Chapter 109: Setting Out Again

The upgraded hand grenade worked better than Chen Mu had imagined, even a bit too well, to the point that he almost committed the foolish act of killing a thousand enemies while damaging himself eight hundred.

He adjusted the size and number of the steel balls, and also had Dong Junwei make a batch of hand grenades with moderate power, so that the blast radius could be controlled.

Of course, the best method is still to seek cover after throwing.

Just like one must lie down after throwing a hand grenade.

After the experiment, Wei Dalei dragged the half-dead green worm and asked, 'What should we do? If we don't throw it away, it will attract ants.'

'Don't waste it; before discarding it, cut off some meat to improve our lunch.'

'This... eat worm meat?'

Several people already began to feel uncomfortable.

On the contrary, Tang Jing, being a girl, seemed unafraid and said, 'This is the larva of the cabbage white butterfly, also called the cabbage worm; it likes to attach to various leaves, and its meat should be relatively good. As Bei Ye would say, its protein content is several times that of beef, and moreover, if you've ever eaten stir-fried vegetables, you've probably already eaten a few of these worms.'

Not only did this not calm everyone down, it made them feel even worse.

Tang Jing simply went all out: 'Actually, this is nothing; according to probability statistics, each person will eat a few live cockroaches and countless mosquitoes in their lifetime.'

'Why?' Zhao Xiao Yan almost jumped up.

'Because when people sleep, their mouths sometimes unconsciously open, and if a cockroach happens to crawl to the edge of your mouth, you might unconsciously close your mouth and chew it, then swallow. Sometimes when you wake up you have a strange taste in your mouth, which might be the reason.'

Ugh...

Before Tang Jing could finish speaking, several people couldn't take it anymore.

Even Chen Mu felt his stomach churning.

'Stop saying that, Tang Jing.'

'I suddenly think eating worm meat is also quite good.'

'Yeah, cut the meat into strips, grill it on the iron plate; anyway you can't tell it's worm, just treat it as pork.'

'Put that way, it actually sounds not bad.'

……

Perhaps because there was something even more disgusting to compare with, everyone suddenly found it easy to accept eating worms.

Chen Mu glanced at Tang Jing, saw she also happened to be looking over, and gave her a thumbs-up.

The green worm that had just died still had fresh meat.

Chen Mu seized the moment to cut several whole pieces of meat from its back, then had Wei Dalei throw away the carcass.

……

Testing the hand grenade actually yielded an extra gain; that's really not bad.

After returning to the room, it was almost lunchtime.

Every meal tasted like instant noodles, and everyone finally got a bit sick of it.

Nowadays we don't even seek to improve the meals; as long as they're changed, it's fine.

Although we had new ingredients, Du Jia Jia stared at the meat strips in front of her, feeling a bit dazed, she turned to Chen Mu beside her and asked, 'How should we cook this?'

Chen Mu laughed and said, 'To be honest, I'm also making worm meat feast for the first time; this kind of meat would be better for grilling, but we actually have no choice—other than iron-plate grilling, it's still iron-plate grilling.'

Fact proved it.

High-end ingredients usually only need the simplest cooking method.

After being grilled on the iron plate, the worm meat strips quickly gave off an alluring aroma; this time Du Jia Jia didn't use instant noodle sauce, but only sprinkled some seasoning powder while cooking.

After the first piece of meat was cooked, Chen Mu volunteered to try it.

Although the others were attracted by the aroma, they still ended up a bit hesitant.

Only after seeing Chen Mu bite into it mouthful after mouthful, eating it with great relish, did they make up their minds.

Who would have thought that worms could be so delicious.

'It would be even better with some vinegar,' Qian Fei, a Shanxi native, remarked after taking a bite of the meat.

'It would be best with some chili oil and sugar garlic.'

'Soy sauce works too.'

'Actually, just sprinkling salt would make it tasty; it's a pity the seasoning packet still tastes like instant noodles.'

In terms of texture, the current meat is somewhat coarse, but the meat everyone had before was only dried beef cubes, whose flavor is far inferior to this.

Everyone gathered around Du Jia Jia's iron-plate stove; as soon as a piece was grilled, it was snatched away.

Because the amount of meat strips was large and we couldn't leave them raw to spoil, we had to cook them all; Du Jia Jia busily worked for a full hour before finishing grilling all the meat strips.

'The remaining portion can be air-dried and eaten as jerky.'

Sixteen people completely treated the meat as lunch, yet they only ate about one-fifth of it.

The rest must be properly stored.

……

The afternoon was also busy.

Besides making hand grenades for carrying outdoors, Chen Mu also optimized everyone's weapons, first having Lu Shanshan reduce their weight, then Chen Mu carried out the modifications and repairs.

The most obvious example is Wei Dalei; his set of Opening Mountain Axe and large iron shield, after being reduced by half in weight, became effortless to wield in his hands, and his speed increased somewhat.

And He Ying's short sword, which was already known for its lightness, felt even lighter than nothing in her hand at this time.

Finally, he also remade a flatbed cart.

Not only did its cargo capacity greatly increase, but the enlarged tires also made it easier to travel on rough roads.

Everything was ready.

……

Early the next morning.

Five people were fully equipped and ready to depart.

Dong Junwei expressed blessings on behalf of those who stayed behind, and held a simple farewell ceremony.

Chen Mu thought for a moment, then quietly said to Dong Junwei: "If we haven't returned in five days, class monitor, you and Tang Jing should consider the livelihood of the remaining people."

That was a bit disheartening.

But it's quite realistic; not to mention the various dangers of nature, just the Yi Zhong side alone has enough power to wipe them out several times over.

One should always prepare for the worst.

Dong Junwei originally wanted to say a few comforting words, but when they reached her lips she didn't speak them, and finally sighed: "I know."

Afterwards.

The gate was opened.

Wei Dalei pushed the cart forward at the front, with those behind closely following.

Taking advantage of Little Yellow's absence, the five quickened their pace and left.

That cat was especially gentle with Du Jia Jia, but who knows how it would treat others—if they were even scratched by their own guardian beast before leaving the gate, that would be dying before achieving anything.

Behind them, the heavy gate was slowly closed.

Chen Mu looked around the four people, especially saying to Lu Shanshan and Xue Xu: "Rest assured, as long as you follow my arrangements, nothing will happen."

"Hmm."

Lu Shanshan nodded: "But where are we going?"

As for the itinerary arrangements, Chen Mu had only discussed them with Tang Jing, Dong Junwei, and He Ying; even Wei Dalei didn't know, not because he distrusted the others, but because knowing would be useless.

Chen Mu pointed toward the cafeteria.

"Knowing yourself and the enemy ensures better survival; it's time to see what those people from Yi Zhong are really up to."