Apocalypse: I have a supermarket stocked with supplies

Chapter 71: Vegetable porridge

Cheetah Team spent all their remaining money to the last penny.

Purchasing was satisfying, but hauling the goods back was even more so.

They left two people to guard the rice they purchased at the supermarket, while the rest shouldered bags of rice back to the cave.

The rain was still pouring heavily, but for the first time, they felt utterly carefree. Even the torrential downpour couldn’t douse the fiery excitement in their hearts as they carried the rice.

Each and every one of them was brimming with energy.

When the group returned to the cave with the rice, it drew a crowd of onlookers.

“Heavens! Is that rice?! Rice! Captain Xu! Where did you get rice!”

Captain Xu was too busy to engage in idle chatter. Cheetah Team had bought a lot of bags of rice, and plenty more were still in the supermarket—he was preoccupied with the rice left there, and dismissed the questions with a few perfunctory words before getting back to work.

They had to work fast. They were determined to transport everything back before nightfall.

“Captain Xu!” Liu Wutong brightened upon seeing the goods they had brought back, realizing it was the real deal.

After Xu Jiaoqin put down the rice she was carrying, she looked at Liu Wutong somewhat apologetically.

“I’m sorry about the sugar…”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. Who needs sugar when we have rice?” Liu Wutong’s eyes shone as she gazed at the rice on the ground.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on Ɲονǥ0.сο

Rice.

How many years had it been since they had eaten rice?

It was the same for Liu Piaoxu, her large eyes fixated on the rice.

So…

So much.

Was it all for eating?

Moved by Liu Piaoxu’s expression, Xu Jiaoqin’s heart softened.

“Wutong, go ask Sister Cui to lend us a pot—we’re eating rice tonight!” Xu Jiaoqin decisively made the call.

“Great!” Liu Wutong cheered with high spirits.

After borrowing a pot from Sister Cui with Liu Piaoxu, and leaving some people to watch over the rice they’d brought back, Xu Jiaoqin led the rest to haul the remaining rice from the supermarket.

Xu Jiaoqin’s estimation was spot-on; they had to work until dark to finish moving everything.

By nightfall, Liu Wutong had also managed to borrow a pot from Sister Cui, and cooked a large pot of rice. However, he added too much water, resulting in rice that was somewhat sticky and mushy.

But no one minded.

This was rice after all!

After so long without it, who would complain? Who dared to complain? Any complainers would be denied the meal.

Liu Piaoxu held her bowl, devouring the rice without looking up.

The rice was delicious.

In the end, they scraped the pot clean with their spoons, not leaving a single grain behind.

“I’m so full. The feeling of being full from eating rice is just too great!” Monkey said, cradling his stomach with a blissful expression as if he were about to ascend to heaven.

“Captain Xu, let’s have another meal of it tomorrow morning,” Monkey said, then felt hungry again after speaking.

“Let’s have porridge in the morning. We’ll borrow a pot from Sister Cui again. Add some vegetables to it—we can have a vegetable porridge.” Xu Jiaoqin was craving vegetables.

“Yeah!” Cheers erupted from the members of Cheetah Team.

“Right, Wutong, later on take a cabbage to Sister Cui.” Always borrowing Sister Cui’s pot required giving something back—Xu Jiaoqin understood this very well.

“But we haven’t even eaten that cabbage yet, and we’re giving one away?” Liu Wutong was reluctant.

“Yeah. Let’s not offend Sister Cui.”

“Sigh.” Reluctantly, Liu Wutong followed Xu Jiaoqin’s instructions. After eating and resting for a while, he went to Sister Cui with the cabbage.

Sister Cui’s eyes reddened at the sight of the cabbage.

Hearing Liu Wutong say it was for her, she immediately offered the pot for their use whenever they wanted.

Initially, Sister Cui had some complaints about borrowing her pot tonight, but seeing the fresh, plump cabbage, all her grievances vanished.

Once Liu Wutong left, Sister Cui immediately threw the cabbage into a pot, stir-fried it, and ate the whole thing with some base-supplied flatbreads.

The vegetables Xu Jiaoqin and her team had brought back weren’t many, and the overly damp weather made it easy for the produce to spoil if left out.

They weren’t willing to let the Ice Ability User simply freeze the vegetables solid, fearing that would ruin their tender flavors.

So the next day, when cooking congee, they put in all the vegetables. They certainly didn’t want their lovely vegetables to go bad.

As a result, the congee was chock-full of more vegetables than rice: green ones, white ones, red ones, purple ones…

It looked rather like some kind of nefarious cuisine.

But no one complained; each person squatted around the pot, guzzling the congee down at lightning speed.

Xu Jiaoqin even pulled Sister Cui in to join them.

As Sister Cui sipped the vegetable congee, she was so touched that she immediately decided she’d sneak a little extra to them when divvying up meals in the future.

From now on, she’d be an honorary member of the Cheetah Team.

A few bowls of vegetable congee had won them a favor.

Not bad at all.

Thanks to Boss Su.

Xu Jiaoqin, sipping her congee, sincerely thanked Su Yinhe.

Without Boss Su, there would be no congee to drink.

Boss Su, her living ancestor.

From now on, she would surely serve Boss Su well, protect the supermarket, protect Boss Su!

At this moment, what was Boss Su up to?

Boss Su had gained a new worry.

Ever since the second floor opened, people coming to the supermarket no longer lingered on the first floor for instant noodles.

They had a new favorite.

Rice and sparkly vegetables had become their darlings.

They had switched their affections.

Love hadn’t disappeared, but it had shifted.

Su Yinhe even saw someone start munching on a Napa cabbage right after checkout, tears streaming down as they bit into it, chanting, “Delicious.”

They had turned into die-hard fans of rice and vegetables, cruelly discarding instant noodles and compressed biscuits.

There was even someone who, holding instant noodles they had previously bought, asked Su Yinhe if they could swap them for cabbage.

To this, Su Yinhe replied with a curt “Scram.”

The man arrived clutching his instant noodles, and left still clutching them, only to return with a pile of compressed biscuits and pose the same ridiculous question.

He had spent all his Crystal Cores on instant noodles and compressed biscuits. Now he had no Crystal Cores left to buy the lovely vegetables and the adorable rice.

Su Yinhe continued to tell him to scram.

After being refused by Su Yinhe, he had no choice but to squat at the supermarket’s entrance. Whenever someone came out with rice and vegetables, he’d approach with his instant noodles and compressed biscuits to ask if they could trade.

The people who had managed to get their rice and vegetables, naturally, were not willing to trade.

They told him to scram.

He was very sad, drooling over others’ juicy vegetables.

The stared-at person: “…” Crazy!

Su Yinhe: “…”

Once the crowning glory, instant noodles were now ignored, a pitiful sight.

Su Yinhe took a bite of his mung bean-flavored popsicle, coming to grips with the fickleness of the world.

So annoying, truly so annoying.

Su Yinhe took another bite of the popsicle; it was really tasty.

While Su Yinhe bit into his popsicle, Lin Murong nibbled on a carrot, crunch, crunch, crunch, like a rabbit.

Today at the supermarket, he had already gnawed through twelve carrots.

Seeing others purchasing so many unpolluted vegetables had made him green with envy. He immediately cashed in all his Crystal Cores for money, bought a heap of vegetables, along with grains, oil…

And stashed them into Chi Yan’s space.

Chi Yan was the same. With a large stash of Crystal Cores, his shopping spree was even more frenzied than Lin Murong’s.

Because he was so rich, he didn’t just buy vegetables and grains; he had his eyes on other things too. Anything on the second floor of the supermarket that caught his fancy, he bought it all.