Afterward, once I'm done scavenging for survival supplies and untie the rope, this rotten corpse will follow the Floating Island on its journey, and I won't care if it blooms into a flower.
Salt!
Oil!
Sichuan peppercorn sauce, oyster sauce, five-spice powder, cinnamon, star anise, various seasonings.
Half a 25kg bag of rice, a small can of millet, an unopened 10kg bag of Wudeli flour, a string of red chilies, and half a braid of garlic.
A person leaves a name, a goose leaves feathers; Li Cang didn't want to miss a single thing.
This old brother, the owner of the courtyard, had such abundant supplies it made one's scalp tingle!
How did he do it?
How did this Floating Island do it?
Benefactor, please accept my bow!
Comparing people is infuriating; when the disaster struck, all I had was a pack of Jianwei Xiaoshi tablets and two half-used bottles of saline.
Why could he preserve so many useful things in this cyberpunk disaster where the Earth cracked open like a firework?
This isn't a homeowner; this is clearly a great landlord!
What a pity.
He's gone, and he didn't get to eat.
Emmmm.
Was this luck exchanged for his life?
That's not necessary.
When he saw the half-side of cured pork hanging from the beam, his eyes immediately turned blue, a deep, deep blue.
The half-side of pork, including the ribs, was probably only twenty to thirty jin, already very dry, with short white and gray fuzz on the surface, covered with a dirty, dark layer of salt, Sichuan peppercorns, and peppercorns, looking...
It looked incredibly delicious!
After eating grass roots and tree bark for three days, he was just short of collecting Guanyin soil to summon a divine dragon, so hungry he wished he could stew himself in an iron pot. What kind of mindset would such a person have when seeing a large piece of fatty meat?
From the moment his eyes landed on the cured meat, Li Cang's stomach vigorously began to sing a battle song, a tremendous noise, like gongs, drums, and suonas, as if afraid he wouldn't notice.
“Wait, what’s that...”
From afar, a faint green light rose gracefully at the contact point of the two Islands, seemingly undergoing a miraculous change.
Li Cang felt something, quickened his steps, stepped onto his own Floating Island, and summoned the praying coin:
Floating Island Affiliation: Li Cang (Cang)
Floating Island Area: 8.09 * 8.96 (Merging)
Wish
Communicate
Hiss!
It grew, it grew larger?
Almost every second, the Floating Island area number would jump, though it was only a subtle change in the second decimal place.
How could it merge again? That's unreasonable!
But...
Who cares!
Everything on the Island...
Is all mine? Even the Island is mine?!
If you put it that way, I'm not hungry anymore!
After a moment of excitement, the work that needed to be done still had to be done.
The Floating Island had food, but its Lord was still hungry.
Continue!
Found a large iron pot, smashed by the roof beam;
A ladle, flattened;
A triangular iron stand, unused for who knows how long, with a cast-iron pot with handles suspended by three iron chains; the pot was half an inch thick.
Intact.
This thing isn't cheap.
The pot had clearly been meticulously maintained before being stored, with a strong smell of polymerized oil.
There were also several undamaged bowls in the cabinet.
A large water Cylinder sat on the stone floor, perfectly blocked by a slanted roof beam that had fallen, neither broken nor leaking.
It contained half a Cylinder of water, cold, clean, and clear.
Absolutely strategic reserve material!
Li Cang lit a fire right there in the courtyard, burning the wood that had been smashed when the courtyard collapsed; he didn't dare touch the coal balls, honeycomb briquettes, and neatly stacked firewood in the kitchen.
He gritted his teeth and, with a heavy heart, cut a full jin-sized piece from the half-side of cured meat, placed it over the fire where it sizzled, scraped off the charcoal and dirt from the surface with a cleaver, then washed it clean with rainwater.
He didn't even bother to wash the rice.
Well, it looked pretty clean anyway.
He added half a gourd scoop of clean water and threw it into the pot with the cured meat, covered it, and started cooking.
The firewood was very hard, and soon, an enticing aroma of rice and meat, smelling oily, wafted from the pot.
The rice cooked quickly, each grain coated with sparkling oil, and a layer of golden-brown crispy rice crust curled at the bottom, forming a natural large bowl in the cast-iron pot, supporting the rice and cured meat.
“Hiss, so hot...”
Li Cang tremblingly took out the cured meat and placed it on the cutting board—mostly due to excitement.
Wielding the cleaver, he sliced it into thin, large pieces.
The lean meat was rosy, and the fat was translucent like frosted glass.
A large pot of rice, covered with generous slices of cured meat; Li Cang was already intoxicated before even eating.
It must be said that the courtyard owner who cured this meat was definitely a master.
Judging from the overall decoration of the courtyard and the kitchen utensils, this homeowner, who had turned into a monster, was likely a wealthy person who moved to the countryside or suburbs in pursuit of a refined life.
The cured meat cooked with the rice was the king of cured meats: perfectly salted, fatty but not greasy; with one bite, the lean meat was chewy and firm, the fat burst with oil, followed by a large mouthful of clear, sparkling rice...
“Hoo, hiss... this is what living is all about!”
Regardless of others' circumstances, Li Cang felt reborn at this moment.
He tapped the crystal coin, watching the Floating Island area jump by point-something, point-something, while fiercely chewing a large piece of fatty meat.
After racking his brains for a long time, he summed it up in two words:
Goes well with rice!
What the hell does 'beautiful enough to eat' even mean?!
So delicious!
The green light at the contact point of the two Islands grew more and more luxuriant; initially only two feet wide, it was now close to a meter and continued to devour and merge with each other.
Li Cang still grandly held his bowl, supporting the very hot hanging pot stand, and declared with magnificent aura:
“This is the empire I have conquered.”
This was probably a typical case of being full and idle.
And even after Li Cang had filled his stomach and began to organize useful supplies other than food and water on his new territory, the monster's corpse was still persistently creating something.
—A giant, vibrant morning glory with numerous tentacles had grown from the corpse's chest cavity.
The tentacles constantly extended and retracted, as if grabbing something from the air, very sinister, looking very Cthulhu-esque.
I'm speechless, you can really bloom, huh?
At the center of the morning glory, which was over half a meter in diameter, a green, sparkling crystal coin was stuck to the thick, stamen-like tentacles, bearing an eighty percent resemblance to the praying coin on the Island.
“fate coin?”
Li Cang's heart pounded.
This item seemed to exert a strange and powerful attraction on people, making their desire for possession swell, eager to put the coin into their pocket.
Li Cang did not lose his head; his hand, which had instinctively reached for the morning glory, stopped midway.
However, the coin in the morning glory, as if attracted by him, detached itself from the stamen and, with a “thwack,” slid in a perfect parabola, landing precisely in Li Cang's palm.
—Newton would secretly shed tears at this curve.
Upon touching the crystal coin, a cool, penetrating sensation spread from his palm all the way to the back of his head, as if walking from a 40-degree summer day into an air-conditioned room; he instantly felt refreshed.