Yin Xiaoman made dried shrimps.

It is not the kind of fresh shrimps that ordinary fishermen spread out on stone slabs to dry in the sun for fear that they will be difficult to preserve.

She wanted the experts to keep it on their desks so that they could eat one when they were tired, hungry, or exhausted to replenish calories and increase nutrition, so she made it very carefully.

She asked Ren Ping'an to greet the soldiers who were patrolling at sea and asked them to help her catch more shrimps.

Because fishermen are prohibited from entering the waters near Zhongshan Island, there is much more seafood than in the nearshore area and the quality is much better, so this is not a problem at all.

After the shrimps arrived, Yin Xiaoman and a few children picked out the biggest and fattest ones, washed them, peeled them, removed the shrimp threads, and then blanched them in hot water.

Seeing what she did, Dami was very disapproving and stood beside her, muttering that she was wasting coal cakes.

Although he was talking to himself, his voice was very loud and it was obvious that he was talking to her.

Yin Xiaoman was too lazy to waste time talking to the little guy.

After the child got familiar with them, he regained some of his childish nature and no longer had a gloomy face every day. But this recovery directly led him from being taciturn to a stage where even dogs dislike him.

I can’t find it every day.

I don’t know where he gets all the strength from, he climbs walls, climbs trees, and runs around the world with his two little kids... He refuses to go home until the adults call for help or arrest him.

Sometimes Yin Xiaoman got so angry that she began to miss how well-behaved and sensible he was when he first came.

You may be a little stubborn, but the key is not to make trouble!

Seeing Da Mi pouting and pointing fingers as if he knew everything, Yin Xiaoman was so angry that his teeth were itching.

So he and Dabao were assigned a "heavy" task, asking them to borrow a few large stone slabs from the kitchen, and then carry them to the stream to wash them.

——If you have too much energy, go out and relax, so as to avoid staying around and causing trouble.

When Erniu heard that she had assigned such a task, she was even more excited than her two brothers. She patted her chest and said that she could do it, too.

Yin Xiaoman waved his hand impatiently and drove all three kids out.

The world suddenly became quiet.

She knew that most people don’t cook or peel shrimps when drying them.

But she was giving it to the experts to eat, so safety and hygiene must be put first.

Plus, both Mr. Ning and Mr. Hua are old. Even though they don't say it, after having known them for so long, she naturally knows that the two old people prefer to eat softer things.

After cooking and peeling, it should be more to their taste.

After putting the blanched shrimp aside to cool, Yin Xiaoman began to prepare the seasoning.

Onion, ginger, garlic, sugar, salt, soy sauce... Put all the seasonings in a small bowl and mix well, then pour the shrimp meat in and stir to soak it in flavor.

By the time she had packed up the materials, two brats came in, each holding a large, clean stone slab.

According to Yin Xiaoman's request, the two placed the stone slab on a stool and placed it in the place with the strongest sunlight in the yard. Then place the marinated shrimps neatly on top one by one.

Yin Xiaoman went back to the house and took out a vegetable cover that he had made by dismantling a mosquito net in advance and covered the shrimp meat with it. He then left the task of driving away mosquitoes and flies to the two younger ones, Dabao and Erniu.

She caught Rice and brought it back to help clean the fish.

In addition to dried shrimps, she also plans to make some fish cakes.

The weather on the island is hot and everyone wants to eat something refreshing, so she cooks less stir-fry now.

In addition, although the food allowance of experts is much higher than that of ordinary people, the amount of cooking oil they receive each month is only a small amount.

It is not reliable to fry, stir-fry, cook and deep-fry food every day just to improve your appetite.

Fish cakes are light and nutritious. When you want to eat it, just heat it up in a pot, or take it out and add some vegetables to make soup. It only takes a few minutes, is convenient, and tastes extremely delicious.

Fish cake is not difficult to make, the only troublesome thing is chopping the fish paste.

Now Ren Ping'an would send them fresh fish every day. Sea bass and mandarin fish were not rare.

This time, Yin Xiaoman planned to use the two large mandarin fish weighing more than two kilograms that he had just delivered today.

Use a knife to slice off the two pieces of meat on the fish's back that had fewer bones, then hand the fish meat and a spoon directly to Rice.

Since it was not the first time for him to cooperate, Yin Xiaoman just gave him a few simple instructions, and he skillfully began to scrape the fish paste with a spoon.

Shave quickly and well.

This child is someone who can be trusted to do his work.

Just like now, he doesn't even need an adult to watch over him. While scraping, he will not forget to carefully pick out all the fish bones that may occasionally be in it.

There's no need to bother watching it at all.

While the rice was being scraped with fish paste, Yin Xiaoman had already started preparing the seasonings.

In order to highlight the freshness of the fish itself, fish cakes do not actually require too many seasonings. Simple salt and pepper will do. However, there is one seasoning that is more troublesome to prepare, and that is ginger juice.

Chop the ginger into fine powder, add water to soak it to bring out the flavor, then filter it and remove the residue, leaving only the flavorful ginger water.

After scraping the fish paste, Da Mi handed it over, his eyes full of boasting.

Yin Xiaoman took a look at the small bowl he handed over, rubbed his head in appreciation, but poured the fish paste he handed over back onto the chopping board and began to chop it carefully again.

Da Mi was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth, and his eyes were full of doubt.

The meaning is obvious - I have already shaved it very finely, why do I need to chop it again?

This child is very relaxed when he is with the two siblings, and sometimes he would talk nonstop.

But I don’t know why, whenever I’m alone with Yin Xiaoman, I always feel a little restrained for some reason.

It was as if he obviously had a lot of questions, but he just didn't ask a single question.

Yin Xiaoman knew that this was not enough time for the child to get used to others, and he couldn't completely let his guard down around others.

Since I could see that he was curious, I slowly talked to him while I worked.

“The fish must be chopped finely, until there is no trace of fish at all. The finer it is chopped, the easier it will be to cook in the end.

After chopping, slowly add the seasonings, yes, just put them in while rubbing them with your hands. In one direction, feel it become sticky. ”

At this time, Da Mi's eyes were extremely focused and he listened very seriously.

Finally, seeing that Yin Xiaoman was tired from working, he simply took the basin from her hand without saying a word and started stirring it himself.

You know what, boys are just energetic. Although he looked small and weak, he was able to stir the fish paste thoroughly in no time.

Looking at him, Yin Xiaoman was in a trance for a moment, and somehow she remembered the time when Lichun was just an apprentice with her as a child.

The beginning of spring at that time was about the same age as rice, right?

Gradually, her eyes towards the child became softer and softer, and she even took the initiative to step aside and began to teach Da Mi step by step to complete the next steps independently.

The fish cake is steamed. Because this time most of the work was done by Da Mi himself, Yin Xiaoman specially called the two people who were chasing away mosquitoes and flies outside to come in, and gave each of the three children a piece.

"This is made by your Big Brother Mi himself. Try it and see if it tastes good."

Hearing her say this, a rare hint of embarrassment appeared on Da Mi's face, and the brother and sister were generous with their praises, praising their little brother to the heavens.

This excitement lasted for quite a long time. Even after Yin Xiaoman finished cooking, the little ones were still so excited that they all rushed to serve meals to the experts.

After taking a look at the food that was to be delivered today, including steamed fish cakes, cold dishes, and steamed buns, there was nothing to worry about spilling or getting burned, so Yin Xiaoman simply waved his hand and handed the job of delivering the food to the little ones.

Looking at their backs as they ran away happily, she smiled and shook her head.

Taking advantage of this rare free time, Yin Xiaoman decided to go to the imperial kitchen.

Since she came to Zhongshan Island, she had never been there except for bringing the prepared things to Lichun once a week.

Even the things he exchanged for were just stuffed into his room for use without being organized.

In fact, in terms of food, the conditions on Zhongshan Island can be said to be very good and she doesn't need to add anything.

In addition, this place is relatively closed. Since arriving on the island, not only her, but even Shen Qingyun has not had the opportunity to leave the island.

So even if she wanted to come up with something new, she couldn't explain the source.

Based on the principle that the more you do, the more mistakes you make, and the less you do, the better, she decided to just do less.

In fact, the country has fulfilled its promise to these experts who are responsible for the most cutting-edge design and manufacturing of national defense construction.

It may not be comparable to those developed countries, but we are doing our best to provide them with the best possible material conditions.

Just like these days, the average person's monthly supply of fine grains accounts for less than 20% of their monthly food, but the experts can reach more than 60%.

Not only that, the coarse grains they were given were millet, yellow rice, and soybeans, which are things that cannot be bought outside.

Spending every day together, Yin Xiaoman felt from the bottom of his heart that they deserved such preferential treatment!

Although she couldn't see what kind of work they did every day, she saw their workload and that they worked all night long and against the clock.

But because of this, Yin Xiaoman's actual workload is not large.

In addition to the normal three meals a day, she also had to deliver a midnight snack to the experts every night. In fact, these people were so busy that they never even asked for extra meals.

He is absolutely not picky about food. He eats whatever is given to him. He is very simple.

In this case, the supplies rationed by the state were completely sufficient, and there was no need to exchange any food from the imperial kitchen.

So much so that she now even has less motivation to run over there.

Now, every time she gives Lichun something, she has to rack her brains to think of what to replace it with?

If you don’t want it, I’m afraid Lichun will think too much. If you want it, the small house will hardly be able to hold it all.

She couldn't get out eggs, meat and other things even if she changed them. The supply ship hadn't arrived yet, so she didn't dare to take them out for everyone to eat.

So in the end, the most exchanged items were some cooking oil and seasonings which are not easy to buy on the island.

No one could figure out what these consumables were and how much she used.

Today, Yin Xiaoman thought about it and decided to change some hand grease.

When I was giving Erniu a bath last night, she kept twisting her body and saying she was itchy.

At first, Yin Xiaoman thought she was joking, but later he found that his fingers were so rough that they pricked the child's skin.

Although I’m not very busy at work now, I still have to prepare three meals a day for more than a dozen people.

The hands were either soaked in sea water or stream water every day. Not only was there a layer of fine calluses on the fingertips, but also barbs grew on the edges of the nails, and even the skin became dull and rough.

Back then, her skin wasn't this bad when she was 25!

This made Yin Xiaoman feel somewhat uncomfortable.

In addition to hand oil, she also wants to change to some facial ointments.

She only had a small mirror that was not much bigger than a palm, and she couldn't see any changes in her face from the mirror.

Sometimes when she sees a man who is so tanned that he looks like he has become charcoal, she would ask if she has become darker herself.

Every time this happened, the man would "badly" put his hand on the whitest part of her body and compare it with her. The contrast... would always make her quickly forget what she had asked.

But now, look at your hands——

She suddenly felt that the man might not have told her the truth at all, and she must have been too sunburned to look at!

Thinking of this, Yin Xiaoman couldn't help but sigh slightly.

Actually, Lichun doesn’t have any particularly good ointments, and that girl is not the type who likes to dress up.

Normally, she would buy the most common mass-market items at the market for a dozen or twenty cents.

The one I replaced for her some time ago was probably the limit of her knowledge. It was the kind of oil mixed with flower juice that palace servants liked to use, and it cost about forty coins a can.

But that thing is okay to use in winter, but it is too greasy in Zhongshan Island in July.

In fact, Yin Xiaoman would rather do it himself!

After being in the palace for many years, one has too much free time and must find one or two hobbies. Otherwise, repeating the same days year after year, day after day, will be even more torturous.

Her favorite thing to do at that time was to mix various ointments, and she was very good at it.

Later on, she not only used it herself but also gave it to her apprentices. Many people, including other palace managers and prominent palace maids, also came to her to ask for it.

They all say it is much better than the ones sold outside.

The climate on Zhongshan Island is warm and the flowers and plants are lush. In addition to various fruits, there are also many trees and flowers.

For example, in the Pioneer Camp before, she had seen precious fragrant flowers such as jasmine and gardenia planted in pots for viewing, but here they were growing all over the mountains like weeds.

There are also wild chrysanthemums, sunflowers, frangipani, and all kinds of wild flowers that cannot be named... Just by looking at them, Yin Xiaoman can come up with countless recipes for making ointments in his mind.

But the problem was that she had no raw materials.

Not only was there no raw materials, she also knew that even if she asked the supply ship to bring them to her, the buyers would not know where to buy them for her.

And these things cannot be exchanged for the Beginning of Spring, otherwise how can we explain the origin of these things?

Thinking of this, she couldn't help but sigh again.

Yin Xiaoman felt that he sighed more today than in the previous month.

She looked at her rough hands again and felt that it was all because of them.

Yin Xiaoman put the sorted fish and shrimp in the cabinet and left a note.

Just as she had done all this, she suddenly heard Erniu calling for her mother outside, and she ran out in a hurry.

"Mom, I'm back with Grandpa Hua!"

Erniu pushed open the gate while shouting.

And Mr. Zehua followed behind her with a smile on his face.

Seeing that Mr. Hua did not come with Engineer Ning but came alone, Yin Xiaoman was stunned for a moment, then immediately understood.

She knew that Mr. Hua came to see her because he had something to say.

It has been more than half a month since the expert group arrived on the island. Except for the first day when the two elderly people came to her place for a meal, they have basically not seen each other since then.

Shen Qingyun once mentioned to her the question of her background, but Mr. Hua never had the time to mention a single word to her.

Judging from the looks of it, Mr. Hua must have come here specifically for this matter.

Sure enough, after Mr. Hua entered the room, he didn't say anything to her. He just touched Erniu's head and said to her, "Didn't you make an appointment with your two brothers to go out and play? Go quickly."

Erniu agreed and ran out quickly.

And Mr. Hua was even more frank and directly spoke to Yin Xiaoman: "Xiaoman, did Qingyun bring you the words I asked him to bring you before?"

Yin Xiaoman nodded.

"Then, can I see what your father left for you?" Old Hua said, but his eyes were always on the red line on her neck.

Yin Xiaoman took down the wooden sign and handed it to Mr. Hua without hesitation.

Old Hua took it in his hand, looked at it carefully for a long time, then pursed his lips tightly and took out a small bag made of red satin from his arms.

He opened the cloth bag, took out a wooden sign exactly the same as this one, and handed it to Yin Xiaoman.

Whenever Yin Xiaoman had time, he would take down the wooden plaque and study it carefully, so he wanted to know every grain of wood on it clearly.

Seeing General Hua handing it to her, she reached out to take it, then took it and began to look at it carefully.

The moment she took the wooden plaque in her hand, she could deeply feel that this one was exactly the same as the one she had always worn. They were made from the same piece of wood and by the same person.

She raised her eyes and looked at Mr. Hua.

Mr. Hua looked at her seriously and said, "This is what my wife always carried with her when she was alive. It is a relic left to her by her father. There are four similar wooden tablets. If I am not mistaken, the one you are carrying is one of them."

At this point, he paused and said, "Xiao Man, do you mind telling me if your father left any relics? Anything is fine, I just want to confirm his identity."

After hearing what he said, Yin Xiaoman turned around and went back to the room.

She took out the calligraphy written by her father from the space.

This was the only thing she dared to take out at this moment. As for the wooden box, she felt that she should be more cautious and not show it to others easily unless she was absolutely sure.

Mr. Hua took the copybook that had turned yellow and brittle, and flipped through it carefully. Before he had turned two pages, tears welled up in his eyes.

"This is Koizumi's handwriting. Although he was only a teenager when we left, his handwriting has not changed much over the years."

He wiped the corners of his eyes and said to Yin Xiaoman with emotion.

At this point, the old man was obviously a little excited. He looked at Yin Xiaoman and asked her: "Didn't your father ever tell you about his ancestral surname? Didn't he tell you that his surname was actually Jiang, not Yin?"

Yin Xiaoman shook her head blankly: "No."

Since she came into this world, the surname Jiang has never entered her mind. She only knew that her name was Yin Xiaoman and her father's name was Yin Dahai. She had no memory of her other origins or identity.

"What's your mother's name?" Mr. Hua continued to ask.

"I just remember that my father's name was Ah Hui. As for my mother's surname, I don't know."

Hearing her say this, Mr. Hua fell into silence for a long time.

He didn't know what went wrong?

Previous investigation materials showed that Yin Xiaoman’s father’s name was Yin Dahai, and he fled from Jiangdong to Shuanggui Village.

The household registration there showed that he was 25 years old when he fled there, and his daughter Yin Xiaoman was just two years old.

This age is several years younger than the actual age of his wife's brother Jiang Shaoquan.

So, this is also the reason why he didn't dare to recognize Yin Xiaoman at the beginning.

The name was wrong, the place of origin was wrong, the age was wrong... If he hadn't seen Yin Xiaoman's wooden sign with his own eyes, and through long-term contact, felt that her eyebrows and eyes were more or less similar to his wife's, he would still not be able to completely let it go.

It was not until he saw the handwriting of his wife's younger brother that the previous doubts completely disappeared from Mr. Hua's mind.

At this time, he actually admired his wife's younger brother who was much younger than him.

At the critical moment, he did make the decision when necessary.

Wipe out all your past completely, leaving no trace.

I think it was because of this that he and his family were able to spend more than ten years of peaceful days in that remote little village without being disturbed by the disputes of the outside world.

Mr. Hua sighed in his heart and couldn't help feeling a little uncomfortable.

If Shaoquan could live a few more years, or be born in a peaceful era, his life would have been different, right?

Thinking of this, Mr. Hua became more determined.

He pushed the two wooden signs in front of Yin Xiaoman at the same time and said to her, "Xiaoman, keep both of them."

Yin Xiaoman was shocked.

She hurriedly shook her head, her eyes full of questions. She didn't understand what Mr. Hua was getting at.