Chapter Fifty-Six: Dust Covers the Sky, Mist Opens
The camp was as noisy as it had been in the early morning, with soldiers coming and going, laughing and busy. When they saw Yang Xiao and Bai Ming, they greeted them warmly with clasped hands and New Year's greetings. After exchanging pleasantries, they went back to their own tasks. For a time, the entire camp was bustling with activity, filled with the festive atmosphere of the New Year.
The kitchen was no exception; the rising steam created an atmosphere of swirling mist, and the falling snowflakes, when they met it, turned into tiny water droplets that slowly rose with the mist.
Yang Xiao looked at the hazy rooftop and couldn't help but smile. She dismounted and pulled on the reins, only to see Zhang Ping, his face covered in flour, smiling and greeting her with his hands outstretched.
"Wow," Yang Xiao said with a laugh when she saw his embarrassed state, "Why are you looking like this?"
Zhang Ping waved his hand with a smile, and the flour on his hand immediately flew up in front of the two of them, startling Yang Xiao so much that she quickly stepped back before he stopped what he was doing.
"I was thinking that since I haven't had white flour in a long time, I'd go help Mu Fei and get a taste beforehand," Zhang Ping said with a wry smile, spreading his hands. "But I never expected to be tricked by this white flour."
Bai Ming greeted him with a smile, "Is making some noodles really that difficult?"
“I’ll never underestimate Mu Fei again, really,” Zhang Ping said with a smile and shook his head. “Cooking is easier said than done.”
Yang Xiao smiled and tilted her head. "Really? I don't believe it. I'm going to try it too."
"Then I wish you both success." Zhang Ping smiled helplessly and raised his hand to clasp his hands in a fist salute to the two of them.
Bai Ming smiled and nodded, "Thank you for your kind words."
As soon as the bamboo curtain in the kitchen was lifted, the sweltering heat rushed out, instantly filling their vision. Yang Xiao recoiled, quickly fanning away the steam, then peered into the room. "Mu Fei?"
"Hey, General!" Mu Fei, who was busy somewhere, called out loudly. The next second, he appeared before the two of them like a white-faced immortal breaking through the steam in the room.
But Mu Fei, walking towards them, was covered in flour from head to toe, and his arms, exposed by rolled-up sleeves, were also smeared with clumps of flour that had been mixed with water and then dried. Yang Xiao paused for a moment, looked closely for a while, and then burst into laughter, saying, "What's wrong with our Chef Mu? Did he get beaten up by a glutton of flour?"
Mu Fei sighed helplessly, then looked up at Yang Xiao, who was laughing non-stop, and Bai Ming, who was trying not to laugh behind her. He spread his hands aggrievedly, "Generals, please excuse me. Zhang Ping came over to help knead the dough, but he just couldn't get it right. Either there was too much flour and the dough was too hard, or there was too much water and it wouldn't take shape."
He smiled wryly and pointed to the basin, "Then he kept going back and forth and kneaded this huge basin of dough, which was still full of lumps that hadn't been kneaded properly. It took me a long time to get it right."
Upon hearing this, Yang Xiao couldn't help but laugh. She stepped forward, lifted the cloth covering the basin, and couldn't help but admire the puffed-up dough. Watching the finger mark she pressed slowly bounce back, she momentarily forgot about the two people behind her.
Looking at Mu Fei's pitiful expression with his face covered in flour, Bai Ming couldn't help but chuckle and pat him on the shoulder, "Why did you end up like Zhang Ping, with your face covered in flour?"
“General, please don’t mention it,” Mu Fei said with a smile and a shake of his head. “When he was laying out the flour, he always liked to clap his hands, as if he had never seen flour before, and he would slap it on my face.”
Bai Ming smiled as he looked at Yang Xiao, who was poking at the dough, and shook his head slightly. He then looked up at Mu Fei and said, "I'm afraid we'll have our faces covered in dough in a little while."
Mu Fei was taken aback, then turned to look at Yang Xiao, who was staring at a bowl of noodles with great interest. "This... General Lingyu is definitely not... probably not that kind of person... right?"
Before she could finish speaking, Yang Xiao rolled up her sleeves and walked over. "By the way, Mu Fei, what are you planning to do with this bowl of noodles? Steam them into buns?"
Mu Fei hurried over, smiling and shaking his head, "Steaming buns would take another half a day. Right now, they're perfect for making crescent-shaped wontons. Look at this dough..."
He turned to look at the basin and saw that the dough inside was riddled with holes, covered with deep and shallow finger marks, and some of the marks were even slowly bouncing back.
Looking at her masterpiece, Yang Xiao couldn't help but laugh and scratch her head. "Is this... in the way?"
"It's just a few handprints, nothing to worry about," Mu Fei waved his hand, skillfully took out a dough ball and cut it into several strips on the cutting board, then took out a strip, dipped it in white flour, and pinched it into small dough balls.
Yang Xiao stared intently at Mu Fei's movements, while she herself held a dough ball, her hand hovering in the air for a long time, then gesturing at the dough for a long time. Not only did she not figure out how to pinch it, but the dough also stuck completely to her hand, and she couldn't pry it off.
"Mu Fei, wait a minute," Yang Xiao quickly stopped Mu Fei's smooth movements, rubbed the dough off her hands, and looked at him sideways, "What happened to you?"
Mu Fei had already kneaded the small dough balls evenly on the white flour. He glanced back at the long dough balls in Yang Xiao's hand and couldn't help but smile as he took them. "This step is a bit difficult to master. General, you're just learning, so why don't you pick something easier to make first?"
"Take it one step at a time, I'll listen to you." Yang Xiao clapped her hands and nodded seriously to Mu Fei.
"Flatten these small dough balls, then roll them out with a rolling pin into round wrappers that are thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges," Mu Fei explained to Yang Xiao as he rolled out the small dough balls into plump, round wonton wrappers. "Like this," he said, pushing the rolled-out wrapper towards Yang Xiao. "Why don't you try it?"
"Okay." Seeing this, Yang Xiao nodded confidently, gently picked up a small piece of dough, rolled it into a ball, flattened it, and then rolled it firmly with a rolling pin.
Mu Fei stared at the dough that had suddenly grown longer on the cutting board, paused for a moment, then shook his head with a helpless smile, "General, you are something else."
Just as he was about to say something, Bai Ming, who had been watching from behind Yang Xiao, reached out and gently took the rolling pin from her. "Should we turn the dough while rolling it?" He gently rolled the dough a few times, then turned to look at Mu Fei beside him. "Didn't you just say that it should be thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges?"
“Yes, that’s it,” Mu Fei nodded. “The dough won’t break when rolled out this way.”
Yang Xiao watched Bai Ming's skillful movements and nodded in sudden understanding. "I understand. Shall I try again?"
After saying that, she picked up the dough ball next to her, flattened it, and gently rolled it out in circles.
A few rays of sunlight reflected off the dough, which floated in mid-air, brushing past Yang Xiao's earnest eyes and slightly drooping hair before gently landing on the cutting board. Under her careful movements, the dough in her hands gradually took shape, though it wasn't round; it turned crookedly on the cutting board, but it was clearly a dough that could hold the filling.
“That’s it,” Yang Xiao said, putting down the rolling pin and getting up with a smile. She left the jagged dough on the cutting board, next to which was Bai Ming’s half-finished dough. The two pieces of dough looked like some kind of demon or monster lying there chatting and laughing.
Looking at the mess on the table, Yang Xiao couldn't help but laugh out loud. "It's a bit ugly, but this thing..." She was about to make excuses for herself when she looked at the dough she had rolled out, which was as wet as water stains, and then looked up at Mu Fei with a lack of confidence. "Can this thing really be used?"
Mu Fei suppressed a laugh and stepped forward to take a look. He gently picked up the dough and nodded with a smile, "This time it is indeed thicker in the middle and thinner at the edges. Although it doesn't look very appealing, if you pay attention when wrapping it, it will still be usable."
"That's good then," Yang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief, put her hands on her hips and nodded at Bai Ming. She then looked down at the half-rolled dough sheet that Bai Ming had just rolled out and couldn't help but laugh. She looked up and met Bai Ming's slightly apologetic smiling eyes. "I thought Zhao Qing had already learned it," Yang Xiao smiled at him and nodded gently, "I didn't expect you to roll it as well as I did."
Bai Ming chuckled and shrugged. "After all, it was my first time in the kitchen. I'm lucky I didn't roll my hand out."
Taking advantage of the break, Mu Fei handed over a batch of wrapped crescent-shaped wontons, then jogged back to the two with a smile, "For your first time in the kitchen, you two generals are already doing very well. The way you rolled them out is so much better than when I first cooked."
"You're already busy preparing the New Year's Eve dinner, and I'm just adding to your troubles by joining Lingyu..."
"General, you're too kind," Mu Fei hurriedly waved his hand before Bai Ming could finish speaking, "I'm so grateful to you two for helping me, how could I be causing trouble? Besides, it's the New Year, it's more lively with more people."
Upon hearing this, Bai Ming smiled and nodded, "Then we'll stay here and learn a thing or two from you."
"Master Mu, please enlighten me!"
"When it comes to rolling out dough," Mu Fei looked at the two writhing pieces of dough on the cutting board, barely suppressing a laugh, and glanced at Yang Xiao, "General Lingyu is still a cut above. In that case, General Bai, why don't you learn how to make wontons with me?"
Bai Ming looked at the noodles, then at Mu Fei, and nodded with a smile, "Great! If the two of us work together, it will save us a lot of trouble."
“These crescent-shaped wontons are different from the small wontons we usually cook,” he said, walking to the filling bowl. He picked up the dough wrapper that Yang Xiao had just rolled out, hissed, and spun it around as if it were too hot to handle. Finally, he found the right angle, brought it close to Bai Ming's eyes, and demonstrated step by step, “After putting the filling in, you need to pinch the dough in the middle first, and then tighten the edges from both sides, like this…”
The messy, haphazardly shaped dough was transformed into a delicate crescent-shaped wonton in Mu Fei's hands. Bai Ming watched his movements intently, nodding slightly as he pondered the dough in his hand.
The already bustling kitchen became even more lively amidst the rising steam. The two generals in the military camp now resembled novice apprentices, struggling and flustered with a pile of flour and fillings. Mu Fei, on the other hand, was busy preparing other dishes, while also glancing at the row of crookedly arranged crescent-shaped wontons that Yang Xiao and Bai Ming had made.
It looked like a group of old, weak, sick and disabled people being driven to the battlefield, scattered and messy.
One of them even fell down with a "thud," its mouth wide open, revealing its belly full of filling.
Bai Ming sighed helplessly, rubbing his forehead. What a perfect example of "defeat without a fight."
"Look," Yang Xiao rolled out the last dough wrapper, ran to Bai Ming's side, and, imitating him, barely managed to pinch out a crescent-shaped wonton. She handed the crooked wonton to Bai Ming, "I can make them too."
With his hands covered in flour, Bai Ming smiled as he took the wontons. He examined them for a while, then looked up and met Yang Xiao's expectant eyes.
An unnatural blush instantly spread across his face, though it was barely visible amidst the swirling dust. He lowered his gaze, smiling at the crescent-shaped wonton in his hand that couldn't even stand upright, and leaned closer to Yang Xiao, feigning seriousness, saying, "Look here," he pointed to the edge of the wonton, "this part doesn't seal well, it'll probably break when it's cooked, right?"
"Where?" Yang Xiao leaned closer upon hearing this, carefully examining the wonton. Despite her girlish demeanor, she burst out laughing at the crooked wonton.
She turned her face away for a while before taking a deep breath and looking intently at the part of her face that hadn't been properly pinched.
Bai Ming glanced at Yang Xiao's serious expression and couldn't help but smile. He looked at his hands covered in white flour and suddenly had an idea. He raised his hand and gently tapped the tip of Yang Xiao's nose.
Yang Xiao's nose was immediately covered in flour. She quickly stepped back and looked at Bai Ming with a disgruntled expression. "How dare you take advantage of someone in distress?" With that, she placed the wontons in her hand on the cutting board and gently patted Bai Ming's face with her flour-covered hands. The flour immediately spread in front of the two of them, filling their eyes with laughter.
"Alright, alright, stop fooling around, I admit defeat. I wanted to get revenge for the watering incident in Jiangnan, but I didn't expect you to turn the tables on me." Bai Ming smiled, fanning away the condensation in his eyes, leaning down to look at Yang Xiao, and then gesturing to the crescent-shaped wontons she had just made, and laughed, "I wonder who was so confident earlier, thinking that cooking was a piece of cake?"
Yang Xiao shook her head with a helpless smile. "Judging from how you were trying to teach me how to roll out the dough, I thought you were much better than me." She looked back at the crooked wontons on the cutting board. "But in the end, out of all the crescent-shaped wontons you made, only one looked good."
Bai Ming followed her finger and couldn't help but laugh again. "This one was made by Mu Fei when he was demonstrating how to wrap it. Let's not even talk about me. You rolled out so many wrappers, but I haven't seen a single one that's round."
"Alright, alright," Yang Xiao waved her hand with a smile, "We're both equally bad, so let's not make fun of each other."
"The glutinous rice balls are ready!" Mu Fei's voice, barely audible, came from the rising steam. The next second, a head popped out from the mist, "The wontons will be cooked right away!"
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