Cave Refuge

Mrs. Thompson's reminder didn't really catch Zachary's attention; after all, he didn't think it necessary to concern himself with the opinions of others.

However, considering that although he didn't often stay in the camp, his parents would never easily leave it, he thought it over and finally decided to put away the frying pan and moved all the cooking utensils into the cabin.

The aroma of the fried food easily woke Mr. Thompson, who was still asleep. Seeing the freshly fried, golden brown dough sticks, Mr. Thompson didn't say much. He just picked one up and tasted it carefully.

"This one's a bit under-fried; it would taste better if it were a bit crispier."

Hearing Mr. Thompson's comment, Zachary picked out a few of the softer dough sticks from the pile he was frying and placed them beside the table. Unlike Mr. Thompson, who preferred his dough sticks crispier, Zachary liked his a bit softer.

Besides dough sticks, with the addition of Mrs. Thompson, Zachary also made some sugar cakes, vegetable buns, and vegetable dumplings, and other fried goodies. After all, the most basic requirement to make these things was a pot of oil.

At that time, there were indeed people capable of making such oil-intensive foods, but not many, considering that the only ones who could frivolously use a pot of oil for cooking, besides Zachary, were some cooks in the large cafeterias.

The reason those chefs could even see a pot of oil was because, at present, the cooking oil used was almost all lard rendered from fat meat.

Unlike Zachary, who produced a pot of oil to make various fried foods, they rendered a pot of lard to prepare cooking oil and flavoring oil.

Zachary divided the fried foods he made in half; after setting some aside for his parents to eat, he put the rest into the Storage Space.

In fact, it was very simple for Zachary to eat fried foods, as there were canaries raised in the Cave that had obtained professional cooking certificates.

The main reason Zachary fried these foods in front of his parents this time was not only to provide a respectable source for those stocked in his Storage Space but most importantly, to ensure his parents got more fats and oils in their diet.

Although Mrs. Thompson's Storage Space wasn't lacking in various nutrients, during the period of the Natural Disaster, thriftiness had become a habit for their generation.

So in order for his parents to eat a bit more, Zachary specifically made those fried foods in front of them.

Just as the Thompson family of three was having a cozy breakfast, the people standing on the city wall were anxiously waiting, waiting to see if those who had entered the forest a day later than Zachary could come out safely.

In reality, under normal circumstances, since Zachary came out of the forest safely, they should have been patient and waited for their teammates who had previously been lost in the forest to come out before arranging for others to enter the forest to hunt for food.

However, after hearing from Zachary about the abundance of meat in the forest, everyone's eyes glinted like hungry wolves, unable to wait to enter the forest to hunt for meat.

They all naively thought that since Zachary could come out of the forest unscathed, the teammates who had disappeared in the forest could also leave it without harm.

That was why, even before their teammates had returned, they arranged for a hunting party to enter the forest.

After a night of reflection, as the feverish thoughts in their minds subsided, they remembered that their teammates who were first sent to explore the forest hadn't returned.

Only when they completely calmed down did they belatedly consider that perhaps they should wait for the first group of explorers to come back and, based on their experiences, make more adequate preparations before they could achieve more in the forest.

As the sun gradually sank in the west, the faces of those waiting on the city wall for their companions' return grew darker. Madeline, who had left temporarily due to other matters, came back and, after inquiring about the situation, felt a sinking feeling when she learned that apart from Zachary, no one else had come out of the forest.

She remembered that when she heard from Zachary how easy it was to get a lot of meat in the forest, she had indeed been blinded by the prospect of gain.

When many of the Patrol Team members volunteered, eager to obtain meat from the forest, she impulsively approved their proposal and immediately arranged for a squad to enter the forest to gather food.

Unlike the gloomy faces on the city wall, the Thompson family had a leisurely afternoon, and with the addition of several scarce seasonings provided by Zachary, they made a number of complex dishes.

Though the ingredients for those dishes were not complicated, the preparation was labor-intensive, like making pork jelly. Although the only ingredient was pigskin, the entire process was quite intricate.

You had to clean the pigskin thoroughly. Under normal circumstances, cleaning the pigskin was a hassle because the tough, short bristles required laborious plucking one by one with tweezers.

But this method was not only time-consuming, but prolonged effort would also affect one's eyesight. So a slightly quicker option was to roast the entire pigskin over a strong fire.