Xu Maidong’s Little Doomsday Homestead: Meat in the Pot, Worries Gone

Female-oriented · post-apocalyptic farming · everyday cooking · lie-flat story Apocalypse + rebirth + no superpowers + no storage space + extreme cold + stockpiling + cooking + cat cuddles + lie flat Xu Maidong is reborn. With three months left on the apocalypse countdown, she opens her notebook and writes one word on the first page: stockpile. Other people stockpile supplies to stay alive. She stockpiles them because she loves to eat, too. Rice, flour, cooking oil, and other staples fill the basement. Whole sides of pork, whole sheep, and beef legs hang in the freezer. Cans line an entire wall, and seasonings fill three shelves. She grows vegetables and raises chickens in the yard, while the cellar holds enough firewood and gasoline to last for years. Three months later, the extreme cold arrives. Temperatures plunge below minus sixty degrees. Outside, all is ice and snow. Xu Maidong is braising pork belly in the kitchen. The iron pot is 1.2 meters wide, and the pork belly glistens with oil as it trembles gently. Lamb slices bubble in a copper pot of clear broth with goji berries. When she lifts the steamer lid, plump white buns are packed together inside. Bubbles from the bathtub rise to her chin, and an orange cat sits by the door. Old Zhao says her place looks like a fortress. Wrapped in coral fleece pajamas, Xu Maidong has a cat purring on her lap. She picks up a piece of meat, blows on it, and thinks: As long as there’s meat in the pot, there’s nothing to worry about.