"Grandma, I'm whipping eggs, see? This white stuff is whipped cream. Look, we have got way too many eggs, even after making salted and braised ones. We can't sell them, and if they sit too long, they will spoil. So I'm whipping them all first. Later, we can make sponge cakes. You love those, right?
And not just sponge cakes. We can make jujube cakes, pumpkin cakes, red bean cakes, cookies, and all kinds of pastries. They will last for months, and if not, we can freeze them. When we want to eat them, just take them out. It's super convenient."
Of course, whipped cream wasn't just for cakes. Jing Shu had secretly made ice cream before in the quiet of the kitchen. She could also make pudding, creamy mushroom soup, mousse, and cheesecake. Since they had an overabundance of eggs, she decided to turn all of them into cream for storage. Her plan was simple. She would process all the raw ingredients into semi-finished goods to save space and make them easier to carry when they had to move. That way, she wouldn't have to cook from scratch every time she wanted something nice.
It looked like downloading A Thousand and One Ways to Cook Eggs back then had been the right call.
When Grandma Jing heard that the food wouldn't go bad and wasn't a waste, she exhaled in relief. Her eyes brightened at the explanation, though she still hesitated as she watched the whisk move.
"Wouldn't that waste food? It takes so many eggs just to make a few things. You can't even treat it as a proper meal. Back in our day, sponge cake was a real luxury! And what about all those yolks? Can't you just mix them with the whites? We can't finish that many yolks!"
Jing Shu didn't stop whisking the mixture, her arm moving in a steady rhythm. "What waste? As long as it fills your stomach, it's not wasted. We won't waste the yolks either. We can make custard pies and mooncakes, or mix them with milk to make egg tart filling. It keeps in the freezer for years. When you want egg tarts, just pour the filling into the crust and bake it. Fresh, hot, and ready anytime."
"Egg tarts? Like the ones you bought last time? Those were delicious! Can we really make them ourselves?" Grandma Jing's eyes lit up at the thought of the pastry.
The box of tarts they had bought earlier had been gone for ages. The whole family had eaten them a few times, but she had loved them most. They were soft, sweet, and easy to chew, which perfectly fit her requirements for food. She preferred anything that was sweet, soft, and gentle on the teeth.
No one should be fooled by her age; she had a serious sweet tooth. That craving came from her younger days, a time when sugar had been a rare and unattainable luxury.
"Grandma, we will have egg tarts this afternoon. Come on, I will teach you how to make the crust. We can make a bunch, stack them up, and store them in the fridge. They won't take much space or go bad."
"Huh? What was I here for again?" the old woman muttered while rolling the dough, her hands moving with practiced ease. She tucked the palm-sized pastry into foil cups, then she frowned. "Something doesn't feel right."
What could she do though?
She couldn't admit that her body had come to the kitchen on its own just because she wanted to eat those soft, sweet tarts more often. Nor could she say that the rich, sugary smell of the baked sponge cake had lured her in until she couldn't leave the room.
Just yesterday she had sworn to save food and cut back on waste, but that promise was already gone with the wind.
Even the plans for the vegetable rack and transplanting the fruit trees were long forgotten. By the time the two of them had used up every last egg, several bags of flour, and mountains of sugar, they had filled the house with pastries and semi-finished desserts. Only then did Jing Shu remember the garden.
When she finally went out to patrol the yard, she saw that the place had completely changed.
The fruit trees had been replanted, and the vegetable racks had been rebuilt. The planting area had doubled in size. Not only that, but the soil layers in the greenhouse were neatly set up. Rows of half-grown bok choy filled the shelves, appearing lush and vibrant in the light.
But Grandpa Jing sighed as he looked over the work. "What a pity, such a waste."
"What is wrong, Grandpa? Waste what? And wait, it's already done? Where did you get all this soil and the seedlings?" She blinked in surprise. She had planned to pull some from the Cube Space, but she didn't dare take too much in case the space didn't replenish itself.
He explained what had happened over the past two days. The soil and seedlings had all been bought by Su Lanzhi from the fields near the Artificial Sun at a high price.
After they discovered the soil here was seeping water, Su Lanzhi had rushed there the next morning, terrified that their land might be contaminated too. Luckily, that area's soil was still fine.
Jing Shu frowned at the news. "That didn't sound right. Was that land really unaffected?"
Grandpa Jing went on, "Your mom wasn't sure either, so she asked someone to dig deeper. But just two meters down, the ground was hard as stone. When they dug it up, it turned out to be the same glue-like mud from our place, only it had hardened like cement."
After testing, they found the cause. The heat from the Artificial Sun had baked the watery mud underground into solid cement. This formed a natural protective barrier that stopped more sludge from seeping into the upper layers.
It was a lucky break that saved their crops.
Su Lanzhi had immediately reported the situation to the authorities. She had been busy these past few days dealing with the fallout. Even though the Agriculture Department could now do soilless cultivation, having soil contamination on this scale was still a serious matter.
Grandpa Jing sighed. "If we had known high temperatures could bake it dry, we wouldn't have bothered with all that cement and plaster for waterproofing. We worked ourselves to death for nothing."
Jing Shu comforted him, "That Artificial Sun stays hot all the time, but our place doesn't. Even if we dried it once, it might soften again when the temperature drops. This way is safer."
That made him feel better. He tucked his dry pipe behind his ear and went back to tidying the greenhouse. He was more attached to the plants than anyone. After all, until the next batch of tobacco grew, that was the only thing that could distract him, and his current stock was running low.
After a few days of helping her granddaughter, Grandma Jing had run out of energy. She turned her focus to preparing for the New Year instead. The family's supply of fresh vegetables had run dry, but that didn't bother them much.
No veggies? Then they would just eat more meat. They had plenty of fish and shrimp, along with dried mushrooms and fungus. There were also all kinds of pickled and salted vegetables, and if nothing else, they could use the dried ones from Qian Duoduo's dividends.
They didn't dare eat the vegetables from the Agriculture Department anymore. Those were laced with hormones and accelerants, only edible when they had no other choice.
The fields near the Artificial Sun mostly grew grains, and vegetables were rare there. The few trays of bok choy they had managed to buy had cost a fortune, and Grandma Jing had been plucking at them every few days. Those poor, half-grown greens hadn't even matured before being forced into service for their meals.
Thankfully, onions and ginger kept well in storage, or the family's meals would have tasted bland and sad without them.
It looked like they wouldn't be eating vegetables freely for a while.
Jing Shu, on the other hand, was completely absorbed in her baking. Batch after batch of cookies and cakes came out of the hot oven, each with a different flavor. She was stocking up her rations while she still had the chance. Who knew when she would ever get to enjoy such good food again?
By the time she had to take the RV out to pick people up for the New Year, she really didn't want to leave. With her progress this slow, when would she ever finish storing enough cookies? She sighed, feeling gloomy about the interruption.
Just as she was about to head out toward the vehicle, a sudden, heavy sound echoed from the front of the house. Someone was knocking on the door.
"Don't tell me they're already here? Well, that saves me the trip," Jing Shu muttered.