Chapter 33: Flour and Seasonings

Li Hewei and his group of over ten people stood in place, all watching the fading silhouettes of Chen Mu and his two companions, faintly still able to hear their chatter and laughter.

After a long while, a girl finally spoke: "Are they still going to the cold storage?"

"There's a lot of meat there," a boy said, licking his lips.

"What's so great about meat? Are we supposed to eat it raw? Don't forget, we're already eating raw grains, and many have gotten sick from it." Li Hewei said, feigning disdain.

"That's not certain; you didn't see they even have grenades, so being able to light a fire and cook rice isn't surprising."

"Barbecued meat..."

As soon as those two words were spoken, the scene fell silent.

One could almost hear the sound of swallowing saliva.

"Damn it, I used to hate barbecue and hot pot, but just thinking about it now makes my mouth water."

"Holy shit, can you stop saying that?!"

"Spicy skewers, mala hot pot, beef noodles, sour cabbage fish..."

"Damn, why are you so low?"

"Enough, let's hurry and move the stuff—don't you know how dangerous this place is?"

Li Hewei interrupted their uproar.

"If only we had their vehicle." Someone complained while carrying things.

"Who wouldn't want that? But we have so many people, and not a single one is an ability user—can we even beat them?"

"Come to think of it, look at Ziwei High School—they actually sent such a formidable person out personally to find food, while we..."

"Exactly, that big guy is probably even stronger than Qi Bing, but look at Qi Bing—aside from showing off against us, what has he actually done?"

"The one throwing grenades looks like an expert too; from his tone he seems like a supervisor, and they're all personally out foraging for food..."

"How can the gap between people be so huge? Look at Qi Bing and his gang—they're practically acting like emperors..."

"Alright, let's stop talking nonsense..."

Li Hewei tried to quiet them while flipping through the vegetable pile, hoping to pick out fresher parts, but as he yanked off a leaf, a black whip lashed out before his eyes.

"Holy shit! A cockroach!"

"Be careful!"

"Run!"

In an instant, everyone scattered and fled.

……

……

Chen Mu and his two companions continued forward toward the Steam Rice Room.

"Boss, the cold storage you mentioned earlier—is that where they keep the meat?" Wei Dalei likewise swallowed, his mouth watering.

This guy is clearly a meat-lover; these past days have indeed been tough on him.

"Well, I was just lying to them—meat is harder to store than vegetables in this weather, and the smell easily attracts other carnivorous animals."

"Oh." Wei Dalei sighed helplessly.

"Once we get flour and salt, plus this celery, our food situation will improve a lot; as for meat, I've thought about it, and the best solution is still hunting."

"Kill ants?"

Wei Dalei recalled what Chen Mu had said before; he obviously wasn't enthusiastic about the idea—ants look like nothing but shells, with hardly any meat.

"Of course, you can also eat worms—like that earthworm the other day, which is actually a decent source of meat."

"Ugh..."

Before Wei Dalei could speak, Zhao Xiao Yan began to gag.

"Do we really have to eat earthworms?"

"I'm just giving an example; even if we ate earthworms, it wouldn't be like you imagine—remove the entrails, grill them on an iron plate, then dry them. As dried meat, I think it'd be pretty good."

Having said that.

Zhao Xiao Yan felt she could probably accept that.

"If we can't get meat soon, we'll have to find some edible oil." Chen Mu added.

"Exactly, no wonder I've been feeling unable to eat lately—there's no oil in my diet." Wei Dalei patted his belly.

Zhao Xiao Yan gave him a sideways glance: "You call that not being able to eat? Du Jia Jia's daily rice cakes—half of them go into your stomach."

Wei Dalei gave a foolish hehe laugh: "I burn through a lot."

Zhao Xiao Yan was amused by his antics, but knowing he spoke the truth—Wei Dalei handles over half the team's physical labor, so eating a lot is only natural.

She sometimes suspected that his special ability was just a food‑burning machine.

Others need to sleep after their spiritual energy is depleted, but for him, just eating his fill is enough.

The three chatted as they drew nearer to the Steam Rice Room.

Chen Mu occasionally glanced behind and around with the corner of his eye—on one hand to keep random junk from approaching, on the other to see if those people had followed them.

The Steam Rice Room.

As the name suggests, it's a place for steaming rice, but it's actually more than that—almost any kind of steaming cooking is done here, including but not limited to steamed buns and pastries.

To prevent moisture, the flour and rice stored here aren't plentiful, but to Chen Mu and the others, it's like a mountain of rice and an ocean of flour.

Besides that, on a table in the corner sit various bottles and jars of seasonings.

But only now did Chen Mu realize this trip wasn't going smoothly.

The flour was fine—unopened sacks lay on a wooden board placed on the ground.

But those seasonings might as well have been castles in the air.

Chen Mu outright dismissed the idea of climbing up,

Initially, taking the cake during the adventure was out of necessity, but now, although salt is important, it hasn't yet reached a life-or-death situation.

In fact.

He still had another option: using his ability to gradually gnaw away at one leg of the table, causing the whole table to tip over and knock the seasoning cans off.

But this has two problems.

First, the fallen table would be like heaven collapsing and earth splitting for them; the three of them would very likely be struck by the table and the objects scattering from it.

Second, the table leg is about as thick as a dozen people could embrace; even if Chen Mu could slowly gnaw it to the point of tipping, his mental energy would be largely depleted, but the return journey is fraught with danger and he still needs his Golden Bell Cover to survive, so this clearly cannot be done.

"What should we do?" Wei Dalei obviously also disagreed with Chen Mu taking another risk for this salt.

"Forget it, we'll think of a way to get the salt later; first, let's bag the flour."

Of the two plastic pieces brought along, one is for self-defense, the other is for holding things now.

Chen Mu compared the size of the flatbed truck, skillfully made a large plastic square bucket, then pushed the truck next to the flour bag.

Wei Dalei had already run up, raised the Wolf-tooth Club, and used the spikes on it to continuously rub the sturdy woven bag.

Soon an opening was torn in it.

The flour instantly poured out.

Although the amount was small, it was already enough to bury Wei Dalei, but he was agile at the moment and swiftly dodged to the side.

"Here! Old Wei."

Chen Mu tossed him a plastic shovel.

Wei Dalei caught it smoothly and began shoveling the flour scoop by scoop, his movements practiced and swift.

That sight.

It resembled a construction worker shoveling yellow sand into a dump truck on a worksite.