Reborn in the end of the world, I scavenged in the empty city and bought for free

"In the next ten days, it looks like the temperature in Jiangcheng can drop to minus thirty degrees Celsius." The last time I was in Xiaoxi Village, it was also around minus thirty degrees Celsius. Now that I've survived that period, it shouldn't be too hard this time since I have my own house and heating.

"Sister Wanwan, the weather is so cold recently, do you still want to open the store?"

"If it doesn't snow, we still have to open the store. It's a source of income after all, and the store is close to the community and the company. Most of the people who come here are regular customers, and there are people who have appointments for interviews in the next two days." Gu Tongwan opened the tablet and began to check the private messages on the forum. She found that there were still people submitting resumes or sending private messages in the past two days. But at this stage, Gu Tongwan planned to interview the first batch of applicants. According to the current scale of the store, one salesperson is enough. She basically spends most of her time in the store, so it would be a little easier if she took turns.

At six o'clock the next morning, the heavy snow in Jiangcheng finally stopped, and the temperature remained at minus twenty degrees Celsius like yesterday. After Gu Tongwan was ready, he drove to the store.

There were a total of nine people interviewed, including seven women and two men, aged between 18 and 25 years old.

Although it was not snowing outside, the weather was actually still very cold. Gu Tongwan wore a military green long coat today and a Lei Feng hat on her head, which made her originally cold and beautiful face look even smaller. Her black eyes, like a clear pool, left a deep impression on people at first glance. She was indeed a pleasing beauty, and she was equally beautiful even without makeup.

I only brought Tutu with me when I went out today, because Tutu is a quiet person and he won’t make too much noise even when he is at home. Most of the time, Gu Tongwan prefers to take Tutu with him when he goes out.

I had contacted Liu Jinhua before going to bed last night. If the snow had stopped the next morning, I would start making lunch boxes according to the previous plan. So I got a message from Yangmei as soon as I got up at 6:30 this morning. Yangmei sent a message at 6 o'clock in the morning, saying that she and Liu Jinhua had prepared the stove and would start cooking at about 7 o'clock. She even reported the menu to me.

[Shredded pork with green pepper, stir-fried pork slices with black fungus, and stir-fried Chinese cabbage] are all quick and homely dishes, and the rice is also ready.

The Zhang family's gas stove has two burners, so it is definitely unrealistic to use an electric rice cooker to cook fifty boxed lunches, so they can only boil the rice on the gas stove and then move the cooking pot to the balcony, where there is a simple stove made by the Zhang father and son themselves, with honeycomb coal burning in it, so that the rice can be simmered slowly over low heat.

Honeycomb coal is currently only sold in the outer circle, but because honeycomb coal will produce sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide when used, these two gases will cause poisoning reactions if humans inhale them for a long time. Therefore, it generally needs to be used in a spacious and ventilated place. Therefore, Zhang’s father and son deliberately placed the stove on the balcony, so that it would be relatively safer to use honeycomb coal.

The Zhang family started working early in the morning. Zhang's father and son saw that it was the first time for the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to cook from a big pot, so they were worried that the two women would not be able to handle it. So they did not go out to find a job today, but instead stayed with them to help.

When it comes to cooking, this is the strong point of Liu Jinhua and Yang Mei. When they were in Xiaoxi Village before, the two women were the ones in charge of the household chores. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are not only good at farm work, but also keep the house in order.

The side dishes for the lunch box were prepared the night before and have been kept in a foam box. At this temperature, food spoils very slowly. Fresh vegetables can generally be stored for one to two weeks, and vegetables that are naturally durable such as potatoes, winter melon, and pumpkin can be kept for as long as a month.

Because the side dishes had been prepared in advance, Zhang Youfan and his son could only simply light a fire and watch the pot. As a result, Liu Jinhua became annoyed and directly kicked them out of the kitchen.

"Okay, what can you do? Stop making trouble for me. If you really feel you can't spare some time, Guoming, go to the bedroom and teach Xiaobao to read. Grandpa, you watch the rice outside and make sure the honeycomb coal doesn't burn out. Yangmei and I are enough in the kitchen."

Yang Mei couldn't help but laugh at the somewhat frustrated father and son, so she also advised: "Yes, leave this to me and grandma. Mingguo, Xiaobao has to learn the 26 letters today, remember to let him write them out from memory. Also, I washed and cut the apples this morning and put them on the coffee table. Let him eat some vitamin supplements at 9:30."

Zhang Mingguo was stunned for a while, and finally he scratched his head and muttered: "Twenty-six letters? My pronunciation is not standard either." This is difficult for him. Although he graduated from high school that year, English is still like an incomprehensible book to him. His wife wants him to tutor his eight-and-a-half-year-old child. Isn't this difficult for him?

Because there are currently no public educational institutions or primary and secondary schools in the base, the children in the base can only rely on their parents for tutoring. Those with better conditions can hire private tutors. However, some high-end residential areas have already started to set up cram schools. The so-called cram schools are actually arranged according to the primary and secondary school system before the end of the world, according to age groups, and the teachers hired have relevant experience. However, because it is a private institution, the requirements for entering to study are very strict. In addition to having an inner circle residence permit, one must also be a resident of the community, and the monthly tutoring fee is also very expensive, ranging from one thousand to three thousand. Currently, tutoring schools for elementary schools, junior high schools, and high schools have been opened.

In fact, a cram school was opened in the community where the Zhang family lives not long ago. It is divided into nine classes in total. One class is for children aged seven to ten, the second class is for children aged ten to thirteen, there are two classes for children aged thirteen to sixteen, and the remaining six classes are all high school classes for children aged sixteen to eighteen.

Because in the apocalypse, many children with poor physical conditions or who were relatively young did not survive, and the largest proportion of the youth population in the base was concentrated among children between the ages of twelve and eighteen.

Even though the "Happy Community" already has a private learning institution of a certain scale, the Zhang family still cannot send their children to school with their current conditions. This is a point that has always bothered the Zhang family. After all, Xiaobao was still in kindergarten before the end of the world. Less than two years after he came into contact with the outside world, a natural disaster completely changed his life. It doesn't matter if adults suffer a little, but children lose not only a happy childhood but also the opportunity to receive education, and are even forced to grow up quickly in such an end of the world.

Yangmei glanced at the half-open bedroom door. Through the crack in the door, she could see Zhang Mingguo reading to his child with a frown on his face, while Xiaobao was sitting on a chair with a look of novelty and curiosity on his face.

Seeing the harmonious scene between father and son, Yangmei felt a little relieved and continued to work.

Here, Liu Jinhua quickly poured cold oil into the hot pan, then added minced garlic and a little black beans to sauté until fragrant. Then she put in the shredded pork and stir-fried it slightly. After about a minute of stir-frying, she immediately put in the shredded green pepper, and added auxiliary ingredients: a little oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, MSG and other seasonings. Finally, she stir-fried on high heat for two minutes. The dish of shredded green pepper and pork, which was a mixture of black beans and meat, and looked and smelled so good that it could be eaten with three bowls of rice, was served.

Yang Mei was not idle either. She put the meat slices into the pot over high heat, stir-fried them a little, then added the soaked black fungus into the pot. Finally, she added various seasonings and stir-fried them over high heat again. A simple but delicious dish of fried black fungus and meat was served.

The last vegetable dish was stir-fried Chinese cabbage. This time, Gu Tongwan brought nearly 100 kilograms of Chinese cabbage. It seemed like a lot at first glance, but in fact there were only about 20 cabbages. This was because the cabbages she brought this time were so large that any single one could weigh five or six kilograms. Two cabbages were enough for 50 lunch boxes. Cabbage is easy to store and can be placed directly in a cardboard box on the balcony. After one night, the cabbage inside had frozen hard. Every time you need to eat it, you can take it to the room to thaw it slightly and then pick a few leaves.

I started cooking at 9:30 and finished the dishes at around 10:50. The rice, which had been simmering for nearly three hours, was also ready. So I packed all the food into boxes and put them in the thermos bucket.

There were still some vegetables left in the pot, and enough white rice for four or five people. Liu Jinhua put the remaining food on plates, and that was their lunch.

"Are you ready?" Zhang Mingguo had just finished feeding his son an apple in the room. When he saw Liu Jinhua and Yang Mei sitting on the sofa to rest, he asked casually.

Yang Mei pointed to the huge thermos barrel in front of her, and Zhang Mingguo nodded: "You must be exhausted, take a good rest first."

Liu Jinhua leaned on the sofa and said that the sofa was made by Zhang's father and son themselves. At the beginning, Liu Jinhua even found a way to go to the farmer's market to collect some scraps of cloth and some broken cotton that were not used by tailors, and sewed a set of sofa cushions by herself. It is soft and warm. Although it does not look as good as a sofa that costs thousands of dollars, it is made by herself after all, and the comfort is no worse than the finished products sold outside.

"If we prepare the side dishes in advance, it won't be slow to cook. There are only three dishes anyway, and two hours is enough to pack the lunch boxes. If Wanwan's lunch box business is good, maybe I can discuss with her to increase the number of lunch boxes to seventy in a couple of days. I'll calculate the two pots that Wanwan sent over based on the amount of today's dishes, and we can still make enough for a hundred people at most."

Before, Gu Tongwan was worried that the Zhang family’s pots were not big enough, so he specially brought over a few large woks and cooking pots from home. Fortunately, the Zhang family’s stove was large enough to accommodate these two large pots.

"That's great. We can make 50 lunch boxes a day now, and get two to three points as commission for each box. That means we can get 100 points a day now. If we make 100 boxes, we'll earn a lot." Yang Mei couldn't suppress a smile on her face when she thought of the good days in the future.

Zhang Youfan, who was sitting in a corner of the living room smoking a hookah, laughed and said, "It's only the first day, and you're already thinking about the future?"

"Dad, we have to think about this. Good days are coming. The more you think about it, the more hope there will be." Yangmei took over the conversation.

Even Zhang Mingguo was helping his wife: "Yes, our lives will only get better and better in the future. My mother and Yang Mei are the main earners of the family now."

"By the way, I think you shouldn't go out to look for work recently. The weather is so cold, it will be suffering if you go out. You might as well rest at home for a while, and don't rush to work." Liu Jinhua felt sorry for her husband and son suffering outside. Now that Gu Tongwan and her mother-in-law have a chance to earn money, she wants the father and son to rest at home.

"Let's wait and see. I can't stand sitting idle at home all the time. Mingguo and I will go out for a walk this afternoon to see if there is a suitable job. But don't worry, I won't choose the one that is too hard." Zhang Youfan put the hookah bag on a small bench in front of him and said with a frown.

Yang Mei, who was standing next to him, immediately said, "Mom, don't worry about Dad. They just can't sit still. Let them find it first, and then they can discuss it with us."

Liu Jinhua wanted to say something, but when she saw Yang Mei winking at her, she could only sigh helplessly: "Okay, you have all made your decision and I can't say anything more. Anyway, you have to report everything to me in the end, and I have to agree to it."

Zhang Youfan slowly exhaled a puff of smoke, and his expression was much more relaxed than before.

Zhang Mingguo smiled and poured a cup of hot tea for his wife, then whispered: "Don't worry, wife, dad and I will discuss finding a job and make sure we don't go to dangerous places or work too long. In fact, we just want to do some odd jobs and make some money a month. We can't let you and mom suffer."

Yang Mei pursed her lips and said softly, "Just be careful."

-----

As soon as Gu Tongwan arrived at the store, he saw a young girl standing outside. The girl was wearing a light green down coat with some stains on it. The fabric was very old, and it should have been worn for many years. It could even be seen that the coat was a little too small for the girl. If the girl wasn't thin, she probably wouldn't be able to wear it.

Glancing at her watch, she saw that the time was now 8:30 in the morning, and there were still fifteen minutes until the scheduled interview time. However, among the nine interviewees, only this girl was willing to come early.

After Gu Tongwan parked the car, she was about to open the door. The girl saw her and hurried forward and asked softly, "Hello, are you the boss? I'm here for an interview."

This voice seemed to have been heard somewhere before. As soon as Gu Tongwan turned around, he saw a pretty girl standing behind him.

The girl was not wearing a hat in the middle of winter, only a beige scarf, and she was shivering with cold.

It turned out to be the brother and sister I had seen downstairs in Zhang’s community that day. I didn’t expect that she came to the store for an interview.