Surviving in a Collapsed World, Is Something Wrong?

"By the way...Kiana, why do you suddenly want to eat this?"

"Well, I ate it once before with Jiang Ming."

Kiana nodded vigorously in response.

"Huh? When? How come we didn't know? Did you guys skip class?"

"What... that time last time."

“Ahhh….”

Jiang Ming suddenly interrupted them.

"Well... since there is no objection, let's eat this dark hot pot tonight. Now everyone should go out and prepare the ingredients together! Kiana, let's go!"

"oh oh!!"

As he said that, Jiang Ming put Yuexia on Meiyi, and hurriedly took Kiana to put on her shoes and went out and ran quickly to the large supermarket in St. Freya Academy.

"It's suspicious..."

"It's suspicious indeed..."

"He must have skipped class!!"

"........"

.......................................

.......................................

Chapter 114 Now, it’s time for supper!

————Then, night fell.

In the living room of Himeko's villa, the Herrscher (crossed out) Valkyries who had finished their shopping gathered together, each holding a plastic bag containing their favorite ingredients, eagerly looking forward to the arrival of dinner time.

in the kitchen.

Jiang Ming came quietly behind Theresa.

"Hey, if we only put a little bit in, it shouldn't be discovered, right?"

Theresa showed an evil smile and looked at the things in the plastic bag, without noticing Jiang Ming's arrival at all.

"Master, what are you doing?"

"Eh?!"

Jiang Ming suddenly spoke up and restrained Theresa who was trying to cover up what was in front of her. Seeing that she could no longer hide it, Theresa began to beg for mercy. After Jiang Ming let her go, he began to check the plastic bag and found that in addition to some ordinary ingredients, there were also several kinds of bitter melon-flavored foods.

"......"

"Are you going to dump us, Principal Theresa?"

"Wow, I'm sorry."

"Oh, forget it."

Jiang Ming sighed helplessly and started to deal with the ingredients prepared by Theresa. Just when Theresa thought that Jiang Ming was going to deal with all the bitter melon-flavored ingredients she had prepared, Jiang Ming took out the dumpling wrappers that had been prepared long ago. Facing Theresa's surprised eyes, Jiang Ming's explanation was...........

"I had expected that you would prepare bitter melon-flavored ingredients, so I also prepared dumpling wrappers. By wrapping them with dumpling wrappers, the bitter melon flavor should not leak out, and dumplings can also add a sense of mystery. But in this case, we can only pray that it is the principal who eats it."

"Woo woo, thank you, Jiang Ming."

"Okay, okay, leave this to me first. Theresa, just go to the living room and wait."

"Uh-huh!"

.......

Just when Jiang Ming was hurriedly packing food for everyone, Mei suddenly came to his side.

"Let me help you."

"Oh, thank you for your hard work, Mei."

Because he was in a hurry, Jiang Ming just turned around to see that it was Meiyi and continued to make dumplings.

"Haha, it's not hard."

"No~hard~."

Although he didn't know why Mei said the same thing twice, maybe it was just a sudden interest, so Jiang Ming didn't care too much.

Then some time passed.

The doorbell rang crisply, and Jiang Minggang went to open the door immediately after wrapping most of the ingredients prepared by everyone in dumpling skins.

"Monitor?"

"Well, good evening, Jiang Ming."

That's right, the girl standing outside the door wearing the familiar red-framed glasses was Fu Hua. Her three thousand black hair was stained with some white because of the snow and wind outside. Even so, she, who was once an immortal, did not feel any discomfort. Fu Hua now looked like a white crane that turned into a human form to repay her savior.

(The legend of the white crane repaying a favor mainly refers to a young man (some say it was an old man) who rescued a wounded crane. The crane turned into a young girl and locked herself in the house. Somehow, she wove beautiful cloth and let the young man sell it. But she never allowed the young man to watch her weaving process. One day, the young man, who couldn't help his curiosity, took a peek and saw the girl in the room turned back into her original form of a crane, covered in blood, plucking her feathers and putting them on the loom...)

"Squad leader, why don't you hold an umbrella?"

"I left in a hurry and forgot."

After inviting Fu Hua into the house, Jiang Ming quickly handed her a towel and considerately took off Fu Hua's clothes that were covered with snow. Seeing that Fu Hua seemed at a loss with the towel in her hand, Jiang Ming simply took the towel himself and gently wiped the snow off Fu Hua's head. Without waiting for Fu Hua to say anything, he directly brought her to the warm kotatsu.

"...?"

Fu Hua, who hadn't figured out the situation yet, felt the warmth of the kotatsu while looking at everyone.

"Hiss~ What a strong boyfriend."

"Househusband, what a horror."

"......"

.......

On the kotatsu, the tabletop stove was ready for cooking. I had already poured the tomato-flavored soup base into the pot. Waiting for the ingredients to be put in, Jiang Ming looked around and put his hand on the light switch at the entrance of the room.

"......Okay, now that everyone is here, it's almost time to start. After I turn off the lights, put the ingredients you brought into the pot. You won't be able to see them after it gets dark, so you need to confirm the position of the pot now. Oh, and be careful not to trip over them."

"Mmm!"

"understood."

Everyone nodded to show that they understood. After confirming everyone's reaction, Jiang Ming pressed the light switch. As the lights went out, although they were prepared, this was the first time they had dinner like this, so everyone still shouted in anticipation.

"Okay... put the ingredients in then."

Jiang Ming said as he returned to his seat, and then there was a thumping sound coming from the kotatsu.

"——Okay, it's over, Jiang Ming."

"Well, I'll start too."

Jiang Ming reached for his plastic bag and put the ingredients inside into the pot.

By the way, the ingredients prepared by Jiang Ming were standard for hot pot, very common types, such as pork, cabbage and the most ordinary egg dumplings. Although these might lack some interest for the concept of dark hot pot, Jiang Ming did not want some strange ingredients to affect others. If they ate them and then had a stomachache in the middle of the night, that would not be good. This was why Jiang Ming checked everyone's ingredients, but... he might have miscalculated after all.

————Then everyone waited for about ten minutes.

With the sound of gurgling, the living room began to be filled with fragrance. By the way, the soup base of the hot pot is tomato flavored.

"Oh...it smells delicious!"

"Yeah, I was wondering if the name Dark Hot Pot would be scary, but now it seems pretty good."

Kiana and Theresa spoke excitedly. Because the lights were off, we couldn't see their expressions, but we could easily imagine their joy and hilarity.

"Well...it's about time we eat, who should start first?"

"Ah, it's... me."

It was the voice under the moon that responded to Jiang Ming's question timidly.

"Under the moon? It's very dark now so be careful."

"It's okay, I can see it clearly."

"......ah?"

When Yuexia answered that she could see clearly, Jiang Ming tilted his head in confusion. Finally, he thought that Yuexia seemed to be a vampire, so she should have night vision, which was really convenient.

"Okay, but you still have to be careful."

"Ah."

Yuexia nodded obediently and sat in front of Jiang Ming, leaning her body against Jiang Ming's chest. Although the room was dark, one could still see the subtle movements of the figure. She didn't seem to care about other people's eyes. Yuexia began to try to pick up the food in the pot.

"......"

Because the room was dark, his other senses became more acute. Feeling the touch on his body, Jiang Ming didn't dare to move. If he moved, he might scare Yuexia, but if he didn't move, he would feel that this posture was quite strange.

Moreover, Mei and Sakura would put their hands on her from time to time. Damn it, they took advantage of the darkness of the room to do such outrageous things.

There was no choice but Jiang Ming had to endure it all.

In the darkness, there was the sound of containers clicking and a spoon sinking into the soup—and soon after, there was the sound of breathing under the moon.

“Hmm…hmm…”

"...How about it, Yuexia, is it some strange food? If you think it tastes weird, you can spit it out."

Maybe he was very worried about Yuexia, Jiang Ming said a little concerned, but Yuexia swallowed what he put in his mouth and then breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's okay, it was just a little hot."

Then Yuexia described the taste of the food she had just eaten.

"Hmm... it's a little soft, but when you bite it, the juice inside is very hot. It tastes delicious though."

After Yuexia finished speaking, Jizi exclaimed “Oh!”

"That's a fish ball. I put it there! You've won the jackpot--!"

Perhaps because the ingredients she put in were praised, Ji Zi was happy for a while, and Jiang Ming also breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Ji Zi did not choose any too strange ingredients.

Having said that, perhaps this is understandable. After all, Ji Zi is everyone's teacher, and she certainly doesn't want to take the risk of letting her students eat strange things, right?

"Well, then the next one is......"

"Bronya's turn is next."

Bronya's childish voice was heard, followed by the sound of hot pot ingredients being scooped up and the sound of soft chewing.

"Bronya, what's in there?"

Kiana asked eagerly, as if she had eaten her own winning ingredient.

“…This is probably, egg dumplings.”

Hearing Kiana's question, Bronya answered calmly, and then it was Jiang Ming's turn to call out and respond to her.

"Oh, that's what I put there - how about these tomato-flavored egg dumplings? Aren't they delicious?"

"Yeah, no problem."

After saying that, Bronya finished the remaining egg dumplings and placed the bowl on the kotatsu.

————Just like that, the dark hot pot in the villa was unveiled in a very peaceful way.

After Bronya, everyone also ate hotpot in order. At least for now, it seemed that nothing too weird was put in the food. Although there were some things that were not suitable for hotpot, they were limited to things like bitter gourd and apples wrapped in dumplings. These were things that could be laughed off. In this way, Jiang Ming and others tasted the unique dark dinner in harmony.

"Then, next is——"

"My, my, my! I've been waiting for so long!"

Kiana shouted hurriedly as if she wanted to interrupt Jiang Ming. At the same time, her stomach growled. It seemed that she had been made to wait too long.

“I see… Sorry, sorry, come on, Kiana.”

"oh oh!"

Kiana answered readily, then put the hot pot ingredients in a bowl and ate them heartily.

“Mmm…Mmm…Mmm…”

"How...how?"

"What did you put in—?"