Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 51

After leaving the village chief’s house, An Yinong returned to his house and wanted to process the kudzu. As a result, there was almost no water at home, so we had to go to the Lotus Well to get water. He carried two buckets on a pole.

     When he arrived at Lianhua Village, he discovered that it was a long water fetching road – there were too many people coming to fetch water, and they were all queuing up, holding water-exchanging supplies in their hands.

     Several villagers from Lianhua Village guarded the mouth of the well with knives.

     An Yinong waited in the back for a long time and found that people in the queue had to talk about their distance and relative distance. Those who were related could jump in the queue first by saying a word, while those in the queue could only be angry but dare not speak out.

     He waited for a long time, and the team waiting to receive water slowly moved forward.

     Finally, it was time for him. The villagers in Lianhua Village looked him up and down, and then stretched out a hand, which meant asking for supplies.

     An Yinong gave him three coins and finally got two buckets full of water.

     Not long after he walked out carrying water, suddenly there was a commotion behind him. When he looked back, he saw that a few men in the water fetching team were fighting with the villagers of Lianhua Village. Others took the opportunity to rush up to grab water, and the scene was very crazy.

     He didn’t have time to delay, and quickly carried water back home to prepare for the kudzu. Kudzu needs to be washed, cut into small pieces, then placed in a wooden basin and beaten with a wooden mallet until it becomes pureed. The pounded kudzu water was like muddy water and needed to be filtered twice with gauze to get the cloudy white kudzu water.

     “Let it sit overnight.” An Yinong wiped the sweat from his forehead, put the treated water basin in the corner, and then went to find a new wooden basin.

     At this time, Mary sent a mission invitation. Her little hamster’s cheek pouches were inflamed. He didn’t go to Mary’s place to do any tasks that day, so he just happened to do it at this moment, and he could still have dinner.

     After treating the hamster that had stuffed poop in its mouth and was still inflamed, Mary thanked him with a formal dinner. This dinner was really sumptuous. In front of him was a large white porcelain plate, which contained a palm-sized steak, a golden fish fillet, and a poached egg.

     In addition, there was broccoli, carrots, lettuce and potatoes for vitamin supplement. There was also a plate of washed fruits and a bowl of rich cream of mushroom soup in front of him.

     Looking at the sizzling steaks and fish fillet, An Yinong felt for the first time that fat and oil were such beautiful things. He even felt guilty about eating because at this time others (people in the village) were still suffering from hunger.

     “You must stop eating when you are eighty full.” An Yinong had to restrain himself because he did not have the right to get sick – the effect of his health blessing was limited.

     The cod steak was covered in crispy dough and made a crunchy sound when you bite it, accompanied by the rich aroma of fried food and the delicate fish meat. He sat in the restaurant and looked outside. He could see the farm shrouded in the sunset, a flock of birds flying in the orange sky, and the years were quiet.

     It’s a pity that these peaceful years do not belong to him. He was just a passerby, and the world full of hunger and warmth belonged to him.

     An Yinong ate the fish steak, fried eggs, broccoli, lettuce and mushroom soup. After that, he wrapped the steak, carrots, potatoes and fruit in napkins and put them in his room.

     In the face of hunger, he didn’t have any idol baggage, so what was eating and taking?

     After dinner, he continued to process the kudzu roots. A torch was lit in the room, and the smell of burnt wood filled the room.

     It was already midnight when all these kudzu roots were processed. All the water containers in the house were used. The white liquid was all over the house. The first basin could already be seen.

     Probably because of fatigue, or because of the aroma of fried steak that he could smell on the tip of his nose, An Yinong slept well that night. He woke up at dawn and heard the sound of roosters crowing in the distance.

     He sat up and stretched. Suddenly, An Yinong found that the mattress next to him had collapsed because someone had sat on it. He always slept well, and the indent didn’t look like he was sleeping.

     An Yinong touched the cold mattress and became suspicious: “Xiao Qi, is there really no weirdness in this world?”

     “It’s really not the case. Host, just rest assured.” The system assured him, patting his chest.

     He was hesitant, lowered his head and took out the paper bag under the pillow. There was no missing food in it, and the beef still exuded an alluring aroma.

     “Okay.” An Yinong breathed out peacefully. He was worried that rats would come sniffing him.

     He got up early and cooked a bowl of multigrain porridge. He took out the steak and vegetables that had been cold overnight, tore them into small pieces, and threw them into the hot multigrain porridge. After a few minutes, the temperature of the porridge dropped and the beef and vegetables became warm, then it was ready to eat.

     The satiety provided by beef was unmatched by porridge and water. Coupled with his peaceful sleep yesterday, An Yinong felt better than ever before.

     After breakfast, he continued to prepare kudzu powder. The next steps were very simple. The water in the upper layer must be poured into the bucket, and the powder in the lower layer is left to dry in the sun. The water after standing is not thrown away, it is kept for cooking.

     “It’s done!” When the kudzu powder came out, he was even happier than his own song being on the charts, and he immediately made a bowl to celebrate.

     After the kudzu root powder is soaked, it becomes a light brown transparent gelatinous liquid, which is a bit like lotus root starch and tastes a little sweet. An Yinong drank bowl after bowl. Although the world outside the window was not as beautiful as Mary’s farm, it still made him feel at ease and peaceful.

     “Dong dong dong.” The sudden sound of gongs and drums startled him, and when he came out, he found that it was the village chief, beating the gongs and drums and walking from house to house.

     Was it because of the locust plague?

     Sure enough, it was because of the locust plague. The village chief took the responsibility for this matter on himself, saying that it was from previous experience that there would be a major disaster after a severe drought. And if one looks carefully, they will also find that there have been a lot of grasshoppers in the fields recently. When the grasshoppers turn yellow, they are migratory locusts.

     The villagers were doubtful.

     “But the wheat is ripe at the right time, and it changes every day. Now a year’s work of harvesting it will be in vain.”

     “Isn’t that right? The grains of wheat are being harvested at this time. How can we cut them?”

     The people in the village were so hungry that they couldn’t bear to cut the wheat, just to gain an extra two pounds a day? Let them cut now. That is not cutting wheat, it is cutting their flesh.

     The village chief understands the mentality of the villagers. He was a farmer himself and treated the crops as if they were his own children. How could he not understand this feeling? But, how can a natural disaster wait for someone?

     “I’ve already told you what the situation is. You go back and think about it yourself. I won’t say more. In the end, you will bear the consequences yourself.”

     The village chief left with his hands behind his back, and the villagers knitted their brows, but there was no way to get the best of both worlds.

     Afterwards, the village chief’s family harvested half of their wheat field. Although the family members had objections, they followed the village chief’s decision.

     The same went for An Yinong’s family. The original owner harvested one acre of the two acres of thin farmland. Afterwards, the wheat weighed 70 kilograms. It lost a lot more when dried, and the wheat kernels were not big.

     As there are not many members of his family, many villagers found it difficult to make up their minds. Besides, they don’t know exactly when the locusts will come, so they just want to delay it a little longer. The result is that it was delayed again and again, with no further progress.

     Faced with this situation, An Yinong had no choice. As the village chief said, you decide your own affairs and bear all the consequences.

     Later, An Yinong went to Hulutan several times and dug a lot of kudzu roots. He even found two very thick yams. The yams were sliced and dried in the sun and could be stored for a long time. He worked hard for several days looking for and grinding kudzu root, and finally poured out a full fifteen kilograms of kudzu powder, which was carefully hidden in a jar.

     At this time, the locust plague came.

     The black locusts flew in like dark clouds. They were overwhelming, dense, and noisy. From a distance, the dark clouds formed by the locusts looked like giant monsters with insect wings. Locusts quickly landed in the remote mountain village. They ate everything they saw, and no grass grew in their path.

     The rice that was about to mature was eaten by insects, and the villagers collapsed.

     “Quick, quick, quick! Harvest!” Everyone, men, women, old and young, as long as they could move, went to the fields to harvest food. An Yinong also went there, wrapping his face in cloth and cutting the wheat ferociously.

     The locusts flew over his face and body with great force, like bullets. But the villagers didn’t care about this. They worked hard to cut the crops that were not yet fully mature. It was just a drop in the bucket. Even if humans grew eight hands, they couldn’t rob these thousands of locusts.

     “Oh my God, this is not letting people live!” The couple next door wailed at the ruined fields. They looked even thinner than An Yinong, and they might have stopped eating.

     An Yinong looked around and felt a sense of sadness. He looked hard at the fat grasshoppers in his hand. Some were yellow and some were green. Some of them had not yet mutated and had not yet completely gathered into a swarm.

     He shouted: “Catch the locusts! Locusts can be eaten!”

     An Yinong had brought a bug-catching net with him when he came. Now he took the net and rushed towards the locusts.

     The villagers were stunned for two seconds, and an elderly man patted his thigh: “Locusts, locusts can be eaten!”

     Can it be eaten?

     The crying peasant woman looked up at the locusts with green eyes. She grabbed the empty linen bag and rushed towards the locusts.

     This human-insect war lasted until the afternoon. By then, the crops had been eaten up, but the locusts had not been wiped out much. These fat insects finished eating here and flew to the next buffet venue without stopping.

     Looking at the empty fields and a few scattered locusts on them, the villagers knelt on the ground and were almost numb. They had been hungry for a long time, and most of them have begun to eat bran bark and grass roots. Now that there was no new food, what would they do in the future?

     The situation here in An Yinong is not good either. Some stunted wheat and a bag of locusts were barely recovered. If he only relied on this thing, he wouldn’t be able to survive this winter. Although there was still some food stored at home, it was not enough to survive until next spring.

     The person who could even arrange his own death without changing his expression felt helpless at this moment. An Yinong finally understood why people who posted “kill locusts to eat” in posts about ancient locust plagues were laughed at.

     Locusts can fly up to an altitude of two thousand meters. What do humans use to hunt them? Use the Internet? Moreover, every time there is a locust plague, the locusts are overwhelming. They come and leave quickly. Even if they run around with the net for half a day, it is just in vain.

     “Xiwazi, what do you want to eat?”

     An Yinong stretched out his hand to wipe his eyes and cheered up again: “Pick out the yellow ones and throw them away, put the green ones on the pot and steam them, then take off the wings and dry them in the sun. After all, they are meat, right?”

     He was having fun while suffering, and other villagers could only face life with a smile: “Yeah, it’s just a meal after all.”

     “The yellow ones are slightly poisonous, but they can be fed to chickens and ducks,” he added.

     “Hey, where are the chickens and ducks? They have already been sacrificed to the five internal organs.”

     That afternoon, many people steamed locusts. An Yinong ate one with his eyes closed. There was no oil or salt, so he ate it just like that. He couldn’t bear the psychological discomfort at all and vomited directly.

     “I’m still not hungry enough.” An Yinong held half a locust in his hand and reflected on himself. I’m so hungry. What can’t I put in my mouth?

     The system watched him reluctantly eat half of it, forcing himself to swallow while feeling nauseated. It almost burst into tears: “Which bastard shut down my mall?”

     “It’s actually a good thing. If you realize that you have a way out, you won’t be so brave and determined and will become weak.” An Yinong swallowed half of the locust. He must abandon the time traveler’s pride and sense of superiority.

     The night after eating insects, An Yinong had a dream. In the dream, there was a man wearing earth-colored armor and a sharp helmet. His eyes were large and black, with no whites.

     It was neither male nor female with a sharp voice, and seemed to be questioning why he ate locusts and led people to eat locusts. An Yinong in the dream just felt baffled.

     The next second this monster-like person pounced on him, spreading a pair of wings behind his back, making a buzzing sound that made people’s heads explode.

     “If you eat locusts, I will eat you.”

     “Ah!” An Yinong woke up with a fright. A strong white skylight shot through the window paper, and his eyes were completely white.

     Hearing the sound of insect wings flapping outside his window, he stood up and walked over barefoot.

     The window creaked open on its own, more sounds of flapping wings appeared, and he saw locusts filling the sky.

     The white light has disappeared, and the locusts are all over the place. Like the sky before a thunderstorm.

     The locusts were larger than those he had seen in the fields, almost as big as desert locusts. It was like a gust of wind blew over and fell in his yard. The poor elm tree was wrapped in insects, gnawing at the bark.

     Even the exposed wooden shelves of the house were gnawed around.

     The insect wanted to fly towards An Yinong’s face, but he slapped it with a shovel expressionlessly and said:

     “Catch it and eat it, fry it.”

     Fried locusts sprinkled with salt and pepper will make the kids next door cry.

     He picked up the shovel that came from nowhere and hit the bugs. The vibrations he received were as if they were not bugs, but mini fighter jets.

     However, at this time, he did not feel panic or fear at all.

     There are so many locusts that you can beat them to death. When you look up, you will see that there are endless locusts.

     “call out–“

     “Tweet.”

     A flock of birds flew from nowhere in the sky. At first glance, there were all kinds of birds, from the south to the north, with different sizes and colors. When they landed on the ground, they started to eat the locusts, one with each mouth.

     It is true that one thing defeats another. When a locust encounters a bird, it freezes there. It took the birds two-quarters of an hour to deal with the seemingly endless swarm of locusts. When they were done, they flapped their wings and flew away, as if they had come specifically to solve his problem.

     An Yinong’s doubts became more serious. He looked at the sky doubtfully, and his vision became increasingly blurry…

     “!” An Yinong woke up. This time he really woke up, dripping with sweat.

     “Yard!” He remembered what happened in his dream, lifted the quilt and opened the window. It was quiet outside the window, and the sky was fish belly white. There are no locusts or birds, and the elm trees in the yard are fine.