Fear of food

Chapter 62 Three Happinesses Come to the Door
Big Pancake: Family, I did it!

Chasing the Wind: I don't care what you become, just remember, never call us family again. I have PTSD from the word "family."

Coffee: Has your ability undergone a qualitative change?
Big Pancake: That's right. When I got back, I thought about it and ordered a lot of takeout from the shopping mall with the highest foot traffic around my house to feed Big Pancake. I didn't expect that it would actually taste like high-end food!
Coffee: Smart! Swill and Wind Chaser, you should learn from this and use your brains.
Biscuit (Chen Qi): What kind of ability does the qualitative change bring?
Big Pancake: Man and dog in perfect harmony!

Swill: Did the dog climb on you? Or did you climb on the dog?
Big Pancake: I'll show it to you next time we meet.

Coffee: Let's do it tomorrow then. Everyone should get some rest after everything that happened today.
Coffee: Let's discuss the next steps properly tomorrow.

Coffee: @Biscuit, bring bread in too!

[The cookie invited bread to join the group chat]

momo: Welcome newcomer! [Handshake]

After the departure of the broad bean group, Xu An'an's addition kept the number of people in the "Jinghai Foraging Group" at 7.

Putting his phone away, Chen Qi continued studying the freshly baked rye bread.

I discovered that this large loaf of bread is harder than a baguette, but if you're going to use it as a weapon, a baguette is definitely more handy.

The advantage of a baguette lies in its length; an inch longer means an inch of strength, an inch shorter means an inch of danger.

A large loaf of bread is like a hard brick; it's only good for close combat, unless you throw it at someone...

In short, it looks more like building materials than weapons, but it doesn't look like food at all.

"Dr. Xu, you chose the wrong major. With your skills, you should study civil engineering."

Xu An'an didn't seem to care about Chen Qi's teasing at all, and simply said, "I'm not studying medicine anymore, so you don't need to call me doctor."

"What should I call you? An'an?"

Xu An paused for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, but remember to use code names when doing group operations."

Next, Xu An'an cooked all the wild foods that Chen Qi had found into bread. After observing and studying them, Chen Qi finally summarized a few patterns.

The bread made by Xu An'an using wild foods inherits and amplifies certain characteristics of the original ingredients.

For example, wild twisted dough sticks, which are already hard, are made into even harder baguettes.

Walnuts, harder than twisted dough sticks, are used to make rye bread, harder than baguettes.

The slightly limp baby bok choy can only be transformed into even softer caterpillar bread.

The shape and size of the bread produced have nothing to do with the wild food used, but they will certainly inherit and amplify a certain characteristic.

Therefore, choosing some hard-textured wild foods makes it easier to make bread that can be used as weapons.

Apart from that, there's nothing particularly special about it.

This made Chen Qi even more excited about Xu An'an's future ability to undergo a qualitative change!
If you take the right direction for a qualitative leap in your abilities, like enchanting a bread weapon, then you'll take off.

"Come on, let's go buy some groceries, it's on me!"

Xu An'an did not refuse. The bread she had stockpiled was all in her school dormitory, and she did need to stock up on food again.

Chen Qi couldn't wait to take Xu An'an downstairs and drive to a small supermarket.

Shopping at supermarkets also carries risks for them, as supermarkets are densely populated places where parasites may appear.

Fortunately, it was a weekday and midday, so there weren't many people in the supermarket.

With many daily necessities needed for their new residence, Chen Qi pushed the shopping cart, and the two first purchased a considerable amount of household items.

They then proceeded to the food section.

Although it was called a food area, in Chen Qi's eyes it was no different from entering a monster room, with all sorts of bizarre, strange, and disgusting foods filling his vision.

Chen Qi remained unfazed, having long been accustomed to bizarre foods. Xu An'an similarly ignored these strange foods, heading straight for the pastry section.

On the counter in the pastry section, there were several plastic boxes covered with cling film. Chen Qi looked into the boxes and saw that each box contained two stomachs that were a size larger than a fist.

Each stomach was bulging, and it was unclear what was inside. A viscous liquid was slowly secreting from the surface of the stomach.

If it weren't for the label, Chen Qi would never have guessed that it was a steamed bun.

Xu An'an quickly swept the last few boxes of "big steamed buns" on the shelf into her shopping cart.

"Okay," she said, clapping her hands.

Chen Qi was taken aback: "That's it?"

Xu An'an nodded: "I always buy steamed buns to make bread. Anyway, it doesn't matter what kind of food I buy, I will buy the cheapest one."

Chen Qi advised, "Why don't you buy more of the other kinds of ingredients? Have you ever thought that the reason you haven't found a single high-end dish in over a month might be because you've been using too few ingredients?"

Xu An'an felt that Chen Qi's words made sense, so she picked out some other food.

Chen Qi noticed that she was picking out relatively inexpensive items, so he directly helped her get a lot of more expensive ingredients.

Xu An'an asked curiously, "You've struck it rich?"

"I don't need your money today." Chen Qi took out Mrs. Wu's phone and waved it.

Mrs. Wu still had a lot of money in her WeChat account. Chen Qi didn't know the password and couldn't transfer it out, but he could still make purchases directly using the payment code.

Seeing this, Xu An'an didn't stand on ceremony and brought some of the foods she usually wanted to buy but couldn't bring herself to buy.

After paying the bill, the two went to a nearby store and bought a few changes of clothes.

Chen Qi also bought a brand new mobile phone at a mobile phone store.

The backup phone he's using now was one that had been phased out before; it's a bit laggy and not very user-friendly.

All expenses for today will be paid by Mrs. Wu.

Before leaving, Chen Qi threw Madam Wu's phone into the trash can. Nowadays, phones all have location tracking functions, and he didn't want to be locked down by Dr. Zhao because of this.

Chen Qi took Xu An'an to her place. Her apartment was similar to Chen Qi's and they lived close by, separated only by a road.

Coffee arranged for them to stay in low-rise villas, clearly taking safety into consideration.

The higher the floor, the more densely populated the area, and the greater the danger.

After leaving Xu An'an's place, Chen Qi returned to his own residence and lay on the unfamiliar bed, but felt a long-lost sense of peace.

In the city where he grew up, he finally found a place to stay again.

He then started fiddling with the phone he had just bought.

Not long after getting the new phone, I received a message from my good son Yang Keji to let me know that I had arrived safely in Japan.

Since he was new to the area, he needed time to get used to both work and life. Chen Qi knew that Corgi would be very busy during this period, so he didn't chat with him much, but just told him to be careful.

"Terror knows no borders, so foreign countries may not be safe either, right?"

Chen Qi browsed some recent news on his phone and also checked some news on foreign websites, but he couldn't find any discussions related to food phobia.

I kept scrolling through my phone until after 5 p.m. when another message came in the group chat.

Bread: I've made high-class bread!
Chasing the Wind: Double happiness! Two people in our group got to eat fancy food today!
Chasing the Wind: No, if you include the cookies, that makes three! Triple happiness!
Biscuit (Chen Qi): I told you to try different ingredients.

Bread: It was made using the steamed buns I bought today.

(End of this chapter)