Chapter 36
When Yu and Tang Zeyu returned, the three of them were so hot that they were almost melting and were half lying under a tree, complaining about the heat.
"Shaoxingyang," Lu Shiyu called out to Shaoxingyang, "Do you have any milk or condensed milk in your bag?"
Lu Shiyu had seen these two items before when Yan Hong was rummaging through Shaoxing Yangbao, but so many days had passed and he didn't know whether they had been eaten as snacks.
"Yes, I have."
Shaoxing Yang half-deadly crawled to the backpack, his body still lying on the ground, only his hands reaching into the bag to search, and he felt out a large bottle of milk and a tube of chocolate condensed milk by touch, and threw them towards the two of them. Tang Zeyu took them and handed them to Lu Shiyu.
"Well, the materials are almost ready, so we should be able to make it."
Lu Shiyu took out a large plastic bag and a smaller plastic bag from his bag, poured milk into the small plastic bag, squeezed in an appropriate amount of condensed milk, pinched the sealing strip, and shook it slightly to allow the condensed milk and milk to be fully mixed.
Lu Shiyu unscrewed the thermos, revealing a simmering ice jar filled with whole, still-cold ice cubes. He'd put them there one hot day, just in case the street electricity surge caused a power outage. He'd poured half the ice into a large plastic bag, sprinkled it with salt, and added the small bag of milk. He pinched the seal tightly and began shaking it.
The collision of ice cubes and water bags made a rustling sound, which instantly attracted the attention of the three people lying on the ground.
"Let me shake it," Tang Zeyu said, taking the bag from Lu Shiyu's hand and shaking it. "How long does it take to shake this?"
"About five minutes." Lu Shiyu said.
Tang Zeyu grabbed the plastic bag with both hands and began to shake it diligently. The three dead bodies lying under the tree looked at each other, none of them understood what Tang Zeyu and Lu Shiyu were doing.
"Hey, do you think the captain looks like a bartender wearing a vest in a bar?"
"It's a bit like that," Yan Hong laughed, propping her head up with her arms. "But what's the captain doing? Is he in the mood to cosplay as a bartender?"
Chen Yunliang just glanced at it and turned his head away without interest and yawned.
Five minutes later, Tang Zeyu finally stopped. Lu Shiyu took the plastic bag and couldn't wait to open the seal and take out the items inside.
"It actually worked!" Lu Shiyu squeezed the solidified milk through the plastic bag and said, "So you can actually make ice cream this way."
The word "ice cream" exploded in the minds of the three people lying on the ground. Before Lu Shiyu could open the small plastic bag, he felt a gust of wind blowing in his face, and the three people had already rushed to him like a rocket.
"Ice cream! What ice cream! There's no ice cream!"
Lu Shiyu held up the plastic bag in his hand and said, "This is..."
Before he could finish his words, he was snatched away by three wolf-like and ferocious men.
Shaoxing Yang opened the sealing strip and saw that there was indeed ice cream emitting cold air inside. His eyes instantly lit up.
But someone was faster than him. Yan Hong broke off a piece and put it in her mouth before Shaoxing Yang.
The rich milky aroma accompanied by the cool chill stimulates the taste buds and the tip of the tongue. After coming into contact with the temperature in the mouth, the cold solid begins to melt. The coolness spreads between the lips and teeth as the solid gradually melts, relieving the dryness brought by the hot weather. If you taste it carefully, you can also feel the subtle chocolate flavor in it, and feel the ice cream melting on the tip of the tongue, bringing the simplest and most straightforward pleasure to the senses.
"It's actually ice cream!" Yan Hong's eyes widened in surprise: "Give me another piece."
"What are you trying to grab? I haven't eaten yet!" Shaoxing Yang blocked Yan Hong's hand like protecting his food, but Chen Yunliang, who was waiting for his chance on the other side, broke off a piece of it.
"Milk ice cream," Chen Yunliang savored the precious coolness. "It's hand-cranked ice cream made with salt and ice. But where does the ice come from?"
“Um, well,” Lu Shiyu scratched his head and looked away guiltily, “I put some in a thermos before I left, so, uh…”
It was so clumsy that he could tell the other person was lying without even thinking, but Chen Yunliang had no intention of asking further questions. After all, everyone had secrets, so why bother to pry into others'? It would be better to finish the ice cream before it melted.
"The ice hasn't completely melted yet. Do you want to do it again?"
"Well, let's make the most of it. This is all I have."
After eating the ice cream, the stuffy feeling in everyone's hearts finally dissipated. They relied on the ice cream to hold on until the sun went down and the temperature began to drop.
"The damn sun is finally going down," Shao Xingyang stretched lazily. "It's a good thing Lu Shiyu can make ice cream, otherwise I would have been dried out by the heat."
The group found an open space as their place to stay for the night. Lu Shiyu put down his backpack, looked at the thermos cup with half a bottle of ice left, thought for a moment and asked, "Would you like some cold noodles?"
“Eat, eat, eat!”
Lu Shiyu took out a plastic-wrapped package of buckwheat noodles from his bag, opened the package and soaked the noodles in water.
Put light soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, sugar, chili powder and more water in a bowl, then add a few spoons of the remaining sweet and sour jam, stir well and the cold noodle soup is ready.
The softened buckwheat noodles were taken out of the basin and put into the pot to cook. Lu Shiyu also took a few duck eggs, washed them, and put them into the pot to cook with the cold noodles. After they were cooked, the cold noodles were taken out and rinsed with cold water several times. After the noodles were completely cooled, drained, divided into five portions and placed in bowls. The cold noodle soup was scooped into the bowls one by one. The clear and transparent amber soup soaked the rough buckwheat noodles. At this time, ice cubes can be put into the bowl to further lower the temperature of the soup and noodles.
Lu Shiyu took out the cooked duck eggs from the pot, peeled off the shells and cut the eggs into two halves vertically, placed a duck egg in a bowl, and then got two sausages from Yangna, Shaoxing, cut them into slices diagonally, and placed them in a row on the cold noodles. Finally, sprinkled a pinch of white sesame seeds on it for garnish, and the cold noodles were done.
"Finish!"
Lu Shiyu brought out the plate of cold noodles, and the ice cubes in the bowl were still making clinking sounds against the bowl.
Tang Zeyu took the bowl of noodles and looked at the clear soup base like light tea and the ice cubes floating on it. She could feel refreshed just by looking at it.
Tang Zeyu first took a sip of the soup. The chilled soup gave people a refreshing feeling as soon as it entered their mouth, followed by the sour, spicy and sweet taste that constituted the main flavor of the soup base. The sour taste was bright but not irritating, the sweetness made the sour taste more harmonious, and the spiciness made the soft and natural sour and sweet have a refreshing and jumping taste experience.
After being rinsed with cold water several times, the buckwheat noodles become chewy and elastic. The rough noodles are well absorbed into the mouth along with the soup. When chewing, you can even feel the faint grain aroma of the buckwheat noodles, adding a touch of simple deliciousness.
Pick up half a duck egg, the duck egg is cooked just right. While the duck egg is cooked and solidified, the core of the yolk is still not completely solidified. The paste-like yolk looks particularly tempting. You can feel the unique aroma of eggs after you put it in your mouth. The egg white is as light as a cloud, and the taste is smooth and slightly elastic. Because it is soaked in soup, it has some subtle sweet and sour taste, but it is soon covered by the taste of the egg yolk. The mellow and soft egg yolk has a warm creamy aroma. The tip of the tongue is quickly wrapped in the soft oily feeling. The dense egg yolk fills the mouth as if it is everywhere. Finally, you need a mouthful of soup to relieve the blockage caused by the egg yolk.
Several people held their bowls of noodles and ate heartily. The sour and appetizing cold noodles are best eaten in hot weather. The cold soup instantly cools down the body and increases people's appetite. In the end, they even drank up all the soup at the bottom of the bowl without wasting any.
"belch."
Yanhong ate too fast and couldn't help burping.
"It's so delicious!" Chen Yunliang wiped the soup from his mouth with his arm. "Ice-cold cold noodles are a summer lifesaver!"
Everyone finished eating. Lu Shiyu started to clear the bowls and chopsticks when he saw that everyone had finished. Yanhong looked at Lu Shiyu who was clearing the bowls and asked:
"Lu Shiyu, how come you can make so many things?"
"Yeah," Shao Xingyang turned his head to look at her, "It feels like a mobile recipe book. She can cook everything. She's even better than a chef in a big restaurant."
"It's not that exaggerated," Lu Shiyu said, "I just like to tinker with ingredients and try dishes I've never made before. After all, I rely on my cooking skills to make a living, so I still have to improve the menu occasionally."
"By the way, Lu Shiyu, I remember your shop was on the street next to the base," Chen Yunliang said, "that set meal restaurant, right?"
"Yeah, have you ever eaten there?"
"I haven't been there. I usually like to order takeout at home."
In Chen Yunliang's opinion, one should have a good rest on his days off. It is too annoying to go out and eat with people who just got off work. It is more cost-effective to pay a little extra to have someone deliver the food. However, a small and crowded restaurant like Lu Shiyu definitely does not have the time to do delivery.
"I've heard about it from other exploration teams before, and it's said to be delicious," Yan Hong said, "but every time we go there, it's always too crowded, and Shao Xingyang is too lazy to queue, so we never get to eat it."
Lu Shiyu said helplessly, "There's nothing I can do. The store is too small and can only accommodate so many people, but the rent for a bigger store is too expensive."
"Every inch of land in the base is really valuable."
Shao Xingyang suddenly thought of something and blurted out without thinking: "But why do I remember the captain went there to eat."
"Hey?" Lu Shiyu turned and looked at Tang Zeyu.
Lu Shiyu naturally remembered the regular customers who often came to the restaurant to eat, but it was definitely unrealistic for her to remember every customer who had eaten in the restaurant. During the peak hours, she didn't even have the time to look up to see what people looked like. She had no impression of Tang Zeyu before he came to find her, so she always thought that they met for the first time that day, and Tang Zeyu never said that he had eaten in the restaurant before.
"I've been there, it's delicious," Tang Zeyu said calmly, "sometimes when I don't know what to eat, I go there."
"Ah? But how do I remember where you live, Captain?"
“Ahem…”
Shao Xingyang was interrupted by Chen Yunliang halfway through his words.
"Since only the captain has eaten it and no one else has, why don't we go to Lu Shiyu's store to eat it together after we get back? It'll be like a team building activity."
"Okay," Lu Shiyu agreed happily with a smile: "I will personally take care of it and treat everyone to a meal when the time comes."
"Great! Lu Shiyu is so generous!" Shaoxing Yang instantly threw away the words he had just said.
The topic was quickly shifted to other places, but Lu Shiyu still stole glances at Tang Zeyu from time to time.
Did he really eat at her restaurant? When did that happen? Did Tang Zeyu eat the food she cooked or one of the other employees? What did he eat?
Small trivial questions kept appearing in Lu Shiyu's mind, just like hot water that was about to boil. Thoughts kept appearing and disappearing like bubbles. Then the bubbles became more and more, so many that there was no room for Lu Shiyu to listen to what other people were saying. Occasionally, he could see Tang Zeyu's lips opening and closing, but he could not hear any sound.
"Lu Shiyu, how about you?"
Lu Shiyu didn't respond for a long time. Everyone's eyes turned to her. Lu Shiyu, who was immersed in her own world of thoughts, was suddenly pulled back to reality.
"Lu Shiyu?"
"Ah, what's wrong?"
Lu Shiyu looked around in panic, and the eyes of several people were filled with concern and inquiry.
"We were talking about our hometowns, but we didn't know where you were from, Lu Shiyu," Yan Hong said. "Even though so much time has passed and where we lived back then isn't important anymore, I still miss my hometown sometimes."
“Well, sometimes I think about my childhood,” Lu Shiyu said, “I remember when I was a kid I lived in…”
The breeze blew through the treetops, and the leaves seemed to be whispering something. The moonlight shone through the clouds onto the never-ending river. The night was so quiet, as if it could swallow up all sounds. Another day passed, and several people slept soundly in their sleeping bags in the tent, waiting for tomorrow to come.
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