Ch77 In the Apocalypse, Manners Don't Matter
"Shen Que, Shen Que."
Meng Ci woke up to find it was already past three in the afternoon.
He wondered how Shen Que's cold was progressing. What if the high fever hadn't broken and he'd passed out from exhaustion?
So Meng Ci grabbed the walkie-talkie and started calling out.
"Huh? What is it?"
Thankfully, Shen Que's voice came through the walkie-talkie soon after.
"Nothing, just checking if you're awake." Meng Ci thought to himself-he couldn't very well say he was checking if Shen Que was dead.
"The pickled cabbage I made following Teacher Mao's recipe a few days ago is ready to eat. I'm planning to make pickled cabbage fish. Want to come over for dinner?"
"Sure." Shen Que agreed.
The weather had grown colder these past few days, and Meng Ci decided he couldn't keep putting himself through hardship.
He moved the coffee table out of the living room, retrieved a stove from his storage space, assembled it, and lit the fire.
He placed the rabbits beside the stove. Several of the little bunnies had already opened their eyes; they'd likely be hopping around in a few days.
Meng Ci had originally planned to sleep in the living room that night too, keeping the stove burning all day.
But fearing he might be poisoned by gas in his sleep, he had to abandon that idea.
So after waking up, Meng Ci first stoked the stove with firewood. Then he took a fish from the bucket where he'd replaced the previous one and placed it on the stove.
After feeding the rabbits and getting the firewood burning, Meng Ci added two pieces of coal to the stove before starting to prepare the fish.
The rice was cooking on the gas stove in the kitchen.
Not wanting to bother with other dishes, Meng Ci picked a bunch of greens from the flowerpot and simply tossed them into a cold salad.
While the fish simmered on the stove, a knock sounded at the door. Meng Ci opened it to find Shen Que standing there, carrying a plastic bag.
Handing the plastic bag to Meng Ci, Shen Que explained, "I had some mung beans, so a few days ago I soaked them in water and sprouted them. See if you can use them."
"Sure."
Taking the bean sprouts, Meng Ci boiled some water, blanched them, then placed them in a basin. Once the fish was cooked, he poured it directly into the basin.
The fragrant boiled fish was ready. The two of them huddled over the stove and ate.
After finishing, Shen Que left. Meng Ci began processing the fish in the bucket.
There were thirty fish in total. Meng Ci planned to salt-cure twenty of them, tie them with string, and give ten to Shen Que.
Later, he could tie a stick to the balcony and hang the fish up to air-dry.
For the remaining ten fish, Meng Ci simply scaled and gutted them before stashing them in the refrigerator.
In another ten days or so, a blizzard would arrive. The refrigerator would become unnecessary, and there would be no need to worry about the fish spoiling.
As for the fish they had caught earlier, Meng Ci also salt-cured them. After air-drying, he stored them in his personal storage space.
Should they ever need anything in the future, they could trade these fish with others.
That evening, the two of them went to the hotel to retrieve the remaining belongings.
Since half a pig remained among the items, they invited Shen Que to their home over the next few days to process the pork.
They cut half the meat into strips weighing about five jin each.
Heating the salt in a pan, they added star anise, Sichuan peppercorns, and other spices, stir-frying them over low heat for a minute before setting them aside.
First, they brushed both sides of the strips with white wine. Next, they evenly coated them with the seasoned salt. Finally, they applied a mixture of light and dark soy sauce.
The marinated strips were placed in a basin, covered with plastic wrap, and turned every few hours. After about three days of marinating, they were hung up to air-dry.
The remaining half of the pork still weighed fifty pounds.
Meng Ci cut ten pounds and gave it to Yun Jingcen and the others.
Now that both groups were tied together like grasshoppers on a string, it couldn't hurt to foster better relations.
Besides, Mao Xinyu and the others were knowledgeable, teaching Meng Ci and Shen Que many vegetable-growing techniques.
Moreover, whatever Yun Jingcen and his group gathered outside would be shared with Meng Ci and Shen Que.
Of the remaining forty pounds of meat, Meng Ci kept twenty pounds. He cut it into small pieces, bagged them, and stored them for stir-frying on ordinary days.
With the rest, Meng Ci simply simmered a pot of braising liquid, stewing the meat until tender for easier consumption.
Naturally, all this meat was split evenly with Shen Que.
Shen Que, however, gave some of the meat back to Meng Ci. "My cooking isn't good. Keeping it would just be a waste."
"Keep this meat with you. When you cook, just call me over to eat."
Meng Ci was more than happy to oblige-didn't this increase their chances to interact?
Over the next few days, Meng Ci tended to the vegetables, fed the rabbits, and occasionally used practice sessions as an excuse to get a little too close to Shen Que.
The little rabbits, sensing the warmth outside, would sometimes venture out for a spin, hopping and bouncing around the room.
But they were so tiny that Meng Ci worried he might accidentally step on it before it grew bigger.
So Meng Ci gathered some cardboard boxes and built a barrier around the rabbit cage.
This way, the little rabbits had space to move around without the risk of being stepped on.
Life was sweet and comfortable, making it easy to grow complacent.
Fearing the cold, Meng Ci's activity level dropped significantly beyond his daily sparring sessions with Shen Que.
Sometimes, a meal and a few snacks from the storage space were all he needed.
That morning, just past nine o'clock, Meng Ci was still sleeping in bed when he suddenly heard residents shouting outside.
"Ah! The rain has finally stopped, woo woo woo..."
"This inhuman ordeal is finally over!"
Meng Ci grabbed his phone to check the date: December 18th.
On this day, the torrential rain paused. People cheered, believing the downpour had ended and hope had arrived.
Little did they know that tomorrow, acid rain would follow.
The end of the downpour wasn't the end-it was only the beginning.
It was still early, and with nothing urgent to do, Meng Ci curled back under the covers, planning to catch some more sleep.
It wasn't until eleven o'clock that Meng Ci finally climbed out of bed.
Life in the apocalypse was great -as long as you stockpiled enough food, you could just slack off and sleep in as late as you wanted every day.
After getting up, Meng Ci heated the stove, pulled out a portion of crayfish, a bowl of steaming rice, and a plate of cold cucumber salad from his storage space. He opened his tablet and found a TV series to watch.
After finishing his meal, he stuffed the empty containers and other trash into a plastic bag, opened the balcony window, and tossed it straight down.
After the downpour, people initially hoarded garbage indoors. Once it started stinking, they dumped it in the stairwell.
Gradually, the stairwell trash began obstructing passage and became unbearably foul, prompting everyone to start tossing their garbage out the windows.
Of course, there was another crucial reason for the intense stench. After the tap water stopped, the building's sewage system clogged up, with toilets backed up layer by layer all the way to the seventeenth floor.
So many residents defecated and urinated indoors, then stored it in plastic bags-naturally, it became unbearably foul.
Even if they carried the trash downstairs, it would just be dumped into the water and carried away by the flood. Why expend energy climbing up and down?
Besides, in the apocalypse, manners don't put food on the