Chapter 57
Lu Yuanzheng, under the expectant gazes of a large and small group of people, put the spoon into his mouth, a mouthful of sweet, silky coolness accompanied by the fragrance of mango spread in the cavity, his eyes instantly lit up
He gave Xu Wen a thumbs up, “Yummy!”
“It’s super delicious!” Dongsheng spread his hands apart and gestured to both sides to emphasize how delicious it was, “It’s cold and sweet!”
Lu Yuanzheng nodded in agreement, “That’s right!”
After running outside for half a day, his body was drenched in sweat, and after taking a bite of this mango ice, the irritation caused by the sweltering heat instantly disappeared
His eyes fell towards the ice in the basin, showing surprise and appreciation, “You actually made the ice?”
Xu Man proudly tilted his head, “That’s right! You don’t even look at who I am as a daughter-in-law?”
The corners of Lu Yuanzheng’s lips rose, revealing a mouthful of white teeth, feeding the freshly scooped ice into Xu Man’s mouth, “Well, my daughter-in-law is the best! She’s beautiful, smart and talented!”
Seeing him so cooperative, Xu Man snorted out a laugh and suggested, “When we eat later, why don’t we share some of the ice congee with everyone?”
Dongsheng frowned, “But this is so troublesome and will take a long time! When will so many uncles be done?”
Xu Man made ice cubes and mango sorbet, Dongsheng had been waiting by the side, waiting for a long time from so many bowls of sorbet
Xu Man pointed to the finished three tubs of ice, “This ice should be enough to make ice porridge I saw that the cooking class has some red beans and green beans that can be used to make honey red beans and green bean paste We have some raisins and milk powder at home Getting some more cane sugar to put on it will be enough”
Making icy porridge is much easier than icy milk
The raisins were sent by the comrades of the Lu Expedition Sanatorium when they came back, specialties that had been carried all the way back from Xinjiang, and when they saw that Dongsheng liked to eat them, they gave them some
Red beans and green beans are a dehumidifier, a summer heat
Command knew that the island is hot and humid specially approved more
The milk powder was bought before Xu Man went to the island, bought two bags, want to give Dongsheng drink
Now you can take one bag out first
Sugar can be boiled, if you don’t want to boil it, you can directly use the juice from the sugar cane
The wild sugar cane on this island is especially sweet
Lu Yuanzheng nodded, “Good idea Let’s go to the cooking class”
He first picked up two large tubs of ice
Xu Man put down the curtains and door curtains on the tent to allow the tent to continue making ice to cool down, and also hugged a tub of ice and followed Lu Yuanzheng
Dongsheng, on the other hand, carried his raisins
Lu Yuanzheng going off duty basically meant that it was meal time
Each company had already lined up for dinner, and when they saw Lu Yuanzheng and Xu Man walking towards the battalion cafeteria with a large block of ice in their arms, they were shocked
“Crap! Am I blind? Is that thing that Battalion Lu and his sister-in-law are holding ice?”
“Seems like it!” Another person wasn’t so sure, “In the middle of summer, it can be made into ice?”
The discussion in the queue grew louder and louder until they were admonished, “Did I tell you to talk? Do you want to run two laps around the island?”
Two laps on such a hot day and the people were gone
All the men shut up in droves
The squad leader of the battalion’s cooking class saw Lu Yuanzheng and greeted him, “Battalion Lu, why are you here?”
“Your sister-in-law got some ice and wants you to help make some ice porridge for everyone to cool off”
“No problem” The head of the cooking class swallowed his saliva when he saw the ice, “Sister-in-law, you can even make ice in the middle of summer, you’re too good!”
This thing is cool to look at
On such a hot day, if pork and ice were put together in front of each other, most people would choose the ice
The heat was so extreme that people didn’t really have much of an appetite for food
It took time to boil the red beans, and it was too late now, but since the cooking class had been having to boil green bean water, the soft green beans were readily available
The cooks helped crack large ice cubes into bowls
There weren’t enough bowls at the battalion headquarters, so Lu Yuanzheng asked the cooking squads of each company to bring their own bowls to distribute
Xu Man soaked a whole bag of powdered milk in warm water and scooped two spoons into each bowl, which suddenly smelled like milk
These days things aren’t faked, and said powdered milk is real powdered milk
Cooking class people helped put some green beans, raisins, and some sugar into each bowl filled with ice
The simple ice porridge was ready
Lu Yuanzheng let the officers and soldiers line up to receive the ice porridge
The ice porridge was first distributed to the families, then to the soldiers, and finally to the cadres
This was the same rule for the usual meals
Because sometimes the cooking class might cook a little less, the last person to eat might not have any food
So the rule has always been that the soldiers come first and then the cadres Hungry cadres are also hungry
This rule had been popular in their unit for a long time
Usually everyone thinks it’s normal
Today, the cadres were a bit anxious
Lu Yuanzheng felt especially lucky when he watched the company commanders circle behind him with Shi Lei in a hurry
He had at least eaten a bowl of mango milkshake first to not crave it so much
When Shi Lei saw Lu Yuanzheng approaching, he hooked his back and whispered, “Say hello to your sister-in-law and save a bowl for her?”
Lu Yuanzheng heckled, “Is it appropriate for you as an instructor to engage in privileges?”
“How do you call it a privilege? This ice is made by my sister-in-law, and it’s her treat, not a sympathy gift from our organization, so how can we follow the rules of the meal? Based on our relationship, is it still not worth a bowl of ice porridge?”
“I think ” Lu Yuanzheng lengthened his voice, looked at Shi Lei’s expectant face and slowly spat out the last two words, “Not worth it!”
“F*ck!” Shi Lei pooh-poohed, “Lu Yuanzheng you’re a real dog!”
Exasperated, Shi Lei grunted twice and pointed at Lu Yuanzheng, “You damn wait! Today we will have a meeting until twelve o’clock at night! You still want to go back to hold your daughter-in-law? Do your dream!”
“Tsk! Look at you now, you’re like a dog jumping over the wall!” Lu Yuanzheng tsked twice, “Let the brothers see your fake public-spirited face, I’ll see how you can still start your work in the future!”
Shi Lei: “”
“Don’t you rely on the fact that you married a good daughter-in-law! It’s not like you made the ice! What are you so proud of?”
Lu Yuanzheng grinned showing a mouthful of white teeth and smiled even more yawningly, “I’m proud that I have such a great daughter-in-law ah! I’m proud that my daughter-in-law can make ice on an island in the middle of summer!”
Shi Lei: “”
Giving a thumbs up towards Lu Yuanzheng: “You’re ruthless! You win! Comrade in arms for the first time in so many years, I know you can be so thick-skinned!”
What else could he say?
Sure enough, the ice congee wasn’t enough to share in the end
The difference wasn’t much, it happened to be the share of a few of their cadres
When the last soldier was ready to leave with a bowl full of ice, he saw a few cadres staring at their bowls as if they were wolves staring at their prey, he hesitated and asked Shi Lei, “Instructor, why don’t you eat first?”
Shi Lei shook his head, “You guys eat, I’m not hot”
Joking, he is an instructor again greedy can still rob the soldiers of ice?
Shi Lei refused the other company commanders were of course too embarrassed to grab it
Lu Yuanzheng laughed on the side, so angry that Shi Lei wanted to punch him
Unfortunately, he is a civilian, and his force value is not as good as Lu Yuanzheng
Eyes out of sight, rolled his eyes and intended to leave
Lu Yuanzheng called out to him, “Don’t be so petty! How can our relationship not be worth a bowl of ice? My daughter-in-law asked me to ask you guys to come to my house for ice later”
The ones without ice
Shi Lei’s face suddenly turned cloudy: “That’s more like it!” Then he hummed, “Sister-in-law is too much better than you! I’ll definitely help sister-in-law when you two fight in the future”
Lu Yuanzheng coolly lifted his eyes, “Don’t worry! You won’t have this chance”
After Xu Man helped distribute the ice, he asked the cook squad leader, “Squad Leader Zhang, did you get the fish and charcoal I asked you to help make?”
“Done!” Squad Leader Zhang pointed to the large shells by the stovetop that had been burned until they were pitch black
When he came to borrow the pot in the afternoon, Xu Man took the large shell casing that he had asked Lu Yuanzheng to help him get
Xu did not know what kind of cartridge case it was, but the cylindrical diameter of the case was about twenty centimeters, and the material should not be afraid of burning
Lu Yuanzheng drilled a hole in the sealed shell and stuffed some wood blocks inside
Xu asked Mr Zhang to help him burn it on the stove while he was cooking
It had cooled down by now
Xu Man opened the cartridge case, and the still warm charcoal really did the trick
Xu Man was happy, “This way we can treat everyone to grilled fish”
“Oh yes, sister-in-law, the fish you asked for is also processed” Squad Leader Zhang showed her the fish that had been processed and marinated as per Xu Man’s request
The easiest food to obtain on the island was fish
“Thank you so much” Xu asked to thank her, “Can I borrow the stove again with some more oil?”
“Sure”
Xu asked over the oil and fried the fish, laid it on an iron plate brushed with a layer of oil and a layer of green onions, placed it on a wire rack with a pilot charcoal underneath and began to grill it
When she did the grilled fish, Lu Yuanzheng led the whole battalion except the guard post soldiers night training
This island was not yet a paradise, from time to time there were enemies attacking the island, the training task could not be slackened
They had to work during the day, so they could only add extra training one morning and one night
Dongsheng was there
He will follow the practice since he was a child, not necessarily able to follow the whole process, the movement is not necessarily standard, but Lu Yuanzheng asked him to follow
Roasting the fish was simple, and Xu Man didn’t need to be on guard all the time
She flipped the fish and slipped around
The guarded charcoal was strangely hot
The moon and stars hung high in the night sky, not exactly bright, but comfortable
There were slogans coming from the beach
They wore the same seersucker shirt and training pants There was not a big difference in height and almost the same walking and running posture
Xu Man, however, was able to recognize Lu Yuanzheng at a glance
In fact, it was impossible to see the face with such a line of sight, she just knew which one was him
According to Lu Yuanzheng’s rank, he actually didn’t need to participate in such training anymore, but he still took the lead
In Lu Yuanzheng’s words, he called it the right to be rebuilt!
Moreover, in such a hot day, when cadres don’t take the lead, soldiers are even more reluctant to practice
Xu Man put his hair, which was blown in front of his eyes by the sea breeze, behind his ear, and then looked over just as Lu Yuanzheng looked over
The four eyes were facing each other in the night, no one really saw who it was, but they knew it was the other person
Lu Yuanzheng waved his hand at her
Xu Wen also waved at Lu Yuanzheng
Raising the corners of her lips, she arched her eyebrows
This moment suddenly felt that the years were quiet
It turns out that happiness can really have nothing to do with wealth
There is nothing on this island, and the clothes, food, housing, and transportation are all bitter
But Xu Wen felt that there was a lot of flavor
It was probably because of the presence of Lu Yuanzheng
Xu Man suddenly recalled a saying she read on the Internet in her past life: because of a person, love a city
In her case, it was because one person fell in love with an island
Lu Yuanzheng came back after taking a shower
With such a large amount of sweating from training, one would be rancid without a shower
Each company has set up an extra tent to serve as a bathroom But for the time being, there wasn’t enough fresh water to shower indiscriminately, so they could only simply scrub themselves down
Knowing that Xu Man is still awake at this moment, Lu Yuanzheng is embarrassed to take off his clothes and scrub in front of Xu Man, so he followed his comrades to the company after training and washed himself before entering the tent
As soon as he entered the tent, he sighed with satisfaction
Xu Man changed the ice-making system a little bit, making an ice-making basin with a top and bottom layer, and drilling a hole in the bottom of the basin on the top
When the ice melted, it dripped down to the basin below and fused with the saltpeter to form ice again
The temperature in the tent dropped significantly
“Back huh? You sit down first, you can eat when they come” Xu Man saw that Lu Yuanzheng had returned, so he took a block of ice and cracked it open to make ice porridge It wasn’t good to really keep them from eating the ice
“Ooh!” Lu Yuanzheng looked at the baking dish on the square table and marveled, “It smells so good!”
Dongsheng had already moved a small bench to sit at the table and waited to eat the fish, when he saw Lu Yuanzheng come in, he looked behind him and asked, “Dad, did Uncle Shi and the others not come?”
“They’ll come over later” Lu Yuanzheng sat down at the table and saw Xu Man take a bucket and get some ice water, with a few bottles of beer soaking in the ice water, he raised his eyebrows in surprise: “Where did you get the wine?”
“Sister Li gave it to me This was originally the celebratory wine she prepared for Old Lu”
Most people in the entire battalion preferred white wine, only Old Lu liked beer Beer wasn’t really popular these days, so it was a bit of a hassle to buy it, so every time Old Lu went out, Sister Li went to the city to buy a few bottles and put them away
Lu Yuanzheng looked at the bottles of beer for a while before speaking, “Then this wine has to be drunk”