Doomsday Traveler

Chapter 347 Pottery and Millstones

Pepper was indeed appetizing, so much so that Lu Xi'an kept serving Lao Hao bowl after bowl, and pancakes were served one after another. He and Yao Wei ate to their hearts' content, and finished off all of Lao Hao's stock.

Finally, there was no more soup left, and not much meat and offal remained, not even enough to fill half a bowl. Old Hao had no choice but to bring out the last half bowl and say, "Gentlemen, I really have nothing left here. I'm sorry. If you're coming next time, just let me know in advance and I'll prepare more."

Lu Xi'an pushed the remaining half bowl to Yao Wei and said, "It's okay, we've eaten enough."

As he spoke, he slapped the loose cigarettes that he had previously slapped on the table, making them so bright they were almost blinding.

"Here, take these back."

Lu Xi'an said, "I originally wanted to buy your peppercorns, but you wouldn't sell them, so there's nothing I can do. These will be used to pay for your pork soup, is that alright?"

"No problem! No problem!"

Old Hao was all smiles, unable to suppress his grin. He thought to himself that these two outsiders were really generous, keeping their word and doing things perfectly. They were also very magnanimous.

If they come to eat flatbread with pork soup again in the future, we must treat them well.

Those who stole glances from elsewhere and saw this scene couldn't help but feel envious and full of admiration.

Fearing Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei's power, they dared not come over to watch anymore. However, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei's huge appetite and generous spending still attracted attention, causing people around to steal glances in their direction. At the same time, they were somewhat envious of Lao Hao for making such a large sum of money.

Not only others, but Hu Xiaodong was also very envious—he barely got any cigarettes, while Lao Hao made so much money all at once!
Yao Wei finished the rest of the soup, but left the meat and offal at the bottom of the soup for Lu Xi'an. Lu Xi'an ate some, and then fed the rest to Yao Wei.

Yao Wei didn't feel embarrassed at all. She naturally opened her mouth and let Lu Xi'an put the spoon in, and ate the last bit of food.

This has aroused envy among the crowd. This handsome man and beautiful woman are showing off their love so much, they must be bad people!
"Mom, I want to find a wife as beautiful and sensible as her in the future!"

"Get out of here! Where am I supposed to find it for you? Go back to your room, cover yourself with the blanket, and dream about it."

As Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei finished eating and got up to leave the pork soup stall with Hu Xiaodong, they overheard someone talking behind their backs.

Afterwards, Hu Xiaodong took Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei to Tao's shop in the middle of the market.

As they walked, Hu Xiaodong couldn't help but glance at Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei, genuinely amazed. Their bellies weren't even bulging; how could they eat so much?! Where did all the soup, meat, and bread they ate go?!

Tao's shop was a store, not a stall. There was another stall in the open space in front of the store, selling shaved ice.

However, the shaved ice here is just dry shaved ice; there's no juice or other flavoring to add and change the texture.

Hu Xiaodong told Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei that the ice was collected by someone during the cold weather and stored in the cellar for use when the weather warmed up. Shaved ice does have toppings, such as salt, potato sauce, sweet potato sauce, or, for a more luxurious touch, pepper—but that's a bit pricey.

There's nothing else on the island.

So Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei each ordered two drinks, trying the ones with potato sauce and the ones with sweet potato sauce, and then trying the one with pepper. They were refreshing and invigorating, but the taste was hard to describe.

Lu Xi'an could barely tolerate potato and sweet potato sauces, but pepper with ice was really hard to handle. Yao Wei, however, seemed to enjoy it very much, quickly finishing both cups of shaved ice and letting out a soft sigh, revealing a slightly satisfied expression.

After finishing their meal, the three of them went into the Tao family's pottery shop. The shop was very simple, consisting of a wooden cabinet surrounding the walls of the room, on which were displayed many items, including pottery jars, pottery basins, pottery cups, pottery bottles, pottery bowls, and pottery soup spoons.

Next to the earthenware bowl and soup spoon, there was also the only non-earthenware item—wooden chopsticks.

This should be a matching set.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei took a quick look and bought two ceramic bowls, two soup spoons, and two pairs of chopsticks; they didn't buy anything else.

The vehicle already had quite a lot of stuff, and most of the other items were unnecessary. Besides, they had come by small boat, and the boat's carrying capacity was limited, so there was no need to buy so much stuff; it would be troublesome to transport it back.

Anyway, Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei already had a good idea of ​​what was available here. As for the rest, if they wanted more in the future, they could ask Hu Xiaodong and his son to help buy it and deliver it to Caiyang Mountain.

Lu Xi'an originally planned to buy another cup, but Yao Wei said it wasn't necessary. Drinking water doesn't take much time, and Yao Wei said that one cup was enough for the two of them, so there was no need to buy two.

Lu Xi'an thought about it and agreed, so he put the ceramic cup down and didn't buy it.

Next, I looked around the market, but there wasn't much new or interesting stuff.

There were quite a few food stalls in the market, but Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei were already full. The other food options were relatively ordinary, so there was no need to try them.

The remaining stalls were mostly selling various daily necessities, including wooden sticks or other wooden products, toys, seafood, dried fish, and even stone tools.

As usual, Lu Xi'an kept all of this in mind, so that if needed in the future, he could ask Hu Xiaodong for help.

After browsing the market, the two followed Hu Xiaodong out to the place called Yuan Laotie's shop. They didn't have any ironware on them, so they couldn't order any from Yuan Laotie and could only look at the ready-made ones.

However, Yuan Laotie didn't have much stock, and there wasn't much that could catch Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei's eye, so they didn't buy anything. They only pawned the diesel generator and got three small coins for later use.

However, they did see something new here—some islanders took out hoes, removed the iron blades from the wooden handles, and said that the hoes were dull and asked Old Yuan to fix them. Then there was some haggling, and Old Yuan had the hoe blades melted down and remade.

Then someone came with a shovel, which, like a hoe, was made of iron with a wooden handle. He said his shovel was broken and asked them to fix it.

This man wasn't as good at bargaining as the one with the hoe, and ended up offering a higher price. While waiting for Old Yuan to start working, he chatted with the hoe-wielder for a while and then found out the price the hoe-wielder had offered.

This man immediately flew into a rage and started arguing with Yuan Laotie. In a fit of anger, Yuan Laotie cursed the man with the hoe for being ungrateful, saying that he had taken advantage of the situation and was still flaunting his position. The three of them got into a heated argument, which Yao Wei, Lu Xi'an, and even Hu Xiaodong watched with great interest.

Hu Xiaodong stepped forward and tried to negotiate the price, but Lu Xi'an felt that he was just stirring things up.

After leaving Yuan Laotie's blacksmith shop, Hu Xiaodong led Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei through the market and back, walked to the edge of the slope, and continued up to the fourth floor. After circling around for a while, they found the mill on the island.

This mill is indeed quite far from Hu Xiaodong's house; no wonder Hu Xiaodong says he doesn't come here to grind flour often.

The mill was doing so well that it looked even more bustling than the market. There were many people sitting in line at the entrance of the mill, and as people came out from the millstone, others went in, all in an orderly and efficient manner.

Hu Xiaodong thought Lu Xi'an was going to smash cigarettes or buy something else, but to his surprise, Lu Xi'an just looked around after arriving.

Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei stood together at the doorway, watching the millstone inside. They watched as someone poured barley onto it, then turned the millstone to grind it and produce flour, seemingly enjoying the scene immensely.

"Mr. Lu, Mr. Yao, should I inform the miller's family?"

Hu Xiaodong was puzzled. Why would two such powerful figures be interested in a mere millstone?

He thought that no matter what, he had to take good care of Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei. He was going to talk to the owner of the mill so that Lu Xi'an and Yao Wei could have a good look around and even have a chat.

However, Lu Xi'an shook his head and said, "I'll just take a look."

Hu Xiaodong had a lot of questions on his mind. He wondered how someone so big and capable could be so interested in these things like a child.
After standing there for a while, seemingly confused, Lu Xi'an suddenly spoke: "Dog, do you understand now?"

Hu Xiaodong was even more confused. Who was this Mr. Lu talking to?
However, the next moment, he suddenly heard a "thump" on Lu Xi'an's back.

To be precise, there was some inexplicable movement coming from the rattan box behind Lu Xi'an.

Hu Xiaodong was startled. Could there be something alive inside?! Why hadn't there been any movement before?!

But Lu Xi'an didn't answer his question; he simply said, "Alright, let's go."

After saying that, he turned around and left.

Yao Wei followed suit.

Hu Xiaodong, still confused, could only hurry to catch up. He reached Lu Xi'an's side and asked, "Mr. Lu, are you sure you don't want to go inside and take a look?"

Lu Xi'an shook his head and said, "No need, just understand it."

"What do you mean, 'understand'?"

Hu Xiaodong still didn't understand.

Lu Xi'an explained, "Just understand how to make and use this stone mill. I can't keep coming back to your island to grind flour. I can make one myself later; it'll be much more convenient than this."

He certainly didn't plan to do something that big; he could just do something small in the future. Anyway, he only needed to take care of himself and Yao Wei; he didn't need to worry about anyone else.

It would be best if there was a large one at the 923 Institute base. Then I can try making it myself first, and then teach the steps to Luo Ping and the others so they can go back and do it themselves.

Hu Xiaodong's eyes lit up as he listened: "Mr. Lu, you understand how to do it?! Could you teach me? We want to make one for our family too, later..."

Lu Xi'an interrupted him, saying, "When I do it later, you can come and see for yourself. Whether you can learn it or not depends on yourself, and how you want to do it also depends on yourself. Be careful that if you do a good job and open a business, the miller's family might come knocking on your door and start a fight."

Hu Xiaodong's face stiffened, and he quickly said with an awkward smile, "I wouldn't dare. My family already has a sweet water business, and I wouldn't dare to covet someone else's business. I'm just making one for myself, just for my own use..."

Lu Xi'an glanced at him but didn't expose him.

(End of this chapter)