Leng Hui glanced at the messy table and ignored it completely, turning to enter the kitchen.
What passed for a kitchen was merely a small partitioned space made of wooden boards, barely large enough to hold a coal stove, a few pots, and standing room for one person.
It was so cramped that even turning around was difficult. If more people needed to enter, they would have to squeeze themselves in. No one enjoyed being in such a confined kitchen.
When guests visited, cooking became inconvenient, requiring them to carry the coal stove out to the corridor to stir-fry dishes.
Preparing breakfast without much oil smoke inside wasn’t too problematic.
Leng Hui rummaged through the cabinets at home and found only half a bag of mixed grains—no noodles or flour in sight. Beside the coal briquettes, she spotted a burlap sack containing half a bag of sweet potatoes.
In the post-apocalyptic world, sweet potatoes were considered precious food, but Leng Hui, having just arrived in this world, knew that delicacies weren’t limited to sweet potatoes.
Like the eggs Leng Feng had eaten earlier.
Her stomach had been growling with hunger for a while. Cooking mixed grain porridge would take too long—it seemed there wasn’t enough time.
Leng Hui selected several medium-sized sweet potatoes, placed them in a basin, and went to the water room at the end of the corridor where there was a tap.
She filled the basin with water and scrubbed each sweet potato clean, trimming both ends.
After washing the sweet potatoes, she returned and started steaming them in a pot.
Then she emerged from the kitchen, her gaze settling on the locked wooden chest under Old Lady Leng’s bed.
Forcibly breaking locks was something she had done frequently in the post-apocalyptic world; she still had hydraulic shears in her space.
The tool was effective—it could break the lock without damaging the chest.
She took out the hydraulic shears from her space and cut the lock directly, tossing the broken lock back into her space.
Dragging out the wooden chest, she guessed it contained Old Lady Leng’s treasured possessions.
Opening the old-fashioned camphorwood chest, she found flour, rice noodles, some candy, and over a dozen eggs.
There were about four to five jin of flour, roughly two jin of rice noodles, and the candy was neatly packaged—likely one jin in total.
With eggs and flour available, what Leng Hui craved most was an egg pancake.
But after searching the house, she couldn’t find any oil, so she had to settle for noodle soup.
In this era where even rations weren’t fully supplied, a bowl of noodle soup was an unparalleled delicacy.
Having fallen yesterday, her clothes were stained with mud. After eating, Leng Hui changed into fresh clothes and washed the soiled ones, hanging them to dry.
By then, the sweet potatoes on the stove were cooked. Leng Hui packed them in a net bag, picked up her lunchbox, and headed to the hospital.
Before even entering the ward, she heard voices inside. Thinking someone from the Leng family had come to trouble Tang Lin, she rushed in quickly, only to find a man and a woman seated on either side of the sickbed.
Leng Hui’s sudden entrance abruptly silenced the conversation, and all three pairs of eyes turned to her.
The woman near the door reacted first, smiling as she asked, “Sister Tang, is this your youngest daughter?”
“Yes, this is my Hui Hui,” Tang Lin introduced with a smile. “Hui Hui, these are my colleagues from the factory. This is Aunt Yang, and this is our Section Chief Li. Call him Uncle Li.”
“Uncle Li, Aunt Yang, nice to meet you.”
Leng Hui noticed a net bag of canned fruit on the bedside table, smiled at them, then turned and placed the net bag she was carrying on the bedside table next to the other hospital bed.
Yang Ying naturally noticed the lunchbox in Leng Hui’s hand and patted Tang Lin’s hand. “There’s still work at the factory, so Section Chief Li and I will take our leave now. Rest well in the hospital and come back to the factory to check in once you’ve recovered. We’ll be going now. Huihui, take good care of your mom.”
“Section Chief Li, Comrade Yang, I’m sorry my personal matters made you go out of your way to visit. Huihui, see them out,” Tang Lin said with a hint of guilt in her eyes.
Li Yong waved his hand. “No need to see us out. Just rest well.”
Yang Ying reached the door, turned around, and shook her head with a smile. “Huihui, don’t listen to your mom. You probably brought food for her in that lunchbox, right? Make sure she eats it while it’s warm. We’re all colleagues from the same factory—no need for formalities like seeing us off. We’ll be going now.”
As she left, she even remembered to close the hospital room door, making it clear she genuinely didn’t want Leng Hui to escort them.
Under her mother’s stern gaze, Leng Hui obediently opened the door and called out to their retreating figures, “Uncle Li, Aunt Yang, take care on your way back!”
Tang Lin couldn’t help but laugh in exasperation. “Is that what you call seeing guests out?”
“Why isn’t it? They clearly didn’t want me to escort them. Wouldn’t it be awkward if I insisted?” Leng Hui retorted.
She picked up the lunchbox, sat on the stool, and opened it. “The doctor said you can have some liquid food now that your digestive system is working again. I brought you half a bowl of noodle soup.”
Tang Lin leaned against the headboard, inhaling the aroma of the noodles and swallowing involuntarily. After nearly a decade in the apocalypse without tasting normal food, and then being told by the doctor after her surgery that she couldn’t eat until her digestion resumed, the doctor’s orders had felt like a form of torture, testing both her mind and body.
She didn’t need Leng Hui to feed her—Tang Lin picked up the bowl and downed the half-bowl of noodle soup in one go.
“Half a bowl barely fills the bottom of my stomach. Next time, remember to bring more. How many years has it been since I’ve tasted such pure, natural food? How could you let me finish it before I even properly savored it?”
“Just bear with it for now. Once you’re fully recovered, you can eat whatever you want.”
Leng Hui strictly followed the doctor’s orders—only small amounts of liquid food. Who would take responsibility if she ate too much and complications arose?
After washing the lunchbox, Leng Hui returned to the room, stored the net bag of canned fruit in the cabinet, and slowly peeled a sweet potato, eating it by herself.
The boiled sweet potato had cooled just enough to be the perfect temperature.
Taking a bite, the sweet flavor instantly spread in her mouth—smooth, dense, sweet but not cloying. As the sweetness slid down her throat, she felt a sense of satisfaction in both body and mind.
After swallowing the last bite of sweet potato, Leng Hui clapped her hands clean and asked, “You said you don’t have the original host’s memories, so how did you know the names of those two colleagues just now?”
Tang Lin, green with envy, glared at her irritably. “Do I look stupid to you? I may have been unlucky enough to get injured and need surgery right after crossing over, but I didn’t lose my intelligence. Even without memories, I can subtly and discreetly gather information about people.”
Leng Hui poured herself a glass of water and took a sip. “Look at you—even with a new identity and in a new world, you’re still so fiery-tempered. We’re supposed to be recuperating now, so learn to stay calm. I was just curious and asked casually, no hidden meaning. Don’t get worked up.”
Tang Lin shot her a glare. “You try going years without eating purely natural food, and then having it right in front of you but not being able to eat it—see how that feels!”
Leng Hui asked, “Do you want some water?”
Tang Lin snorted coldly. “Not thirsty!”
Leng Hui clicked her tongue inwardly, then lay down on the nearby bed after eating and drinking her fill. “There’s no danger in this world. Don’t disturb me—I’m going to sleep for a while.”
Watching Leng Hui lie down, Tang Lin sighed. The happiest thing in the world was probably being able to sleep right after eating.
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