Chapter 62
Qi Jingchen once again stood out . This feeling was actually rather nice .
Those people were envious, jealous, and hateful of him, which was an experience he never had before . Unfortunately, it probably won’t be long before most of these people would die .
“I want to eat zongzi . ” This morning, after Qi Jingchen ate the fried rice —which was just rice with eggs— he made a request to Nie Yi .
He recalled that before the apocalypse, the internet would often debate about whether a zongzi or tofu pudding should be sweet or savoury . However, his hometown was a strange place . There, they had both sweet and savoury zongzi, as well as both sweet and savoury tofu pudding .
“The glutinous rice for savoury zongzi has to be washed in advance and marinated in soy sauce for flavour, and the meat has to be peeled pork belly . The pork belly also needs to be marinated in soy sauce for a few hours . After wrapping it up, cook it with high heat first, then lower the fire . Then, boil it until the oils in the pork belly melt into the glutinous rice before eating . That’s the most delicious way to eat it, and it won’t be greasy either . ” Qi Jingchen said, “Sweet zongzi are even easier . Just mix the glutinous rice and red bean together, then wrap it up . Then, dip the cooked zongzi in white sugar to eat…” He suddenly had a particular craving for zongzi .
Qi An couldn’t help swallowing his saliva .
“I think this place still raises pigs . I’ll get some pork for you later, but I don’t know how to wrap zongzi,” Nie Yi said .
“I do,” Qi Jingchen said . “I’ll wrap it . ”
Nie Yi immediately revealed a cheerful expression . He had never tried anything made by Qi Jingchen before!
Thus, at first light, Su Haisheng encountered a matter that made his heart stifled— Nie Yi took away a pig from him .
W County secure base honestly didn’t lack in food, and they had raised several pigs . At the very beginning, they had captured all the pigs raised in the pig sty nearby . However, while he was willing to eat it himself, he was a little unhappy when Nie Yi asked for it, especially when Nie Yi had specifically chosen a large, white pig of the best quality .
“Nie Yi really is annoying . ” After giving away a pig, as well as glutinous rice and red bean, Su Haisheng couldn’t help grumbling . “Asking for things with such an aloof att.i.tude . ”
“Chief, calm down . They also have to put in effort, and didn’t they say that they’ll help us kill the zombies outside today?” The ability user next to Su Haisheng hurriedly said . Actually, he thought that it was worth it to be able to eradicate all the zombies outside just by providing them with some food .
As for Qi Jingchen ordering the secure base to distribute food to the common people… According to the doc.u.ments sent by B City secure base, this was actually what they should have done . Of course, not many secure bases could fulfil the demands made by S City secure base .
“I want to see if they can really get rid of the zombies!” Su Haisheng said, then asked, “What’s in their trucks? Did you go check?”
“I’ve already checked . They brought a lot of supplies, as well as guns and ammunition . But it is said that it’s all in the hands of that person by Nie Yi’s side, Ping Shengchao . ”
“Actually, the supplies don’t really matter… What’s important is those people ah…” Su Haisheng thought of Nie Yi’s subordinates and was even more covetous .
His secure base treated regular people badly, but was extremely generous in their treatment towards ability users . In W County secure base, just because he wanted ability users to protect him, ability users were given a lot of food free of charge!
Speaking of which, after he captured Qi Jingchen in their last life, he even used the ‘panacea’ to lure in even more ability users, turning W County secure base into an ability users heaven .
Su Haisheng was constantly thinking about Nie Yi’s subordinates, while Nie Yi on the other hand, was killing a pig .
Even though he had never slaughtered a pig before, he had killed all sorts of mutated animals during the apocalypse, so he was a little skilled .
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Nie Yi hadn’t thought of this at all; furthermore, he realised that he didn’t know how to get rid of the fur on the pig…
Fortunately, someone among his subordinates was said to love watching people kill pigs in his childhood, and his relative used to kill pigs, so he had some knowledge about it . For example, he knew that pig’s fur could be shaved off after soaking in water, and also how pig offal should be dealt with .
At first, Qi Jingchen had watched Nie Yi ‘heroically’ kill the pig because it was very clean, but he left immediately when they started to deal with the pig offal .
He wasn’t mysophobic in the past; once, his foster parents had bought pig offals, and he himself had handled it before . But now, he couldn’t stand the smell…
It was hard to become frugal after being accustomed to riches ah… In this life, he definitely wouldn’t be able to survive enduring those horrible foods .
Wrapping zongzi couldn’t be started so quickly . It was best to marinate the glutinous rice for savoury zongzi in the soy sauce longer to absorb the flavour . The sweet zongzi’s glutinous rice and red beans also needed to be soaked in water for a while— Directly making zongzi with dry glutinous rice would make the glutinous rice puff up after absorbing the water later, and it might even break through the wrapping leaves .
Because of this, Qi Jingchen had the time to look for Su Haisheng and asked him to distribute food to the secure base’s civilians, and in pa.s.sing, criticised Su Haisheng for not caring for the civilians .
Su Haisheng gritted his teeth and distributed food according to Qi Jingchen’s request . Of course, in order to save up on food, he had only supplied congee .
They found a machine for making flour . Wheat, husked rice, corn, or beans, all of them were ground into powder, then placed in boiling water, and the pot of congee was made .
Su Haisheng wanted very much to mix in grain flour that wasn’t rice or wheat into a pot of water and negligently cook some congee to deceive Qi Jingchen . Unfortunately, Qi Jingchen himself went back to sleep since he had seen the pig killed, and found someone else to watch over him, so he wasn’t able to save up on provisions .
No matter how unbridled Qi Jingchen was, since he had done this, all the regular people in W County secure base began to feel grateful to him .
For today’s lunch, Qi Jingchen ate fresh pork .
Blanched pig heart, capsic.u.m sauteed with shredded pork, steamed minced meat… Even though Nie Yi had just started learning how to cook, he could still prepare simple dishes .
After eating, Qi Jingchen had them boil the zongzi leaves, then he mixed the glutinous rice and pork, and went to the city walls to watch Nie Yi’s subordinates kill zombies .
He and Nie Yi had always displayed the image of great young masters in this base, and so didn’t go down to partic.i.p.ate . They spread out the things Qi Jingchen had become accustomed to using, and had an earth ability user elevate the place they were at . Then, they ate snacks as they watched zombies get killed .
The snacks they were eating were leftover pork fats which had been deep-fried . As for the lard, Qi An had Xiaomao place all of it in her s.p.a.ce, claiming that they’ll use it in the future to cook .
Speaking of, Xiaomao’s s.p.a.ce seemed to be quite large . Even though she couldn’t explain why, they had already placed many things inside, yet it still wasn’t full .
Lard and pork fats, sprinkled with salt was especially delicious . Even Qi Jingchen had eaten a lot, and recalled a past memory . “Just when my parents adopted me, our home was relatively broke, but my mom would buy meat once a month, and buy several kilograms in one go . We would eat the lean meat on that day, then cure the rest with salt . Then, they’d steam two slices for me, while the fat was completely boiled into lard, and she used the dregs to wrap dumplings . ”
“In the future, I’ll wrap dumplings for you to eat as well . ” Nie Yi lowered his head and kissed Qi Jingchen .
But Qi Jingchen was looking at the people below from afar— Nie Yi had treated Qi Yaoyao as a subordinate, and so Qi Yaoyao was killing zombies down there as well .
“I’ll look for a suitable mutated plant for her, and give it to her to eat,” Nie Yi said .
“Okay . ” Qi Jingchen smiled . Right when he had been reborn, he still had a grudge against Qi Yaoyao . But now, it got better, and Qi Yaoyao was already completely different from his memory…
After watching a while, Qi Jingchen placed his beloved lettuce at the side, then took up a book to read . At this time, more people gathered atop the city walls .
The secure base’s city walls didn’t prohibit regular people, but generally, no one would want to go up— Who would want to look at a dense ma.s.s of zombies?
Today, no one had come either, at first . After all, the regular civilians in the secure base didn’t know that the zombies were going to be cleared out . It was only when some of the patrolmen responsible for the city walls switched shifts and returned to tell people that the others came to watch . Once a few came, more and more joined…
Right before these people arrived, the mood was bad, their faces filled with despondency and despair, but when they saw the people outside use abilities and firearms to annihilate row by row of zombies, they became more worked up, even joining in on the cries outside . “Annihilate the zombies! Annihilate the zombies!”
As the people on the city wall increased, the cries became louder and the people drawn over also increased . Later, Su Haisheng could only have his men seal off the stairs to the city walls and stop other people from coming up before the situation improved . Fortunately, he and the other leaders of the secure base were on the mound Nie Yi had someone create, and didn’t have to watch those filthy people squeeze in from the sides .
Su Haisheng felt jittery from hearing the shouts surrounding him . Anger grew in his heart as he saw Qi Jingchen eat half the fruits he had painstakingly found but was also taken away by Nie Yi .
However, he also felt a bit of pride .
He had already contacted Nie Yi’s men, and many were dissatisfied with Nie Yi . If Nie Yi were to accidentally die… Why couldn’t Nie Yi just fall off the wall?
Qi Jingchen moved his eyes away from his book, taking a look at the nearby Su Haisheng, his lips hooking upwards .
He suddenly felt that tormenting Su Haisheng like this was rather nice, and even wanted to kill this guy slower…
Nie Yi had also looked at Su Haisheng a few times, but was starting to ponder how many cuts of that sizable body Su Haisheng could take .
Before his men went off to kill the zombies, Nie Yi had told them that they weren’t in a life or death crisis right now and didn’t have to stake their lives . They only had to protect themselves and kill as many zombies as possible . Thus, even though those people had killed many zombies, it wasn’t unusually much . Moreover, they began to methodically retreat after three hours when everyone was exhausted .
Even though those zombies hadn’t been completely wiped out, it still made the W County secure base civilians hopeful . After all, these people were still in their base . If they couldn’t kill all of them today, there was still tomorrow; if not tomorrow, there was still the day after .
“These people from B City are amazing! If it weren’t for them, we might just have to starve to death right here!” a middle-aged man said to the person next to him . They had already finished off their food and had no choice but to take a chance and head into the forest a few days ago, but ended up finding only bitter and unripe weeds to eat . Fortunately, while the weeds were hard to eat, it didn’t poison them to death…
“That’s right, thanks to them, after they clear out the zombies, maybe we can go home… Even though there are many zombies in the city, there’s definitely fewer in the countryside . My home is very st.u.r.dy and there’s a lot of firewood, rice, and noodles; maybe they’re still alive…” the person besides this man grew quiet .
“No matter what, I still have to go back to take a look . At this age, what’s the point of living without our wives or children?” the man who first spoke up said . They all came out from the rural areas to work, and had initially formed a companionship to return back home together when the apocalypse struck . In the end, there were more zombies on the road and they couldn’t continue, and ended up having to flee to this secure base .
“Yes ah…” Someone else sighed . “If we were as good as those people on the platform, at least we can protect our family and won’t starve to death . ”
The man who was the first to speak looked at the platform enviously, then back at the men who were retreating from killing zombies . He kept staring, then suddenly cried out, “Ol’ Liu, I think that’s Qi Yaoyao!”
He rather admired these people who left the base to kill zombies and was looking very closely, but never thought he’d actually recognise someone among them .
The person who recognised Qi Yaoyao was called Qi Weiguo, a distant cousin of Qi Yaoyao’s parents . However, the two families had bought their residences together, and became neighbours . He had watched Qi Yaoyao grow up, and had even had a meal with Qi Yaoyao and Qi Jingchen when Qi Yaoyao went to J City to play . Naturally, it was impossible for him not to recognise her .
“I think that’s her… How could Qi Yaoyao be here? Where’s her ge?” someone else asked .
When someone gained a foothold in the city, the other villagers would also follow them to the city and mutually look out for one another, which was how they came out of the village to work .
About a dozen of them left their hometown and came to J City . Everyone rented an apartment together, and after the apocalypse, some had died, and they had contacted some of the others, finally gathering many people with plans to return to their hometown together .
At that time, they had also contacted Qi Yaoyao and Qi Jingchen, but Qi Yaoyao said Qi Jingchen was sick and couldn’t go, so they didn’t bring them along . After all, two little girls and a sick person was just a burden on the road . Moreover, the neighborhood Qi Jingchen was living in was a bit far from the place they had rented .
As a result, they hid here and there and left J City . After they travelled for many days, they were stopped by a fiendish man who asked them where Qi Jingchen was .
They were scared witless and were only let go after providing Qi Jingchen’s location . Then, their group disintegrated and eventually ended up here .
More than half of them had died, and now there were only five people left . They had also thought that Qi Jingchen and Qi Yaoyao probably wouldn’t have survived, but never imagined that they would see Qi Yaoyao here .
Qi Yaoyao, this little miss who was so pampered she didn’t even know how to cook, actually could kill zombies?
These two were astonished, then cried out at the same time . “Yaoyao! Yaoyao!”
Qi Yaoyao was walking among the crowd when she suddenly heard her name being called . When she turned her head, she saw two familiar people waving at her .
Such a young little miss like Qi Yaoyao didn’t really contact the elders in the village she wasn’t close with, and didn’t recognise many of them . However, one of them was her neighbour after all…
“Uncle Weiguo?”
“Hey! It’s me!” Qi Weiguo immediately said .
Su Haisheng had people stop the civilians from coming close to those who were entering the city . Qi Weiguo couldn’t go over, but Qi Yaoyao could come to him . After she reached Qi Weiguo’s side, Qi Yaoyao looked at him, happily surprised . “Uncle Weiguo! It’s great that you’re okay!”
“I was lucky to survive . A little girl like you is really amazing, actually able to kill zombies!” Qi Weiguo said .
Qi Weiguo was delighted when he suddenly spotted Qi Yaoyao, and when those around him saw that he knew someone who could kill zombies, they looked at him in envy .
“I still have to rely on the protection of others,” Qi Yaoyao said .
“That’s still very amazing, I don’t even dare leave the base… Yaoyao, you didn’t awaken to an ability, right? Where’s your brother?” Qi Weiguo asked . Qi Jingchen was a very likeable youngster, and would come visit them when he had been studying in J City… With Qi Jingchen treasuring Qi Yaoyao so much, yet he wasn’t with her, he shouldn’t have…
Qi Yaoyao hesitated for a moment before saying, “I don’t have an ability, and… my ge is over there . ”
Qi Yaoyao was unexpectedly pointing at the platform on the city walls that no one was allowed near .