Font Size:
After returning home that evening, Bi Qiao’an quickly retrieved a bottle of Happy Chubby Soda from the fridge. Shen Yanming snatched it away after she took a large gulp. “It’s too cold! Let it warm up a bit before drinking.”
Bi Qiao’an shot Shen Yanming a resentful glance but remained silent. After washing her hands, she took out a grass carp from her space to prepare boiled fish in water.
The fish had been previously cleaned and stored in the space. When stocking up on supplies earlier, Bi Qiao’an had someone process only a small portion of the seafood, domestically sourced fish, shrimp, pork, and mutton from the Chun Province farm.
After rinsing the grass carp with well water from the space, Bi Qiao’an turned to Shen Yanming with a hint of resentment. “Hubby, it seems it’s time for you to learn how to slaughter chickens and clean fish!”
Shen Yanming stiffened. “Darling, can I avoid learning?”
Bi Qiao’an continued slicing the fish. “The animals in the space are reproducing too quickly. We can’t let them multiply endlessly. Besides, we’re running low on cleaned fish. Even if you don’t learn to slaughter them, you’ll have to gut and scale them after we finish these.”
Shen Yanming felt a jolt. If Bi Qiao’an hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t have dared recall his dark culinary history from university days. Back then, he and a few dormmates had decided to have a hotpot meal right in the dorm.
Usually, the oldest dormmate bought ingredients, but that day, Shen Yanming had volunteered on impulse. He wandered around the supermarket, selecting vegetables and mushrooms. As if possessed, he took six blocks of frozen hairtail from the freezer.
After returning to the dorm, his dormmates helped clean the vegetables. But when he took out the hairtail, everyone was stumped. They had never cooked hairtail in a hotpot before and had only eaten it pre-prepared. The group of guys didn’t know how to handle the frozen fish.
“Do we cook it directly?”
“Maybe we should let it thaw first?”
“Yanming, do you know how this is eaten?”
Shen Yanming had only craved hairtail but had completely neglected the preparation aspect. “Can’t we just cook it?” he thought.
After rinsing the fish, he was about to dump it into the pot when his dormmate stopped him, suggesting they let it thaw first. Shen Yanming nodded and started eating. Half an hour later, guys from the neighboring dorm came over to mooch a meal after smelling the aroma.
Seeing the dwindling vegetables, Shen Yanming brought out the hairtail to cook. But unexpectedly, he was stopped again.
“Shen Yanming, you’re not going to cook it like that, are you?”
Confused, Shen Yanming asked, “What other way is there?”
The meal-mooching guy was shocked and proceeded to give Shen Yanming a hands-on lesson in gutting the fish.
Well… after those bloody guts were pulled out, Shen Yanming decided he never wanted to touch fish again. The dormmates expressed relief that they hadn’t let him cook it.
Recalling this experience, Shen Yanming felt an intense aversion to slaughtering chickens and cleaning fish. But it seemed inevitable. For efficiency, they had stored most of the aquatic products without cleaning them. After this batch was finished, he’d have no choice but to do it himself.
Besides, the space was filling up with livestock, and their reproduction needed to be controlled. Even if he didn’t have to fully process them, he would still need to end their lives.
Shen Yanming thought that perhaps with enough exposure, it wouldn’t be so disgusting anymore. Perhaps with practice, he would become bolder.
After recalling his traumatic university experience with the hairtail fish, Shen Yanming felt resolute in his determination not to let Bi Qiao’an shoulder the burden of butchering and cleaning the livestock alone. The thought of his wife taking on such a grisly task was unacceptable to him.
Shen Yanming’s face displayed a reluctant yet determined expression as he contemplated taking on the unpleasant tasks ahead. Noticing this, Bi Qiao’an couldn’t resist a joking suggestion, “Well, Zhang Heping seems like the perfect fit to play the butcher!”
But Shen Yanming shook his head. “I’d rather learn it myself. I can’t let him know too much.”
Bi Qiao’an didn’t mind. She had only mentioned Zhang Heping in jest.
An hour later, Bi Qiao’an had prepared a feast. Along with rice, she made boiled fish, garlic broccoli, cashew shrimp, a “three fresh” stir-fry, dry-fried mushrooms, and dry-fried pork tenderloin.
Since she rarely fried with oil lately, Bi Qiao’an decided to make extra eggplant, potato, mushroom, and pork tenderloin. She’d save the leftovers in her space for later.
As Shen Yanming and Bi Qiao’an were enjoying their delicious meal, they heard a knock at the door; someone clearly different from Zhang Heping.
They exchanged a knowing glance. Shen Yanming got up to answer the door while Bi Qiao’an quickly stored most of the food in her space, leaving only two bowls of rice and a plate of broccoli on the table.
Shen Yanming opened the door to find an unfamiliar woman in her thirties.
Before Shen Yanming could speak, the woman began, “Sir, I live in unit 701 on the 7th floor. I was wondering if you might have any used water to spare?”
Shen Yanming said nothing, waiting for the woman to explain further.
Feeling awkward, the woman continued, “My son is a handful. Despite my warnings about the water outage, he snuck off and used the toilet at home. Now the house smells terrible, and the tank is empty.
“I can’t bring myself to waste clean water on a flush, and we didn’t have much wastewater today. So, I thought I’d try asking neighbors if I could have some of theirs to at least get rid of the smell.”
Shen Yanming frowned. “Madam, even wastewater is precious right now. I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
The woman seemed disappointed but forced a smile. “I understand. No one has been willing to help. I don’t blame them—I probably wouldn’t either.”
Waving her hand dismissively, she said, “Sorry to disturb you. I’ll ask upstairs. If that fails, I guess I’ll have to wait a few days before flushing.”
Shen Yanming nodded. He watched the woman enter the elevator before closing the door and returning to the table.
Bi Qiao’an brought the food back out of her space. “These days, eating feels like a covert operation,” she remarked.
Shen Yanming picked up a shrimp and fed it to Bi Qiao’an. “Isn’t that because we’re afraid of people clinging to us?”
Bi Qiao’an swallowed the shrimp. “When I heard that woman asking for water, I almost gave her the bucket from the kitchen. But then I thought, what if she keeps coming back?
“I don’t want to be cynical, but she’d been asking all the way from the 7th floor. Maybe no one helped her, or maybe she got some water and just didn’t say. Either way, playing it safe seems the wisest choice.”
Scavenge no more for your next thrilling read!
Unlock 125 exclusive advanced chapters in my ad-free ko-fi shelter, for the same price per chapter as in this wasteland.
Join now for a seamless reading journey!
Katra1212[Translator]
Hi I'm Katra! Translator by day, lemon aficionado by night. Secretly suspects a past life as a citrus fruit. Squeezing the joy out of language, one word at a time.🍋