Chapter 186
Luo Xun preferred spicy tastes while Xu Mei and Song Lingling also did but not to the same extent. The two women stared at the other’s amazing iron stomach.
The plate of spicy fried rabbit meat attracted everyone’s attention, especially since all the bones had been removed. Every bite was filled with the rich taste of meat. The team grabbed a bowl of rice and stuffed their faces as if they had not eaten for a century.
Of course, the two ladies’ braised meat was also popular, especially Yu Xinran who could not eat the spicy dish. The bones were used in a large pot of fresh soup. After the food was swept clean, everyone drank soup and chatted.
Li Tie sat in his chair and soulfully looked at his bowl of soup, "Alas, if we could get something like this at base..."
"Don’t you have quails at home?" Wu Xin asked beside him.
Li Tie had not opened his mouth when He Qiankun shouted, "Quails have meat, but it’s not as good!"
When the need arose, they would slaughter some quail but they were reluctant, only one every few months. They could not bear it so they stuck with the eggs.
How would that have been enough meat? It was only everyone had more meat that they could sink their teeth into the food.
"Yes, that’s right! How about we try and raise more animals!" Li Tie’s words fired up the diners, their eyes wide with flushed faces.
"If we can raise some animals like the mutant ones we hunted, it would be enough for us to eat for a few months!"
"Yes! Now mutant animals are more common!"
Luo Xun did not rain on the excited group’s parade but as they started going into detailed plans, he coughed.
Seeing all the eyes turning to him, Luo Xun felt a mountain of pressure. "That...breeding mutant animals...is not possible. You have to take into account their power and size." Luo Xun helplessly added, "We could raise small pre-apocalypse animals but how could we do the same with those super large mutants?"
Zhang Yi had already finished his bowl of soup, naturally Wang Duo gave up his remaining half portion. "The bigger they are, the more one can eat."
The remark almost made the group spit out their dinner. Raising mutant animals was not practical, even if they really wanted to raise some, it would be best to find some ordinary animals, but in the current world...where would someone be able to find one?
Luo Xun and the others did not bring any quails or mealworms from home. On one hand there were too many and on the other they were afraid that something unexpected and they would freeze to death. So the rabbit solved their meat problem for a while.
The day after, Luo Xun set up a new task – He Qiankun need to find out if there was a place nearby to get glass. In fact, when they went out before, they wanted to bring all the intact glass at the solar panel factory, but they met the mutant dog and rabbit. While those two were fighting, many things were broken beyond repair.When Luo Xun checked afterwards, there was not a single piece of intact glass left.
They unloaded the wood inside the car and everyone’s work was settled for the next day. It was still Luo Xun cleaning up the shelves inside the planting room, Li TIe and company dealing with the wood so that the boxes could cultivate mushrooms. They were very familiar with this job so they were very efficient.
He Qiankun found a factory where there might be glass, it was also near when they went last time. After confirming there was no need for everyone to stay for work, the group of people drove out again.
This time the goal was the same – wood and metal as well as the two buried boxes. As for glass...it was further away and they could not spare the time for now so they had to postpone.
It took four days before they came back again. This time, although they did not hunt any mutant animals, there were unknown creatures in the distance. Some ran away while others perched on buildings. There were many differences in their size, appearance and behaviour compared to before. Since Luo Xun came out with other goals in mind, there was no time to bother these animals.
But knowing that spring had arrived and there were more traces of mutant animals, the group’s heart were very happy. After all, they were hopeful that they could replenish their pantry at home!
The group of greedy people brought back lumps of metal, wood and boards to continue with their tasks.
They had an especially large harvest, especially metal. In addition to the two balls controlled by Yan Fei, they had a lot of material tucked away in the car. They also brought back the two large boxes filled with solar panels, left in the tunnel ready for after the planting rooms were finished. They would be hung on the remaining walls to gather sunlight.
Early in the morning, the group leisurely washed up and returned to the basement to start the day’s work. The adults were all busy while Yu Xinran and Puppy guarded the little bun. The three children were on the ground floor in a cubicle to be changed into a planting room. However they had not brought enough seeds so work had been paused for the moment.
Yu Xinran played with the dog for a while. After she finished Xu Mei’s arranged homework, she tugged at Song Lingling, "Mother, I am hungry."
"Are you hungry or greedy?" Song Lingling asked as there was still a while before lunch.
"Hungry and greedy!" The little girl said, "I want to eat strawberry milk popsicle, so does Puppy!" She pulled the other to her side to help persuade Song Lingling.
"Just one, wait I’ll grab one for you." The so called popsicle was because there were milk fruit and strawberries at home so the two women came up with the idea. Anyway they had enough ingredients to make this delicious treat and was better than nothing.
Since they also made a considerable amount of strawberry jam, the adult’s cravings were also solved.
Yu Xinran ran back into the room with joy – she needed to take care of the dog and baby while the adults were busy. Although she would run out once in a while, she would soon return to her responsibility.
Everyone was busy when suddenly there was sound from the staircase. Li Tie raised his head in surprise as Song Lingling ran down with a pale face. "Quick! Get up! There are a lot of birds!"
"Bird! Zombie birds?!" All of a sudden everyone was nervous, they had experienced the horror of undead birds, how would they have come back in such a short time?!
"I don’t know, only that there are a lot flying in the sky!" Song Lingling took a deep breath before responding.
"I’ll call Luo Xun and the others!" The planting rooms on the ground floor had been dealt with and now the captain was busy on the second floor.
Hearing the news, the two men put down their work and ran back to the building. THey looked out the window and discovered – the problem was not as serious as they thought...at least for the time being.
The birds outside formed a dark cloud in the sky, but did not seem to have interest in their location, only passing by. Luo Xun held the telescope and whispered in relief, "Mutant birds, their bodies seem to relatively normal, about the size of Puppy but might have abilities. I think..."
"What?" The people asked quickly.
"Suspect they might be migratory birds." Luo Xun did not remember birds passing over the base in such a scale during his past life. Maybe this new place was distant enough from the base?"
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief while Luo Xun reminded them, "But since these birds are passing by, we’d better not go out for a while. We would need to wait even if we were back at base." He shrugged helplessly, "Remember the first mutant animal we met? It was a bird and their behaviour has changed. They may attack humans unprovoked so we should be careful."
Everyone nodded, even if they were greedy for roast duck, they needed to be alive to enjoy food! If there was only one, they might have been able to deal with it, but such a large group...similar to zombie hordes, who dared enter the ring?