I Am Cultivating in the Apocalypse

Chapter 793: Secret Recipe Szechuan Pepper Chicken

"Danai, how much longer until our Medicine Association and medical team can get to the South Sea?"

"President Jing, we’ll be there in about ten days. However, because we have a large number of people and are transporting precious medicines and equipment, it will take at least half a month to get everything settled."

Jing Shu pondered for a moment, calculated the time, and then said, "Okay, use my Contribution Points to post a mission on the internal platform.

I need an experienced elite medical team of ten members. We’ll depart next month, and the mission will last about three months. Meals and accommodation will be provided, along with a late-night snack. The base salary will be ten times the usual points, and for every medical service handled, payment will be double the standard rate on the price list.

Oh, and don’t forget to add the danger level: high risk."

"Ten—ten times the points? My God, President Jing, Boss Jing, can I sign up too?" came Wang Danai’s excited voice.

"Aren’t you afraid of the danger?" Jing Shu laughed.

"Of course I am, but Boss Jing, you’re offering so much! Plus free food, lodging, and a late-night snack! Who could resist such benefits?"

Wang Danai had already started calculating on the other end of the phone, figuring that this one job could earn her three years’ worth of points from working. After surgeries or bandaging, depending on the difficulty, she could still get extra points. These were points from inside the Medicine Association—life-saving stuff! She was sure that as soon as the mission was posted, people would be fighting over it, and it would definitely attract real doctors with skill and experience. Speaking of which, Boss Jing really does have points to burn. Nobody in the entire Medicine Association is as rich as Boss Jing.

"All right then, go ahead and post the mission! I want to filter out the best; otherwise, these points will be wasted. I need to confirm the slots within ten days at the latest!

Also, I’ve sent you a list of medicaments and the medical equipment we need to rent. Some of the drugs I have stored at the Medicine Association—if we don’t have them, use my points to buy."

As Jing Shu spoke, she checked her Contribution Points in the Medicine Association. She had something like several million points and had already unlocked level-five clearance within the Association. This allowed her to rent valuable medical equipment and use internal points to hire doctors to serve her.

This time, hiring a medical team and buying medicine would probably cost about one-tenth of her points. Hmm, it seemed pretty cost-effective.

"Okay, okay."

After ending the call, Wang Danai looked at the list and couldn’t help exclaiming, "My goodness, how many patients are you preparing to take on?"

...

...

Wu City’s cold spicy shredded chicken was made with eco-raised chickens, boiled and then crucially soaked in ice water—this step ensured the chicken skin was crisp and tender, the soul of the dish.

The chicken was then hand-shredded into small pieces and drizzled with a secret sauce made from dozens of Chinese herbs. It was mixed with sliced onions, green chilies, and spring onions. The combination was numbing but not overpowering, spicy but not too hot, with skin that was crispy and meat that was tender and chewy. The dish was fragrant and had a long-lasting aftertaste.

If the sauce was served with hand-pulled noodles, on a hot and muggy day, a bowl of these cold, spicy noodles would be absolutely delicious.

Jing Shu made fifty of them in one go, keeping half in her space and packing the other half into boxes.

The remaining one hundred chicken feet were deboned by Jing Shu to make sour and spicy boneless chicken feet with lemon, and the bones weren’t wasted—they were all consumed by the fat chicken.

Afterwards, Jing Shu made a large bucket of chocolate milk tea hotpot with taro balls, red beans, and pearls. She also prepared homemade toppings like cheese, coconut, purple sticky rice, crispy poppers, and rice mochi.

Considering that person’s appetite, Jing Shu brought an extra few dozen kilos of dried noodles.

Finally, she spent two hours making an 18-inch cake. The exterior was decorated around the edge with strawberries and cream, and the inside was engraved with the crooked words "Happy Birthday." After simply packaging it, Jing Shu gathered the ingredients. She also collected another cart full of preservable goodies like yogurt balls, stewed meat, spicy crayfish, rainbow candies, chocolates, and more, then left with the Hulk.

Outside the Red Flag, a light rain was drizzling. Dock Port remained bustling with activity. People were catching insects and unloading cargo; it was a place with constant comings and goings of people and goods day in and day out.

Near the impoverished residential area of Dock Port, there was a street known as Dark Food Street. Astonishingly, it housed more than a dozen restaurants. What was even more curious was that the place was quite crowded.

In the dim light, the signs were unclear, so these shops didn’t have names. They all simply displayed the food they sold and a kerosene lamp at the entrance.

The first shop featured fist-sized, black-and-white patterned balls of mud. You couldn’t deny the balls were well-rounded and smooth, but their surfaces, covered with hairy, black, long, thin legs, were quite disconcerting to look at.

Next to it was a piece of cloth, with writing made from what seemed to be rotten corpse insect juices:

"Cockroach Meatballs, one to fill you up, only 1 Virtual Coin each."

Jing Shu stroked her chin. Was this the person from the group looking for Cockroach Meatballs franchisees? Hey, their business seemed to be doing quite well. She wondered if this seller of Cockroach Meatballs was one of those highly combative New Humans who would also be going to the Middle East this time. A vague image of a cockroach mutant flashed through her mind, but... she had heard he was protected like a national treasure and probably wouldn’t be assigned such a dangerous mission. So, the one in the group might just be an agent.

The second store was selling green algae cakes, a gooey and soft food resembling snot. A few kids squatted at the shop’s entrance, each taking a bite and chewing on it for a long time without being able to break it down, like chewing on rubber bands. It seemed more like a snack to nibble on.

The third was selling something Jing Shu was very familiar with: fattened fish. These were genetically modified giant fish whose flesh was extremely tough and had an overpowering smell. It was like chewing on wood chips—rough on the throat. If bought, it could be ground up to make a fishy mush to drink. The taste... well, it was even more challenging than eating fish mint; people unaccustomed to it would vomit at the mere smell.

In short, all the food on Dark Food Street shared one characteristic: it was both unsightly and unappetizing.

Jing Shu walked up to the fourth shop.

There, she saw several two-meter-long carcasses of giant insects hanging at the entrance.

People crowded around the insect carcasses, discussing them. Someone wanted the pincers, saying they had guests at home that day; buying some for a barbecue sprinkled with salt would be perfect for hosting.

Another person wanted a part of the abdomen, claiming the meat was softer and easier for the elderly to chew. Though it was more expensive, it seemed worth it.

Yet another wanted a few legs because they contained the least meat and were thus the cheapest. Of course, this Abdominal Foot Worm had a total of thirty-six long, thin legs that offered a time-consuming chewing experience; by the time one finished a leg, they were almost full. The key point was that such a large leg only cost a few Virtual Coins.

Guo Tou skillfully segmented the various parts for the customers, while another villager weighed and calculated the costs, looking every bit like a pre-apocalypse butcher selling pork.

Before long, the last two giant insects were also sold out.

Indeed, Jing Shu had arrived at a shop run by none other than Xiao Wei, the insect woman. Her story was remarkable. In the fourth year of the apocalypse, a mudslide had submerged her village. The young girl, Xiao Wei, was swept underground, where she merged with the Snail Queen, becoming a half-human, half-insect being. In the fifth year, she migrated to the South Sea ahead of others, using Abdominal Foot Worms to tunnel her way. This was her insect shop.

"Guo Tou, business isn’t bad, huh? How much can you sell one for in Virtual Coins?" Jing Shu asked with a smile.