CHAPTER 111: SALTED FIVE-GRAIN WORM

Jinglai quietly pulled out a large bowl of rice and began to eat. She couldn’t help but recall what Jing Shu had said: "Third Aunt hasn’t been eating well these days, so Grandma has prepared the same meal for you as she did for my mom. My mom can’t finish it, so you might as well take it; otherwise, it would go to waste."

Tears welled in Jinglai’s eyes. Jing Shu is such a clever girl, she thought. She said those words just to protect my dignity, knowing I’m too proud to accept charity outright.

Otherwise, her sister-in-law gets four dishes every day. But to take care of me without making me stand out, they always mix my food together so no one can tell what I’m eating.

This meal was clearly prepared especially for me. I’ll remember this kindness. In critical moments, it’s always your blood relatives who truly care for you!

"Jinglai, your family has prepared a meal for you again? You’re really lucky. You get meals provided at work and still bring an extra one. Unlike me, I have to save half of every meal to take home, spending all my month’s work points on food for the kids."

Jinglai had tried to hide in a corner, but to her surprise, several people nearby still spotted her.

"Why does it smell so good? I even smell spare ribs! Let me see!" A person with a keen nose leaned in closer.

"No, you see, it’s just moldy brown rice." Jinglai graciously passed the bowl over. In the dim light, it only revealed a dark lump of rice.

"It smells so good; I even smell potatoes."

"You might be having an Illusion; even poop would smell good to you right now."

Jinglai quietly swallowed a piece of boneless meat and finished off the sesame-topped spare ribs and stewed potatoes hidden under the rice. "Hurry up and eat," she urged. "We need to go back up and finish dealing with the Five Grain Worms."

Only those working in the canteen could occasionally get a meal of white rice. The government kept a tight control on food supplies, so ordinary people had to exchange work points for cheaper relief rice.

「」

In the afternoon, when Mr. Jing drove to pick up Mrs. Jing from work, he gathered the family in the car and made a detour to Ai Family Supermarket to collect some water.

Jingshu’s house had traded for 5 tons of water last time, which they used to water plants and feed Domestic Poultry. Now, with various daily uses, only 3 tons remained. In the extreme temperatures, Jingshu’s house had to constantly make ice to place in the yard for cooling.

Otherwise, with the protective dome, it would become suffocatingly hot, and the fish in the pond couldn’t tolerate such high temperatures either. So, they had to claim the government-issued water, however little it was.

When they arrived at the Ai Family Supermarket again, tightly packed S-shaped queues were everywhere. People’s lips were cracked from dryness, yet they waited excitedly to enter the canteen. They all knew that for the upcoming Dragon Boat Festival, the canteen would offer an all-you-can-eat buffet for three consecutive days, ensuring everyone got a full meal. This news had excited countless people.

The line for collecting water was also very long. Thankfully, ten additional dispensers had been set up, so after collecting their water, people hurried to the dining area to queue.

A high wire fence separated the areas. In the faint light, the bustling canteen could be seen, alive with noise.

The government had really gone all out this time, using all the condiments they had gathered. The entire canteen was filled with various delicious aromas.

From afar, Jing Shu could see rows of tables neatly laden with pots of food. Behind each pot stood a person with a ladle, calling out:

"Try my Kung Pao Five Grain Worms! Tasty and delicious!"

"Dry-fried Five Grain Worms, you deserve this! Eat as much as you like!"

"Guangdong specialty, deep-fried Five Grain Worms! Come on, give it a taste! One spoonful isn’t enough? Let me add another for you, eat plenty!"

The canteen ladies had not only fixed their habit of shaking off most of the food with one scoop but were now zealously piling more into everyone’s bowl.

Everyone who came excitedly had thought that, at worst, they would be eating mushrooms. But upon seeing various maggots being cooked, they were stunned. The maggots in some pots were still moving, obviously not fully cooked.

In some pots, the maggots were chopped into a meat paste, which looked disgusting. Most of the maggots were still dirty and in their original color, clearly unprocessed.

"This doesn’t seem quite like what I imagined..."

"We were promised a buffet, and this is what you feed us? Can anyone even eat this stuff? Don’t tell me you scooped it out of a latrine!"

"This is going to make me puke!"

But there were also people who had been hungry for days. Attracted by the delicious smell, they didn’t care anymore, picked a few varieties that looked somewhat acceptable, and started eating.

At this moment, the cafeteria broadcast began: "Take only what you can eat. Everyone has a 30-minute time limit. If anyone is caught wasting food, reporting them will earn you 2 Virtual Coins, and the waster will be deducted 5 Virtual Coins. Anyone whose Virtual Coin balance falls to negative ten or lower will undergo labor reform!"

"To celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, Ai Family Supermarket will offer a Five Grain Worm buffet for three consecutive days, costing only 0.5 Virtual Coin per person. Moreover, each day, the top 10 citizens who eat the most will be selected and rewarded with 10 Virtual Coins each."

"At the same time, Ai Family Supermarket has added a Five Grain Worm recycling counter, buying them back at 0.5 Virtual Coin per kilogram, with no daily limit on quantity. Citizens are encouraged to catch more Five Grain Worms to exchange for Virtual Coins, which can be used for drinking water and white rice."

People now were different from how they were in the first two months of the apocalypse, a time when muddy water was considered undrinkable and white rice too monotonous.

After enduring hunger for one or two months, when faced with eating maggots, most people still chose to eat after a few minutes of hesitation, even though they found it psychologically unacceptable.

What choice did they have? They were both hungry and thirsty. Choosing white rice worth 2 Virtual Coins meant no water; choosing an extra bottle of water meant no meal. Now, even 0.5 Virtual Coins were precious. They had traded away all the clothes and bedding from their homes, and there was nothing left to trade even from the homes of the deceased. If they didn’t eat, they would starve. So, they ate. They had to, to survive.

Some of the women serving, seeing no one coming to their pots, steeled themselves, grabbed handfuls of maggots, and stuffed them into their own mouths. "Come and see, folks! What I have here is really tasty!" one of them would shout. Besides, if no one ate the food, they would have to finish it themselves.

The enthusiastic promotion by the servers and their vigorous efforts to distribute the food gradually led most people to accept it. However, their allotted time was up before they could eat their fill.

The bald man, seeing the bustling scene and the long queue outside, shouted through the loudspeaker, "Time’s up for this batch! Next group in!"

"This salt and pepper flavor is really delicious!"

Whether it was the high quality of the raw materials, the fragrance of the seasonings, or Gao Ming’s cooking skills, a dish of salted five-grain worm made a name for Ai Family Supermarket.

The line at Jinglai’s station was very long. While others hadn’t even finished one pot, the seven or eight pots she had prepared were already devoured, and those who tasted her cooking all wanted more!

"We’re out for today. Come back tomorrow!" Jinglai said contentedly, wiping her sweat.

The bald man patted Jinglai on the back. "You did very well. I’m promoting you to leader of Group One. Keep up the good work!"

「」

Jing Shu recognized the familiar scene. It was as if she saw her past self in the hesitation and fear on people’s faces as they gritted their teeth and accepted their fate. Yet in this life, she mused, without my realizing it, I’ve already changed my own destiny. I will never have to eat maggots again. How wonderful.

"Hurry up, get the water, and let’s go back to wrap zongzi," Grandma Jing said with a sigh, shaking her head. "We got through the famine back then the same way, eating whatever we could find."