What kind of stall was still doing this well? Chu Yian was instantly curious.
Covering her nose and mouth, she endured the stench and forced her way into the marketplace, struggling to reach the meat stall. Only two people stood at the stall— the owner was skillfully handling some meat on the chopping board.
Chu Yian glanced behind him and saw a row of cages. Inside were several rabbits and chickens.
The key thing—they were all alive!
No wonder this stall was still doing business.
Chu Yian immediately understood. She looked at the rabbits still hopping around energetically.
Rabbits are so cute—how can anyone eat rabbits?!
"Boss, have those last four rabbits and two chickens been sold? If not, I'll take them all!"
"Really?"
The boss's eyes lit up in surprise, though he hesitated a bit. "The price for the rabbits and chickens has gone up since the day before yesterday—rabbits are 30 yuan per jin, chickens 32. That's already the lowest I can go, can't make it any cheaper."
Was that expensive?
Chu Yian thought of the instant noodles she'd just bought that morning—15 yuan a pack. "I can accept that. Boss, please clean them for me."
She had initially wanted to raise them alive and slaughter them when needed. But then she thought—keeping them meant extra mouths to feed. And if she got emotionally attached, she wouldn't be able to eat them…
Better to have them processed now—just to be safe.
"Alright, alright!"
The boss was visibly thrilled and began butchering the rabbits and chickens while explaining how to store them.
"This time of year, food spoils real fast. This meat is fresh, but still—be careful with storage. Best to scald it with boiling water to sterilize it, then freeze it."
Just as he finished, the woman plucking feathers beside him gave him a look.
"Lao Li, didn't the news already debunk that? Stop spreading rumors. There's no such thing as a super fungus—it's just the weather."
"Alright, alright, my bad,"
the boss quickly said. "You go rest, I can handle the work."
"If you do it alone, won't you stink this poor girl to death? I told you not to come out and work, but you just had to. If you get sick, don't come crying to me!"
Her words were fierce, but her hands were fast—she quickly plucked the chicken, chopped it, and handed it over.
"Here you go, girl."
"Thank you."
Chu Yian took the three large bags of meat—over 30 jin (around 15 kg), and quite heavy. The boss's wife took one look and grabbed the bags from her.
"I'll carry them up for you. Look at you—tiny as a stick, and you're lugging all this meat."
"Thank you, thank you!"
Chu Yian hadn't expected to meet such warmhearted people in a place that reeked so bad it could knock someone out. The total should've been 900 yuan—she handed them 1,500 instead.
"No no no, that's too much!"
The boss's wife waved her hands. "Prices have gone up, you're the one getting ripped off here."
"Please take it. Instant noodles cost 15 yuan a pack now. Live chickens and rabbits at 30 yuan a jin? You're the ones getting the short end of the stick."
She stuffed the money into the boss lady's hands and added a warning:
"That 'super fungus' rumor didn't come from nowhere. You'd better have your husband stock up on some shelf-stable food while it's still available."
"Don't think it's fine to skip hoarding. When there's a real food shortage, money won't help if there's nothing left to buy."
That was already as much as she could do. Not daring to linger for fear the meat would spoil, she pedaled her tricycle hard toward the store she rented.
Meanwhile...
The boss noticed his wife hadn't returned from the market entrance and called out,
"Chun'er, what are you doing up there? We're done here, time to go home."
His wife turned and looked at him.
"Hey... what if we went to the supermarket and bought a few things too?"
"Didn't you say we had plenty at home and not to waste money?"
The boss was puzzled. She'd rejected even buying instant noodles earlier.
"Besides, the news said it's all just rumors…"
"I know, but I'm feeling uneasy."
She tugged on his sleeve.
"Let's go take a look. If it turns out to be a false alarm, we can just treat it like stocking up on snacks for our daughter."
In the shop...
Chu Yian had already packed all the meat into her magic storage box. Once she returned to her community, she immediately boiled a pot of water.
High-temperature sterilization worked well. All the food she had sterilized was fine in the fridge and freezer. But the bags that held the unwashed meat? After just a few hours, they were covered in a thin, dust-like mold.
Chu Yian cooked all the meat she'd bought today—not just blanching like the boss had suggested, but fully cooking it in boiling water. When it was done, she sealed and stored everything in the freezer.
The rabbits were divided into six portions, each packed individually. The chickens into four portions, similarly separated.
But...
Now that she had meat, wouldn't she need some seasonings and side ingredients too?
Too many supplies—it makes people greedy.
Chu Yian checked her kitchen. Salt, MSG, Sichuan pepper, chili, oil, soy sauce, vinegar—she had all the basic seasonings. But—
The chili, Sichuan pepper, MSG, and oyster sauce had gone moldy.
Especially the Sichuan pepper powder—it had a grayish-white mold on top that could be peeled off like a sheet of cloth. The powder beneath looked fine, but she dared not eat it.
Who knew whether this super fungus was toxic?
Chu Yian checked the rest of her condiments and found that even the bottle caps on her soy sauce and vinegar were layered with mold...
So even condiments should go in the fridge!
She threw out everything contaminated and got ready to head out again.
This time's mission: spices and anything to go with rabbit and chicken.
Riding her tricycle down the main road, Chu Yian—now used to scavenging—didn't limit herself to malls or supermarkets. She targeted small roadside stalls and corner shops too.
After searching through many places, she finally found a small shop that specialized in condiments. It was just a board laid across two stools, with barely anything left on display—only a few bags of dried shiitake mushrooms, dried tea tree mushrooms, and some herbal soup spice packs with ingredients like angelica and codonopsis.
Chu Yian stopped and asked for the price.
"Dried shiitake—80 yuan per bag. Tea mushrooms—140. The soup spice packs are 80 each. No bargaining."
These were normally sold for a few yuan, maybe ten or twenty.
Now, nearly every vendor was hiking prices sky-high.
Chu Yian still had 30,000 yuan left and didn't feel the pinch. She bought all four bags of dried shiitake, three of tea mushrooms, and four soup packs on the spot.