Chapter 126: Vegetables

Tang Jing's words gave everyone a bit of inspiration, but faced with the current situation, even the ever‑knowledgeable class monitor couldn't explain what was going on.

To get to the bottom of it, Chen Mu opened the top of the wooden box and then had Wei Dalei dump out everything inside.

As expected.

Sure enough, it was a whole box of potatoes.

Although we couldn't figure out where these potatoes came from for the moment, having this much food, and food that matched our size, was still a pleasant thing.

Of course, before we figured things out, nobody dared to just eat those potatoes.

"Let's open the other boxes and have a look."

Thirty‑six wooden boxes, spread on the ground, formed a huge pile, almost like a maze.

Chen Mu then walked to the box nearest him and did the same.

After opening it, however, he found it was also a box of potatoes.

Could they all be potatoes?

The first box was a surprise, the second a delight, but if all thirty‑six boxes were potatoes, we'd be a bit disappointed.

However, when the third box was opened, something different happened.

"It's rice!"

Chen Mu reached in, grabbed a handful, spread his palm, and let the grains slip through his fingers and over the edge of his hand.

Everyone could see clearly that they were indeed crystal‑clear, translucent grains of rice.

And just like the potatoes, they had been shrunk to match our current size.

So it seems.

Are these boxes all filled with food?

We had dumped the first two boxes of potatoes out to check them, but after the third box we stopped, fearing the contents would scatter and be hard to gather.

Chen Mu continued opening boxes.

The fourth box turned out to be carrots.

The fifth box was green peppers.

The sixth box was carrots.

The seventh box was tomatoes.

……

Only after all thirty‑six wooden boxes had been opened did everyone finally let out a long breath.

That really was a lot of physical work.

Although we had only dumped out two boxes, from what we could see, every box contained food.

Zhao Xiao Yan and Du Jia Jia kept count all the way.

Finally, the cargo was as follows:

Rice, 12 boxes;

Potatoes, 8 boxes;

Carrots, 3 boxes;

Tomatoes, 3 boxes;

Green peppers, 5 boxes;

Eggplants, 5 boxes.

Six kinds of food in total, all vegetables and grains.

If these things are actually edible, just going by the amount, there's already enough to feed everyone in Qiming for a long, long time.

The most important point is that this food has all been shrunk.

This makes people both excited and puzzled.

Chen Mu gazed at the wooden boxes casually placed on the ground, and for a moment he felt a bit dazed.

Du Jia Jia, as the head cook, feeling proud, put her hands on her hips and said, "Watch me make everyone a tasty meal today."

"You only know how to make flatbread?" Zhao Xiao Yan expressed doubt.

"You don't get the idea of extrapolating? As a beautiful girl with such culinary talent, I've long grasped the ultimate secret of cooking."

"What is it?" Everyone was quite curious.

"Just cook the food and then add seasoning!" Du Jia Jia said confidently, sharing the cooking secret she'd figured out from the pancake.

Honestly, that summary is so thorough it's as if nothing was said.

"Why don't you mention that some things can be eaten raw?" Zhao Xiao Yan retorted, annoyed.

Du Jia Jia laughed, "Heck, worst case I'll have Chen Mu teach me again—I'll pick it up fast."

That's actually a true statement.

Anyway, as far as flatbread goes, Du Jia Jia has already surpassed her teacher.

Tang Jing then said, "These things can't be eaten for now; we first need to figure them out."

"Yeah, yeah, it might even be scarier than GMOs."

"You don't get it—GMOs aren't scary at all."

"How do you know that?"

"And how do you know?"

……

This kind of topic used to be argued about all the time in our old class, but even with Tang Jing around, it usually ended up unresolved.

"Why not ask those two guys from Yi Zhong? They're guarding this stuff, so they'd probably know." Qian Fei, who is usually terse, would often just listen when others argued, but occasionally he'd cut straight to the heart of the matter others overlooked.

But looking at them, I doubt they'll say anything.

It's getting late today; let's talk tomorrow.

Dong Junwei glanced at the sky outside, asked Tang Jing, and at this time it was already past six in the evening; Du Jia Jia, who hadn't started dinner yet, rushed to the kitchen in a hurry.

Although there was suddenly a lot more food, we could only look at it, not eat it.

Du Jia Jia's enthusiasm for cooking today was actually rather low...

Dinner was still flatbread.

Although we had already grown a bit tired of it before, we didn't really dislike it, but now seeing so much abundant food beside us, everyone somehow found it hard to swallow.

In short, our mindset is a bit broken.

But there's nothing we can do; nobody dares to eat those things.

Originally, Qiming had a huge elliptical wooden table made by Chen Mu, which served as both a dining table and a meeting table.

But later, as the number of people increased, it could no longer seat everyone.

Therefore, Dong Junwei decided to keep the twelve-person meeting table and added three more tables that could each seat four people.

The specifications of the dining tables are similar to those of the school cafeteria.

They are the kind where the table and chairs are connected together.

Sixteen people normally could sit at four tables when eating, but now, although the two from Yi Zhong couldn't possibly join the table, the girl in the iron cage is naturally also from Ziwei High School, and she is very likely to become a companion.

While Du Jia Jia was preparing dinner, Chen Mu added another set of tables and chairs for four people.

At dinner time.

Seating is arbitrary.

And precisely because there are no fixed seats, sitting down to eat reveals certain things.

At first, Lu Shanshan and the other four newcomers always sat together.

And because they were used to discussing matters during meals, Dong Junwei, Tang Jing, Chen Mu, and He Ying often sat together as well.

But after several times, Dong Junwei felt this was not conducive to everyone integrating into the group and might even create cliques, so she took the lead in scrambling the seating, trying to have everyone change seats each day as much as possible.

At tonight's dinner, Chen Mu's tablemates were Tang Jing, Lu Shanshan, and Xue Xu.

Since the seating was scrambled, Xue Xu naturally became the least popular person during meals; his ability always makes people think of negative aspects, affecting their appetite.

But we can't always let him eat alone far away each time; that would clearly violate Qiming's code of conduct.

Therefore, Dong Junwei and Chen Mu will take the initiative to set an example, taking turns inviting him to sit with them.

"What about dinner for those two from Yi Zhong?" Chen Mu picked up a pancake with both hands from his plate, opened his mouth as wide as possible, and took a fierce bite.

Regarding interrogating prisoners, Tang Jing seemed to have an idea; since that was the case, Chen Mu didn't want to forcefully intervene.

"According to our standards, we should also prepare a portion for each of them." Tang Jing's eating manner was much more refined, and as she said this she looked very benevolent.

"I thought you would just throw two tomatoes at them, as a test to see if this food is edible."

"Do I look like someone who would conduct human experiments?" Tang Jing pursed her lips, a bit dissatisfied.

Chen Mu, Lu Shanshan, and Xue Xu exchanged glances with each other.

Then they all nodded together.