Chapter 520: Chapter 520

Grandma Jing repeated several words of praise, "It’s my granddaughter who’s really thoughtful."

Li Zhu felt a bit regretful, but upon hearing they wouldn’t have to walk back, he could accept it.

Digging a canal wasn’t urgent. However, allowing such a repulsive person into the RV, potentially damaging it, was something Jing Shu absolutely couldn’t do. She would rather spend some money than let someone like her second uncle-in-law into the RV, not to mention the trouble if his entire family decided to tag along.

"Alright then, you all should hurry up and pack, then leave soon." Mr. Jing looked very worried. "How can there be such misfortune, year after year, with each disaster lasting a whole year?" he lamented. "I’m afraid this muddy water won’t end easily; it might be like the flood, lasting a whole year. You all better make a decision quickly."

Grandma Jing held the elder aunt’s hand, her heart aching for her. Then, seeing her second daughter, who looked even more gaunt than the eldest, her heart softened further. However, the thought of the family her second daughter had married into made her angry all over again. In the end, she said,

"I’ll bring you some oil-tea flour. If you get hungry on the road, you can mix it with water and eat it with roasted rice. If there are other people on the vehicle, eat it secretly... Don’t show your wealth; absolutely don’t let others see it... And make sure to let us know if there’s any news!"

Grandma Jing quietly asked Jing Shu, "How about taking some milk powder for the child?"

Jing Shu smiled and nodded. Milk wasn’t valuable in the Jing family; it was just that turning it into powder was a bit of a hassle. However, milk powder was highly prized outside.

Still concerned for little Shu’en, Grandma Jing consulted with Jing Shu before tucking away only a jar of homemade milk powder; she didn’t dare to stash more. There was plenty of it at home. Aside from being used as gifts or for social obligations, the family didn’t generally consume it since they already had more than enough fresh milk to drink.

So, although this product could last for years with vacuum-sealing, it would be wasteful if not consumed in time. They couldn’t sell it, and it wouldn’t be good if it spoiled.

Grandma Jing had initially worried that Li Zhu’s family would linger in the residential area and not leave. But to her surprise, after Li Zhu explained the situation, Li Zhuniang was more anxious than anyone, clamoring to go home quickly. It seemed she had valuables hidden at home that she was worried about.

The Insect Cake delivery truck arrived. It could only seat two people in the front, so the rest had to squeeze into the back. As expected, Li Zhu brought his entire family along. Fortunately, the truck was large enough; otherwise, they wouldn’t have fit so many people, especially with a handcart also inside.

Seeing Li Zhu’s family squeeze into the delivery truck, Grandma Jing rolled her eyes and said with relief, "Thank goodness."

"Yes, otherwise the RV might have had its paneling stripped off. What advantage could they possibly gain from this empty truck?" Jing Shu said with a triumphant smile.

But Jing Shu didn’t know that the truck driver would call that afternoon with words of thanks.

Jing Shu was thoroughly confused. After listening to the driver’s explanation, she was rendered speechless for a moment.

It turned out that Li Zhu’s family had scraped clean all the insect residue clinging to the walls of the truck’s cargo bed, not even sparing the stinking dregs, making the whole truck much cleaner.

"You’re too kind! Thanks a lot, young lady. Your family is really hardworking."

Jing Shu was speechless. Google seaʀᴄh 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹•𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖•𝗇𝗲𝘁

She could almost picture Li Zhuniang leading everyone to scrape off the residue bit by bit, taking it home to cook.

Well, I suppose it turned out to be a good deed by a twist of fate, she thought.

After seeing the two families off, Mr. Jing went to the backyard to tidy up. He wanted to improve their cumbersome equipment. What would they do if the muddy water spread here one day?

Grandma Jing sighed, "This is terrible, truly terrible. Now we really have no land to grow grains. We’ll have to be more frugal with the rice and flour. We’ve gone through a whole large bag of flour in just ten days! No family eats ..."

She hadn’t realized it before, but doing the calculations gave her quite a shock. Although Grandma Jing was illiterate, she could count on her fingers. At the rate they were consuming white flour, they went through a large bag every half month—a 20-kilogram bag! How many years had it been? How much grain did they have left in the house?

There were many people in the household. When making dough, she would scoop out three or four large bowls of flour, and it would rise to fill a large basin. Jing Shu alone could eat half of it.

The crucial point was that they didn’t just eat white flour; sometimes they had rice, and then there were all sorts of meat dishes, pickled vegetables, marinated products, and smoked meats.

She remembered when she, Old Jing, and their youngest daughter lived together, one bag of flour would last six months, and a bag of rice two months. But after they moved to the villa, a bag of flour lasted only half a month. Rice was consumed even faster; a bag would be gone in ten days.

Jing Shu always kept the supplies topped up, which gave Grandma Jing the illusion that they had so much they could never run out. But no matter how much her granddaughter stockpiled, it would surely run out one day.

So, Jing Shu saw Grandma Jing in the kitchen, agonizing over whether to cook one pot of rice or two. The first thing Grandma Jing said to her was,

"Granddaughter, the land is all muddy everywhere now, and we can’t grow grains anywhere else. Our yard is full of vegetables, so there’s no more room to plant rice or other grains. We can’t even buy food from outside... Just tell your grandma the truth: how much rice and flour do we have left at home? If we don’t have much, I’ll make less in the future. We can eat more of the things we can grow ourselves. As long as we don’t go hungry, that’s fine. We can’t just sit around and eat through all our reserves."

As the saying goes, one doesn’t know the cost of daily necessities until one runs a household. Now that the situation was worsening and no land was available for planting, Grandma Jing started to get anxious. She even prepared herself to start making thick vegetable stews and cornmeal buns in the future. There was a lot of room for adjustment with these; they would save grain and still be filling.

"Don’t worry, Grandma," Jing Shu said. "Didn’t we agree a few days ago that we would carry on as usual? Come with me, Grandma. I’ll show you something, but you mustn’t tell anyone else, okay?"

For her own and her family’s quality of life, Jing Shu decided she had to show Grandma her "savings" to soothe her anxious heart.

So, when the house was empty, Jing Shu took Grandma Jing to her little private storeroom. Of course, her little private storeroom didn’t actually contain much rice or flour. Items like these were prone to insects. Even if she placed dried Sichuan peppercorns and other repellents around them, they wouldn’t taste good if left out for too long. That was why she usually kept them directly in her spatial storage.

As she opened the door, she swiftly began placing items inside from her spatial storage.

A draft of cold air followed, kicking up some dust. Grandma Jing coughed twice; the basement was a bit chilly!

When Jing Shu turned on the light, Grandma Jing saw that the rows of three-tiered shelves in the basement were fully stocked. Her eyes immediately fell upon bags of flour and various types of rice piled high, filling the shelves. Moving further in, she saw packages and boxes of dried goods with long shelf lives. These included sweet potato vermicelli, Long Kong noodles, dried Black Fungus, dried daylily buds, and much more.

Further inside still, there were boxes upon boxes of sugar, salt, vinegar, and various other seasonings.

The most dazzling sight was rows of 5-liter tins of 5S pressed peanut oil. Although they had used quite a bit over the years, there was still half a wall’s worth left. This didn’t even include the olive oil and various vegetable oils Jing Shu had brought back from the United States.

The floor was also cluttered with various supplies—these were long-lasting items Jing Shu had procured from the United States.