepared in advance and invited everyone to wash their hands and eat.
Qiao An'an smiled and took out ginseng and wolfberry wine and cola: "We found a lot of food today. We won't eat vegetables. Let's celebrate with salted fish and eggplant casserole."
Gu Bei was happy to see the cola, but he also glanced at his grandfather. Before the apocalypse, Gu Bei was not allowed to drink carbonated beverages.
After Grandpa Gu Bei nodded, Gu Bei happily took a bottle of cola.
Ya Ya saw it and wanted to drink it too.
Gu Bei immediately held the can of cola high: "You're only three years old, you can't drink cola!!!"
Ya Ya wouldn't let it go and burst into tears.
If she started crying, wouldn't that attract zombies? Qiao An'an quickly stopped Ya Ya's crying and told her that she could drink it, but only when it was time to eat.
Hearing that she could drink, Ya Ya stopped crying and smiled through her tears.
After calming Ya Ya down, Qiao An'an and Chi Xiaoyu first cut the two pumpkins that had been gnawed on by wild animals into pieces and fed them to the little pig. Then they prepared to make salted fish and eggplant casserole.
She first blanched the salted fish, and while it was blanching, she cut the eggplant into sections and coated them with cornstarch. Then she heated oil in a wok and put the blanched salted fish in, frying it until golden brown on both sides. After that, she added Sichuan peppercorns, chili peppers, water, white pepper powder, sugar, vinegar, ginger, and garlic.
After boiling, simmer over low heat for five minutes, then transfer to a clay pot lined with onions and drizzle with a spoonful of spicy oil.
Then, put the eggplant, which has been stir-fried with fermented soybean paste and garlic, into the salted fish casserole.
A delicious salted fish and eggplant casserole that smells so good it'll make your mouth water is ready.
Because of the ginseng and wolfberry wine, Grandpa Gu Bei also cooked a lot of wild chestnuts and sliced the matsutake mushrooms they brought back to make barbecue matsutake mushrooms.
The wild mushroom king truly lived up to its name; it was already incredibly fragrant after just a simple roasting.
Chi Xiaoyu was worried that Ya Ya couldn't handle spicy food, so she opened another box of luncheon meat.
Before dinner, Qiao An'an secretly made some brown sugar water, washed her empty Coke bottle, poured the cool brown sugar water into it, and handed it to Ya Ya: "Drink up, your Coke."
Gu Bei saw Qiao An trying to fool Ya Ya with brown sugar water, but how could cola and brown sugar water taste the same? He asked Ya Ya in confusion, "Is it good?"
The water made by dissolving brown sugar is about the same color as cola.
Ya Ya had never drunk cola before and didn't know what it tasted like. She took a sip from the cola bottle filled with brown sugar water, smacked her lips contentedly, and exclaimed, "Delicious! Sweet!!!"
All right!
Seeing Ya Ya's naive and unworldly expression, Gu Bei decided to shut up.
Aunt An had finally managed to calm Ya Ya down; if he made her cry again, wouldn't she become a sinner? "If it tastes good, then drink more."
Because they found a lot more food.
With the winter in the small courtyard secured, Grandpa Gu Bei happily drank two large cups of ginseng and wolfberry wine. It was almost ten o'clock when it was time to eat. Ya Ya had already eaten steamed egg custard with rice and wasn't very hungry. She got sleepy after only a few bites. Qiao An'an gave Ya Ya a quick wash and carried her to her room on the second floor to sleep. Then she came back downstairs to continue eating.
Grandpa Gu Bei had already drunk quite a bit. He picked up a wild chestnut and put it in his mouth, saying to Qiao An'an and the others as he ate, "The people from the opposite neighborhood haven't come after our little courtyard because they haven't reached their last resort..."
These words not only reminded Qiao An'an, but also Chi Xiaoyu.
Human nature is ultimately unreliable; otherwise, when there was no food in the neighborhood, those people wouldn't have knowingly helped Ma Teng steal her things from apartment 601, even though they knew he was no good.
Upon hearing this, Chi Xiaoyu sat up straight and turned her gaze to Qiao An'an.
Qiao An'an thought for a moment and said, "They have people and cars. One car can smash through our courtyard wall, but our wall is thick enough. Even if they smash through, the car can't get in. Once they get into our yard, we can shoot them with bows and arrows."
Gu Bei had long envied Chi Xiaoyu's bow and arrow. Now that his grandfather could make arrows from bamboo, Gu Bei immediately said, "Grandpa can also make bows. Let Grandpa make more so that we can each have one, and then Sister Xiaoyu can teach us how to shoot arrows."
Grandpa Gu waved his hand: "The bow and arrow made of bamboo can't compare to the strength of the professional bow that Xiaoyu uses. And with a bamboo arrow, it's not lethal at all. Instead of practicing archery, you should hurry up and practice the military boxing I'm going to teach you. Once you learn it, you'll be able to take on two or three adults without any problem."
Seeing this, Gu Bei fell silent.
That military boxing training is really tiring and boring.
Qiao An'an added, "Li Jianguo knows about this tunnel of ours. This tunnel is ultimately a hidden danger. Although we have blocked the entrance with heavy objects, we cannot block the exit. It is ultimately not a good thing to leave food inside."
They had taken the food out before.
However, the potatoes sprouted too easily, so they were put back into the cellar.
It seems that Qiao An'an wants to move the food out again.
Grandpa Gu Bei said, "Corn is easy to handle; it can be dried and stored. But potatoes are prone to sprouting if left outdoors."
Qiao An'an had also considered this issue, but she still insisted on bringing the potatoes out as well: "It's better to bring them out than to leave them in the tunnel and let them steal them."
They've sprouted; they can wait until after the sweet potatoes are harvested before planting the potatoes in the yard.
It's definitely safer than putting it in a tunnel.
Let's get right to it.
The next day at daybreak, Qiao An'an and the others went down into the tunnel to transport things.
Foods that are easy to store, such as rice and pickled vegetables, were not previously stored in the tunnel. The tunnel currently only contains corn, potatoes, and rice, flour, and seasonings that were brought back yesterday but had not yet been transported up.
After the move was completed, it was broad daylight.
Grandpa Gu Bei had already prepared breakfast.
Qiao An'an and the others had a cooked corn cob and a boiled egg for breakfast each.
After eating, everyone got busy again. They had to remove the corn kernels, keep the cobs inside the ears for firewood, and put the corn kernels on the roof to dry. After drying, they would grind them into flour so they could mix them with wheat flour as their staple food.
While Qiao An'an and the others were husking corn, Grandpa Gu Bei and Ya Ya went into the greenhouse and picked a lot of sweet potato leaves. They cooked them with the leftover rice from yesterday, let them cool, and then fed them to the piglets and chickens.
The two miniature pigs had grown to about 70 pounds. Hearing the feeding sounds, they happily ran towards Grandpa Gu Bei and Ya Ya.
Seeing this, Ya Ya pointed to one of the miniature pigs and said to Grandpa Gu Bei, "Grandpa, that pig seems to have gotten a lot fatter."
Grandpa Gu Bei only noticed after Ya Ya pointed it out that the little pig's belly had grown much bigger, but it wasn't because the pig had gotten fat; it was probably because the little pig was about to give birth to baby piglets.
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