novelraw Chapter 709: Organizing Supplies
Chapter 709: Organizing Supplies
For this reason, the whole family began to brainstorm. The RV’s security measures were extremely stringent. Fortunately, they had acquired some special materials with metal memory from Qian Duoduo. These materials transformed into octopus-like supports for the RV, making it highly resistant to overturning or tilting, even in extreme situations. This removed a major hassle.
"Alright, it’s getting late," Mr. Jing said. "Those who have work tomorrow should go. We can think more about this when you come back. My wife and I still need to sort out everything everyone needs for tomorrow, so let’s get some sleep early."
Jing Shu knew all too well the difficulties and problems they could encounter on the migration route. However, since circumstances had changed in this life, even Jing Shu couldn’t afford to be careless. So, despite being swamped, she kept mulling over the migration preparations.
「The next day,」 the Jing Family began to tally and organize everything required for the migration journey. Jing Shu was on hand to help and see what was missing. Next, they needed to pack all the items they wouldn’t need immediately, getting everything ready to take with them.
For packing items for the migration, Jing Shu specially brought in a batch of large, square storage boxes made from long hair. They were incredibly sturdy and completely airtight, impervious to insects, which couldn’t penetrate them, making them resistant to damage on the road. The downside was their heaviness, but with the Hulk around, that wasn’t an issue.
The first category was clothes. Since Jing Shu had declared that anything could be taken, Grandma Jing, along with Mr. Jing, packed up all the lighter clothing in the house. They stored them in big boxes, piling them up. Previously, they wouldn’t have considered taking these, but now, as Grandma Jing put it:
"Who knows? It might get extremely hot after this phase, so we mustn’t discard any of these. Besides, these clothes are all out of production now."
They also tallied wearable thicker clothes and bedding, marking each big box with a number and listing the owner and contents of each numbered box. This would make it easier to find things later on.
Thanks to Jing Shu’s frantic pre-apocalypse purchases, there were several sets of various types of thick clothes, autumn trousers, cotton pants, and camel hair clothes for everyone. Just the garments Jing Shu had bought for herself in various sizes could fill dozens of big boxes. After so many years, she hadn’t even worn some of them! And there was still a stash in her space.
Bedding, however, was in shorter supply. With many members in the family and such items being consumables, it was fortunate that the family had grown cotton. Grandma Jing had raised silkworms for several years and produced some silk bedding. She had also carded cotton to make cotton quilts. But even with that, in total, they only had a few extra sets of warm and comfortable bedding.
Grandma Jing wrapped them all securely in multiple layers before placing them in the storage boxes.
Then there was the task of packing all sorts of various unused miscellaneous items into boxes. Each person had several boxes to pack, and Jing Shu, as usual, had the most. After all, she always felt that these items, too, were out of production, and she couldn’t bear to throw away her old toys.
Numerous daily necessities and supplies were also organized. This included typical items like facial cleansers, toothpaste, shampoo, and cosmetics, as well as toilet paper—Jing Shu had recently bought thousands of rolls—and other consumables stockpiled by the case. Some had expired, but they would make do. These were now all packed into boxes, with only a few frequently used items left out.
Jing Shu placed a batch of each item into her space because there were simply too many things. If she encountered any trouble on the road and lost her possessions, she would be in a real bind, and Jing Shu never liked putting all her eggs in one basket.
In the villa’s second-floor study, there was a room full of various supplies: all outdoor items, including various alcohol stoves, lighters, tents, windproof clothing, stove racks, and so on. Half were stored in her space, and the other half were packed into boxes out in the open, so they could be used legitimately during the migration.
There was also a basement full of food, which Jing Shu planned to divide into three parts: one portion to be stored in a secret chamber dug into the mobile villa at the Red Worm Factory, one portion to carry on the road, and one portion to store in her space.
Actually, the supplies in her space far exceeded the openly declared ones. Jing Shu preferred storing items in her space because they didn’t expire and stayed freshest there. For instance, many shampoos and similar items were kept in her space. She would restock them from there when the externally stored supplies ran low. This way, even if the expiry date passed, they were actually still fine.
Beyond that, Jing Shu had another batch of goods, mostly brought from the United States or the Imperial Capital. The premium items were for their own use; ordinary food and supplies were generally given as gifts during festivals. Otherwise, giving away gifts that were too extravagant wouldn’t be appropriate. Besides, the Jing Family had gotten accustomed to consuming their own homegrown products (actually, products nourished by the Spiritual Spring), and eating anything else seemed bland and unappetizing to them.
After sorting through these miscellaneous items, they truly began cooking all the food. Since they didn’t know how long they would be on the road and anticipating the inconvenience of cooking on the move, they tried to cook as much as possible.
As for flour, they directly made it into steamed buns, filled buns, wontons, and dumplings. Or, for something slightly more troublesome, they made thin egg noodles, chewy alkaline noodles, or dragon whisker noodles. Thanks to Grandma Jing’s drying process, these could be kept for a year and a half without problems, and they could be cooked anytime they wanted noodles.
Possibly during the migration, when visitors with whom they had good relations came by, the Jing Family would always ask, "Want some noodles? I’ll boil some for you."
As for rice, they could also make quite a variety of dishes. For example, there were crispy rice snacks, which were Jing Shu’s favorite, available in crab roe flavor, turkey flavor, and savory scallion stir-fry flavor, to name a few. Alternatively, they could make rice noodles and rice vermicelli. These, once dried, could also last for several years. When someone was hungry, a quick soak followed by adding a "luxury set"—shrimp, stuffed tofu, Wanzi, sliced meat, chopped peppers, all drizzled with sauce—would be perfect.
In Wu City, there was also a special local snack called sizzling stir-fried rice noodles. Chicken or beef and celery were stir-fried, mixed with soybean sauce and chili, and then added to rice noodles—the taste was simply superb.
After the rice noodles were ready, Grandma Jing also prepared several jars of chicken sauce and beef sauce, which could be served with the rice noodles along with chicken legs and eggs, making it both simple and delicious.
Grandma Jing had also learned a trick: sealing cooked rice and freezing it, which could preserve it for a long time. Reheating it in the microwave later also made it very tasty. Jing Shu didn’t need to go to such trouble, as she would directly steam it and then store it in her space.
During the upcoming migration, Jing Shu would mostly eat the provisions from her own space, which were fresh, hot, and delicious. Besides, freezing would inevitably affect the taste. No helping that. But with her advantages, she could afford to be this particular.
The entire Jing Family swirled around like a top, and Jing Shu spun like a Vajra. Currently, Jing Shu only slept five hours a day, so busy her feet barely touched the ground.
Besides taking four hours out to practice with the Magic Cube, urging it to upgrade quickly, Jing Shu also needed to rapidly cultivate the Hulk. The cultivation method, simply put, was to let them relentlessly fight and devour each other until they matured. Which was not so simple either.