The sound of chopping vegetables in the house continued for quite some time. Fortunately, Wei Xuan’s physical strength had increased dramatically, and he wielded two knives, working tirelessly for half a day without feeling the slightest fatigue. He chopped the meat, seasoned it, and then kneaded the dough again. He enthusiastically peeled, washed, and grated carrots.
These carrots and potatoes had been stored since before winter, and Wei Xuan hadn’t used them for a long time. However, it wasn’t entirely his fault. After all, he had become a zombie now, and zombies weren’t supposed to eat regular food; consuming human flesh was the norm.
But he was a somewhat unusual zombie. He could tolerate the meat of mutated animals better than human flesh. Additionally, snowflakes could satisfy his daily consumption and provide energy. This allowed him to occasionally find a use for the vegetables in his home.
Now these carrots were finally coming in handy, otherwise, Wei Xuan would have had to wait until next spring to plant them and wait for them to produce seeds.
However, given his current condition, what use did he have for seeds, vegetables, fruit trees, and the like? Except for the “possibility” of growing some decent-tasting fruits and vegetables, Wei Xuan could only consider gardening as a hobby.
But having said that, this current activity could only be considered a hobby.
After finely chopping the grated carrots, he mixed them with thirteen spices and sesame oil, then added them to the prepared meat filling. Wei Xuan walked over to the basin, checked the dough’s condition, and saw that the dough had fully risen. He took out a piece of dough, rolled it into a long strip, cut it into pieces, and flattened each piece.
Round and uniform dough pieces were rolled out one by one. Wei Xuan couldn’t help but marvel at how life had forced him to develop cooking skills. He couldn’t even knead dough before the apocalypse. But now, he could make dough with the right texture and even create well-shaped dumpling wrappers. It was something he had never dreamed of in the past.
After mixing the meat filling and the grated carrots evenly, Wei Xuan picked some up, filled the white dough, and started making dumplings. It didn’t take long before a plate full of similar-sized dumplings filled a rack.
These dumplings didn’t need to be stored in the freezer; Wei Xuan simply walked into the adjacent room without closed windows, a backroom meant for freezing, and temporarily placed the dumplings on a shelf near the window.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Even Wei Xuan would feel extremely cold standing here. The plate of dumplings placed here would freeze into inedible projectiles in no time.
One plate after another, when he had used up all the dough and filling, the freezing room had been occupied by six or seven layers of shelves, and the wooden trays specifically used for dumplings had also taken up a large portion of the space.
At this point, Wei Xuan leisurely picked up the first plate of dumplings placed in that room earlier — they had become completely frozen.
He filled a pot with water and waited for it to boil before gradually adding the dumplings one by one. Soon, the round and plump dumplings started floating in the boiling water.
Once they were thoroughly cooked, Wei Xuan sat in the room and happily began eating, dipping the dumplings in vinegar that hadn’t gone bad yet. The taste of the dumpling skin wasn’t as fragrant as before, the texture of the carrots was ordinary, and the vinegar was a bit too sour.
However, none of these mattered. He had delicious lamb meat as the filling, and he could tolerate these minor issues. At least, the overall result was the most delicious dumplings Wei Xuan had eaten since entering the apocalypse.
After all, before this, even if he could make dumplings, he had suffered from the lack of fresh meat, and the taste of the meat couldn’t compare to lamb.
“Sigh, it should have been possible to enjoy this last year.” Wei Xuan sighed and picked up a dumpling, offering it to Du Hang, who accepted it and chewed it. He seemed to have a feeling of “delicious,” but it didn’t compare to Wei Xuan’s. So Wei Xuan found his half-faced, skinless zombie companion approaching for more affectionate interactions.
Pushing away the emotionless zombie’s face with a look of disgust, Wei Xuan scolded him, “No kissing during meals! Also, these things aren’t meant for eating during meals!”
Du Hang obediently withdrew, hanging on Wei Xuan without leaving. He stared at Wei Xuan, who was still eating dumplings one after another, and occasionally opened his mouth to receive the dumplings Wei Xuan offered—still not as tasty as Wei Xuan’s.
Completely oblivious to the zombie behind him shifting his attention from the dumplings to himself, Wei Xuan contentedly finished off a plate of dumplings and didn’t feel like eating a round bellyful in one go. After all, today wasn’t the actual New Year’s Day.
“Sigh, it would be even better if there were cows. Braised beef, stewed beef, beef tripe, beef omasum…” Wei Xuan, who was still not satisfied after the meal, suddenly remembered the cow he had seen outside the city last year.
Upon careful consideration, maybe his group of zombie buddies could actually bring down a cow without suffering significant injuries. However, thinking about it carefully, he couldn’t bear to send his buddies out to take such a risk for his own appetite. After all, he was responsible for the neighborhood as a leader and caretaker.
Of course, when he led the team out for a stroll later, if they happened to come across an easily manageable mutated cow, he would still be willing to lead his buddies to capture one.
While Wei Xuan was lost in thought, contemplating taking his group of zombie buddies on a leisurely trip to the city’s outskirts after the spring arrived, he absentmindedly cleaned up the dishes and utensils, washed them in the kitchen, and was then eagerly taken to the bedroom by Du Hang, who had been waiting for a long time. They also got intimate…
The winter weather was bitterly cold, and it dampened the mood for outdoor excursions. Wei Xuan initially had some doubts but eventually allowed one of the zombies who had recently acquired a “new skill” to entertain himself with various antics. Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain, and Wei Xuan regretted that he couldn’t turn it into a game.
On the evening of New Year’s Eve, heavy snowfall began in most parts of the country except for some areas in the south. This marked the first snowfall of the fourth year of the apocalypse. Starting from New Year’s Eve, it continued to snow until the fifth day of the lunar calendar. During this time, Wei Xuan enjoyed several meals of dumplings, lamb stir-fry, grilled lamb skewers, grilled chicken skewers, and more.
In the meantime, those in the city who had received the big gift package began to try the food items after New Year’s Eve, despite their initial hesitation due to concerns about expiration dates. While many of these items had lost their original taste due to expiration, they were still better than relying on the monotonous diet of potatoes and the occasional foraged, barely edible food.
Without firecrackers, countdowns, or New Year’s galas, this traditional holiday quietly passed for many, with some not even realizing it.
“…I’ve eaten all the dumplings.” Standing in the now-empty room, Wei Xuan looked somewhat melancholic at the state of affairs. Perhaps due to the festive mood of the New Year, he had subconsciously wanted to fill his stomach with something every day to feel satisfied. As a result, he unintentionally devoured all the dumplings he had made.
Although the quantity wasn’t particularly large, they had filled at least one-third of this room’s shelves with dumplings. Wei Xuan had originally thought that if he ate a basket or two per meal, he could probably last until the fifteenth day of the lunar new year. However, now that it was only the fifth day, all the dumplings at home were completely gone.
Afterward… it was likely that he wouldn’t have dumplings for a very long time.
The reason was simple, there was almost no flour left in the neighborhood. The last bag of flour Wei Xuan had used to make the dumplings was the only one he could find in the house, and it was unopened. Although there was still some flour in the neighborhood, it had all been opened, and who knew how long it had been stored? It was potentially spoiled flour.
These were foods that even someone with a zombie’s indestructible stomach wouldn’t easily experiment with, so Wei Xuan could only hope that next year after the spring arrived, he could try using the remaining seeds he had collected in the fall to grow crops as a substitute for wheat.
Thinking about it this way, farming wasn’t entirely useless for a zombie like him.
With this in mind, Wei Xuan turned and walked into the room he had designated for seed storage, inspecting the collection inside.
While Wei Xuan was asleep, his zombie buddies, under the leadership of his zombie boyfriend, had pretty much trashed all the seeds he had saved from before. What remained was just a tiny portion, and the majority of these seeds were for carrots (potato tubers could sprout and be planted easily). The remaining seeds mostly belonged to various golden leaf vegetables.
Wei Xuan couldn’t help but twitch at the sight of this tragic state of affairs, and he sighed silently, swallowing his complaints about his beloved once again—this was because it was his own fault for not teaching Du Hang properly, it wasn’t Du Hang’s fault! Du Hang probably wanted to help because Wei Xuan used to do these things before.
Turning around, Wei Xuan patted Du Hang’s inexplicable face. He then pulled him out of the room once more. These things could wait, after all, the quantity of seeds wasn’t large, and he didn’t need to rush to plant them using the planting machine. He could wait until next year’s spring to see if it was possible.
I so dearly hope that Wei Xuan either remembers or discovers that potatoes can also be turned into flour, alcohol, and cooking starch. Potatoes are wildly versatile, as are many other tubers and root veggies! (Is that a clue for how other mutated plants will behave, since carrots are the only other named crop that remained easily cultivable and edible??) Thanks for the chapter!
Thank you for the update!
He ate them up, yum! Hahahahahaha! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣❤️
Thanks for the chapter! Starch like stuff can be made out of a lot of ingredients, & there are machine for fast drying & stuff like that (I know it all exists, but I don’t cook, so please forgive the vagueness).
Thank you for the chapter 💖
im amused that farming is like a hobby to him now… its the name of the story, and initially it was for survival, but he’s doing so well that its practically a luxury…. love this for Wei Xuan