Natural Disaster Hoarding to Survive Daily

            ◎ Happy 20th Day: Fragrant Sauce Pancakes and Little Book Stall◎

Early the next day, Jiang Muyun rummaged through her wardrobe and found her old school uniform. Wearing a mask and a duckbill cap, she arrived in an alley next to her alma mater.

Today is Friday, during regular school hours, and the alley is quiet.

Jiang Muyun took a deep breath at the entrance of the alley, silently encouraging herself.

Starting early and finishing early, otherwise, when the students finish school at noon and the crowd grows, she's afraid of directly socializing with her younger sisters and brothers.

Jiang Muyun hasn't forgotten that she just graduated recently, and her name and photos are still posted on the bulletin board at school.

The middle and high schools are combined in this school. Jiang Muyun has been on the bulletin board since middle school, and only the photos are updated regularly.

Under her full name, Jiang Muyun, there is a motto she made up: "When you sincerely love knowledge, knowledge will definitely embrace you." This sentence once caused a craze among the students at her alma mater.

Jiang Muyun, who loves knowledge, now acknowledges that as she gets older, she cares more about face and regrets her previous behavior of pretending to be an intellectual.

Following the familiar alley, Jiang Muyun turned left and right until she reached a gate at the end of the alley. Seeing the gate open, she walked straight in.

From the outside, it looks like the yard of an ordinary household. It's only when you enter the house that you realize it's filled with rows of shelves displaying various brightly colored books.

The shop owner, who was still tidying things up, looked up and saw a student carrying a bag. Without asking why she wasn't in class, she simply greeted her familiarly, "The two rows here are 5 yuan each, the new ones over there are 9.8 yuan, the row behind is priced at twenty-five yuan each, and the selling books are ten yuan for three."

Jiang Muyun responded with a dull "hmm" and didn't even bother to look at the row of books priced at twenty-five yuan each. She went straight to the shelf with the five-yuan books.

The half-novel she pulled out had rough printing and quite a few typos. It was clearly a low-quality publication printed by a small workshop, and the author might not even receive full royalties.

Most of these are labeled with names like "X Nizi" or "X Dora" on the street stalls, so there's a slight chance it could be one of those novels.

Although the authors listed on the books themselves probably have no idea that they have written so many books.

As Jiang Muyun browsed through the rows, she felt a bit sentimental.

These were her youth.

These cheap street stall publications were her initiation into novels. Moreover, because most of them were sealed, it was impossible to see the content before payment. So, each time she opened them, it felt like opening a blind box, not knowing what was inside.

Later, with the popularity of smartphones and her increasingly picky taste due to increased reading volume, these street stall novels with unknown authors gradually disappeared from her life.

This time she came to this familiar alley hoping for a bit of luck.

Unexpectedly, this shop was still there.

Is this the same adolescence in different eras?

Jiang Muyun sighed, feeling old.

The five-yuan books were old books bought by the store at a price of ten yuan for three books, without plastic wrapping. As long as it wasn't excessive, it was allowed to flip through them before purchasing.

Jiang Muyun first excluded those clearly about campus themes.

108 high school students fall in love. This is not a youth campus novel, but a supernatural thriller novel.

She also excluded those with ancient backgrounds, as the male lead in the one she read was a domineering CEO.

And the last few books with titles like "Confession" and "Wedding" were also excluded, clearly focused on pre-marital romance rather than post-marriage life.

For those with character names appearing on the cover, she could also exclude them without wasting time.

With this filtering process, she could quickly search through the remaining books.

Jiang Muyun was so familiar with the content of that particular novel that she knew the typos and where they appeared on those dozens of pages.

As long as she flipped the book from the middle, she could tell at a glance if it was the one.

Jiang Muyun spent the whole morning flipping through the books in the store. Fortunately, there were no customers at the moment, and she was careful in her actions, so the shop owner didn't chase her away.

Unfortunately, even after she finished flipping through the two shelves, she still couldn't find the familiar content.

Or rather, she couldn't say that. Some parts were indeed familiar, such as the ones about playing with fire; the dialogues were practically identical.

Jiang Muyun sighed and had to try her luck by opening the blind box.

After a careful selection by Jiang Muyun, she picked out several novels with a modern setting that seemed to have a touch of fantasy.

They were 《99 Escapes: Demonic CEO, Spare Me》《101 Divorces: Cold CEO Dominates Me》and《999 Confessions: Pure CEO Spoils Me》

Hmm, based on the frequency, the possibility of 108 treasures seems quite high.

Jiang Muyun successfully paid and left before the students arrived. As soon as she stepped out of the store, she discreetly placed the books in her bag and into her space.

It was lunchtime now, and Jiang Muyun followed the scent and arrived at the back gate of the school.

This high school is a key school in the province and provides student dormitories, with the majority of students here being day students who commute from nearby areas.

During lunchtime, in order to save time, most students casually eat something in the cafeteria or around the school, then return to their classrooms to rest for a while before continuing their studies.

Due to the stunning display of the school cafeteria, the open space outside the back gate of the school has basically become a gathering place for various small food stalls selling boxed meals, steamed buns, egg pancakes, and more. There are also quite a few larger stalls that set up tables and chairs and operate in the open air.

When Jiang Muyun was a student, her favorite was roast duck with fragrant sauce pancakes.

The stall for fragrant sauce pancakes was right next to the roast duck stall. Sometimes she would come early when there were fewer people and could even spend an extra yuan to ask the fragrant sauce pancake vendor to add an extra spoonful of sauce toon her roast duck.

The flavorful sauce of the pancakes mixed with the distinct grains of white rice put her in a constant state of "I'm full but I can still eat." At one point, her life's dream was to open a store selling fragrant sauce pancakes right at the entrance of the school.

Jiang Muyun bought a serving of roast duck with rice and luckily managed to get a freshly cooked sauce pancake. She even added a spoonful of sauce on top of the rice. Even when sitting on a plastic stool with her legs curled up, it didn't affect her appetite.

When Jiang Muyun finished her meal, there were already many students buying lunch, and the surrounding area was full of people. Even at her table, three unfamiliar female students sat, chatting about their exam results in the opening exams.

Jiang Muyun didn't delay much. After disposing her trash, she left through the back gate of the school, picked up a shared bike by the roadside, and rode to a nearby bookstore.

The bookstore mostly sold educational books, and Jiang Muyun spent quite a bit of effort before finding what she wanted.

She bought several volumes of maps and the legendary three must-have books for time-traveling.

The map books she bought covered a wide range, from the entire country of China and its neighboring countries to the provinces and cities in the south. They included tourist maps and detailed topographic maps.

It can be said that she bought all the types of maps available on the market, and they were all the latest versions.

Among them were several newly released road books focused on South City. These books were still in the pre-sale period in online stores, and she would have to wait for delivery even after the pre-sale period ended. Jiang Muyun was afraid of accidents, so she chose to buy them directly from the offline bookstore.

These road books recorded the obscure roads in and around South City in a more detailed manner than any other maps available on the market.

Although she had downloaded offline map packages from major navigation apps, there were times when it was inconvenient to take out electronic devices. In such situations, having physical maps on hand is important.

After settling the bill and checking the time, it was already half-past twelve, around the time when students finished their lunch.

She rode the bike back to the school's back gate and coincidentally met the sauce pancake vendor preparing to close up. Jiang Muyun hurriedly approached and asked if the vendor sold the sauce separately.

"Oh, it's you. Didn't you graduate? Why are you back again?" 

The vendor recognized Jiang Muyun quite well.

The young girl was about the same age as his daughter, and she had always been a regular customer. She often came with a bowl and asked for extra sauce. She spoke politely, had good grades, and her photos were frequently hung at the school gate. It was either congratulations for winning an award or ranking first in exams. She even came to bid farewell after the college entrance examination.

When Jiang Muyun came to eat earlier, the vendor also recognized her and specially added a generous spoonful of sauce. However, there were other students around at the time, so the vendor didn't have time to chat with her.

Jiang Muyun sighed, "I'm on summer break from university, just came back to visit. I've been thinking about your pancakes every day at school, couldn't enjoy the food there properly, so I thought of coming here to ask."

This school has tens of thousands of students, with new faces every year. There are not many people the vendor remembers, so it shows how much Jiang Muyun used to like these fragrant sauce pancakes.

The sauce is made by the vendor himself; it's like a secret recipe, and he definitely wouldn't sell it if someone else asked to buy it separately. But when Jiang Muyun asked, the vendor strangely felt it was quite normal.

Eating the sauce with rice is a way of eating that this young girl invented.

The vendor thought for a moment and asked how much she wanted to buy.

Jiang Muyun quickly calculated, "I should buy enough for a year. West City is far from South City, and train tickets are not cheap. I probably won't be able to come back often after this."

Jiang Muyun said pitifully, and the vendor's heart softened. He took out a bucket of sauce from under the cart and asked the vendor of the roast duck rice stall for a large food container. "This sauce can't be kept for too long. I'll give you a portion, no charge."

The roast duck rice portions are generous, and the food container is large. The amount of sauce in this portion is not small either. Jiang Muyun could finish a container of pancakes in a day.

Jiang Muyun couldn't resist the temptation, "Come on, boss! There's a refrigerator in my dormitory. I can store them in the freezer, and they won't spoil for three years. I crave this flavor every day at school, so please sell me a little more. And if you don't charge me, I'll feel embarrassed to accept them. You’re putting me in a difficult situation, you know?"

The boss was cornered by Jiang Muyun and ended up packing everything for her, except for the amount he needed to make the pancakes in the next two days.

While packing, the boss kept muttering, saying that the sauce used as the base could create a taste that was not too different. If she really wanted to eat it in the future, she should make some herself.

Jiang Muyun expressed her gratitude repeatedly, reached into her backpack behind her, took out a bundle of cloth, and shook it open. It turned out to be a large cloth bag with the logo of XX Supermarket printed on it.

The boss found it amusing to see her putting the lunch boxes into the cloth bag. "So you've prepared everything and just waited for me to close up, huh?"

Jiang Muyun smiled sweetly, "Well, it's because your pancakes are delicious, boss. Even after ten years, I won't forget this taste."

The boss was delighted by her flattery and even said to Jiang Muyun as he was about to leave, "Remember to study hard in the future."

Jiang Muyun nodded, waved her hand, and ran off with the cloth bag.

The boss chuckled and shook his head, calling out, "Walk slowly, don't fall."

Then he heard the sound of a notification on his phone, indicating a payment of 300 yuan.

The boss was taken aback, "This girl, she spends money recklessly."

But after all, it was an unexpected fortune, so the boss was quite happy. On his way home after closing the stall in the evening, he passed by a snack shop and used the money to buy a box of beef jerky that his daughter, who was in her third year of high school, had always liked but rarely had the chance to buy due to its high price.

The boss thought it was a way for his daughter to benefit from someone else's luck, hoping that she would achieve good results in this year's college entrance examination.

The boss felt he had received a pleasant surprise, and Jiang Muyun also felt it was an unexpected joy.

Although she had spent 300 yuan of her living expenses, she truly loved this fragrant sauce pancake and would remember it even after ten years.

Jiang Muyun returned home today with a full load, and every penny spent was worth it.

After comforting Little White, who had attended compulsory classes all day, and observing the eggs in the incubator for a while, Jiang Muyun solemnly took out the three fantasy novels marked "X River Annual Masterpiece" and "X Crystal Studio's Passionate Publication."

Success or failure lies in this moment.

***

Author’s note:

The rice mixed with sauce on the fragrant sauce pancake is really delicious!!!

And the three essential books for time-traveling/ordinary human survival in the apocalypse: "Barefoot Doctor's Manual," "Militia Training Manual," and "Friend of Dual-Use Talents for Military and Civilian Purposes."