Elena should not be left unprotected where she might meet the king.
But she is a mother after all, and no one else can do anything about her willfulness.
Her age and experience have made her look very lightly on life and death. If she could choose, safety is not something she wants to consider. She has sacrificed too much for "safety" over the past few decades.
Now that curiosity and nostalgia have taken over, she wants to be willful, so she appears here after getting up.
It's not that she's waiting for anyone, she just likes the atmosphere of the kitchen. The stove used to supply warm water all day long seems to bring people back to an era when supplies were still abundant.
Seeing Wang Qi coming in with the broken sled board, Elena took the initiative to talk:
"Good morning King, what happened to your sleigh?"
She knew that the other party couldn't understand the too complicated sentences, but she could understand part of them.
Wang Qi pointed to the two broken beams and responded in his native language: "Good morning, it was too heavy during transportation and was crushed."
"That's a shame." The language barrier did not prevent her from responding.
He will not deliberately avoid answering, nor will he use local language that he is not proficient in.
It seems a bit strange, because I respect other people, so I don't ignore the problem; because I don't care about further responses, I don't want to organize unfamiliar language.
He was there, and it seemed like he was in another world, a world that was both strange and familiar to Elena.
When classifying the types of people in the wasteland, the ones that can be distinguished are actually very limited. Survivors and beasts can be completely summarized. Survivors are cautious, and sometimes have to obey wild beasts for safety and survival; wild beasts are bold and aggressive, and often treat survivors as prey.
The confidence and calmness shown by Wang can hardly be said to be brought about by his own strength. Elena is more willing to believe that he is like this.
Wang Qi put down the sled, found a piece of firewood to block it to avoid slipping, added two pieces of fuel to the stove, and asked in local language:
"Drink water?"
"Thank you, I have it."
"You can change the water later." Wang Qi nodded and started working on his own.
Although the water in the stove pot is filtered with cloth-wrapped carbon blocks, due to the way the stove is used, the water temperature is not high most of the time. It can even be said that half of the day is in the temperature range where bacteria are active.
In the future, as more people use more water, the water is more likely to be contaminated by more types of bacteria. Therefore, it is better to boil drinking water separately, and boiling water can last longer in a thermos.
Elena and Lin didn't help. One was in a wheelchair and the other was sitting on the sofa, watching him tinkering with the fire in the stove, going out to get firewood and twigs, and then boiling another pot of water when the fire got louder. Use a filter bag to filter the water in the indoor bucket to replenish the bucket closest to the stove, and then run to fetch a bucket of frozen water and let it melt naturally.
"Snow is not as clean as we thought. The water that has been filtered has been filtered for a long time. It will be cleaner if it is filtered again. Wang's method is that the water in the bucket closer to the stove is cleaner. If we want to use hot water, it is best not to use hot water. Shuffle the order." Elena acted as the narrator and told Lin a lot in one breath.
Lin looked at her mother: "Why haven't you said it before?"
"Ahem." Elena was a little embarrassed. She looked at Lin and admitted the embarrassing incident, "I forgot."
Two simple words contain a lot of hardship.
Because there were more and more adopted children, Elena didn't even have much sleep time for a long time. All housework had to be simplified as much as possible. After a few years had passed when the older children could gradually help some, she would have already I have forgotten a lot of strange knowledge, which is nothing compared to survival.
Lin didn't complain. Instead, she was happier for her mother than ever before. After moving here, her mother was very relaxed, talked a lot, and seemed to be getting healthier.
Wang Qi saw that the two of them were talking without looking at them. When there was no movement, he turned around and took two steps closer. He took out his own thermos and said, "Bottle."
"I'll do it myself." Lin refused.
Wang Qi nodded. It was unrealistic to let down his guard for a day or two. The winter was still long anyway, and the old lady didn't seem to be dying for a while, so he didn't force it.
Go back to the stove and wait for the water to boil, pour out the remaining water in the kettle, scald it with a little boiling water to warm up the thermos, pour it out, then fill it up, cover it, and go out.
When she vaguely heard the sound of going upstairs, Lin stood up and changed the water to hot water that was said to be cleaner, and asked Elena: "Mom, is he good-looking?"
"ah?"
"You just kept staring at him again."
"Hohoho." Elena smiled and asked, "He is quite handsome, don't you think?"
Lin rolled her eyes: "It's none of my business, and he is...a ghost."
She said the last word so quietly that Elena, who had some hearing loss, couldn't hear it at all.
The flames from the firewood that had just been added to the stove gradually decreased, and it was not enough for Elena to see clearly the movements of Lin's lips, but she could guess it because she personally did not like to confuse night walkers with ghosts. Also because "ghost" is a taboo word in this season.
"Ghosts... I wonder what we will see this year." Elena even had a hint of expectation.
"Mother!"
"Okay, okay, I won't say anything anymore."
The two returned to calm. Not long after, the door on their side of the house was opened. Varya and Anna outside saw that the two were safe and sound, and they breathed a sigh of relief.
"Mom, can't you wait until we get up before coming here?" Anna leaned over and complained.
Elena shook her head slightly: "You are late, I have already met with the king."
"!!!"
Lin stood up and helped explain: "The king is here to boil water."
"...Mom, are you really not afraid?"
Varya said that the king was a particular person and such people would not attack people without any reason. But everyone knows too little about him, and they don’t know what behaviors will hit the red line. In addition, the Night Walker is always at risk of going crazy, so he should be careful.
And Elena has reasons that are difficult for children to understand. She can't even explain herself clearly. She can only answer abstractly: "I am safe, much safer than you think."
Anna had no choice but to leave Varya to watch first.
After waiting for a long time, Shana was brought in to replace Varya.
Everyone actually knows that one person cannot fight against the night ghost no matter what, but if there is one more person left, there will be no one to handle the family affairs, and it will be easier to anger the other person.
Shana got up very late today because she ate too much yesterday and lay on her belly for most of the night before falling asleep. When she got to the kitchen, she still looked like a goose. She waited until Lin gave her warm water to wipe her face before she felt better.
At this time Wang Qi brought Li Xiang in and prepared to make breakfast.
Elena's family only eats one meal a day, but she knows what the other person is doing: "Wang, do you want to change the menu? It's hard to digest meat in the morning."
Wang Qi didn't pay attention, only listened to half of it, and looked at Li Xiang.
"It's not good to eat meat." Li Xiang's knowledge of Qin Yu was limited, so he could only translate it a little bit.
"Ask her."
Li wanted to ask the old lady: "Then what shall we eat?"
Elena asked Lin: "Lin, go get some beans."
The supplies were under Lin's control, so there was no need to consult other people's opinions, so he quickly brought out a small bag of beans.
Wang Qi took the bag and opened it. It turned out to be soybeans!
Completely different from cabbage, soybeans, like tetraploid potatoes, are crops that can be used as staple foods and can provide fat, starch and protein.
Can we make tofu curd with soybeans?
...It's over, he is a sweetie. Sugar is too hard to get now, and the remaining bits must be used to prepare for wheel battles. The sugar is too little and tasteless, so forget it about the salty tofu.
Think about it, let’s use mung beans to cook porridge. The lean meat and soybean porridge should be edible if it is salty.
